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  “Damn it, Max. Enough. There are no details. And by the way, can you keep it down just a little here? We’re in my office.”

  Branch came out from behind the desk to make sure the door between his office and Karen’s was shut tight. When he saw that it hadn’t quite closed, he decided to check and make sure Lee wasn’t somehow on the other side. She had said she’d text him but—

  When he yanked the door all the way open, he came face to face with Karen, who was getting ready to knock. She had a strange look on her face, and his first thought was to wonder if she had heard any of their conversation.

  “Oh, Branch.” She frowned. “Did something just happen?”

  “Happen?” He lifted an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you mean.”

  “Miss Sullivan just ran out of here like a fire was chasing her. I told her you were waiting for her, but she just said to tell you she’s changed her mind. You can stop waiting. Oh, and she asked me to delete her number from your cell phone. For god’s sake, Branch, what did you do?”

  “Something incredibly stupid.”

  A knot lodged itself in Branch’s stomach. Damn Max for not shutting the door completely when he came in. And damn himself for not checking. Or telling Max to shut up. Why hadn’t Lee texted as she’d told him she would? He grabbed his cell phone and realized he’d turned it off during a Skype meeting and, ass that he was, hadn’t turned it back on.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “What’s wrong?” Max asked, rising from his chair.

  “Everything,” Branch snapped. “Every fucking thing is wrong. I’m an idiot. Damn it all to hell.” He glared at the other man. “I owe you two hundred grand. Nothing happened. You were right. And it was a stupid fucking bet. If I could, I’d kick myself in the ass.”

  Max’s jaw dropped. “So you lost? I’m stunned.”

  Branch wanted to smack him. No, he wanted to smack himself.

  “Just shut the fuck up.”

  “Wow. Lot of F-bombs today, Branch.”

  Branch stuffed his cell in his pocket and barreled out of the office, nearly knocking Karen over.

  “Will you be back?” she called after him.

  “I have no idea. Tell everyone I lost my mind and went to find it.”

  He jiggled his keys impatiently as he waited for the elevator. How in hell could he have been such a blind idiot? Max had been right when he said one of these days he’d meet a woman who pushed all his buttons and his habit would backfire. Blow up in his face would be a more apt word.

  He fidgeted as he rode the elevator down to the underground parking and raced to his SUV. His hand shook so much when he tried to put the key in the ignition that he dropped the key ring twice. As he pulled out into traffic, he tried to figure where she’d go. Back to work? Home? Someplace else?

  He activated the hands-free option on his cell and tried Mayor Vincent’s office first.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Colby,” the receptionist told him. “Miss Sullivan just called and said she wouldn’t be back today. She asked me to cancel her appointments. Can I take a message for her?”

  Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  He tried her cell next, but it went straight to voice mail. Same with her townhouse number. He pounded his fist on the steering wheel. Okay, he’d just chase her down. Make her talk to him. Explain what an asshole jerk he’d been. Whatever it took.

  As he raced through the city, he silently berated himself for the idiot that he was. Max had warned him a woman would come along who would pierce all the shields around his heart and he’d probably fuck it up. God, how true that was. For a smart man, he was really a stupid idiot.

  He pulled up in front of her townhouse, screeching to a halt and getting out of the SUV while it was still rocking from the force of the abrupt stop. Her car was nowhere in sight but he knew these particular townhouses had covered resident parking in the rear so that didn’t put him off. Long strides took him to the tiny porch, where he jammed his finger on the doorbell. When no one came to the door, he pressed it again and again, waiting only briefly to hear if anyone was moving around inside. Nothing. Next he pounded on the door as loudly as he could.

  “Lee. Lee, if you’re in there, please open the door. I need to talk to you. Explain. Lee. Come on.”

  Pound, pound, pound.

  Nothing.

  “Lee.” He stepped back on the deck and looked at the upper windows. “Lee, damn it. Open the door and let me talk to you.”

  Still nothing.

  He reached over the fence to unlatch the gate leading to her small backyard. A sliding door led out to a patio, and he pressed his face to the glass, attempting to see inside. All he saw was an empty kitchen and part of the living room. Okay, maybe she was in her bedroom, but that was upstairs. Damn! He tried rapping as loud as he could on the glass but without any results. Frustrated, he jogged back to the front just in time to see a San Antonio Police Department patrol car pull up to the curb. He watched as the driver got out, put on his hat, and came toward him.

  “Problem, Officer? Is something wrong here?”

  Maybe Lee had been hurt or had some crisis and couldn’t get to the door.

  “Maybe you can tell me. Can I see some identification?”

  Branch frowned but pulled out his wallet and waited while the cop looked at his driver’s license. Both his face and name were well known in the area.

  “That do it?” he asked.

  “Sorry, Mr. Colby.” The cop handed his wallet back. “We got a call from one of the neighbors that someone was creating a disturbance.” The guy actually seemed a little embarrassed. “We just have to check these things out.”

  “Of course. No problem. I was worried when Miss Sullivan didn’t answer her door.”

  “Maybe you could trying calling her first,” the cop suggested. He touched the brim of his hat. “You have a nice day.”

