Page 59 of Dominant

I was the only person here wearing a coat, but underneath I was wearing a shirt and tie - no better.

“Where’s the washroom?” I asked her, and she pointed in the direction of the hallway.

“Do you want me to meet you there?” she asked, grinning.

I gave her a small smile. “No thanks. Enjoy your evening.”

There was a line-up of people waiting to get into the bathroom. Beyond it were three other doors, all closed. I knocked on the first one and then opened it. A group of strung-out people were passing around a mirror lined with coke.

“Sorry.” I raised a hand and closed the door.

At the next door I heard exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I knocked, and a man’s voice responded: “Give us a sec!”

I leaned into the door, preparing to shoulder it open if I had to, but it was unobstructed. Jordan was sitting on the edge of the bed with a frumpy-looking guy about her age, appearing to be deep in conversation. He whipped his head around to me when he heard the door open.

“Sorry, can we just have a sec?” he asked irritably, at the same time as Jordan exclaimed, “Alexander!”

She jumped up off the bed.

“Wait!” cried the boy, petulantly, reaching for her arm.

“Put your fucking hand down,” I bit out sharply, striding into the room and angrily articulating each word. His hand fell to his side, and he gaped at me in surprise.

“Alexander! What are you doing here?” Jordan demanded. I ignored her.

“You don’t touch her, you don’t grab her, and you don’t even talk to her, do you understand?” I said to the boy.

“Me?” he feigned outrage. “I wasn’t trying to do anything!” He held his hands up as if to demonstrate his innocence.

I growled menacingly. “Do I look like I want to get into a discussion about this?”

“What the fuck!” He stood up and sidestepped around me, trying to get to the door without turning his back to me. “She came onto me, man!”

I glared at him while he opened the door and left, shutting the door behind him, and then turned my attention to Jordan.

“What are you doing here?” she repeated

“What were you doing in here? With that guy?” I seethed, unable to keep my anger under control.

She rolled her eyes. “Trying to get over you. Why do you even fucking care?”

I grabbed her shoulders. “You know damn well why I care. We had an agreement and you broke it!” I leaned in close, my tone mean and hard. “I don’t waste my time on little sluts who run around on me, Jordan.”

“Oh, right!” she cried, sarcastically. “It would only be okay for him to fuck me if you had told him he could,” she said, in what was meant to be an oversimplistic interpretation. But…

“Yes, exactly.” I replied. “I told you what I wanted. I was clear.”

“What you wanted?” she exclaimed. “What you wanted was to use me so that you could take over Chateau Andilet. You don’t care about me! None of this was ever about me!”

“You are all I care about,” I roared. “Do you honestly think I care about your shares in Chateau Andilet? That I would go to the trouble of hiring you to work for my company, and risk the security of my club - the club that funds Abbott Holdings, including all its staff - because I wanted your six shares?”

“Yes! Because you want the property. You need the chateau. And noneof the Andilets are selling to you.”

“Jordan!” I ran my fingers through my hair in anger and frustration. “There are other properties. There’s always another way. I don’t know if you understand how much I put myself on the line for you. Sir Vicious… he could’ve brought the whole club down, he could have tracked you down and punished you himself. It seemed harmless to you, maybe, pulling a man’s mask off, but people have died after crossing him. I did everything I could to protect you. I would do anything to protect you. Hiring you, watching over you at the club… it wasn’t some way of using you to get what I wanted. It was my way of serving you. Because I, I…” Emotions hung heavily over me, threatening to invade my words… “Because I care for you. Very, very deeply.”

She didn’t say anything. Hazel eyes searched my face skeptically, looking for some clue, some proof I meant what I said.

“There are two sides to the Dom/sub relationship, okay?” I continued more gently. “You submit to me, you give yourself over to me and you trust me. And then I serve you. I earn your trust, and I protect you. We need to trust each other or this will never work.”

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