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Aidan stared at Porter, hard. Porter had known Lily. He’d seen them together. “I’m not dating, no.”
“Hrmph,” Porter muttered, pursing his lips. After a long moment of Porter’s eyes searching Aidan’s, he shrugged. “Got nothing else to tell you. I’ve got no clue why she’d tell you that. We might still stay in touch, but she didn’t want my collar, I have no doubt about that.”
Aidan considered his next move and glanced around the club. A flurry of activity had him looking to the left as a Dungeon Monitor wearing a Chains T-shirt intervened on a scene where there was a sobbing submissive.
What in the hell was going on with Cora?
If this was any other submissive, things would be very different, but Cora was the most outspoken woman he’d ever met. Porter wasn’t wrong—she knew herself. She had confidence. She knew what she wanted and how to get it.
It didn’t shock Aidan to hear she had the strength to end a relationship with her Dom—that was so Cora. So what, if she was so interested in a collar, was she doing playing with only him?
His head hurt.
This tension surrounding Cora was like poison in his veins. “I don’t know what this is about. But she’s not been forthcoming with me,” he admitted, all too sensitive to the noise around him and sudden need to get away from it all. “She’s telling half-truths.” That he firmly believed.
“I’m surprised.” Porter broke eye contact before he slowly shook his head at Aidan. “That’s not the Cora I remember.”
Aidan rubbed his hands over his face. His arms were barely able to move under the strain. The Cora who had wrapped him in her spell told it to him straight. His pride to personally solve her problems held no weight in ensuring Cora got the help she needed.
Seeing her unraveling did the same to him. With aches and pains invading every inch of his body, he muttered, “Porter, for the first time since I’ve met Cora, I feel like I don’t even know her.”
Chapter Nine
In Cora’s yellow-painted office at the Las Vegas Wellness Clinic, she pressed the phone against her ear, listening to the messages. She never came to work on Saturdays, especially in the evening, but after Aidan left her house she received an e-mail from one of her clients canceling their session for Tuesday.
She confirmed the cancellation and put it into the computer system. Then she hung up the phone. Leaning back into her modern black chair, she glanced out the window as the sun settled behind the mountains.
A
idan’s conversation remained heavy on her thoughts. Her hand slid to her throat. She hadn’t lied to him. She had once craved a collar as much as she wanted a wedding ring. Now she wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.
How important were either?
At this point, she wanted Aidan. Not even the Aidan she’d dreamed of, just the old Master Aidan in the club. The man who rocked her socks off, without digging too deep or asking too many questions.
She shut her eyes. Things were messy. They’d go back to normal. Always had, always would. Until Aidan faced his demons in his own time, Cora needed to be the strength for both of them.
Hell, she got paid to be strong for others.
Cora had done so for two years.
She didn’t plan to stop.
Opening her eyes, she grabbed the mouse on the glass tabletop of her desk and opened her schedule. Just as she thought—with the cancellation, her schedule was clear all day Tuesday. With the new scheduling for the sixteen-year-old group that would start next week, her entire day was also free on the Wednesday.
Cora smiled, opened an e-mail, and hammered off a message to her boss. She had a week left of her holidays and only the change in groups was giving her these days off. An opportunity not to be missed, and who knew if another coworker would come in after the weekend and book the time off. Cora wanted a couple days to herself. Those days were open for someone to take vacation, and she was taking it.
“And I thought I was the only one who worked too hard.”
Cora laughed, spinning in her chair to face her coworker, Sandy-Lynn. Her auburn curls were perfect atop her head, as always. Cora had never seen her not perfectly put together. She had round brown eyes and a kind face. One of those faces that Cora could picture as a grandmother surrounded by grandchildren.
“I had a cancellation and just wanted to confirm my schedule was clear.” While she always checked e-mails to make sure no teenagers were trying to reach her, she really hated bringing work home. “I’m taking Tuesday and Wednesday off.”
“Good for you,” Sandy-Lynn said.
Cora smiled. “Um … why are you here?”
“I received an attempted suicide call tonight. He’s at the hospital now, but I wanted to stop by and document it while it was still fresh.” Sandy-Lynn drew in a deep breath, and as they’d been trained to do, she shook off the darkness in her gaze. “Any exciting plans for tonight?”
