Page 43 of My Karmic Destiny

I’m intrigued to find out more about him. Evan grew up in a cold, but well-to-do family. He was estranged from them long before Instant ever came for him. He left his home right after he turned eighteen and graduated high school, putting himself through college as a business major.

“And you’ve never been tempted to contact them?” I ask.

“I broke off communication before I had my near-death Instant Karma employment.” He sips some of his dirty martini. “As we know, she only collected people who were alienated from their family and had little to no friends.”

“I can understand not wanting to rekindle a relationship with family. My mom’s gone, and I was done with my father since I ran away from home. I never had an extended family I could turn to.” I take a small bite of my potatoes, then say, “I don’t think I ever heard how you were forced into supernatural servitude.”

“Well, according to Instant, I was scheduled for my bloody death seven years ago. She claimed that I would have been shot coming out of a BDSM club. That other Dom was pissed I was playing with his submissive.”

“Was that part true?” I ask, fascinated to hear more about his naughty past.

“Well, I was playing with someone new. She said she was done with her former Dom. I only recently found out through Carmen… I mean, Karma, that I wasn’t supposed to die that day, but I was supposed to be attacked, beaten up pretty bad. Turns out, the woman had lied to me about her status. That seems to be a theme for me. Untrustworthy people trying to manipulate me.”

I pause to assess what he’s saying. Will he be able to get over his fears and be with me? Will he ever really trust me? And can I trust him?

How can two people, let alone four, come together and truly trust each other? Only time will tell if we can heal our wounds enough to be happy.

I angle the conversation back to the topic of our former goddess. “Instant seemed to stretch the truth on things involving our forced employment.”

“She told me I knew the sub was lying.” Evan frowns and pushes his food around on his plate with a fork. “And to be honest, I had a strong suspicion she was using me to make her ex jealous while they were on a break. I shouldn’t have accepted her offer to play until I cleared things up.”

I’m surprised by his candor, but I appreciate it. Moving forward with brutal honesty is how we will make this work.

“Why did you?” I ask.

Evan sighs. This isn’t easy for him to admit. “I was tired of life. I knew I was playing with fire. I didn’t care. Maybe I wanted someone to beat the fuck out of me.”

“And how are you feeling now? Are you tired of life?”

He cocks his brow at me, knowing where I’m leading him. “Tessa, wanting to be with you and pissing off Dante aren’t part of a death wish. In fact, I’m finally appreciating life since I have a new lease on it. I thought I only had three years left with my employment with Instant and I would die. But I was being drained the whole seven years I was working for her. Now I want to find happiness. I want love. And I feel I found that with you.”

“Evan.” I come close to dropping my utensils. “Stop… you can’t be… don’t say things if you don’t mean them.” I struggle to get a hold of myself. I don’t know if I’m ready to love more than one person. I can barely deal with the fact I have Dante’s love, and now Evan’s too?

“I do mean it. I hope that doesn’t scare you off. I don’t want to lie and hide my emotions anymore. That was part of the appeal of my Dom persona. I want to be so in control that I allow nothing chaotic to leak through. I needed to have strict conditions in place so I could keep things simple.”

“I don’t want to hide anymore either,” I admit. “When you live rough like I did, you have to harden your heart and close it down to protect yourself. It’s a fight every day for survival. I’m only just starting to realize I don’t have to be on guard all the time.”

“Sounds like we have similar trauma, but from different backgrounds.”

At the end of our meal, Evan tells our server we’re skipping dessert since we have somethingoff the menuin mind.

I blush as Matthew understands the innuendo. “Very good.”

Evan drives us to another location, a nondescript building. It looks well kept, but I can’t tell what sort of business it is from the exterior. But my first guess would be a sex club.

“Um, Evan, maybe you ease me into the lifestyle? Maybe on the second date?” Sure, in some ways, it feels like we’ve been dating for months. I know him. That’s why I had no problem with him finger banging me. “I don’t think I’m ready for sexhibitionism at this level.”

He barks out a laugh. “It’s not a sex club tonight. It’s a speakeasy. They often have burlesque shows, but that’s as rowdy as it gets on a Thursday.”

“Oh…oooh.” I smile, grabbing my purse from the floorboard. “That sounds like fun.”

Evan races around to open my passenger door, and I won’t lie, it’s nice to have such positive attention in my life.

I must have had a glow-up and didn’t even notice. Perhaps this whole discovering the gods are real world hasn’t been all that bad.

Honestly, I fit in better to this supernatural world than I ever did in the normal world.

I spent so much of my life hiding what I could do, masking my psychic gifts, and thinking I was some sort of freak. Well, I still might be unusual, but not in a bad way anymore.

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