Page 35 of Hooked

“Meaning, I should be prepared for the Inquisition from them both?”

“It won’t be as bad as that. David’s a tough dom, but he only tops Emma now. Ten years ago, he may very well have put you on his rack to get the truth out of you. Muah, ha ha ha.” She giggled, her earlier somberness dispelled. “Truly, though, they’re my only family. They love me and want to see me happy. I think once they meet you, they’ll love you as much as I do.”

Realizing immediately that she’d let the L-word slip out, she cringed inwardly, waiting stiffly for a response. Holy crap! Had she screwed up and let it out too soon? It had only been a month.

“Livia,” he said softly, his hand finding hers and lifting it to his lips. After a gentle brush, he held it clenched on his hard thigh. “Although a declaration while driving wasn’t my intention, since it’s out there...I love you, too. If you’re worried that it’s too fast, consider that although we’ve only been a couple, and dom and sub for a few short weeks, we’ve known one another for much longer, and the feelings were there well before that night at Club Decadence. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes,” she whispered, squeezing his hand. “I’ve loved you forever, it seems.”

He grinned at her obvious exaggeration but didn’t discount her fervent declaration. “I’d prefer you turn that around a bit.”

She thought for a moment and restated her feelings. “I will love you forever, Joseph.”

He brought her hand to his lips once again. “That is indeed sweet music to my ears, love.”

***

THE EVENING WITH HERfriends wasn’t awkward as she feared. Instead, it was filled with delicious food, great company, a lot of wine, and plenty of laughter. Joseph and David hit it off right away, both having so much in common. The only uncomfortable moment came during after-dinner coffee. She had snuggled up next to Joseph on the love seat while their hosts shared the oversized chair-and-a-half, petite Emma ensconced in David’s lap. Somehow, the conversation turned to Livia’s extremely poor taste in men.

“Hopefully, Joseph, you can help her break the pattern.” David went on half-jokingly, “Of course, if it’s her heart that gets broken, I’ll be obligated to lop off a certain appendage, which is what I should have done with that bastard Vaughn.”

Her dom stiffened beside her, his full attention shifting to her. She directed her frown at David for making things awkward, which was also a good way of avoiding looking at Joseph directly.

“I don’t believe she’s mentioned anything about ‘Vaughn the bastard,’ have you, Olivia?”

“We haven’t discussed past relationships at all, not in detail.”

She felt the heat of his gaze but resisted meeting it. She really didn’t want to get into this now—or ever. The wine had put David in a talkative mood, and much to her detriment, he warmed to the topic of her evil ex.

“Vaughn Steros was an abusive prick,” David supplied, turning a dark glower on Livia. “And you, missy, should know better than withholding something so pivotal in your past from your dom.”

Two on one, so not fair. She looked to Emma for help, but she was frowning at her, too. Definitely outnumbered and outgunned. She shifted to get up, but Joseph’s arms tightened.

“It was a long time ago. Can’t we move on?”

“The better question,” David quipped, “is, have you?”

“How can you ask that when I’m sitting beside...” Her hand waved over Joseph’s long frame, which would dwarf Vaughn’s by almost a foot.

“She’s got you there, babe,” Emma drawled. “He is, without a doubt, an upgrade.”

“It seems you’ll have to fill me in since she clearly doesn’t want to share,” Joseph stated, his voice which had been warm and relaxed earlier, having taken on a noticeable chill. “Was the abuse physical?”

“No,” Livia interjected, but got a silencing squeeze. Joseph had moved on to another more reliable witness, evidently. She glanced down at her clasped hands, really not wanting to get into this.

“There were never any visible bruises, but his words hurt as much as a fist. He beat her up emotionally,” Emma explained, reaching out to squeeze her friend’s hand. “After he stripped her bare and left her defenseless, the bastard dumped her when she turned thirty-five like it was a preordained cutoff point. Then, to add insult to injury, he shows up a month later with a college kid on his arm. If she was twenty, I’d be surprised.”

“Keep it together, sweetheart,” David quietly advised.

“I don’t know if I can,” Emma said, angry on her behalf. Flicking her hand her way, she exclaimed, “He must be blind because look at her. She’s thirty-eight but could pass for twenty-eight and is fah-reaking gorgeous. And she will be at forty-eight and sixty-eight. Trust me, I’ve seen her mother. By my way of thinking, he did her a favor, but it took a while for us to convince her of that.”

“Can we change the subject, please?” Livia implored softly.

“Silence, pet.”

The endearment was common in the lifestyle, but Joseph had only used it in private. He didn’t hesitate in front of Emma and David. They’d understand its meaning, and said in his no-nonsense tone, would recognize he was serious about dredging up the ugliness that Livia clearly didn’t want to.

“I blame myself,” David’s low voice rumbled, his anger rivaling his tiny wife’s. “I was away for two years while working on my PhD and completing my internship. She’d talked about him, but whenever I came home for a visit, he was always out of town or he cancelled when a work matter suddenly came up. I suspected something was wrong, but Livia convinced me I was imagining things. Finally, about two years in, I got the chance to meet him. It took about two minutes in his presence to recognize he wasn’t a dom but an abusive bully. Trying to persuade her he wasn’t good for her wasn’t enough. I should have done a helluva a lot more.”

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