Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88350 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Beau blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay. I have no fucking idea what you’re saying, Mark.”
“Sorry,” Mark said, still chuckling. “You think you’re unique, falling for a trainee.”
“I never said I fell for Lia.” Even Beau could hear the defensiveness in his tone.
“Spare me, bro. We all saw it. So, just shut up and listen. If you had the opportunity as we do at The Enclave to train any number of would-be slaves, the odds are you wouldn’t fall in love with each one, or even have any particular attraction other than the basic attraction of boy versus girl and Dom versus sub. That’s our usual experience as well. Except when we meet the one.”
“The one?”
“You know, the yin to your yang, the missing puzzle piece to your soul, the match made in heaven, call it what you will. It happened to me with Jaime. It happened to Anthony with Lucia. As weird as it still is to me, it happened to Lawrence with Danielle. It’s not that we fall for every trainee. Far from it. But if your trainee just happens to also be your one, all bets are off. Objectivity flies right out the old window.”
“Okay,” Beau said slowly.
“So, with you, it was different,” Mark continued. “You haven’t had the advantage of lots of experience with multiple trainees with whom you had no previous personal connection. Then your first one out of the gate also happens to be your yin, your puzzle piece, etc. So it’s not that you can’t train objectively. It’s that you lucked out right out of the gate. Now, the only thing I can’t for the life of me figure out is why the hell you’d call it quits with someone you were so clearly falling in love with.”
Beau’s knee-jerk response was to deny, to refute, to explain why what Mark was saying was simply impossible. But something deep inside him, something that had been dormant for far too long, suddenly opened itself like a desert plant when the rain finally came.
Was he in love with Lia?
Not quite ready to come to terms with what his heart already knew to be true, he blurted the first thing that came into his mind.
“I can’t be in love with her. She’s barely into her twenties. I’m closer to forty than thirty.”
Mark snorted. “Why are you so hung up on the numbers, man? If she’s the one, she’s the one.”
“She was still in primary school when I graduated from college.”
“So? Lucia wasn’t even born when Anthony graduated from high school. Who gives a shit? Look. Whatever else she is, Lia’s not a kid. She’s a woman. Not only that, she’s a strong, brave woman who overcame her own demons to give training another chance.”
Mark’s tone gentled. “Come on, Beau. It’s me you’re talking to. Can you honestly tell me there wasn’t something happening between you two? Something way more than a trainer/trainee connection?”
A sudden burst of longing nearly overwhelmed Beau. Refusing to give in to it, he huffed, “We spent less than a week together, and in very controlled circumstances. Now you’ve got us falling in love?”
A sudden memory flashed in his mind, so real it was as if he were right there in the moment.
It was just after the session with the conductive rope and the violet wands. They were sitting side-by-side on the mat. Unable to resist, Beau had allowed his fingers to move over the silky soft skin of her thigh. Their eyes had locked as something arced between them, like a spark jumping to bridge the gap between two bodies. She’d lifted her chin, her lips parting, her eyes fluttering closed as if waiting for his kiss.
Oh, how he’d wanted to give in to his selfish impulses and oblige her. But his sense of honor or duty or whatever the fuck it had been had made him pull away.
He could still see the sudden, shocked hurt in her eyes as he pretended nothing had just happened. Had he done the right thing—the responsible thing, as he’d told himself?
Or had he just been a coward?
“You might still be in denial, but Lia’s not. She’s in love with you, you idiot,” Mark asserted through the phone.
The words jolted Beau back to the moment. As he took them in, a sudden rush of absurd joy ballooned inside his soul, actually lifting him to his feet. “Oh, yeah? Says who?”
“Says Lia, that’s who.” Mark laughed. “Do you forget where I live? There are no secrets in this little commune of ours. Lia talks to Lucia. Lucia talks to Jaime. Jaime talks to me, and there you have it. Lia’s head over heels crazy about you, bro.”
Beau’s face hurt, and he realized it had split into a huge grin. In his excitement, he began to pace the floor. “You think?” he said, unable to keep the stark, raw hope from his voice.