“I did, but when you put it that way, even I’ll admit it sounds like a horrible idea.”

  “What other way could you put it?”

  Lennox sighed. “You need a safe and secure place to stay until this situation with Senator Lewis blows over. The island is perfect for that. Even if the press knew you were there, it isn’t possible for them to show up unannounced. And to your point, who would ever think you’d decide to stay on the same island where your ex lives?”

  Terrence had to admit he was right about that.

  “All summer?” Terrence asked. “As myself?”

  “I’m not sure it would be plausible for you to disguise yourself for an extended period of time,” Lennox replied. “Though I’d understand if you didn’t want to go by Master Knightly. You could always pick an alias, if you would like. Do you still use John as your play name?”

  “Yes.” Terrence couldn’t believe he was actually having this conversation, much less seriously thinking about taking Lennox up on his offer. “And sometimes I’ll use Buchanan as a last name.” At Lennox’s raised eyebrow, he added, “My mother’s maiden name.”

  “Have you made a decision about my offer, Master Buchanan?”

  * * *

  He hadn’t needed any time to think about the offer. He hadn’t been able to come up with a better place to stay, even though he’d stayed up most of the night before trying to do just that.

  It came as a shock when Terrence discovered he actually enjoyed staying on the island during the summer. It was peaceful and, for the most part, people left him alone. After leaving the academy in August before everyone started arriving for the fall session and feeling more relaxed and revived than he had in a long time, he asked Lennox if he could return the next June.

  It soon became an annual retreat for him.

  He’d spent time that first summer trying to figure out how Senator Lewis got his name. Unfortunately, five years later, he still didn’t know who had tipped the man off.

  Part of the entire fiasco made sense. In the eyes of the media, Terrence Knightly leaving a BDSM club with anyone was worthy of a story. Ronnie Lewis leaving one would also be information the public thought they had a right to know. Terrence and Ronnie together? A gold mine. He didn’t care what his agent said or thought. It did matter who had told the senator about their time together.

  Had it been someone inside the club? He searched his mind, trying to remember if he and Ronnie had captured anyone’s attention. It would have had to have been when he initially approached her or while they’d been talking, because he’d taken her into a private room to play.

  There were the submissives she’d been talking with when he first noticed her. He’d like to think that anyone inside the club would have followed the confidentiality agreement everyone had to sign before being allowed entrance. Of course he’d also have thought anyone there would be over twenty-one, and that hadn’t turned out to be the case.

  But the three submissives had seemed to have taken him at his word that he was just a guy people thought looked like Terrence Knight.

  With a sigh, he’d finally told himself he needed to accept that he’d probably never know. As much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with his agent on one thing. Regardless of who it was, the damage had been done.

  The fallout from that night had been ugly, but fortunately his agent had been correct. The bad press barely touched him on the island, and by the time Ken told him he could return to LA, the public’s attention had shifted to another scandal. As a result, the studio he’d contracted with for his next project no longer cared who he’d been with months prior or their actions while together.

  * * *

  It wasn’t long until the boat reached the dock and he was walking up to the office in the main building. He had a list of what he wanted to accomplish over the next two months. There were several scripts Ken had forwarded for his review as well as prep work to be done for the project he had starting in the fall.

  He opened the door and made his way to the administrative hall, always his first stop upon arrival. Not only because he needed to check in and pick up the key to the villa that would be his home for the summer but also to catch up with Lisa, the academy’s executive assistant. They had reached an agreement a few summers ago when she’d dropped some not-so-subtle hints concerning her availability for no-strings-involved play if the mood struck him.

  He hadn’t had a serious relationship since Andie, and since inadvertently hooking up with the legal-but-still-way-too-young-for-him Ronnie, he’d shied away from casual play. Needless to say, the mood struck him several times a summer.

  The door to her office was open, and he stepped in without a sound. She was always fun to surprise. He noticed she was still as unorganized as ever, and at the moment she was away from her desk. Should he wait for her to return or go look for Fulton or Andie?

  Before he could decide, a movement caught his eye. He smiled. There she was. On her knees behind her desk with her head under a table. Probably looking for something. A lost cause, if you asked him, due to the piles of papers and files stacked everywhere.

  “Didn’t you tell me last summer that you were going to organize this office before I came back? Do I need to put you over my knee for lying?” he asked, unable to stop his grin as he waited for her to gasp and look at him all embarrassed.

  Instead, she jerked her head up, obviously forgetting she was under a table because he heard the impact of her skull hitting the wood. He winced at the thud.

  “Fuck!” Lisa said, only it wasn’t Lisa’s voice. The more he thought about it, he didn’t think it was Lisa at all. A fact that became clear when whoever it was spoke again.

  “I’m afraid you have me confused with someone else.” The woman turned to face him. “And while I know this is a BDSM academy, I will not put up with harassment of any type, so you can knock it off right now.”

  His response died before making it to his lips. The woman standing before him might not recognize him, but he’d never forget the color of her hair or the haughty tilt of her chin.

  “Holy fuck, Ronnie. What the hell are you doing here?”

