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  Ty hadn’t asked him to do so, but had expected he would. Just because someone had a clean public record didn’t mean they were always a saint in private. “And?”

  “He’s been a member of the New York Club for two years. Before that, he was an active member at a sister club in Chicago for five years. He’s known as a sensual Dominant and again, no record of anything suspicious, no complaints from anyone he’s ever played with. From what I found out, he’s had one serious relationship, and it only ended because he got a promotion in Manhattan and the submissive he was with didn’t want to move away from Chicago.”

  Fucking hell. Ty ran his free hand through his hair. “You’ve got to give me something. No one can be that perfect.”

  “Of course he’s not perfect. He has flaws and shortcoming the same way we all do.” Isaac hesitated for a second. “But I have to be honest when I say that if I had to pick out a guy for Lillian, Eric wouldn’t be a terrible choice.”

  Isaac’s words hit Ty square in the chest and for a second, he couldn’t breathe. After a few seconds, he wheezed out, “What the fuck?”

  “Lillian worked as my personal assistant the entire time you were in London, and she’s like a sister to me. I want her to be happy, and if she can’t find that with you, Eric doesn’t look bad.”

  “She never gave us a chance,” Ty said, finding it hard to believe Isaac could say such things. “She’s the one who asked for a divorce.”

  “And you rolled over and played dead.”

  “What was I supposed to do? Force her to stay married?”

  “No, but you could have at least fought for her. If you didn’t sleep with that woman, you should have tried to make Lillian see the truth.”

  “What are you talking about?” Ty all but yelled. “I tried, damn it.”

  “Not the way I see it. From my perspective, you went off to London with your tail between your legs as fast as you could. I’m sorry, but sometimes the truth is hard to hear. Maybe a little tough love will do you some good. You gave up way too easily and way too quick.”

  “Fuck you, Isaac,” Ty said before ending the call.

  Chapter 13

  Lillian

  “Are you ready to head back, or would you like to go someplace else?” Eric asked after dinner and once they were back in his truck.

  Dinner had been nice and Eric nothing but a gentleman, not that she had expected him to be anything else. But to be quite honest, she felt a bit torn. There was the side of her that knew Eric was a great guy, down to earth, and easy to talk with. Not to mention the volunteer work he did. That side of her whispered he was a catch and a half, and if she had a brain in her head, she would reel him in before someone else got their hooks in him.

  “I’m not ready for the night to end yet,” she said, which made the pro-Eric side of her happy. The other side, the more cynical and jaded side, whispered she only wanted to extend the date because she didn’t want to return to the cabin where she’d have to face Ty. She told that side to sit the hell down and shut up.

  “Me, either,” Eric said with a smile, and Lord help her, he had a heart-stopping smile. “I know a place where can walk. It’s not overrun with people, but it shouldn’t be devoid of them, either. You’ll be safe with me.”

  “A walk would be nice.” It warmed her inside to watch how he looked at each situation from her perspective. How in this case he picked up on the fact she might feel uncomfortable walking in a private location with him. “How is it you’re still single?” she could no longer stop herself from asking.

  He laughed. “Well, if you ask my mom, it’s because I turn down all the perfect online profiles of eligible women she sends me.”

  “Your mom sends you online profiles of single women?”

  “Yes. But I think she only looks at their picture and nothing else. She’s sent me a few real humdingers. And because she, obviously, doesn’t know I’m a Dominant, I have a feeling most of them are vanilla.”

  Lillian wrinkled her brow. “I’ve been wondering how dating in the lifestyle worked.”

  “More often than not, I go out with women from The Club. That way I know they’re in the lifestyle and won’t dissolve into a fit of vapors when I mention kink.”

  “Has that happened before?”

  “Only with women vetted by my mother,” he said with a big grin. “She means well. She doesn’t want me to be lonely, and I haven’t been serious with anyone since moving from Chicago two years ago.”

  “Was there someone in Chicago?” Lillian asked.

  “Yes, but she didn’t want to move to New York, and I didn’t want a long distance relationship, so we agreed to go our separate ways.”

  “That couldn’t have been a simple decision for either of you to make.”

  “No, but not as hard as the one you made to leave Ty.”

  It had been a hard decision to make. “Few people understand that. I don’t want to get into why we divorced, but I got the feeling everyone thought it should be easy to do.”

  “Of course it wasn’t easy. You were married and expected to be married forever. There’s nothing easy about deciding to end that.”

  His response was so similar to her own on the matter, she couldn’t help but think she had been right the whole time.

  He pulled into a public parking lot. There were two other cars parked, and when they made it down to the ocean, only a few people were visible off in the distance. They walked in silence for a bit.

  Lillian couldn’t help but think about that last statement Eric had made about expecting forever, and how correct he’d been. Maybe it was normal to need a lot of time to pass before heading back into the dating market following a divorce.

  “Tell me how you got into kink,” Eric said, no doubt thinking he was bringing up a lighter conversation than the one they’d just had.

  Little did he know.

