Jerking his head back around to the right at his name, he smiled in apology at Hilary who had obviously just asked him something. He’d been so deep in his own thoughts he hadn’t been paying attention at all.

“Sorry, what was that?” he asked.

Her blue eyes sparkled with mirth. Leaning up against her redheaded husband, Hilary was a pretty woman with honey-blonde hair, a sweet smile, and a definite preference for the color pink. While the outfits she wore to the club definitely fit in stylistically, she was usually the brightest color in the room.

“I was just wondering how your first week of classes was going,” she said. “No desire to run screaming into the night yet?”

He chuckled. “Not yet. So far they’re going pretty good.”

“I love the idea of classes,” she said, leaning against her husband, who looked a little bemused by her statement. “With me, I had to gather the courage to jump into a full on scene right away. I was always kind of jealous of Jessica, getting to go to the Venus School and experimenting before she came here.”

“Hey, you had a great Introduction Scene,” Liam said, looking a little disgruntled. Which Luke took to mean Liam had probably handled Hilary’s introduction to BDSM himself.

“I wasn’t complaining about the scene itself,” she said, patting her husband’s hand where it was resting on her waist. “It was just scary to have to jump in feet first without even getting a toe wet.”

“What would you call your tour of the club when you came here with Justin and Chris for the first time?” Andrew asked, leaning in to join their conversation.

Hilary rolled her eyes. “Okay, so I got my toes wet and then jumped right in. But the new subbies get to wade in. Excuse me for thinking a slow descent into kinky waters would be preferable.”

She drawled out the ‘excuse me’ in an exaggerated manner, obviously teasing Andrew and making her boyfriend grin at her sass.

“That sounds like either the tag line of a horror movie or a porn, I can’t decide which,” Kate said, tilting her head to the side and getting a faraway look in her eyes as she thought about it. The vacant expression made her look even more like a Barbie doll than she normally did with her hourglass figure, white-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and tanned skin. Andrew leaned over and whispered something in her ear, making her giggle, as Hilary turned back to Luke.

“I heard Olivia ‘worked with’ you last night,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant but she was definitely fishing.