Page 76 of His to Possess
“This guy sounds like a sick bastard,” she agrees, voice even angrier now. “Definitely not someone you’d leave your daughter with.”
And not someone Lilah should have ever been around. Jesus, no wonder she was so desperate to get out of his house.
But how much did she know? Did she somehow hear about this shit he pulled? Was it merely a creepy vibe he gave off? Or had he actually done something to her?
The cold feeling is immediately zapped away by red hot rage. If that man touched her, I’m going to fucking end him.
“What about Rendezvous?” I bark, needing to focus my pulsing anger somewhere before I start ripping up my office. I haven’t forgotten the role they played in all this, and I’m determined they’re going to pay.
“Still waiting on those tax documents,” she says. “But I’m pretty confident it’s going to tell us what we think.”
“Good.” If Victor Leone and the Rossi brothers are laundering as much money through the club as Jane thinks they are, it’s going to be easy to take them down.
It won’t be half as satisfying as destroying Lilah’s stepfather—but that will come later.
Lilah
Lunch with the girls is eye-opening.
Maybe it’s stupid of me, but I think I had a certain image in my head of what a submissive was like. The woman that I’d met with Philip and Nate’s business associate at Wyld that night had been so withdrawn and silent, her eyes permanently down-cast, following her master’s every instruction. I couldn’t imagine myself ever acting like that, even if dominant sex was as hot as I hoped it was.
But after meeting up with them at a new sushi bar near the University, it only takes about three seconds for me to know that Emma, Harper, and Rebecca are nothing like the other man’s wife. In fact, Emma reminds me a lot of Veronica. Their personal styles couldn’t be more different—Veronica is preppy, all about designer labels, while Emma could be a fifties pin-up model with her vintage dress and deep red pin-curls. Personality-wise, though, I can see the similarities. She’s bold and confident and has an uproarious laugh. I get the feeling she’s the kind of girl who likes to have fun—and get into plenty of trouble while doing it.
Harper seems more serious. She’s about to start on her PhD at Denby University here in Charlotte. It would be easy to pass her off as a book nerd—until she starts going into explicit detail about her thesis in sexual counterculture. It sounds kinky as hell, which I never thought I’d say about a PhD thesis.
Rebecca is more like my image of a submissive. She’s quiet at first and seems shy but as we talk she gets more comfortable, telling me that she’s a kindergarten teacher and has been married for less than a year. Her husband is already bugging her about having a baby but she insists that she spends enough time with rugrats at work and wants to enjoy adult only time when she gets home.
“He’ll have her persuaded in the next month,” Emma says, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Rebecca finds Luke very convincing.”
The other two laugh and I expect Rebecca to blush some more, but she grins as she shoots back, “like you’re one to talk. When’s the last time you talked back to Jackson?”
“Oh, I talk back all the time,” Emma says, grinning wickedly. “How else would I get him to put me in my place?”
The girls all laugh some more at that. “Sorry, Lilah,” Rebecca says when she sees my uncertain smile. “We don’t really get to talk about the lifestyle too much in our normal lives. It’s nice to let go with people who understand, you know?”
“No one understands what it’s like to be with a bossy alpha male like these two,” Harper agrees, and the three girls hold up their glasses of sake to toast.
“But you must know all about that,” Emma says, undisguised curiosity in her eyes as she leans toward me. “I mean, Philip Matthews is like, the definition of a bossy Dom.”
I nod, feeling awkward and on the spot. She leans even closer, lowering her voice a little. “So what’s that like? I mean, I’ve seen him in action before, of course. I just can’t imagine being on the receiving end of—” She jumps a little then glares at Harper. I get the feeling her friend just kicked her under the table.
“Ignore her,” Rebecca says. “You don’t have to talk about Philip if you don’t want to. We know your relationship is new.”
I force myself to stop fidgeting. I don’t need to be embarrassed in front of these girls. They’ve all traveled much farther down the BDSM road than I have.
“I’m not sure I’d call it a relationship,” I say, the words feeling bitter on my tongue. “Philip is an old family friend and he’s been helping me out. We, uh, have been exploring a few things.” And there goes my blush. So much for not being nervous. “But it isn’t serious.”
The three girls share a look I can’t read.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Harper finally says. “Nate thinks Philip is really into you.”
That startles me. “He’s talked about me with Nate?”
Harper rolls her eyes. “The two of them gossip more than teenage girls, I swear.”
“Didn’t he take you to New York?” Emma asks.
“Well, yeah, but—”
