Unconditional (10 page)

And she would take it. She would take it because she wanted however long she had with him more than she wanted to protect herself.

Decision made.

She pulled her little sedan back out. Making decisions and being prepared to deal with the consequences, that was what made her a woman. When he walked away, she would move on. She would take everything he taught her and keep going.

She stopped at the light. It was time to pick her baby girl up from day care. It was time to spend a few hours cuddling her and playing with her and letting her know how loved she was. Emily would never question that her momma loved her.

Emily would have an unconventional family, but damn, she would be loved.

She turned on her blinker and caught sight of a familiar SUV. It was two cars back, as though it had prowled around and waited for her.

A chill went through her system. There was no way to deny it. Someone was stalking her.

Chapter Six

Keith pulled on his leathers, still thinking about the conversation he’d had with Ashley earlier. She was sticking to him. His mother used to say that some people stuck.

How long had it been since he’d spoken to his mom? Or his dad? Years had passed and he’d ignored their every plea. It had been constant at first, and now it was down to a trickle. He got a Christmas card, if it managed to make it through the forwarding process from his last move. He got a birthday card. A couple of times a year there were hang-ups on his voice mail, as though they just called in to listen to his message.

Some people are sticky, baby boy. You’ll meet them and they never leave you. You have to hope to meet a lot of sticky people in your life.

His mother would like Ashley. She’d never loved Lena, but she’d been a dutiful mother-in-law right up to that day in the hospital when she’d explained how she’d betrayed him since the day he’d been born.

“Hey, I want to talk to you.”

Ryan strode through the door and Keith practically jumped up and down with glee. A fight. Thank god. It would keep his brain from going where he didn’t want it to go.

And maybe Ryan would save him from himself because he sure didn’t seem to be able to.

“And what would you like to discuss?”

Ryan pointed a finger his way. “You know damn well what I want to talk about.”

“My sub?”

Ryan’s jaw clenched slightly. His problem in the business world had always been that he couldn’t manage a poker face. He was too emotional. Ryan was what he liked to call a “big idea” guy. He came up with some brilliant ideas. He simply lacked the ruthless will to carry them out. Of course, he did have the will to force Keith to pay him a shit ton of money for them.

It was a good business partnership that looked like it was about to blow up over a girl.

“I want to talk to you about Ashley.” Ryan was practically growling.

“My sub.” Something nasty sparked in his gut. She’d agreed to be his sub. He didn’t care that Ryan was a friend. He was also a long-term Dom, and he knew the damn rules.

“Stop calling her that,” Ryan said, his voice hard.

There it was. That possessiveness he’d started feeling about her. He was a bit possessive of any female he trained, but it reached some epic places with Ashley. “We’re in a club. Here, she’s my sub. We signed a contract. She’s way past legal age and we’re getting along nicely. So if you can’t honor my rights to her here, maybe we should take this off-site.”

Ryan slapped the locker beside him. “Do you honestly think leaving the club and going somewhere else is going to change things? This is my problem with you. You compartmentalize.”

And Ryan didn’t. There were rules in the club, rules that didn’t necessarily translate to the outside world. “It’s what makes me good at what I do.”

“This isn’t business, Keith. Do you know what that girl’s gone through? Do you have any idea what her home life was like?”

“Restricted. Cold. She obviously had parents who didn’t love her enough. I suspect they were dutiful but never let her forget that she was a burden.” Unlike his own mom and pop, who had been warm and supportive and who had lied to him all his life.

What would his life have been like if they had told him that one particular truth? If there hadn’t been that moment in the hospital?

It didn’t matter because it wouldn’t change the fact that he couldn’t give Ashley what she would need. He just would have known about it sooner.

Ryan’s jaw tightened and he leaned against the locker, loosening his tie. “Yeah. Their dad headed out when Jillian was just ten. She can still remember him telling her mom that he didn’t want to listen to their whining anymore. They were whining because they were hungry. He spent everything on booze and women.”

It didn’t surprise him, though it did speak to Ashley’s own inner strength. She hadn’t had a ton of love as a child and yet she had an enormous amount of affection to give. She had a smile for everyone. He’d had a great childhood and couldn’t even call his parents. “She doesn’t talk about it a lot. I know her mother died and Jill had to pass on college to take care of her. I assume the dick dad wouldn’t take her in.”

Ryan pushed a hand through his hair, leaning against the locker. “He had another family by then. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her or Jillian. But what you have to know is that their mom never once let them forget how they had wrecked her life. She blamed them for their dad leaving.”

The testosterone level seemed to be dipping. It looked like he wasn’t going to get his throw down. “Do you want me to be one more person who leaves her?”

Ryan sighed, long and deep. “I want you to love her, but I don’t think you will. You know what my first instinct was when I heard you were seeing her?”

He could guess. “To set my entrails on fire?”

Ryan huffed out a little laugh. “After that. I would have had that reaction about anyone. She’s a sweet girl. I love her and I adore Emily.”

His gut churned every time he heard the name. Emily was the very reason he would never take the relationship any further. “I understand.”

“No, you don’t. I was happy because I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have in the family. Damn, man. I love you. You were there for me when no one else was. I would give just about anything for you to be the right man for Ashley. What I can’t stand the thought of is her being one of your many girlfriends.”

He’d kept his relationships deeply casual since his divorce. He’d spent time with a lot of women, sometimes more than one at a time. It was just sex, just pleasure, just a way to forget for a while. “I’m not seeing anyone but Ashley.”

