Trace & Tori [The ShadowDance Club 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

Slowly he could see her focus return, and she lifted her hand to him at almost the same time she launched her delicate body into his arms. Her deep sobs were gut-wrenching, but Trace held her as they sat together on the floor, and he just let her vent all the pent-up emotion. “It’s okay, princess, let it out. You are safe now, but get out all that fear and sadness. I’ll hold you for as long as it takes.” Trace was sure his heart cracked nearly in two as he held her close. He couldn’t imagine what horrors she’d been through, and he was sure having to do so without any support from friends or family would have been more than most people would have been able to survive.

Trace knew Tori had to feel completely flattened by the nightmare so he kept his words soothing as he held her as the emotions of the past several months bubbled to the surface. When she was finally able to speak again, she kept her face against his broad chest and said, “I’m so sorry, I have nightmares sometimes, but I don’t usually completely lose it like that.”

“Shhh, princess, I’m so sorry your life has been so derailed by a lunatic. You don’t deserve that treatment, hell, no woman does. But I’m very grateful for your trust in me, and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you safe from harm.” He was rubbing his hand in slow circles over her trembling back and noticed how small she felt in his arms. “I’m curious, Tori, I love your curves but I have the feeling you have lost weight or muscles as a result of this stress. Did you have to give up your workouts when all of this happened, princess? His gut feeling was confirmed by her nod. “Well, we’ll see what we can do about getting you back up to your previous fitness level, what do you say? You’ll feel much more in control of things when you’re physically strong again.” He chuckled, trying to lighten the mood a bit and was pleased when she tilted her tear-streaked face up and gave him a small grin.

“I’m not too sure I want to gain any weight because it’s always been hard for me to stay slender, but I like the idea of being able to defend myself. I tried to take a class, but they asked me to not attend anymore when he kept harassing the staff for trying to help me.” Tori sighed, and Trace was completely taken in by her defeated expression.

“Well, I have some friends that will love teaching you all types of self-defense. There are several Doms at ShadowDance who are former Special Forces soldiers, and any of them will be happy to help.” Grinning ear to ear, he went on, “But, Jenna Lamont, soon to be Jenna Lamont-Matthews kicks the asses of most of them any time she can sucker them into sparring with her. I know she’d be more than happy to help in any way she can, although you may have to wait until after her wedding on Christmas Eve.” Trace was pleased by the smile he saw light Tori’s face at his suggestions. He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a quick text to several of his friends explaining Tori’s need, and despite the late hour, he received affirmative responses from eight different people, including Jenna, within minutes. When he showed her the responses he saw tears fill her eyes again, but he knew they were tears of gratitude, not sadness.

“Princess, I want you to know that no one in Climax will walk away from you because they are afraid of your stalker. You’re going to see very quickly how we do things in our small town. You’ll have a wall of friends the bastard will have to get through to even look at you. These are good people, wonderful friends who will look this challenge right in the eye and never even so much as blink.” Trace watched her, knowing she was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was no longer being left alone to face the dangers she’d been buried under for so long.

“Do you really think they’ll help me? I mean, they don’t even know me and well, I don’t want to put anyone else in danger.” Tori’s focus was on protecting others, and that alone was enough to make him fall further in love with her. He was startled by his own thoughts and wondered again at how rapidly his heart was moving. He assured her Jenna would be thrilled to help her since she had learned self-defense as the result of an attack years ago. He didn’t fill her in on all the details because he felt it wasn’t his story to tell, and she seemed to understand that perfectly.

“We’re going to dinner at ShadowDance very soon so you’ll have a chance to meet everyone then. But for now, let’s get you back in to bed and settled. I’m afraid this floor is awfully hard and my ass is getting cold.” Laughing, he helped her stand and then accepted her hand as she helped his to his feet as well. He smiled at her kindness and pulled her into his embrace before releasing her to use the restroom while he straightened the bed. When she returned to the bed, he wrapped her in his arms, spooning her from behind, loving how perfectly she fit against him, her soft ass nestled against his rapidly growing cock. He smiled to himself and tried to recite baseball statistics in order to distract his libido.

