RequiredSurrender (18 page)

She repeated the mumble and even this second time around he
couldn’t quite make it out. “What did you say?”

“I said I did see Anjay the night of the awards.”

His hands squeezed the wheel as he turned down her street.
“I know.” Veering into her driveway, he parked and cut the engine.

“I didn’t tell—”

He wasn’t going to argue in the car. He got out and walked
around to open her door. When they reached her doorstep he spoke, “You lied to
me. Why?”

“I didn’t want to talk about him. I didn’t…”

Jo saw the hard—no, unforgiving—light in his eyes and
panicked. The cold fury pouring off him shook her to the core. Her lying was
his nonnegotiable. He’d made that abundantly clear. His one and only hard
limit, and yet she’d done it anyway. He was going to end their relationship.
Right now. Right here. Tonight. Just the thought had her heart hammering, but
not in a good way.

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I.” He turned to leave.

Now her heart thundered. “No. Please…”

He swung back around. His jaw clenched and unclenched,
making his scar shift then tighten. She knew what that meant. He was fighting
the inevitable. “You better tell me something. You better give me a reason I
can…” He turned away and she realized she’d been right. He didn’t want this. Oh
God. What had she done?

I’m losing him.

The distance between them was far greater than the mere
two-foot breadth they stood apart. “Ted.”

He turned back. “Help me understand why you did it.”

What could she say?
I didn’t want you to know how
worthless I am. That I don’t matter to the people who are supposed to love me.
That my parents, who should have fought for me, didn’t.
“It was a mistake.
I see that now.”

“Too late, Jo.”

He was right on the edge. If she told him the full truth,
he’d know everything. How her own mother chose not to protect her so she could
keep her secret safe. And Anjay? He was the only person in world besides her
parents that she’d ever said the words “I love you” to… and look what he’d done
to her.

Don’t abandon me too
.

She couldn’t live with that. Being alone. Again. No, she
wanted Ted for her own. She wanted him in a place as far away from all those
past disappointments until those letdowns were nothing more than a blur.

“When I left after you texted me that night, I ran into
Anjay and he told me about you calling in his loans, and how you ordered him to
stay away from me.” Her words quickly fell into place as the concept snowballed
toward the perfect excuse to fix all this. Right now she was desperate and
fought for herself the only way she knew how. “He promised he’d leave my family
alone if I didn’t tell you that I saw him. It was an accident. Nothing more
than a minute. I didn’t think it mattered. And when I got to your place and we
were in the bath? I didn’t want to think about him at all.”

She held her breath as he studied her. Letting it go when he
sighed. “I don’t like this, Jo. Not one bit.”

He stretched his back and ran a hand through his hair. At
least he was thinking about things. Not totally prepared to leave her…yet.

“I made a mistake.” She put her hand on his arm and
whispered, “I’m sorry I lied to you.”

He stared down at her hand for a moment and then shook it
off. Without a word he turned and walked away.

“Ted.”

Silence.

“Ted!”

Still nothing.

“Please!”

He didn’t break stride as he called, “I’ll talk to you
tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to cool down. Good night, Josephine.”

Her full name coming from him and echoing up the walkway
nearly undid her. He’d never called her that. Never.

“I said I was sorry.”

He opened his car door, bent to adjust the seat and then
stood up. “Go in the house and lock the door.”

The relief she felt at his calm words was short-lived
because once she was in her house with the door closed, he drove off…and she
was all alone. Again.

By the time Ted parked his ass on the couch at home, he’d
already made up his mind. He couldn’t let her go, but he should. He wouldn’t
let her go, but he wanted to. This was like some cosmic joke rearing up to mock
him. Because this time he’d pointblank warned his woman not to lie to him and
she had. What the fuck?

He wasn’t going there. The past was the past and Jo was the
present. Why? Why had she felt the need to lie? He got all the obvious reasons.
Fear and stubbornness, but what else was there? Something. He could feel it and
yet she didn’t say.

Buzz.

His phone vibrated and even though he knew it was her he
still looked. Weak.

I forgot my dragon pillow. It’s in the blue room.

She went the extra mile by putting a frowning face at the
end of her text. He scowled and fired off his one-word reply.

Tough
.

His thumb hovered over the send button for nearly thirty seconds
and then he swore.

“You pansy-ass motherfucker!” His shoulders slumped, then
two seconds later he jerked forward with arm raised ready to launch his iPhone
at the wall. Thankfully, he caught himself in time. Two deep breaths and he
calmed the hell down.

A minute later? He called Cam.

“I need you to do something. Can you swing by and take
something to Ms. Nehr’s place for me? No, no, nothing like that. It’s the um,
dragon pillow I bought her.” He felt like a complete ass admitting that. Some
fucking Dom he was. The woman had blatantly lied to him. Purposely deceived
him, and here he was sending his driver over to her house to deliver a stuffed
fucking animal so she could sleep?