He’d meant to. He’d actually meant to keep the dates he’d made. He had a couple of standing appointments with women who wanted nothing more than sex from him. He should have called them, but he’d broken off everything after the first night with her. He couldn’t stand the thought of seeing one of those women and then facing her.

“Are you serious?”

Keith nodded. He could give his friend that satisfaction. “I won’t touch another woman as long as our contract is in place. Look man, I care about her. I’m not a long-term guy, but she’s serious about exploring the lifestyle. Do you want her to do that with someone else? I’ve been nothing but honest with her. Everything was laid out in that contract. Taggart wrote it and he’s a tough son of a bitch. Trust me. Ashley has a D/s mom and dad. The Taggarts have been watching over her.”

Ryan took a long breath. “Yeah, well, her family is back. We’ll watch out for her now. I wish you hadn’t done this.”

Ryan’s objections hurt way more than he’d expected them to. “You seriously wanted someone else to mentor her?”

He shrugged a little. “I guess I didn’t want to lose a friend, and I can’t see this going any other way. When the chips are down, and they will be down, I have to choose her. I have to protect her because she won’t have anyone else. Take care, brother.”

Ryan walked out, and Keith felt something stir inside him he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Regret. Pain. He’d been happily numb for so damn long that it lanced through him.

“Don’t take that too bad, mate.” The big Brit with the scars came around the lockers. He was dressed for play, but there was a grim set to his eyes. “At least your friend was honest. Most aren’t. Everyone fucks you in the end, you know. Better to figure that out before you get a bullet in your heart. You mind if I switch on the telly?”

He’d just lost his only real friend in the world. God, Ryan didn’t really know him. How could he call Ryan a friend when he’d never even told him he’d been married? Never mentioned John Michael. “Nah. Go right ahead.”

He went back to his preparations while the Brit started watching some soccer game.

Maybe the big guy was right. Friendship, love, companionship—all those things were an illusion. If no one ever really knew him, knew his secrets, knew who he was on the inside, would it be like he’d never existed at all when he was gone?

All he knew was he had a contract to honor. That was real.

* * * *

“Did you get a plate number?” Karina asked. She was wearing a corset that barely contained her magnificent breasts and a thong that didn’t bother to cover her ass cheeks, but there was a deeply competent look on her face that told Ashley she’d done the right thing.

“Yes.” She reached in her bag and handed her the slip of paper she’d jotted the number on. “But it’s probably nothing, right?”

Karina’s perfectly plucked brows rose. “Dallas is a city with a population of one point two million. What do you think the odds are that you see the same SUV following you more than once in a week when you don’t live in the same neighborhood and he’s not a student at your school?”

Her heart sank a little. It was highly unlikely. “Okay. I’ll try to get a better look at him next time. I could only make out that he was male.”

“And Caucasian,” Karina said, giving her a supportive smile. “Hey, it’s more than I have to go on sometimes. The last time Tag asked me to find someone and I asked for a description, he told me to look for the biggest asswipe I could find. I chose not to point at him and ask for my check. I’m smart enough to know which tiger’s tail to tug. And don’t you dare try to get a better look at this guy until I know more.”

“What does Keith think?” Avery asked from her comfy chair.

Ashley sat down in the chair Serena normally occupied. She’d gotten close to the pregnant twins, as the others affectionately called Serena and Avery. They had lots of questions about childbirth and Ashley was happy to help. It would be so good to have other moms to talk to. “I haven’t told him.”

“That’s a mistake.” Avery whistled a little. “You know, the kind that gets you tied down and plugged.”

They hadn’t even talked about plugging, yet. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go there. “I don’t want to bring him into my problems. We talk a little outside the club, but we don’t meet or anything. I don’t want to push him.”

And she sure didn’t want him to think she was some kind of clingy ball of neediness. That would put a damper on the relationship real damn fast.

“Yeah, I don’t think you know how this works,” Avery replied. “Doms like to solve problems.”

But no man wanted that much responsibility. He’d offered to help her find the discipline she needed to reach her goals. That had been ironed out in their contract. This was something else. “I’m handling it. That’s why I went to Karina. Speaking of, do you need a check or something?”

She had a little money saved up. Not much.

Both Karina and Avery laughed.

“What?” Ashley asked, not quite getting the joke.

“Honey, she makes two hundred dollars an hour,” Avery explained.

Shit and balls. Ashley quickly calculated her bank account. “Could you solve my problem in three hours and fifteen minutes?”

Karina chuckled and put her notebook in her locker. “You get the friends and family discount. I can look into it for free and if there’s anything really going on, we’ll go to the police together. Not that they’ll do anything, but we’ll get the stalking on record so when I shoot the fucker, I’ll have cause.”

“You’re going to shoot someone? Can I come?” Serena said as she waddled in. There was no other word for it. She was nine months pregnant. She waddled. Ashley remembered it well. She’d seen Serena walk between her husbands, each man with a hand on her to make sure she was safe.

Ashley had been on her own. Serena had two men, but Ashley had struggled to get out of bed and been forced to wear slip-on shoes because she couldn’t tie them. She got up and surrendered the seat to Serena.

“I have a strict policy of no pregnant chicks at my murders,” Karina tossed out. She turned back to Ashley. “And you should tell Keith because Avery’s right. He’s going to spank you silly when he finds out.”

They didn’t understand her relationship. Maybe they had Doms who wanted in on everything, but Ashley didn’t. “What happens in the locker room…”

All three of the other subs sighed because they knew the drill. “Stays in the locker room,” they finished together.

And that was how she liked it.