Dominate Me: A Devoured Club Novel (10 page)

My head snapped up at the word. Sub. He still knew how to play me. Resentfully, I placed the glass on the counter and looked at him, “No.” I turned and made my way to the shower.

Within the fifteen minutes, I was showered, dressed, and had my bag by the door. I didn’t know what the plan was, and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to find out anytime soon - at least, not from Devlin.

“Kieran, can I ask a question?” I mumbled under my breath once we were in the car.

“Sure.”

“What is going on? Why are we leaving? My passport…my stuff?” I waited for his response, but heard
Devlin’s baritone voice instead.

“I need time to figure out how to keep you safe, keep that girl safe
, and take down Ashworth. I don’t have that luxury over here. I need to get back to Boston. We will come up with a plan from there.” His eyes were fixated on the highway in front of him. I sat back against the seat of the car and watched the sights of London pass by me. It was difficult to think that Ashworth, with his connections, wouldn’t be able to track either Devlin or myself down. Hell, I wasn’t the expert, Devlin was, and I needed to trust him and what he had in mind.

A short time later, we arrived at Gatwick
, and a smaller jet. Obviously we weren’t traveling commercial. “Nice ride,” I said sarcastically as we boarded.

“Helps to know people in high places. Mr. Thornton was very willing to lend me the jet. Now sit down and shut up.”

I did as I was instructed, still nursing the morning’s hangover. Devlin and Kieran placed their shit on a table behind me, and started pulling out iPads and laptops, and dived into whatever it was they were doing. I sat back in the chair and closed my eyes maybe a five hour nap would be good - except for the fact that we’d be replaying half the morning when we landed in Boston.

“How are you hanging in?” Emma asked as she slid a cup of coffee across the breakfast bar at me. She had come over to check on me.
Two weeks had passed, and I still hadn’t heard from Devlin. I knew part of it was my own fault, but I didn’t know if he was back or still over there.

“I don’t know
, Em. Part of me misses him so much it hurts, but the other part of me is still so mad about the secrets, the lies, just not opening up to me.” I looked into the mug, running my finger around the rim.

“It’s not easy, Ally. Hell
, a relationship takes a lot of work, but the ones we have take so much more. They take trust, faith, and complete honesty. D/s relationships are so much more intense.” A smiled formed across her lips as she ran her fingers over the necklace Marcus had given her for Valentine’s Day.

“That’s just it though, Em. I laid everything, well
, almost everything, on the line with him. He knows me. I know nothing deep about him. I mean, I know his name, where he lives, his job, favorite color, food - all trivial things.” I paused and looked up at my sister again. “It’s the things he locks up inside of him that I can’t touch. I can’t break through.”

Emma walked around the breakfast bar and put her arms around me, pulling into her embrace.
She had taken over the mother role as well as the big sister role when our parents passed. She was the only family I had.

Pulling back, her hands still on my shoulders, Emma spoke. “Nothing is easy. We should know that. Look at what we’ve all been through in the last year.”

I nodded my head and took a sip of my coffee.

“Are you going to go to the club tonight? Marcus is doing a rope demo.” Emma resumed her seat across from me.

“I don’t know, Em. My heart just isn’t there at the moment. Plus, I have my thesis to work on, and dickhead sent me home with a shit load of files to review.” The dickhead was the asshole overseeing my internship at the police department. I was finishing my master’s in forensic psychology and couldn’t wait until the semester was over, and the damn internship as well. The last week had really stressed me out, not knowing if Devlin was safe - no word from him, or if anyone they’d seen him or not.

“You should come out, Ally. Give yourself a break. I’ll be at the club around seven. Chloe will be there as well.”

“I don’t know, Em. I’ll see how I feel later. It’s just that…” I looked into the cold coffee again.

“I know. I do. It’s okay if you don’t want to go. I understand.” She rubbed my back before giving me a quick hug.

“Thanks.”

Emma nodded her head and grabbed her stuff
. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye.” I watched as she walked out the front door. I picked up my phone
, willing it to ring with a call from him, or even just a text. Something. Anything. Who was I kidding? I had told him a week ago I didn’t want the relationship anymore. Yet, there was a part of me that yearned for him, a piece of me that felt lost and missing.

