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“They’ll want to thank you for helping me the way you did, so don’t be surprised if they approach you at the club.” I frowned as a thought occurred to me. “Would you rather I kept to myself the part where you brought me here after getting me away from Flynn?”

Kaleb and Trace exchanged a confused look.

“Why would we want that?” asked Trace.

I shrugged. “People who frequent the Vault’s basement tend to be real big on privacy, and you two seem to be more careful than most to give other members little to talk about—with the exception of your sexual preferences, of course.”

“And?” asked Kaleb, as if unable to see what that had to do with anything.

“AndI can’t change that your names are associated with what happened because you will have been seen carrying me outof the basement. But if you’d like the extent of your involvement to be limited, I would totally understand. I could just tell people that Blake ensured I got home safe.” The club members could be a gossipy bunch after all.

Kaleb gently tugged on my hair. “We’re private about many things, yes, and we don’t like anything that happens in the club to bleed onto our outside lives. But I believe that I can speak for both me and Trace when I say that we don’t give a rat’s ass if other members learn that we brought you here and kept watch over you.”

Trace nodded in confirmation. “It’s nobody else’s business anyway.”

That didn’t mean people wouldn’t talk about it. “All right.” To lighten the moment, I gave them each a teasing look. “But don’t come whining to me if some of your groupies start feigning that they’ve been drugged so you’ll take them home and baby them.”

Trace’s lips quirked. “I wouldn’t say we have actual groupies—”

“Oh, I would,” I said with a chuckle. “Quite a few members do. Mostly Tops and Sadists. Especially if they also happen to be famous in the outside world. And if they’re also known for avoiding arrangements, it gives them a whole other level of appeal—people want to be the one to change that.

“You two aren’t Topsas such, but you’re dominant enough for it to count and you each fuck like a boss. You’re also famous and avoid entanglements. Hence the groupies.”

“We aren’t the only ones with admirers waiting in the wings,” Kaleb told me. “You’ve got several. They were fairly salivating when they heard that you and Grover were no longer a thing.”

Not for the right reason. “Those admirers are either Doms who view me as a challenge or guys who see me as asubstitute for Alondra. They can’t fuck her, but they can fuck her daughter.”

Trace’s brow furrowed. “Substitute? I highly doubt it. It’s not as if you’re a ringer for her. You’re such an equal blend of both your parents that it’s not until you’re standing next to one or the other that the resemblance to either of them becomes clear.”

Kaleb dipped his chin in agreement. “I had no idea you were her daughter at first.”

“Neither did I,” said Trace. “It surprised me. Nothing about you—your mannerisms, your smile, your posture, anything at all—made me think of your mom. So many things about her are artificial, and I’m not referring to her surgical enhancements. None of her responses, bodily or verbal, seem natural for her. She moves as if she believes everyone in the room is watching her.”

Yup, that was Alondra all right. She always aimed to impress. Was always careful to say the right thing. Was alwaysacting.

“Butyou, you’re real,” Trace continued. “You walk into a room with not one care as to who is looking or what they might think. As if you’ve dismissed everybody there without even glancing their way. They’re not important. They’re not on your radar. They can go fuck themselves for all you care.” His mouth curled. “That aloof air is enough to turn a man’s head.”

I felt my face scrunch up. I really hadn’t realized that I came across that way. “Troy is exactly the same, so I must have subconsciously picked that up from him.”

Trace’s smile widened. “Come to think of it, yes, he is. He focuses on Ansel, disregarding everyone else for the most part. He tosses smiles people’s way, but he doesn’t really smileatthem.”

I nodded, my lips kicking up. Yeah, that was Troy. Knowing my mother, it was what attracted her to him. She would have found his indifference a challenge; would have wanted his focus on her to flatter her ego.Eye roll.

“If I’m honest,” began Kaleb, toying with my hair, “it was your ass that first got my attention. It’s one spectacular ass. I found myself wondering just how it would look with my handprints on it.” A wolfish smile split his lips. “I later got to find out. And I have to say, it looked pretty fucking amazing.”

I pointed at him. “Don’t talk about sex stuff if you’re resolved on not ‘taking advantage,’ as Trace put it. And before you try pushing me on that, remember how good I am at retaliation.” I’d proven that at the charity ball when I’d whispered some rather filthy comments as we’d danced.

His eyes flared. “Yeah, you are pretty good at that. If we’d been on the dome’s dancefloor rather than the makeshift one at the ball, I’d have made you get on your knees and suck me off in front of everyone—I wouldn’t have given a fuck how many people saw.”

“You’restilltalking about sex stuff.”

He lifted his bottle of beer from the table. “I’ll behave.” He took a quick swig. “For now.”

“Let’s choose an inane topic,” I proposed.

Trace stretched out his legs in front of him. “You pick.”

I twisted my mouth, pensive. “Hmm. Okay, I’ve got one. How did you two meet?”

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