She looked down at her hands. Real. That was exactly what this was. Too fucking real. “We’ll find Jace and then I’ll go home. I’ll tell Daniel I wanted to end the weekend early.”
He sighed. “How about we cross that bridge when we get to it? We need to track down Jace first.”
She nodded, feeling better now that she had an escape hatch rigged up. “Okay.”
“Get your stuff packed up, and I’ll call Grant. He’s not going to let you leave with me unless he verifies that it’s what you want.”
“What? I’m a grown woman. I don’t need permission to go with someone.”
“Here you do,” Andre said, crouching down in front of her and laying a light kiss on her lips. “Grant doesn’t mess around with people’s safety. He’ll just make sure that you’re going with me on your own volition and not because I ordered you as your dom to do so.”
She huffed. “I feel like I’ve entered an alternate universe.”
He nuzzled her neck, sending warmth trickling down her spine and beating back some of the anxiety that had crept in. “And what do you think of the natives?”
I think I’ve found my home planet. But she didn’t share that thought. “I think they’re cocky and high-handed.”
He laughed softly against her skin.
“. . . And pretty damn irresistible.” She let herself fall under the spell of his touch and laced her fingers in his hair, enjoying the satiny slide of his dark locks between her knuckles. “Well, two of them, at least.”
“That’s good to hear. We have a bit of a soft spot for you, too. In fact, I have something to propose to you on the way over.” He pulled back to look at her, his grin sly. “But if I don’t stop kissing you now, we’ll never leave this cabin. Jace will be on his own.”
She drew her hands down from his hair to his stubbled cheeks and sighed. It was really unfair for him to be so damn delicious. He made it next to impossible to hold on to her resolve. “All right, call the Grand Poo-bah so I can get permission to leave with you, kind sir.”
* * *
She and Andre didn’t have to search too hard for Jace. His little sports car was parked on the side of the building that housed both Wicked and the guys’ third-floor loft. Andre entered the code to open the gate for the private parking area and pulled into the spot next to Jace’s. “Let’s go see what the damage is. My guess is he’ll either be a total brooding pain in the ass or—”
“Act like absolutely nothing is wrong.”
He cut the ignition and smirked at her. “Hasn’t changed much since his teenage years, huh?”
She shrugged. “It always seemed like the harder his dad came down on him, the more devil-may-care he became. Like he was determined to show his father his opinion didn’t even make a blip on his radar.”
Andre’s brown eyes reflected the same sadness she felt for Jace. “Guess we’ll just have to go remind him that not everyone thinks he’s a jackass.” He pushed open his door. “Well, unless he is acting like a jackass, then all bets are off.”
She laughed. “Right.”
Andre led her to the front door of the store. “Let’s check his office first. He’s been spending a lot of time in there lately.”
The bottom floor of Wicked was more a lobby and didn’t have any products displayed. Instead, the most gorgeous black-and-white erotic photography Evan had ever seen adorned the dark maroon walls. Soft classical music filled her ears as well, but she had trouble dragging her focus away from the artwork. She touched the corner of one large piece—a collared woman was in the process of disrobing and in the background, two men sat in the darkened corner of the bedroom, leaning back in their chairs, their attention held captive by the display.
The photographer had captured the light so perfectly. The soft curves of the woman’s body gleamed, and the dark angles playing over the faces of the men she was undressing for promised wickedness to come. Something that could’ve looked pornographic under an amateur’s camera had been morphed into something stunning and pure. “God, I wish I was this good.”
Andre slid a hand onto her lower back. “I have no doubt you are. I can’t wait to see your photography.”
“I don’t do this type of work,” she said, looking at the price on the picture and trying to keep a straight face at the astronomical amount.
Evan let Andre lead her up the stairs to the main store. She paused at the glass door leading into the shop, which had poetry scrawled across it in calligraphy. She read it aloud, running her fingers over the lettering:
Where true Love burns Desire is Love’s pure flame;
It is the reflex of our earthly frame,
That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And but translates the language of the heart.