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Skye thought of Tiger’s arms around her as she slept. And hurt.
She tensed when he emerged onto the public floor. Since he hadn’t needed to do more than put his clothes back on, she expected the time it had taken him to appear had been spent figuring out his next move. Hence her tension.
He looked calm, but it was the lethal kind he’d shown when he’d faced down Rock. He was looking for someone, and it wasn’t her. She gripped the edge of the table as his gaze lighted on his target.
Shit.
She was about to vault her way over Ros, but she was already too late. He’d reached Little John, the sub she and Vera had scened with earlier in the evening. True to the scene name, the man was tall and broad, even more so than Tiger. But Tiger’s force of will seemed to diminish Little John as Tiger leaned in, got in his face and said something. He waited until he’d received the other man’s wary nod. Then he thankfully walked away.
She hoped he was headed for the exit, but he wasn’t done strangling her with her emotions.
Near the bar, navy blue chalkboards covered two sides of a corner. Each panel was six feet tall and eight feet wide. Whenever she walked past them, she smelled that powdery chalk scent. Those who used the boards sometimes carried the faint dust on their fingertips.
People could put anything they wished on them, whatever they felt. They were erased at closing each night, though it was one of the few places in the club where people were allowed totake pictures. No one ever signed them, anonymous offerings of their most personal thoughts and imaginings. They drew things, wrote poetry, made simple statements, declarations, or jotted random thoughts. Another way of expressing oneself, in a place with so many to offer.
Tiger put down his bag and picked up a piece of chalk. Then he began to write, in broad, uneven strokes.
Afraid.
Alone in my head.
I didn’t understand until I was in the silence, and realized what your silence had given me. What it meant. What was there.
I want to be yours. I am yours.
I feel like you’re mine. Are you? Will you be? Is it too much to ask?
I’ve always been able to hear you. Always.
He underlined the last word twice, with enough strength to break the chalk. He put the two pieces in the tray and picked up his bag. He headed for the exit without looking around at anyone.
Including her.
Skye stared at the words. She could feel the others’ attention upon her. Ros had already slid out of the booth, so nothing was in her way as Skye rose. She walked across the lounge, down the short series of steps and past the bar. She stood before the board. He’d used lavender chalk, and she knew he’d done so because he detected the scent on her. Another potent message.
She touched the words and marked them with her fingertips. The wordMine. Yours.Silence. She stroked that word until the dust was on her fingertips and the word was streaked to illegibility.
“Why did you come to work for me?”
Ros had joined her and was standing at her shoulder. When Skye looked at her, surprised by the question, Ros continued. “You were excellent at doing what you did. You didn’t have to put yourself out there, become part of a company where you had to deal with bigger communication hurdles every day.”
Skye had thought about it herself, often enough to know the answer. It didn’t make it any easier to admit it, not when it pointed right at the issue she was facing now.
“I’d become invisible,” she signed. Not her work. Her. It had become too easy to stay that way. When she stood before her bathroom mirror, she’d sometimes thought her image was fading away, like a ghost. “I was cutting myself off from what life has to offer.” The things that were only accessible when she connected with others.
Skye stared broodily at those words again. Sighed. Ros put a hand on her shoulder.
“The rest of us can only guess how difficult it is to interact with a world that communicates a different way,” she said. “You and Abby both live that truth. But he’s said it right here. He was given a glimpse of it, which let him get past that gate and go deeper into who you are.”
Ros touched the wordAlone. “Every one of us struggles with isolation, because we’re stuck inside our own heads with whatever bullshit is happening there. Vera says the mind is a fortress that has to be opened up to let in light, air, and meaning. I can’t say I disagree.” Her eyes darkened with remembered losses. “You had the courage to figure out that it makes life more worth living. Not everyone does.”
Skye knew who Ros was remembering, and she put a hand on her boss’s arm, a comfort for an old pain. But Ros shook off the feeling, squeezing her hand.
“Don’t let him get away for the wrong reasons.” Her blue eyes sparkled. “Though plenty other Dommes wouldn’t mind it a bit if you did.”
When Skye narrowed her gaze, Ros tossed her an unrepentant bitch smile. Then she sobered. “Be the Mistress you want to be, to the sub you know is yours. No matter what happens, you won’t regret risking your heart with him.”
Emotions swamped Skye as she shifted her gaze once more to the words on the wall. Abruptly, she turned on a heel and headed for the exit.
