Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“I’m assuming with all of that, you two talk and this isn’t just business?”
“We talk. He complains about his wife. He complains about his golf game. I listen. This is a safe space for him.”
“Did he ever mention Brittanie?”
She shook her head.
“I can imagine this is a safe space for all your clients,” Rus remarked. “So out of curiosity, why did you agree to speak with me about Ezra?”
She had a ready, honest reply.
“Because I don’t like him. I’ll take his money because he’s a good sub, and it’s fun to work him. But he’s a dick. This is my business. I work part-time at The Joy of Joy to augment income, but this is what pays my bills.” She tossed a hand out to indicate Misted Pines. “And where I live, I don’t get to pick and choose my clients.”
“So he comes to you just to get his kink, which is his natural proclivity. And there’s nothing deeper there that might snap and make him do something extreme?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Fucking hell.
With the way she’d been talking, he didn’t expect that response.
He glanced at Lucinda as a pulse went down his spine.
She was looking at him.
“In the beginning, when we were exploring?” Thea asked.
Rus returned to her and nodded.
“He seemed disappointed. We had discussions during aftercare. I could sense he was upset he couldn’t take more, so we explored options. We ran the gamut, or at least the gamut of what I’d offer. The only thing we added that took was ass play. But I never shook that feeling that he was searching for something else. After Cin called me, it struck me that if we didn’t try it, no self-respecting Domme like me would do it. And although I’m not into seriously extreme play, I know people who are. They don’t live close. He’d have to go to Seattle. But I suggested them to him. I don’t know if he ever tried them. I just know he never stopped coming to me. Now, if I can’t get him off as well as someone else can, he’s not going to pay me what I charge to get something that isn’t as good as he can get elsewhere. And men can’t fake orgasms, and since we have no emotional connection to speak of, he’d have no reason to do so anyway, so…”
She let that trail off.
But Rus was stuck on what she meant.
“No self-respecting Domme would do it?” he queried. “What does that mean?”
“People think anything goes in my world because it isn’t their world. And yeah, if you aren’t in the life, it’d all probably seem extreme. But there are very strict rules. There are always boundaries. And hard passes. Standard. Across the board.”
“Like?”
“If it’s illegal. Assault. Non-consent. Stranger danger that’s not set up beforehand so the person who’s being attacked didn’t consent to that attack prior. Say she, or he, just won’t know when it’s going to happen, or who’ll be doing it, but they arranged for it to be done. That kind of thing.”
Rus’s chest was beginning to feel tight.
“Do you think he’d enjoy assaulting someone?”
“No, but I think he might enjoy watching it or being made to do it.”
Fucking fuck.
He could feel Lucinda’s eyes on him.
But this…
This was a damn solid fucking lead.
The man he’d met last night was calm and collected, and an inveterate liar.
Rus had seen that before and it hid a monster underneath.
This man had been lying to his wife for years about multiple affairs, and a standing appointment with a Dominatrix.
If he could fool the woman he was living with for years, he could put two law enforcement officers off the scent for thirty minutes.
“I need to be clear I do not know that’s what he’s about,” Thea asserted. “I just know he wanted something more. And a good prostate-induced orgasm wasn’t all he wanted.”
“Is there anything else you think I should know?” Rus asked.
“Just that I’m firing him as a client. Our next session will be his last. I’ve taken on a few new subs, ones I like. I’m finally in the good place of getting overloaded. I’ve been squeezing them in”—another double-shoulder lift—“because money is money. Truth is, I need to lose someone. Which was another thing I started to think about after Cin’s call. I don’t know if he did it. I hope he didn’t, because that would mean I’d have to hire industrial cleaners to deep clean my dungeon, and I’d personally have to shower for a week. But he really is an asshole, and I’m glad to have an excuse to see the back of him that’s not going to hurt my ability to pay my cable bill.”
His phone was vibrating in his pocket, but he ignored it, stood and said, “I appreciate you talking to me.”
She stood too and came to him. “I really do hope it isn’t him. But just in case…”