by Frost, E J
“I’m okay, ma’am. I just hope I don’t have to walk anywhere for a while.”
She smiles at me. “No, you don’t.”
“I want you to sleep now, little girl,” Daddy says. “When you wake up, if I’ve left already, tell Mistress Maude what you want for dinner. And if the pain gets to be more than a five, I want you to tell Maude just the way you’d tell me.”
“Or you could tell me,” Master Javier says. “Except that I’m clearly chopped liver.”
That makes me giggle, which makes my stomach muscles pull something awful. “Please, don’t make me laugh, Master Javier.”
“You do realize who you’re saying that to?” He grins. “As a sadist, I consider it my duty to tell you knock-knock jokes for the next hour.”
Ow-ow-ow, more giggles. “Please, please, no, Master Javier.”
“Sh,” Daddy says, rubbing my back more firmly. “No knock-knock jokes. Time for bowbies, little girl.”
“Yes, Daddy.” I settle as much as I can under my fuzzy. The bed’s a bondage bed, with an extra-firm mattress and PVC sheets. Great for scenes. Not so great to sleep on. But anything is better than having to get up and walk.
Warm lips brush my ear and I smile sleepily, letting my eyes drift closed. Mistress Maude says something to Logan, but I don’t try to follow their conversation. Daddy’s told me to go to sleep, so I do.
Chapter Sixteen
Logan
I wait until Emily’s deeply asleep, her muscles slack, her breathing slow and even, before I set an alarm on my phone for an hour and curl around her.
“How are you holding up, Logan?” Maude asks, peering at me over the top of the half-moon glasses she’s taken out of her bag along with a silver hook and a quantity of thin, silky ribbon.
“Knackered,” I tell her truthfully. “And not in the mood for a knitting interrogation.”
“I’m crocheting, actually,” she says. “And he greatly exaggerates.”
She nods at the door, presumably indicating Javier, who just left to get his laptop.
“But if you were inclined to answer questions, I have one or two,” she says.
Uh-huh, here it comes.
“I might answer one before I fall asleep.” I yawn and not just for effect. Having to focus on Emily so intently throughout the scene, on top of the intense emotions of today, has wiped me out. “If you have other things to do between now and seven, don’t let me stop you. I’ll text you before I have to go.”
Maude sniffs. “Nonsense. You need looking after as much as Emily. You’re both exhausted, and I don’t mean physically.”
I check on my sleeping submissive and kiss the back of her head. “Ask your question.”
“When did you find out you might be the father of Miranda’s child?”
“On the cruise. Her loving husband sent me a copy of her medical record showing the removal of her IUD last September. He also threatened to kill the baby if he found out it was mine.”
“Charming.” Maude’s mouth purses. “I assume you’ve dealt with him?”
I shrug and tuck myself a little tighter around Emily. “As much as I can. I reported the threat to the police. They interviewed him and gave him a caution. That’s all they could do. He and Miranda have separated, and he’s filed for divorce. I hope he’s out of the picture, but unless I get custody, I won’t know for sure.”
Maude’s eyebrows shoot to her hairline. “You intend to try to get custody of the baby?”
“Uh-huh, if I’m the father. That’s why Miranda was here. She had a paternity test yesterday. We’ll know the results in about a week.”
“The way Miranda was looking at you when she was talking about the baby at dinner the other night, I assumed you already knew.”
“She told me she was certain it was Colin’s at first. Now she says she knows it’s mine. I’ve stopped believing anything she says.”
“Hence the paternity test,” Maude says. “And hence her attack on Emily.”
“Yeah.” I rub my hand up and down Emily’s arm. She mumbles in her sleep and snuggles back against my chest. Sweet girl.
“The maid comments may not have bothered her, but the rest of what Miranda said hit Emily right where she lives,” Maude says quietly.
“I know.” I kiss the back of Emily’s head again, breathing in the piña colada scent of her hair. “I’ll deal with it. Tonight was a good start. I’ll keep doing reinforcement until it sinks in.” I sigh and stretch and tuck back around her. “There’s one thing I haven’t addressed yet, but we’ll get to it.”
