Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 59044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
“He can’t be away from you for even an hour,” Drea said, hearts in her eyes. “That’s so sweet. Does he have a brother?”
“Or a sister?” Di asked.
“Only child,” I said, shrugging, as I drank the last of my mimosa, then stood, drying my wet feet on the towel before climbing off of the chair. “I’ll be right back. Get me another drink,” I demanded, more excited than ever to spend some time with them. Not mindlessly numbing ourselves with booze and partying, but actually connecting.
So many things suddenly felt like they were falling into place in my life.
And I had to admit that it all started when Julian first told me to get on my knees. Like somehow in learning to submit, I’d also learned to take control of parts of my life that had been unsatisfying for years.
I knotted my white robe tighter around myself as I walked in my spa-supplied white slides.
“Ah… where is he?” I asked, looking around the lobby, but seeing no one. This was not the kind of place that allowed clients to sit around the front of the establishment. All there was in the waiting area was a table with cucumber water in a dispenser.
“Out back, Miss Chandelier,” she told me, smile hospitality fake.
That wasn’t odd, per se.
This was a spa where wealthy and famous people came. Some didn’t want anyone to know where they were, so they came in the back.
The spa backed up to an oversized alley where four buildings created a private little rectangle. There were even some tables back there. And an exit for the garbage trucks to come in to empty the dumpsters. But people had their drivers pull in there as well, even though it was against the rules.
Anticipation sizzled across my nerve endings as I moved down the hallway toward the back exit, wondering if Julian would be risqué enough to fuck me in the alley. Right there where people could walk out, or look out a window, and see.
I fluffed my hair, then opened the door, moving out into the air that had finally started to take a turn toward the warm.
I didn’t exactly love summer in the city, but spring was lovely.
I had visions of doing silly, sweet things with Julian. Picnics in Central Park. Walking Hugh down Carl Schurz. Hitting the farmer’s markets.
Even if they were things I’d done a million times before, it all felt new to be able to do them with Julian.
That was what my mind was on as I heard the door click closed behind me, knowing that to open it again, I would need to ask to be buzzed in.
Maybe if I’d been focused on the present moment, I would have noticed that something was wrong. Like in books and movies, when someone claims the hairs on the back of their necks stood on end or things like that.
I had none of that.
Not until I heard the words.
“My dove.”
I finally understood the practical application of the words “my blood ran cold.”
Everything inside of me froze as my head whipped to the side.
“You?” I hissed, finally putting a face to the anonymous comments and notes.
It was right then that I noticed something else that had my heart shooting up into my throat.
He was standing with a car directly behind him.
The trunk open.
I turned, raising my hand to hammer on the door, when he rushed up behind me, hand going over my mouth, and arm anchoring around my waist, hauling me up and off my feet, leaving me pedaling in the air.
But for just a second, before I found myself slammed down into the trunk.
And before I could try to fight, to claw my way out of this situation, his hand went into his pocket, and came back with a syringe.
With the hand that wasn’t still pressed hard over my mouth, he plunged the needle into my skin.
And then there was… nothing.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Julian
I had the box for Scarlet’s new collar in my pocket when my phone buzzed.
Marcus Chandelier.
I need to speak with you. Come to my office.
Great.
I was hoping to get back to the spa before the girls were done. I didn’t like the idea of them going somewhere after without me.
But the boss was Marcus, so I couldn’t exactly tell him no.
I jumped in a cab, making it to his office building about fifteen minutes later.
“Julian,” Marcus said, standing behind his desk, waving toward the seat across from him.
Alarm bells were going off in my head at his body language. The squared posture, the tightness in his jaw.
“All due respect, I’ll stand. I need to get back to the spa before the girls leave,” I told him.
“That won’t be necessary,” he said, and those alarms started screaming louder. “I’m afraid that it has been brought to my attention regarding an inappropriate relationship between you and my daughter.”