Page 44 of The Ownership Clause

“Sir?” Wade’s voice trembled and fear filled his eyes, along with tears. “Do you want me to leave?”

“Yes.” I clenched my teeth. “No. Fuck. Just... go help Christie with whatever she’s doing. I need to think.”

His breath stuttered and he left without a word.

The emptiness of the room closed in on me, and I cursed my stupidity. Maurice wouldn’t run back to Wick—he wasn’t that type of man—but still.... If I didn’t tell Wick something soon, eventually Mauricemight. Which meant I needed to figure out what I was going to do with Wade—and quickly.

WhatdidI feel?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

He was my sub, a plaything, a dirty little slut.

I stalked to my desk, grabbing my phone. I shook my head as I found Massimo’s name.

“What cousin can I put you in contact with now?” Massimo answered, and I knew he was joking, but I wasn’t in the mood.

“What did you mean when you said I was lenient with Wade? I don’t care for him.”

Massimo made a disparaging sound, deep and guttural. “Don’t you?”

I stared at the blank wall of my office, jaw flexing. Fuck, I didn’t know how to answer that. “What’s different about how I treat him compared to the others?”

“Everything,” he drawled. “You bought your former subs pretty things, sure, but you were never interested in their past. You never cared about theirlaptops.”

“It’s for work,” I argued.

He laughed through the line, and I felt thoroughly judged. “Bring him out to Club K this Saturday. You always let other Doms play with your boys. See if you’ll let it happen with Wade.”

“No,” I snapped. There was the fact that I’d made a point to Wade that I wouldn’t let him meet my friends and become involved in my life. It would be breaking my rules. Yet, a part of me wanted to show him off. “No one else gets to touch him. The shoelicker ismine.”

“Mm-hmm. There’s your answer. Still, bring him to the club. He’ll enjoy it there.”

The line went dead and so did my brain.

I was fucked.

15

WADE LEE

My chest hurtand I rubbed it. I had slunk out of Albion’s office, and instead of doing anything useful I’d begun to walk the hallways. Currently, I was leaning against the wall outside of a cleaning supplies closet with one hand on my knee and the other digging against my chest.

Shit, shit, shit.

The hallway had an ominous vibe to it that I knew was entirely in my own head, but I couldn’t stop wondering if someone was going to jump out of the closet and stab me, horror-movie style. Then I huffed and rolled my eyes. I needed to get a grip.

We’d been seen.

We shouldn’t have been doing that at work.

And worse, Maurice, who reported directly to the owner, was the one to spot us.

Shaking my head, I kept massaging my chest because,sweet babyJesus, was there even any way out of this that didn’t leave me unemployed and blacklisted in this business? That was the fear I’d had from the start of my time underneath Albion. I’d thought maybe I could get out of the trouble I’d been part of with Xadrian, but maybe it had only been postponing the inevitable.

Maybe there were no second chances. I sighed and carefully straightened. All the bruises on my body ached and I shivered.

---