Crashing To A Halt

Book 3: Club Twist

by Alice Raine

Genres: City Life; Friendship

Synopsis

Welcome to Club Twist, where the owners are just as sinful as the patrons...
Sizzling with passion, tension and twists, Crashing To A Halt is the third book in Alice Raine's addictive BDSM Club Twist series. Perfect for fans of 365 Days, E. L. James, Sylvia Day and Tara Sue Me.

Reader reviews for Alice's deeply erotic WOLFE'S LAIR:
'This book has you gripped and on the edge of your seat as well as melting into a pool of swoon' ***** Reader Review

'Best book I have read in a long time. Highly recommended it's brilliant' ***** Reader Review

'I found this book absolutely fascinating I couldn't put it down' ***** Reader Review

'Steamy, steamy and even more steam!!' ***** Reader Review
_______

Passion, tension and twists.
David Halton, owner of Club Twist, begins a steamy relationship with Natalia after saving her from a drunk patron. Despite being the bartender at this sex club, Natalia is fairly inexperienced, but she's irresistibly drawn to her sexy boss and the allure of his world.

Meanwhile, Oliver and Robyn are basking in their post-honeymoon glow, and Marcus and Sasha are ready to take their sizzling relationship to the next level.

Life couldn't be better for the friends until the events of one night puts their lives and David's livelihood on the line... With so much at stake, they will have to fight to hold on to what they each love most.

Crashing to a Halt is a dramatic climax to a sensational trilogy not to be missed.
________

Catch up on the beginning of the insanely addictive Club Twist series with Wolfe's Lair and A Price to Pay - OUT NOW!

Release date: August 19, 2021

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 230

Sample

Sasha

I gazed at the gorgeous man sat across the table from me and I felt my heart flip with excitement. Marcus Price. My long-term crush, and miraculously, now my boyfriend. A warm flush spread over my skin as I thought about just how much I felt for him. With the way my emotions spiralled out of control every time I was near him or so much as thought about him, it seemed to indicate that it was veering dangerously towards the ‘L’ word.

Inwardly I smiled to myself, because in the past that would have been enough to have me running for the hills screaming like a banshee. But things with Marcus were different. I was different when I was with him. With his sweet ways and sexy glances, he had softened me, and I had finally managed to relax my paranoia over relationships and let him in.

Robyn said we made a perfect couple, but given both of our hang-ups with relationships we were far from perfect. The early deaths of my parents had left me with major issues about letting my emotional barriers down, and after his ex-girlfriend had attempted to stab him to death Marcus had some understandable difficulties with accepting closeness and physical contact. Regardless of how challenging it should have been for us to be together, it wasn’t; we just clicked and connected in ways that I had never imagined possible. Perhaps it was our shared issues which made things between us so good, and so easy. I had no idea, and while we might not be the perfect couple Robyn described, we were certainly living up to the nickname I had once given us: a perfectly imperfect pair.

Given Marcus’s aversion to physical contact I had worried how we would manage to move our relationship forwards, especially after the tense but passionate encounters we had had before we’d got together – the quickie in the corner of the nightclub in Spain was still quite a highlight in my memories. I had wondered if we’d be able to keep our hands off each other while we eased Marcus into being able to cope with touching, but thankfully, it was going far better than I had anticipated. The magnetic chemistry between us had made it almost impossible not to launch myself at him and ravish him, and from the heated stares he sent my way I knew he was struggling with it too, but so far we’d managed to avoid the temptation and were taking things at a slower pace.

He had always been OK with hand-holding, so that was now a daily occurrence, as was kissing, and boy was he a magnificent kisser! Cuddling was becoming easier for him too, with his heart rate remaining steadier and the tension in his body less noticeable when I was in his arms. We hadn’t had sex again yet, and given my usual appetite for a bit of fun between the sheets I was surprised that it hadn’t been an issue at all. I knew he needed time, and because I wanted to be with him on more than just a physical level, I was more than happy to give him that.

