Curvaceous Heart (20 page)

“It’s the same thing, no matter how you try to tell yourself otherwise. I know what I want, who I want to spend the rest of my life with, and she’s standing right here, Dad. You proposed to Mum only a twelve hours after meeting her. Well, I’m not proposing, I want to make sure Sue’s happy before we even think about that, but I know she’s the woman I love.”

“Alan…”

“No, Dad, I love her, she’s coming to the party with me if she wants to, and I’ll be introducing her to Mum as my girlfriend.”

Tears welled in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks as she listened to Alan. Snakes knotted a dozen times over, only to finally begin to settle in the pit of her stomach, and still there was that soft voice of doubt trying to whisper to her that it was all a joke, a dream, a plot set up by someone to make her look foolish.

But the voice inside now lacked power.

The snakes no longer frightened her.

“Thank you.” She looked at Neil, then back to Alan. So Mr. Martin Senior didn’t approve of his son’s choice. That was something they could deal with later, when the time was right. But for now they had other matters to take care of. One she was ready to face now that she knew the truth. “I believe I’m ready to take a look at this man for you.”

She slipped her jacket off finally, setting it over the back of one of the chairs before she sat down, her gaze drawn for a moment to her purse and the small bag she had picked up before heading for work that morning.

Yes, she was ready for this, and everything that would follow.

The question was
,
would Alan be ready?

* * * * *

Alan settled back in the chair, his gaze fixed not on Sue, or his father, but the door. Sue didn’t move from the side of the desk, her back slightly turned to the door, but she’d still be able to see Charlie when he walked in.

Neil had fallen silent again, though the scowl he kept shooting Alan’s way came as no surprise. Oh, his father would accept the situation in time, but until then there would be a few interesting days.

The party.
That was going to be fun, especially if Victoria or some of the others were planning to attend. He could always ignore
it,
avoid the situation, except there would always be another party, another family event, or business get-together waiting around the corner. Still, he had every faith in Sue; the strength she had shown, even through her fear, had been far more than he had expected.

“Mr. Martin?” The door cracked open. “You wanted to see me?”

“Come in, Charlie.” Had the man even changed his top in the past couple of days? Or did he keep a dozen identical tops in his wardrobe?

“I have the report you wanted; sorry
it’s
cutting things fine. I’ve been a little distracted recently. It will be done on time though.”

Alan glanced at Sue briefly. Her shoulders had tensed, and she didn’t look over at Charlie despite the fact that she wanted to.

“Come on in properly, Charlie. No point you standing at the doorway like that.” Alan smiled and hoped he gave off some level of friendly appearance. He didn’t need the man guessing what was going on just yet. Not until the right moment.

“I didn’t realize you had someone else here.” Charlie shifted his weight a little and nodded towards Neil Martin. “I didn’t expect to see both of you here and…”

“The report?”
Alan held out his hand. “I really need to go over it today, Charlie. You know we’re pressed for time. You were told that it had to be ready, and I’m not minded to give you any more time to get it finished.”

Come on, little fishy, come on in a little bit more where she can see you
.

“I meant to have this to you late last night, but I sort of got caught up with an old friend.” Charlie smiled and walked in, offering the report.

Sue hissed under her breath. The sound barely audible but it was enough to catch the attention of both men.

“Shit!” Charlie took a step back. Panic flashed in his eyes, the color draining from his face. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“Something the matter, Charlie?”

“What’s she doing here? She doesn’t work in this building! She’s not supposed to be here.”

“Then you do know my guest after all?” Of course he did.

“I -- I’ve seen her around.” Charlie’s gaze flickered from one man to the next in the room as he backed up rapidly. The report still clutched in his hands, his knuckles white.

“We both know it’s far more than that. It’s time you came clean, Charlie. It will be better for you and your friends in the long run.”

“You know? About the
blogger
, you know? I swear it wasn’t my idea to take things this far.”