“Oh?”
Insidious crocheting interrogation.
I didn’t get into the issue of topping other subs because I didn’t want to open the subject in front of Javier and Ten, but Maude’s a different story. She won’t judge. Or if she does, she’ll bake me cupcakes to sweeten her judgment. I’m a sucker for cupcakes.
“Miranda told Emily that me topping other bottoms was an early sign of my faithlessness,” I tell Maude. “I have, as matter of truly inconvenient bloody timing, just agreed to top Lucy outside the club.”
“I’ve never noticed any particular connection between you and Lucy.”
“No, there isn’t. I didn’t train her. I’ve done a few scenes with her, but nothing heavy. That’s the problem. Everyone treats her like a fluffy bunny. I think there’s a deep vein of masochism in Lucy that we haven’t touched.”
Maude wrinkles her chin. “Without wishing to harp, dear, this is why we need you back as Master of Training.”
“Does harping at me make you a harpy?”
Maude chuckles. “You’re horrible. I have no idea why I’m so unreasonably fond of you.”
“My rugged good looks and boyish charm?”
“Both of which pale when you wallow in clichés. What are you going to do about this?”
“Have Emily watch, and sometimes participate, when I top Lucy, so she can see for herself there’s nothing sexual to it.”
“Ah, there’s my clever boy.”
Glad someone thinks so.
“I’ve been anything but clever. I could have sent Emmy to Syracuse for the week, or barred Miranda from the house. Instead, I invited that witch into our home, into Emily’s safe place, because I thought Mir could be a damn adult. I failed to keep Emily safe. I failed her, Maude. I have to fix this—”
“Logan.” Maude sets her hook and ribbon down in her lap. “Apologize to her and let it go.”
“Maude—”
“You heard me. You’ve punished her. You’ve corrected the balance between you. Apologize to her for being human and imperfect and then get back to the important work of building her back up and making her secure and confident in your love. Be her daddy. That’s all she needs.”
“Sage advice,” I say snarkily, but it actually is.
“Here’s a bit more, dear. Don’t be a dick.”
I bury my chuckle in Emily’s hair.
* * *
When my phone buzzes, I open my eyes and meet Javier’s amused gaze through a thicket of dark hair. Emily’s sprawled face-down across me, arms clasped around my ribs, legs loose against my hips, drooling a little onto my shoulder. This is definitely not how I fell asleep. She must have inched on top of me while I slept.
“Someone needed a hug,” Javier whispers.
I can’t help laughing, which wakes Emily. She snuffles and wipes her face and realizes she’s drooling all in the space of a second.
“Omi—gosh, sorry, Daddy!”
She tries to backpedal off me, but as soon as she moves, her punishment catches up to her. She collapses onto her side, pulling her knees to her chest with an agonized whimper.
“Hey, little girl.” I turn and draw her to me. “Easy does it.”
She huddles into me. I rub her back until she relaxes, muscle by muscle.
“What time is it?” she asks.
“Just after five. You’re not finished sleeping, my baby.”
“I’m not?” She
turns the big eyes up to me. “I feel like I might be for a little while.”
“Do you feel like you might be up to walking?”
Her face screws up adorably. “Not feeling that.”
“I didn’t think so.” I kiss her forehead. “Pick a book, Daddy will read to you, then it’s back to bowbies for you.”
She gives me meltingly big eyes. I give myself a mental pat on the back for that expression, which tells me she’s in littlespace, despite the pain. That’s just where I want her. Back in her free, happy place. I retrieve her bag, help her into her nightgown, then settle her in the crook of my arm, her head on my chest, while I read her another of her favorite Maurice Sendak books, Alligators All Around. It’s more of an alphabet than a story but she likes the illustrations.
Before I even get to “U,” with the alligators usually upside down, Emily’s asleep again, her breaths puffing softly across my chest. I tuck her binkie around her shoulders, make sure she has her bunny to hug, and slide out of the bed. Javier nods to me as I head out to take a shower.