  Branch waited until the man got into his patrol car and drove off before he climbed back into the SUV. Obviously he couldn’t keep standing in front of the townhouse shouting and making an ass of himself, or at least more of one than he already was. He tried Lee’s cell phone again. Still voice mail. He had a very sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that if he didn’t fix this soon it might not be fixable at all.

  *****

  Lee burrowed into her bed, pulling the covers tight to her chin, curling up in a fetal position. She had barely made it home and into her bathroom before heaving the contents of her stomach. She sat on the floor of her bathroom for a long time, shaking, before she could manage to get to her feet and tumble into bed. She hadn’t even bothered to remove her clothes. The message she gave the office was that she wouldn’t be back that afternoon, that she was suddenly not feeling well. And wasn’t that just the damn truth?

  Every time she thought of the words she’d heard at Branch’s office, she began shaking again. And she was cold. Freezing. And sick to her very soul. Why had she been such a fool? Such an idiot? She had trusted him. Allowed herself to acknowledge she had real feelings for him. She should have known better. He was the very reason why she stayed away from powerful men. Why she kept her sexual relationships within the walls of Infinity with only an occasional dip in a vanilla lake with a man who appealed to her on a temporary basis.

  She was who she was. At Infinity she didn’t have to hide it or lie about it. Branch Colby was the first man outside the club she had indulged in any BDSM activities with. She had found it incredibly erotic to “play” the sub without submitting. She had even entertained thoughts, stupid as she was, that they could spice up their sex life with it, maybe even role play.

  She had been stupid and should have known better. It wasn’t as if they’d said the “L” word to each other. At least not yet. It was way too early in their relationship for that, yet she’d been so sure something was brewing there. A connection. That they were on their way to something real. What a fool she’d been. Why would Branch Colby, who could have any woman on the planet, come after her, anywa
y? She should have known he had an ulterior motive. She just wouldn’t have expected humiliation to be his end game.

  What she didn’t understand was how Max knew about Mistress Star. Because of her position with the mayor, she was extremely careful to keep her public and private personalities separate. If she ever got her wits together again, she’d do her damndest to find out. If it was a member of Infinity, she’d make sure John Francona knew about it.

  Her phone rang again, probably the tenth time since she’d gotten home. She’d shut off her cell. Now she reached over and unplugged the phone on her nightstand. If she ever made it downstairs again, she’d do the same to the one in the kitchen. She hated landlines anyway, and she certainly didn’t need one. First on her list of things to do would be getting it disconnected. Presuming she ever got out of bed again.

  Her eyes burned, and her throat ached with unshed tears. She hadn’t cried for so long she wondered if maybe she’d lost her ability. She felt used and degraded and ashamed that she’d been taken in so easily. It would be a long time before she ever trusted anyone again. Or spent time with a man outside Infinity.

  *****

  “Branch?”

  He looked up as Karen rapped on his open door then walked into the room.

  “Any luck?”

  She shook her head. “Same answer. They keep telling me she’s out sick, and they don’t know when she’ll be back.” One corner of her mouth ticked up in a smile. “They seem to be quite desperate without her. There’s only so much her assistant can do.”

  “I imagine so. She’s damn good at her job.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Thanks, Karen.”

  Still she stood in front of his desk, as if debating whether to say something.

  “Something else?” he asked.

  “Well, if she’s ill, and you say she won’t open the door or answer the phone for you, perhaps I could go by. She might be more receptive to me.”

  She looked at him with eyes that were kind but that he feared saw far too much.

  “What?” he asked. “I know there’s something you’re biting back, so spit it out.”

  “I don’t know what happened,” she began, “or the exact nature of your relationship with Miss Sullivan, but you might want to give it a little time before you try and see her again. Let things settle, so to speak.”

  “That sounds good in theory.” He blew out a breath. “But I have a feeling all the time in the world isn’t going to fix this one. I screwed up big time.” He gave her a tired smile. “But thanks for the offer and the advice. I think this might take a miracle.”

  *****

  Lee put the finishing touches to a media release and saved it on her computer. She hadn’t been able to take more than a week off from work, and, even then, things were in a mess when she returned. The mayor was apoplectic but afraid to yell at her for fear she might walk out. She was doing her best to pick up the loose threads and keep things on track. So when her assistant buzzed to tell her someone was there to see her, her initial reaction was to say she was too busy to see anyone right now.

  “He says he’s on Mayor Vincent’s re-election committee,” the girl told her, “and he has something he needs to run by you.”

  Well, hell. This was the part of the job that she hated the most, dancing around the politics of it all.

  She sighed. “Okay, send him on in, but be sure to tell him, as nicely as possible, that I can only spare a few minutes. Tell him I’ll set up a longer time to meet next week.”

  She was studying her calendar when the door opened and closed and a man’s voice said, “I won’t take up much of your time.”

  She’d heard that voice before. At public events and more recently at Branch’s office.

  Branch! Just his name sent shards of pain lancing through her.

  She looked up to see Max Ferlita standing in front of her desk.

