by Poppy Flynn
They met up in the same little bistro, where she had joined Desi and Laurel for lunch a few weeks ago, and yet it felt so very much longer.
"Thanks for meeting me." Charlotte smiled warmly as she settled herself on the other side of a relatively private booth.
"No problem," Luanna assured, handing her a menu and looking over her own. "In fact, I'm glad of the company, what with Desi still away, Laurel quitting, and Logan back on the south coast. I've been feeling more than a little bit sorry for myself," she said with a weak laugh.
"Yeah, I'm missing Desi, too," Charlotte admitted as she scanned the lunch options. "I'd really like to bounce some ideas off her, right now."
"I hear you there," Luanna agreed. "I could do with some expert advice, myself!"
The waitress came over to take their order, and when she'd gone, Luanna continued. "So, what are these ideas that you want to bounce? Anything I can help you with?"
"As a matter of fact, I'm hoping just that, and I have a favour to ask, as well."
The server approached with their drink order, and they waited politely until she'd returned with their food before resuming the conversation.
"I figure that being a guest at the club and being involved with Logan, who's been giving legal advice," Charlotte mumbled around mouthfuls from a huge bowl of chicken and pasta in a cream sauce that had Luanna wondering how the woman managed to stay so slim, "that you must be aware of the problems they've been having with reporters trying to gain unlawful access."
Luanna stabbed at a crisp lettuce leaf from her salad and nodded. "Yes, the night you gave me a lift home and I helped you with Laurel, I needed the ride because Logan had been asked to clarify the legal situation."
"That's right, and it's happened several more times since," Charlotte concurred. "It got me considering that if the whole BDSM scene was a little less shrouded in secrecy and maybe concentrated on developing some positive exposure, then none of it would be a mystery anymore. Take away the enigma, take away the problem, you know what I mean?"
"The idea certainly has merit," Luanna agreed, taking a sip of her sparkling ice water. "What are you thinking?"
"Well, generally, people are only interested in what they perceive to be restricted and confidential. It's purely human nature to be inquisitive, to delve into the unknown."
Charlotte picked up her own glass and eyed Luanna across the top of it. "The press, on the other hand, thrive on the concept that anything clandestine must be deviant or unscrupulous and subsequently set out to prove it. They think that those who fight to keep things concealed must be corrupt or depraved, otherwise, they wouldn't mind if it were common knowledge." Charlotte rubbed her thumb through the condensation on her glass as she pondered her pitch.
"That's pretty much the bottom line for the club—the mentality that those who kept secrets must have something to hide. And if you're perceived as having something to hide, then someone is going to dig for it."
"I see what you're getting at. Reporters, looking for a story, think there's some kind of mystery or scandal if the answers aren't forthcoming and if they're thwarted in their attempts to investigate. It just makes them all the more convinced that they're onto a juicy story, and so the problem is perpetuated."
"Exactly!" Charlotte exclaimed, slapping a hand on the linen covered table top. "And if you open it all up for the world to see, then, suddenly, the mystique is gone; it loses all the appeal and potential, and the power for exploitation is erased."
"That's makes sense. I understand the logic behind what you're saying." Luanna pushed her empty plate aside.
"I've been doing a bit of research, and it seems that all things BDSM are the rage, since 'Fifty Shades' hit."
Luanna frowned, but before she could comment, Charlotte forged ahead. "But what editors and publications are looking for is serious stuff. Not scandal and gossip, but genuine information."
She gave an audible exhale. "What I want to do is write an informative and progressive article about D/s and BDSM, which will concentrate on a positive and constructive account. It will revolve around the ideals of consent, care and mutual respect as the core values of those committed to the lifestyle and blow the myths out of the water, so that the club stops being a target and our men can all relax a little." Charlotte held her breath.
"Charlotte, that's a fantastic idea. The concept is absolutely inspired," Luanna enthused.
