“It felt like we were getting a second chance, one where we did things right. We were swept up in you, in the way things were progressing, in…” He frowned slightly and then said, “We were thinking with our dicks, if I’m honest. We had a mate and we needed to be in Sydney. We had a house set up for an omega, and I can honestly say I never thought once about fucking Chloe. We haven’t spoken for many years. All requests for money went through an agent I employed for just that purpose.”
He moved closer, but not too close, especially when I clutched the presents tighter to my chest.
“She just didn’t factor into our decision-making. There was only you, Sage, or rather…” A hopeless little sigh. “The idea of you. We’d only gotten glimpses so far, of you panting on my office couch as my brother teased you to another orgasm or of you looking like some kind of project management goddess as you read us the riot act about the way we were running things. That was all we were thinking about—what would Sage need and how could we get it to her fast, before she saw us for what we really are and took off screaming.”
I wanted to say something then, felt the need to, but didn’t. I just stared and nodded as he continued.
“It’s gone now. That’s what this is—it’s the sale contract for the place. Chloe tried to wrangle her way into taking possession of it, but I made clear just how fucking futile pursuing that direction would be.”
I chanced a look at the document, saw the title of it and the neatly sloping signature on each page. That house, with all of Chloe’s hand-picked features, was gone, and secretly, that made me happy. A nasty, vicious part of me didn’t want her to have the dream house, not when she’d tried to use it to smash my dreams.
“Now, this is a potential gift. I wanted to buy you the house we should’ve taken you to, somewhere beautiful, somewhere that would make you feel safe and allow you to feel vulnerable around us, somewhere without history, without shitty memories filling every space. If you like it, I’ll get it for you. You can spend your days on the beach or…”
My heart started to beat so loud, crowding him out, as I could see what a massive investment this property was without him even saying a word about it. A sprawling property built on a beachside somewhere, it was all gleaming steel frames and floor to ceiling glass windows, because the view was stunning. Bushland and beach could be seen all around it, and the house was nestled within. As I flipped through the pictures, I saw the many blinds, able to be drawn to close down the space for when I was feeling sensitive, rooms enough to fit Nikki, Brian, and their extended family if that was what I wanted. The colours on the wall were soft and washed out, making the ache in my eyes ease the moment I looked at them.
“For me?” I croaked out.
“Everything for you, Sage—everything.” He hung there for a moment, staring into my eyes, willing me to see and feel what he was saying, then he turned to the last present, picking up the collar but not offering it to me. “But this? I’ll need you to get dressed in something comfortable, because we’ll need to go out for this.”
48
“You’re certain you want to do this?”
The woman in the smart suit looked me up and down, but not necessarily in a judgey way, more…evaluative. Then she turned to Tobias, expecting an answer.
We’d driven over to a club with a forbidding, gleaming black façade, but when we stepped in, the place was empty. It had that eerie feeling empty places do when they’re usually full of people. Our steps were swallowed by the thick carpet as we walked inside, Tobias’ security detail setting themselves up by the front door.
“Absolutely certain,” Tobias told her.
She sighed and shook her head, reluctance written all over her perfectly made face, but she held out a hand and the collar was placed in it. Why? That’s what I wanted to know.
“This isn’t how things are done, you know,” she told me, like somehow, I was in on all of this.
“No, I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t know anything.” I looked around me now, seeing the sultry lighting, the red painted walls. “I don’t even know what this place is.”
“You’re letting her make this decision blind?” the woman asked Tobias.
“I’m letting you educate her, Scarlet, because I don’t trust myself to.”
“Jesus.” Scarlet turned back to me. “How much did he fuck up?”
Replies, so many replies came to the tip of my tongue, but all of them went unspoken.
“A lot,” was all I could get out.
She nodded then. “Well, I’m assuming you’re a kink newb?”
“Kink?” I saw the place with fresh eyes now, taking a step backwards. “Is this a sex club?”
“Fuck, Toby. This is bullshit, and you know it. She’s so damn green, she’ll start growing leaves out of her ears in moments.”
“Scarlet, explain the collaring process and what it means, then leave us to it. Please.”
That was tacked on at the end, a little moment of appeal, and that was what seemed to get through to the woman. She stared at the alpha with thinly veiled frustration, but when she turned to me, her expression softened.
“This isn’t a sex club, it’s a BDSM club. You know what that means?” I nodded, and she smiled. “You think you do. You’re probably looking at this lunk right now and thinking he’s all your dirty Christian Grey fantasies come to life, but that’s not how it works. Some people like what’s called sadism or masochism—gaining pleasure from dealing or experiencing pain.”
I looked at Tobias much more warily now, feeling like my eyes were growing wider by the second.