TENSION FOLLOWED SAMANTHA LIKE A dampening cloud. She felt uneasy, all the time, everywhere she went; like something was about to happen, but she didn’t know what, or from what direction it would come.
She and her sister were barely speaking to each other. The only topics that seemed safe for conversation were either work or weather related, and those didn’t exactly lead to conducive, meaningful discussions. Every other matter Samantha tried to touch on was met with suspicion, contention, or flat-out silence.
Samantha knew, without a doubt, there was something going on between Kimberly and Scott, something Kimberly was struggling with that looked sure to ultimately end the couple. Even if Kimberly couldn’t see that yet, Samantha could, and her heart ached for her sister.
But it upset Samantha how Kimberly seemed to blame her sister for her own troubled relationship, as if Samantha was somehow the source of the conflict. Samantha couldn’t see how that could be. It was possible she had said something, or done something, to inadvertently offend her sister; but there was no way to find out if Kimberly wouldn’t talk to her.
Samantha hadn’t seen Scott at all since the night of the break-in. Not that Samantha cared; Scott’s absence was not the problem. Her sister’s behavior was.
Things with Brian were marginally better, but that was probably because Samantha was playing the opposing role: she was the one being closed mouthed, while he was the one having to ask her all the time what was going on inside her head.
She couldn’t admit the truth to him, she was too afraid. Because the truth was, she had gone and fallen in love with him, and now she didn’t want to let him go. She didn’t want to picture her life without Brian. He was a part of her now, and if he ever decided to walk away, he would be taking a chunk of her soul with him.
But she didn’t want to imagine him playing with other women, either, and it wasn’t because she was jealous. She didn’t want to risk Brian realizing he could have just as much fun playing with someone else as he did with her, and decide he was better off without her. Samantha saw all other available masochists and bottoms as a threat now.
On the other hand, she wanted Brian to be happy, and Samantha knew how happy it made Brian to top other women, despite his denials. Brian claimed he had no real desire to play with anyone else, not anymore, not now that he had Samantha. But how long would his contentment last? And how long could their happiness last, if Brian was being forced to curtail his enjoyment for her sake alone?
He was used to being active in the BDSM scene, going to parties, and having lots of play partners to choose from. But since that fiasco at Club Sade that night, he had not gone to a single kinky event. Brian never mentioned anything, but Samantha knew he was getting invitations to private parties, and was quietly turning them down without telling her. How long would it be before he began to resent feeling like he had to do so?
Brian thought Samantha’s worry stemmed from jealousy, but he assumed eventually, she would feel secure enough in their relationship to realize she had nothing, and no one, to feel jealous about. She might even enjoy watching him top someone else.
Samantha knew if that scene between him and Dana at the club had never happened, she might have relented by now. She probably would have agreed to at least try it, watch Brian release his inner sadist on another woman, and see what happened.
But now, every time she thought about Brian playing with someone else, she remembered Dana’s smug face and arrogant smirk, and she recoiled from the idea.
Maybe, if it was a woman Brian had never had any kind of prior relationship with before, Samantha would be okay with it. Eventually. Maybe.
But this trip to Chicago was not a “maybe, eventually” scenario. Brian had to go for his job. He had said he couldn’t go because he knew Samantha would worry about what he was doing when he wasn’t working. Because, deep down, a part of her still worried he would succumb to temptation, and play with someone else.
And what did that say about her?
During the times when she wasn’t obsessively worrying, Samantha was happy, because Brian made her so. Every moment she was with him, she felt her walls breaking down a little bit more, felt him slip inside the forest of her thoughts and set up camp inside her heart.
But this morning, he didn’t look like he was in such a good mood himself. He and Samantha were in his kitchen, sharing the precious few morning minutes they had together before they both had to get to their prospective jobs. Samantha had already finished her coffee, but Brian was still at the table, finishing his. Samantha heard his cell phone jump on the table, and turned to see Brian pick it up and stare at the message on the screen. He frowned.
