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I started to touch her face and stopped myself, walking away from her instead. “Morgan was very much into the scene. She was enraptured by everything to do with the Carnal Sins. I met her at a party. When she found out who I was, she begged me for a tour.” I couldn’t help but growl low in my throat. Just like Lark had done days earlier. Was karma coming back to bite my ass?
“So you let her.”
“She had a reputation as being a brat, a princess given her daddy’s position. I wanted nothing to do with her, but I was younger and cocky as fuck, so I gave her a tour.”
“Then you wanted to tame her. One thing led to another, and you became an item.”
“Yes, for almost two years. Looking back on the strange relationship, I should have seen she was defying her father’s wishes and nothing more, but I thought I was falling in love. She wasn’t.”
“The breath play?” she asked after a few awkward seconds had passed.
“She’d been bugging me for weeks to try it. I caught her doing a scene with another member at my club and I was jealous. Fuck. I was furious with her. God, I was so angry. I’d never lost my temper to the degree I did.” I raked my hand through my hair, the images far too vivid.
“Why would she do that?”
I closed my eyes, remembering the event like it had occurred only weeks before instead of years. “I wasn’t kinky enough for her. She threw that in my face. By then I wasn’t so much a master as I was a business owner. She grew bored and kept pushing. By that point, we were growing apart. The signs were all there.”
She snorted then covered her mouth. “You, not kinky enough?”
“She was into the darkest acts. Knife play. Blood play. Shit I won’t do. Breath play seemed mild in comparison, but she wasn’t ready and I sure as shit wasn’t prepared to fall down her rabbit hole.”
“What did you do?”
“First, I beat the crap out of the guy and kicked him out of the club. She kept demanding that we try it so one night I reneged. She brought the rope. The scene got out of hand. I allowed her to tie the knot, which means what happened was my responsibility.”
“What?”
“Her near suffocation. The rope became snagged after she pushed harder. I couldn’t get the damn thing off. By the time I did, she’d passed out. Her heart stopped and if Davidson hadn’t been at the club, she would have died.” I turned to face her, shoving my hands into my pockets.
“Jesus.” She shivered visibly.
“That’s why I will never participate in the act again. I allow it in the club, but not unless it’s with a master dom or one of our pros is supervising. Period.”
Her face softened. “What happened was an accident. I’m certain she knew that.”
The laugh pushing up from my throat held the bitterness and guilt that had never completely left me. “Her father didn’t think so. He managed to have me arrested, although all charges were eventually dropped. Suddenly, she was convinced I’d tried to harm her in retaliation. It blew up in the media, the kind of scandal DC loves to read about. She left town shortly after upon her father’s insistence. He warned me that he’d find a way to take me down.”
“Did he try?”
“Over the years, yes, but as he neared retirement, he stopped bothering. I was too powerful by that point.”
“You had something on him.”
When I laughed again, I was torn by how unemotional she was. “Yes.”
Lark exhaled, the sound exaggerated as if she’d been holding it for some time. “My God. Whoever killed those people is purposely gaslighting the authorities.”
“It’s not gaslighting, Lark. If they’re using what happened years ago, the authorities are going for my throat. People still remember.”
“Why? I don’t understand.”
“Because I have more than my share of enemies in this town.”
She cocked her head. “Your little black book on people.”
“Undoubtedly. I’d be careful asking questions, Lark. You might not like the answers.”
“You I can handle, but this is crazy. Who’s murdering these people? Why kill Davidson?”
