A Dom Is Forever (27 page)

She frowned up at him, her eyes blinking as though she was trying to process what he’d said. “What?”

Or she just hadn’t been listening. “I said we could just go home. You seem to have changed your mind.”

She seemed to have changed period. Her smile all evening long had been forced, her conversation stilted. She was always so present when she was with him, and now she seemed to be in another place entirely. She shook her head, her eyes going back to the building across the street. “No. I’m fine. I’m looking forward to it.”

“I’ve promised to spank you for disobedience. You’re really looking forward to that?” She’d shut down after the threat. Had he really misjudged her? Was she really that worried about an erotic spanking?

A hint of a real smile finally lit her face. “Well, it is a little unfair, you see. I had to work. I don’t know that I like being punished for working, but that’s not really what it’s about, is it? It’s play, like you said. It’s just a fun game to spark our imaginations. Lee, I’m not afraid of you.”

She should be. She would run away if she knew half of the things he’d done under the excuse of protecting people. “Then tell me what’s wrong.”

He’d been afraid to ask up to this point. He’d been a pussy pansy-ass who wasn’t doing his job which was to protect her and comfort her. He might never have had a permanent sub before, but even he knew that was his primary function as a Dom. But he’d been afraid of the answer so he’d let her brood.

She shook her head. “It was just a rough day, Lee. The price of grain is up, and that has everyone scrambling. I’m sorry I’m being distant. I don’t mean to be, and I don’t want you to think I’m not interested in exploring the club. I want to. I’m rapidly discovering that really nasty sex can be a great stress reliever.”

Years he’d used subs for stress relief, but hearing Avery describe it like that cut him to the quick. She wasn’t telling him something. She was holding something in, and he hated it. A nasty little suspicion was thrumming through his veins. She’d thought he was a hustler before. What if the perfect little princess was just using him for sex? Had he really thought she was interested in him for anything beyond a little stress relief? She was smart. She’d grown up privileged. Yes, she’d lost her parents and that lifestyle, but did those beliefs ever really go away? She’d married a boy from a good family.

His family was all dead, and he’d had a hand in killing his brother. He’d been born in a slum and still drank cheap beer.

Her hand went to his chest. “Lee? Are you all right?”

He forced his face to go blank. She was his fucking kryptonite. He’d been trained, worked for years, and it all fell away because one passably pretty girl said something to hurt him.

That was the problem. He knew she wasn’t beautiful. On an intellectual level, he knew she was rather plain. But when he looked at her all he saw was the sun in the sky, and she was never going to love him. She deserved better.

“Hey, maybe I could use a little stress relief, too.” He was well aware the words came out with a nasty little bite. He’d spent all day thinking about her, waiting for her, and she wanted to use him as stress relief. Two could play at that game, and he was the Dom in this situation. She was here for his use. “You’ll go into the club, and I have a friend waiting for you. Her name is Eve, and she’ll take you back to the dressing rooms.”

“You’re not going with me?” For the first time in hours, she really looked up at him.

He couldn’t help but soften slightly. “You have to change. It’s
fet
wear only once you get beyond the lobby, and men and women have separate locker rooms.”

“That sounds oddly normal for a place like this.”

“Only because you don’t understand a place like this. There are rules to the floor. I can walk you around naked on the floor of the club and everyone understands how to behave. And if they don’t they can get their asses handed to them. It’s not going to be a sexual free-for-all in there. It’s very disciplined.”

“You use that word a lot.” She started to follow him across the street, her eyes still on the building in front of her as though she was trying to see past the blandness of the outside.

“Discipline is important.” He’d been undisciplined for a good portion of his life. It was only when he’d gone into the Army and the SAS that he’d found it. His discipline had been blown away when his brother died, but Ian Taggart had given it back to him. Now the only question Liam had was why.

While Avery changed, he intended to get a few answers from his boss.

“How do you know this Eve person?” Avery asked, a hint of rebuke in her tone.

