“What would I do with a BDSM academy on an island?” Terrence asked.

  “Whatever the hell you want,” Fulton replied. “Live on it alone and become that weird actor dude who lives on an island, film movies in it, pay someone to run the academy for you.” Fulton grinned. “Or even better, pay Veronica to run it for you.”

  Terrence almost choked on the water he was swallowing. “What the fuck?”

  Fulton’s grin grew even bigger. “Don’t tell me you can’t see that she’d make one hell of a headmistress for this place.”

  Terrence hadn’t thought about it, but now that he did, he had to admit Fulton had a point. Then he remembered his actions over the past week.

  He wasn’t proud of the way he’d been treating her, no matter how many times he reminded himself it was for her own good. Her reaction to the potential of someone taking pictures of her and how she’d be treated still tore him apart, and he didn’t know how to make it better for either one of them. He was an actor, a successful actor, and the paparazzi would always be around. If they were together, he knew the age difference and the time they spent in a BDSM club when she was a teen would never be far from anyone’s mind.

  All things considered, it seemed easier to let her go than it did to ask her to willingly put herself in the camera’s crosshairs. He damn well couldn’t ask her to be his employee and run a BDSM academy he decided to buy.

  “She’d make a damn good headmistress,” Terrence said, trying and not succeeding in his attempt not to think about how hot and sexy it would be to have Ronnie as the academy’s headmistress submit to him. “But I doubt —”

  “Speak of the devil,” Fulton interrupted. “Here she comes.”

  Terrence turned to look over his shoulder and out the window behind him. Sure enough, Ronnie was on her way to the lighthouse, and based on the way she nearly stomped her way toward it, she was less than pleased to be doing so.

  “She’s pissed,” Terrence said.

  “Has to be something you did,” Fulton said, opening the door before she could knock.

  “It typically is.” Terrence sighed.

  Sure enough, her ire was for Terrence alone as she breezed past Fulton. “You, Hollywood.”

  Damn. Back to that were they? “What crawled up your ass today, princess?”

  “How about you tell that agent of yours that I’m not your fucking secretary, that if he wants to talk to you, you have a new phone, and that if he calls me Ms. Lewis one more time, I’m going to knock his teeth down his throat?”

  “I love it when I’m right,” Fulton mumbled.

  Ronnie had to be completely wrapped in her anger because she didn’t spare the other man a second’s attention. Terrence took a step back to fish his phone from his pocket. He didn’t remember turning it off, and no one had called him that he knew of. He turned the blank screen to her to show he hadn’t been avoiding calls.

  “I’m sorry he’s been bothering you,” he said. “I’ll call him right now to see what his deal is.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “I meant it about the Lewis thing.”

  He hadn’t doubted it for a minute, and he wondered what Ken’s problem was. “I’ll let him know.”

  She nodded and turned to walk back the way she came.

  “She walked all the way down here to tell you that?” Fulton asked.

  “Probably thought my phone wasn’t working.” Terrence looked down at the phone. Ken rarely called during the summer, and it’d been longer than normal since the last time they’d talked. He glanced up at Fulton. “I need to call and see what’s going on.”

  “Take your time,” Fulton said. “I need to start an inventory of what we’ve brought down so far.”

  Terrence waited until he disappeared into the house before calling Ken. It rang five times before he picked up.

  “Terrence?” he asked.

  “I gave you my new number,” Terrence led with. “Use it and stop calling Ronnie, and while we’re on the subject, she goes by Fair now. Quit calling her Lewis.”

  “Do you have any further requests before I tell you why I called?”

  Terrence bit back his reply and wondered, not for the first time, why he hadn’t fired the guy and found a new agent. Because other than his annoying habit of being a dick every so often, he was a good agent. “Tell me why you called,” he said between gritted teeth.

  “I had an interesting envelope delivered today,” Ken said.

  Terrence took a deep breath. “I have other things to do besides playing games with you over the phone.”

  “Things like Ronnie Lewis? Excuse me, Fair?”

  Terrence gripped the phone case so tightly he was surprised it didn’t crack. “You’re crossing the line. You need to watch yourself.”

  “Watch myself?” Ken laughed. “That’s funny considering who it’s coming from.”

  A hint of unease began to settle in the pit of his stomach. “Go ahead and tell me what you were sent so I can get on with my day.”

  “It’s a photo. Black and white. Grainy. It’s a bit hard to tell who’s in the background, not because the image is blurry, but because of holy shit, that Lewis/Fair chick has some incredible tits. Only when you realize she’s being screwed do your eyes move behind her to see who the lucky bastard is who’s buried balls deep inside her. Look like you might be fucking her ass, but you can’t be certain from the angle.”

  You failed her. Again. It was the only thought his head could hold at that moment.

  “Who sent you the picture?” Terrence finally managed to get out.

  “It doesn’t really matter, does it? It won’t change the outcome.”

  Terrence stood, silent and unmoving, knowing what Ken was getting ready to say, but even knowing didn’t lessen the blow.