"Well, I'm glad you think so," Charlotte beamed, "because there's still the matter of the favour." Feeling buoyed by the response, Charlotte took the plunge. "I was hoping you'd allow a couple of your photographs to be published alongside the article, so that we can highlight some of the beauty and play the art-form angle."
Luanna was quiet for a couple of very long minutes as she let the shock of the request sink in, and Charlotte found herself crossing her fingers as well as holding her breath.
"Umm, Wow! I wasn't expecting that!" Luanna admitted.
"I understand if you want to think about it for a little while." Charlotte hedged, "I'm not planning to make money from this venture. I already decided to donate my fee to a national domestic violence charity—another way to highlight the profound difference between BDSM and abuse. And I'm keeping it all indefinable, no names, no venues, nothing that will point to Club Risqué, the members, or even this area." She looked Luanna straight in the eye, "I noticed that some of your photos didn't show your face, so you wouldn't be recognised…" Charlotte trailed off, not knowing what else she could say, but Luanna's face cleared.
"You're right. And I have other pictures at home that aren't part of the exhibitions. I'll have a look through them."
"So, you'll do it?" Charlotte squeaked in excitement. "You'll let me use a couple?"
Luanna smiled. "On the condition that you let me approve the final copy."
"Of course!" The brunette grinned. "Anything you're not completely happy with will be edited; you have my word on that."
"Then, yes," Luanna approved. "I agree."
Later that evening, Luanna was happily looking through the photographs that Logan had left with her, choosing those she wanted to put in the album Logan had promised her and also keeping an eye out for those that would suit Charlotte's needs while retaining her own anonymity. It helped her feel closer to Logan to handle and view the pictures he had taken and gave her something to occupy her time, so she didn't mope about missing him so much. Luanna was quite engrossed in her task when the doorbell sounded, and she jumped guiltily, spilling a pile onto the sitting room rug where she had spread out while Danny was out at football practice.
"Just a minute," she called, hastily scooping up the prints and moving them guiltily out of sight.
Opening the door, she was surprised to find her neighbour from the apartment opposite. They didn't know each other well, just by sight, really, since the old lady and her retired husband hadn't long moved in.
"Hey, sorry to disturb you," the plump, grey-haired woman apologised. "This letter was delivered to my place by mistake. I think it's yours?"
Luanna cocked her head to one side and leaned forward to read the contact information on the envelope. Frowning slightly, she realised it was addressed to her parents' old property, where she had grown up, and it looked to have been forwarded by the tenants who now rented her childhood home. But there was no mistaking the name: Miss L Morgan.
"Yes, it is," Luanna confirmed. "Thanks." A tiny tremor of unease shivered through her as she extended her hand to take the letter that her neighbour held out to her. Her apprehension grew as she closed the door and made her way back to the couch.
Curling up comfortably again, Luanna just stared at the front of the heavy cream envelope. She was dimly aware that her hand shook slightly as she turned it over, but when she spotted the return information on the reverse, she sucked in a harsh breath and dropped the letter as if she had been burned.
It dropped face down, and there, glaring back at her, was a name she had hoped never to have conta
ct with again. 'Mr. James R. Fulford'.
Chapter 12
Luanna sat motionless and stared at the offensive article for a full ten minutes. At first, her mind was just a blessed blank. Then all kinds of ominous scenarios chased the inertia away and raced around her mind until a fine sheen of sweat had appeared on her forehead, prickling down her neck, and her heart thudded as loudly as if she'd been working out.
Finally, the chiming of the hall clock snapped her out of her daze, and she was spurred into equally frenzied motion as she realised Danny would be home any moment.
Grabbing up the photographs, she hurriedly stored them in a box she had claimed specifically for that use and put it away on the shelf in her bedroom closet. Then she returned to the living room and hesitantly picked up the envelope, holding it gingerly at one corner by her forefinger and thumb.
