Page 24 of Rebellion

Anon Dom

His scent, his presencewas unmistakable. My body wanted to pop up, search, find him. My brain stalled out. I couldn’t quite seem to crack open my eyes to see if Gray was there, standing over me. They were glued shut like I’d been asleep for days.

The air in my lungs pushed against my chest fighting to get out and I finally released the breath on another moan.

It can’t be him. I wanted it to be, but I wasn’t sure I could handle seeing him. My soul still felt raw.

Open, eyes, damn you. I squeezed them tight and released, fluttering my lids until I could see again. Tate, Dominic, and Ilario surrounded me as if the world hadn’t been flip turned upside down.

I pushed their hands away and stood. I didn’t see Gray. But he was here. I was sure.

Too many people buzzed around us for him to have gotten away. I stepped up onto the ottoman to get a better view. The room spun as I circled around to find him. There were a lot of good looking men, talking to and pressing themselves to a lot of beautiful woman. None of them were Grayson.

Dominic grabbed my hand stilling my rotation. “Angelina, what are you looking for?”

“I thought–” One more glance to my left and another to my right. “It’s nothing.”

Apparently, I was hallucinating. My mind was playing tricks on me. It knew how much I missed Gray, even if I wouldn’t admit it.

Dominic assisted me down from the ottoman, my legs being shaky and all.

“Here, have some more water.” Tate handed me the drink. “I thought maybe we’d play tonight, darlin’, but maybe you should call it a night.”

I took several gulps of the water and then waved him away. “No, no, I’m fine.”

“Mistress, you are flushed and not from pleasures. Let me take you to bed so you can rest.” Ilario wrapped his arms around my waist and snuggled into me.

“Only if Tate promises we can get down to business tomorrow night.” Let them think I mean sexy times, I wanted to shake off the ache in my belly that always came with any thoughts of Gray.

Tate shrugged. “I’ve been meaning to tell you... I can’t be here tomorrow, but your trainer is ready to start your training whenever you are.”

I’d been mid-sip and swallowed all wrong, if by swallow I meant snorted water and bubbles out my nose. I wiped at my face, looking and feeling the fool. “Right. My trainer. Who is he?”

He shook his head and said, “I can’t tell you that.”

I about poured the drink over his head. A horrible fizzle snapped and popped in my chest. “Why not?”

“I made a deal.”

“With who? Foster?” No how, no way. I did not uproot my entire life, have the falling out of my life, and move to the mansion of sin to be manipulated by Foster Bennett. “I’m out of here.”

I swiveled on my heel, but Tate grabbed my arm. Desperation leeched into his words. “No, no, not that kind of deal. Listen. Foster is lending me some of his staff and some money to invest in this place, get it making money again, build up the clientele. I’ve only got thirty days to show a profit or he pulls out. So much work to do. I made a deal with this... guy to train you, but that was his requirement. He didn’t want his identity interfering with your training.”

No way, no how. It had been a long time since I’d been a doormat and I was never going back. “A, I’m not getting down and dirty with a Dominant I’ve never met before, and A plus, you should have damn well told me about this deal.”

He took my hand, brought it to his lips and lingered, then looked up at me with forgive-me sultry eyes. “I was afraid you’d react, well, like this.”

Sigh. While I would not give in to Tate’s charms, I had every intention of getting this training so I could finally open my own damn club. “Who the fuck is this person you want me to train with? Is he or she even here tonight?”

He grinned. “He is, but he doesn’t want you to meet him yet. He prefers to remain anonymous to everyone. He even wears a full mask.”

Nope. Trust landed smack dab at number one on the list of qualities in a power exchange relationship, and training was in and of itself filled with that kind of give and take. “I don’t think so.”

I stomped off in my best impression of an irritated princess. On my way past Lilly, I snagged a long leather paddle out of some dumbass’s hand and smacked it right across her ass hard enough to leave an imprint of the hearts sewn into the leather. I could practically feel the return of her dagger eyes hitting me in the back on my way out. I didn’t give a damn.

I beat the floors all the way up the grand staircase and hoped I sounded like a heard of elephants to the partygoers below. Either Tate would follow me, and we’d figure some other arrangement out or I’d go to plan B. Or plan C, or I might be on plan J or K by now. But somehow, someway I would learn the arts of domination and open my own club.

The mood I was in that club would be the epitome of sugar and spice.

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