  Chapter 4

  Veronica

  Veronica took a step back and studied the man in the doorway of her office. Why did he look so familiar, and how did he know her name? Or at least the name she used to go by.

  He saw her confusion, and she recognized the grin he gave in response at once.

  Holy shit!

  “Terrence.” Andie’s voice drifted from down the hall.

  Veronica staggered backward, hitting her hip on the corner of the table she’d just banged her head on. Damn, she was going to be a mess of bruises.

  Andie appeared at her doorway before Veronica could wrap her head around the past few seconds.

  “I heard you just arrived,” Andie said. “I wanted to meet you at the docs so I could introduce you to Veronica Fair.”

  He titled his head. “Veronica Fair?”

  Veronica squared her shoulders as Andie replied, “Yes, she’s going to be Lisa for the summer.”

  Terrence chuckled at that, and Veronica felt her face heat. No doubt he was thinking of the way she’d responded to his mention of a spanking. She was willing to bet Lisa would have reacted differently.

  “Am I missing something here?” Andie asked, her gaze bouncing between the two of them.

  “We’ve met,” Terrence replied to Andie, but kept his gaze on Veronica.

  “You have?” Andie asked.

  Veronica waved her hand in dismissal. “Once. Years ago. And it was nothing. We weren’t even formally introduced.”

  Terrence kept smiling. “I’d hardly call it nothing, Veronica Fair.”

  When Veronica didn’t say anything, Andie cleared her throat. “I’ll head back to the kitchen since the two of you know each other already. Terrence, Fulton said to let you know he’s ready to kick your ass in chess again whenever you’re ready.”

  “Tell him I’m looking forward to it,” he said, still watching Veronica.

  “You never told me you were Terrence Knightly,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest once Andie was out of sight and hearing range. “I never would have agreed to play with you that night if I’d known.” It was a lie, but he didn’t know that. She wasn’t even sure why she said it other than she wanted the chance to somehow try to level the playing field. Bring him down a notch or two.

  But his smug smile didn’t falter. “I guess that makes two of us then. Because I’d have gotten the hell out of that joint as soon as I saw you if I’d had any idea you were the nineteen-year-old daughter of Senator Lewis.”

  Judging by the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes, he wasn’t lying the way she’d been.

  “You never called me after,” she said. As soon as the words were out, she wanted to take them back. Listen to her, sounding like a pouty teenager.

  “You’ll have to forgive me,” he said in a deadpan tone. “I was doing what I could to ensure I hadn’t killed my career by exploring kink with the barely legal daughter of a man so far on the right he’s almost left.”

  “From where I’m standing, your career seems to have weathered the storm without any blemish.” She hoped she didn’t come across as self-pitying as she feared she did. “You’re still making movies, and you get to spend your summers here getting your funny bone tickled. Although that’s not really shocking, is it? It’s a known double standard. Men are applauded for exploring their sexuality, but a woman doing the same thing is labeled a whore.”

  It was as if she slapped him. The smile left his face, and he took two steps toward her looking mad as hell. “Who called you that?”

  Was he serious? “You mean who didn’t, right? Because that list is the shortest of the two.”

  He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Just as well. The damage had been done years ago, and she didn’t want to hear an apology five years too late.

  “You know what?” she asked. “Just forget about it. Doesn’t matter anyway.”

  She walked to her desk and shuffled the papers on top, waiting for him to leave. He didn’t. He stood, still and silent. She looked up and couldn’t help but wonder how long he would have stood there and waited for her to meet his eyes.

  “Is that the reason you changed your name?” His voice was gentle, concerned.

  “One of them,” she replied in a whisper.

  He closed his eyes as if her admission hurt him. “I’m sorry.” He spoke so low she could barely hear, but she did, and those two words were enough.

  “No.” She slapped her hand down on a paper pile, causing him to jump. “You don’t get to be sorry. Not now. Not five years after the fact. You never called. Yes, I was nineteen, but I needed more after that night and I had nothing and no one. I was all alone.” She took a deep breath. “So you can leave my office and take your I’m-sorrys with you. I don’t need or want them anymore.”

  He nodded and moved toward the door. Just as he was a step away, he stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. “If you need anything, let me know.”

  “All I need from you is for you to stay the hell away from me.”

  She waited until he left before sinking into her desk chair. Unbidden, memories of that night five years ago flooded her brain.

  Chapter 5

  Veronica

  Five Years Ago

  Ronnie held her phone away from her ear as her best friend, Charity, let her know exactly how she felt about being left out of Ronnie’s plans for the evening. The sated and weightless aftereffects of the past several hours disappearing as the seconds ticked by.

  “I can’t believe you played with Terrence Fucking Knight and didn’t even call me.” Charity was only getting started with her tirade, and Ronnie didn’t have the time or energy to deal with her at the moment. “I had to read about it on social media!” Charity added as if it was the worst thing imaginable.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ronnie said as calmly as she could. “The guy I played with was named John. And besides, he didn’t look anything like Terrence Knight.”