Sasha

I finished my coffee and walked through to my bedroom with an appreciative look around my little apartment. I bloody loved this place. Cosy, warm and so lovely and sunny, it really was perfect for me. Thinking about my developing relationship with Marcus I paused in the living room with a frown. This flat might not be so perfect if things with him continued to develop though, because while it was ideal for me, it would probably be a bit of a squash for two adults to share. Mind you, Chloe and I had managed for the month or so that she had been here, so it could work, I guess.

Wandering through to my bedroom I opened the skylight and rolled up onto my tiptoes so I could look down and see Robyn and Oliver’s house across the street. They were arriving back from their honeymoon the next day and I couldn’t wait to see them. They’d been travelling around Europe and had been gone just short of a month, but after living with Robyn for years and seeing her everyday it had felt like so much longer since I’d seen her.

Just at that moment my phone began to ring and, to my delight, as I pulled it from my jeans pocket I saw Robyn’s number. Ha! It was almost like she’d been thinking of me at exactly the same time.

‘Rob! Hey! How’s the honeymoon been?’

I heard a dreamy sigh down the phone and just about managed not to snort my disapproval at her soppiness. ‘It’s been a–maz–ing! Sorry I’ve not phoned sooner, but we’ve had our mobiles switched off. I have so much to update you on! And Chloe, is she there too?’

Drawing in a breath, I walked from my room and pushed open the door to my spare room. There was the faint aroma of Chloe’s perfume in the air, but nothing else. The room was completely empty.

‘Nope. Chloe’s gone.’

There was a moment of silence down the line, and then Robyn’s voice again, sounding distinctly confused. ‘What do you mean “Chloe’s gone”? I’ve only been away for three weeks! How can she be gone?’

I could hear the shock in Robyn’s voice, and as I stared into the empty shell of a room that Chloe had left behind rather abruptly last week, I felt it resonate through me too. ‘I mean she’s bloody well gone!’ I huffed. Closing the door, I wandered back into the lounge and dropped down onto the sofa. ‘And you’ve been gone four weeks actually, not three.’

‘Three, four, whatever,’ Robyn said dismissively. ‘Where is she then? Is she OK?’

‘She’s fine. Moved to Birmingham, apparently.’ I gave a shrug, but couldn’t say much else because I didn’t know anything else.

‘With no warning? It doesn’t sound like Chloe at all, I mean she was Little Miss Routine. Change was like her least favourite thing.’

‘I know.’ Robyn was right in her assessment of Chloe. She was so sensible it had almost been painful to witness, especially given my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach to life. ‘She’d mentioned a possible new job up there a few months ago, but then she’d never talked about it again, so I’d assumed she hadn’t gone for it.’ I flicked at a piece of lint on my T-shirt and watched it sail through the sunbeams streaming in from my roof windows. ‘I never thought she’d up and leave, but she did!’

‘Wow,’ Robyn murmured. Wow indeed. I might not have been as friendly with Chloe as I was with Robyn, nowhere near, but she’d been my flatmate. I’d seen her practically every day for the last year or so, so it still felt weird with her not being around anymore.

‘So, are you going to apply for a new lodger?’

Looking around my lovely lounge I couldn’t help but smile to myself again at how beautiful my flat was. ‘Nah. I’m not adverse to someone else living here, but I don’t need the extra money, so I think I’ll hold off for now and just enjoy having the place to myself for a bit.’

I heard a chuckle down the line. ‘What I’m reading from that comment is that you’re enjoying having the apartment to yourself so you and Marcus can get down and dirty without having to be quiet!’

A filthy cackle rose in my throat, but I shook my head. For once in my life I wasn’t having frantic sex with a man at every possible moment. In fact, I wasn’t having any sex with a man. Or a woman, for that matter. I, Sasha Mortimer, was finally managing to take things slowly with someone instead of humping them silly. It was quite a novel experience. ‘It’s not like that, actually,’ I replied tartly, trying to sound affronted at her assumption, when actually, given my track record as a serial shagger, it really was a bloody miracle that I wasn’t jumping his bones at every given opportunity.

‘Still taking things slow?’ Robyn enquired softly, the teasing edge to her earlier voice dropping away. ‘Actually, hold that answer . . . Are you free for a glass of wine in the sun and a proper catch-up?’

I frowned and immediately glanced at the date on my watch. They weren’t back from honeymoon yet. Were they? ‘When?’

