Yes.
Evangeline was falling in love with Branch Dillinger. She knew it. She didn’t fight it.
She had another battle on her hands and everything depended on her winning, most especially the fact she was falling in love.
She was hopeful.
And she was terrified.
“Of course,” she agreed to his demand. “No Damian.”
“You gonna go back to the playrooms and watch?” he asked.
She felt a little thrill that stunk to have because she wanted to do that. She liked doing that. She missed doing that.
But she wouldn’t be doing it with him or be able to come back to him once she had.
This being the part that stunk.
“Probably.”
“Alone, babe, if Aryas is there, you can go back with him. One of your girls. Someone you know I’d trust. That isn’t available to you, you go it alone.”
“Okay, but, I’m kind of close to Stellan. He’s there a lot and if—”
“Lange?” he cut her off to ask.
“Yes.”
“You’re not his flavor, and the guy might wear a suit but my take on him is that he’s not big on putting up with shit and has his way to make that known, so if you’re tight with him, okay.”
He was wrong about the first (in a way) but she decided not to share that with him at that time.
For obvious reasons she’d not told him Stellan had paid her a visit. She figured they had to be in an entirely different place for her to do that.
“What you get from that, you save for me,” he demanded.
She stared at the sink. “Um … sorry?”
“You come with me, be it me giving it to you or you taking it working me.”
“Are you telling me to abstain from any dirty activities until my big boy gets home?” she asked.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“You’re such an alpha,” she muttered, and it was far from a complaint.
“Take it out on me when I get back, which, babe, you worked up and pent up is the point of abstaining, as you know real well.”
“Right,” she mumbled, smiling.
“Go. Have fun. Thinking I’ll be back in two days, maybe three.”
Only two days.
Maybe three.
Good.
“Okay, honey.”
“Right, baby. Talk to you later.”
“Later, Branch. Stay safe and be good.”
“I prefer being bad, Angie. But we’ll see.” She laughed softly and he whispered into it, “’Bye, babe.”
“’Bye, Branch.”
He disconnected.
Evangeline put her phone down on the counter and looked at her smiling face in the mirror.
She looked hopeful.
But she was still terrified.
* * *
“Is he making you happy?”
Amélie asked that question.
It was late. Evangeline had been at the Honey for a while.
And it had been great.
It was Saturday night so it was busy, everyone wanting to let loose from the week, burn off the stress, go where they’d wanted to be probably since last Saturday.
She’d chatted with Leigh and Olly (who, getting to know him better, she liked wholeheartedly) until Felicia had joined them and they’d gone back to the playrooms.
Felicia had been joined by Pascal. Felicia then found her plaything and took off. Pascal stayed and introduced Evangeline to a Domme called Talia who was an utterly gorgeous, tall, willowy African American with a hilariously smart mouth and a wicked sense of humor.
They’d all drifted away when Penn and Shane had joined her. She’d caught up with her favorite engaged couple when Marisol added herself to their party.
Penn and Shane gave her hugs before they went to the playrooms and Marisol had chatted only briefly before sending her sign to her subs and exiting the booth when Amélie got back.
Clearly, Olly needed some alone time and Evangeline grinned at her, knowing just that as Amélie slid into the booth beside her.
Now they were alone and Evangeline was buzzed just on being with good friends in her place that she missed and not on the champagne she’d been carefully sipping, since she’d driven there and wanted to drive back home.
After Amélie uttered her question Evangeline turned her head to look at Leigh and saw her friend studying her.
“I ask only, chérie, because you’ve yet to give me the sign you’re open for a dinner invitation at my house with you and Branch and me and Olly,” Amélie said quietly.
“I’ve never been happier in my life,” she confided.
Leigh smiled.
“And I’ve never been more terrified, because he’s giving me everything and still nothing.”
Leigh frowned.
“I don’t understand this, Leenie,” she shared.
“And I wish I could get deeper into it with you, Leigh, but I can’t.” Her eyes slid to the hunting ground of the Honey, which was the middle of the room where all the subs hung out, surrounded by the bar at the back wall and booths all around where the Dommes sat, looking over what was available. “Not here,” she finished.
“Then we must do lunch again soon,” Amélie stated.
Evangeline shook her head. “I don’t know. Branch is, like, super private. That’s so important to him, it’s become important to me.”
“I understand this, but first, you also need to look out for you. And second, do you not think you can trust me?”
“I trust you, Leigh,” she told her, reaching out and curling her fingers around the hand Amélie had resting on the table. “But your boyfriend is one of Branch’s good friends.”
“Of course,” she murmured, turning her hand and catching hold of Evangeline’s. “Then all I’ll share is, right now, you’re saying these things to me. And weeks ago, you said essentially the same things. You’re hopeful. And you’re scared. But life needs progress, Evangeline, so it goes without saying, relationships need the same.”
She nodded in agreement and assured, “We’re progressing.” She gave Leigh’s hand a squeeze. “I just don’t know where.”
Leigh’s finely arched brows drew together. “Where would progress take you except closer together if it’s working?”