For another moment, she just stood, at a loss as to what to do. Then she walked back to her bedroom, her hand stretched out in front of her at arm's length, like the letter might suddenly grow teeth and bite, and dropped it into the household bill drawer of the small desk that held her PC, before slamming the drawer closed with a jolt.
She needed to contemplate this unexpected matter for a while.
Luanna threw herself into her work, during the day, and superfluous household chores, in the evenings. She chose all the pictures she wanted for the photo album then checked them all again, just to make sure. She went out of her way to personally deliver several of the prints to Charlotte, even though she had already e-mailed high resolution digital copies to her inbox and insisted on meeting up with the other girl yet again, on the pretext of jointly reviewing the article. She even went to cheer along at a couple of Danny's football practice sessions. Anything to avoid thinking about the unwanted correspondence in her desk drawer.
Danny laughed and teased her, ragged at her that she was obviously missing Logan. She tolerated the ribbing good naturedly, because it was better than him finding out the truth—that the father who had disowned them both, who had never even bothered to find out whether he had sired a daughter or a son, had finally gotten in touch, after almost sixteen years. Deep down, she supposed she should be happy that Danny was almost an adult and not still a small child to be hurt and confused by his errant father's sudden appearance. Pretty hard to have any kind of custody battle, this late in the day, and Danny was old enough to make his own decisions.
That thought brought Luanna up short. Should she let him make his own decisions?
On the other hand, Danny had important exams coming up, and on the heels of that would be college selection. Now was definitely not the time for his education to be disrupted, either physically or emotionally. Danny was a well-adjusted kid. She had never made any pretence over his paternity. He knew the name of his father and understood that both of his parents had been really far too young to take care of him as a couple and accepted that Luanna had needed the support of her own parents in order to bring him up. If he ever wondered why his father never had any contact, then he didn't ask. Now that he was older, Luanna wondered if she would ever tell him the truth. Did it serve any purpose to tell an adolescent teenager that his father had denied all responsibility and didn't want anything to do with him and that his other set of grandparents had engineered the situation to ensure that James' 'mistakes' were far enough away not to cause any disruption or gossip? Just swept them away like the unwanted little mess that they had been considered.
No! It didn't. It wasn't that she didn't want Danny to know his father, but his education and his future were the priority, right now. She'd be damned if she had struggled for all these years, without so much as a nod of help from James or his family to ensure her son had a stable and balanced upbringing, for them to mess things up now. She had done more than put food on the table and a roof over his head. She had strived to make certain he was well adjusted and well educated so that she could be certain that whatever his beginnings, his future held opportunity and potential. No way she was going to jeopardise all that, this far down the line. He'd left it long enough. If James wanted anything to do with the son he hadn't been bothered about for the last fifteen years, then he would just have to wait a little bit longer. When Danny's finals were over, well, maybe she'd consider it again then.
Righteous indignation helped, and the more she pushed it all away, the longer it stayed there, until the unknown contents of that envelope no longer clamoured through her head at every unguarded moment and finally receded until it was diminished down to an occasional faint nibble at the edges of her conscience. And Luanna was happy to let it stay there.
Trouble was brewing. Luanna could sense it in the air. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on yet, but it obviously involved Jake Blackwood and Charlotte Chapman. Jake was storming around the finance floor like a bear with a sore head, bawling out anybody for anything, and while she could accept a little bit of moodiness when relationship issues hit—and obviously, they had hit hard—Luanna was more than a little irritated that he couldn't be professional enough to leave it outside the workplace and more so that he seemed to have reeled both Connor and even Logan into his own private drama.
Logan had been back just three short days, and the first two of those had been taken up with catching up on the workload that had backlogged while he'd been gone. Luanna had barely had a chance to see him, and now Jake was monopolising all his time. She was mature enough to recognise the resentment she was feeling, as a result, and did her best to put it aside. Jake was one of his closest friends, after all. For all she longed to spend a little quality time with Logan after his time away and the unsettling events of the past few days, she didn't want to come between them. Whatever his reasons, Jake clearly needed his friends, right now. He needed Logan. But damn it, so did she! Still, that got Luanna thinking about Charlotte.