‘Now, obviously. That’s why I called,’ Robyn replied, a smile obvious in her tone.

Her reply had me sitting up and grinning like an excited kid. ‘You’re back? I though you guys landed tomorrow?’

Her soft chuckle floated down the line. ‘Nope, we landed last night. Wanna meet?’

‘Hell yeah!’ I was standing up and walking back to my bedroom before the words were even out of my mouth.

‘You might wanna bring your shades, I’m jet-lagged and I’ve only just woken up, so I look like arse.’

For all her modesty I could honestly say that in all my years of knowing her I’d never seen Robyn looking ‘like arse’. Even back in our clubbing days when she’d had a hangover and less than an hour’s sleep under her belt she’d always managed to look fresh as a flipping daisy. ‘I doubt that, very much.’

She laughed again and I grinned. ‘I do, I look like hell. But I think a liquid lunch might just be the perfect cure.’

‘I think you might be right!’ I agreed enthusiastically. ‘Give me five minutes and I’ll be down. I wanna hear all about your honeymoon. And when I say all about, I mean it, so get ready to share all the saucy deets!’

I could practically hear Robyn’s eyeroll down the phone, and I hung up with a broad grin on my face.

My bestie was back, and I couldn’t wait to see her.

Sasha

I was so excited about seeing Robyn again that I practically flew down the three flights of stairs to my front door. Given my tendency towards clumsiness I was lucky I didn’t trip, faceplant, and break my bloody neck, but miraculously I survived, and exactly four minutes and thirty-seven seconds after finishing my call with Robyn I was bursting into the sunshine and sprinting across the road to pull her into a huge hug.

‘Woah! Missed me much?’ She laughed into my embrace. She was joking, but still hugging me back just as tightly.

Easing off, I gave her a head-to-toe inspection and then shrugged my shoulders indifferently. ‘Nah, not in the slightest,’ I teased. Giving her another look over, I smiled – I’d been right, she looked pretty as a picture, showing no evidence whatsoever of being jet-lagged or sleep deprived. ‘Well, the weather was obviously good. You look tanned as anything.’ Raising a cheeky eyebrow, I grinned. ‘Not to mention thoroughly well fucked.’

Her eyebrows flickered with amusement, but then she dismissed my comment as if I hadn’t even spoken. ‘Do you want to go to the wine bar, or the Club?’

I gave her a light punch on the arm and laughed. ‘Don’t try and give me the brush off! You’ve just got back from your honeymoon with Mr Fucks-A-Lot! I want to hear all about it!’

Robyn grinned at me and then linked her hand through my elbow. ‘And you will. But first, we need to get our priorities right . . . I’m hung-over, I need a hair of the dog.’ Wiggling her eyebrows, she smiled. ‘So, Club or bar. Which is it to be?’

‘Hmmm . . . I haven’t been to the Club since before your wedding. Let’s go there.’

‘Sounds good. Let’s be lazy and grab a cab.’

Living in Central London had several benefits, one of which was that a taxi was always easy to find, and luck was obviously on our side because traffic was light for a Saturday. Not wanting to be overheard, we didn’t start our gossiping session in the taxi, instead sitting in eager silence exchanging grins and excited giggles. I might not be the sentimental type, but it was so good to have Robyn back.

Before long we were arriving at the Club and jumping out onto the familiar cobbled street in Soho where Club Twist was located. Robyn jerked a thumb to the side street that contained the wine bar part of the Club – simply called Twist.

‘As it’s lunchtime shall we go to the bar instead of the Club?’

Looking at the clear blue sky I nodded. ‘Yeah, let’s get some sun in the seating outside.’ I gave her tanned arms an envious look and smiled wryly. ‘Not that you need it, Little Miss Suntan!’

We entered the cosy little bar that was a regular haunt for us, and a quick glance around showed the bar to be quite empty. A few tables had patrons at them, and in the corner I spotted David, the owner, intently focused on something on his laptop screen. The bartender was also familiar – Natalia – a friend of both mine and Robyn’s, and I greeted her with a broad smile. In the run-up to Robyn’s wedding I’d become quite close friends with her and once I’d broken down her shy exterior I’d discovered a genuinely lovely girl who was now a firm member of our friendship group.

