by Lexi Blake
He nodded and waved it off like he’d known that would be the reaction. Which he had. “No problem. I thought that’s what you might say. I wanted to give you first dibs. I’ve got another psychologist lined up. Kenny Prewitt. He’s done a couple of documentaries on true crime. Don’t worry about it.”
Kai’s face immediately went a nice shade of red. “That quack? You can’t be serious. He’s not a real psychologist. He’s a nice head of hair. That’s all I can say about that idiot.”
Jared let Kai rant on. He’d known Kenny Prewitt had a long history of clashing with Kai. They’d been in the same doctoral program. Kai had gone into private practice and Ken had found fame as the therapist to the stars.
Dr. Kenny wasn’t actually doing the documentary. There was no way he was paying what Dr. Kenny asked, and Kai was right about him being nothing more than a good haircut and some really shockingly white veneers that could be hard on his cinematography. But Kai didn’t have to know that.
“I’ll do it.” Kai pronounced the words with a sigh like he’d known he would have to bail his little brother out again.
Yeah, score one for the actor. “That’s great, Kai. You were actually there. You’re the one who was involved. I think your input could be invaluable.”
Kai frowned. “That doesn’t mean I should talk about it on camera.”
Jared shrugged. “Dr. Kenny said it might not be good for you. He said you’re probably too close to the subject to be able to talk about it. He had some theories about you he was more than willing to share.”
“I will share my theories with him. I will share them right up his probably bleached asshole, and then we’ll see how he feels,” Kai vowed.
“Oh, he’s out if you’re in. I just need someone who can talk about the incident from a psychological point of view.” And that person had always been Kai. He had to be sneaky about making sure Kai said yes.
“Fine. I suppose I’ll have to do it. Are you planning on talking to the other people who were affected?”
“I already have talked to them. That part of the documentary was the most important. It was hard. I talked to each of the victims’ families.” He had to look away or Kai would see how haunted he still was. “It wouldn’t be right if I simply told his story and not theirs.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell me you were seeing the families? I would have come with you to make sure you’re all right. Those women, they were murdered because Squirrel had an obsession with you. A rational person would understand that doesn’t mean you’re at fault.”
“But a father whose daughter was killed because she’d had a brief affair with a TV star isn’t rational.” He had to take a deep breath. “It was terrible and I had to do it. It wasn’t until I showed him how I intended to portray Carrie that he even would meet with me. Mia had to talk to him.”
Mia Taggart had been involved. She’d had a friend who’d died at Squirrel’s hands. At the time she’d thought it was Jared himself doing the killing, crawling across the world like a spider finding his next victim.
The film was as much about Jared’s own blindness as it was Squirrel’s evil.
Mia had built a bridge between Jared and the victims’ families. She’d convinced them he would do the right thing by their daughters and sisters. He meant to make her proud.
“I don’t cut myself slack,” he admitted. “I knew something was wrong with Squirrel. I knew something was up with the way he treated women, but he was my buddy. Surely he was just blowing off steam. I didn’t think there was any way he could hurt one of them. I want this to be a wake-up call. Men…we can’t let other men off the hook when it comes to this. I know it’s an extreme case, but what would have happened if I’d taken it seriously the first time he catcalled a woman or talked about how he wanted to strangle the ones who nagged too much?”
Kai sent him a sympathetic look. “If I were in your place, I likely would have thought he was joking, too.”
“No, you would have known. You would have asked the pertinent questions. Kai, it’s okay. Part of making this whole documentary is about taking responsibility. I can’t forgive myself until I truly know the wrong I did. I think you told me that once.” He’d learned a lot from his brother. He’d learned that sometimes a man had to be patient. And sometimes patience didn’t work and a man had to press things forward a bit. “Now let’s talk about the other thing I need from you.”
“An invitation to Sanctum?” Kai asked, his lips curling up in a knowing smile.