  “I worked my way through this shit with you one time before, even to the detriment of the agency. I can’t do that again. I’m going to have to let you go as a client. I hate it. You’re a great actor, but I’m too old to deal with the baggage that you tote everywhere.”

  If Terrence could find it within himself to give a shit, he might have found the will to argue. But all he could focus on was how badly he’d failed Ronnie and how she needed to hear about the picture and the potential of others from him and not someone else.

  “Okay. Fine. Whatever.”

  Ken might have said something else, but Terrence was no longer listening and disconnected the call, too busy trying to figure out how he could possibly tell Ronnie the news.

  Chapter 25

  TERRENCE

  As it turned out, Ronnie ended up taking the news of the photo better than he had. He’d gone to her office immediately after ending the call with his agent, not even stopping to tell Fulton he’d left.

  Ronnie had known something was wrong the moment she saw his face. He told her he was sorry, that she deserved a better Dom, and he’d do whatever he could to lessen any impact on her reputation. He talked on and on until she’d ever so softly put a finger over his lips and told him to be quiet for a moment. If it was possible, she’d added with a small smile.

  She went on to tell him that ever since the night in the cabin, she’d assumed that there had been photos taken. With a shrug, she said at least she knew now they existed and she could stop living her life like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  They’d been interrupted then by a call from a couple enrolled for the fall and the arrival of the crew who’d been recently hired to do additional landscaping. Ronnie handled the call, and Terrence told her he’d walk the crew down to Fulton.

  It had been Terrence’s plan to catch up with her later that same day, but that had been two days ago, and he still hadn’t been able to do so.

  “It’s like she’s avoiding me,” he told Andie.

  They were sitting in the dining room, lingering over coffee, and talking. Fulton had left minutes before. He’d ended up hiring some of the groundsmen to help with a few of the lighthouse projects he wanted to complete before he and Andie moved out and had to meet with them. Terrence had stayed to chat with Andie. She’d said Ronnie hadn’t been by for breakfast yet, and he was hoping to catch her when she did.

  “Do you blame her?” Andie asked.

  He narrowed his eyes, trying to determine how much she knew. Andie hadn’t been in the cottage when Lennox inadvertently guessed what he and Ronnie had been up to, and he knew Lennox well enough to know he’d keep their confidence. So she hadn’t heard it from him. He and Ronnie had not played or done anything intimate while on the island.

  “Oh please,” Andie said with a wave of her hand. “You think I couldn’t tell something happened between you and Veronica at the cottage?”

  He didn’t answer because he was still trying to figure out what he could have done to make himself and his actions so transparent.

  “Now here you are over a week later, and you’ve been pushing her away every chance you get.” Andie tilted her head. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. What’s got into you?”

  He considered all his reasons for staying away from Ronnie, reasons he’d thought were not only justified but noble. Yet sitting with Andie calling him out, they didn’t sound like reasons anymore. They sounded like excuses. He didn’t even need to say them out loud.

  “I’ve been an ass,” he said.

  “They say acceptance is the first step.” Andie’s eyes danced in amusement. “Now what are you going to do about it?”

  He dipped his head and looked at the coffee mug his hands were wrapped around. She was right. He’d learned to accept years ago that Andie was usually right about such things. That he had been an ass was easy to agree with. The harder question was, what would he do about it?

  Andie stood up and patted his shoulder. “I told Fulton I’d make lunch for the men working on the lighthouse. Let me know if you need anything.”

  Though he’d been determined to find Ronnie not more than an hour before, he no longer wished to do so. Not yet anyway. He had a lot of thinking to do.

  It was late afternoon before Terrence renewed his search for Ronnie. Over the past several hours, he’d spent a lot of time thinking, and in thinking about the situation with Ronnie, he also forced himself to admit truths he knew about his own life. Truths he’d known for years but had refused to acknowledge.

  His plan to seek redemption from Ronnie and to do something about those truths was fluid. There were several paths to his desired outcome. Some he thought he’d enjoy more than others, but he was also aware that there were likely more he hadn’t discovered.

  What it all boiled down to, he realized when he found Ronnie in her office (because of course she’d be exactly where she was supposed to be), was that he didn’t have a fucking clue what to say to her other than the one most important thing.

  “Can I help you?” Ronnie asked after he’d been standing silently for what was probably longer than polite in her doorway.

  “Do you have a minute to talk?”

  She gave him a wary once-over, but nodded. “I suppose,” she said, standing. “Talk here or outside?”

  “Here is fine.” If their talk went badly, he didn’t want to deal with the potential of it being heard or captured in some way. They still had no idea how anyone knew to find them at the cottage, which meant he needed to be careful about what he said and where it was said.

  Her office held a small waiting area, and after she closed the door, they walked over to it and sat down. He couldn’t help but notice the tension in her body. Signs of it were everywhere, from the thin line of her lips, her too-squared shoulders, unmoving spine, all the way down to her perfectly crossed ankles. Tension that was there because of him.

  “First of all, thank you for agreeing to talk with me,” he said.

  “I have a few minutes,” she said. “I was able to get a lot more done today than yesterday since I didn’t have to spend half my time talking to your agent.”

