Submissive Beauty (32 page)

The lock popped, and she wrenched open the door and slid in, throwing her purse into the backseat. Her hands shook when she tried to start the car, and she rested her forehead on the steering wheel.

Calm down, Gabby. It’s all a mistake; you have nothing to worry about.
She breathed deeply in and out of her nose, willing her racing heart to calm so she’d be able to make the few blocks to David’s office.

Finally calm enough to go, she turned the ignition and put the car in gear. She’d talk to David, and everything would be fine. Angel was confused. Angel was…hell, Angel was…she didn’t know. Mistaken maybe. Confused. What a nightmare.

Luckily, it was still early in the day, and this part of town was fairly quiet traffic-wise. She drove the four blocks to his office and maneuvered the small car into a parking spot on the street right in front of the building entrance.

Without her usual glance in the mirror to check her makeup, she pulled herself from the car and marched into the building. The sparse lobby offered little to a stranger who came across the sparse structure. No tables, no couches, not even a front desk to welcome visitors. The offices located inside were discreet, not wanting to advertise their services so there were no signs announcing the company names and their location. She fished into her purse and pulled his business card from her wallet. The typeface simply stated David’s name, the address of his office, including the suite number and a phone number. She gave a thought to a call first, but no, she wanted the element of surprise so she could see his face when she asked the questions. It was the only way she’d feel one hundred percent confident of his answers.

That old familiar warning went off in her head as she made her way to the elevators. Trust. She’d given it, promised it in fact, and at the first sign of any question, she’d stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt? No, that’s not what this was about. She did trust them and, with all her heart, believed that Angel was somehow mistaken.

The elevator dinged and dumped her onto the 4th floor. She compared the card to the numbers on the wall and walked the thirty feet or so to David’s office. Instead of a company name, there were three silver engraved plates across the door that simply listed the names of David and his employees. They really took this privacy thing seriously.

Unsure whether to go in or knock she waited, transferring her weight from one foot to the other while she considered. Too anxious to delay another second, Gabby rapped on the door with her loose fist. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her stomach still threatened to heave with nausea. She needed to calm down or this wouldn’t go well. She needed answers, but she had also learned to tread carefully down the trust road.

She was free to speak her mind, but it would be her actions they’d use against her if she went to far.

She knocked again.

The door opened, and Trey appeared before her. She’d seen him a time or two when he’d come to the house, but dressed in a tuxedo, he caught her off guard.

“Oh hey, Gabrielle, come on in. You don’t have to knock. We all have our private offices so feel free to walk in anytime.”

She swept past him and surveyed the room. No reception desk in here either, although they did have a small couch and coffee table with some old business magazines placed across it. From the looks of the dust covering them, this room didn’t get much action.

“David’s back in his office just finishing a conference call. You can go on back if you want.” He pointed to the corner office, indicating for her to go ahead.

“Why are you all dressed up? It’s not every day I’d expect to see a security man in a tux.”

“There’s a formal collaring ceremony at Sanctuary tonight. A good friend of mine is the Dom, and he’s asked me to take part.”

Gabby raised her eyebrows. “Take part? That sounds official. What will you be doing?”

“Uh…I…I’m her gift.”

That caught her attention. “Her gift? Dare I ask or is it none of my business?”

Trey looked at her with a sly smile. “You can always ask, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer.”

“Fair enough.”

“But in this case, I don’t see the harm in it. It’s a big ceremony, and many will be in attendance. In fact, I assumed Thomas and David would be bringing you.”

Gabby shrugged. Thomas loved to surprise her so she understood when he didn’t tell her things in advance.

“The submissive tonight has earned a special gift from her Master beyond the collar. He has set up one of her fantasies in particular.”

She nodded. She got it now. The sub hadn’t yet been with two men and had grown curious. She laid her hand across Trey’s forearm. “I understand completely.”

He winked back. “Yes, I believe you do. Well, I’m going to go get out of this tux before I mess it up for tonight. Go on in. David should be done by now.”

“Thanks, Trey.”

She focused on the door and took a deep steadying breath. Time to get her answers.

The door was already ajar so Gabby pushed it open enough to slip inside and closed it behind her. David must not have heard her because he’d not moved from his chair where he said holding his head and massaging his temples. Automatically, she wanted to go to him and brush his fingers aside so she could touch him and soothe him. Whatever it took to ease his suffering.

At the last second before she moved, she remembered why she was here, and he looked up and caught her gaze.

“Oh hell, isn’t this just the perfect surprise.” David stood from the chair and walked across the room to her. “You are just what I need right about now.” His hands caressed her cheeks and rested along her jaw line, pulling her slightly forward for a kiss.

At the modest pressure against her lips, her back stiffened and she turned her head a fraction.

“What’s wrong?” David tightened his grip on her face and turned her to face him, forcing their gazes to connect. Harsh lines creased his forehead in question.

“I…I just had lunch with Angel.”

His face softened. “Did it not go well, sweetheart?”

She tried to fight back the tears already threatening her. Breaking down had not been an option she’d considered when thinking of what to say, but sure enough her vision blurred slightly from the sheen.

She shook her head.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Those strong fingers she loved on her body dropped from her face, and he settled on the corner of his desk.

“Yes, we need to talk about it, but I don’t know what to say or where to start.”

“How about the beginning?”

No, rehashing the entire fiasco wasn’t what she had in mind.