I walked into the living room and sat on the couch with the pile of paperwork and my laptop. I tried to read the files, analyze the information, or write my thesis. But nothing was producing. I couldn’t keep my concentration on any task at hand. I needed to talk to him, speak with him. I picked up my phone and brought up the message app and started to type.

Me: I miss you. I need to talk to you. Hope you are…

I stopped. What if he didn’t want me anymore? I mean
, what if something really bad had happened to him. What if he wasn’t...I couldn’t think about that. Instead, I deleted the “Hope you are”, and hit send; a moment of weakness, maybe, but I didn’t care. I placed the phone next to me, and forced myself to focus on my thesis. I only had a few more pages to write and edit. Within the week, I should have the damn thing done.

I must have fallen asleep at some point during the afternoon, because I was awoken by a banging on the front door.
Who the heck could that be?

I opened the door
, and saw Nikki standing on the other side. “I thought you still had a key?” I asked, moving out of her way.

“I don’t know where the fuck I put that shit. So, what are your plans for the night?” Odd, even for Nikki.

“Emma put you up to this?” Nikki was Emma’s best friend, but over the years we were known to hang out every once and a while.

“Nope. She’s at the club with Marcus.” Nikki rolled her eyes
. She had tried to explain to us on more than one occasion that she just didn’t understand the reasons we enjoyed the club. She didn’t judge us at all, accepted it as if it was breakfast in the morning - something routine and normal.

“Why the
eyes roll?” I asked, shoving papers into notebooks and shutting down the laptop.

“No reason. So why are you sulking alone on a Saturday night?” She sat next to me, placing her feet on the coffee table.

“Nowhere else to go. Oh, have you heard from Kieran at all?” Maybe if she had heard from him, she would know something.

“A day or so ago. They are still out of the country.”

“And you’re not worried? Concerned? Interested in what they are doing?” I asked, shifting my position to face her.

“Of course I’m worried, concerned
, and fuck, yeah, I am interested, but it isn’t my business.”

“Since when does Nikki not get involved in everyone else’s business?” I replied
, earning myself a slap upside the head. “Okay, okay. Point made.”

“Go get dressed. We are going to out. Go to one of the bars the guys own
- at least we know we’ll be safe, and get the VIP.”

“We know the VIP is all you are concerned with.” I shoved her lightly.

“Hell, yeah! Get dressed.”

I got up and walked upstairs to my room, throwing on a black skirt and a lower cut red, drape necked shirt. I threw up my hair in a messy bun
, and applied a little make up.

“How do I look?” I twirled around in a circle.

“Like a chick that needs to get laid.”

“Fuck you
, Nikki, you know that won’t be happening.” I grabbed my credit card and ID, and followed her out the door. Maybe I did need a night out. It had been two weeks.

Fuck. It had been two weeks since I
`d seen Ally. We`d arrived back in Boston, and I`d kept off the radar, completely. Kieran and I were working from my apartment. It did surprise me that Ally hadn’t come by. I`d received her text earlier in the afternoon, but didn’t respond. I needed her to think I was still away. I should have let her know that I was safe, but I really didn’t want to risk any contact until I was certain the plan I had set in motion was going to succeed.

I
had settled Aiden into the guest room, and the tension between us was becoming unbearable. Two weeks confined in the condo was starting to aggravate me. The desires that I had hidden, subdued, were coming back again, this time more intense than before. Only Marcus and Lucas knew that I was bi-sexual, or had been at one point. When I`d left London, I wasn’t in a good place mentally, physically, or emotionally. Getting myself back on track and sober, I`d focused on work, on building the security business, and just trying to live again.

I was sitting in my office
, trying to go through some of the work that had begun to back up. Kieran had set up a mock desk on the side wall; sidewall-he was going through footage of the clubs we managed, while I continued to work on the plan to bring Ashworth down. It was multi-faceted. I needed to make sure the girl was safe, make sure Aiden was safe, and also needed to help bring down that disgusting asshole. Thornton’s men and some of my old contacts, ones I actually trusted - ones that had been in special op’s with me - were currently in the middle of surveillance, and working on getting someone into the auction the week after. Thornton had one of his guys extract the girl’s family and relocate them to a different area in England, allowing us to bring word to them that their daughter was safe for the moment.