  “Ex-agent.”

  “Ex?” Her forehead wrinkled. “Why ex?”

  “Apparently, I’m too much of a liability.”

  “Because of me?”

  “No.” He leaned forward, wanting to take her hands in his, but he didn’t, knowing he didn’t have the right. “Because of me. It was all me.”

  She didn’t look convinced. He wished he hadn’t said anything.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’d been thinking about firing him and hadn’t gotten around to it. But…” He took a deep breath, irritated he had somehow got off topic before he even started. “None of that matters though. None of that is what I want to talk about.”

  She remained silent, almost pensive, with her hands in her lap and her head down. Had he done that to her with his actions over the past week?

  “I need to apologize,” he said. “For the way I’ve been since we returned from the cottage. I thought I was doing you a favor, as if by staying away from you, I could somehow shield you and protect you. But I can see now I didn’t prevent anything. All I did was make an ass out of myself.”

  She lifted her head. “You made me feel unwanted. Like I was something to be used and tossed away when the mood strikes you. And the worst part was, it wasn’t the first time.”

  “I’m sorry. Truly.” He wasn’t sure if seeking her out today had been the best thing to do. But no, he decided, it was for the best. If for no other reason than for her to know she’d done nothing wrong. “I’d like to say it won’t happen again, but I would never assume you’d ever want to play with me again.”

  “Maybe in another five years.”

  He wasn’t sure if she was teasing or not, but his reply was the truth. “If that’s how long I have to wait, then so be it.” The corner of her mouth upturned a bit. “Though there’s no way I can promise I won’t be an ass in the future, because undoubtedly I will.”

  “Thank you for that,” she said and dipped her head, but not before he saw her cheeks go pink. “That night at the cabin showed me how I’d been lying to myself and others about my kink needs. I have you to thank for that.”

  “Would it be juvenile for me to say it was all my pleasure?”

  “I don’t think it was all yours.”

  His shoulders lost some of their tension. “If the only thing I succeed in as a Dom is helping you discover who you truly are, that will be good enough for me. Also, I’m going to say something but only because you said you felt unwanted. I’ve wanted you since I first saw you in that club five years ago, and I never stopped. I’ve recently realized I never will. But I’m acutely aware I need to earn your trust and respect before you could even think about submitting to me.” He paused for a breath before continuing. “I have a plan if you’d like to hear it. If not, you can tell me to shove it up my ass and I’ll understand.”

  Chapter 26

  VERONICA

  Veronica had never experienced speechlessness before. She’d always assumed people were exaggerating when they spoke of it, but now she understood it was a real thing. There was a lot of what Terrence had said that she agreed with, and the part about what he accomplished as a Dom had made her swoon. But what made her lose her vocal ability was when he spoke about his desire to gain her trust and respect.

  Because she wanted the same thing, and while she had no idea how to get to that point, he’d thought up a plan. “Tell me what you’re thinking,” she said once she’d convinced her vocal cords to work.

  Surprisingly enough, he looked uncertain for the first time during the conversation.

  “I didn’t write anything down,” he said. “In case you’re wondering why I don’t have any notes with me.”

  She actually hadn’t, but didn’t tell him.

  “I’m not sure where the best place to start would be.” He dipped his head and ran the fingers of one hand through his hair. “I guess it goes back to that night we had dinner with Lennox and Mariela.”

  “The academy?” That had to be what he was talking about. There were only two things discussed that night, and surely his plan wouldn’t be centered around Andie and Fulton’s unborn child. “Wait… are you thinking about buying it?”

  Terrence nodded. “But I was thinking. What if we changed it up? Maybe use it part of the year for classes, like it’s already being used for, but the rest of the year have it set as a retreat for kinky people.” He sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s too hard to break it up like that. It’s just it does so much for me to be able to decompress here over the summer.”

  “I don’t see why you couldn’t run both at the same time. That way kinky people could decompress and take a class.”

  His eyes lit up with excitement. “Yes! That’s perfect. I don’t know why I was making it more complex than it had to be.”

  “Side effect of having a Y chromosome, I think,” she said, and he laughed. “But how do you plan on running this place and continue your work as an actor?”

  He didn’t hesitate before answering, “I’m thinking about cutting back on the acting.”

  “How much thought have you given this? Is that a good idea?” she asked, with an eyebrow raised. “Should you cut back at your age?”

  “You’d be surprised at how much thought and for how long I’ve been thinking about cutting back. If acting was something I was truly passionate about, why would I have to take summers off?”

  “You think owning this island and running whatever you decide to make it into will be your passion?” It would be a tragedy to go through all the time and expense needed to make his ideas come alive only to find it wasn’t his burning desire either. He had thought of that, hadn’t he?

  “I think it could be,” he said, but in a softer voice than before, all the while his eyes seemed to look straight into her soul.

  She cleared her throat and turned her head to get away from his piercing stare, trying to understand what the conversation about the island had to do with the previous one about the two of them.

  “I think it could be my passion,” he repeated, “if you agree to run it with me.”