  “Ty and I were invited to a party in college. I think our sophomore year. We had no idea anything like BDSM existed. We decided to try adding a little bit of kink at a time to our sex life. What can I say? We fell into the roles naturally, and we were hooked.”

  “I didn’t know the two of you had been together that long,” Eric said.

  “We didn’t get married until after we graduated, but yes, we were together for a long time.”

  Neither of them spoke for a few moments. Over the sound of the ocean, they weren’t able to hear anyone else, even though there were a few people around.

  “I assume then,” Eric said, breaking the silence. “That Ty is the only man you’ve ever submitted to?”

  She gave a weak laugh and tucked a wayward strand or hair behind her ear. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Only because of the deer in the headlights look you gave me the night we met.”

  “Really?” she asked. Funny how she didn’t remember feeling frightened or shocked that night.

  “Yes,” Eric said. “I would have thought you were a newbie if I hadn’t been able to see the only thing you seemed to be in shock about was me approaching you. A newbie would have been watching everything other than me.”

  “It was my first time there as a single woman, or as in this case, a single submissive.” She glanced up at him and saw he watched her intently. “You were also the only Dom who had ever approached me.”

  “I was probably the only one whoever interrupted Ty before.”

  “And,” she added. “The only one whoever told him it appeared as if he was crossing the consent line.”

  “Ouch.” Eric clutched his heart. “I bet that really shook him. But, I’d do it again the same way if I came across a similar scene.”

  “Of course, you would. That’s why I like you.”

  He slowed his pace, and she did the same in order to keep up with him.

  He stopped and turned to her. “I like you as well, Lillian.”

  Chapter 14

  Ty

  As hour after hour passed and Lillian didn’t return to the cabin, Ty grew more
and more irritated. There was no way it took this long to eat dinner. He didn’t care where they went. That being the case, the only thing Ty could assume was they’d went somewhere else when they finished eating, and since Eric was a Dom, Ty had a pretty good idea of what they were doing there.

  Had Eric taken her back to his cabin? Ty hadn’t thought of the possibility until that moment. Damn, he should have been watching Eric’s cabin. Ty didn’t know which cabin Eric stayed in, but there weren’t that many. Surely it would be simple to figure out.

  The thought of Eric touching Lillian made him want to vomit. Bad enough for it to be a vague thought when he was an ocean away and the man she was with nothing more than a hazy shadow, but it was exponentially worse when he’d seen what Eric looked like, knew what his voice sounded like. Both of those together and Ty’s overactive imagination shot into overdrive.

  The rattle of the cabin’s doorknob forced him away from his thoughts and back to the situation at hand. It had to be Lillian. The only other person who had a key was Tom, and Ty assumed if a situation came up requiring the other man to use his key, he’d let whoever was inside know as opposed to barging in unexpectedly.

  Lillian walked into the room. Her hair was in disarray and her cheeks were flushed a deep pink color. He couldn’t pull his gaze from her. She looked glorious in an I just got out of bed way.

  “Ty.”

  “That was a long dinner,” he tried to keep his voice even, not wanting to come across as being accusatory.

  “It was more than just dinner,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Did you play with him?”

  “I can't see how that’s any of your business.” She looked away and walked straight into the bathroom. He didn’t hear the door lock, so he followed her.

  She spun around, her gaze so fiery he swore he felt the flames. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

  “I want to talk.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “So you followed me to the bathroom? Really?”

  He opened his mouth to tell her she wasn’t hiding anything he hadn’t seen before, but in the second before he did, it hit him what she was wearing. A dress. A sundress.

  Why would she have packed a sundress for two weeks of volunteer work?

  “You’re wearing a dress,” he said, and she looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you pack a sundress?” It was a ridiculous question and one he had no business to ask. Lillian was an adult woman and had the right to pack anything she wanted. If she had a mind to pack an evening gown for her time in the Keys, she could do so without having to explain.

  He fully expected her to tell him to go hang himself, but she took a step closer to him, looked him square in the face, and said, “Because I plan to fuck as many available men as possible for the next two weeks.”

  It took him a second to realize she was baiting him. She stood there with a smirk, knowing she’d got underneath his skin. He fisted his hands. “Trying to get a rise out of me?”

  “There was no try involved.”

  “I should take you over my knee, flip up that skirt, and spank your ass for being such a brat.” His words came out in a half hiss through clenched teeth.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” she said, but he saw her eyes had grown dark and her breathing a bit choppy.

  “Probably not,” he said.” But the idea I might turns you on.”

  She shook her head, and opened her mouth as though to argue, but before she got a word out, Ty placed a finger over her lips.

  “Shh,” he shushed her. “Don’t make it worse by lying. I’ve known your body for too many years, and you can deny it or pretend it isn’t so until you’re blue in the face, but the one thing you can’t do is lie to me.”

  In a move he hadn’t expected, Lillian shifted her head slightly and sucked the tip of his finger into her mouth. Ty felt the pull all the way down to his dick. “Fuck, Lillian.”