“Sit down, Charlie.” Alan rose and stepped slowly around the edge of the desk. “Yes, I know, and I know you’re
Dangerous Liaisons
so you might as well just sit down and explain a few things to me. Like what made you think it was fine to try and smear the women you work with, or sell out my company for a few kicks. Did you get off on it? Did you like walking into work every day looking for some new piece of gossip you could post?”

“Oh, God.
You’re going to fire me, aren’t you? We weren’t out to talk about work. You have to believe me. It wasn’t like that. Not at first. It wasn’t my idea to start that side of things. We were just keeping track of the women…”

“No? What was it like, then? Did you one day wake up and decide, hey I’m going to be an asshole and destroy my job?”

“It was a game.
Nothing but a game.
But when I mentioned the idea of Bill sharing things that were going on at work we all thought why not, it added to the hits we were getting. The more hits the bigger the secrets we needed to keep the readers interested. The comments, the feedback,
all
those people coming to read our messages every day, it became addictive. Can’t you see that?”

Addictive?

Even if he was telling the truth that still didn’t excuse him. Anything could be addictive if you let it be.

“So it was Bill’s idea?” His gaze narrowed on the trembling man.

“Mostly.”

“Who else was involved?”

“Bill -- he swore me to secrecy on that. I can’t. I’ll lose everything. God, I just can’t.” What little color the other man had retained now drained from his face.

“Then you can tell that to the police. I’m pressing charges.” So, there was someone else involved in all of this, but who was it? And how in hell’s name was he going to find out?

“On -- on what grounds?”
Charlie stammered. “I’ve done nothing illegal.”

“Harassment, malicious rumors, I’ll think of something. Oh I’m pretty sure what you’ve done is illegal, but I’m not a solicitor or a police officer. However, the police will be able to figure out just what it is you’ve done and what charges can be levied against you. And I will follow them through.
To the very bitter end.”

“You can’t do that to me! I haven’t done anything that deserves that. Fire me, yes, but not that.
Jail?
For a few posts on the Net?
It doesn’t make sense. It was just a bit of harmless fun.” The file fell from Charlie’s hand, papers scattering across the floor. “Mr. Martin, you can’t do this to me, we were just having a bit of fun.”

“If it had just been a bit of fun then why did you cost this company thousands of pounds? Why have you been hiding your words under an anonymous name? And why, if it was just a bit of fun, are you having problems telling me just who else Bill is working with?”

Charlie opened his mouth to protest then closed it again, shaking his head.

One piece of the puzzle left to work out, to find the answer to. They’d come this far, worked out the details, it wouldn’t be long before he had the rest of the information and then the ring would be shut down for good.

“A bit of fun doesn’t need the protection you took care to use, does it? I’m sorry Charlie, you and your friends did it to yourselves. And I strongly suggest you tell the police everything you can about just who else is involved in this fiasco. It might be the only way you can prevent them from prosecuting you to the full extent of the law.”

Chapter Twenty

“I’m so proud of you.” Alan closed the door behind him, locking the world out as they both kicked off their shoes in his living room. “You didn’t lose your cool, not even with the shit my dad pulled on you.
Which I am sorry for.
He had no right to talk to you that way.”

“Some people don’t think before opening their mouths.”

“And some like to sit in the background, like whoever it is that persuaded Bill and Charlie to take things one step too far on that damn
blogger
. It’s just a pity they wouldn’t tell us who was behind it.”

“Give it time, we’ll find out who else is involved.”

“Of that I have no doubt. Somehow, with you at my side, I feel as though I can take on the world.”

That’s what she needed to hear.

Sue walked fully into the room before she turned to face him. “Thank you, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to go through with it. But then I remembered that I had nothing to fear. I had the power, not them.
Just as I do with you.”

She watched as he blinked, staring at her. “What do you mean?”

“You’re submissive to me.”

“Yes, but I haven’t submitted to you.”

“Yet.”
She tried not to smile.

“That might take some time.”

