Page 6 of Hooked

“I’m afraid it might be more than you can handle. From what I hear, this club is the real deal. The owners are ex-Special Forces—Green Berets—who don’t take shit from anyone, especially their subs.”

“And your point is?”

“Liv...”

“I’m not stupid, Em. Nor am I inexperienced, just a tad rusty.”

“That’s what I’m saying. You haven’t had a dom since Vaughn. How long has that been? Three years?”

“So?”

She didn’t want to think about Vaughn, not tonight or ever.

After two years with the rat bastard, out of the blue, he ended it. She’d been crushed, especially when she saw him less than a month later with her replacement on his arm. A petite blonde with blatantly obvious fake boobs, an extremely short skirt, and younger than her by a decade, at least. What stung worse than being replaced by a twenty-something was the collar around her neck, something Vaughn hadn’t given her until she “proved herself” six months in.

“Since you’re out of practice, maybe you should ease back into the game. Let me fix you up with Evan, David’s friend.”

“He’s a kid.”

“He’s thirty.”

“Compared to me, that’s a kid. He’s also inexperienced. You said David only started mentoring him last month. No thanks.”

“He’s a good-natured, sweet guy.”

“That’s just it. I don’t want good-natured and sweet. I want a badass Green Beret who oozes masculinity and dominance from his pores.”

“Don’t we all,” Emma muttered. “I think you’ve been reading too many BDSM romances because that’s not realistic. Especially if you expect to scoop up an owner. I heard the last one just recently went off the market.”

“You hear a lot about a club that’s supposedly ultra-exclusive where you’re not a member.”

“We’re not members because the annual fees are astronomical,” she admitted. “Please, reconsider Evan. David said he’s taking to it like a fish to water.”

Livia frowned at her well-meaning but persistent friend. “Is David good-natured and sweet?”

After a moment’s consideration, she replied with a hesitant, “Well...yeah... He’s sweet in his own good-natured kind of way.”

“You are so full of it. Or was it a different Emma who called me last weekend to cancel our shopping trip because you were having trouble walking?”

“A man can be well-endowed, high-octane between the sheets, and still be sweet.”

“True, but that wasn’t the problem, as I recall. He was trying to work, but you wouldn’t stop pestering him. According to your detailed play-by-play”—here she stopped and glanced around to make sure no one would hear—“he gagged you, tied you to the bed, plugged your ass, and attached or inserted battery-powered vibrating devices to your other parts while he finished his work in peace.”

“See what I mean,” she said with a sigh. “That was sweet.”

Livia rolled her eyes and then drove her point home. “Does he get your heart pumping with only a look? Does the tone of his voice when he goes alpha on your naughty ass make you tremble with excitement? When he tells you in no uncertain terms what to do in the bedroom, does he make your panties wet? If he lets you wear any, that is.”

“Liv!” Emma gasped, her face flaming scarlet.

“See? You have that. Why can’t I?” By verbalizing her own fantasies, she’d made herself even more determined to go. She resumed digging for her keys.

“You’ll find him, hon.”

She didn’t glance up, still searching. “I’m really starting to doubt that, and my clock is ticking.”

“Wait!”

Emma grabbed her arm just as she snagged her keys. When she jerked, spinning her a quarter turn to face her, they slipped from her grasp. Livia silently groaned, knowing they’d sink into the abyss of her purse where she couldn’t find them again. At this rate, she’d be in San Antonio by midnight if she was lucky.

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