Oh hell yeah, this was the fundamental problem. He’d been
too soft with her. He thought about that and decided he needed to shore up the
balance of power between them. Damn straight. Not only for her benefit but for
his as well. He didn’t want to lose her like he’d lost—

Not going there. At least this time he had a shot to fix things
before they went to shit. And there was only one way to do that. He needed more
control. Ultimate control. Unbridled control. He needed to Master her. Then if
she lied he’d have no one to blame but himself.

While he waited for Cam, he thought about how Jo would react
when he gave her the ultimatum. He knew she’d accept because she really had no
choice in the matter. It was either a three-week trial as his slave and they’d
reevaluate the relationship after that time, or it was nothing at all. The arrangement
was sure to grate against her, but that was too bad. He was being generous
putting a timeframe on it. He’d make sure she understood that.

After Cam drove off he made another call. This one to
Alistair. “Yeah, I know it’s late, but this is important.”

“Don’t any of you guys do business at regular hours?”

“No.”

“What do you need?”

Ted could be just as brisk. “Do you still have that slave
contract that Jade had you draw up?”

Alistair snorted. “Call it what it was. A questionable human
bondage contract.”

“Okay, whatever. Shoot me a copy, would you?”

“Is this about that Nehr woman again?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.”

“You’re not thinking about—”

Ted sighed, “Just send me that copy. I’m going to tweak it
and then send it back to you to do an official. I need it by the day after
tomorrow.”

“You know it’s after hours and I’ve already shut my laptop
down for the night.”

“Yeah, overcharge me for the inconvenience like you normally
do.”

“You got it.”

Ted threw his hand in the air, even though Alistair wouldn’t
see it, and asked, “Why do I retain you again?”

“Because I’m the best at what I do. I’ll have that contract
in your inbox in twenty. Good night.”

When Ted heard the click, he shook his head because the
arrogant bastard was right. He was the best. Pushing thoughts of his past away,
he concentrated on the present. On Jo. On making their new situation
work…because it had to.

Chapter Thirteen

“Ow!” Jo jerked forward, trying to escape Lacy’s hands.

“Sorry. Your hair’s too silky it’s hard to keep hold of.”
Lacy readjusted and asked, “Is that better? The braid is totally straight.”

Jo eyed Lace in the mirror. “This is crazy, isn’t it? The
outfit, the hair and the contract. You think I’m nuts for going through with
this, don’t you?”

Lacy didn’t look up. She continued to purposely weave the
French braid down the back of Jo’s head while she took her time answering. When
she did her head tilted to one side as if she’d given the matter some serious
thought. “I don’t think you’re totally wacko. Although that detailed email
would have been enough for me to pull out the Zanny. You got any, by the way?”

“Xanax? No. You’re a vet, can’t you prescribe yourself
some?”

“I was asking for you. After reading that email I’m thinking
you’re going to need it over the next few weeks.”

“Drugs and alcohol aren’t allowed.”

“Bummer. But to get back to the whole slave thing?” She’d
finally arrived to the straight braid part of the hairstyle and had to step
back a pace to finish it. “I did a stint as one guy’s slave in college.”

“Really?” Jo went to shake her head, because her friend was
a quintessential enigma, but stopped when she felt Lace tug on the braid.
Instead she looked at her friend’s reflection. Just when she thought she knew
everything about her, Lace had come out with something totally shocking. To
look at her you’d think she was an innocent pixie, but judging by some of the
shit she’d done? She was more a sex-crazed vamp.

“Yeah, it wasn’t all that exciting to tell you the truth. I
mean you don’t have to be a slave to serve your man a beer, suck him off when
he wants you to and to do his laundry daily. That was the last straw for me.
You know how much I hate doing laundry, so you can imagine how teed I was when
there wasn’t any of my stuff in the piles.” She paused before circling the
elastic on the end of the braid and met Jo’s gaze in the mirror. “In fact, the
no-clothes rule, and hence none of my laundry, was the only upside to being a
slave if you asked me.”

That made Jo smile. It also had her feeling better about all
this. “I’m glad I asked you.”

Lace grinned back before she turned her attention back to
the elastic. “There. All done.”

Jo stood and examined herself in the full-length mirror.
With the peach-colored blouse tucked into her dove-gray pencil skirt she came
off as conservative. “I look like an executive. I hope this is the look Ted was
going for when he made the stipulations.”

“Maybe the ‘look’ is not important. It could be the style
that he cares about.”

Jo watched her in the mirror. Waiting until she sat on the
edge of the bed. “Style and look, what’s the difference?”

“Wearing those items, while leaving off others like panties,
gives him better access to you. All he’d need to do is unbutton some buttons or
stick his hand up that skirt, you know? I’m sure that’s what he was going for.”