Luanna had struck up the beginnings of a close friendship with Charlotte, over the past few weeks, as they'd discussed their involvement with the club and their experiences and issues with the concept of being 'submissive'. Not to mention the time they had spent together considering Charlotte's BDSM article concept. Charlotte had confided her unconventional relationship with the Blackwood trouble-shooter and how he had taken over the responsibility for her D/s contract with Micah Flynn, in order for the two of them to explore the tentative relationship that had been brewing in fits and starts for the past six months. Right now, Luanna was sufficiently concerned with Jake's erratic behaviour that she had tried to contact the other girl, several times, both on her mobile phone and the landline, and during office hours, too, to check that everything was okay. So far, she hadn't had any luck in her efforts and that was just making Luanna all the more anxious for her friend. She didn't really know Jake Blackwood all that well. He'd always seemed cheerful and easy going, when she'd come into contact with him in the past, but right now, he didn't seem like the kind of man you'd ever want to cross, and he was most definitely on the warpath. Luanna made a mental note to pop around and check on Charlotte in person, on her way home from work that evening. Then she realised that she'd have Logan with her, so she'd need to come up with a different plan.
Making her way up to Logan's office on the floor above, Luanna considered her options. As much as she wanted to spend time with Logan, now that he was back, she also wanted to get his opinion on the unexpected correspondence from James Fulford, maybe pick his clever brain to find out exactly where she stood from a legal position. She really did need to check that Charlotte was okay, though. Especially with their other friends being pretty much out of the picture right now, with Desi still on her honeymoon and Laurel having taken off on some kind of rural retreat for a few weeks, since quitting her job.
As she moved toward Logan's office, she realised that the admin and most other employees for this level had obviously gone to lunch and that heated discussions and raised voices were thundering out of his workspace. Rolling her eyes, she could make out the three separate voices of Connor and Jake,
as well as Logan, and wondered if she should turn around and leave them to it or go on in and try to diffuse the situation. Staff would be back from their lunch breaks soon, and this sort of behaviour was not appropriate.
Deciding she should assert her own tranquil nature and become the voice of reason, before they caused any embarrassment to either themselves or the company, Luanna resolutely made her way to the corner office at the end of the corridor.
As she drew closer, the words became more distinct. The door was wide open, so, really, pretty much anyone would be able to hear if they ventured this far down the hallway, though, so far, it seemed that everybody had more sense. Clearly no one was in any great hurry to get on the wrong side of one of the bosses, let alone three of them, and they were all giving it a wide berth or had taken an outside lunch.
She was happy to hear Logan trying to calm things down as she approached. "You need to ease up, Jake, and start thinking a bit more clearly. None of this is confirmed yet."
"What?" Jake yelled. "So, we wait until the shit hits the fan and then try and clear up the mess? I've been there once before, remember, dickwad? We need to be proactive and nip this in the bud."
"Well, hurling abuse at each other certainly isn't going to solve anything," Logan retorted sharply.
"Logan's right, Jake," Connor rumbled. "We need to ease back and take stock of the situation. Work out what we can do to pre-empt any revelations and block certain disclosures."
Luanna frowned as she walked silently across the plush, carpeted floors. They were having reporter issues again? Had one managed to gain access while Logan had been away? It certainly sounded that way.
"God damn it, you two try staying calm when it's your own ass in the sling. And it could be!" Jake bellowed. "What if she's gotten wind that we own the club? Own two clubs? What if that information gets out? I'm pretty sure the pair of you won't be feeling quite so bloody relaxed when the paparazzi headlines read 'Top CFO Doubles as Kink Club Owner' or 'Distinguished Company Lawyer Moonlights as Sex Club Proprietor'.