Natalia saw us and immediately came around the bar to give us both a hug. ‘Hey, guys! Wow, Robyn, that’s quite a tan! How was the honeymoon?’

Robyn smiled and gave her arms a self-conscious rub, as if having a tan was a bad thing. ‘It was amazing, thanks, Natalia. How’s things with you?’

Natalia nodded happily and then moved back behind the bar. ‘Really good thanks. So, what are we having today, girls? White, rosé, or a Mojito?’ She knew us so well! Robyn laughed, obviously thinking the same as me, and then pointed to the fridge behind her. ‘I’ll have a pink Zinfandel, please.’

‘Make that two please, Natalia.’ As much as I loved a refreshing Mojito, cocktails took time to prepare and I was too desperate for gossip today to wait while it was shaken and stirred to perfection.

‘Come join us for a drink if you have a break soon,’ Robyn offered as our drinks were poured.

Natalia smiled with obvious happiness at the invitation and nodded. ‘Cool, will do,’ she promised as she popped the top back on the bottle.

Now our wine was poured we made our way outside to one of the brightly coloured tables in the sunshine. There were only five tables on the roadside, but it was a quiet street with a communal park opposite containing well-developed trees, and so even though the occasional car went past it was still tranquil enough to relax and listen to the birds chirping away.

Robyn sipped her wine and let out a satisfied sigh. Noticing the leather strap around her throat, I raised an eyebrow and reached across to gently flick at the small silver disk that hung from it. Perfect. This could be an ideal starter to get the conversation moving in the direction that I wanted. ‘I see you’re wearing this again.’

To most it would just look like a necklace, a gorgeously soft leather band with an engraved silver pendant attached, but I knew her secret – while it was a necklace, it was also so much more. It was a marker of her relationship with Oliver, a collar, showing her as his submissive and marking her as his.

Truthfully, at the start of her relationship with Oliver I’d been a little concerned that Oliver’s experience and dominant character would all be a bit overwhelming for Robyn – she was far more naïve and innocent when it came to relationships than me – but it had turned out that they were a perfect match. Even I, with my sceptical view on romance, couldn’t deny that they were fucking brilliant together.

My observation caused Robyn’s cheeks to redden slightly, and I saw an embarrassed smile curl at her lips. ‘Yup.’ Robyn lifted a hand and touched the pendant with a fond smile. She’d never been as open talking about sex as I was, and even though I’d softened her over the years it still sometimes felt like getting juicy details from her was like drawing blood from a sodding stone. ‘I think my mum was pleased that I wore her pearl necklace for the wedding, but I really like wearing this.’ Her shy smile broadened into more of a dirty grin and she wiggled her eyebrows at me. ‘Oliver really likes it too.’

‘I bet he does,’ I remarked drily, rolling my eyes. ‘So come on then, woman. Honeymoon. I need details. How was it?’

Robyn laughed and took a slow sip of her wine as her eyes wandered off to gaze at the park. ‘Amazing. We drove all around France, Spain and Portugal, staying in gorgeous hotels and hidden little cabins. It was like a dream come true. I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more.’

I took a moment to imagine the magical time they must have had, while I sat waiting patiently. As glad as I was that they’d had a lovely time, Robyn knew full well that I didn’t want a rundown of their journey’s itinerary. I wanted sordid details, not a road map of their travels!

‘I’m glad. But stop dancing around the good stuff . . . come on, how was your darling husband on the honeymoon? Back to his dominant deviousness?’ Husband. Bloody hell, that sounded weird. I still couldn’t quite get my head around the fact that one of us was married!

I thought she was going to do her usual and try to change the subject away from sex, but to my surprise, Robyn placed her glass down, turned her attention back to me and nodded. ‘Yup. He was on top form. Dominant, devious and downright dirty.’

My eyes popped open like saucers, but I couldn’t hide my glee at her apparent willingness to talk and found myself spontaneously leaning forwards in my chair and keenly grabbing her knee. ‘Oooh, tell me more!’

Robyn kept me hanging for a few more seconds while she took another sip of wine, and then finally put me out of my misery. ‘Well, we split our time away, there was a lot of spontaneous vanilla sex, just spending time enjoying each other and being together.’