* * *
On the way to the changing rooms, I pass by the upper hall desk, where Austin has replaced Cappa on dungeon-duty. At Austin’s lifted eyebrow, a gesture that conveys a ridiculous amount of concern for the exercise of a couple of muscles, I stop and reassure him that Emily’s fine and under the watch of the club’s dragon. Austin snorts at the description but doesn’t lose his anxious air. I cave and give him permission to see Emily if he can arrange cover for the desk.
I leave him calling down the roster of house subs.
The Dom’s changing room is empty when I step in, which isn’t surprising at this time of day. Before I’ve even got my sweatpants off, a man I haven’t seen in months steps in, looks me up and down, locks the door, and leans back against it.
“Logan,” he says.
“Theo,” I return.
He doesn’t say anything, just glares at me. Knowing he’s a cop, my mind does a guilty canter around all of my possible misdeeds but comes up blank.
“You lock the door because there’s something scary in the hallway, or because you’re planning to jump me?” I ask. “If it’s the latter, my safe word’s red.”
My club-brother snorts and crosses his arms over his broad chest. Theo may not be on the beat anymore, but he keeps in serious shape.
“Karl’s in the hall. He’s scary enough to warrant locking the door.” When I grin, Theo continues. “We need to talk. Just between you and me. Radio-fucking-silence.”
Radio silence. Huh. He’s never asked me for anything of the sort before, but I’m not going to deny him. If for no other reason than he’s a cop, so he could have hauled me down to the station for this chat if he wanted to. Since he hasn’t, I figure he’s probably okay with me continuing with my plans for the night.
“You mind if I shower while we talk? I’m kind of on a schedule.”
“Sure,” he says.
I finish stripping off my sweats and store them in a locker. I’ve done scenes with Theo. I’m not bothered about him seeing me naked again.
When he doesn’t seem inclined to talk, I step into a shower cubicle, leaving the door open so I can see him, and turn on the water.
“Report crossed my desk today,” Theo says.
“Uh-huh,” I say over the spray so he knows I’m listening.
“Rick Errol. Reporting a stalker. Box of hate delivered right to his door.” Theo crosses the room, his Nikes squeaking on the tiled floor. He’s in a tee and jeans, rather than a suit, so I don’t think this is an official visit. But at least I know now why he’s locked the door and demanded confidentiality. If he’s here to talk about Rick, in an official or even quasi-official capacity, then he has to keep it hush-hush since only the management committee know he’s NYPD.
He sits down on one of the benches in front of the lockers and runs his hands through his hair, dark and cropped military-short like mine. “Not my usual case. I picked it up because I saw your name.”
“I encouraged him to report it.”
“You’re providing his security?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me what’s really going on.”
“Rick’s got a stalker. Started online. Now it’s physical. Rick’s in danger; stalker knows where he lives. That’s why I told him to report it.”
“Tell me about EvonneBringsTheTruth.”
Shit. I told Rick that website would be cached somewhere.
“What do you want to know?” I ask as I lather up. The soap smells funny and I check the club-stocked bottle. Eucalyptus and lime. Meh. I’m going to have to have a word with Maude.
“Don’t fuck with me, Logan.” Theo’s growl brings my attention back to him and I meet his angry eyes. “That’s first-degree rape. Your boy is in very serious shit.”
“If the claim is true,” I say mildly.
“If the claim is true,” he agrees. “You sound like it isn’t. What do you have?”
“A duty of confidentiality to my client.”
Theo blows out a breath. “Fuck that. Not to him. Do not talk to me about confidentiality to the fucker who makes those ugly films that give kink a bad name. I’m two inches away from arresting his ass and holding him while I make a case. Tell me why I shouldn’t?”
Damn. I knew Rick didn’t make a great impression on some of my club-brothers, and the majority voted against his membership application, but I didn’t realize he’d antagonized anyone so deeply.
I knock off the water with my elbow. Wrapping one of the club towels around my waist, I go to sit on the bench next to Theo.
