Page 18 of At Her Will

He’d used the phrase well. Rev gave mixed signals, both beta and alpha. This moment was an alpha one. She liked a sub with an extra helping of that.

“I mind you,” she said.

CHAPTER FOUR

In preparation for her “first date” with Rev, Vera had brought a change of clothes to work. As she finished putting them on, she gave herself a once-over in the mirror behind her office door.

Black jeans with a studded pewter belt, and a dove gray sleeveless V-neck knit shirt that clung to her curves. Silver snake bracelets wound around her wrists, slim matching squiggles dangling from her ears. The comb that pulled her hair back on one side showed the four gleaming rings along the shell of that ear.

Normally she would have donned square heeled and silver trimmed boots, but mindful of Rev’s warning, she chose athletic shoes she kept for walks in the Garden District at lunchtime when she needed the extra exercise.

She leaned in to ensure her makeup didn’t need touching up. Yes, it was fine. She looked the way she desired to look. There was a leashed energy to Rev, and she wanted to be handed that leash. Wanted him to trust her with all the explosive power and need she could sense behind it.

“Miss Veracity Morgan?”

The formal address on the other side of the door had her brow raising. As she pulled it open, Bastion’s dark eyes were dancing, his firm mouth in a mischievous curl. “There is a very polite and exceedingly attractive man in the lobby saying he’s here for you. He brought lemon bars for the office, homemade I believe, and I’ve already tasted one. If he made them, you’re out of luck, girlfriend. I’m kidnapping his ass and keeping him chained in my kitchen.”

“Wait, lemon bars?” Cyn’s office was across the hall, and she appeared in her door. “Brought by a hot male?”

“Very hot,” Bastion confirmed. “And so sweetly polite. He can call me ‘sir’ all day long.”

“Down,” Vera told him, and tossed Cyn an equally severe look. “You have your own hot guy. Go back to work.”

“Yeah, right.” Cyn was already headed for the stairs. Her lean body moved like the trained fighter she was. She had abundant and untamed brown curls around foxlike features, and her big brown eyes could draw a man like bait on a bear trap. If that man had the right appreciation for it, Cyn could teach him that fear, pleasure and pain were all the same under her command.

Despite her admonishment, Vera had no worries about Cyn poaching. First, none of the five women would ever think of crossing that line. Second, their resident sadist had discovered her match in Mick, a former cop and special agent. He gave her everything she needed as a Mistress, while she inflicted everything he needed on his overtaxed soul.

“Donotscare him,” Vera called after her, then shot Bastion a look.

“Yep, on it. I’ll keep her from devouring him.” Bastion pivoted toward the back stairs, since he could beat Cyn to the lobby that way. “And while I’m not suggesting you cut short the anticipation of your arrival in that mouthwatering outfit, he’sattracting attention. You never bring boys home. Everyone’s all a-flutter.”

Vera chuckled, but when she returned to her desk to get her purse, she realized she was tense, and wondering if she should have had Rev meet her elsewhere.

She examined the unexpected reaction. She wasn’t worried about Cyn intimidating Rev. She was worried about what Cyn might think about her choice, and what it revealed about Vera. Which was crazy. These women knew everything about her.

No.They knew everything she wanted to share, plus a few additional things that had shaken loose over the years as trust in their friendship grew. She wasn’t insecure, but her soul was well-guarded. She surrounded herself with the people who would protect and care for it in the way she did herself. But like everyone, she had a vulnerable underbelly. Her attraction to Rev, so new and unexpected, meant that underbelly was exposed, and it might show things to herself, and to them, that she hadn’t had to handle before.

Okay, well, so be it. She accepted the raw emotions and took a few cleansing breaths. A handsome man was waiting for her. He had that delightful mix of patience—knowing what was worth waiting for—and impatience—a man’s desire, rising in proportion and proximity to what he wanted—that the best male submissives had.

When he’d held her hand during their stroll at the roadside overlook, his grasp had a comforting, caressing weight. As if he was holding her, through everything she was doing, thinking and feeling.

During the initial infatuation, it was easy to have such idealistic thoughts. Much as she didn’t want to compare anything about this to that, she’d done the same with her ex-husband. It was true until it proved itself untrue, until hisattention had been replaced by resentment, restlessness, and a readiness to break the bond already broken.

After it had happened, she’d felt tapped out, like she had nothing left worth having. And she didn’t want anything, other than to feel nothing.

When it came to love, there were checkpoints of honesty and trust that had to be navigated to reach the deeper levels of the heart, to create the bond that could last through a lifetime journey together. Donovan hadn’t been ready for that. At least not with her.

Initially, she’d judged him for it, and the words “shallow” and “lazy” still came too easily, because the scar he’d left was deep. However, she knew now the failure of their relationship wasn’t a failure of her life. They’d had their time together, learned what they needed to learn, and then the journey continued separately. That was all.

It was human to want to have a more complicated explanation for a pain that large, but the soul’s path was the soul’s path.

Skye appeared at her door with her inquisitive dark eyes and spiky blond hair, shaved on one side. Her moon-shaped face gave her a fairy child look. With her brilliant mind, she navigated TRA’s tech and communication needs. With her strong will, she’d won the heart of Tiger, a sexy and dangerous biker. Who also happened to be a volatile alpha submissive.

“Okay?” she signed. Because the four other women were fluent in ASL, Skye could use it with them when she chose, instead of her library of recorded voices.

Ten minutes had passed, Vera saw. Chagrin kicked in. There was a line between playing the Mistress card to tease a man’s desires, and being rude.

“I’m okay,” she confirmed. “He’s something new to me. It’s putting me deeper in my head.”

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