Page 93 of Their Domme

“It’s my knife, slut,” I reminded her.

“Itusedto be your knife,” she retorted as she started for the door. “Not anymore.”

This woman had stormed in and fucking wrecked my life, my head, and my heart, claiming not only me but seemingly every fucking guy that got close to her… and apparently my favorite fucking knife as well. But god, I loved her. I loved her more than I ever thought I could love anyone. It wasn’t the time for those kinds of declarations though.

Without another word, she led the way downstairs, her heels clicking on the floor. It was almost like I could see her confidence building with each step, every movement filled with the promise of violence. She was my wet fucking dream come to life in that moment, and I knew the others felt the same. She entered the living room, and all the talking came to a complete stop.

“Damn, Nic. You really embraced Maeve’s black widow status when you took over for her, huh?” Emmerich joked.

Nicholette didn’t laugh, and I didn’t have to see her face to know she’d probably given him a bland look and arched an eyebrow in response. When it wasn’t broken, you didn’t fix it. “Did Ansel say where he was bringing him?”

Blake’s eyes slowly moved from head to toe, taking my woman in, obviously liking what they saw. Wulfric and Robin were more focused on Blake checking out Nic than Nic herself. Something flickered in Conrad’s gaze as he studied Nic, but it was there and gone before I could completely process it. All I knew was he better stay the fuck over there with Blake because Ansel was my absolute fucking limit. From now on, I just might start stabbing any new people that came around just to get my fucking feelings across.

My brother and Bodhi made their way toward me, heated gazes trained on Nic, but I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t know how she’d cultivated it, or when, but she was a master of the power pose, commanding the weight of the room’s attention. Sacha brushed his hand down her side but didn’t say anything. Bodhi put his hands in his pockets, his cheeks flushed, and chewed his bottom lip. I couldn’t tell if his reaction was because of something Sacha did or from Nic.Probably both, but it’s his own fault if he’s still feeling pent up.

“Out front,” Conrad replied, slowly standing up before grabbing a cigarette from his jacket pocket. “He should be ready by now.”

“Let’s start the party then, shall we?” Nic gestured for him to take the lead. I didn’t see Rhodes, Alexei, or Maksim. Where the hell could they be? It didn’t seem like them to miss our woman’s grand entrance.

Nic fell into step beside Conrad, and they shared a look that had me questioning just how well they had gotten to know each other while I had been gone for the past few days. But then we were outside and other things grabbed my attention—a man was yelling, cursing, and threatening the people around him at the top of his lungs.

Joe Graves was big, though he wasn’t nearly as big as me. He was taller and had more muscle than I had envisioned. He looked like he had played high school or college football, and he’d somehow kept that physique. Ansel had restrained him between two trees on the edge of the driveway. He was on his knees, arms strung up with ropes around his wrists that connected to tree branches on either side.How had Ansel gotten him to stay on his knees?If I were in this position, I’d be doing everything I could to get my feet under me, but Joe didn’t even try to get off the ground.

I’d barely thought the question before the answer became apparent. The German was practically hovering next to him, carefully watching his gift to Nic with a steely look in his eyes that had probably been the last sight of many a dead man. Rhodes, Alexei, and Maksim were lurking nearby as well, which was overkill in my opinion, but hey, at least they were all working together.

I came to stand next to Rhodes, standing on the older man’s unoccupied side. Maksim and Rhodes were smoking, their cold eyes fixed on Joe until Nic glided down the stairs with Conrad by her side. Blake stayed back with their other men, their brother by their side, keeping an eye on the situation from further back. The whole group tracked Conrad and Nic’s movements, though the real source of their focus became clear when Conrad stepped away from my woman. Their eyes followed the young man’s step away from Nic, and I didn’t think I was imagining the hint of relaxation in Blake’s stance when Conrad was back by their side.

I wanted to know what was up with that, the way they seemed to almost gravitate around him more than Blake, but right now I had to keep myself homed in on the reason we were all here—Nicholette.

She calmly and coolly sauntered up to the man who had raised her, and that fucking smile on her face… That alone was sharp enough to kill a man.

God, she was magnificent.

“Hello,Dad. So nice to see you again.”

“You fucking bitch!” he spat at her, but his struggling against the ropes only resulted in hisses of pain. Ansel stood on Joe’s other side with an expression I hoped to never see again. Scaring me wasn’t easy, but the emptiness in his eyes as he stared down at the other man made my blood run cold. It was an expression I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to see again, and I instinctively knew I was seeing only a small part of Das Gespent. A scary ass motherfucker… that’s who he was.

“I can see you haven’t changed much since you kicked me out.” Nicholette rolled her eyes in mock disappointment as she pushed her hair over her shoulder. “I thought you’d have something more original to say after all this time.”

“Let me go!”

“Now, why would I do that?” Nic asked as she arched an eyebrow. “After all the hard work that was done to get you here. That’s just… ungrateful. And I know how much you hate it when people aren’t grateful for the things that are done for them…”

Joe’s expression changed then, smoothing out, though I could still see the anger and panic in his eyes. There wasn’t any fear there… not yet, at least. He had a lot to learn, and he was going to understand that pretty quickly. The man looked around at everyone, and his lips curled up in disgust.

“I see you fixed yourself, found some dick that was enough to straighten you out.” His attention jerked to Blake when they snorted, but he didn’t add anything else.

“Money can do that to a girl,” Nicholette drawled, stepping closer to him. “But I’ll let you in on a little secret… I still like women.A lot. No money can change that. In fact, I’m sure you know who my last lover was before all this happened. I’d be more surprised if you didn’t know her.”

“You mean Maeve Cabbot? Your friend Gabriel told me all about her and you before I killed him. He was pretty fucking useless aside from that.” Joe rolled his eyes. “And that haughty bitch got what was coming to her, thinking she could be in charge of anything. She needed to stick to what she knew best, and that was lying on her back to make money.”

“She taught me almost everything I know, you’re even more of a fucking idiot than I thought if you truly think Maeve was the one on her back. But that’s really not the point since I’m with other people now.”

She waved her hand to indicate all of us, and Joe followed the movement with his eyes. “So you’re basically a whore? Twenty dicks is what it takes to satisfy you?”

“Not basically,” she replied, a twinkle of cruel amusement in her eyes as she tapped a foot on the asphalt. “Iama whore and a damn good one. I make more money in one night than you did in months at your little mill job. Though I’ve recently learned about your side job selling children, so perhaps you’re made of more money than I thought, Joe.”

He froze. Hell, I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. Nicholette tilted her head, her smile firmly in place even though she wasn’t amused. “What? Surprised I found out? Maybe we should start over and reintroduce ourselves. Hello, Mr. Graves. I’m the new Madame, and I have some questions that you’re going to answer. Or I’m going to hurt you really fucking badly.”

---