  “Good, because, for you, I have less than a minute.”

  He held up his hands. “I’ll be as quick as I can. I wouldn’t be here except I’m on an errand of mercy.”

  “Ha.” She sneered. “If it’s on behalf of Branch, he doesn’t deserve any mercy.”

  “You’re right. But Lee? This is as much my fault as his.”

  She wrinkled her forehead. “How do you figure that?”

  “Branch and I have been friends since we were in high school together. We’ve done a lot of stupid things together. Making bets is one of them.”

  “Making bets isn’t stupid,” she snapped, “under the right circumstances. Humiliating people is.”

  “You’re right. I take full responsibility for initiating this one. He was rocked by you at the picnic and wanted to ask you out. And stunned when I told him you were Mistress Star.”

  She glared at him. “How would you know that anyway?”

  “Lee, Branch and I both have memberships at Ultra. We have both been practicing Doms for years. I’m sure you’ve at least figured that out about him by now. Anyway, I had a guest pass to Infinity one night and saw you there.”

  Lee dug her nails into her palms to keep her temper under control.

  “You know you aren’t supposed to disclose information outside the walls of a club without the person’s permission.”

  “You’re absolutely right.” He nodded. “My bad. I was just spouting off to my best friend, and the thing snowballed.”

  She wanted to smack him.

  “I’m sure you both had a good laugh when he regaled you with all the details.”

  “Actually, I didn’t get any details, Lee. All he said was he lost the bet. He paid me off. A check to the charity of my choice.”

  “What?” Surprise shocked her. “What did you just say?”

  “That he told me he lost the bet, and he wasn’t about to divulge any personal details of his relationship with you.” He shook his head. “He’s miserable, Lee. I’ve never seen him like this. All he does is work. He won’t even stay in one place very long. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he has feelings for you that run very deep, and he’s not good at verbalizing them. But, of course, to find out, you’d have to agree to see him first.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, Max. This has been—really bad.”

  “I agree. It’s just—if you could think about giving him another chance. This has been a painful lesson for him to learn.”

  “Are you sure he never told you anything?” she asked.

  “Swear to god. So will you think about it?”

  “Yes. But I won’t promise anything.”

  “Good enough. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me.”

  After he was gone, Lee sat at her desk for a long time, staring at the computer screen and seeing nothing. Could she really get past this? See Branch again? Test what they had? She was always going to be Mistress Star, and if he was a Dom—

  Still, role reversals had worked for a few couples she knew where both were Dominants.

  If only she didn’t miss him so badly. Not even the pain and embarrassment had been able to wipe that away.

  She dropped her head into her hands. Why did her life have to be so complicated?

  Chapter Eight

  If John Francona hadn’t called her and told her he had a very special sub who had personally requested her, Lee would still be sitting at home watching bad movies and drinking hot chocolate and feeling sorry for herself. John, however, had been very persuasive.

  “You’ve been absent for far too long, Mistress Star,” he cajoled. “And I have a guest coming in who has specifically requested someone of your talents.”

  “Did he ask for me by name?” Was it someone one of her subs had recommended her to?

  “He did. I believe Drew was the one who told him about you.” His voice softened. “Lee, come in for the evening. I don’t know what’s causing you to hide yourself away, but it’s time to come out and play again.”

  She sighed. He was right. She couldn’t stay holed up in her house every nigh
t for the rest of her life. So now here she was, in her trademark red bustier and thong and her thigh-high boots with the skyscraper heels. John greeted her as she came into the lounge.

  “Nice to see you again, Mistress Star. We’ve missed you.”

  “Yes, well.” She let out a slow breath. “I’ve had some, shall we say, challenges in my life.”

  “Then I hope tonight will be able to help you deal with them.” He lifted a key card from his pocket and handed it to her. “Your sub is ready for you, and waiting.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “No meet and greet in the lounge first? That’s unusual. What if I choose not to have a session with him? What if he doesn’t appeal to me?”

  John gave her a mysterious smile. “Then you are free to refuse. But I think you’ll be very pleased with this one.”

  “Very well. I guess I can trust you on this.”

  “Enjoy your evening.” He moved aside to let her proceed down the hallway.

  Her fingers shook slightly as she inserted the key card in the slot. When she opened the door, soft music was already filling the air. An aroma lamp dispensed lavender mist in one corner, and all the lights in the room had been dimmed. Except for the spotlights that shone on the board where she’d played with Drew.

  Only it wasn’t Drew lying there, immobilized with all the leather straps, skin gleaming with her favorite oil. Instead, she was shocked to see Branch lying there, dark eyes staring at her, watching her. And, for the first time since she’d met him, she saw a hint of uncertainty in his gaze.

  For a moment she was tempted to leave, give John back the card, and tell him she’d be back when he was through playing tricks on her. Her curiosity made her draw closer to Branch.

  “How did you get them to let you in here? What are you doing here? What do you want?”

  His eyes never left her face. “I drove the owner of Ultra nuts until he called John Francona to get me a guest pass. I’ve ben waiting for you, hoping we can pick up where we left off. Or start all over, or whatever you want.”