There was silence.
Then Pat replied, “I’ll keep patrol.”
“Good call.”
He turned off outbound comms, sat back and looked to the screens.
Evangeline fiddled with the collar of the dark-blue dress shirt he was wearing.
He was dressed like a member, suit jacket, slacks, nice shirt, nice shoes that weren’t all that comfortable. None of it was. He couldn’t imagine working in an office.
But to be part of the scenery, you had to wear camouflage.
“Your last name is Dillinger,” she whispered.
It was now.
“Yup.”
A beat of silence ensued before, “You look nice dressed up, Branch.”
He glanced at her to see her eyes to his shirt then he turned back to the screens.
“I’m counting the minutes I can rip this shit off.”
He heard her giggle and that hit warm in his chest too.
“You’re definitely a cargo pants and jeans guy.”
He grunted because he felt it unnecessary to put too much effort into agreeing to the obvious.
“Um … so, can you, well … explain what just went down with Amélie’s Olly?”
He looked down at her. “He’s a friend.”
Her brows rose. “He is?”
“A good one.”
“Oh,” she mumbled.
He turned back to the screens.
“I’m thinking he knows about us now,” she noted.
She was undoubtedly right.
And damn if he didn’t give a fuck about that either.
“Ol isn’t stupid, so yeah.”
“And he’ll tell Leigh.”
He didn’t have to.
She knew too.
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay with that?”
He looked down at her. “Those two. And you should know, Aryas knows.”
“Oh,” she mumbled again.
“Those two and Aryas only. I’ll have a word with Olly later. I’ll tell him to have a word with his woman. Tell them to keep it to themselves. But only those three, Angie.”
She nodded.
No discussion. No pushing.
She just nodded.
Like when he started their chat last night and he told her not to skip down the stairs. She seemed confused, but when she got it, she got it, agreed to be safe and there it was.
No argument. No bickering.
There it was.
She also didn’t push to know what was behind what he was saying now.
She simply settled in his lap and fiddled with the buttons of his shirt.
She felt made to fit there.
Fuck.
“You want me to call, have a server bring you a drink?” he offered, eyes to the screens.
“I’m good, honey.”
She sounded it, quiet, content.
Gorgeous.
Fuck, he just kept pushing it further, dragging her right along with him.
But he didn’t set her off his lap.
He wrapped his arms loosely around her.
She snuggled closer.
Gorgeous.
Fuck.
“Just to say, good call sending a sub the size of a house with his Domme’s command to come and get me. Things might have gotten hairy with Damian if I walked off with a sub who’d come to fetch me if that sub didn’t belong to Amélie. He’s kind of a stickler for the rules.”
“I just told him to get you. I didn’t tell him how to do that. It would have been me if I could leave this room. I can’t. So it was Olly.”
“Well, he was clever about it,” she muttered.
Whatever.
Branch had gotten what he wanted. He didn’t care what shit went down to get it.
“That’s the first time I met Olly,” she shared.
Branch said nothing.
“He’s perfect for Leigh. Like he was made for her.”
Branch knew how that felt.
Shit.
“Now I’m even more pleased for Leigh,” she murmured.
“You should be,” he replied. “They’re happy.”
She snuggled closer.
They sat in comfortable silence for a good long time before she murmured, “Sixx is a master.”
Branch’s eyes went to the Mistress she’d mentioned and he couldn’t disagree. He’d seen the woman work more than once. But he’d turned down the opportunity for her to work him when Aryas made it some time ago, not because the woman didn’t know her shit and explore it on a variety of different levels. There was just something about her that hadn’t done it for him, something off, something that made Whitney seem, regardless of Sixx’s obviously superior talents, warmer and fuzzier.
In a big way.
He tightened his arms slightly.
“No, Angie, she’s a Mistress.”
“Yes, she is.”
He watched Sixx at work and saw again that she was very good at what she did.
But she was no Evangeline.
More silence then she said softly, “It’s beautiful.”
“Sixx?”
“Leigh with her Olly.”
Olly and Leigh had finally hit a playroom.
His eyes moved up to the screen with a view to Ol’s room.
Like Evangeline, when she was ready to roll, Amélie didn’t mess around.
His bud was strapped to the floor, arms out in front of him, forehead to the wood, on his knees, calves and ankles strapped down set wide, long pony’s tail up his ass, body glistening with oil, his enormous cock hanging hard and heavy, getting his back and ass and thighs curried by his woman.
Branch moved his eyes away.
Not because it wasn’t beautiful, like Angie said. It was.
Just that was his bud and he knew Olly no longer gave that first fuck people watched. He liked it. Was proud of it, what he could give to his woman. What he’d earned in return. Got off on it. He’d shared all this with Branch.
It was just that Olly wouldn’t care if Branch saw, but Branch would care if Olly saw. That had never been his gig. And so he felt the need to return a favor that didn’t need returning.
