Lucia Jordan's Four Series Collection: Chosen, Whipped, Lick, Risk (15 page)

“You’re right, that is enough, you devious, conniving little bitch.  I’m going to ruin you.  I’ll tell anyone who will listen what a lying, manipulative, slut you are.  You’re fired.  Now, get out of here!”

***

Burke strolled into Prentiss Antiques, a huge smile on his face.  It had only been a few hours since Avery had left him but he missed her already.  They’d had a real connection, something that touched him deep in his heart.  He hadn’t felt like this about any woman…ever.  What had happened between them last night had been incredible, something he couldn’t wait to do again.  She’d stopped him after the third round but he was nowhere near done with her.  He wanted to see how far he could push her, how far she’d be willing to delve into a true Dom/sub relationship.

“Good morning, Burke,” Margot cooed.

Burke jolted.  “How do you know who I am?”

“Oh, I know all about you,” she offered as she prowled towards him.  She ran her blood-red fingernails up his arm.  “If you’re looking for Avery, she’s no longer an employee here.  I’m Margot Prentiss, the owner.”

“What?  She doesn’t work here anymore?  Why?”  Was this a joke?  What had happened between last night and this morning?

Margot rubbed her breasts against his arm and growled.  “She disobeyed one of my direct orders.  I don’t tolerate disobedience.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” 

“I know she went home with you last night.  And I know what you two did.”  Margot gave him her most seductive smile.  “She isn’t what you want, Burke.  She can’t give you what you need.  She can’t follow the simplest instructions and that’s not very conducive to a proper submissive.  She knows that now.  I, on the other hand…”

Burke pushed Margot away in disgust.  “What did you say to her?”

This was not going how Margot had imagined and she didn’t like how agitated Burke was getting over Avery.  She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.  “I told her the truth, that she has nothing to offer you.  She’s not a true submissive, Burke.  She’s nothing, irrelevant.  A cheap little nobody with delusions of grandeur.”

“She’s neither cheap nor irrelevant, Ms. Prentiss,” Burke snarled.  His fury was so close to the surface, he was afraid he might throttle the woman standing in front of him if he didn’t leave.  Without another word, he stormed out of the shop and pulled his phone out of his pocket.  “Mason, give me Avery Martin’s home address.”

“Yes, sir.  She lives at…”

Burke punched it into his GPS and took off.  Thankfully, she lived only a few miles away.

As Burke pulled up in front of Avery’s home, he’d barely put the car into park before he jumped out and ran up the front steps.

“Avery?”  He pounded on the door frantically.  “Avery, baby?  Are you in there?”

He waited, listening to see if he could hear footsteps, the television.  Nothing.  “Baby, come on.  We need to talk.”

He continued to pound on her door until his hands ached.  When a neighbor poked her head out to see what all the commotion was, he realized she either wasn’t home or she wasn’t going to answer.  “Damn it!”

How could she believe anything Margot told her?  He’d met the woman for less than ten minutes and knew she was a lying, manipulative bitch.   Last night had been incredible, mind-blowing.  He’d really bonded with Avery on a level he’d never experienced before.  He thought she’d felt the same.

Maybe he was wrong.  Maybe she hadn’t felt the connection.  If she so easily believed the lies that Margot had spewed, she clearly hadn’t trusted him when he told her he wanted her, wanted to continue seeing her, to see where this could lead.

There was nothing he could do but wait to see if she calmed down and realized she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

***

Avery buried her head under her pillows as she tried to drown Burke out.  Part of her didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to talk to him. Another part screamed at her to get out of bed, rush downstairs and climb into his arms.  But she couldn’t.  What Margot had said was true.  And she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.  She had nothing to offer Burke other than a quick fuck.  She had no clue how to be a submissive, how to be what he needed. She should have trusted her initial instincts.  She had no business being with a man like Burke. 

She was a fool for thinking that something good could finally come her way.

Whipped Book 2

Avery didn’t get out of bed the entire day.  The sun was just starting to set and she hadn’t eaten, hadn’t slept, she’d just lain on her bed looking up at the ceiling and going over in her mind the incredible night she’d spent with Burke and the explosive morning after with Margot.

Why hadn’t she been smarter?  Why hadn’t she followed to her initial instincts and told Burke no?

Because I wanted him, that’s why
.

A lot of good that did her.  Now, look at where she was.  Jobless and humiliated.  What was she going to do?

As she rolled over to start yet another crying session, her cell phone jangled out Adam’s ringtone.  She really didn’t want to talk to her little brother.  All she wanted to do was wallow in self-pity, but she knew if she didn’t pick up, he would worry and continue to call until she did.

He started yammering before she could even say hello.

“You’re never going to believe this!  I just got my mail and the packet of information on my internship was in there.  They want me to start in July instead of September and they are setting me up with an apartment and a car!  All part of the deal.  Can you believe it?”

“Oh, Adam.  That’s great,” Avery stated with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

“Uh oh.  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.  I’m…just a little tired, that’s all.”  She knew Adam wouldn’t buy her excuse.  He’d always been able to pick up on her moods, even over the phone.