Jo immediately felt breathless and excited. She hated
experiencing this kind of acute attraction for him. Hadn’t it been this that
made her desperate enough to lie to him again? She didn’t want to think about
that. “You’re probably right.”

“So why does your dad want Patel and you to tie the knot?
That guy’s been MIA since I met you four years ago. It’s kind of weird.”

Kind of weird? If Lacy knew the whole truth weird would be
replaced with totally bizarre. “After the accident, my dad started living in
the past most days. The traditions he’d left behind when he came to North
America became important to him again. His brothers and sister don’t help the
matter. They encourage him with this.”

“You’re not going to marry the guy, are you?”

“God no.” She patted a few loose strands over her temple and
inwardly sighed with relief. At least that part of her living nightmare had
been taken care of. “How could you think I would, when I’m getting ready to
become Ted’s um…”

“Slave?”

“Yeah. But enough about me.” Jo wanted a change of subject
because guilt and worry began to swell inside her for the hundredth time. And
for as many times she reminded herself she had no choice when she’d only shared
half the truth with Ted about the situation. Damn, would Anjay ever be out of
her life? “I’ve got a few minutes. You mentioned something about a pickle? Does
this have to do with your boyfriend?”

Jo knew from experience, whenever Lacy used the word pickle
it was usually a really, really bad situation.

“Which one?”

Jo spun around. “What do you mean which one? I thought David
was your guy.”

“Maybe, I don’t know.” Lacy bit her lip and looked away.
That wasn’t a good sign.

“You’ve been seeing him, haven’t you?”

“Sort of.” She flopped back on the bed and stared at the
ceiling. Again not a good sign.

“What do you mean by sort of? I thought you said you’ve had
sex with the guy. That’s more than sort of if you ask me.”

“It wasn’t conventional sex.”

“Is it ever with these kinds of men?”

Lacy rolled onto her side, bent her elbow and rested her
cheek in her palm. “We had virtual sex once, and he’s talked me into getting
myself off at his insistence three times. Four if you count the double O I had
the second time around.”

“Unbelievable.” When Lacy frowned Jo scowled right back.
“What?”

“This you not swearing thing is freaking me out.”

“Tell me about it. So,” Jo tugged on her sleeves,
straightening the cuffs. “Who’s the other guy?”

“Handy Joe.”

She stopped straightening. “Your contractor?”

“Yep.”

“Are you having virtual sex with him too?”

“No.” She sighed so disgustedly that Jo cringed.

“But you are having sex with him.”

“Not really.”

Jo checked her watch and then said, “Well spit it out. I
have to leave in five minutes but I think your pickle is good for me. My stomach
has stopped somersaulting at least.”

Lacy made an exasperated face. “I’m glad my pain is healing
for you. All right. The truth is I’ve put off having sex with Joe ever since
connecting with David. But tonight I’m probably going to have to tell him why.”

“You’re seeing the contractor tonight?” When she nodded Jo
shook her head. “Does David know? Did you at least tell him that you were in a
relationship of sorts, and you were going to break it off?” Jo was a little
sensitive about this issue as she’d just screwed up major league with Ted. And
ever since Colin had settled with Ethan, Jo and Lacy had become closer. She
didn’t want her friend to get hurt like she was hurting.

“I told him I was having Joe over so I couldn’t see him
tonight.”

Jo did a double take. “And he was okay with that?”

Lacy sat up and grimaced. “He thought I was talking about
you and, ah… I didn’t correct him.”

“What? Lace, I thought you liked him?”

“I do. It’s okay. I’ll handle getting rid of Joe, and David
won’t even know about it.”

This sounded too familiar. Why was it Jo had a bad feeling
about Lacy trying to pull something like this off without getting caught and
she hadn’t even blinked when she dove into the similar situation with Ted the
night before last?

“You know what a pushover you are around gorgeous guys. I’ve
seen Joe. He’s pretty gorgeous.”

Lacy sighed again. “I know.”

Jo scooped up her purse and took a deep breath. “Just
remember that David is the quiet one.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The quiet ones sneak up on you. They don’t talk. They
listen and think. All of that listening and thinking doesn’t bode well for the
person who pisses them off. Don’t piss David off. He may look all metrosexual
butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth chic, but my guess is under all that laid-back
façade is a real pistol. I don’t want you to get shot.”

Lacy stood. “All right. That’s enough turning the focus on
me. I’m not the one facing the lion in the den. Are you ready?”

When Lace put her arm around her waist, Jo mimicked the
action before they exited the bedroom. “I think so. But one last thing about
David. Trust me on this. You don’t want to make a guy like him mad.”

“You’re right. At least not before I get him in the sack.
Jesus, Jo, if the guy can get me that hot with mere words through IM chatting,
can you imagine what he’ll be like skin-to-skin between the sheets?”

