Club Wonderland (10 page)

Chapter Ten

Gael sat at his desk, case file open on his computer, completely ignoring it. Instead he’d spent the better part of the past fifteen minutes staring at the empty desk where one Alice White should have been sitting. He’d expected her to call in sick on Monday. After the way she’d left the club Saturday night, he had no doubt she was hurting and confused. It hadn’t been the first time he’d seen that look on a new sub’s face, though he’d never been the one to put it there before. So he was willing to give her Monday to steel her nerves before she had to face him.

But today was Tuesday and Alice still wasn’t here.

He’d been furious after she’d left the club. Red had laughed her fool ass off at him, teasing him about his inability to get and keep a sub, even one who was clearly taken with him. Not that she understood the predicament he was in. Alice was an employee at the firm where he worked. If Uncle Stephen even suspected there might be something going on between them, Gael was screwed. Not that Gael regretted a single second of his time with Alice. If he was going to fail, at least he had the pleasure of feeling his hands against her naked breasts, to see the look of understanding cross her face.

Uncle Stephen would lose his mind if he caught wind of what Gael had done with Alice. It wouldn’t matter that Alice had followed him into the club and had all but begged him to tie her up and fuck her senseless.

Not that there’d been any actual fucking. Even if that’s what he’d wanted more than anything.

“Mr. Hernandez?” Gael looked up to see Carmela standing in his doorway. “Sorry to bug you, but I wanted to let you know that Alice won’t be in again today.”

That little coward.

“She sounded pretty terrible on the phone.” Carmela frowned as she leaned against the doorjamb. “I might stop by after work to check and see how she’s doing. I hate the idea of her being all alone when she’s sick.”

Dammit, he should have known things were going to go this way. Alice wasn’t into the scene, and he shouldn’t have expected her to handle alone the emotional weight of her experience at the club. He’d failed her by letting her run away without taking the opportunity to talk to her, ensure she was going to be able to handle things. Clearly, he was as selfish as his uncle accused him of being.

“Did she say what was wrong?” Gael pressed his palms flat against his desk. It was the only thing that kept him from balling them into fists. “Maybe she needs to see a doctor.”

“I suggested that, but she said it was mostly a migraine. She’s had them in the past.”

It was possible she truly had a headache. Alice could be locked away in her bedroom, the blinds drawn and a cool cloth across her eyes. Gael hated that he immediately thought the worst of her, assumed she was faking simply to avoid talking with him.

Shoving himself away from his desk, Gael locked his computer and grabbed his keys. “I have a few errands to do. I can stop by her house and check on her.”

“Oh really?” Carmela straightened, smiling brightly. “That would be awfully sweet of you. It would be easier than me trying to get over that way.”

Gael made sure to glare at her as he passed. “She’s one of the best assistants we have here. I want to make sure she’s okay.”

“Of course.” He ignored the smirk she gave him. “Let me write her address down for you. Unless you already have it?”

“The address, please.”

The drive through Toronto traffic only served to piss Gael off even more than he was already. The Gardner Expressway was backed up, which meant he was forced to take the longest route through the city. Hitting every single red light along the way ratcheted his frustration up. By the time he turned the corner onto the street that the GPS announced as Alice’s, Gael was ready to hit something.

“Your destination is in five hundred meters.”

He didn’t need the monotone proclamation telling him of his arrival. There, walking down the street, was Alice. She was headed toward her home, a coffee cup in her hand. So it wasn’t a migraine.

Alice White was a coward.

Gael pulled his Lexus up alongside her and rolled the passenger window down. Alice flicked her gaze over her shoulder at his car without slowing her pace. Either she didn’t see him, or she was too keyed up by having a stranger in a vehicle following her to get too close.

A coward, but at least smart.

Gael leaned on his horn, which had her jump and turn her attention to him. The second she realized it was him everything in her demeanor changed. One moment she was poised ready to bolt for her home. The next she stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk, her gaze never once leaving his through the entire process.