Still, he did it.
“Feels weird, watching them,” she noted. “Like an invasion of privacy.
“I hear that.”
“You probably can’t turn off their monitor.”
He gave her a squeeze. “Sorry, baby, no.”
“I get it.”
She did more than anybody, even though hell would freeze over before Olly hurt Amélie in any way he could do that.
“They don’t mind,” he told her.
“I know.”
“He’s proud of it. He likes that she shows him off.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“So you guys are close.”
He glanced down at her to see her gazing up at him. “Yeah.”
She grinned.
He tore his eyes away and looked back at the screens.
“She’s never tailed anybody that I know of,” she murmured.
“She has now,” Branch pointed out the obvious.
“Saved it for the right one.”
“Mm,” he hummed.
There was more silence, it lasted awhile, it felt good, right, but it was no surprise Evangeline broke it when Ol started humping the air, head back, the tail clearly jacking his hole in a way he liked.
Branch wondered if he looked like that when Angie was working him.
He hoped so. Even watching it come from his brother, Branch hoped he gave even a little bit of that to Evangeline.
What he knew was Angie’s face looked like Leigh’s.
Sweet.
And hungry.
She shifted in his lap. “I can’t wait to get you in my playroom.”
He drew her closer. “Me either, Angie.”
He held her longer and silence set in, lengthened, when finally she tipped her head back and kissed under his jaw.
> Branch closed his eyes.
“I better go. Leave you to it. Need some sleep, honey. I’ll see you when you get there.”
He looked down at her soft, contented, pretty little face and there’d been a number of times when he could kiss her, when he knew they both wanted it, and now was one of those times.
He didn’t kiss her.
He whispered, “See you when I get there.”
She didn’t quite hide the disappointment but smiled, lifted her hand to run her fingers down his jaw, then scrambled off his lap.
Branch watched her walk to the door and he watched her open it.
And his soul lit again when she turned and blew him a kiss.
She winked, walked out the door.
And Branch manipulated the screens so he followed her, step by step, as she went to reception to get her purse then made it to her girly-ass car and drove away.
twelve
See the Light
EVANGELINE
The bed moved when Branch got in it.
“Branch?” she mumbled.
“Yeah, Angie, shh,” he shushed her, drawing her into his arms, into his body, covering her slightly with his weight and warmth.
She felt her lips curl up, thought to say something, touch him, and began to slide an arm around him.
Then she fell asleep.
* * *
Evangeline woke, thankfully, before the alarm.
She shifted slightly and tipped her head back when the arms around her tightened.
She saw Branch’s face in sleep, the still-shadowed room not hiding what wasn’t surprising.
Even in sleep, he looked alert, like he could wake and be ready to face an attack without even blinking.
Evangeline wanted to soothe that, soften it so the expression on his face showed nothing but ease and serenity.
And not just in sleep.
But she’d take just sleep.
However, that might be an even more herculean task than the one she’d assigned herself so she decided to just stay on target … for now.
She could up her goals later.
And after how he’d behaved last night, just seeing her standing in the hall with Damian, then everything that came after, she was beginning to believe she might get the chance to do that.
Smiling to herself, she started to move out of his arms carefully, not wanting to disturb him.
But like a cat, his long body stretched even as his arms convulsed, pulling her back into his embrace, all this automatically.
She waited it out as he gathered her closer, still asleep, and tried not to let her smile split open her face.
When she again attempted to pull away, she watched his eyes flicker open.
“Sleep, baby, but I have to get up.”
He blinked, gave her a squeeze, muttered, “’Kay,” and let her go.
Rolling, he nabbed a pillow and pulled it to his chest, hitching up a leg, and she watched him fall back to sleep.
Lord, she didn’t want to leave him.
But she had a meeting with Mira and Trey to go through their houses and set up their listing and she couldn’t let her friend down.
So she got out of bed and was as quiet as she could be getting ready for work.
And so she wouldn’t break down and bail on her friend, as she tiptoed, shoes dangling from her fingers, to the stairs, she only allowed herself a glance at Branch’s amazingness as he slept in her bed. His black hair and tanned skin a shocking contrast against the pillows and sheets. His muscles still defined even in rest. And even with all the frills, flowers and ruffles, his body looking made to sleep in her bed.
She did her thing in the kitchen, leaving it tidy, but setting it up for when he got up and writing a note.
Then, with another smile on her face, she unarmed and rearmed the alarm, unlocked the door, locked it behind her and walked to her car.
* * *
She was in her office, working on Mira and Trey’s listings, when her phone went.
It was Amélie.
Oh boy.
She took the call, answering casually, “Hey there.”
“Hey there?” Amélie asked instantly, and somewhat irately.