There was a reason he needed the invitation. He’d run away from a lot of things when he’d left Dallas last time. “I gave up my membership when I walked away from Sarah.”
Kai studied him for a moment. “You’re ready to try this again?”
“I know she doesn’t want to talk to me, but she agreed to do the documentary. That has to mean something. I won’t hurt her. If she chooses to not play with me, I’ll probably go home and I won’t bother her again. She spoke to me on the phone a couple of months back about the project.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t mention it to me.” Kai was married to Sarah’s best friend. They were deeply entrenched in each other’s daily lives.
“I suspect she’s embarrassed.” He’d thought for a long time about why Sarah wouldn’t forgive him. “For a couple of months, we regularly talked. And then she stopped all of a sudden.”
“She stopped returning your calls?” Kai asked. “That doesn’t sound like Sarah. She’s not afraid of confrontation. What happened the last time you talked to her?”
He’d gone over it again and again. He’d replayed that phone call a thousand times in his head. “We talked about her day. She’d worked a long shift because of a massive traffic accident. She wanted me to tell her stories about celebrities I’ve met. I think she found that soothing. Especially the ones where they turn out to be assholes, and that’s a surprising number of them.”
“I do not find that surprising at all,” Kai replied. “So you two didn’t argue?”
“No. We were even doing something together. We bought those DNA tests, the ones that tell you where you come from.” It had been a silly thing to do, but they’d spit in the little vial together one night, making fun of each other over a video chat. She’d teased him telling him she was way better at swallowing. They’d been moving forward. “We were betting on who was going to have the more boring ancestry.”
“And then she refused to talk to you?”
“I was gone for three weeks filming in Asia. It’s a streaming movie that comes out next summer. We were in a pretty remote spot and I wasn’t able to keep in touch. But I’d told her I would call her when I got back. I was going to ask her to come out and see me. I thought we’d gotten to be friendly again and maybe it was time to move into something more. I’d cleaned up my personal life entirely. You remember my friend, the one I pretended to date to keep the press off both of us? Well, I explained I couldn’t do it anymore because I needed Sarah to understand she would be the only woman in my life. I was going to explain this to her but when I got back to the States, she refused to take my calls.”
“Something happened,” Kai mused. “Recently. She’s been quieter than normal. When I ask, she simply smiles and tells me nothing’s wrong and I’m being too ‘shrinky,’ as she puts it. That is not a technical term, by the way.”
But it sounded very much like a Sarah term. She was utterly adorable. “She finally replied to an email I sent about the documentary. She agreed to do the interview but she demanded more cash and asked that I not call her again until it was time to film. I don’t understand. She seemed like she was getting over it.”
“Getting over you dumping her?” Kai asked in that tone that let him know he’d said something stupid. “You know that’s a dumbass move when you’re in love with a woman. She tends to take exception.”
He’d had his reasons. They’d seemed like good ones at the time. “I had just found out my friend was a killer and that she’d been his nex
t victim. I had to watch him die. He deserved it, but he was still a big part of my life. Yeah, I needed a time-out. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still want her. It doesn’t mean I don’t think about her every minute of the day. I’ve been celibate. I haven’t touched another woman since before I met her.”
Two and a half years. He hadn’t had sex in two and a half years. Before he’d met Sarah he hadn’t gone two weeks without. The problem was he knew she was the one and he couldn’t cheat on her. If he had any shot at winning her back, at showing her they could work, he had to be serious about their relationship. Even when it didn’t exist.
Kai was staring at him with something akin to awe. “Are you serious?”
Jared nodded. “I’m in love with her. It’s wrong to sleep with someone else. This is my last shot. If she can’t find a way to forgive me for walking out the first time, then I’ll try to move on. But I want this chance with her.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day because Ian Taggart called before you came in and wanted me to put together Doms and subs for this big party thing he’s throwing for Charlotte’s birthday…of course. How does he see these things before I do? He knew you were in town, right?”
