Bound to be Tamed: Emergence, Book 2 (36 page)

Stephanie,

You were sleeping so soundly we didn’t want to disturb you. We went to the restaurant early. You may shower, grab the breakfast from the fridge, and then go into the office. I’ll e-mail you with instructions for this morning.

Aiden

Stephanie grinned as she read the note. Aiden’s precise instructions mixed with his obvious care for her well-being warmed her inside and out.

She slipped from the bed and did his bidding, showering as usual with the door open and then propping her naked ass on the stool at the kitchen island to eat her breakfast, legs open wider than necessary.

The last thing she wanted this morning was a time out on her wobbly legs.

After she cleaned the mess, putting her plate in the dishwasher and wiping down the counter, she padded to the office.

The leather swivel chair called to her, beckoning her to relax into its cushion.

Even with the camera panning the room from the corner, she was at ease. As she waited for the monitor to open, she considered how far she’d come. The exposure they’d subjected her to last night had been a breakthrough of sorts for Stephanie. It hadn’t been so bad.

There was no doubt Aiden and Dane always made the best choices with regard to her training. Her heart beat slower this morning. A deep knowledge that her men would do right by her. She was on the path to becoming their permanent submissive and she was no longer half as frightened as she had been a week ago.

Stephanie began to straighten up the papers on the desk. She was nothing if not organized. Aiden apparently wasn’t quite as tidy as she was. He’d tossed several files and notes onto the mahogany surface without regard for where they landed.

A manila folder caught her attention. She only meant to put it in the pile, but her name was scrawled across the tab. She stiffened. Why did they have a file with her name on it? It wasn’t Aiden’s or Dane’s handwriting either. Someone else had given this to them.

She stared at the folder for a moment, her fingers shaking, afraid to touch the file as though it would burn her.

When she finally flipped the top open, she slid the entire contents front and center. Her eyes bugged out of her head.
What the fuck is this?

Quickly she shuffled through the pages. Documents that indicated her whereabouts, her schools, every level of her education. Her graduation announcement from college. Her place of employment. The purchase agreement for her condo. Every personal detail about her life she’d never told a soul was in this file.

A chill went down her spine. Who did this? And why did Aiden and Dane have it? Had they hired someone to investigate her?

She shuffled through the pages with shaky fingers, pausing on each page to get the gist.

Her parents: Stan and Colleen Parkins.

A photograph of Stan Parkins with another man—Jason Garwood it said in the caption.

Mr. Garwood? Wasn’t he the owner of Emergence? And where had she heard that name before? It still niggled in the back of her mind. Not just from Emergence.

She flipped the picture to the back of the stack. The next page was an obituary from a small-town paper: Stan Parkins. Her father was dead. Where had he been all her life? The bastard left her when she was two and never looked back.

Next page: Sister—Lori Polluck.

She shook violently, her hands unable to even make contact with the edge of the desk.
Lori Polluck is my sister? What the fuck?
She’d never had an inkling she had any siblings. Hell, she had always believed she had no living relatives at all.

She shoved the chair backward until it hit the wall with a hard thump, and she jumped to her feet.

She heaved for oxygen. Her mind ran a mile a minute trying to catch up with the details. Aiden and Dane knew this. How was Mr. Garwood involved? Plus, Aiden and Dane intentionally kept this from her. Lied.

She ran her hands through her hair, pulling it back from her face. She leaned forward to stare at the pages scattered on the desk now. It wasn’t possible.
Please tell me the two men I’ve grown so attached to for the last two weeks aren’t keeping this secret from me. Intentionally.

The evidence was all right there in black and white. She was indeed the daughter of this Stan Parkins. Hell, her mother had never even told her she’d been married to her father.

I have to get out of here.
Stephanie turned and ran from the room. She stumbled over the edge of the carpet with her bare feet and bumped into the doorframe as she headed for the master bedroom. Her eyes filled with tears.

Hold on, Stephanie. Think. Get out of here and back to your own apartment and then let it loose. Not now.

Clothes. You need clothes. Unlike this world you’ve been playing house in with these two liars who claim to have your best interest at heart, the rest of the universe wears clothes.

Head spinning, Stephanie dashed into the closet. She had to get out of here before Aiden and Dane noticed. They could be watching her even now. With the restaurant only two blocks away, they could be here in no time.

She needed distance. Fuck them. She couldn’t and wouldn’t face them right now. Maybe never. The bastards.
The lying bastards.

Stephanie easily found that one side of the closet was filled with clothing for her. Dozens of dresses in her size hung on the left wall. Geez. They’d gone all out preparing for her to move in with them.

She grabbed the first thing that caught her eye and yanked it from the hanger. A cotton dress with spaghetti straps and a short skirt. Pink. Very feminine.

She slipped it over her head and wiggled it down around her hips. It was barely long enough to be decent. She glanced around the room. There were drawers on every side, but it would take too long to find panties and a bra, and frankly she doubted either such undergarment even existed in this apartment.

Without another moment’s hesitation, she whipped around and fled the closet. She didn’t even bother to glance at the home she’d lived in for the last six days that seemed to stretch into years.

She’d come so far under the care of her Doms. So far, and yet it had all been a lie. How long had the two men known who she was and kept that from her? And why the fuck had they done so? Maybe they’d known this for weeks, or even before she’d officially met them.

She fought back the tears that hovered in the corners of her eyes and grabbed her purse off the table by the front door.

She ran to the elevator, pressed the down arrow and waited impatiently. She stared at her bare feet. She hadn’t bothered looking for shoes. Who cared? Nothing in that apartment was hers anyway.

