“Well, Ria, alone again.”
Fuck. Hearing her name roll of his lips sent a shiver through her.
Stupid. Stupid. It sounded so familiar. Like he knew her. Well, he didn’t know her.
Except he was looking at her like he could see all of her secrets.
She forced herself to straighten her shoulders and give him a small smile.
Nothing to see here.
“I better get back to work.” She stood, moved around the chair and came to a stop as he grabbed her wrist. She winced. She quickly recovered but she knew he’d caught the involuntary movement by the way he stiffened.
He stared up at her and her breath caught. Intense and focused, his gaze lasered into hers, holding her frozen.
“Let me go,” she told him. Her voice shook. She was giving too much away. She needed to get away from him. Now. Before she did or said something stupid.
He didn’t answer, but he did move his grip. To her hand.
She tugged at his hold, but he didn’t let her go. “Let me see your wrist.”
“No, and if you don’t let me go things are gonna get nasty.”
Right. Cause you’re a big bad threat Ria.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He gave her a curious look.
“Didn’t think you were,” she snapped back.
He raised his eyebrows. “That so? Your heart is racing.”
It was then she realized he had two fingers on her pulse.
“I get that way when I’m pissed off.”
He nodded. “Yep, I get that you’re angry. I just want to know why when all I’ve done is ask to see your wrist.”
“Maybe because I don’t want to show you.”
“Yeah? Got something to hide?”
“No.”
“Then you won’t mind showing me.”
“I do mind, actually. You’ve got no right to hold me here and ask that I bare body parts.”
His gaze narrowed and she felt her heart stutter then race.
“Calm down, baby. You’re going to make yourself ill.”
Her pulse jumped for another reason. Hearing him call her baby in that low, calm voice made her skin flush.
“And I’m not asking you to bare body parts.” He smiled briefly, and his whole face lightened. Jesus, the man was so potent she could barely stand to look at him. “Just your wrist. I want to know why you flinched like that.”
“You took me by surprise, that’s all.”
“If that was all, then why are you so defensive about showing me?”
“You want to let me go before Ajax gets back,” she warned. Where the hell was he?
“Actually, I think Ajax will be interested in knowing why one of his subs has got bruises on her wrist.” She looked down and saw her long-sleeved shirt had pulled up. Fuck.
She reached for the material at the same time as he did. He won the tug of war, pushing it up her arm gently. She winced as she saw the angry-looking bruise.
“I told the other night, I’m not a submissive.”
He smiled. “You think not, do you?”
“I know it,” she hissed at him. “Fuck, you’re annoying.”
“You’ve got a mouth on you.”
“Does that offend you?”
“Nope,” he told her. “Some Doms, it might. But I work around some of the most foul-mouthed beings you’ve ever met. It’s getting to the point that if I don’t have a conversation where someone swears it feels weird. Did you ice this?”
“What?”
“Did you ice your wrist? Is the other one the same?”
She hid her other hand behind her back. “None of your business.”
He sighed. “Just knew you were going to be trouble.”
“Pardon me?”
“More attitude than a teenager getting caught sneaking out after dark.”
“Did you just liken me to a teenager?” Jesus, he sure knew how to kick at a girl’s ego. She was twenty-five not fifteen.
“If the shoe fits . . .”
She sucked in a breath and glared at him. “You’re an asshole.”
“Actually, most people find me quite likeable. I’m pretty easygoing. Until you rile up my protective instincts. Who hurt you?”
The question slammed at her while she was still reeling from the idea that people liked him. “What? None of your business.”
“Actually, it is. I’m a club Dom and you’re a submissive under my care.”
“I’m not a fucking submissive.”
“Knees, now,” he growled.
She slid down onto her knees without thought, finding the position immediately. He let go of her hand as she moved but sat there, watching.
“So, you have been trained. I wondered if you just didn’t know. Interesting.”
She glared up at him. She couldn’t believe she’d just done that. Shame swirled inside her. What was she doing? She didn’t want this anymore. She’d never submit to anyone again . . . not after Martin.
If that was even the fucker’s name.
She didn’t know. Didn’t care. She only knew she wasn’t into this stuff anymore.
It was really smart of you to get a job in a BDSM club, idiot.
Yeah, she understood it didn’t make sense. She didn’t want to play anymore. And yet she couldn’t get away from it at the same time. Sometimes she wondered if she was trying to punish herself.
It seemed she just might be a little fucked up.
“Where did you go, little sub?”
She suddenly realized she was still on her knees and tried to stand.
Connor’s face grew cool. “Stay where you are. We’re not finished talking, and I have a feeling I might get more answers with you where you are.”
The door opened and her stomach tightened. She told herself she was pleased for the reprieve. Except maybe part of her was disappointed.
Yep, definitely fucked up.
“Connor? What’s going on?” Ajax asked quietly, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him. He gave Connor a cold look, and she started to relax. Ajax wouldn’t let this ridiculousness continue.
“He won’t let me go back to work,” she explained. She’d been aiming for indignant, angry. Instead, her voice sounded reed thin and uncertain.
Get it together, Ria.