Big Tag had been one of his first calls. “I asked him if we could do some filming in the building since it’s part of the story.”
“He’s a smart asshole. Well, brother, looks like you get your chance.”
Jared breathed a sigh of relief as Kai started to explain. This was his shot and he was taking it.
Chapter Two
In which our heroine receives an invitation to the ball…
“What do you think it means? Is Charlotte seriously having a birthday party that lasts three days? That’s pretty legit.” Sarah Stevens stared down at the beautifully engraved invitation that had been dropped off at her apartment earlier in the day. “Did you get one?”
She stood in front of her locker at Sanctum, still wearing her scrubs. It had been a long shift and she was looking forward to some play. She wished she was looking forward to some crazy sex, but that wasn’t happening.
Of course Jared Johns was in town. He was precisely the reason she hadn’t had any freaky sex in a very long time. The idea of calling him up whispered across her mind. She could sleep with him, spend the weekend in bed with him, and then he would be gone. It wasn’t like she was taking any big risks. He would go back to his Hollywood life and she would…she would do what she had to do. No muss. No fuss.
She would do it in a heartbeat if she truly thought he would walk away. If she thought she could swipe some sweetness from his super-gorgeous honey pot and get away clean, she would be in bed with him now. Screw playing in the club. They could do it privately and she could spend her last weekend doing nasty, filthy glorious things to that man’s hot bod. But he claimed he wanted more.
And she’d so recently learned she didn’t have more to give.
“I did. Apparently the queen has decided to have a royal ball in celebration of her birthday,” Kori said with a grin. “I’ve heard it’s going to be three nights of crazy games including a capture fantasy event when our Doms get to hunt us down, and the longer we stay free the more pleasure they owe us.”
Sarah frowned. “That doesn’t seem fair. Some of the subs are also former CIA. I’m a trauma nurse. I’m not allowed to hide from anything.”
Of course, she’d also earned the nickname “Dateline” from her high school classmates who’d decided she was the one most likely to end up the victim portion of a Dateline episode. She couldn’t help it if she had a trusting heart. She’d really thought that guy had a puppy in his car. It wasn’t her fault he’d been running a sex trafficking ring and hey, she’d been the one to Tase him, and that led the police to shutting the whole thing down, so who was Dateline now?
“I don’t think it’s a real competition,” Kori replied. “That could get hardcore fast. I think this is more of a metaphor.”
“Don’t count on it,” a husky voice said, a chuckle flavoring her words. Eve McKay had the locker across from Sarah’s. “I saw Charlotte studying the plans for the building. Specifically the air ducts. She’s crazy if she thinks she can still get through those. It should be a super-fun night, but Kori’s right about the pleasure part. I, for one, am going to let Alex find me immediately so we can get to the privacy rooms while they’re still open.”
“Smart,” Kori pointed out. “Capture fantasy makes Kai’s dick go crazy.”
She wanted someone’s dick to go crazy for her. Didn’t she deserve that? “What about the unattached subs? Are we just running around the club hoping some unattached Dom decides he wants to catch us? What if I don’t want to be caught by the guy who catches me?”
“Yeah, I don’t think Big Tag’s going to let that happen,” a new voice said. Avery O’Donnell strode to her locker followed by Serena Dean-Miles. “That would be super chaotic, and then the Doms get territorial and pissy and fistfights start.”
“And Ian doesn’t want that?” Serena asked, a brow rising over her eyes. “Because he is the man who started up Dom Fight Club.”
“It’s different when the ladies are involved,” Avery pointed out. “He’ll laugh all day long when some man who thinks he can still fight like he did when he was twenty takes a punch from Boomer, who seriously doesn’t know how hard he hits, but he would flip out if it happened to one of the women.”
Serena frowned. “How is Li’s back?”