  Charity sighed loudly into the phone. “Terrence Knight’s middle name is John, and of course he didn’t look like himself. He was in disguise.”

  “I don’t care what his middle name is. It wasn’t him,” Ronnie said. “Let this be a lesson for you to not believe everything you read on the internet.” Her phone beeped with an incoming call. “Someone else is calling, I’ll talk to you later.”

  She ended the call with Charity and thankfully glanced at the phone’s display before answering the new one. Her father. Yikes. No way was she talking to him. Not this year. Maybe not the next one, either.

  She turned her phone off and shoved it to the bottom of her tote bag. Matter of fact, she wasn’t going to talk to anyone at the moment. If what Charity said was true, she needed a plan of action before she did anything.

  Though she would never admit any such thing to anyone, Charity included, she couldn’t help but wonder if it had been Terrence Knight she’d played with. Charity wasn’t one to jump to conclusions on a whim. Whatever had been on social media must have looked fairly legit.

  Ronnie pulled down the UCLA ball cap she had on, hoping to hide her eyes and hair enough for her to glance around the coffee shop she was currently sitting in. It didn’t appear anyone was paying her any attention at the moment. But who knew how long that would last?

  Typically, she was able to move around LA and the surrounding areas of California unrecognized. After all, with so many celebrities around, who cared about the daughter of a senator?

  A group of three older teens sat down at a table nearby, their conversation so loud she had no choice but to overhear.

  “I’m just saying it’s funny,” one of them said, taking a seat out of her line of vision. “Senator Lewis is always so high and mighty, going on and talking the way he does about morality and such. All the while his daughter is hanging out in sex clubs. Kinky sex clubs.”

  Ronnie sank down farther in her seat.

  “Bet he won’t be able to be so holier-than-thou after tonight,” the girl finished with.

  “I don’t know why anyone cares what she does,” one of the other teens replied with. “So she likes kinky sex? Good for her.”

  “You’re missing the entire point,” the first teen replied. “If it wasn’t for her father, no one would care. But it makes Senator Lewis look like a hypocrite for pushing abstinence-only sex ed while his daughter waves her kink flag and hooks up with one of Hollywood’s hottest men.”

  “I wonder if Terrence has a big dick?”

  Ronnie took a deep breath and made herself sit as still as possible at the question asked by the third teen. People never ceased to surprise her, though she always thought that was borderline ridiculous considering all the things she’d heard and seen as a senator’s daughter.

  “She goes to school around here somewhere,” the first teen said in a by-your-leave manner that nonetheless left Ronnie’s heart racing. “Probably out somewhere. I’m sure the paparazzi are already staked out wherever she lives.”

  Ronnie swallowed the gasp that instinctively reached her throat and was thankful the table of teens didn’t notice. A feeling that disappeared instantly at the sound of someone on her other side clearing their throat.

  With dread, she turned to find a cafe employee cleaning a nearby table, and her stomach sank at the recognition in the other woman’s eyes. Ronnie glanced to the front of the cafe, trying to judge how long it’d take her to make it to the door. The crowd wasn’t too heavy yet, she might be able to leave unnoticed.

  She bit her bottom lip. Probably not though.

  Determined, she pushed back in her seat.

  “No,” the employee said in a whisper. “Not out the front. Come with me.”

  Unwilling to trade one bad exit for another, Ronnie narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

  “An exit the press don’t know about. You think you’re the only one who’s ever wanted to leave here without anyone seeing?”

  She supposed not.

  Another glance at the front entrance confirmed she’d have to walk past the teen trio. She was certain they’d both see and recognize her if she left that way.

  The cafe employee at her side waited quietly, and Ronnie got the impression she wouldn’t try to stop her if she decided to ignore her offer. And that was enough to convince Ronnie to nod and reply, “Lead the way.”

  Five minutes later, Ronnie was in a cab and headed out of town. She’d given the driver the address for a hotel she’d been to earlier in the year for a girlfriend’s wedding. While attracting enough big-name clients for the employees not to bat an eye at her arrival, it was not well enough known for the paparazzi to stalk. She’d be able to hang out for a few days undisturbed. Surely a few days would be long enough for her to work out a plan on what to do next.

  After numerous attempts to close her eyes and reclaim the postplay feelings she’d experienced earlier, she gave up and pulled her phone out of her tote. Once on, as expected, it beeped and buzzed for an obnoxious amount of time, alerting her to the calls, texts, and messages she’d received.

  The texts were all from friends who wanted to know if she was okay and asking if she’d really been with Terrence Knight. She didn’t reply to any of them, but moved on to her other notifications. Her father had left a voice mail. Might as well go ahead and listen. It wasn’t as if it would go away if she pretended it didn’t exist.

  “Veronica Dorthea Lewis,” his message began. She hated that no matter how old she got, something inside her always dreaded hearing her full name spoke by her father.

  “You are to come home and come home immediately,” he continued. “I knew letting you go to school in California would be a mistake, no matter how strict the conduct requirements were. However, even I was unaware of how much shame you could bring to our family in one night. We’ll talk more when you arrive home.”