She straightened in her chair and started, “Listen, Leigh—”
“We all must live our lives, Evangeline, and we do things for reasons that not everyone understands. But you sat there listening to me share my concerns about you turning away from your nature and you didn’t say a thing. Your business is your business, chérie. However, I was open with my concern and I must admit to feeling some hurt you didn’t find some way to assuage it.”
Now she felt like a bitch.
“Leigh—” she tried again.
“Are you and Branch together?”
With that, she felt some surprise.
“Do you know him?” she asked.
“Of course, he’s a good friend of Olly’s.”
This was something that came as a shock to her even though Branch had shared the same thing, and as Leigh and Olly were together, it shouldn’t.
However, Branch seemed so impenetrable she couldn’t imagine him having friends.
But he did.
Olly, as Branch had said last night.
And thinking about it, it was clear with the situation as it stood, Aryas was much more than someone who came to Branch for “jobs.”
Aryas might own a string of exclusive sex clubs across the Western United States, but he wasn’t a pimp. If he was looking for Dommes safe for Branch, he wasn’t doing it to pay a marker or because he was the benevolent god of all who practiced BDSM and he worked tirelessly to make sure all his subjects got their kink.
He did it because he cared for Branch.
And now another friend (possibly), Leigh.
It was almost like Branch was a normal person (in the way Branch could be—that along with being unfairly gorgeous, a screamingly possessive alpha and a god among subs).
“We, well, we’re…,” she tried to explain.
Together?
They were. They absolutely were.
They were exclusive.
They also weren’t.
Together, that was.
The message Branch delivered last night was clear, however. The exclusive part was not in question.
She felt a happy tingle but ignored it.
“Listen,” she went on, “you can’t tell anybody.”
“Why not?” Amélie asked.
“Because that’s the way Branch wants it.”
Amélie didn’t reply.
“He’s private about that,” Evangeline explained.
“Understandable but I’m afraid, chérie, that cat is out of the bag.”
Damn.
“How? Have you said something to someone?” she asked.
“No. Though we’ll just say Damian wasn’t all that pleased I sent my Olly to go fetch you and he came back to the hunting ground to share this with me. Since Olly was engaged in delivering you to Branch, Stellan overheard him and felt, as I was unprotected, regardless that I don’t need protection, that he had to come to my rescue. This is good, in a way, we’ve been distant for a while. But it was also bad, because it caused a little hullabaloo.”
Fabulous.
A hullabaloo at the Honey, little or not, was never good.
Leigh spoke on.
“Not as big a hullabaloo as you being back in the first place, which had interest piqued already. But Olly marching you through the hunting ground wasn’t missed by anybody. Further, his escorting you to the control room wasn’t missed by some arriving subs. This was shared and I’m afraid, my darling, that, although Aryas’s security is very good, they aren’t invisible. So although I don’t think many of them know who Branch is personally, they saw him around last night and have seen him around at other times. He’s not difficult to look at, among other things, so we’ll just say he’s rather unforgettable. And for an experienced Master, Mistress or sub, he’s not entirely hard to read.
They saw the other one was not the one in that room with you. So talk ran rampant, and correct, I’ll note, assumptions were made.”
Damn.
“Okay, Amélie, I’ll warn Branch.” Not a conversation she was looking forward to, though it was him who’d had her dragged to that room in the first place. “But please, can you try to keep a lock on it from now on?”
“If this is how you and Branch wish it, Leenie, then of course.”
Evangeline let out a breath.
“How long has this been going on?” Leigh asked.
This was her new quandary.
He’d said only Aryas, Amélie and Olly.
But did he mean she could talk freely?
Or did she still have to honor the nondisclosure agreement even though they all knew?
Better safe than sorry.
“Like I said, and I’m sorry, Leigh, but Branch is really private.”
“I don’t find this surprising. What I will say is, I find it hopeful.”
Evangeline felt warmth hit her belly.
“I didn’t know Kevin that well outside the club,” Amélie continued. “What I knew I liked, personally, and for you. But I didn’t know him well. Branch, however, I like unreservedly.”
More warmth hit her belly. So much it felt hot.
And good.
“Really?” she asked softly.
“Really, my darling,” Amélie replied in the same way. “He’s quiet. I can’t say I know him very well either. But he’s got a lovely manner. He’s respectful. I’m uncertain how to describe it but he makes it clear his friendship with Olly is meaningful and, obviously, with Olly what he is to me, that means a good deal to me. And Olly thinks the world of him.”
All this wasn’t good.
It wasn’t great.
It was wonderful.
“I like him,” she whispered, like Branch could hear her sharing.
“I’m glad.” Amélie matched her tone. It was cute and sweet and felt beautiful.
“He’s … he’s … very honest, Leigh. In everything.”
“That’s a delight to hear, Leenie.”
“We haven’t been together long and he’s, well … there are things—”
“You needn’t say more or break whatever trust he has in you, Evangeline,” Amélie assured. “I’ve been around him often. I understand what you’re saying.”