Dirty Little Secret Ch 1 (Patreon)

Chapter 1: Let You In On The Secret

It was rainy and dark as Ethan Quinten walked through the parking lot of a club in the rundown inner suburban ring of Northford City. The club in question was well maintained, despite the surrounding industrial and low income neighbourhoods. The lit up red sign displayed the name of the establishment: ‘Dirty Little Secret’. In years gone by they’d used a neon sign, but these days LEDs had largely taken over.

Not that Ethan paid much attention to the trends of the signage world. He worked in finance, specifically helping to figure out how to quickly reroute corporate trading infrastructure in case of fights between supers. Fights he did his best to avoid. Like any sensible resident of Northford.

Again, though, that was information not on Ethan’s mind as he stepped into the club, a cute waitress lighting up upon seeing him. He was a regular here, after all. Because it was a special sort of club, that helped him out with his little issue.

Ethan tried not to think about the details too much, so he’d never looked up if the shift-collars worn by the club’s employees (and the employees of numerous other clubs around the world) were the invention of some heroic scientist wanting to help people or an evil scientist working on disguises for some plan to take over the world. All he knew is that they’d existed since he was a teenager, and that they swapped the sex of whoever wore them as long as they were worn. All the cute ‘waitresses’ or ‘hostesses’ in the club were really men, paid a premium for their services due to the… forbidden fruit they provided the patrons.

There were plenty of unsavoury types here. The club kept good bouncers ready to clear out the extra unpleasant ones, but Ethan had heard there were still some issues with clients being just a little too rough.

On the other hand, there were also plenty of men like Ethan around. Most were more mild than him, young, generally nerdy, guys still a mess around real women. So turning to the ‘ladies’ of Dirty Little Secret as a way to start in the shallow end.

Most of those didn’t come back often enough to become regulars, getting over their fears.

Ethan’s situation was rather worse, though. He had deep issues regarding trusting women, stemming from his mother. The hero turned villain mad scientist Dr. Gloria Fairbanks.

Having a super genius who hated the half of the population with a Y chromosome (and anyone she saw as ‘traitors’) for a mother had not been… pleasant for Ethan. He’d buried the memories of most of his childhood so deep he didn’t remember his mother from before she changed. Nor what, exactly, had set her off. All that lingered from that portion of his youth was the deep rooted sense of betrayal.

He remembered some of the things that came after, though. Enough to fear what had been so bad he’d blocked it out.

While he was better with women than he’d once been, he still wasn’t ready to get intimate with any just yet. He also didn’t think it was fair to any woman he might try to date, to leave them in a relationship with so many walls.

So here he was, a regular at Dirty Little Secret. Satisfying the needs he had as a straight man without having to worry about his fears of women.

“Ethan!” a curvy petite redhead called out, bouncing over to him. “I haven’t seen you for weeks! I was getting worried about my favourite customer.”

“Sorry, Julie. Sorry,” he said, while enjoying the adorable pout on the hostess’ face. “The Mole King’s invasion last month meant we were working crunch hours to fix everything up.”

‘Julie’ continued to pout while twisting Ethan’s tie around ‘her’ finger. “Well, tell them to give you a little more time off in future… most of my other regulars aren’t half as polite as you.”

“They don’t tip as well, I take it?” Ethan asked with a grin.

‘Julie’ ‘s pout turned to an overdone performance of apologetics. “That’s part of it, that’s part of it.”

‘She’ grabbed him by the wrist and began pulling him off towards a private suite. The fake windows were currently displaying a breathtakingly real looking view of some historic southern European city. There was even a light breeze blowing through.

He’d heard the owners were planning upgrades. It was nice.

When the door closed behind him, ‘Julie’ slipped in close, looking up at him with nervous eyes.

“I know you know we’re supposed to tell every guy he’s our favourite, but… I want you to know I genuinely like spending time with you,” ‘she’ whispered. “Other guys are rough and fun, but you… you like to make me feel safe in a way I basically never get.”

Ethan swallowed, looking down at ‘Julie’ ‘s soft features. He wasn’t sure how deeply he returned the redhead’s feelings, but he knew those lips looked so inviting.

He leaned in for a kiss. Which led to another. And another.

Ethan had come here for a reason, after all. It had been too long, and he’d been under so much stress…

Soon ‘Julie’ was letting out moans of joy, feeling soft and delicate as ‘she’ let him lead completely. Soon enough they’d ditched the clothing they’d been wearing.

Well, apart for ‘Julie’ ‘s shift-collar, of course.