Trace was pleased when he heard Tori’s breathing level out as she fell back in to sleep. Breathing in the sweet scent of her shampoo and her own sweet fragrance, he closed his eyes and fell into a contented sleep.

New Year’s Eve

Tori stood in the doorway of The Club and looked around as Trace greeted everyone, calling each person by name. She loved the feeling of belonging she’d come to recognize, but she was still struggling to fully accept it as her new reality, trust just wasn’t that easy for her. Trace had warned her that The ShadowDance Club would be particularly crowded tonight, and he had been right. They had attended several times before, and she had not seen this many people during all of her previous visits put together as she saw in the just the Main Lounge tonight.

Trace still had not asked her to do anything in public, and she was grateful for that. She sensed a particular unease in him tonight, and she found herself worrying that he was tiring of her already. They’d fallen into an easy routine, she was working with the elderly local attorney to learn his practice while her license was being transferred to Colorado. She’d taken the small test required and hadn’t had any problems after Mr. Sherman’s tutoring sessions. She smiled thinking about her new legal mentor, the man was nearly ninety years old and still a ball of energy and witty wisdom, and they had become fast friends.

Mrs. Sherman was the light of his life, and after Tori had met her it was obvious the feelings were mutual. As she’d watched them together, Tori had wondered what it would be like to have a spouse who loved you unconditionally, who thought the sun rose and set in you and didn’t make any attempt to hide their affection when in public. Sighing to herself, the noises surrounding her reminded her that she needed to pay attention to what was happening around her so she didn’t inadvertently offend someone with her inattention.

Trace had rarely let her out of his reach any other time they’d been at The Club, but tonight he seemed almost distracted, and she found herself standing alone against a wall toward the back of the Main Lounge. Looking over the sea of faces, she had to keep reminding herself to refrain from making direct eye contact with the other Doms, something the lawyer in her struggled with each time they’d been here. Eye contact was such a huge part of her professional life that she always feared offending one of the stricter Doms the other subs had warned her about. The thought of any man other than Trace punishing her sent shards of icy fear racing through her each time she even entertained the thought.

Thinking back over the dinners she’d had at the Lamonts’ home, she shuddered when she remembered how Trace hadn’t let her wear underwear and how she had quickly figured out why as he’d brought her to orgasm right at the table…during dinner for God’s sake. She’d been mortified until she realized that each of the women he’d introduced her to that night had suffered a similar fate. The other women had welcomed her, but she had spent the most time with Kat and Jenna. Kat had invited her for tea on a couple of occasions and had been a great source of information about the procedures related to The Club. Tori had laughed at the small woman until she’d cried when she couldn’t get out of the chair and had pleaded with Tori to help and then begged her to not tell her husbands about the incident. Kat had said Alex and Zach were already hovering over her to the point she was about to “go postal,” and if they heard she couldn’t get out of a chair without help she’d never get out of their sight. Tori had crossed her heart in great dramatic fashion and sworn she’d take the secret to her grave. She wished Kat was here tonight, but knew her new friend would be in her suite with her feet propped high if her husbands had any say about it and after meeting Alex Lamont, she was certain he had plenty to say.

* * * *

Mitch was watching the monitors and was puzzled by Trace’s seeming indifference to Tori, the man had barely let her out of his sight for weeks, and suddenly he was ignoring the sweet sub, and she was quickly drawing the attention of Doms all over the room. Asking one of his staff to take over for a few minutes, Mitch left the Crow’s Nest as The Club’s Security Command Center had been affectionately dubbed and made his way down to the Main Lounge. When he moved alongside Tori, she jumped when he greeted her. “Oh my gosh, Mitch, you startled me…oh damn, I mean Master Mitch…I’m sorry, I really am not very focused tonight.” As her emotions flooded him, he knew she was struggling to not feel abandoned, and was fighting the overwhelming fear that she had worn out her welcome in Trace’s life on top of her concern that she was now messing up the rules in a big way.

