Key word being thought. In no way, shape or form did he resemble any true Dominant I’d come in contact. He’d been brutal and mean, which was not the same thing. Not by a long shot.
God. I needed to talk to Dante.
Shaking it off, I reached for the hand towel, patted my face dry, wincing when I touched the sensitive swollen skin under my eye.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” I told the woman in the mirror. “Now they’ll all think you’re fragile and breakable.”
It had been the same thing I’d repeated over and over in my head as Heaven drove me to Zeke’s at my request. I’d been invited and so excited to attend right up until… I’d been tidying up the house, wanting Dante to come home to a clean place. Then … that asshole had ruined it.
Now that I’d left that message, I knew Dante would be worried about me. He always was.
I took a deep breath, exhaled.
I knew exactly why I’d chosen to come. It was to feel safe. Not because of Ian and Isaac. Not entirely, anyway. Yeah, they made me feel safe, but so did everyone at the club. When I was there, I didn’t have to worry about anything like this. So rather than find some hole to hide in, I’d begged Heaven to bring me here even though she’d wanted me to go to the police.
A soft knock sounded on the door.
I opened it, not sure how long I’d been in there. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take so long.”
Isaac tipped my chin back, urging me to look up at him. “Stop apologizing.”
It wasn’t a request, it was a command. Something I’d gotten quite familiar with from these two. The few times we’d played together had been the most intense of my entire life. I craved them like a drug, which was the very reason I had managed to keep my distance. Ian and Isaac Stokes weren’t the sort who were going to take a club submissive as their own and I knew that. I’d met them during the submissive training class months ago, which probably, based on some archaic D/s rule, meant I was off-limits on a permanent basis, and I had reminded myself of that over and over again.
Yet I still longed for those discreet glances they shot my way from time to time, secretly enjoying when they asked me to scene with them. The way they looked at me… No man had ever looked at me like that.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Dante looked at me like that. But he wasn’t a Dominant. Not even a switch. No, he was pure submissive, and he knew what I needed, what I craved because he was looking for the same. Hence the reason we were only friends. Close friends, yeah. Probably closer than we should’ve been, but I couldn’t help it. Dante made me feel cherished, as though I mattered. And when he would hold me in his arms, curled up on the sofa to watch television, I couldn’t seem to come up with an excuse as to why it was wrong.
“Do you need to call someone?” Ian asked as we moved toward the stairs. “Parents? Brother, sister?”
I shook my head. “No. Only child. My dad died when I was ten, my mom … she does her own thing. Haven’t heard from her in a while.” A really, really long while but I figured now wasn’t the time to go into that.
“How long’s a while?” Ian probed.
Or maybe it was. “Five years.”
Isaac grunted but I couldn’t translate the gruff sound.
“And you live with Dante?” Ian asked.
“Yes. And Heaven. We’re roommates. There’s … um … there’s nothing going on between any of us.”
I wasn’t sure why I was vomiting up my personal information, but I couldn’t help myself. When it came to them, I found myself willing to tell them anything, even the most private things.
“Let’s join the others,” Isaac said, his hand splaying across my back, gently guiding me to follow Ian down the stairs.
Going back to the party gave me the distraction I needed. For the next couple of hours, I mingled as much as I could, assured Jamie Lautner, Zeke’s younger sister, I was fine several times. She was sweet and I could tell she was worried, but I didn’t want her to be. I was a big girl, I could hold my own.
Isaac was always close by, not leaving me alone for a second. He had someone bring me drinks—fruit punch, not alcohol—and continued to watch me as though I might shatter into a million pieces. I couldn’t deny I was probably going to have nightmares, but for those couple of hours, I felt more at ease.
I would’ve felt a million times better if Dante would’ve called.
Two hours later, the party started to wind down, a few people still milling about, most having left already when Isaac and Ian offered to take me home. Without any other options, I accepted.