-

Still awash with the warm post orgasmic hormones, the pair cuddled, ‘Julie’ pressed against Ethan’s larger form. He’d missed this. The way ‘she’ nuzzled against left Ethan believing the cute redhead had missed it too.

“You know,” ‘she’ whispered, “I wouldn’t mind being more than just your dirty little secret…”

Ethan froze, staring down at ‘her’. A shiver ran down his back as he thought about what that could mean about the person in your arms.

“Y-you’re… you want… do you think you’re a woman?” he asked.

‘Julie’ blinked with those large green eyes. “Oh gosh! No. No. I just meant… dating. Meeting at the club like this feels so limited, and I’d—of course then there’s all the issues that would bring… it was a mistake. Forget I said anything…”

Ethan found himself calming down. It was utterly irrational, he knew. If ‘Julie’ had meant that, surely the redhead had earned his trust by now? Surely he wouldn’t have to be afraid if ‘she’ actually became a she… but…

The embarrassment over his panic, his lingering phobia, distracted him initially from what ‘she’ had said, and he found himself reply to a silence that had dragged on a little too long.

“It probably wouldn’t be good for either of us to get more invested. Too many lies and layers… we’d end up hurting each other whether we wanted to or not,” he mumbled, but he couldn’t hold back a blush. “Even if it would probably be nice before it blew up in our faces.”

“Mmmhm,” ‘Julie’ replied, snuggling closer into his chest.

They stayed like that a while, enjoying one another’s warmth, before ‘Julie’ finally gave in and went to take a shower. Ethan cleaned himself up after ‘her’, and the pair ordered some dinner from the automated delivery system.

Maybe that wasn’t the usual order for a date, but it wasn’t exactly a bad order to do things. It left ‘Julie’ with a nice glow throughout the dinner, after all.

Ethan tried to ignore the questions raised by just how much ‘she’ ate, though. How he’d long ago realised it indicated ‘Julie’ ‘s true form was probably a fair bit larger than ‘her’ current one. While he liked the behavioural reminders that the redhead across from him was actually a man (a feminine man, probably, but a man all the same), thinking about his actual body pushed against some uncomfortable point in Ethan’s brain.

He didn’t think it was homophobia. He had no issue with other people being gay. He just… well, it was probably that he was straight, right? He was left walking a tricky balancing act here, finding someone at the club who was just convincing enough in their femininity to attract him, but not so convincing to unsettle him.

Which got harder when he thought too much about it, so he had to stop that right now. Just focus on how adorable ‘Julie’ looked while gobbling down a plateful of chocolate and strawberry crepes.

Especially when ‘she’ got chocolate sauce on ‘her’ cheeks, having dove right into the middle of the crepe despite ‘her’ small mouth. He smiled, leaning over and swiping a little off of the redhead’s cheek, before licking it off of his finger.

“Mhm, extra sweet,” he replied with a smile.

‘Julie’ blushed, quickening his heart. Especially as the blush turned mischievous.

“Well, if you like eating chocolate off me, maybe we could try a little bit more of that next time,” ‘she’ said, eyebrows waggling.

It was his turn to grow flush.

-

Eventually he’d had to call it a night. Dirty Little Secret charged by the hour, after all. And they charged quite a bit, since shift-collars did not come cheap. Along with the top of the line rooms, all modelled on locations far more romantic than Northford.

He gave ‘Julie’ one last kiss goodbye, and started walking towards the front desk. He was most of the way there when a hostess slipped past him, pulling a client with a half-unbuttoned shirt. The client and Ethan bumped shoulders as they passed, causing both to turn to the other, ready to give a quick apology.

Only for Ethan to realise the client was wearing a shift-collar too. One that was lit up and active.

“Is there a problem?” the client asked, while looking like a handsome man about Ethan’s age.

Ethan felt a slight shiver at the surprise presence of a woman here, but… well, the collar helped to keep it abstract. And they were just passing in the hallway, so he didn’t really feel fear.

He probably wasn’t that much more surprised than anyone else would be.

“S-sorry, no problem. Just didn’t expect that…” Ethan half mumbled.

The other client shrugged. “Hey, we’re all here to have fun and play around.”

“Speaking of… we have somewhere to be!” the hostess called out, pulling the odd client after ‘her’.

Ethan blinked once more, before turning and heading back on his way. He paid up, ignoring just how much the bill stung as he punched in his debit pin number.

Then it was back out into the chilly night. Into the rain as he hurried to his car. He was a little drunk, so he let the car handle driving him home. He was happy, though, as he watched the lights of the city zip by.

Sure, his life was odd, but it worked for him.