Page 83 of Delicious Surrender
“Did I mention that all the waiters will be astonishingly hot and very submissive?”
“Of course they will. I expected no less from you, Madame Valentine.” He grinned and went to his desk. “I’ll email him and make the introductions.” Gage welcomed the distraction, so he told her he would go see the property with Armand.
Patricia rose to give him another hug. She held his hands and caught his gaze.
“I cannot thank you enough for your help, Gage. But I have one more favor to ask.”
One dark eyebrow rose.
“I know you think Brynne wrote that story and put it in the Mirror, but I just don’t believe it.”
His jaw hardened, and he stepped back from her. “You’re wrong. Just like I was wrong. She is a conniving little liar, trying to make a name for herself.”
“It makes no sense. She wants to be a novelist, not a reporter. I cannot fathom why she would do anything to harm you. There could be another person behind this. Have you hired a private investigator to prove it one way or the other?”
“No. There was no one else with the means to get the story published, and she had access to our members’ names.”
“I’ve been studying people and their motives my whole life and I would bet a substantial sum of money that something else is at play.”
Gage stared at her and shook his head.
She put a hand on his arm. “If I’m right, will you become an investor in The Hellcat Club?”
Gage ran a hand through his hair. “And what if you’re wrong?”
She considered that for a minute, then smiled. “If I’m wrong, I’ll settle for you being an advisor and I won’t ask you to invest.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very palatable wager for you. If you’re right, I will give you half a million pounds in seed capital and I’ll be an advisor—provided the business case works. And if you’re wrong, you come to my club and let me lay my favorite flogger across your bare ass.”
Her eyes widened. “Christ, you drive a hard bargain. But I’ll take that wager. For one, I want your help and your money, and two, I think you’re wrong about that girl.”
After Patricia left, he sat for a while contemplating what she’d said. Would it be worthwhile to have an investigator lookinto it? Only to prove that he was right about her. Angry at the dredging up of old wounds, Gage pulled out Brynne’s employee file and read the reference letter.
Brynne is a natural. She became aroused the moment the restraints went on her wrists; however, she continued to fight her submissive nature. Her endurance and threshold for pain were not fully tested, but I believe elements of her personality drive her to seek more intense punishments. The strap shocked her initially, but she let herself go and came hard with the last few blows.
She can be willful and struggles to obey explicit directions. It appears she wants to be pushed past her limits and rebels against fully submitting, as one way to up the ante. It is my conclusion that she would be suited to a male Dom with a firm hand, one with whom she has an emotional connection.
Her hard and soft limits were surprising—in that she will try things she has no experience with. This stems from a need to prove her worthiness and her strength. Her fantasies are about being forced to comply, not submitting willingly. In the wrong hands, it could get her into trouble.
He slapped the folder shut, intending to dismiss Patricia’s suggestion, but he couldn’t. He wanted the truth, so he rang John and asked him to recommend a private eye. Then he packed his briefcase and went to see Garrick. The club would be in excellent hands, and he looked forward to getting out of London. It had lost a bit of its luster in the last week.
21
Hot Handyman for Hire
The handyman hadn’t called back by the next morning. Brynne filled two garbage bags with wet laundry and took them to the launderette in town. Aunt Josie had fallen in love with clothes dryers during a visit to Canada. She imported one and then created a laundry room outside of the kitchen. Many considered her to be eccentric, but Brynne knew she was a trailblazer.
The repairs could be costly, and she had very little money in reserve. She stared out at the islands in the distance and nibbled on her bottom lip. The old stone house was over a century old. It was bound to have some issues. She called Jared and talked him out of making the twelve-hour drive to Skye. After explaining the saga of the washing machine, he suggested she pay the plumber with sex and kill two birds with one stone.
“You are assuming I’m good enough in bed to get all the flooring, plumbing, and god knows what else fixed in thishouse!”
“I have the utmost faith in your abilities, Bree!”
She laughed, then abruptly yelled, “I’ve got to go. He’s calling!”
Logan sounded as sexy as his voicemail and offered to come over at nine on Saturday morning to look at the job. Brynne gushed her thanks and forgot to ask anything about the cost. It didn’t matter. It had to be fixed, and if she needed a loan from the estate, she’d speak to Alistair. That settled, she checked her email and searched online for estimates to ship boxes of clothes from London to Skye. Jared offered to pack her clothes and courier them, so she didn’t need to fly back for a while.
Eventually, she would need to decide what to do with her apartment in Brixton. If there was no work in London, Edinburgh could be another option.