“Stop it,” Rodrigo snapped.
Severin narrowed his eyes. “Stop what?”
“Even after all these years, you still think you were the problem. They’re either idiots or monsters, Sev.” Rodrigo jabbed a finger at the paperwork. “Just sign. Get them out of your life and forget about them.”
“Like they forgot about me?” He sighed. “If they hadn’t kept my sisters maybe I could feel differently, but if they’re not here with me, I’m guessing they kept them. Maybe my issues made me difficult to parent.”
“Your issues are all the direct result of what they did to you!” Rodrigo snapped, shoving his chair back and lurching to his feet, his dark eyes ablaze with fury. “For fuck’s sakes, Severin, no matter what you were like as a child – even if you were the most terrible little shit on the planet – you didn’t deserve this. You remember the big house and the horses and the fancy cars. The servants. They bought you a fucking mansion. There was no reason to send you away like they did, even if you were emotionally disturbed, which I don’t think you ever were. They had the resources to keep you close and to get you help. To have nannies raise you nearby, if not in their house. Something happened. I wish you’d tell me. I wish you’d let me go there so I could punch every last one of them in the face.”
Severin didn’t know what else to do except laugh at Ro’s strong feelings on the subject. “How would that help anything?”
“It would make me feel better,” Rodrigo said, sitting back in his chair, as if he’d just realized he’d made a scene. It wasn’t like him to lose his temper. That was more Severin’s forte.
Rodrigo smoothed his hair and straightened his jacket. So debonair. He and Miss Korsgaard were a perfect match. As usual, Severin was the one who didn’t fit.
“I think you’re afraid to find out why,” Rodrigo went on. “The truth will change the story you pieced together in your head when you were a kid. You’re too comfortable playing the villain.”
“You can say that again,” Miss Korsgaard said with a bitterness that was probably a reflection of the second plug he’d worked into her ass before the meeting.
Rodrigo arched a brow and turned his gaze to the girl, as though her statement had been in reference to him and he planned to correct her.
“I could have opted for a larger plug, Miss Korsgaard.”
Her calm façade dissolved and she groaned. “Please, Mister Leduc.” She eyed Rodrigo uneasily then turned her attention back to Severin.
“Please a bigger plug?”
“No!”
“Go remove the one in now, Miss Korsgaard, then come back.”
“Yes, Master.” She covered her mouth with her hand and glanced from him to Rodrigo, then away, her face glowing a charming red.
Rodrigo chuckled as he watched her go. “Master? You’ve taken her well in hand.”
“You think her submitting to me is funny, Rodrigo?” He let his words and eyes convey cold menace.
“No, I...I didn’t mean to start a fight with you. She’s just so prim that you’d never suspect.”
“Like you,” Severin pointed out.
Rodrigo gave him a sharp look.
“No one would suspect the wolf that hides so quietly in that suit,” he clarified.
The other man inclined his head.
Although Rodrigo wasn’t all wolf when it came to his kinks, no one but Severin knew that.
“You’re attracted to her.”
“I don’t know a dominant that wouldn’t be, but I’ll never touch what’s yours without your permission.”
Severin turned his coffee cup with his fingertips. “I’m training her.”
“For?”
“Me.” He shrugged. “I’m enjoying it, but I’m not sure how far it’s safe to go before I break her.”