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She couldn’t speak. It felt good but scary as well, like she would collapse if she allowed herself to relax too much into the pain.
“Rae?”
“I . . . I don’t know.”
Viv was quiet for a minute. “You can put your pants back on and sit down.”
Rae obeyed, feeling embarrassed.
Viv sat on the couch next to her and took her hand. “Do you know why I stopped?”
Rae shook her head.
“Because you’re not being honest with me, hon. That’s how people get hurt, and I don’t want to harm you.” Viv paused for a beat. “And you’ve been hurt before. Badly. Am I right?”
Rae nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
“Tell me about it. What are you running away from?”
CHAPTER 10
RAE
2024
Rae supposed she should feel thankful Detective Clearwater allowed her to put on a robe over her black latex bodysuit before sitting her down right there in the dungeon on her long spank bench as another officer searched the space, for what she didn’t know.
“Ms. Dixon, I really didn’t want to resort to this,” he said, his deep voice somehow sounding earnest as he moved a small cushioned stool to sit across from her.
“It sure seems like you did.” Rae kept her arms tightly crossed over her chest, her eyes boring into the detective. “Like my client stated, there’s nothing illegal going on here. As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, I’m a dominatrix. I don’t know what rumors you supposedly heard about me, but I’m sure they’re wrong.”
Detective Clearwater glanced around at the dungeon space again before turning back to her. “You’ve got me there. This,” he said, motioning to the room, “is not what I expected, but it doesn’t change the factthat you were most likely the last person to see Thomas Highsmith before he was reported missing.”
Rae took a deep breath, willing her mouth not to drop a few f-bombs. “I don’t know what to tell you. You can search my business, but you’re not going to find him here.”
“I don’t expect to find him here, Ms. Dixon.”
Rae threw up her hands. “Then what the hell do you want from me?”
“The truth.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. “I want you to tell me anything you can remember about that lastmassageyou had with Mr. Highsmith.”
“Session,” Rae said, her jaw set. “They’re called sessions.”
“Session then. I want to know how he was acting, if there was anything out of the ordinary about his behavior or anything he said to you.”
Rae looked down at her hands, now clasped on her lap. She thought over that day again like she had a hundred times since the detective’s first visit, but she couldn’t remember anything too unusual. Except ...
“He asked me out.”
“Like on a date?” The detective began jotting down notes on a pad.
“Yes, but I reminded him I don’t date clients, and he was fine with it.”
“Was this before or after your session with him?”
“After.” She remembered something else, but it was hard to explain to a nonkink person, and she couldn’t tell if the detective was vanilla. She thought about explaining how Thomas wasn’t reaching subspace during her time with him, how it was something they had been working on together and struggled with, but she didn’t see how relaying the information would help the detective with the investigation. “There was something else. He ... he was distracted. Like he was anxious about something. Not our session but something else.”
This seemed to pique Detective Clearwater’s interest, and he paused his note-taking. “Did he say anything about his work or what he was going to do after his session with you?”