“Pushing forty and not recovering the way it used to.” Still, Avery smiled. “I think he’ll think twice before taking on the young guns again. At least in a non-sneaky way. But I heard they’ve been pairing unattached Doms and subs for the weekend party.”
So she would be paired with someone she probably knew well and wouldn’t want to sleep with at all. Not because they weren’t hot, but because she’d known those guys for years and if something was going to happen, it already would have. She’d played with every Dom in the place. Maybe she should think about this. She only had a couple of days left and she wanted to have fun. If she didn’t have it at Sanctum, she should have it on her own. Who did she know who would know male hookers? Did they still call them gigolos? What was the proper terminology? She didn’t want to insult one.
Kori turned around, giving Sarah her back and thereby access to the ties of her corset. “Do me a solid Scarlett O’Hara, please. And tell me why you have your fretting face on. You’re going on vacay next week, right?”
She was taking a whole bunch of days off, but she definitely wouldn’t call it a vacay. Not that she was letting anyone else know. She would tell them afterward. When she knew. “I’m not fretting. I just have a lot to do before I leave and I’m wondering if I shouldn’t skip the festivities. I know all the Doms. My capture fantasy will end with a dude who’s like my brother tackling me and probably giving me noogies.”
It was not the way she’d wanted to spend this last weekend.
“Kai told me a couple of the MT guys recently got Master rights. You haven’t met them. Also, a couple of single Doms from The Club are joining in,” Serena pointed out. “And Michael is bringing his super-hot brother, JT, with him.”
“They’re twins,” Eve pointed out. “Aren’t they both super hot?”
“I know Michael way too well to think of him as hot,” Serena replied. “JT has the cowboy thing going on. Not that I don’t prefer my two big-city hotties. Also, does anyone know why Ian sent a big bouquet of flowers to the office today? Was it someone’s birthday? Adam’s being paranoid about it. Jake had to prove to him the flowers weren’t bugged, and by that I mean both ways. Like they weren’t actively spying on the office, nor did they contain a fleet of DNA enhanced superbugs that would attack him later.”
Adam had a vivid imagination. But Serena had a point about new Doms.
Was she really going to ignore the fact that Jared was in town and she was supposed to spend a couple of days working with him? She wouldn’t if she didn’t need the money he’d offe
red.
She gripped Kori’s laces and gave them a good tug.
That part about the money probably wasn’t true. She would have done the documentary money or not since it might bring her some closure. She and Jared had gotten close in those first days when he’d come to Dallas to spend time with his brother and prep for a movie role. She truly hadn’t expected to fall for Jared Johns. She had thought a brief affair would be nice, and then she could forever say she’d slept with Dart and hit a total bullseye.
Yeah, she wasn’t proud she’d thought that.
Then she’d gotten to know the actual man and not the beefcake actor. She’d wondered if maybe they might have something. The rest could have easily served as the plot of a horror film. His bestie had tried to murder her. Jared had saved her. Jared had left her.
Now he was back and he wanted to examine what had happened.
At least it wasn’t Dateline.
“He really thinks Ian has access to superbugs?” Eve asked in that “maybe we should have a couple of sessions” way.
Eve was a therapist. It was a minus in Sarah’s book since they took sanity very seriously, and she’d learned that definition was not always the same for all people. She pulled the laces through again, making them even before giving another tug that had Kori huffing.
“Don’t be a baby.” They still had a long way to go with those laces.
“Babies like to breathe,” Kori complained. “At least that’s what I remember about my babyhood. Breathing was kind of a thing.”
Then she shouldn’t have decided to wear a corset. “You can pay me back in a minute.”
“Then you’re staying? Because you had that ‘I’m running away’ look in your eyes.”
Kori apparently spent a lot of time evaluating her expressions. “I’ll see who they pair me with.”
And then she could run if it turned out poorly.
She finished ensuring Kori couldn’t breathe and pulled her scrub shirt over her head. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and suddenly didn’t need the corset. She couldn’t breathe either.