The look of panic and the way she held her coffee cup in what appeared to be a death grip, told Gael everything he needed to know about her absence from the office—she was avoiding him.

“Coward.”

Alice straightened. “What are you doing here?”

Unwilling to have this conversation in the car, he pulled up and into her driveway. When he got out, Alice was still standing in the middle of the sidewalk several houses away. He leaned against the side of his car, resting his forearms against the hot metal and continued to stare at her. The day was growing unbearably hot, and it was only a matter of time before she’d be forced to make a choice—go back the way she’d come, or come home and face him.

For the first time in months, he couldn’t tell which option she’d choose.

Alice turned and looked behind her before squaring her shoulders and continuing her walk home. There was far less bounce to her steps than when he’d first spotted her. Her shoulders were now slumped forward, giving her the look of a child who was about to get grounded. She must have found some of her nerve when she reached the bottom of her driveway, because in the next moment she’d straightened up, and the look in her eyes was anything but warm and fuzzy.

“I said, what are you doing here? How do you even know where I lived?”

“Carmela gave me your address. Your friends are worried about you. Needlessly.”

Alice had the grace to look ashamed. “I was planning on coming back tomorrow.”

A dog barked somewhere in the background, chased by the sound of traffic and car horns. This wasn’t the place for the conversation they needed to have. “Let’s take this inside.”

“No.” Alice crossed her arms and stuck out her chin. “I would appreciate you leaving.”

“Not happening.” Did she actually think he was going to do what she wanted after her little hiding act? “You’ve been avoiding me. It needs to stop.”

“Of course it does. It’s not like I’m looking for another job.” But she couldn’t quite hold his gaze as she spoke.

“Inside. Not up for discussion.”

He had no right to be pushing her around like this. She wasn’t his direct subordinate, nor were they engaged in any type of relationship that would give him the privilege of access to her home.

“But—”

Stepping into her personal space, Gael lifted her chin with his thumb and forefinger. There was a flash of longing in her gaze, one that went straight to his cock. She’d been nothing but straightforward with him this entire time. Alice White, although clearly okay with the idea of kinky sex, was also looking for something more. Something he didn’t have time to provide her.

“I’m not going to be the cause of our firm losing one of its best assistants because I didn’t listen to my own good advice and stay as far away from you as I could. Now, we are going to go into your home and discuss this like rational adults. If at the end of that discussion you decide you are no longer able to work with me, then I’ll be the one who will transfer to a different office. Not you.”

Alice’s mouth had fallen open into a soft
O
during the course of his speech. Her lush lips were damp, making them glow in the sunlight. Her large hazel eyes were just as wide, making her look far too innocent for Gael to resist for long. Sliding his arm around her waist, he tugged her another inch closer to him. With his shirtsleeves rolled up, he could feel the softness of her apparently well-loved T-shirt against his skin. The flex of her back against him as she tried to keep herself away only served to encourage him.

Gael shifted so his mouth was only an inch from her ear. “I’m not used to being told no, Alice. I’ll even be nice about it. Please let me into your home so we can discuss things.”

Alice stepped out of his grasp and slipped the key into its lock.

The air in the small house was a pleasant contrast to the rising outdoor heat. Gael came in only as far as the opening to the living room, knowing Alice would need a few minutes to get her bearings before he began the second part of his push.

“I had to get out for a walk. I went down to my favorite coffee shop for an iced cappuccino.” The drink she’d abandoned on the closest flat surface to the door. “Being cooped up makes me to a bit crazy.”

“Then you shouldn’t have faked illness.”

Alice threw a glare at him over her shoulder before sitting down on her couch. “It was a mental health day.”

“Days.”

She rolled her eyes. “Days. I needed some time to myself.”

The T-shirt she had on was light grey and had several small holes on the shoulder along the seam. Her normally perfect hair was lying too flat against her head, as if she hadn’t washed it in a while. No makeup either. It was the scruffiest he’d ever seen her, and the most beautiful.