So she wanted to be a little jealous of her boy toy, did she? It was there on the tip of his tongue to mislead her, to let her think Eve was a lover. Eve was a gorgeous woman. Avery would compare herself and likely find herself lacking and then she would be out of the power position. And he just couldn’t do it. He took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “She’s just a friend. She’s Ian’s sister, so she’s a little like my sister. But she’s a perfectly experienced submissive.”

She was a whacked-out sub since she would take all the pain and refused any pleasure, but no one seemed to be able to crack Eve’s shell on that one. She allowed Alex to scene with her, but pulled away at the thought of aftercare.

“She’s Ian’s sister? And they play at the same club?”

Yeah, maybe they hadn’t thought this part of the cover through. “Oh, I think they try to avoid each other as much as possible, but it wouldn’t be safe for her to play anywhere else. Now stop procrastinating. Are you in or out?”

She nodded toward the door. “I’m in. I want to see what’s inside.”

Ah, sweet curiosity. It had killed many a cat, though this time it might kill him instead.

He opened the doors and escorted Avery into the very posh-looking lobby. Eve was waiting at the desk looking like a woman who often worked the front desk of a sex club.

She smiled brightly as they walked in, but he could hear the disapproval in her voice. “Lee, it’s so good to see you. It’s been such a long time. I really expected you to come around sooner.” Her British accent was every bit as perfect as Ian’s had been. Liam often thought that they were a group of people who could have been actors had they not been so bloody good at killing. “You must be Avery.”

Avery held out her hand, politely shaking Eve’s. She was an inch or two shorter than Eve and even dressed for work, she couldn’t match Eve’s flair for fashion. There was always something askew about Avery whether it was a button she’d missed or a little tear in her skirt. She was perfectly imperfect, and it just made him want to stay close to her so she never felt the need to change.

“Nice to meet you.” She glanced around the lobby. “It looks so normal.”

Eve laughed, her face lighting up. “Oh, that is a lovely thought. If only the whole world was normal. I think you’ll find we have a slightly different version of normal from most people. Come along, dear. Lee has your clothes set out for you. I’ll help you. I don’t suppose you’ve worn a corset before, have you?”

Her eyes went wide. “No.”

Eve winked at her. “Then I’ll definitely have to help you. I’ll give you a little advice. Breathe now while you can.” She started to lead Avery toward the women’s dressing room. Her blonde head turned slightly back toward him. “I’ll show Avery around. Lee, dear, I believe you’ll find Ian is waiting to have a word with you.”

He nodded. He could bet Ian was waiting. Ian would be up in his office, sitting behind his temporary desk and ready for to dress Liam down. Ian could be very formal in his own odd way. Liam had seen it happen before, though if Ian tried that
Three Stooges
routine he often ran on Adam, he would find out Liam hit back.

Liam walked through the door to the men’s locker room. Ian could wait.

Except Ian wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He was pacing the floor of the locker room, already dressed in leathers. Black leather covered his legs and a vest sat on his massive chest.

When he turned, he looked almost human. “Li, I need to talk to you.”

Fuck all. Ian looked worried. What the hell was going on? Liam could pretend to not quite understand or he could get right to the heart of the matter. He never had been one to prevaricate. He looked Ian right in the eye. “Did you or did you not run the op that got my brother killed?”

Ian stared right back. “I did and I didn’t.”

Liam groaned. “I’m not playing games. I want the truth.”

“I’m not playing games either, but I’m starting to suspect someone is playing them with us. There are too many coincidences. Those files were buried. Weston shouldn’t have been able to find them.”

“So you’re pissed that Weston got through your wall of protection?”

“Li, I didn’t cover the op up. The Agency did, and I didn’t even know they had buried the evidence until a few days ago. Honestly, I’ve always known we would have this conversation. I’ve been avoiding it for years.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a lot you don’t know, and honestly I didn’t think you needed to know. It was done. And it was a time in my life I don’t particularly want to remember.”

“Because of your wife?”

Ian’s face tightened. “Yes. Charlotte is a part of my life better left buried.”

“Did you kill her?” He really wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question.

“Yes and no.”

Liam was ready to punch a wall. “Fuck it, Ian, will you give me a bloody straight answer? I’m sick of this. I’m thinking about walking out of here right now and taking Avery with me.”

