Page 36

E verything was finally back to normal which was a comfort to me. At the office, it was as if nothing had ever happened between Brynn and me, even though I knew differently. She’d shared with me her fears about the detectives never finding her sister’s killer, but her annoying optimism that they one day would. While I could provide some of the answers she was desperately seeking, I couldn’t provide most so there was no use.

What good would my admission of guilt be if I couldn’t give anything more?

I’d killed Blair. I didn’t remember doing so, but I knew that I had. There was no way I could’ve woken up with blood on my hands, and not have committed the act. Blair had been callously murdered the exact same way that Aria had which eliminated all chances of this being nothing more than a coincidence.

Despite all of that, something else bothered me even more. Ever since I’d woken up beside Brynn, she’d mentioned a time or two about how out of sorts I had been. Never had I imagined that someone had come into contact with me during one of my blackout periods and lived to tell about it later, especially someone I’d been as angry as I had been with her.

She doesn’t have to tell me everything, when I can’t do the same for her.

Despite the reminder, I felt like the world’s biggest hypocrite. There was also an inherent fear that she would remember something else about that night that would blow my world to bits. After Aria’s death, my father had made me swear I’d never speak about that night to anyone, and I hadn’t. The same applied to Blair, but for how long?

“This is fucking pointless. I’m going to Lotus,” I said aloud as I closed my laptop and grabbed my keys.

After getting my briefcase, I walked out into the main area where Brynn was closing down things herself. I stared at her briefly, and when she sensed my presence, she looked up at me and smiled.

“You’re leaving early tonight, Adrian.”

It was more of an observation than question, but I still answered it nonetheless. “I am going to the club. Would you like to join me this evening?”

Usually, I just summoned one to Lotus, but things were still on shaky ground between us despite the sense of normalcy. Maybe it was strictly on my end, but I was still proceeding with caution and trying my hardest not to come across as a complete asshole. Some things were hard to do, and ignoring my true self was at the top of the list, but it was something I was willing to try for Brynn.

There’d been so much over the past few months that I had experimented with simply for her. I wanted to see Brynn smile as she had a few minutes ago. I also wanted to see her outside of work, and preferably at Lotus, where I could truly center myself in a scene. Perhaps, that had been where everything started to go wrong for me. As soon as I broke my usual habits, I became less me to the point where I hardly recognized my reflection in the mirror anymore.

“I would love to, but I promised Kevin that Lug Nut and I would join him and Phil for dinner.” I glanced down at my watch. It was after seven already, so I knew by the time she ate dinner that it would be too late for her to venture out. “I’d like to take a raincheck,” she added.

“I’ll let you know when I plan to return to Lotus.”

“Okay,” she said before grabbing her purse, cell phone and keys. “Would you walk out with me?”

“Ahh, yeah. Sure. Let’s go,” I said to her before reaching toward her so I could drape my arm around her, but then changing my mind at the last minute. Instead of clutching her, I grabbed the glass door and held it open for her. Afterward, I walked awkwardly toward the elevator with her.

Just the earlier thought of taking her to Lotus had made my dick hard, and when she brushed past me on her way inside the elevator, I inwardly groaned. With the time of night and only having one security guard on call, I could easily press the hold button and stop the elevator. It would be at least twenty minutes or longer until someone would come to free us, and there were many things I could do to her in that length of time.

She had other plans, though. The one thing I had despised about whatever this was between us was her ability to disrupt my life. The last thing I needed to do was reciprocate, so I kept my hands to myself and stared down at my expensive Italian shoes. The silence grew deafening, and when she finally cleared her throat, I realized we had reached the ground floor.

“Thanks for walking me downstairs. I don’t want to hold up your club night, so I’ll just?—”

“If I didn’t know any better, I would suspect that you’re a bit jealous,” I teased, and she turned to level me with a deadpan look.

“No, I just assumed you still planned to go...” she said before letting her voice trail off.

We continued to walk straight past my designated parking space toward the area she usually parked in. “I do still plan to go,” I admitted.

We reached her car, and she whirled around. “You do?”

Moving in on her, I pinned Brynn between me and her car. “I’m not going there to fuck tonight, Brynn,” I told her, unsure of why I felt the need to explain myself to anyone, including her. “I’m just going for a drink.”