Constant surveillance was required on Ashworth’s main
employees, those he kept close - those that were the muscle, so to say. I knew, after this was all over, that I would owe a huge thank you to Thornton, but we were all of the same mindset - that Ashworth needed to go down. Part of the problem was the people that he had paid off - the police, the businessmen. He had people in his pockets throughout the entire city.

I was going over an email that Ty had sent me. It outlined the plan for the auction. I
was to come forward as a wealthy businessman, but would be sending an associate to the auction. Fuck. The plan sounded better when someone else talked about it. A guy that I knew from grade school had volunteered to go undercover in the organization as a runner for the auctions. A simple position, but one that put him in contact with information that we might need. It would make it easier to understand Ashworth’s process.

“I’m fucking going crazy
,” Aiden declared as he walked into my office and sat in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

“I’m sure you could find something to do.” I briefly looked up from my laptop screen, but the second we made eye contact
, a shiver ran down my spine. I knew Aiden was still attracted to me, if the little scene in London was any indication. I hadn’t mentioned anything about the kiss, or the fact that once he had dropped into position, I wanted nothing more than to shove my dick into his mouth and feel his hot wetness on my cock. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. The control I was used to was slipping around him.

“You’ve kept me locked up for two fucking weeks in a new city. What the fuck
do you want me to do? Masturbate every hour?”

I heard a laugh slip from Kieran
, and I turned toward him, watching him laugh.

“He has a point, boss.”

“Yeah, and what the fuck you expect me to do with him? Having him work at the club?” I wish I could have retracted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth.

Kieran eyed
me, and then Aiden. “Yeah, actually not a bad idea. He can bartend while we are there, help Marcus out during the day if need be.”

“It’s a horrible idea.” I countered immediately.

“And why is that?” Aiden asked, turning in his seat. “I know how to bartend. I need some excitement.”

“Excitement is what got you in this mess. No. You are not leaving the condo until we can find a way to make sure Ashworth isn’t going to come after you.” I sat back in my office chair and stared at him.

“I’m three thousand miles away. I don’t think working at the club that you own and are head of security at is really going to put me in harm’s way.”

Valid point, but I just didn’t want to explain him to anyone. Not yet. Preferably never. I wanted to get his situation handled
, and him back to London as soon as possible. Fuck. I didn’t even know when we were going to be able to get Aiden back. While we weren’t completely working on bringing down the auction and drug trafficking, I was still trying to find a way to blackmail Ashworth into leaving Aiden alone.

“No. That is my final decision. Not another word.” Aiden was defeated and walked out of the office.

Kieran turned to me. “Boss, I don’t know what your history is with him, and it’s none of my business, but how long are we going to pretend we are not in the States. Seriously? I need to go home, shower, eat, see Nikki.”

I banged my head on my desk. “I know. I know. Fine. We will make an
appearance tonight. You are right. We can have Thornton’s men find us the bargaining chip we need. As long as Aiden isn’t seen outside of
Devoured
or here, he should be safe.

“There you go boss. Alright, I’m heading out. Maybe I’ll get lucky tonight.” He smiled as he left.

I heard the front door close, and turned my attention back to the video monitors from the clubs. I scrolled through the feed from
Desire
. In the VIP section, I noticed someone familiar. Ally. She was sitting with Nikki. But there was a look in her eyes, one of loneliness, sadness. I watched as she drank her drink, talked with Nikki, but she never laughed. Not once. I felt like a complete dick. I was asking for her complete trust, her honesty, her submission, yet I couldn’t be true to myself, and tell her about my past, about Aiden and Caroline. I had to now. He was here.

I picked up my phone and sent her a text.

ME:
Pumpkin, you look sad.

Ally looked in the crowd, looking side to side.

ME:
I’m not there.
Her eyes went up to the camera.

ME:
Bingo. You look gorgeous.

Ally:
Sir…

Me: Yes, pumpkin. God, how I’ve missed you.

Ally: I can’t do this, Devlin. Not until you can share the secrets with me.

Me: You look miserable. Did you forget what you said to me at the diner?

Ally: No.

Me: Alexi
a…

Ally: Devlin…

The sadness in her eyes, the stubbornness she took on the subject, amazed me. I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and never let go. The way I felt about her hadn’t changed in two weeks. She was the one that wanted out, but I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Me: In time. Good night.

