Page 16 of His to Keep
“I think it’s a great fucking idea. I’ll get to see you whenever I want.”
That seems to draw her up short. “You…you’d want to see me?”
I stare at her. She can’t possibly be so clueless about what happened the other night. Unless…unless it was one sided? Unless I’m the only one who’s feeling this strange pull. But no. I refuse to believe that. I saw the way she reacted to me that night. Ifeltit.
“Why did you leave?” I ask. “I woke up and you were gone.”
She winces. “I didn’t want to wake you. I’d promised…” she swallows. “I promised my dom I’d meet him at seven.”
Bitterness flows through me. Her fucking dom. “Aden Roth,” I snarl.
Her eyes widen. “Yes. How did you…”
“I came looking for you and saw the two of you leaving.”
I hear her breath catch. “You…came looking for me?”
“Of course I did.”
We stare at each other for a long moment. I wonder if she senses how serious I am, how determined. If she doesn’t get it yet, she’ll figure it out. When I want something, I stop at nothing to get it. And I can’t remember the last time I wanted something as badly as I want Rebecca. Not just for a night, either. I want it all.
“Tell me why you’re with him.”
She looks surprised by the question. “Aden?”
I fucking hate the sound of his name on her lips. “Yes. Roth. Why are you with him?”
She shrugs a little. “I met him at a club in Raleigh.”
“That’s a pretty long drive to go clubbing.”
“It was…it was a place like Club Wyld.” She sighs. “I’d been curious about the lifestyle for a long time. I’d been to a place in Chicago—that’s where I’m from. But I was too nervous to ever go back. When I moved to Charlotte, I got up the courage to go again.”
“But you didn’t go to Club Wyld?”
She snorts. “Not sure if you’re aware of this, but your club is pretty damn exclusive. There was no way I was getting a pass.”
“There’s another club in town,” I point out. In addition to being less exclusive, Rendevous is much smaller and seedier than Wyld, but it’d be a lot more convenient than traveling more than two hours to another city.
She nods. “I thought about trying Rendevous,” she explains. “But I was…I don’t know. I was afraid I’d be recognized.” She sighs, voice turning wistful. “I was still in school then, and I was terrified if something like that happened, I’d be dropped from my program.”
I pick up on her use of past tense. “You’re not in school now?”
Her wistful expression turns embarrassed. “I had to drop out.”
I want to press her, want to demand she tell me why. Then demand she tell me everything else about herself. I want to own this woman, body and soul.
But I force myself to get a handle on the raging emotions. The last thing I want to do is scare her away by being too intense. “So you went to the club in Raleigh.”
She nods. “And I met Aden.”
My lip curls as the image fills my brain. Rebecca in a place like that, curious and alone. Vulnerable. An asshole like Roth would have sensed her naivety in a second.
“He’s the one who taught you about the lifestyle?”
A crease mars the smooth skin of her forehead. “He did…well, at least I thought he did.” I don’t need the unspoken words. She thought his version of the lifestyle was all there was up until Friday night, when she met me. I could pound on my fucking chest with pride.
But then I remember how she’d left my bed and gone to find him. Roth was her first dom, and he still clearly has a hold on her. If I want this woman, I’m going to have to figure out a way to break that hold.