“I’m calling bullshit on that, sis.  What’s wrong,” he demanded more firmly.

What could she tell him?  She certainly wasn’t going to go into detail about her night with Burke but she didn’t lie to Adam.  They had always been honest with one another and she wasn’t about to start lying to him now.  “Margot had a meltdown and…fired me.”

“Are you kidding me?  Fired you over what?”

This is going to be tricky
.   “It’s…kind of a long story…but the short version is that she called dibs on a male client and…I ended up going out with him.”

“That’s awesome.” Adam howled with laughter.

Avery found it less than amusing.  “It’s not funny, Adam.  I don’t have a job!”

“Well, that part isn’t hilarious but the fact that you snaked some guy out from under from her?  Oh my god!  I would have loved to see her face.”

Avery thought about Margot’s enraged face, and the horrible things she’d said.  Things that weren’t completely wrong.  And she started to cry again.

“Av, it’s not that bad.  So, you lost your job.  So what.  You’ll find something else.  Something better.  There’s no reason to cry about it,” Adam soothed.

“It’s not that,” Avery sniffled.  “Well, not entirely.  I mean, the idea of having to go out and find a job scares the hell out of me.  Working for Margot is the only job I’ve ever had.”

“The fact that you stuck it out with that horrible bitch for so long should get your foot in any door,” Adam encouraged.

“Maybe.”  Avery wasn’t so sure.  She couldn’t use Margot as a reference and how would she address that issue in interviews? 
Uh, well I’d love to have you talk to my old boss but I fucked the guy she had her eye on so that’s why I got fired
.  Yeah, that would go over like a whore in church.

“So, tell me about the guy.”

Avery sighed heavily.  “There isn’t much to tell.  I went out with him for the first and last time last night, Margot found out, I got fired and that’s about it.”

“
That’s about it
?  Nuh-uh.  Not buying it.  What happened?  How did Margot find out?”

“I…he…sent me flowers.  Two dozen roses.  They got to the shop before I did.  Margot opened the card, saw they were from him and flipped.  She…it doesn’t matter.”  Avery sobbed.  She didn’t want to tell her brother all the horrible things that had been said to her.

“It does matter if it’s got you this upset.  And it’s me, your brother, you’re talking to.  I know you, Av.  You don’t date.  Christ, I don’t even remember the last time you talked about going out with someone.  Now, this guy comes along and obviously caught your eye, you go out with him and then…nothing?  What, was he a jerk?”

“No.  He was very…nice.”

“Did he pull the old
I forgot my wallet trick
?”

“No.” Avery sniffled.  “He actually rented out an entire restaurant so we could have the place to ourselves.”

Adam whistled.  “Nice.”

It would have been if the reason he’d done it was because he actually wanted to be alone with her, not to keep her out of sight.

“Guy’s got some bucks, huh?”

“He’s very wealthy,” she agreed but then realized how that sounded.  “But that’s not why I went out with him.”

“Of course not.  Dating somebody for their bank balance if more Margot’s speed.  So, you went to dinner, then what?  Did he chew with his mouth open?  Eat off your plate?”

“No.  Dinner was great.”

“So, what then?  Did he put the moves on you?  Because if he got handsy with you and you didn’t want him to, I’ll come back home and kick his ass.”

Oh, if Adam only knew, she thought.  He had put his hands on her and then some.  And she had wanted it.  What they had done was completely consensual and she wished she could do it again.  “Let’s just say that it became clear that we’re from two different worlds.  It would never work out between us.”

“What kind of horseshit if that?  Two different worlds?  What, is he an alien?”
“He’s just…it’s just that…Margot was right.  We wouldn’t have that much in common, considering he’s…”

“Wait.  Margot?  You listened to Margot?  The one that wanted this guy for herself?  Oh, please tell me you didn’t blow this guy off because of some bullshit Margot spewed.”

“Well, I…she made sense, Adam.”

“No, Margot is an evil conniving bitch who would do or say anything to get what she wanted,” Adam barked.  “Did she pull out the
he’s too good for you, you’re nothing, he doesn’t really like you just wants a piece of ass
routine?” 

“Something along those lines, yes.”

“I can’t believe you would listen to that mean, spiteful skank.  Ignore her.  She’s wrong.  Whatever she said to you was designed specifically to make you do exactly what you did.  She’s always putting you down, saying mean shit to you.  And anything she said to you about this guy or about how the two of you wouldn’t work out was nothing more than her hatefulness showing its ugly face.  She knows how to play you.  You’ve always felt like you were less than, like you weren’t worthy of finding someone for yourself and she knows that.  But I don’t understand why you feel that way about yourself.  You are the kindest, most selfless person I know.  You deserve every ounce of happiness life can throw at you.”

Adam’s words were starting to make sense.  And Avery didn’t like the sinking feeling that she had made a mistake.

Adam softened his tone.  “Do you like this guy, Av?”

She didn’t even need to think about it.  “Yes.”

“Then don’t let someone else tell you that you can’t have him.  Don’t pay attention to anything that woman told you and go after him.” 