Mitch placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her to face him. “Tori, where is Trace? I saw him come in with you, but I didn’t see where he got off to.” He kept his touch neutral but was using it to help him pick up on her thoughts, and he was concerned about what he was hearing. Her body language was screaming her insecurity, and the hesitance he saw in her dark eyes reminded him of how she had looked the first time they’d met.

“I’m sorry I don’t know where he has gone…um, Sir. He just seemed to kind of walk away as we entered this room.” She had cast her eyes down, and Mitch felt the waves of anxiety working their way through her. He’d been watching her inch her way toward the back exit on the monitors and remembered how close he and Bryant Davis had come to losing their new wife, Rissa, when she’d been attacked after ducking out that same door.

“Stay right where you are, Tori. It’s not safe for you to step outside that door alone. I’ll find Trace and be right back.” He was satisfied that she would wait for him to return when she nodded. He moved to the bar intending to ask Cort Douglas if he’d spoken with Trace, but saw the bar was swamped, so he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and moved to a hallway and dialed Trace’s number.

* * * *

Tori suddenly felt like she was going to throw up and she wasn’t sure why. The man who had bumped into her had murmured an apology and even though she hadn’t gotten a good look at him, there had been something odd about him. For some reason she’d had the thought that he had intentionally bumped in to her. It had felt like he’d poked her with a pin, but he’d quickly moved on, so she hadn’t really thought much about it until she started to feel dizzy and felt her stomach begin to roll. She leaned against the wall trying to get her bearings. Looking across the room she made eye contact with Rissa just before everything went black.

* * * *

Rissa stood in the Main Lounge and was pleased to see so many of the members had shown up to the New Year’s Eve celebration. She and her men had planned a big scene to go along with her collaring, but since they’d already known about her pregnancy, they’d shared a private ceremony upstairs a couple hours ago. Mitch had been working, and she was standing close to Bryant just enjoying being near him. He hadn’t let her be farther than he could reach all evening, and she was quickly coming to understand Kat’s frustration with her husbands’ overprotective natures.

Rissa had been happy to see that Trace Bartell had brought the gorgeous young woman with long chestnut hair she had heard so much about and had spoken to briefly one evening at dinner. Rissa remembered the woman’s name was Tori Paulson, but she hadn’t really gotten a chance to get to know her. Suddenly Rissa’s eyes met those of Trace’s date, and she was struck by the haunted look in the other woman’s expression, Rissa smiled at her, remembering when she was the “new kid” and vowed to reach out to the woman whose shadowed expression reminded her so much of herself. There was something in Tori’s expression that didn’t look quite right to Rissa all of the sudden, and just as that thought made its way through her mind, Rissa watched as Tori’s eyes seemed to roll up, and then she disappeared from view.

Rissa screamed and took off running across the room with Bryant in hot pursuit. It was just seconds before they made it to the spot where she’d seen Tori disappear, and Rissa was in a panic when she couldn’t find the other woman anywhere. Bryant turned Rissa to him, his eyes wild with concern. “Love, what on earth is this about? What are you looking for? My God, you scared ten years off my life.”

“She was right here…I saw her eyes roll back, and then she just disappeared from view…she has to be here. Something bad has happened. Lock the doors. Do something! Oh my God!” Rissa was almost hysterical as she remembered everything that had happened to her so recently. She grabbed Bryant’s shoulders and shook him “
Please
! You have to do something, she is in danger, I can feel it!”

“Clarissa!
Stop
!” Alex Lamont had stepped up beside Bryant, and the tone of his voice alone was enough to freeze Rissa in place. “Who are you talking about?” Alex demanded. As one of the owners of The ShadowDance Club, Alex was able to command attention just by his presence, but it was his power-filled aura as a Master that had Rissa spilling her story immediately.