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When he returned, Mitch knew she had triumphed by the irate lines on his forehead.
“Follow me,” he barked. “Consider yourself lucky that you’rebarelymeeting the dress code minimum.”
Mitch knew. That’s why she dressed like she was following Vanessa to an upscale business luncheon. The contouring, however, had a different purpose. When she was with Vanessa for official, very unsexy reasons, Mitch once again preferred to disappear into shadow and observe what happened with neutral eyes. She was a bodyguard in those moments, meant to fuse with the surroundings and only make herself known if her beloved’s safety was compromised. She followed Vanessa like an obedient companion and kept her thoughts to herself. She was Mitch Cruise, silent protector.
Right now, she had to be Michelle in Mitch’s clothes. She was a woman of the night parading herself as something she wasn’t.
“Well, well.” Candace had a private table in the corner, sequestered away behind a wall that pushed her up against the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Financial District. Beside her was a leather basket containing her tote bag while a tablet opened to either a periodical or a book lay across the table. She drank a large iced tea with lemon. It looked like her lunch, whatever it was, had already been taken away. “Look who it is. My noontime liaison.”
The man took his leave after securing Mitch to the empty chair across from Candace Lister. Mitch did not hesitate to note the glint of happy surprise in Candace’s bright eyes. In this natural light, however, Mitchdidnote that the woman looked more her age – but it was the kind of graceful aging that only existed due to good genetics and the skillful hand of the best plastic surgeon in the business. Nobody looked at Candace Lister and thought she went too far with her work. She did not follow beauty trends – she set them.
That was its own kind of infallible confidence. Mitch would have admired this woman if she wasn’t here on official business.
“I hope you don’t mind me dropping by unexpectedly.” Mitch, who had left the top two buttons of her blouse undone, leaned her elbows against the table and pushed forward. A skillful glance brought Candace’s gaze to Mitch’s humble cleavage.I would have worn a push-up bra, but… too much.Vanessa might have noticed. Her partner was a woman who kept to sports bras during the day. “I took a bit of a risk coming by here, but…” She slightly turned her head, flashing a girlish smile that implied it was unveiled specially for Candace. “I had to see you.”
“Now…” Candace closed the cover on her tablet and nestled it against her bag in the basket. “Don’t flatter me, Michelle. No woman makes her way into one of my most private places and gets to set the terms of speaking with me. I don’t know where your Mistress is, but her leash on you isquite long,isn’t it?”
“Vanessa has no idea I’m here.”
“Doesn’t she, now?”
Mitch shook her head. After a silent tug-of-war between their pupils, Candace summoned a server and asked the demure young woman to bring Mitch some cucumber water and whatever else she wanted. Mitch had to order something, so she requested an iced coffee.
“I have a confession,” Mitch seductively whispered across the table, sure to keep Candace on her silky line, “something I have to tell you before I go insane.”
She played a dangerous game. Mitch was good at seducing people she was not personally attracted to, but that was only when she completely embraced her alter-ego… and that was usually with Vanessa at least lurking in the shadows, always ready to swoop in and intervene if things soured. Mitch had to watch herself. She couldn’t push it so far that Candace saw right through her machinations. But if she didn’t sell herself, either…
“Suppose I have something to tell you as well,” Candace said. “You first, though.”
Mitch had her on the line. Could she reel her in, though? Only if she played with her collar while she spoke.
“I still have your name on my hip.”
Candace’s mien asserted that she didn’t like to be played with. Mitch’s soft visage assured Ms. Lister that she played with no woman, least of all the ones sitting at this table. The iced coffee arrived in record time. After the server submissively wished her well and backed away with her head bowed, Mitch had a thought but filed it away to analyze later.
“Is that so?” Candace coyly asked.
“I’ve washed off all the others.” Mitch added sugar to her iced coffee before stirring it in with the bamboo straw. “Including Vanessa’s. Yours was in such a different place that I overlooked it. That kind of ink doesn’t simply come off without effort. I noticed it when getting dressed on Monday. Funny. I had been thinking about you ever since we left your place.”
“What does your Mistress think of that?”
“My Mistress knows that I am not a woman to be contained. I go to whomever I please. The leash is for performance value. Romantically, there is no such thing.”
Candace snorted lightly as she finally looked away. “That doesn’t answer the question. I want to know what Vanessa thinks of my name still being so close to your ass.”
“You remember my ass?”
“I remember all of you. You were naked in my basement. In mydungeon.”
“I’m told I’m quite the sight.”
“My dear…” Candace met her halfway. Her breath smelled of cinnamon and her perfume was the same bittersweet from the other night.Wormwood and vanilla.“You’re a siren.”
“Yet you wouldn’t touch me when offered a taste.” When Mitch folded her hands before her chin, she was sure to lightly graze a knuckle against Candace’s arm. Neither of them flinched. “Why is that? Because my Mistress was there?”
“Not quite.”
“Because those other women were there? You want me to yourself. No prying eyes.”