Vanilla sex, also known as normal sex, was all well and good, but I was more interested in the less conforming activities. What can I say, I liked a bit of kink!

‘I can sense a “but” coming on,’ I predicted keenly. ‘Tell me there’s a but!’

She grinned and nodded. ‘But . . .’ She emphasised the word and wiggled her eyebrows cheekily. ‘But . . . there was also quite a bit of kinky stuff going on too.’ Perhaps it was because we were outside and away from eavesdroppers, or maybe all my years of talking filth had finally rubbed off on her, but whatever the cause, Robyn seemed more than happy to spill the beans today. From the way she was now also leaning forwards in her chair I could only assume that she was set on continuing her sharing session.

‘The night of our wedding I tried to start a little scene . . .’ Her confession brought with it a reddening of her cheeks, but also a cheeky twinkle to her eye. ‘He went to brush his teeth before bed and so I stripped off, put my collar on and waited for him on my knees in the middle of the floor.’

‘Bloody hell!’ I knew Robyn was into the whole submissive thing she had going on with Oliver, but I’d never quite imagined her to be the instigator! For some reason, her confession made me feel quite proud. I loved the fact that she’d bloomed from being a shy, relativity naïve girl into a woman in charge of her sexual experimentation.

‘And do you know what?’ She leant forwards and pouted. ‘He turned me down!’

What? That brought my thoughts to a standstill. ‘He said no?’ I squawked. Surely finding a beautiful woman, naked, on her knees and presenting herself for submission was like a dream come true to a man like Oliver? ‘Why the fuck would he turn you down?’

She laughed, shook her head, and then swilled her wine around her glass. ‘It was quite sweet really, he said as much as he loved it when we played in those roles, he wanted us to consummate our marriage in a more traditional, intimate way.’ Well I never. Oliver could be quite intense, to say the least, and when they had moved in together I had wondered if he’d have been looking for Robyn to live their lives in role as Dom and sub full time, but he hadn’t, and I rather liked the dynamic they had going on.

‘Plain ol’ vanilla, huh?’ I asked with a wiggle of my eyebrows.

Robyn laughed, her blush deepening. ‘Well, I’m not sure sex with Oliver is ever entirely vanilla, but yeah, kind of. He promised we could scene on our honeymoon though, and boy did he stick to his promise!’

God, I loved talking about sex. Chuckling I re-evaluated my statement – I loved sex. Full Stop. Talking about it, doing it, imagining it, watching it . . . I’d realised recently with Marcus that it wasn’t the be all and end all in a relationship, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still love it! A huge, huge, filthy grin spread on my face. ‘Did you guys pack any toys, or did you just get imaginative with what was at hand?’

Robyn bit down on her lower lip and gave an embarrassed shrug. ‘A little of both.’ She took another sip of wine, as if bolstering her courage to talk naughty, and then chuckled. ‘We packed a few small favourites, but let’s just say that we also found several uses for the hotel dressing-gown ties.’ She rubbed at her wrists and wiggled her eyebrows which caused me to cough out a laugh as I imagined Oliver binding her up tight with the plush silk. ‘And Oliver managed to create a very effective spreader device using a four-poster bed in one hotel . . .’ She left the rest of her sentence hanging, but from her flushed cheeks I got the picture; Robyn spread wide and tied up for his pleasure, and hers . . . I bet that had been one hell of a good session.

God, it felt like years since I’d had sex! I let out a whine of frustration and scrunched my face up petulantly. ‘Make me jealous, Rob, were you literally shagging twenty-four seven?’ I truly loved how my relationship with Marcus was developing, but for a woman who had enjoyed a lot of sex during my life I was certainly finding this new drier spell a little . . . different.

Read that as: I was horny as hell, but happy to wait for him.

Robyn opened up a packet of crisps – her breakfast replacement – and popped one in her mouth before shaking her head. ‘Not twenty-four seven, no. We really did do some sightseeing too, went out for nice meals, took in a little culture, you know, the standard holiday stuff.’

Reaching over, I pinched a crisp and then raised a sceptical eyebrow which prompted Robyn t. . .