She’d had a sharp learning curve in figuring out how to keep herself safe after her escape. Well, she hadn’t been a prisoner, but she’d known she was in deep shit after Freddy learned what she’d been doing. When he’d decided she was a traitor.
She wasn’t a traitor. Just a fucking idiot.
She sucked in a breath, trying to stifle the pain that shot through her. No use dwelling on it. That was the past.
“She’s gone again. She keeps doing that,” Connor murmured.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too.”
“I need to get back to my shift, the two of you can have your weird conversation on your own.” She attempted to stand and Connor moved that gaze back on her.
The room was filled with his power. It wasn’t something that slammed into you. And it was something he obviously kept well under wraps most of the time. She reassessed her Dom categories. There were newbies, wannabies, Alpha Doms, and then there was Connor.
A category all his own. And for some reason he’d turned his Dom powers on her.
Not good. Not good at all.
“Did I give you permission to move?”
She narrowed her gaze at his softly-worded rebuke. “I am not your sub.”
“According to you, you’re not a sub at all.” He leaned forward. “I should warn you that I don’t like being lied to.”
“Well, that’s just too bad for you.”
He just looked up at Ajax who was watching her intently. Fuck. How had this conversation gone downhill so quickly? And why was she still on her damn knees?
“You’re going to have to watch that whomever she plays with doesn’t try to break her. Going to take someone patient to break t
hrough those walls but strong enough not to let her get away with pushing them.”
“Excuse me? Are you giving him advise about what sort of Dom I need?” She stood this time, congratulating herself for managing that. “I don’t need any sort of Dom because I’m not a submissive.”
“Think it’s obvious to all of us you are, wildcat,” Connor answered.
“Will you stop with the cutesy names,” she told him.
His lips twitched. “You think wildcat is a cute name?” He looked over at Ajax. “She needs someone sooner rather than later, too.”
“I don’t need anyone. I’m not submissive.” She felt like a broken record.
“Right. That’s why you found your position so prettily just before.”
“Connor, this is none of your business,” Ajax warned him. “It’s her choice.”
Finally. Someone was on her side. She gave Ajax a smile of thanks. “I’m going back to work.” She spun towards the door.
“She’s got a badly bruised wrist. Looks like someone grabbed her. Hard.”
She froze at Connor’s words. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Ajax was a good boss. You did your job well and he didn’t interfere. He didn’t push. Didn’t try to poke his nose into your business and ask too many questions.
Unless you riled his protective instincts. Then all hell broke loose. Because when Ajax was on the war path, you didn’t want to get in his way. Some of the subs had told her he was a Daddy Dom. She didn’t exactly know what that meant, but he definitely took a protective stance with those he considered to be under his care. Which included pretty much everyone in the club. Even the Doms, much to their frustration at times.
“What? When? Who?” he shot the questions at her.
“It’s nothing,” she said defensively, tugging the sleeves of her shirt down.
“Was it consensual?” Connor asked. “You into rough play?”
Ajax shook his head. “Can’t see it.”
“Are you hard of hearing?” she snapped at Connor. “I don’t play at all.”
“I’m fairly easygoing, but I have my limits. And that means I won’t put up with disrespect or lies.”
She immediately felt ashamed. Then she told herself to suck it up. This had nothing to do with him. She didn’t care if he was a club Dom, she didn’t answer to him. Well, actually that was a gray area. The club Doms were in charge of watching over the unattached subs. But that seemed to extend to her and Sophie as well.
“I’m not lying.”
“But you haven’t told us what happened either,” Ajax said. His voice was calm but when she looked at him, she could see the tense way he held himself. “Let me see.”
Fuck. She could snark and bite at Connor, refuse him all she liked, but Ajax was her boss. And even more than that, he was a man she respected, and liked.
“It’s not a big deal, Ajax.”
“It is if someone hurt you. Let me see.” He held out a big paw and she walked over and placed her hand in his. He gently tugged up her sleeve, looking at her wrist carefully.
“Looks painful. You had this looked at?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Other hand.”
She raised her other hand, letting him look it over. “You been playing somewhere else, Ria?”
“No, Sir.” Shit.
Ajax’s eyebrows rose but he didn’t say anything. Fuck. Fuck. Seemed the ship had sailed on denying she was a sub.
“Well, at least she doesn’t lie to everyone,” Connor said.
She looked over to find he was leaning back against Ajax’s desk, facing them.
“I don’t know you,” she told him. Crap. Why did she feel the need to explain?
Connor tilted his head to one side. “And I’m betting you don’t trust easily.”
“But you trust me, don’t you, Ria?” Ajax asked in a gentle voice. He reached out and tilted her chin up. “Who did this?”
“Sophie’s ex,” she explained.
His jaw tightened further. Sparks of anger shooting from his gaze. She’d noticed the way he often watched Sophie.
“Is Sophie injured? That’s why she’s not here?” he spat out. “Ria?”
“He hurt her arm. It’s not broken but it’s in a sling and the doctor doesn’t want her to use it for a couple of days.”
“Is that all?”
