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Mother waits until I’m properly humiliated and back at her side before replying. “Forgive me. Your taste for blondes has led to me making embarrassing assumptions.”

She’s not embarrassed.

“Your father was the same way. Had a thing for brown hair.” My mother tucks her hand beneath her brown locks and tosses them behind her shoulder. “He wouldn’t shut up about two things when we dated – my hair and my tits.”

“Is this going somewhere?”

She shrugs. This is not what I really mean, but sometimes I hate my mother, in that slighted teenager sort of way. It bothers me that she knows so much about me and my life, even though I’ve stopped telling her a lot about it. She’s damned nosy. You’d never guess she cares about the answers you give her, but she does. She’s that good at masking all emotions.

Drives me nuts!

The game ends before I have the chance to take my next shitty shot. Thank God. I’m done being too distracted to play a game. Time to get away from my mother and drink something harder than champagne. Thankfully, my father always has a wet bar on hand at these functions.

Since it’s so crowded around the bar, I don’t see who’s sitting at the far end, alone, because nobody ever wants to deal with her scary ass.

“Oh, good, about time I found someone in charge around here.” Eve Warner smacks her hand on my arm, and I nearly jump out of my skin and drop my glass. “Who do I talk to about a severe lack of vodka at the bar? I need it to get through crap like this.”

Eve Warner is almost worse than my mother. I say almost because, unlike my mother, Eve can’t hide the fact that she’s messing with someone.

“I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.”

Even though she’s wearing thick sunglasses, the twitch in her lips says that she’s amused. “Kathleen told me that you know so much, though.”

Damnit, is today the day of harassing Ira about Kathleen? Are all these people in on some big secret together? Or maybe I’m going insane. “All right. I’ll indulge you. What do you want?”

“Touché!” Her long limbs slip off a stool, and now she’s standing next to me, nearly towering over me because the Warners are ridiculously tall. They say her ladylike sister Helen has to sit in the lowest chair in the room to keep from intimidating her business partners during meetings. Meanwhile, androgynes like Kennedy Anderssen are probably stuffing lifts into their shoes to look taller. It takes all kinds in this rich world of ours.

Eve senses that I’m uncomfortable and slouches. How kind of the woman who is overdressed in a stylish white suit. Overdressed, and yet not even I can care because she owns it so well. Sometimes I revel in the fact that I can at least relate to her in that we were both born lesbians. I get to not give a shit about a single thing and still fuck women. Best of both worlds?

“I was wondering where that pretty blonde was.” She shrugs as if I shouldn’t be suspicious. “The one from last weekend. The two of you seemed to be having a lot of… fun at the club.”

I’m lucky she’s keeping her voice down. “You liked what you saw, huh? Something you want to confess?” I can play her inappropriate game. In fact, I have to. Right now I have no idea if Kathleen has told her about what’s going on. I don’t know if she’s talked to her best friend about us having sex, or if she’s mentioned what else happened at the club. I’m not going to give that information away, but I also don’t want to act ignorant. Not in front of Eve.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Why do you care? I’m not seeing her right now.”

The way she looks at me is beyond unnerving, although I do my best to not let it show. Especially when we’re shortly joined by two people I could live without right now.

“Evelyn!” Lara Anderssen takes the woman’s hands and kisses the air around her cheeks. “So good to see you after so long. I didn’t know you were friendly with our pal Ira here.”

She almost chokes. I covertly roll my eyes. “They’re working with Kathleen, you know.”

“Ah, yes, Kathleen.” Lara sounds so judgmental that I almost burst out laughing. “She’s, ah… interesting.”

For once, Eve and I are sharing a mutual look of defense mode. Except I have no idea why I feel this passionately about Kathleen’s honor.

Let’s set something straight. I have no problem with the Anderssens. They’re a quirky couple who are a bit too big for their britches, but they’re smart, shrewd, and not afraid to go after what they want – even if that includes another person. Except right now they’re being a pain in my ass. Between this charade with The Ace and now snide comments about Kathleen, my blood may be boiling.

God, why?

You know, I thought I got my burning need to fuck her out of my system. I was surprised that she went for it so easily, but hey, I wasn’t going to say no. Having her so willing to have sex with me so quickly was a boon to my ego. Especially since she’s a fellow Domme, and I thought she would resist, let alone a position like that. But I think we had a mutual understanding regarding our desire to finally accomplish what we set out to do twelve years ago.

I thought it would be all I needed to reset my brain and stop thinking about her so much. I had my fill, right? Yet I’m standing here like an idiot, wishing that I didn’t care so much that someone like Lara Anderssen is even so much as implying that Kathleen doesn’t have her shit together. And it’s not like I feel guilty by association. I was flawless every time I presented. Shit, Eve has way more reasons to be angry. Kathleen’s her best friend.

And I’m… her… what? Temporary business partner?

Lover?