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“None taken.”

“That’s when I allowed myself to want you. Before, you belonged to some other person. It was verboten for another Domme to want you. But when I heard you left her, I was overcome with the desire to know you.”

Monique waited for her to continue.

“When Sam invited me as her guest to the Manoir, I jumped at the chance. She knew I was a Domme, but I only cared about seeing and introducing myself to you.”

“I hope I was everything you expected.”

“And then some. You have no idea how much I loved you that night… even when I was hungover the next day.”

“That explains your following actions. This whole time, I thought you were simply persistent. Not… in love with me. Not like that. Yet.”

“I was a slobbering mess in absolute love with you. Fuck it, I still am.”

“That’s sweet, Helen.” Monique wished she could say the same about back then.I didn’t know who she was… but she had loved me from afar for so long?Had admired her intelligence and business tenacity? That turned so many people off. Jacqueline used to belittle her business suggestions.

“She’ll never be out of my life. Jacqueline, I mean. I don’t want anything to do with her. I’ll never go back to her. But she’llalways find ways to torment me. It’s in her nature. Your relation through your father to her does not help.”

“I’m sorry, my love. I wish there was something I could do.”

“Paying off your father’s debt would help. She would have no claim to bother us.”

“I wish I could. As I told you, my fortune is all tied up in assets and investments. I don’t actually have access to most of it. Not enough to pay that person off.”

“I understand.” And Monique didn’t have enough to help. Forty million dollars was hardly anything to individuals like Jacqueline and Helen, but it was true. Those numbers were tied up in all sorts of things. These individuals rarely had stacks of money lying around. “But something needs to be done. I won’t live the rest of my life afraid of her.”

“I refuse to ask that of you. I can ban her from my property, but I can’t ban her from other places we go.”

“Hence why something needs to be done.”

She was not so subtly suggesting that Helen show her how possessive she could be in public. Monique knew how wonderful she was in the bedroom, in other private places, but not in the open world. She wasn’t going to say,“Do something about her, or we’re through,”but something… had to be done.

Jacqueline would never respect boundaries. She only understood other powerful people.

Helen seemed to understand. “She won’t listen to me if I went to talk to her. She would laugh me out of her office, and that would only make things worse for you. It would have to be more… you know…”

Oh, Monique knew.

“So we, ironically, need money. And a way to keep her away once and for all.”

“Hmm.”

“What if we could kill two birds with one stone?”

“That would be ideal.”

As the ocean continued to rumble behind them, as the hammock continued to sway, and as their hearts continued to beat together, Monique had a good idea of what they needed to do. From the way Helen looked at her, they were on the same diabolical page.

Chapter 30

Least Expected

On the Thursday night following Monique's return to her Manoir, she was thankful that things were busy enough to take her mind off the fact she would not see Helen for at least another week. They were not overrun with clients, but June’s patron stopped by, and a small group of merrymaking men having a four-day bachelor party decided the Manoir was their starting point. Chelsea and Grace were hired to entertain them for the evening, plying them with drinks and pretending to lose at video games. The last Monique checked Grace was running around with her top off, and Chelsea had disappeared into her room with one of the guests who promised her an extra thousand if she paddled him for an hour.

I need to replace Sybil. Back to work, indeed. If another client showed up that night, the only employee available would be Yvette.Haha. Hahaha.

Monique could not squirrel herself away in her office on a busy night. So she sat in the Receiving Room, covertly flipping through the other applications she received from women while on her collaring honeymoon. Yvette came and went from the room, her clothing simple and her face barely clad in makeup. Although she never took on clients outside of her patron, she still tried to represent the Manoir decently in front of other guests.Still, would a nicer dress kill her?If she wasn’t going to work, she could at least go outside or to her room. It didn’t seem like the type of night where Yvette would offset her inability to entertain guests by helping out with the party managing.