Jo gave her a squeeze. “Just don’t fuck it up with him,
okay?”

Lacy squeezed her right back. “Yay, you swore. I feel so
much better now.”

Jo wished she was feeling better. The closer she got to her
car, the more her stomach knotted. Too bad she couldn’t bring Lace with her
because no matter what, nerves weren’t going to get the best of her. No way.

But then half an hour later, when she stood at Ted’s front
door she wasn’t so sure. In fact when the door swung open and she saw him, her
heart skipped a beat. His expression was dark, unreadable and completely
unforgiving when he stepped aside without a word and indicated for her to come
in.

* * * * *

Jo reread attachment twenty-eight and shook her head. “I’m
no expert, but I’m pretty sure this one could kill me.”

Ted bent and she waited while he drew his index finger along
the text in the sentence and silently read. Once he stood he said, “You’re
right. You’re no expert because I’m
pretty sure
it won’t. Woman deliver
babies, don’t they?”

“But your hands are,” she pointed to them, “huge.”

He brought one up in front of him and spread his fingers. He
examined front to back and sighed, “True, but who said it would be mine?”

She gulped.

“Refer back to stipulation eight or was it nine?”

Jo shuffled through the contract and found it. “Nine.” She
took a moment to read and frowned. This was the condition that said that she
was giving herself freely into his care, and should his care include other participants
in their relationship, sexual or otherwise, she would be one hundred percent
accepting of that. This was crazy. She wasn’t the kind of woman who liked to
share, but then what he was suggesting wasn’t her sharing him, but him sharing
her. Did that make a difference?

She was still thinking about it when he threw the pen and it
landed in a sweeping roll on the papers in front of her.

“What did I tell you? This is the time to go through each
point and decide. This will be the only opportunity you have to make changes.
You can cross off or add anything you want, and after you’re done I’ll look
over the adjustments, and if I can live with them we’ll have a deal. If not?
You go your way and I’ll go mine. No harm no foul.”

Jo picked the pen up and tapped it against the sizable stack
of papers. Sure, there were about twenty things he’d included in his list of
wants with her that she’d liked to ax right off the list and bleach the
knowledge of from her brain, but some bells were blaring in her head, warning her
not to change a thing, despite the possible ramifications. Instinctively she
knew if she changed one T or added a dot over an I he’d use it as an excuse to
get rid of her.

“Change it.”

“N-no. I think it will be fine. I’m good.” She straightened
the papers and went to twenty-nine. He’d already told her there were thirty
stipulations so just two more to accept. “Here.” She held the pen out to him.

“Ah, I’m sure you may want to hold on to that. Twenty-nine’s
a personal favorite of mine but not yours.”

She snatched the page up and read out loud. “I understand
and agree that any failure by me to comply fully with your desires shall be
regarded as sufficient cause for punishment by way of flogging. Flogging?” She
jerked and let the page flutter down from her hand when she shot a look up at
him.

“Yes.”

“But—”

“Read thirty.”

Cautiously, she slid the top paper aside. It took a moment
for the words to sink in and when they did she was lightheaded.

“Now out loud.”

“I understand and unconditionally accept as your prerogative
anything you may choose to do to me, whether as punishment in fact, or solely
for your amusement by any means, including flogging and all other corporal
dictates set within this contractual confines hereto no matter how painful or
humiliating to myself these may be.”

She gasped and looked up.

“Keep reading.”

She was trying even as her hands shook and her cheeks
burned. “Figging?”

“Yes. Once you mentioned it I found myself thinking about
that grand old Victorian practice and it’s piqued my curiosity. I’m dying to
explore some of those techniques, so with this one I won’t bend.”

Of course he wouldn’t. Now she was getting mad. No doubt
he’d hear it in her voice when she read the last few sentences aloud. “I
renounce all my rights to privacy. I shall not conceal anything, any part of me
from you. I will answer truthfully and completely to the best of my knowledge
any and all questions you put to me. I will tirelessly seek to please you
better, and will welcome with grace all your criticisms in order to improve my
service to you.”

Silence.

And not the comfortable kind either. She was boiling inside
because she knew she had no choice in all this if she wanted another shot with
him. He’d warned her right from the start that he required her honesty and the
first chance she’d gotten, because of her own fears she broken that trust.
Surely, agreeing to this would make him see how serious she was about trying to
recover from that mistake.

She poised the pen over the dotted line ready to sign.

“Wait.”

She didn’t look up—she just let her hand hover in a tremble
over the signature line.

“Put the pen down for a moment because I want to discuss a
few additional things.”

“A few additional things?” She dropped the pen and picked up
the stack of paper, fanning it under her nose. “I think you covered
everything,” she eyed him over the last page flop, “in here.”