Page 3 of Desire

Chapter 2

Sittingin my car outside Connor’s building, I tried to calm my racing heart. A gamut of emotions raced through me now that I knew someone would help me. Scratch that. Now that I knew Connor would help me. First and foremost was relief, followed by continued worry for Alex. I didn’t realize how desperate and frenzied I’d become to find out if the caller was Alex. It was killing me not knowing if he was safe and sound.

But the most surprising emotion? Lust. Although it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. I’d always had an unhealthy fascination with Connor Black. We were both members of Eden, so I saw him frequently. We’d never scened together though. In fact, I had never seen him scene with any of the subs. There had only been a handful of times I watched as he took a sub into a private room. I would never admit to anyone, myself included, how often I wondered what it would be like if I were the one walking through one of those doors with him.

I gathered my courage one night and asked Gina what the experience was like since I knew she was one of the few subs he’d played with privately. She was also one of my employees at the upscale boutique I managed, so I trusted her completely and knew she wouldn’t ask any probing questions. She was evasive, only saying Connor was a generous Dom. Whatever the hell that meant. But, it had piqued my curiosity more than I would admit. Enough that I was constantly on the lookout for who he took to the back rooms. Which, oddly, only happened to be a sub here or there. It only made me wonder why he didn’t scene publicly.

Connor wasn’t handsome in the typical sense, his face was too craggy and rough for that, but he was built like a brick house with wide, muscular shoulders that tapered to a narrow waist. His biceps were so large, I knew my fingers wouldn’t touch if I wrapped my hands around them. His close cut, dark brown hair didn’t have a fleck of gray although I thought he had to be at least five years older than me.

As much as I was fascinated by Connor, I was in no way looking for a relationship. I made that clear to all the Doms I scened with. I enjoyed my single life as a thirty-year-old woman with no responsibilities. Did I, on occasion, wonder what it would be like to have a Dom of my own? Yes, but not enough that I wanted to throw my single status away. Besides, my heart was no longer available. It had shattered beyond repair the day I gave up my baby. I didn’t feel it was fair to a man, knowing that I could never love him. I didn’t have it in me to love. It hurt too much. So, I stuck with either dating until the guy finally realized I was serious about my stance on relationships and broke it off with me or playing with the Doms who approached me at Eden.

Now that the burden of Alex had been partially lifted from my shoulders, I left Blacklight Securities and headed to work. The store I managed was a popular, upscale clothing boutique in the heart of downtown. I’d put myself through fashion design school even though my dad wanted to help. But I needed to do something for myself, so I had gone to school full-time and worked two part-time jobs at two different boutiques to support myself.

I lived at home until I was twenty-five and had finally been promoted to full-time store manager at one of the boutiques. By then I’d also saved enough money to put a down payment on a small, two-bedroom condo. The city had renovated an old warehouse building in an up-and-coming area of downtown and converted it into condos.

Normally, I would have walked to work since I lived less than two miles away from the boutique, but since I needed to see Connor first, I had pulled my beat-up clunker out of the garage. Which meant finding parking was going to be a bitch. After circling the block three or four times, I finally spied an open spot. I pulled in and walked the two blocks to work. If it wasn’t going to make me later than I already was, I would have just taken the car back home and walked.

The overhead bell jingled as I rushed through the door. Gina peeked her head around a display mannequin she was dressing and smiled at me in welcome. I was always grateful she never talked about the night I asked her about Connor.

“Hey, boss lady. You’re late,” she teased.

I put on my best smile as I moved through the store. “The benefits of being top bitch,” I joked. “How are things going this morning? Did the latest shipment arrive?”

She snorted at my “top bitch” comment. “This place is the only time you’re ever a top anything, and you know it. And the delivery truck left about ten minutes ago. All the boxes are stacked in the back room waiting for you to check off the inventory. I know how particular you are about it.”

“Thanks, G. I’m going to head back there now to get started. Holler if you need any help out here.”

I made my way to the back room where I started unpacking the boxes and checking off my list of items to make sure that all the pieces were there. I’d found some gorgeous retro dresses at this online consignment shop I purchased from on occasion, so I snatched them up. I also had one of my buyers hit an estate sale to buy and ship me everything she thought I could sell. I had been rifling through the inventory for about an hour when I heard Gina yell out that I had a phone call.

I walked over to the desk and pressed the flashing button to answer the call on hold.

“Hello, this is Bridget.”

Silence.

“Hello, may I help you?” I asked. I waited another few seconds, and as I moved to hang up, a small voice whispered, causing the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to stand at attention.

“Hello, can you hear me?”

In a frenzy, I rattled off questions. “Oh my God, Alex, is that you? Are you okay? Where are your parents? What’s going on?”

The young boy continued speaking in a hushed whisper. “I can’t talk long, he’ll be back any second. My parents are dead. I need your help, please. I don’t know where else to turn.”

I gasped at the news his parents were dead. “Alex, tell me where —”

“I’m sorry, I have to go. He’s coming.” Click.

“No, wait. Alex? Alex?” I yelled into the phone, but it was too late. The line was already dead. I screeched in frustration and fear. That was twice now that he’d called, and I had gotten no information. I didn’t even know where he was or why he needed help. This was all my fault. I hung up the phone, my hands shaking. I didn’t even realize I was crying until a tear splashed on my hand.

“Boss, you okay back there? I thought I heard you yell.” Gina poked her head through the doorway. Not wanting her to see how shaken up I was, I kept my back to the door as I assured her everything was fine.

Surprised by how calm I sounded, I added, “Thanks for checking on me, Gina. I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ll be out in a minute.”

She hesitated before she replied with a quiet “okay” and turned around to walk back out to the front of the store. I gathered my composure, pasted on a fake smile, and headed out to the front to face the rest of my day, all the while, dying inside not knowing what was happening to Alex.

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