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“Time?”

“Three.”

“We’ll be there.”

“We?”

“Shut up,” I growled. “Yeah, Rebecca and I will be there.”

“Oh goodie, I can’t wait to meet... Rebecca. Dinner after?”

“Fine,” I barked. “Sounds like fun.”

I hung up the phone before I heard him laugh, but it was coming. Simon and I had known each other for years. Met at Luminous and then I started watching his hockey practices at a nearby high school. Man was wicked with a crop and a whip. Had a playroom in his own damn house that he and Chloe enjoyed frequently. Hell, I’d played with women in his house before. But all of it was play, and yeah, I’d envisioned Rebecca on a cross, bound so I could torture her and bring her to orgasms while she trembled in the bindings. I didn’t need that playtime like Simon did, and like Chloe craved.

Didn’t mean my dick didn’t get hard at the thought, though.

I groaned and tossed my pen onto the desk before pulling up proposals on my laptop.

After a quick adjustment to my crotch, I groaned again when I saw the clock.

It was only three. I had four and a half more hours until I picked up Rebecca, and the wait was killing me.

Pushing it out of my mind, I focused on all the ways we’d celebrate after dinner, or perhaps during dinner, and went back to work.

* * *

I knocked on Rebecca’s front door with all the restrained impatience I could muster. And that was saying a lot considering I was still twenty minutes early. I’d waited long enough. Not only did I want to know her answer to the job offer I’d left on her pillow, but I needed to see her.

Good God, she was turning me into a man I didn’t recognize. I craved her, thought about her all day long even when she was nearby. Not a minute went by where I wasn’t consumed with the taste of her, the feel of her, or how absolutely exquisite she was when she allowed her vulnerability to shine through.

I wanted to claim her, make her mine. And I didn’t give a fuck what that said about me, that I’d gone ass over tits in less than a month for a woman, either.

She was mine, damn it, and once I ensured it tonight, I didn’t care if the whole world knew.

I knocked again and as soon as I’d dropped my hand, the door flung open.

Instead of the sexy brunette I was expecting, Miranda stood in the doorway.

“Hello, Miranda,” I said, looking over her shoulder. She was alone in Rebecca’s entry area and behind her, the house was as clean and impeccable and boring-as-fuck as ever.

“You’re early, Bennett,” Miranda said, stepping back and out of the way so I could enter.

I did, closing the door behind me.

“She’s not quite ready. Would you like a drink while you wait?”

“No thank you.” I barely spared the beautiful brunette a glance. “Where is she?”

“She’s upstairs, finishing getting ready. For some reason,” Miranda sang, yessang, “she’s a bit out of sorts tonight and rather frazzled. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Her words were full of insinuation and I turned to her. “Do you know what she decided?”

It wasn’t like me to appear insecure, and I hated it then. The very fact, though, was that Rebecca and Miranda were friends. If she needed someone to lean on, she’d go to her.

“Sorry.” She grinned and made an X-shape over her lips with a finger. “She’s sworn me to secrecy, but I do have to say I approve of her choice.” Dropping her teasing tone, Miranda continued, “She’s had a hard-enough life. She doesn’t need anyone making it more difficult for her.”

I glared at her. Considering I knew her Dom, I doubted my glare did shit to scare her.