Page 2 of Master Key Resort

Wow. This wasn’t just a “we’re thinking of opening a club, wanna work for us?” kind of thing. The men had done a lot of homework before coming to talk to him.

He took another puff of the cigar. “Why me?”

“Why not you?” Ty asked. “Look, this isn’t a pity offering because you got shot and we like you because you’re taking care of Tiffany. Like Mitch said, if he hadn’t thought highly enough of you to pair you up with her, we wouldn’t have come to you with this offer. Good resident Doms are hard to find—ones we can trust. Same goes for a club manager. I doubt you’re the type of guy who wants to just sit on his ass watching soap operas all day during your retirement. Hell, you’re not even forty yet. With your experience as a Dom and as a cop, you’re just the man we can trust with running our resort.”

Mulling over the man’s words, Cordell enjoyed another sip of the cognac. “All right. Fair enough. I do have two questions right off the bat, though.” He would probably have more after reading the file. “If—and it’s still an if until I go over everything in that file and give you a final answer—if I decide to relocate and take the job, when would you need me?”

“As soon as possible,” was the answer he received from Sawyer. “Between Ty’s and Tori’s jobs, we can’t stay there during the construction and set up, so we need someone on site to deal with the contractors and everything else. I’ll go down as often as I can until it’s up and running. There are currently three small, two-bedroom, guest cottages on the property that the former owners and their families used. You can stay in one of them until the main part of the resort is approved for occupancy. We’ll use another when we come down to check on things. The main hotel that’s there now doesn’t fit our needs and design, so it’s being demolished in a few weeks. A friend of ours from the club is in construction, and he hooked us up with a contact down in the Keys. Milo’s company is handling the demolition and construction of the new place. He’s also in the lifestyle, so he understands the concept we’re going for. We’re still going over ideas for the décor for everything, but we have time to finalize that. Our goal is to be open for business in eight months, barring any major delays. Now, what’s the second thing you wanted to know?”

By the manner in which the man had asked the question, Cordell suspected Mitch already knew what he wanted to ask and had the answer at the ready. “What about Tiffany?”

Mitch and Ty exchanged a look before the latter grinned and said, “You owe me a hundred bucks. Told you he was falling for her.”

Well, apparently, Cordell hadn’t been as taciturn as he thought he’d been when it came to his feelings about his current submissive. Not that he cared if anyone else knew, he just didn’t want Tiffany to know yet. When the time was right, he’d make his intentions quite clear to her. He wanted to make sure her feelings for him were mutual, and not just because he was the first long-term Dom she’d had that’d treated her right.

“If Tiffany wants to relocate with you, we’ll have plenty of jobs at the resort for her to choose from. She can stay in the third cottage—”

“She’ll stay in mine.” That is, if he could convince her to make the move with him, provided he decided to take the job. The last thing he was willing to do was to start over without her. She’d brightened his world these last few months and had helped nurse him back to health after the shooting—something he’d told her she didn’t have to do.

Ty chuckled. “Make that two hundred you owe me, babe.”

“Fine,” Mitch said to Cordell, ignoring his fiancé. “She stays with you. Any other questions?”

Cordell couldn’t think of any off the top of his head, but he was sure he’d have plenty after reading through the file. “Not at the moment. Just when do you need my answer?”

“Is a week long enough to think about it?”

A single week to decide whether he wanted to leave the area he’d lived in since he’d been born to relocate to the Florida Keys, hopefully with Tiffany, to start a new life? Well, there wasn’t much holding him there, except the sweet, little submissive he dreamed about at night.

“A week is doable.” Lifting his glass, he made a silent toast to the two men, not letting on he was ninety percent sure what his answer would be.

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