“Yes, that’s where we’re going. And I’m terrified of it only because Branch is petrified of the same.”
“Ah,” she breathed, also tightening her fingers around Evangeline’s. “So what you’re saying now is that you have more work to do.”
Evangeline nodded again, relieved Amélie got it without her sharing much of anything.
Amélie lifted their hands from the table and gave them a light shake. “I have every faith.”
She wished she felt the same.
She just gave her friend a shaky smile.
The return one she received was not shaky.
“Is this Mistresses only?”
They both looked up at Stellan’s voice to see the man himself standing beside their table in another one of his impeccable suits looking dashing, gorgeous …
And impenetrable.
“Good, I’m glad you’re here,” Amélie said, letting Evangeline go and shifting out of the booth. “I must return to Olivier and I didn’t want to leave Evangeline alone.” She caught Stellan’s gaze. “Now you can visit with her.”
“My pleasure,” he replied.
Amélie gave him a small smile, lifted her hand and curled her long, elegant fingers around his biceps for but a moment before she dropped her hand and threw her smile over her shoulder at Evangeline. She then floated to the door to the playrooms in that catwalk model sashay that Evangeline had always envied.
Stellan, she noted, didn’t watch her go. He slid into the booth beside Evangeline and her attention turned to his profile to see him lifting his chin at somebody.
She looked that way to see it was a server.
“Do you need another?” he asked.
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Her attention again went to him, she saw him tip his head to her glass and she shook her own. “I’m driving.”
“Of course,” he murmured. “And how are things?”
“Very good, Stellan. You?”
“They’re always good, Evangeline, because I refuse to accept anything else. But you mistake my question. How are things?”
She held his gaze and repeated firmly, “Very good, Stellan.”
He dipped his face closer to hers. “And if you were mine, that lie would earn you holding my balls in your mouth for an hour with a rabbit working inside you.”
She wasn’t going to share that with Branch either.
“Stop flirting,” she admonished.
He smiled.
She tipped her head to the side. “Nothing striking your fancy tonight?”
He sighed, moving his attention to the hunting ground. “Aryas needs to return. New members aren’t allowed in unless he interviews them personally and I’m thinking until there’s something fresh to choose from, nothing will strike my fancy.”
“Poor baby,” she murmured.
His gaze cut to hers. “Now you need to stop flirting, sweetheart.”
She grinned at him.
“I’ve heard Sixx is working in social,” he remarked. “Fancy a stroll through the playrooms to watch her do her thing?”
She did.
She started to accept his offer but his head suddenly turned again. She felt something glide off of him that made a shiver race up her spine just as he slid out of the booth.
And when his deep, silky voice came again, it shocked her when it came in a growl.
“This is not happening.”
Around his body, Damian stepped, coming into Evangeline’s view.
Damn.
He might have stepped into her view but Damian’s eyes were on Stellan. “She doesn’t need a guard dog, Lange.”
“Master Lange, friend,” Stellan returned smoothly.
Damian’s lip curled and he, too, was very handsome (though no match for Stellan, and definitely not Branch), unfortunately even doing that.
“I’d like a word with Evangeline,” he demanded.
Of Stellan.
Lord, she was sitting right there.
“Mistress Evangeline,” Stellan shot back.
“Stand down,” Damian demanded, ignoring Stellan’s words.
“I’d rather not,” Stellan replied.
Damian gave up on him and looked at her. “I believe, pretty baby, that if you turned sub, I earned the right to be one of the first to know.”
Her shoulders straightened in affront. “And if that ever happens, Master Damian, I’ll see you get the news.”
Stellan shifted, blocking Damian from her view, declaring, “And this ends here.”
Again, Damian ignored his words.
“It’s not on, she sends Amélie’s stud to get up in my face and take her from me.”
“It’s my understanding it wasn’t Evangeline who did that, but Amélie, and you know that’s Amélie’s prerogative and has nothing to do with her stallion. But regardless, it’s Evangeline’s prerogative to walk away and that’s where that discussion begins and ends.”
“Unsure why it’s you standing in my way,” Damian stated.
“I’m unsure I feel like explaining,” Stellan replied.
“Just to say, Lange, as I’ve already staked my claim to her, you aren’t in the position to do the same,” Damian told him.
“Your memory appears to be faulty,” Stellan retorted. “She’s a Domme.”
“She wasn’t when I had my mouth up her cunt,” Damian fired back.
Evangeline’s head jerked in shock and anger.
“Making her come doesn’t make her switch sides, Damian,” Stellan returned.
“It wasn’t you with your mouth between her legs, Lange, so you don’t know how it was. But I do.”
Everything about Stellan changed and Evangeline, who was about to open her mouth to intervene—heatedly—froze at seeing it.
And feeling it.
“It will be my hand twisting your balls off if you don’t get the fuck away and do it now,” he warned, that silk of his voice now silkier, the tone lower and downright scary.
She vaguely noticed the server arriving with Stellan’s drink, but wisely reading the situation, the woman turned and retreated.
