Page 14 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

ADRIAN

I find Brody in the southwest conference room. “Fill me in,” I order.

“He assaulted a seventeen-year-old,” he says, sounding drained. “I’ve been sitting here for the last thirty minutes, wondering what I’m going to do.”

“Your mother asked you for money, didn’t she?” I don’t need a crystal ball for this shit. Eugene Payne has spent his career paying off the families of the girls he paws. I doubt Brody’s parents have any money left in reserve.

“One hundred grand.” Brody rubs his temples with a grimace.

“She didn’t call when Sandy died. She didn’t call for Christmas, for my birthday, nothing.

And I made my peace with it. After all, what’s there really to say?

She will cover up anything as long as it doesn’t diminish her social standing.

” His voice is bitter. “Five years of silence and the only thing out of her mouth is a request for money.”

I pat his shoulder sympathetically. I don’t think Brody’s made his peace with the situation. As long as Eugene Payne keeps assaulting the young women, the wound is going to stay fresh in Brody’s heart. “What are you going to do?”

“Fuck if I know.” He stares into the distance. “He kept his dick in his pants for two years,” he says quietly. “I started to hope he’d changed.”

Brody sounds gutted.

My parents retired to Florida four years ago, and I don’t see very much of them, just at the holidays, but they’ve always been my role models.

I’ve always looked up to them. They taught me how to live life.

I can hear my dad’s voice. Be honest, treat everyone fairly, and take responsibility for your actions, son.

That had been the motto in the Lockhart household.

It was in his freshman year in college when Brody had found out the truth about his father. I was his roommate; I know how much it wrecked him then, how much it still wrecks him now.

“I don’t want to offer this woman money over the phone,” he says. “Can you cover my meetings tomorrow? I looked at my calendar, there’s only a couple that can’t be moved.”

“Of course.”

It’s the least I can do. After Sandy’s death, I’d retreated into myself, shouldering the blame for the accident. I refused to talk to Brody or anyone else about it.

Brody had mourned too. He’d loved her as much as I had.

But he’d never once uttered a word of reproach to me.

While I brooded, taking on dangerous assignments and chasing death, Brody had picked up the slack at the office.

He was the one who had greeted mourners at the funeral.

He’d arranged for the caterers. He’d ordered the church filled with the bright orange lilies that Sandy loved so much.

I owe him a debt that can’t be repaid. “Take the company plane,” I tell him. The Cessna is the fastest way to get to Brody’s hometown, which is, and I am not exaggerating, in the middle of fucking nowhere.

He nods. “Thanks. I’ll reimburse the firm, of course.”

I’d tell him not to worry about it, but Felicity, who handles the financial side of things at Lockhart & Payne and keeps us good with the IRS, will kick and scream about the personal transaction.

“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” Today’s Wednesday. I asked Fiona to drop by tomorrow at eight. We set out for Club M Friday afternoon.

“Just the day. I should be back by eight.” He shakes his head. “Who was the woman in our office, anyway? Nita started to say something, and I blew her off.”

“For which she’s probably plotting revenge even as we speak.” Never, ever piss off your assistant. “Our unscheduled visitor was Cindy Nicholson, Senator Theodore Downing’s legislative director.”

His eyebrows rise. “To what do we owe the privilege?”

I fill him in on the conversation, and his jaw tightens. “If the senator wanted, he could make our lives very unpleasant,” he says grimly.

“I’m not giving Raymond Downing a job, Brody.”

“Oh, I know that,” Brody replies. “Neither am I. But I’m willing to bet that ignoring the senator’s request is going to come with consequences.”

We’ll weather them. “She said she was a member at Club M,” I add. “Cindy Nicholson, that is.”

His lips twitch. “Did she hit on you?”

“Discreetly.”

He chuckles. “Did you accept?”

I hadn’t been the slightest bit interested in Cindy Nicholson, and it had nothing to do with who her boss is. “Given the situation with Fiona, I thought it best to decline.”

The amusement fades from his eyes. “Adrian, I don’t want anything to do with a traumatized, terrified submissive. Especially now. It hits too close to home.”

I sigh. He’s right. I don’t know what got into me, when I made that offer to Fiona.

While I might be open to playing with an experienced submissive at the club, I’m definitely not interested in getting involved with someone.

Sandy’s death hurt too much, and I can’t go through that kind of heartache again.

Admit it. You want to help Fiona rediscover the joys of submission. You want her to beg you for an orgasm, and you want to bring her to the edge, over and over.

My cock hardens as I imagine Fiona naked, her nipples clamped, her eyes blindfolded, slick with desire, wet for me, begging for my touch, straining toward me...

Fuck. I need to get it together.

“I thought you didn’t want to scene with anyone,” Brody continues. His gaze is direct. “Yesterday at lunch, you bit my head off when I suggested it was time to move on.”

“I changed my mind.” Because of Fiona.

Was it Brody or Xavier who had said that she deserved a better introduction to BDSM? I can’t remember which one, but whoever it was, he was right.

I hadn’t expected to be attracted to her at lunch.

“I’m not looking for a serious relationship,” I clarify.

Losing Sandy was bad enough, but knowing I’d been responsible for her death?

Me, her dominant, the one who should have, above all, kept her safe?

I’m never going to put myself in a situation like that again.

“But a casual arrangement might be exactly what we both need.”

“Hmm.” He sounds unconvinced.

Fair enough. “You don’t have to do it,” I point out. Brody and I like to share, but we’re not joined at the hip. “I made no commitments on your behalf. You don’t have to scene with her.”

He grapples with the decision. “I don’t know,” he says at last. “Let’s see if Fiona even shows up.”