“No, I don’t think so, Alan. You see you want to submit to me, we just need to decide if we’re both ready to do this, knowing we’re going to be learning along the way, that we will make mistakes, and that we’ll both end up apologizing to each other for them.” She hadn’t removed her coat and now slipped her hand into the pocket, pulling out the small red paper bag.

“Sue, are you sure about this?”

“Is it what you want?”

“Well, yes. It’s just that everything I’ve read about this says we should wait.” He frowned, looking at the bag. “It’s not that I don’t want to submit to you, but I don’t want to rush into this either.”

“I’m not asking you to fully submit to me, Alan. I’m asking you take a consideration collar from me.” Had she remembered the term correctly? She’d done a little research on the various types of collars that could exist in a D/s relationship, and this one had sounded ideal.

“Do you know what one is?” Alan peered at the bag.

Her jaw clenched and she took a slow breath, trying to calm down. He wasn’t attacking her, he was questioning.
Okay, that
she could handle.

“Yes, I do. Alan, please sit down for a minute.” She nodded towards the couch.

Alan slipped off his coat and settled down, not on the couch itself, but the floor. “Perhaps you should sit down as well, then?” He tapped the cushions above his head.

Alan at her feet?

A soft shiver ran through her body at the thought of it, and before she could change her mind Sue curled up on the sofa above him, her coat tossed over the back. This felt right, on so many levels that she couldn’t even begin to describe it.

“I’m not questioning your idea, Sue. I just need to know what you think a consideration collar is. In case -- well, in case I’ve heard something different.”

A polite way of saying that he wasn’t sure if she’d done the research or not, or had been deceived by someone online.

“As I understand it a dominant offers a collar of consideration to a submissive as a mark of intention, or desire, to look into a further relationship with the submissive. It’s something beyond casual dates, conversation, or play. It marks to the two involved, and others, that we’re forming a potentially serious relationship.” Sue frowned. She’d had all this memorized but now it sounded cold. “I want you in my life, Alan. You’ve said you want me in your life.”

“I do.”

“And you want to explore being submissive to me, correct?”

“Yes, I do.” Alan leaned against her legs. “More than anything I’ve wanted before.”

“A consideration collar allows us to do that. It’s not you submitting to me, it’s an agreement between the two of us to explore this.” She reached down, running her fingers through his hair. This felt so right, Alan sitting at her feet. He belonged there.

“You looked this up?”

“Yes, a place called Steel Dawn.” Had she remembered the name of the site? She’d looked over so many in the last day or so that some of them were little more than a blur in her memory.

Alan nodded, falling silent as he remained leaning against her legs.

Was he going to refuse her offer?
Her other hand clenched around the small bag.
Had she gone too far in buying this, getting it ready in the few hours she had been able to steal that morning? Maybe he’d ask for more time before entering into this type of arrangement.

Just as long as he didn’t turn down the idea fully.

“You’ve thought about this a lot, then?”

“Ever since you submitted to me for that spanking.”
Her belly tightened at the memory. “You’ve taught me something about myself. I do have a need to be dominant, but I’ve also learned something else. I don’t want to dominate just
anyone,
it’s you I want to own, to guide, and to learn with.”

Alan shifted away from her legs, turning around until he faced her. Without a word he slowly moved onto his knees, tucking his heels under his ass, his back straight, shoulders rolling until he lifted his chin up, looking her directly in the eyes.

“I know we both have a lot to learn, Ma’am, but I would be honored to learn more about my desires, this need to submit, with you.”

“Then you’re willing to accept a collar of consideration from me?” Her heart threatened to lodge in her throat.

“Yes, I am.”

Sue’s hand shook, though she tried to keep her nerves under control. “I bought something for you, in case you decided to do this with me. I just hope you’ll accept it from me.”

His gaze flickered to the bag in her hands then lifted back up to her face. There was a soft tremor in his voice as he spoke; tears glimmered in his eyes, threatening to spill down his cheeks. “Ma’am, I would be honored to accept any gift you’d choose to bestow on me, but knowing this is to mark our entrance into this world together, it would mean all the more.”