“Is Thomas really planning to hand me over to you and leave?” she blurted. “Angel said that’s what he does. Train a submissive alongside the Dom he has chosen for her, then once the training is complete he leaves them to each other.”

She watched David carefully, waiting for the look of shock to cross his face at any second. He wrinkled his eyes and nose, but in a gesture of genuine confusion not shock. He wasn’t shocked at all.

Backing away from the desk, she covered her mouth.

“I thought you knew.”

Gabby shook her head. No. No. No. Please this was not happening. More steps back in the direction of the door.

“Gabrielle, stop. I need to explain.”

“No, I can’t. Don’t want to hear it.” She turned and rushed the door.

When she thought he’d let her go, hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her back into the room. “No running away. We need to talk about this.”

“I don’t want to talk.” Anger fueled her now, and she was ready to get the hell out of this office.

A smack to her bottom got her attention, and she turned to him wildly. “Don’t. Don’t go there.”

Fire flamed in his gaze. “I will go there any time I damn please because it is my right to do so. Unless you remove that collar or utter your safe word, you’ll do as I say.” He pushed her into the chair, facing his desk and bent close. “And right now, you are going to listen.”

She glared at him, her safe word hovering on the tip of her tongue. Even her collar, that she hadn’t given a second thought to until now, seemed tight on her throat. The demand in his eyes warned her that now would not be the time to threaten or defy him. Not unless she was ready to walk away forever.

“Breathe, Gabrielle. Maybe, if you calm down, we can figure out what’s going on.”

“Don’t you already know?”

“Well, I knew what Thomas was like when I got involved if that’s what you’re asking, and I was okay with it.”

Her mouth opened ready with a stream of what she thought about that.

He held up his hand to halt her. “Let me finish. I know Thomas very well, and from the moment, I met you I truly thought you were different. I’ve never—and I mean never—seen a sub able to work through his control like you do. After one day with the two of you, I recognized something different and began to believe that this situation would be nothing like the ones before it.”

“I don’t like being set up without my knowledge.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

Reason. Fuck, she didn’t want to listen to that right now. Being pissed kept her on guard, and she could wear it like an armor to get through this.

“We should go and talk to Thomas. I’ve never actually asked him what his plans were. I preferred our relationship grow organically and see what happened. There are never any guarantees in life as well you know, and finding the right person to fill both your darker side and your vanilla life is not an easy task.”

Her stomach lurched at his words. Was he saying what she thought he was? He’d already told her he loved her, and she’d been afraid to think beyond today. Tomorrow would be here soon enough, and she didn’t want to make any more assumptions.

A vision of three of them flooded her mind as the emotion she felt for them both overwhelmed her. She’d grown to want and need them both. How could she be ripped away from one of them and still have things be the same?

Fuck, she’d gotten herself into the mess of all messes this time.

“Don’t throw away the hard-won trust quite yet, Gabrielle. Thomas deserves a chance to answer to your friend Angel’s accusations.”

He was right. It didn’t make her feel any better, but he was right. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.” She jumped from the chair and headed for the door. “You coming?”

Chapter Twenty-One

David shifted in his seat, once again trying to find a comfortable position to drive this godforsaken car. Why had he agreed to drive her over to Sanctuary in her ridiculously small car? Whoever said a Mini could accommodate even a tall man like him could kiss his ass.

He peeked at her from the corner of his eye to see she still sat leaning against the door and looking out the window. It was as if she was doing whatever she could to get as far away from him as possible. Since they’d argued over which vehicle to take, she’d not said a word. The silence in the car rubbed against him like sandpaper. Gritty and rough.

She drummed her fingers on her leg, the window, the seat, anywhere she could reach. He didn’t know for certain what Thomas would say when they confronted him, but for her sake, he hoped his hunch was right. Thomas not telling her his plan felt like a betrayal to them both, and if he had been planning to leave, he might be tempted to kick his ass himself.

He steered the car onto the narrow lane that would lead to the very private Sanctuary property here on the edge of the state line. He loved this moment when he turned into the wooded acreage and he left the city behind. It had always given him a sense of freedom from the constraints of daily life by the simple change in environment.

When the lane opened into the oversized parking lot, he wasn’t surprised to see lots of cars already here. The ceremony tonight would draw a large crowd especially with the promise of a public scene, and they’d be busy getting the place decorated and set up for the party.

He’d only been to one other formal collaring ceremony, and it had been a small intimate affair with less than a dozen guests. The sentiment and meaning in that often forgotten formality charmed him. He’d like to do that for Gabby. He could picture her, maybe in an outdoor ceremony with only their closest friends. But she was right; without Thomas, it would feel incomplete.

Never before now had he considered sharing a woman in a poly relationship with another man. It wasn’t all that common in the lifestyle. Generally, a Dom would take on multiple submissives and build a family in that manner. David could think of only one other relationship he knew of like this. He’d enjoyed learning that he and Thomas complemented each other perfectly, and both brought something different to the table. When Gabrielle had professed her love, he’d been more than eager to share the sentiment.

With the first glimpse of her smile and the fire in her eyes, he’d known he was a goner. And getting all those lush curves underneath him had been the icing on the sweetest cake of his life.

Now, everything was unraveling, and there didn’t seem to be a damn thing he could do about it. If Thomas broke her heart today, he didn’t know what he would do or how they would recover.