“Oh,” she said.

I could hear her breathing as it accelerated, and while I wanted to ask her to come back to my place, or allow me to go to hers, I wouldn’t because I didn’t trust myself around anyone at night. Still, I couldn’t help leaning in until our lips were a hairsbreadth apart. Her breath was warm against my mouth, but I didn’t kiss her like I wanted to do. Instead, I brought my free hand up to her neck, then wrapped it around her throat. I didn’t squeeze, but it still made her gasp anyway.

“Since the night we’d first spoken, I’ve wanted to fuck no one else but you, Karma,” I said, making sure to use the name I first got to know her as. “I don’t even know how to describe what this is between us, but I find myself thinking about you constantly.”

“Y-You do?” she stammered in question.

“I watch you at work and all I can do is plot the many ways I want to make you come... How loud I want to make you scream... And how deep I want to be inside of you.” Brynn moaned, and when she leaned in to kiss me, I pulled my head back and smirked. “I could show you a hell of a lot better than I can tell you, so get in your car now before I prove it.”

“Adrian, I?—”

“Your car. Now! Go home and eat your lo mein with the neighbors, and?—”

“Ramen,” she whispered.

“What?”

“It’s ramen,” she told me, before slipping out of my grasp once I released my hold on her throat. “Enjoy your drink.”

I then watched her get inside of her car, and that inner voice of mine urged me to pull her from the vehicle and fuck her right here and now, but I ignored it and instead watched as she put the car in reverse and backed out of her space. She waved at me as she then left the parking garage, and I headed back to my own car.

An hour later, I walked into Lotus and headed straight to the bar. The club was a lot busier tonight than the last time I’d been here, but it didn’t matter as I knew my stay would be brief. Once I reached the counter, I noticed three other Dominants all sitting on their barstools.

A single glance is all it took to see why they were so happy just sitting there with a drink in their hand. This particular bar had added legroom, and as I glanced down at the men, I could see various heads and hands in front of them. It’d been a while since I had gotten a blow job from anyone, but again, no one else had interested me since meeting Brynn.

“God damn,” Stavros exclaimed as his entire body tensed up. It was obvious that he just came, and I ignored the sounds he was now making, as well as the words he was saying to the submissive, until he mentioned me. “This sub’s got one hell of a mouth on her, Erebus.”

“Looks that way,” I said absently, then motioned for the bartender to bring me a drink.

He set two shots of aged bourbon down before returning to the cleaning on the other end of the bar. I slammed the first shot back, then looked over at Drew, who was sitting on the opposite side of Stavros.

“I haven’t seen you around this way much lately,” he said to me.

“I’ve been traveling a lot for business. I’ve barely been in the town the last two months.”

It wasn’t a complete lie as I had spent most of the holiday season in one part of Asia or another. Granted, it had been more from avoidance, but I never spoke business to those not involved in it. These men were all pillars of the community and successful in their own careers, but Benedict Technologies was not their concern, and I intended to keep it that way.

“All that work with little play is no good,” Stavros said, then reached down between his legs. “Move that hot mouth of yours down to Erebus,” he told her, and moments later, a submissive I knew as PAINSLUT987 appeared between my legs.

She immediately reached for my pants, and I grabbed her hand to still her. “As tempting as you may be right now, I regretfully have to decline,” I told her.

“Did I displease you in some way?” She asked me.

“No,” I said a bit more abruptly than planned. “I’m just not in the mood tonight.”

Usually, that was all that needed to be said, and I expected her to leave me be as soon as I removed my hand, but she decided to try it again.

“I said I’m not interested,” I told her once more, this time a bit more firmly.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just let her suck you off,” Stavros said.

“Fuck off, Kyrios,” I said to him making sure to use his code name.

“He does seem to be uninterested in everyone but that new brunette. What’s her?—”

“Karma_is_a_B is her name,” Stavros said to Drew.

The submissive on her knees looked up at me. “I can be whoever you want me to be.”

I scooted my bar stool back a bit before responding. “I don’t want you to be anyone or anything right now except gone.” I then slammed back the second shot before glancing in their direction. “Good night.”

From there, I left the club and went home where I should’ve gone to begin with.