“Just between you and me?”
“You know nothing you tell me is admissible. It’s all fucking hearsay. Talk to me.”
“I don’t know who EvonneBringsTheTruth is. The events she says took place at the Fire Island party happened to a woman named Laurel Radford. She lives in DC. I’ve interviewed her over the phone. She says the sex was consensual. There were two other people in the room with them. A participant, Damon Tiger. He’s here in New York. He says the sex was consensual, too. He’d had sex with Laurel before; they were fuck buddies from what I can gather. The third person is a woman named Devota Donegan. She goes by the nickname Dovie. Dovie didn’t participate, but she took some of the pictures that were on EvonneBringsTheTruth’s site. She lives in Queens. I was going to interview her tonight.”
“You’ll give me everything you have. Don’t fuck around with me, Logan. Withholding evidence is a crime.”
“Come on, mate, I’m not trying to obstruct anything. You know Rick’s a Dom. Laurel’s submissive. They did a scene. The sex was rough, but it was consensual.”
Theo runs his hands through his hair again before turning his head and pinning me with a hard, blue glare. “Straight up?”
“Straight up,” I affirm. “I’m sorry Rick made a bad impression. He can be an arrogant asshole.”
Theo snorts. “Some would say that’s the definition of being a Dom.”
I shrug and rub at my wet hair with the end of the towel.
“I’m in on the interview with Miss Donegan,” he says.
I have to control my surprise. Although I’ve involved the police in several of my investigations, it was always after-the-fact. “In an official capacity?”
“Not for now, but if I need to pull my badge, I will.”
Well, when he puts it like that.
“Okay.”
I’m not sure how this is going to work, because I thought police officers had to identify themselves. But maybe that only applies when they’re interviewing a suspect. Miranda rights and all that.
“Why are you interviewing Miss Donegan?” he asks.
“She’s hiding something.”
“What? Is she EvonneBringsTheTruth?”
That’s a big leap.
“I don’t think so, but it’s possible, I guess. Did you see the box that was sent to Rick?”
Theo nods. “Pictures, yeah.”
�
�I don’t know if the pictures did it justice, but a huge amount of emotion went into the creation of that box. Emily—” I pause, because I’m not sure Theo knows who Emily is. I haven’t seen him since we got back from the cruise, so as far as I know, he hasn’t been introduced to her. “My submissive thinks the box is about Rick’s relationships with women. Other than being in the room while Rick was having sex with Laurel, I’m not aware of any connection between Dovie Donegan and Rick. Nothing that would give rise to so much emotion.”
“What’s the relationship between Miss Donegan and Miss Radford?”
“They were sorority sisters. They had threesomes with Damon Tiger before the Fire Island party. Doesn’t sound like they were lovers outside the threesomes.”
“Before, but not after?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Fuck.
“Look, I’m not trying to be obstructive, but I need Laurel’s Dom’s consent before I disclose that to you. Okay?”
Theo rolls his eyes. “Don’t pull the brother-Dom card on me, man.”
“Sorry, mate. Let me get my phone and I’ll try to get him on the line now.” I start to rise.
Theo waves me back onto the bench. “You said you were on a schedule. When’s the interview with Miss Donegan?”
“That’s, uh, not really scheduled.”
Theo shakes his head at me, but he’s smiling. “You’re just going to show up at her door?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Okay, maybe we will make this an official visit. Be a lot easier to get through the door if I flash my badge.”
“Yeah, but she might not say as much to a cop.”
“Is she a submissive, too?”
“Not according to Laurel.”
Theo rubs his hands over his face and sits silent for a long moment. I let him think. I’ve dumped a lot of information on him in a short time. I’m not sure what he believes and what he doesn’t, if he believes anything at all. I’ve never seen Theo in cop-mode before. As a Dom and club brother, Theo’s a warm, open bloke. He’s generous in scenes, inventive when it comes to discipline, and fucking funny when shooting the shit over a beer or a game of darts.