“I…what if I’ve already screwed it up already?”

“What did you tell him?  How did you end things?”

“I…haven’t talked to him.  He came to the house and pounded on the door but I didn’t answer it.”

“As long as you didn’t tell him to fuck off, that you never wanted to see him again, you should be fine, but you won’t know until you talk to him.  But if something like this sends him packing, then he wasn’t worth any more of your time anyway.”

***

Avery spent the next hour digesting what her brother had told her.  Was he right?  Had she let Margot manipulate her?  Had she let her own insecurities feed into Margot’s toxic bitterness?

“Damn it!”  Yes.  Yes, she had.  And she felt like such a fool.  Burke had come to her door, begging her to talk to him, and what did she do?  She blew him off because she had let Margot exploit her weaknesses and she’d believed what that bitch had said to her.  Burke had done nothing to warrant her distrust.  He’d done nothing to make her think that he was ashamed of her.  Those were all notions that Margot had put into her head in order to get her out of the picture.  “Well, screw that!”

She wasn’t going to let Margot win.  She had to at least try to see if Burke wanted anything to do with her anymore.

She quickly showered then lathered her skin in scented lotion.  She slipped into a cute little sundress and strappy heals and ran a brush through her hair.  It would have to air dry naturally as she didn’t want to waste any more time than she already had.  Slicking on lip gloss and mascara, she was as ready as she would ever be and headed out the door.

She made it to Burke’s place in a little less than thirty minutes, just as unsure of what to say to him as she had been when she left her house.  She’d rehearsed a dozen different apology speeches on the drive over, but none of them sounded sincere enough or apologetic enough.  She’d recited the “I got scared” angle, the “I needed time to think” route, the “I’ve never been good at relationships” avenue but nothing sounded right.  They were all just excuses and none were the truth.  The fact of the matter was that she had let an awful woman prey on her own self-doubt.  But she didn’t want to blame Margot.  It had been Avery’s decision to believe her ex-boss’s malicious rantings. 

As she sat in Burke’s driveway trying to come up with the best way to approach the situation, a knock sounded on her window, startling the life out of her.  When the intruder bent down to look at her, she came face to face with Burke.

She quickly rolled down her window.  “Hi.”

“Are you lost?”  He asked soberly.

“I…can we talk?”  She was so nervous he would just turn her away that she started to shake.

Burke opened her door and held his hand out to her.  “Come on.  Let’s take this inside.”

Relief washed over her as she allowed him to help her from the car.  This was a good sign.  At least he was willing to hear her out.  It may not reverse the damage she’d done, but at least he wasn’t telling her to get off his property and never come back.

He couldn’t believe she was here.  He had stopped himself at least a dozen times throughout the day from hopping in his car and driving over to her place again, to demand that she talk to him.  Now that she was at his house, he wasn’t going to let her go.  He didn’t release her hand as he pulled her to the front door.  He didn’t let her go as he made his way through the foyer and into the living room.  His first instinct was to take her through the house and up to his bedroom but he knew she needed to tell him what had happened.  He needed to hear in her own words why she had run from him.  Things would never be right between them until she confided in him why she believed Margot.

“Would you like something to drink?”  He’d been working on his second glass of scotch when he’d seen her pull into his driveway on the security monitor.

Avery shook her head.  “No, thank you,” she answered shyly.

Burke waited patiently as she tried to find the words but when she continued to open her mouth then close it, open her mouth then close it, he knew she needed a little push.  “Do you want to tell me what happened this morning?”

“I…Margot…I’m so sorry,” she finally huffed.  “I got to the shop a little later than usual because…well, you know.”

“Because we fucked all night long and I wouldn’t let you go until the very last possible moment?”

Avery nodded with a smile, remembering what they had done.  “Yes.  I usually get in before Margot but this morning she beat me there.  The flowers you sent had already been delivered.”

“Yes, I saw them in the trash when I went to the shop to see you.”

“I didn’t put them there,” she swore.  “Margot must have done that after I left.”

“You mean, after she fired you.”

Avery nodded.  “Wait, how did you…know I got fired?”

“Margot.  When I came by the shop to see you, she told me you no longer worked there.”

Oh god!  She could only imagine what else Margot had done when he stopped by the shop.  “What did she say to you?”

“I’m more interested in what she said to
you
,” he countered as he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Avery shivered at his touch.  She didn’t think she’d ever get tired of his fingers on her skin.  “It’s…really not important what she said.  How I reacted to it is the issue.”

“And we’ll get to that, but I need to know what she told you.”

Avery looked into his eyes and saw that he wasn’t going to let this go.  She had to tell him.  “She was furious when she saw that the flowers were for me.  She told me she knew you were…a Dominant and she wanted to be your…submissive.  She said that I had ruined her chance.”

“Not that it makes any difference, but I would never be interested in a woman like Margot.  But that’s not why you wouldn’t talk to me earlier.”  It wasn’t a question.

“No.  She said…that I could never be what you needed, that I was…an embarrassment and that you…would be ashamed of me, that you wouldn’t be able to take me to the clubs or the parties because I wasn’t…a real submissive.”