“Piss off,” Damian clipped.
“I’ll piss on you after I shove your balls up your ass,” Stellan replied nonchalantly.
After that all she could see was Stellan’s broad-shouldered back in his suit jacket and all she could hear was silence, but she felt the animosity roiling off both of them and she knew she wasn’t the only one. The hum of chatter in the room had dimmed significantly.
Wonderful.
Everyone who’d been a member back then knew what had happened to her and everyone who hadn’t had probably been told.
Now this.
“Gentlemen,” she started, sliding her behind across the seat.
Stellan twisted at the waist and pinned her with his eyes.
“You get nowhere near this piece of trash,” he bit out and she froze. “Stay where you are, Evangeline. Please.”
She nodded slowly.
He turned back to Damian.
“You’re done,” he informed Damian.
“Her pussy was sweet but not worth your hassle.”
“And this is why you won’t earn it again, for every good Master knows sweet pussy is worth any hassle,” Stellan returned.
And Evangeline thought that was sweet because she sensed it meant much more than the simple words he used to say it.
Stellan carried on.
“I won’t tell Aryas about our conversation, although it’s been witnessed by others who might, and I don’t have to tell you how he’ll feel, you brought this to his club and to Evangeline. What I will tell you is that, if I hear Evangeline has difficulties again with you, you’ll not only deal with me, and Aryas, you’ll also deal with someone else who’s staked their claim to her and I can assure you that you actually don’t want my hassle. You know you don’t want Aryas’s. But the man you really need to fear is not Aryas or me.”
“I’m quaking in my boots,” Damian said flippantly.
“Smart,” Stellan rejoined. “Though you catch what you earned tonight from who she’s made hers, you’ll be shitting in your pants.”
“Aryas’s security guy?” Damian puffed out in disbelief.
“Tell me, where is Kevin?” Stellan asked casually.
Evangeline rolled her eyes to the ceiling.
“Fuck you,” Damian spat.
“Please, no,” Stellan murmured sardonically. “Then again, you already know I do the fucking and your ass is not to my taste.”
There were several moments of silence that lengthened before the hum of conversation began again, far more animated than it had been, and Stellan turned, offering his arm to her.
It was then she saw that Damian was gone, stalking across the hunting ground toward the front door.
“We were going to social?” he noted.
She looked up at him and burst out laughing.
Then she reached out a hand and curled it around his arm, finishing sliding out of the booth to take her feet.
He shifted his arm to tuck her hand to his side and started her across the hunting ground as she remarked, “It’s good he left the building. A sub caught that mood from Damian, they might be in bed for a week.”
“Mm,” he murmured noncommittally, moving them toward the playroom door, knowing, just as she did, that no Dom brought their attitude into a playroom unless the sub knew precisely what they were getting.
That didn’t mean a Master like Damian wouldn’t play it anyway.
And even only getting his murmur, she knew Stellan not only didn’t play it that way, he wasn’t big on anyone doing the same.
She waited until they were through, the door closing the hunting ground
off behind them before she said her next.
“It’d be good you didn’t talk about Branch and me.”
He kept them walking as he looked down at her. “If you think it’s a secret, honey, it’s my sad duty to disabuse you of that notion.”
“Still, throwing him in Damian’s face—”
He stopped them and looked down at her. “What would Dillinger do if he knew that had happened?”
She couldn’t control her shiver.
“Right,” he whispered before he drew her closer and dipped his face toward hers. “Leenie, a part of me understands his caution when it comes to what you mean to him and how he’s striving to protect you. Probably more than even you understand it, though it’s clear you’re trying to protect it too.”
She felt his words settle in her chest in a way that was arresting.
Not like her breath had stopped.
Like she’d been holding it and she was again breathing.
Part of me understands his caution when it comes to what you mean to him.
And just like that, part of Evangeline understood the same thing.
Not entirely.
But having just a hint of it gave her something extraordinary.
“However,” Stellan carried on, “of the very few positives I can think of in terms of you being with him, and of others knowing you are, the fact that no one will ever harm you in any way, physically or verbally, is one of them.”
She felt her face get soft. “And what are the other positives?”
“That tall piece of lean meat?” he asked and shook his head slightly. “I’m afraid, sweetheart, that since you shared the things you shared in your office I’ve enjoyed thinking of the things he lets you do to him. I’d pay a good deal to be a fly on the wall of your playroom.”
She grinned and teased, “It’s my sad duty to inform you that will never happen.”
“It’s my sad duty to be informed, Leenie. Because even if I can let my imagination loose, I’ll bet the reality is a far better thing.”
He was a master at being a Master. He might be wrong. She’d seen the results of his imagination.
But the way she saw it, he was very right.
She just kept grinning at him.
He then started them moving again.
And Evangeline was allowing her mind to turn over his earlier words so she didn’t quite take it in when Stellan stopped them at the window to Shane and Penn’s playroom long enough for them to watch Penn fucking Shane’s face while his partner, sub and fiancé was on his knees, wrists tied behind him with the bindings also tied to his ankles.