  “Do it,” she said in a coarse whisper. “Punish me. Punish me for thinking I could ever find anyone to replace you.”

  He pulled back. “Are you drunk?” She hadn’t appeared to be when she walked into the room, but maybe she was hiding it somehow.

  “No,” she said, and he couldn’t smell any telltale sign of alcohol on her breath. “I’m just tired of denying what I want.”

  “And what’s that?” There would be no question in either of their minds she’d given consent.

  “I want you to spank me and then fuck me.” She leaned forward and nibbled at his neck. “Fuck me hard like you mean it.”

  With those words, he knew he couldn’t be gentle. He didn’t question her again, rather he took hold of her and bent her so her upper body was across the vanity with her backside in the air. In one swift move, he had her skirt up and her panties down around her ankles.

  He gave her no warning before raising his hand and bringing it down hard across her ass. She yelped, and he did it again. “Is this what you want?” he asked. “My hand turning your backside red, punishing you for thinking another man could give what you need?”

  She nodded, but he shook his head. “I need more than a nod tonight, Lilly. Let me hear the words. I need you to say them.”

  “Yes, damn it,” she said.

  He gave her another hard swat. “Are you cursing at me? You’re going to make me wish I’d brought my belt.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Now. Now,” he said. “Who’s the only one getting fucked tonight?”

  She glared at him and he grinned. He’d rarely seen her act this petulant before. That she was acting so out of character only seemed to prove to him how much she needed this. He wasn’t sure how long it’d been since she’d played with anyone, but he remembered from their time together how she needed the regular release of a hard spanking. If he’d had even the slightest inkling that this would end up happening, he’d had definitely brought his belt. A hard hand spanking was nice, and it served its purpose, but when it’d been too long between sessions, she craved his belt.

  Since he didn’t have one with him, he’d have to improvise this round, going harder and longer. She melted under his hands and for a few minutes, it was as if they’d never been apart.

  Because they’d been together for so long before the divorce, he’d once known her body almost better than he knew his own. It pleased him to discover all that knowledge came back as soon as he touched her. He wanted to take her to her edge, but again, he wasn’t sure how long it’d been since she’d played. It’d be better this time not to get her quite as deep as she’d like, just to make sure he didn’t take her too far.

  As expected, when he went to pull her skirt down, a symbol he’d finished, she protested. He took a firm hold of her wrist. “Don’t forget who’s in charge here. If you want me to continue, you need to accept it when I say you’ve had enough.”

  Though he’d spanked her in the bathroom, he’d reigned in his control enough to ensure they at least made it to the bed before continuing. But once there, she looked at him and said, “I almost agreed to play with Eric tonight,” and he felt his control slip away.

  “What do you mean by almost?” he growled out.

  She was on her back in the middle of the bed. After placing her there, Ty had returned to the floor. But when she’d uttered that sentence in her casual, just-so-you-know tone, he’d moved back on top. Now he had her underneath him and his hands on either side of her head.

  “Tell me,” he said.

  “We went for a walk after dinner. It had been such a good night. When we finished walking, he asked me if I’d like to play once we both returned home.” She took a deep breath. “I could come up with two hundred reasons to say yes, and as hard as I tried, I only had one to say no.”

  And yet, based on what she’d said moments prior, that had been her answer.

  “But that one reason to say no was greater than the two hundred ones to say yes.” She lifted her hand to cup the side of
his face. “I said no because he wasn’t you.”

  * * *

  * * *

  n

  Chapter 15

  Lillian

  Lillian held her breath, waiting for Ty’s response. She half expected him to jump off the bed and run outside to find Eric in order to beat him up. Or she thought he might say something sarcastic or, perhaps, gloat. What she was not expecting was he did.

  “Lillian,” he whispered, lowering his head. “I’ve missed you so.” He finished in the instant before their lips touched in a brief kiss.

  Yes, she wanted to shout as his lips came again, more insistent than before. His kiss was a reclaiming, and she knew it’d been foolish of her to think that anyone could ever replace him in her life. At the moment, she didn’t know what that meant or what it looked like, and for once she didn’t care. For once, she was going to take what she wanted, and tonight she wanted Ty.

  She ran her hands up his arms and then slid them down his back. His body was both familiar and foreign at the same time. He pulled away to undress, and she whimpered even though it only took him seconds. She’d lost her dress somewhere between the bathroom and the bedroom. It was unclear which one of them had taken it off of her.

  Ty situated himself over her again, this time settling himself between her legs. He kissed her briefly before trailing his lips downward, tasting every inch of her it seemed. Her back arched when he surprised her by covering a nipple with his mouth and giving a hard suck.

  Fuck. The sharp, exquisite pain, such a beautiful contrast to the gentle way he’d been touching the rest of her body. He repeated the action on the other side and she moaned in pleasure. She hadn’t remembered it feeling this good, but how was it possible now would be better?

  He moved lower, his lips brushing her belly, and she stopped trying to explain how and surrendered to feeling the now.