Page 21 of What About Love

Now that she’d seen him in the flesh, while in the throes of passion, she was afraid she would cave shamelessly and forever regret her weakness.

How was she supposed to work with him? Moving on and forgetting T would be hard enough. With him as her trainer, it would be next to impossible, but as her dom...

No, it couldn’t happen.

Angie’s head swung to her boss. “Um, Cap, can we talk for a moment in private?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw T stiffen and resolved not to look.

“I’m already late for a meeting. What is it?”

“It’s just that...” She paused, trying to come up with a way to say this without offending him, yet she couldn’t.

These were men who were used to conflict and making split-second decisions. They lived in the moment and didn’t beat around the bush in action or speech. They liked straight talk and appreciated straight answers.

Taking a deep breath, she gave them that. “I’d rather not train with T. Isn’t there someone else?”

Glancing between them, Cap frowned. “Is something going on between you I should know about?”

“No,” T replied a beat ahead of Angie’s emphatic denial. “Absolutely not.”

“Then what is the problem?”

Unable to avoid it any longer, she glanced his way. Deep-brown eyes on her, he waited, one sable brow quirked, appearing as interested as their boss in her answer.

Damn him. Surely, he agreed this was a bad idea. Yet his crossed arms and stiff carriage made her suspect he’d taken offense at her resistance to working with him and intended to leave her dangling.

Fine. If that’s how he wanted to play it.

“I need to feel comfortable with my handler. With T, I...don’t.” This wasn’t a lie, but she offered no further explanation, making it sound like she was being difficult. Worse, temperamental, in direct contrast to how she wanted to be seen as the lone woman in this male-dominated world. Dammit!

Cap’s dark brows drew together. “I can get someone else, but I’d have to pull them off another job, which I’d rather not do. T has just returned from an assignment and is available. Further, he usually works with our FNGs. If he’d been back from assignment, you’d have gotten him from the start.”

“FNGs?” she asked, unfamiliar with the acronym. That wasn’t new, having noticed long ago the military used more than the police ever thought to.

“Army term for new recruits,” Cap explained tactfully.

“Short for ‘fuckin’ new guys’,” T added indelicately, his tone as brusque as his manner.

Forget offended; she’d pissed him off.

Cap shot him a look, which he simply shrugged off.

“As I was saying,” their increasingly annoyed boss went on, “T is an excellent trainer, as proficient as Dano. In weaponry and tactical skills, even more so. Although he doesn’t have as many years under his belt, he’s an experienced dominant. He’s also the only single man left on staff who’s in the lifestyle. With Dan gone, I’m afraid you’re stuck with T at Decadence.”

“Gee, thanks, Cap,” T drawled.

“I’m fine with T for Rossi but not at the club,” Angie persisted. “Surely you have someone else suitable to train me. I wouldn’t think they need to be a security expert for that.”

“You’d rather have a stranger?” T snapped, hands fisted on his hips as he bristled with indignation.

That she’d takeanyoneelse sounded bad. Still, it was true. She couldn’t do it with him. He’d suck her in with his charm and lay waste to her heart when it was over.

“A club dom won’t know you’re on assignment. He’ll treat you like a real submissive and expect you to behave that way. Are you ready for all that entails, darlin’?”

He meant sex, of course, public scenes, spankings, floggings, bondage, and lord knows what else.

To Cap, she appealed, “Isn’t there a class I can take?”

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