“No, she’s got a big bruise on her face where he hit her. Some other bruising on her body. She’s-she’s shaken.”
So was Ria. But she forced herself to push that aside. She wasn’t what was important right now. Sophie was.
“That motherfucking bastard, I’m gonna kill him. Her ex?”
“Yeah.”
Her gaze widened as Ajax let her go and stormed over to his desk. “Why didn’t you tell me she was injured? Why lie and say she was sick?”
“She didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Wasn’t her call to make. She works here. I need to know when she is in trouble, otherwise how am I supposed to protect her?”
Ria straightened her shoulders. “I’m protecting her.”
“Great job you’re doing.”
It was a direct blow. She tried not to let it show it affected her, but Connor moved over to stand next to her.
“Easy, Ajax, it’s not her fault this happened.” His voice held a cold note of warning and she looked up at him in surprise. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to come out defending her. She thought he’d be right there with Ajax, berating her. Telling her she wasn’t enough. Not good enough. Not smart enough. Not pretty enough.
She shoved those thoughts back.
Ajax pulled his keys out of his drawer then he unlocked a safe behind him and pulled out a gun. Connor stiffened beside her.
“What are you doing?” Ria asked. She didn’t think it was a good sign that Ajax had gone for his gun.
“I’m going to visit Sophie and I’m going to be prepared if that fucker shows up.”
“Taking a gun isn’t a good idea,” Connor cautioned. “You kill him and you’re going to leave one hell of a mess. And I don’t know any good cleaners around here.”
Cleaners? She gaped up at him. Was he for real?
Of course, she wouldn’t actually be sad to see someone put a bullet in Jerry. But she didn’t want Ajax to go to jail for killing him.
“Fine. I’ll make sure he’s standing on fucking tile when I shoot him, all right?” Ajax rumbled.
“Or maybe beat him up instead. It’ll make your feel better.”
She turned to look up at Connor. “Will you shut up? You’re riling him up.”
He just gave her a cool look. “You’re in enough trouble, little sub. I suggest you be quiet.”
Be quiet? Be quiet?
“You did not just tell me to be quiet! And what do you mean, I’m in trouble? I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You kept this from us.” Ajax was the one who answered, surprisingly. And his voice was chilly enough to freeze a polar bear. “You should have called me the minute this happened.”
“Well, I was kind of busy with the cops and EMTs.”
“Don’t be a smart ass,” Connor rebuked. “You know what he’s saying.”
She did. But she didn’t get why he was so upset. “I didn’t know I was supposed to call you.”
Ajax looked like she’d hit him. Then his face went blank. “Then I guess that’s on me for not making it clear enough that I’d want to know when shit like that went down. But, at the very least, Sophie should have called to explain why she wasn’t coming into work today. And you shouldn’t have tried to cover for her.”
“She doesn’t want anyone to know. She’s ashamed, all right?”
“Ashamed of what?” Ajax asked.
“She thought Jerry was a good guy. She thought he was the kind of guy you married and had kids with. Who you went to sleep beside and woke up in the morning, happy to see his face even though he had morning breath and was grumpy without his coffee.
“So, s
he stayed with him, even after he hit her the first time. Told herself it was just a lapse. He was so nice afterwards, so mad at himself, she thought she should give him another chance because she’d already imagined him with the two kids and the yard and the happy ever after.
“Then it happened again. Only that time, it was her fault. She’d stood too close to some guy, smiled at the postman, fuck I don’t know . . . talked too long to the guy bagging her groceries. And it escalated. And she kept staying even though she knew should have gotten out because she was scared, and he’d made her think it was all her fault, and she didn’t know where to go. Okay?
“She’s ashamed that she stayed. That she was duped. And that she wasn’t smarter than that.”
Both men stared at her for a long moment.
“You probably don’t get what it’s like to think something is one thing and then have your whole world tilted on its axis. You don’t get how that plays with your confidence.”
“But Sophie got out,” Connor said quietly.
“Yes. With my help. Only I obviously fucked up somewhere because he found her.”
And the guilt of that was eating her alive.
“Wasn’t your fault, baby.” That soft tone to his voice was back. The one that moved like a warm river through her senses. Shit. She could find herself melting all too easily when he used that tone.
“I fucked up. And now Sophie’s holed up in some shitty motel room, scared to death he’s going to find her when the cops let him go. Which they will,” she muttered.
“She’s not staying with you?” Ajax asked.
She shook her head. “She didn’t want to stay in that building. After the cops hauled him away last night, I helped her pack a few things that he hadn’t destroyed and we went to stay the night at a motel down the road.”
“Why don’t you tell us what happened last night?” Connor asked. He led her over to a chair. “Ajax, put the gun away. You’re scaring Ria.”
She frowned, looking up at Connor. She wasn’t scared of guns. He winked at her. Right. He was trying to help defuse the situation.
So, she sat in the chair and watched as Ajax sat as well.
“I was woken in the night by my phone. It was Sophie. I knew it had to be bad if she was calling me in the early hours. She said he was there. I got up, grabbed my bat and took off for her apartment.”
Reveal Me, Sir (Doms of Decadence Book 9) Page 5