Gael walked over and sat down on the coffee table, forcing Alice to face him. “Did you figure it out?”

She frowned and gave her head a small shake. “Figure what out?”

“If you hate me or not.”

“I don’t hate you.” The response was knee-jerk, too fast to be honest. Alice sighed as she leaned back against her seat. “I’m just trying to figure out if I’m broken.”

He understood the power of silence, knowing the pressure it could bring when someone didn’t want to feel its oppression. Instead of speaking, he held his gaze on her and waited. Alice’s eyes flicked frantically beneath her closed lids, looking for answers she wouldn’t be able to find on her own.

“When did you first...” She opened her eyes once more. “How did you figure out you liked sex that way?”

The memories were as clear now as that first time he’d come face to face with the reality. “In university, before law school. I went with some friends out to a club. I was trying to pick up an older woman on a dare. She would smile at me and shake her head. Told me I wasn’t the type of man she needed.” He still kept in touch with Sandy through the occasional email. She was living happily with her husband and Master out in Calgary. “We got to talking, and she helped me realize a few things about myself.”

“That you like hurting people.”

That was the old accusation, and even in its innocence and ignorance, it still cut him deep. “No. I don’t abuse anyone.”

Alice snorted. “I still had marks on my shoulders Monday morning.”

“Did you feel
abused
?” Shifting forward until his knees were pressed against hers, he wanted to make damn certain she understood this. “At any time did you think I was taking advantage of you? Forcing you to do something you didn’t want? That I was unwilling to stop?”

This time her answer came slower. “No.” She let her gaze drop to the point where their bodies touched. “I knew you would if I said
Red
.”

“That’s why things like safewords exist. There are agreements, contracts, conversations that normally happen between a Dom and his sub before they get to the point where we were Saturday.”

“I pushed you into it. I was the one taking advantage.” Alice groaned and covered her face with her hands. “All because I had to follow you there.”

The front of her shirt pulled tight across her breasts. Gael could picture them in perfect detail—naked, nipples hard, pale skin—and his cock responded.
Fuck.

“Why do you think you’re broken?”

Alice shifted in her seat, moving her knees away from his. “Do you know what I did as a kid?”

“No.” He’d done his best not to give her or her history much thought. The less ammunition he had to torture himself with, the better.

“I was a child model. My mom had me in magazine ads and kid’s beauty shows. If
Toddlers in Tiaras
had existed fifteen years ago, I would have been on it.”

Ah. It explained a lot about her. “The experience broke you?”

“Not really. I didn’t love it. Though it was fun as a kid getting to dress up and have people tell me how pretty I was. For a while I thought I was a princess.”

As she spoke, he could picture the beautiful child she must have been.

“As I got older, though, I didn’t like the pressure of having most of my life taken outside of my control. My mom had me on a strict diet and exercise routine. I was always going between school and auditions or photo shoots. When I turned sixteen I officially announced my retirement.”

“Your mother didn’t approve.”

“Hell no. She was furious. Told me I was throwing away an opportunity that most women only dream of having. But I’d had enough of having my life lived for me. I didn’t want to be a puppet anymore.” Alice bit down on her bottom lip. “So that’s why I can’t figure out why what I did, what we did at the club, why it...”

“Why it turned you on so much?”

Her single nod was the only response he was likely to get.

Alice White was having a crisis and he was the reason.

“Do you think it was a onetime thing?” Her voice had gone soft. “That I’d gotten wrapped up in...everything?”

It was possible that being surrounded by the sights and sounds of sex had punched her libido in the gut, sending her body out of control. It was likely if they were to spend a weekend, just the two of them alone in a house, Alice would grow to hate his controlling ways.

The thought of her naked in his home, a collar around her neck, knees spread and ass in the air, had him wishing there was more room in his pants.

“Do you want the answer to that question?” He must be mad even considering having a second time with her. It was a surefire way to sabotage his chances with Uncle Stephen. Worse, if he didn’t do things correctly, she might begin to want a commitment from him that he wasn’t able to give.