Page 71 of Crushed

After silence took over, I said, “I can take care of Jake.” If it meant giving me a task so that I didn’t think of Cormac, I would more than welcome it. From what it sounded like, it would be an assignment I’d be willing to actually complete.

“What do you mean, ‘take care of’?” Iris asked.

I lifted my shoulders. “I can make sure he never does that to another woman again.”

“What? Like, cut off his dick?” Iris asked.

“This isn’t the mafia,” Teagen said. “Don’t do that.”

I laughed because Teagen and Iris had no idea who they were talking to. I might not have eliminated anyone as a consultant yet, but I had helped get rid of plenty of bad people.

“I wonder where Mel is,” Iris said.

“And Haley. Where the hell did she go?” Teagen asked.

“She got engaged to that guy, what’s his name—”

“Oh! Wait! I know who you’re talking about. That club member that was friends with Aldrich.”

“Yes! He didn’t stick around long though.”

“They’re engaged? I had no idea.”

“Yeah, she kind of disappeared too. Never looked back. Speaking of which—” Iris turned to me. “How’s everything with Cormac?”

“Is he treating you well?” Teagen asked.

“Treating me well?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“He came to the Dahlia District to ask if we knew anything about you,” Teagen said. “So we kind of figured something was going on with the two of you.”

I shrugged. What could I tell them? “We broke things off,” I said.

“Wait. You had something to break off?”

“We had a TPE relationship for a while,” I offered.

“You mean, like total power exchange?” Iris asked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Why?”

The two of them gasped. “He’snevergotten that far with anyone,” Teagen said. “He’s been single since his wife died. If any of us didn’t end our service with him, then he did, saying we weren’t satisfying enough.”

“Probably because he was protecting his heart. Something like that.”

I shrugged. “I thought you guys hated him.”

“You know,” Teagen said. She put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s one of those alpha men that like to push limits. Sometimes, that can mean burning bridges with the people he meets. Or maybe we’re too hesitant to get involved with him.” She paused after that, and I had a feeling thatthat’swhy she had never explored a deeper relationship with him: her own hesitation. Knowing Cormac, he probably didn’t care for that lack of commitment. “But he never forced us to do anything we didn’t want. He had his thing, and none of us could satisfy his itch.”

“He was never my type,” Iris said, “but I always liked that he had tried to negotiate with Dahlia so that we were no longer under contract.”

“He negotiated with Dahlia?” Teagen asked.

“I didn’t tell you? He tried to become a partner. But she had no interest in sharing control back then, especially with a man.”

“Geez,” Teagen said.

“Look where it got us now,” Iris muttered, rolling her eyes.