The elevator seemed to move in slow motion. It pinged when it reached her floor and she jumped off it as though the doors might close too soon and leave her traveling to the lobby.

A sharp jog to the left and she fumbled for her keys in her purse. It took several seconds to get the door open with her hands shaking, but finally she stepped inside and slammed the door behind her.

Dropping everything, she made a beeline for her bedroom. Tears fell down her face. She heaved deeply before an audible cry escaped her lips.

Stephanie collapsed onto her bed, curled into a ball and tugged a pillow to her chest.

Broken. Her soul at a loss, her heart shattered and her brain twisted into knots.

The tears fell. They hit her cheeks and ran down her face in a river of sadness. Whatever confusion she’d felt at the penthouse apartment now dissolved into complete stupid tears. She couldn’t put two brain cells together.

Her life was a shattered mess. Nothing made sense. She’d woken up an hour ago, happier than she could ever remember being. And now this. Lies, deceit, life-altering information.

Stephanie’s vision blurred as she sobbed, deep heaving lungfuls of air that left her a ball of aching nerve endings.

She didn’t stop. Not even knowing how long she’d been there. No thought of moving entered her mind. She couldn’t think. All thoughts scattered and bounced around inside her head.

How much time passed before a hand landed on her shoulder? “Stephanie? Baby?”

She flinched from the touch. Dane.

“Go away,” she muttered, jerking her shoulder from his grasp. How the hell had he gotten into her apartment?

“Honey.” The voice on the other side was Aiden’s. He sat on her bed, the bounce jarring her.

The two men boxed her in. She thought she might suffocate from their proximity. Renewed tears flowed down her face, soaking the pillow clutched in her hands.

“What happened?” Dane asked.

She opened her eyes wide, trying to zone in on his face. Then she cringed back.

You lied to me, you son of a bitch, that’s what happened.

Instead of speaking—she knew she wouldn’t be able to form sentences anyway—she tucked her chin against her knees and let the tears continue to fall onto the pillow.

She didn’t have the energy to engage either man.

Aiden leaned over her but didn’t touch her.

She shook with renewed anger. “Get out.”

All she could think about was the shattered relationship she had with the two men who’d entered her life in a whirlwind less than two weeks ago, stolen her heart, and then smashed it on the ground with the balls of their feet.

She shivered, unable to control her state of shock. She straightened her body and whacked her head on the headboard hard enough to hurt. She welcomed the pain. It gave her something else to focus on. Tears fell, dripping down her cheeks. She didn’t care that she was a blubbering idiot.

“Stephanie—” Dane said.

“No,” she screamed. She pushed herself to sitting and glared at him. “I said get out.” She pointed at the door. “How the hell did you get in here in the first place?” She narrowed her gaze. For all she knew they had made copies of her keys.

“You didn’t get the door shut,” Aiden said.

She whipped her gaze to him. She wanted to punch him.

“You must have flung it so hard the security latch got in the way. It just bounced back,” he added.

“Fuck you. Get out. Both of you.”

Aiden shook his head, but he did sit back. “No. You have to talk to us.”

“Talk to you?” Her voice rose as she yelled. “Like you talked to me about every private detail of my personal life?” She scooted down the bed between them and stepped off the end. Pacing, she continued, “You have a fucking file on me in your office.”

“Shit.” Dane stood next to her bed, running a hand through his hair.

“Yes. Shit.” She stopped pacing and stood firm, glaring at first Dane and then Aiden. “Goddamn you. You know details about me even I didn’t know. Why? Did you hire someone to fucking research me?”

Aiden shook his head. “No. Nothing like that.”

Anger shook her. She clenched her fists. “Did you enjoy watching me flip through the pages of my life naked in your office? Did it make you horny?” She wasn’t being rational and she didn’t care.

“No,” Dane said. “We didn’t see that part. We saw the office was empty and watched you run from the apartment as though it were on fire.” He stepped forward. “We didn’t mean for you to find out like that.”

She stepped back. “Of course you didn’t.” She nodded at the door. “And you can leave now. This is my apartment. I want to be alone.”

“And you’re our submissive and the first rule of Doms is to always ensure their sub is safe and secure. We’d be neglecting our job if we left you in this state.” Aiden stood as he spoke. “Please, come back to our place so we can discuss this.”

She shook her head. “Not now.”

“You have questions,” Dane said. “We have answers.”

She stared at him. Damn him for holding all the information. Seconds passed in silence as she heaved deep breaths. As pissed as she was, she did want to know everything they had on her. Fuck them both. “I want the file.”

“It’s yours,” Aiden said.

“You’ll answer my questions and fill in the holes and let me go,” she demanded.

“Only if we must.” Dane eased closer.

She held out a hand. “Don’t.” She stepped toward the bedroom door.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
The only reason she was going to follow them to their place was for information. Nothing else.

Afterward, she was done.

At the door to her apartment she slipped on a pair of sandals and grabbed a long sweater. She would go with them, but they didn’t need to ogle her nearly naked body.

She opened the door and stepped out into the hall, not looking back. They followed, keeping a distance. Thank God they didn’t try to touch her. She was afraid she’d slap one of them.

Silence reigned in the elevator. No one said a word until they entered Aiden and Dane’s apartment.

“You lied to me.” The words came out with far less umph than she had planned. She was beaten down now from crying. Her chest hurt. She wrapped her sweater around her tighter and crossed her arms. She didn’t sit. Instead she paced the room.

“I know.” Aiden didn’t deny anything. He sat on the coffee table, his elbows on his knees, his hands rubbing together. “And we’re sorry.”