AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is this about her secret admirer again?” Zach asked, his tone sardonic. Mistress Julie had been getting gifts at Marquis for months now, always from a secret admirer who, so far, had shown no desire to actually come forward. Law had been riled over the notes from the very beginning, but Julie had not. Everyone else tended to fall somewhere in the middle, but as the months went on, most of them had fallen into thinking it was pretty harmless.
“Yes, it is.” Law glared at Zach, and his next words had all of them sitting up straight. “This time, her ‘admirer’ sent a present to her house.”
The statement landed with a thud amid silence as the happy reverie of the week was broken.
“That’s an escalation,” Kincaid said after a moment.
“Yes. Exactly. Now, does everyone want to take it seriously?”
“Well, hold on, what did he send? And what did Julie say about it?” Zach asked, leaning forward and frowning at all of them. “We already knew it had to be someone from the club, right? So, it’s not that far a stretch to think that maybe they got her address from there… and Julie’s not there as much this week because you guys don’t have any classes running since you’re here, right?”
Law shifted in his seat, frowning even more fiercely at Zach. He also didn’t answer right away. Kincaid was frowning, too, as though he wanted to protest that an escalation was an escalation, but he was looking at Zach… he didn’t want to fight with his partner.
Fair enough.
“Okay, spill the tea.” Mitch pointed the little pink plastic sword, still adorned with a cherry from his fruity frozen drink, at Law. “It’s for the groom.”
The joke—a twist on declaring something ‘for the bride’ and therefore mandatory—broke the tension, as Mitch had probably meant it to.
Law sighed. “Olivia says Julie isn’t concerned. For the same reason Zach just said. The message said that it’s the one-year anniversary of the first roses that were sent and explained they were sent to her home since they couldn’t be sure she would be at the club this week.” Law crossed his arms over his chest and glared. “However, Olivia is finally becoming concerned and wanted me to be kept updated and also to pass the message on to Kincaid. I figure the more eyes on Julie, the better.”
“I’m not sure Julie needs protecting,” Nick muttered, shifting in his chair like he wanted to cover his groin. He was the only one at the table who had been through Dom training with her. Law had been accepted into the club without going through the training class because of prior experience at another club, and the rest of them had all gone through it with Olivia. Law transferred his glare to Nick, who held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not saying I won’t keep an eye out for her, man, you know I will. I’m just saying… she’s a lot more dangerous than she looks at first glance.”
“That doesn’t mean she can’t be surprised, especially when she refuses to put her guard up about this.” Law looked around the table at all of them, his fierce protectiveness shining through.
It wasn’t that Brian didn’t feel protective. He just was more like Zach and Nick… not entirely sure it was necessary. The situation with Cassidy had Law on edge, though, and there was nothing he could do about that. That was a clearly dangerous situation that was being handled by others. He could do something about this, even though the danger was less clear.
“We’ll keep her safe,” he said reassuringly.
The discussion moved on to discussing what protective measures Julie might or might not tolerate. The only upside to it was that everyone was so involved in the discussion, they didn’t notice how distracted Brian was, wondering about Rae and what she was doing right now.
14
Rae
Brian Hyde was a pain in her ass.
Literally, right now, because she couldn’t sit comfortably at all.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a pain in her ass. It was a discomfort in her ass. A nuisance in her ass. A freaking dickhead who she couldn’t stop thinking about every three seconds because the moment she forgot there was a plug in her ass, she’d move in a way that forcibly reminded her.
Which was probably exactly what he’d intended.
The dickhead. Freaking devious Doms.
She couldn’t even complain about it to her friends because then she’d have to explain why she’d let Brian put a plug in her ass.
It would be better when they were no longer sitting down to eat. The plug was at its most uncomfortable when she was sitting. It hadn’t been nearly this distracting when she was walking.
Domi bumped her elbow against Rae’s, getting her attention.
“I’m sorry,” Domi said.
“What?” Rae blinked, her brain trying to loop back the conversation that had been going on around her that she’d barely been paying attention to. She didn’t think Domi had said anything she needed to be sorry for. “Why?”
“I feel like a bad friend.” As Domi spoke, the rest of the conversation died down, centering all the attention on her and Domi.
“We all kind of feel like bad friends,” Avery confessed on Rae’s other side, making her swivel her head back around in surprise. She looked across the table at Iris to see her nodding.