It didn’t take advanced logic to know Jake had just sent him yet another email, begging Brian to go to Chicago.
Samantha couldn’t stay to try to talk him about it. She had to get to her store.
“We get the bulk of our new merchandise in on Wednesdays,” she explained as Brian gave her a disappointed look when she told him she had to run. “I have to open up all those boxes and get the stuff inventoried.”
Jake got up from his chair, came to stand before her, and nuzzled her neck. “The boxes can wait a few more minutes, can’t they?” He said.
Samantha closed her eyes and relaxed despite herself. “And then they never get opened, and I never have anything nice and new to sell to my customers,” she said, stifling a smile. “No, I’ll get them done today, so I don’t have them cluttering up my back room.” Even as she said it, she tilted her head up to give Brian better access to her neck.
Brian pulled away from her and frowned. “Wait–those big boxes you get that you keep in the back room. They’re only delivered on Wednesdays?”
It took a moment for Samantha to focus her thoughts. “Yeah. Why is that a big deal?”
“I don’t know…” He rubbed his forehead with his palm, looking befuddled.
Samantha kissed his cheek. “You go finish your coffee. You need it.”
He grinned as his eyes probed hers. “Are you giving me orders now, sub?”
“No Sir, I know better. But a sub can make suggestions to her Dom.”
“Yes, and a good suggestion at that,” he agreed. “But I don’t have time. I have to get into the office, too….”
Samantha knew he would have to explain to Jake, yet again, why he was not on a plane at that moment, on his way to Chicago.
She knew Jake blamed her for Brian’s refusal to go. But it was still a surprise to see Jake walking into her small boutique shop a few hours later.
“So this is your store,” he said, looking around and touching a purple feathered boa hanging on one of the hooks by the wall. “It’s nice.”
“Thank you. Now why are you here?” Samantha asked, coming out from around the counter. Kimberly, who had been kneeling down on a shelf to put some new jewelry on display, stood up to see what was going on.
Jake ran the feathered boa between his fingers, then began to investigate a silk scarf nearby. “I was in the neighborhood for a business meeting. I thought I’d stop by and say hi, look the place over,” he said.
“Uh-huh.” Samantha said. “Business meeting. Really.”
Jake sighed and turned to look her way. “Okay, I came over to talk to you. Is there somewhere we can go to talk privately?”
Samantha held back her groan. “Yeah, I have a back room we can talk in. Kimberly can take over the floor for a few minutes.” She turned to her sister. “Kimberly, this is Jake. Jake, this is my sister, Kimberly.”
“Nice to meet you, Kimberly,” Jake said, waving his fingers and smiling. Kimberly didn’t smile back, but Jake didn’t seem bothered. “Samantha’s said some nice things about you.”
“Has she?” Kimberly still sounded suspicious, but Jake’s kind words had managed to sway her a bit, and she couldn’t stop her lips from curving into a smile despite herself.
“Yes, she has.” This time, Jake’s grin was returned.
Samantha said, “Jake, why don’t you follow me.” She led him into her cramped back room and turned on the light. Most of the boxes were already unloaded, but some still sat waiting. The room was hot and musty, but Samantha wasn’t going to apologize for it. “So why are you really here, Jake?”
Jake leaned his hip against one of the boxes. “I need you to convince Brian to go on this trip to Chicago,” he said. He put his hands up to ward off her instant look of anger. “Hear me out, Samantha. I’m not saying he should go alone–I think you should go with him! I’m offering to put you two up in the nicest hotel you’ve ever been in. I’ll pay for all your meals–I’ll even reimburse you for any money you lose by having to close up your shop! But really, your sister in there–couldn’t she keep the store open and run the place, just for a month or two?”
“Stop it, Jake,” Samantha said. “Do you have any idea how improper it is for you to be talking to me like this behind Brian’s back? You know he’s my Dom!”
