Page 36 of Dark Secret

I didn’t want it to be true, but why else would a woman like her show up in a place like that? Had Roxie been in on it, I wondered. I could just imagine a man like Trent going to a place like that. I bet he was a regular in that downstairs dungeon, beating on subs until their bottoms were black and blue.

That made me shiver, because that meant that Trent and I had something in common. Not the beating part, but the domination part. Had he been there the night I first took Stephanie, Emily, to a private room to get to know her better? Had he sent her on her way with a kiss on her cheek and a pat on the head?

She was so eager to please that night, and I’d just taken it as part of the respect a dom was due. Had I been duped?

I thought about those innocent gray eyes that had looked up at me from the floor where she knelt, and rage filled me. I’d been had, by one very talented spy.

Emily

I couldn’t even call after Dylan when he left me this morning. If he had waited a minute, I’d have signed his contract without even looking at it. It wasn’t worth the worry, the stress, or the arguing to me. All I wanted, all I needed was him, and I’d take him contract or not. He’d left, though, and here I was, alone with the thing.

I picked it up but didn’t read it before I put it back down. I’d read it later, once I’d come back from the day I had planned. I shoved it in my bag after I got dressed, pulled out my car keys, and headed down to my car. I had a full day planned.

A woman wasn’t born smooth, and I subjected myself to a full wax treatment before I headed to the hair salon. I wanted a darker tone added to my hair and a new cut. Nothing radical, I liked the length of my hair, but I wanted to be more … windswept, I guessed was the word. More romantic than practical.

By the time I’d had a few layers of skin removed and had my hair done, I was kind of tired. I went for lunch and managed to build up some energy for the rest of the day. I went to a few exclusive boutiques before I found exactly what I wanted.

A long, black, satin nightgown with silver threads shot through the black lace of the top of the gown. The satin shimmered and was as soft as melted butter to the touch. That went into the arms of the woman who had come out to greet me and asked if I’d needed assistance. I added a new corset, black of course, with silver embroidery, and new stockings, a garter belt, and the most beautiful pair of panties.

They were less panties and more like a decoration for my lady bits, but I loved them. The front was a small triangle of black lace with a metal heart ring above the point of the triangle. Stretchy black lace was looped around the heart to create a waistline and near the bottom of the triangle to go around my lower hips and legs. The back was basically an invitation to spank me, or fuck me, because there was no crotch in these panties. Just ribbons of lace that fanned out from another heart ring in the back. I bought several pairs in different colors, because they were just luscious, and I couldn’t resist.

There’d be no way Dylan could resist giving me a good spanking with those on. I was grinning by the time I found a bra with similar details, and I couldn’t wait to get back to his apartment. For most of my life, I’d been practical. Pretty little things like the panties would catch my eye, but I’d had nobody to wear them for. Until the night I decided to change my fate. I’d bought some of the frilliest things I could find for that night.

Now that I knew Dylan, and knew him better, I had an eye for what might tickle his fancy. Although, me naked seemed to work well, I thought with a silent smirk of a laugh. I still hadn’t read the contract, but I didn’t need to. It would have the same lines in it, with another month or three added to it, and that would be that.

The sales woman showed me a few more things, then she took me upstairs to show me some dresses. I found the perfect dress for tonight there, a black bodycon dress that was backless, long sleeves, and the hemline hit me at mid-calf. Panels were cut out on the side of the skirt and along the arms with black ribbons added for a lace-up effect. It called my name, and I added that to my growing list of purchases.

I had the perfect pair of black Hermès Rumba sandals at home to go with that dress. I made my purchase and then drove home to finish my preparations. I showered, did my hair and makeup again, and then started to dress. I started to feel sexy the moment I put the bra and panties on. When I wiggled into the dress and closed the clasp at the back of my neck to keep the top panel up, I felt even more confident in myself. I added the beautiful set of shoes and stood to have a look in the mirror.

