Page 73 of Bad Enough

“I don’t want him to give up his control.” She looked at Cherry, eyes wide, realizing how that might sound. “I don’t mean the Dominant thing.”

Cherry full-out laughed. “Oh, yes, you do. But I understand that it’s not just that.”

She gave Sylvan’s arm a quick squeeze, then stood up to return to her desk. “All of my boys are desperately in need of someone to love them. Please don’t give up on him.” She walked to the door and turned back before exiting. “You’re good for him, Sylvan. He needs to balance out the darkness, and you do that. Everyone sees it except for the two of you, which is often how it is in your books. So instinctively, you know this. Give him space to work it out. He’ll get there eventually.”

With that, she walked down the hall to her desk. Sylvan sat quietly, contemplating the tea in her cup, thinking hard about Cherry’s words.

Is she right? Can I reach him?

Suddenly, something clicked in her head. She stood up, crossed to the table, and sat down. She was so focused she didn’t notice the uncomfortableness of the chair.

All the elements were there. She had characters. She had a what, where, and when. The how and why might be murky yet, but that’s what she was best at—weaving the world of the characters into a story.

So, in her head, like a spider spinning her web, she began to weave a plot.

At the top of a new page in a new document, she centered her title.

Seduction of the Bastard Wolf.

She began to type.

25

JUNE 16TH

TB

TB stormed into the conference room. “Have you all lost your goddamn minds?!”

The group was sitting around the conference table in the same positions as before when he had hustled Flame out of the room. Folders in front of them, except for Waters, who stood up near the screen between the table and the window, holding his folder open with a page flipped over the top, and looked at him expectantly. “She’s not some HVT. She’s the client.” TB grabbed the remote and turned off the telescreen that had held her photo there, then threw the remote back down on the table.

“Midas,” Waters intoned. Midas grabbed the remote and turned the telescreen back on, smiling as he did so but not looking at TB.

That’s right. Don’t look at me with that smile on your face, douchebag. If you do, I’ll knock your perfect teeth out of that mouth of yours.

“Never seen you get all hepped up about a client before,” Waters commented without looking up at him.

TB stalked around the top of the table to where Waters stood and snatched the folder from him. “This is bullshit, and you know it.”

Questioning eyes looked up into TB’s face as he calmly took the folder back from the angry man. “What exactly are you calling bullshit on?”

“Don’t, Waters,” TB warned.

“Don’t what?” he asked innocently. “Don’t treat her the same as every other client? TB, you know this is how we operate. We look into everything, including the people we help. Everything.” Waters punctuated every syllable of the last word.

“I’m warning you, Waters?—”

“Or is it that you don’t want me poking the angry bear? Sorry, my friend, but we’re long past that. A real bear would just get someone to pull the stinger out of his hide that he can’t reach, but no. Instead, you’d rather suffer and stubbornly leave that stinger in because it would hurt your pride as king of the forest to ask for help.” Waters gently threw the folder down on the bottom end of the table and faced TB head-on. “We need this information about her life before arriving in L.A., if for no other reason than to discount it as part of her problem. If you don’t want us to ‘hurt’ your delicate little Flame, then go in there and do what you do. Get the information yourself. That’s your specialty. Why are you so fucking squeamish suddenly?”

“Waters…” The low-volume hiss had an edge of begging to it.

“You’ve never been concerned about the feelings or sensitivities of anyone before. Tell me. What’s different now?”

“You know what’s different now.” He spoke softly for only Waters, but the room was so quiet, everyone heard.

“I wanna hear you say it.”

TB stood, glaring at Waters, stubbornly silent.

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