“Yeah, I know, but I’m hoping if you understand the real reason why I need him on a plane to Chicago, you’ll understand, and do me a favor.”
“The real reason?” Her eyes narrowed. “Why don’t you spell it out for me?”
“It’s Dana. I need her away from Brian for a while.”
Samantha paused. “Brian hasn’t seen Dana since that night at the dungeon.”
Jake sighed. “I know. But Dana is always bringing up his name, always talking about going to this or that event, hoping to see him there…always ending up disappointed when she realizes he’s not going to show up. If I can tell her Brian’s gone, I mean really gone, out of town, maybe I can get her to forget about him, stop obsessing over him all the time, and think about me instead.”
Samantha said slowly, “Does Dana think there’s a chance for her and Brian to get together? I mean, as a couple?”
“No. God, no.” Jake raked his fingers through his hair. “At least, I don’t think so. I mean, it was obvious to everyone that night at Club Sade how into you Brian is. Dana must have seen that, too. That’s probably why she was such a bitch to you.”
“You know what she said to me?”
“I know. Brian told me. He was trying to warn me.”
Samantha blushed. “I’m sorry, Jake.”
“Look, you probably think I’m an idiot for staying with a girl who’s caught up on another man. And maybe I am. But I think, if I could just get Dana to forget about Brian for a little while, she could see me as a real possibility. I think she knows now Brian will never want to be her Dom, but she’s still hoping he’ll at least come back to playing with her regularly, like he used to. She needs to understand that’s not going to happen. Brian doesn’t need to play with anyone else like he used to, because he’s in love with you.”
Samantha’s eyes grew wide. “You think so?”
“What, you don’t? Hell, I knew it that night at Cat’s, when I first saw him set eyes on you across the floor. Then he tried to act all coy and reserved…buying a girl a drink without even saying hello first? Please. Brian doesn’t work that way.”
Samantha’s face grew puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
“He bought your table that round of drinks, remember?”
Samantha put her hand to her mouth. “He…Brian bought those free drinks for us?”
“Yeah. I was with him when he told the waiter to bring your table another round. He even stood there and watched to make sure you got them.”
“But that means that second round of drinks was clean. And that means…” That meant Kimberly’s drink hadn’t been drugged after all. She had just been feeling the effects of the alcohol on an empty stomach.
Samantha frowned: It didn’t feel right. She felt sure her sister had been under the influence of something else.
Jake, misinterpreting her expression, got nervous. “Samantha, I hope you’re not letting Dana get to you. She can act like she’s all confident, but she’s really not you know. She knows whatever she and Brian had left over from her visits to the Hotel Bentmoore, that’s all over now. She just doesn’t know how to accept that.”
“Wait. What?” Samantha gazed at him. “What did you say?”
“That Dana knows whatever she and Brian shared is over, and she just has to accept it.”
“No, before that. About the Hotel Bentmoore. Dana knew Brian from the Hotel Bentmoore?”
Jake stepped back, looking worried. “You know about Brian’s old job at the Hotel Bentmoore, don’t you?”
“Yes…but Dana met him there? That’s how they know each other?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Dana was his guest….” Her voice trailed off as her face grew ashen, and she stepped back to lean against a box herself.
Jake’s face turned red. “Oh god, Samantha, I’m so sorry…I thought you knew.”
“For how long did Dana go there to visit Brian? For how long?”
“Years. She went there to visit him for years. She was one of his exclusives. I thought he told you. I thought–”
“I have to go. Goodbye, Jake.”
“Samantha, wait–please–”
Samantha didn’t pause to say anything to her sister, but grabbed up her purse from its spot behind the counter as she made a mad dash out the door, leaving Kimberly and Jake behind.
Kimberly watched the door close. Then she turned to Jake and put her hands on her hips.
“Okay, you’d better start telling me right now what the hell is going on,” she said, “or I swear I will lock you in here until you do. And what the hell is a Dom?”