“Don’t you fucking threaten me,” Ian snarled.

“Ian, calm down. We talked about this.” Alex was sitting in the corner, still in his sweats and a T-shirt.

Liam ran a hand across his hair. If Alex had been a snake, he could have bitten him several times. Liam was losing it. “I didn’t see you.”

Alex gave Liam a little half smile. “Sorry. I’m here to make sure you two don’t beat each other down.”

“Like you could stop us,” Ian snarled back.

Liam was with Ian on this one. He was starting to think a beat down might be in order. Beating the fuck out of Ian just might make him feel better.

“In that case, I’m here to call the match. Adam and Jake have a hundred riding on it. Jake thinks Ian will kill you, but Adam is counting on the fact that you’re awfully mean.” Alex sat back, waiting on the outcome.

“Does everyone know but me?” That was his fear. He was on the outside again. He was the one who didn’t fit.

Ian slapped at one of the lockers, the sound reverberating through the room. “No. Alex is the only person on the team who even knew I had ever been married. Adam and Jake and Eve just think I’m talking to you about the fact that you’ve been an asshole for four days and you’re jeopardizing this op.”

Ian hadn’t told his brother? “What about Sean?”

“My brother has enough problems with me as it is. Even back then, Sean had a love-hate relationship with me. Knowing about Charlie would have put him firmly in the hate camp, more than likely.”

“You’re wrong about Sean. He would understand,” Alex said quietly. “Li will, too. Tell him.”

Ian was quiet for the longest time, so long Liam thought he wasn’t going to speak. “I was recruited into the CIA through their black ops program. They sometimes recruit active Special Forces members to train as operatives. I was one of them. I had run two or three small-time missions, mostly gathering recon in Afghanistan. I served there for a long time and had very good contacts. That was where I first heard whisperings of an arms dealer selling tainted materials, enough to make a significant dirty bomb or several that when used in a coordinated attack could destabilize the economy of any number of first world countries.”

“I know the reason behind the op, Ian,” Liam replied. He’d sat through many briefings, boring meetings meant to make him brutally aware of every aspect of the operation. He’d been sure that they were just long to make the agent briefing them justify his job.

Ian moved on. “I started tracking the arms dealer, but I couldn’t get close to him. He had ties to the Russian mob. I didn’t. I knew it would take more than just money.”

“You needed someone with a bad reputation.” Liam knew this drill. Someone like Ian would have to be under deep cover. That was hard. The Russian mob had access to many ways to break a cover. They would need real ties, and Liam had them. He had them all over his nasty family tree.

Ian’s eyes rolled. “You’re going to put the worst spin on this you possibly can. You and your brother had IRA ties.”

“I never hid them.” He couldn’t have hidden them. When he’d gone into the Army, he’d been a dumb kid barely able to wipe his ass much less hide the fact that his mother had seen the IRA as a religion. He hadn’t. He never had. It had almost been his way of rebelling.

“I know, and you were so damn good at your job that the SAS took you in anyway. Your commanding officers didn’t believe you had a hand in the IRA, but there are always rumors and those rumors can be used for good or bad.”

He’d never had a second’s misconception why he’d been chosen, and he’d known bloody well there could be a cost. His idiot younger self had practically wanted to sacrifice for the cause. That dumber Liam had believed he’d be a hero. “I knew that going into the mission. I knew there would be fall out. I knew intelligence would put it out that Rory and I were still meeting with Ma’s old cohorts.”

“Rory did meet with them, Li.” Ian’s words dropped between them.

Liam couldn’t help but reject it. “No. If he did, it was only for the mission.” But why hadn’t Rory told him? Ian had to be mistaken. Except he was always so cautious.

Ian seemed to choose his words carefully. “He did it before the mission. He was under investigation, but he convinced your higher-ups that he was just checking in on family. His ties were why I picked you both for the op.”

Liam felt the ground shifting beneath him. Rory had gotten in touch with their uncles? Their crown hating, kill ‘
em
all uncles? They’d grown up surrounded with bitterness and bile, and they’d promised to never go back after their mother drank herself to death. “He would have told me.”