I was going to knock his socks off. I wanted to bite my lip, but I’d added the pale pink lipstick that he loved the most to my lips and didn’t want to mar it. I controlled the old habit and looked at myself. A year ago I wouldn’t have recognized the confident, beautiful woman in the mirror as me. I’d have said she was a model, maybe, or some socialite who had a clue about how to look like a sexy woman.

Yet, here I was, put together and lovely, even if I thought so myself. It was okay for a woman to think she looked good every now and then, right? And tonight, I looked damn good. I gave myself a sexy wink in the mirror, laughed, and left the house. It was a little difficult to drive with the heels on, so I put on a pair of flats I kept in the car, just in case, and pulled out of my driveway.

I glanced over at my purse and realized I still hadn’t signed the contract. I’d sign it in the parking garage, I decided, and hit the gas as the light in front of me changed to green. Just a few more minutes, and I’d be in his arms again. I hadn’t dared to dream that this could happen to me, but I’d taken a step, and a step had turned into another one, until I’d finally come to this point. I was about to plunge into a new world with Dylan, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

I pulled into the parking garage and parked before I took out the contract and fished around in my bag for a pen. When I found one, I flipped to the back page, signed the space left blank across from Dylan’s signature, and slid the papers back into the bag.

I checked my makeup, wiped at the corners of my mouth to smooth the line of my lipstick, and got out. I’d put on a long, black wool peacoat to wear in the brief moments I was in the cold air, but I took it off once I made it inside the elevator. The ride up felt like forever as I counted the floors. About halfway up I looked in the mirror, straightened the top of my dress, combed out my hair with my fingers, and tried to figure out why I was so nervous. There was no need to be, yet, here I was with butterflies in my tummy.

Maybe it was because I’d decided that I would tell Dylan who I was tonight. I wanted my secrets out of the way, so they wouldn’t plague me with guilt anymore. I knew he wanted me in his life, and from the tender moments we’d had together, I believed he was really starting to care about me. I wasn’t so afraid to tell him who I was now, and I knew that would take a great weight from my shoulders.

I smiled when the elevator came to a stop with a ding, and the doors opened. Show time. I walked into the hallway, twisted my dress into just the right position, flicked away a speck of white fluff, and took a deep breath. With a pounding heart, I opened the door. The faint smell of paella greeted me, and that made my heart melt. He’d cooked for me.

He’d cooked before, but this told me he knew tonight was special too. It was my favorite dish, and he’d learned to cook it for me, just the way I liked it. I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

“Dylan? I’m back,” I called out, but nobody answered. I spotted the rose petals on the floor, and my eyes went round with surprise. Oh my…

I hung my coat on a coat rack just to the left side of the door and put my bag there too. I took the contract out and saw that my hands were shaking. He still hadn’t answered, but I could see the door to his office was closed. He might be on a call. I followed the path of the rose petals and stopped at the table in the hallway. Something glittered and caught my eye.

I saw two necklaces in black velvet boxes, all lined up. It was as if he couldn’t decide which he’d liked best, so he’d bought me all three. My right index finger smoothed over each one, but it was the knot necklace that caught my eye. Simple, elegant, but so evocative of our relationship. We truly were twisted and knotted around each other, in so many ways. The knot looked complicated, but closer inspection showed it was very simple, also like our relationship in more ways than one.

I left the necklaces there when I saw there were candles on the table that hadn’t been lit. It would seem I’d come back before he expected me to. I went into the kitchen and that was when something started to bother me. The tomatoes and other vegetables in the pan had gone cold. He wasn’t preparing a meal; he’d stopped for some reason.

I’d left my phone in my bag, and that was on the coat rack in the hallway, but I knew he hadn’t called me to say he had to go out. I’d have heard it because I left the sound up loud, just in case. No, he must be here. Why had he stopped cooking? Had something gone wrong?

I saw that he had a music channel playing on the television in the kitchen, but that was no kind of clue. It just meant that whatever had happened had been a surprise. A feeling of doom started to prickle at the back of my neck, and I glanced at the television. There was nothing that came on there that could have caused this, surely?

“Dylan? Where are you? What’s wrong?” Maybe he’d become ill. Maybe that was why he wasn’t responding.