Page 12 of Secret Submission

She really, really liked making him laugh. She wished she could have kept entertaining him all night, but they both had to get going. The dining room needed to be cleaned.

Connor walked her out to her car. She thought about pulling him down for a kiss goodnight but decided against it. They exchanged numbers so they could try for another date and agreed to meet the next Friday for another scene.

One of the perks of working at Marquis, she happened to know there was a room free and was able to reserve it. Since she was teaching the classes, she could reserve an overnight for free whenever she wanted. A perk she’d never taken advantage of before, but it made sense now.

Of the two sister clubs, Marquis was far more private. If they were at Stronghold, eyes would be on them from the moment they walked through the door. Also, if they stayed at Marquis, it wouldn’t feel quite so much like she had to hide what she was doing with him. Privacy was part of the package, not something that had to be deliberately set into place… which would be easier on her than feeling like he didn’t want to be seen with her.

She wasn’t sure where this would lead, if anywhere, but she was looking forward to finding out.

Connor

“You look happy.”

Blinking, Connor gave himself a little shake. His mind had wandered off again in between clients, going back to the night before with Mistress Julie. The woman looking up at him now was a little taller than Mistress Julie and a little curvier, but she had a very similar expression. Searching, scrutinizing.

He’d been working with Sandra for about three years now, and he was used to the tiny whirlwind, also known as his work wife. She was happily married, and he got along well with her husband Marcus, but at work, she bossed him around as if he was a henpecked husband. In fact, he was pretty sure she didn’t boss Marcus around nearly as much as she did him.

“What?” he asked, sidling away from her intense stare.

“I said that you look happy.” Her gaze narrowed.

Damn, she really looked like Mistress Julie when she did that. Not that he’d ever want to say that out loud. He didn’t think all Asian people looked alike; it was just true that these two particular Asian women looked alike. The main difference was that he was attracted to Mistress Julie whereas he could acknowledge that Sandra was an attractive woman, but he’d never been attracted to her.

“Doesn’t he look happy, Aubrey?”

From behind the front desk, Aubrey looked up from whatever paperwork he was doing and inspected Connor’s expression. He seemed to be having a good day today, which Connor was happy to see. He had a chronic condition called Arnold Chiari disease that sometimes gave him terrible headaches, but he liked being at the front desk of A2Z Physical Therapy and getting to interact with everyone coming in and out. The patients and all the PTs loved him.

“I look the way I always do,” Connor insisted, rubbing his hand over his face, as if he could rub away whatever it was they were seeing. Sandra was nosy as hell, and she was going to want all the details if he gave her an inch.

“No, she’s right. You look extra happy,” Aubrey said, tilting his head and grinning up at them. His hazel eyes sparkled with mischief. “You’re normally more… stoic.”

“I don’t know what either of you are talking about.” Except that he did. He was happy because Mistress Julie had not only shown up, but she’d sat with him. Showed him what was possible.

He was still nervous as hell about telling his friends, but… maybe he could practice now. Sandra and Aubrey didn’t know the details about the kink stuff, so they couldn’t be mad at him for hiding anything from them. Both of them were staring at him now, letting the silence draw out, waiting for him to fill it. He sighed.

“I had… a date last night.”

“And it went well!” Sandra squealed, bouncing up and down as she clapped her hands. “It went well, right? You wouldn’t look happy if it didn’t go well. What’s her name? How old is she? Where’d you go?”

“No, no, and no.” Connor pointed his finger at her. “I do not need you looking her up online.”

“Just a first name then.” Sandra smiled innocently at him, but he knew better than to believe that. He knew exactly why she wanted some of those details.

So did Aubrey.

“Don’t trust her, man. She found Riley’s new boyfriend with nothing more than knowing his name was ‘John.’ I still don’t know how she did it.” Aubrey shook his head. “Do you know how many Johns there are in the world?”

“You’re forgetting the part where I also saved her from dating a man with a wife and two kids he forgot to tell her about.” Sandra put her hands on her hips, sniffing with annoyance at their lack of appreciation.

“She’s not married, and she doesn’t have kids,” Connor said firmly.

Sandra’s eyes lit up.

“You already knew her from somewhere. Okay, I can work with that.”

“Sandra!”

She was already bustling away, reaching into her pocket to grab her phone, probably looking for some corner where she could start internet sleuthing. Connor sighed. Aubrey shook his head.

---