There was no response. I watched her place her phone in her purse and look at the camera again, before hanging her head. It was only time before Ally knew I was back in the states, if she hadn’t put two and two together yet. The way she had looked around for me proved she was still there with me. How the hell was I going to tell her about my past?

“Why do you look so fucking sad?” Aiden asked, walking back into the office and sitting in the same chair he had vacated a little while ago.

“It’s none of your business.” I tried to hold off on looking in his direction. I was still battling the feelings that were surfacing again. I kept trying to push them back down, deny
ing what had always been a part of me.

“What’s the plan?” Aiden asked
, looking at me. He was wearing low cut jeans and a fitted tee shirt. The tattoos that lined his arms and hands were a stark contrast from the black of the shirt. His hair was a little longer on top, although cut tight to his head in the back.

“You know what the plan is. You’ll stay here until we know there is no threat against you. You can work at
Devoured
, and once Ashworth is no longer a threat, you can do whatever you want.”

I watched him stare at me, our eyes locking. We didn’t move, didn’t look away for what felt like minutes
, until a motion on the computer screen broke my concentration. Ally was leaving. I stood up and walked to the window. I looked out into the city, wondering what she was doing next.

I heard Aiden stand.
The carpet absorbed the sounds of his footsteps as he came closer, but I could feel the pull, feel the electricity that was still between us. It was like five years had never gone by. Aiden stopped behind me, placing his muscular chest against my back. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in, attempting to calm the desire that was building.

“I never stopped hoping you’d come back. I couldn’t understand why you would leave us. No goodbye, no after thought.” His hand
moved to my arm that was hanging at my side, my hand balled into a fist. The initial touch burned my skin, causing my breath to skip, my heart to beat faster.

“I can tell you are still affected, Devlin. I can tell how hard you are fighting this between us.” Aiden trailed his fingers up the length of my arm. I took another deep breath
, trying to calm the build up inside me.

“There is nothing more between us, Aiden. That part of my life is over. I have my future here.” My body tensed as Aiden placed his hand over my erection.

“This tells me otherwise. Just give in, Dev. We both know what we had, what we can have.”

I removed his hand from my cock; as good as it felt
, I couldn’t give in. Ally wouldn’t understand. Ally was my future now. Ally was what I wanted. “Exactly, Aiden, what we
had
.”

Aiden pushed his body closer to mine
. “What we still have. Don’t deny the attraction. You can feel my cock up against you. You can see how much I need you. God, Devlin, it’s like we never were apart.”

I turned around now
, face-to-face with him, wondering when he’d become so dominant. Aiden had a little dominant side in him, but in the relationship we’d had, I was the dominant. I was the alpha. The threesome aspect of our previous lives included a woman that was phenomenal; a woman that understood how much we loved her, and how much we loved each other. I needed Caroline as much as I needed Aiden - both parts of me empty without the other.
What the fuck?

“Things change
, Aiden.” I stepped around him and walked out of the office towards my bedroom. Aiden followed.

“We have another chance.” He pinned my against the wall, not an easy task
, being I was about three inches taller than him. The feeling of his body against mine eased the ache that was there. As much as I fought with myself about him, about my feelings, the truth was he was right - there. There was still the want for him. I had spent four years turning off every part of my dominant side, never taking a sub until Ally. I’d forced myself into my work, into making a different life for myself.

Aiden’s mouth placed a kiss at the base of my neck, my hands balled into fists. I couldn’t do this. Pulling my head back
, Aiden trailed his lips up the length of my neck. I turned around, and our lips crashed together. My hands grasped his head, pulling him closer to me. Opening his lips, I let my tongue explore his mouth, deepening the kiss as the heat between us rose. Aiden’s hands had come up to my head as well. We locked into the moment, the kiss taking over all of my senses. I pulled back to catch my breath. “Is this what you wanted? Me to lose my control, my mind?”

“No, I wanted you to admit what was still there.” Aiden moved himself to unbutton my jeans, sliding the zipper lower. I pulled his shirt off over his head
, and quickly undressed myself of my own. I pulled him into another kiss, deep, needy.

Aiden dropped to his knees, pushing my jeans down as he went. My cock sprung loose and bounced in front of him. I looked down at him as he wrapped his hand around the base of my shaft. My breath caught in my throat as Aiden’s tongue ran up the length of my dick, circling around the head. I arched my back against the wall. “Oh fuck…”