Page 64 of Dominate Me

She grinned and rubbed her hands together. “Now, let’s talk about this party. What are you wearing?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. Jensen had told me that this Saturday we were going to a fundraising benefit. He hosted it every year in honor of his father who had been a major philanthropist. This year, the benefit was raising money for the Grand Rapids Teen Shelter, a youth center owned and run by his friends and clients, Donovan and Talia Lore.

Since he told me, I’d been on pins and needles and it was nice to hear that Gabby and Dylan were going to be there as well. I was going to be meeting not only Jensen’s business partners, but friends he’s had in his life for years. It was a big step, but less scary knowing Gabby would be there.

“I’m going shopping tomorrow,” I told her. “Have any ideas for me?”

She laughed, her fingers going to the silver stamped collar at her neck. It was beautiful, and made something inside me yearn for that. For a Master and slave, the collar showed ownership. Similar to a wedding band, and yet the significance of it, perhaps because it was larger, seemed heavier.

I shook the thought away. I had done enough talking about Jensen and my questions with where he was leading us to go, I had enough to think about. So Gabby and I lost ourselves in girl talk about dresses and shoes and what the benefits were generally like. We laughed and we smiled over another round of fresh coffee.

She was in the middle of telling me about the disasters of house hunting with Dylan when her eyes dimmed and her back went ramrod straight. Her attention pulled from me to the sound of the door opening behind my shoulder.

“What is it?” I asked, setting down my coffee mug to turn to see what had caught her attention.

Her hand fell on top of mine and stopped me.

“Don’t move. Don’t turn around, and whatever you do, let me handle this.”

She squeezed my hand once before letting go.

“Hello,” Gabby said, her eyes darting to above my shoulder. All friendliness she showed me evaporated, and in its place was the memory of her as a bartender when she’d taken on a man twice her size.

“Gabby,” a woman said, right before she stepped into my line of sight. “How are you?”

“Fine, Meredith. Is there something I can help you with?”

My eyes trailed up the woman, dressed in an expensive-looking pantsuit that was still feminine and light, but dripped with wealth. As I reached her eyes, I sucked in a breath as recognition took hold of me.

My fingers went to my lap and I curled my hands into fists.

This was the woman Jensen had been eating dinner with when I went searching for him.

And she knew Gabby. Because of Luminous?

“No,” the woman Gabby called Meredith said. “Courtney and I are here meeting for lunch so I thought we’d come say hello. It’s been a while.”

She was beautiful, but her smile thinned and her eyes took on a salacious tint as she looked down at me.

All I heard was a ringing in my ears at the mention of Courtney.

Courtney.Courtney.Courtney.

Jensen’s former sub. And he’d been eating dinner with a friend of hers?

“Not long enough,” Gabby snarked, not hiding her annoyance. “And if there’s nothing you need from me, then perhaps you can go.”

Meredith, unflustered by Gabby’s rudeness, ran a hand through her long blond hair and flicked it over her shoulder. She was tall and thin, someone who could pose on a cover without the need for Photoshop to make her appear more perfect. I couldn’t see a single flaw except for, perhaps, her catty grin.

“There’s no need to be rude, we’re practically family.”

A choking sound garbled from my throat and caught her attention.

Her eyes narrowed on me. Her catty grin stayed firmly affixed. “Do I know you?”

“No,” Gabby snapped. “And since we’re in the middle of something and you’re interrupting, perhaps you should leave.”

Meredith made a tsk-ing sound with her tongue on her teeth. “So rude, Gabby, no wonder you need to be owned and beaten into submission.”

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