That was all. In his mind, it was all that needed to be said.

  There were three other voice mails, but she didn’t recognize the numbers, so she left those unplayed.

  She opened her inbox feeling better than expected. Outside of her father’s voice mail which she knew would be dreadful, nothing seemed too bad.

  Until she pulled up an email from the college she was currently attending. The length was short and the language terse, but the message was clear. She’d been expelled. As a result of unbecoming conduct.

  Just like that. They deemed it to be so, and it was. No opportunity to respond or appeal or even to tell her side. She tried to tell herself it didn’t matter. That the small private all-girls college wasn’t where she’d wanted to go anyway and that she’d only done so because it was the only way he’d allow her to move across the country.

  But for some reason, it did matter.

  What was she going to do now? Where was she going to go?

  She wasn’t sure, but one thing she knew without a doubt, she was not going home.

  * * *

  It was much later that night before she had the chance to reflect on the time she spent with the Dom she knew as John. Against her typical rule of not looking at anything posted online concerning her, she had peeked at a few sites.

  There was nothing to document either of their arrivals, only photos of John putting her in the cab he’d called for her. She reached for her phone, recalling the feel of his hand on her shoulder as he helped her into the back seat and how he’d asked for her number.

  Had she given it to him? She couldn’t remember, but she knew she hadn’t asked for his nor had he offered. Could he be one of the three unknown voice mails? She hated how much she hoped he was.

  But he wasn’t. Not that she could tell since they were all hang-ups. She didn’t see John as the type to hang up. He’d definitely leave a message.

  With a huff she put the phone on her nightstand and crawled into her bed to replay her time with John.

  He’d accepted her no-sex rule and hadn’t pushed her to change her mind. A lot of the Doms she’d played with before had pushed and pushed hard. Not John though. No, he’d tied her up, telling her while he did so that she was a filthy slut and had to be punished. Then he proceeded to spank her. First with this hand, and next with a crop he knew how to wield just right.

  Basically, he pushed every button she had along with a few she hadn’t known she possessed. By the time he moved to a cane, she was ready to beg him to forget the no-sex rule. His own breathing had steadily increased to where he was nearly panting, so she doubted he’d object.

  But he did.

  He’d stepped away briefly, probably to check on her, but she didn’t know for sure, and in that moment of break, she told him she wanted to remove her limit on sex. He didn’t speak for a few seconds, but walked back toward her and stood by her side.

  When he leaned close to whisper in her ear, she shivered.

  “That’s good to know, Ronnie,” his voice was rough. “But it’s our first time together, and I don’t feel comfortable renegotiating in the middle of the scene. Neither one of us is in the proper headspace to do so.”

  A wave of rejection swept over her, and something must have shown on her face because he placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Next time,” he said, in what sounded like a promise. “We’ll talk more about what you really want out of a scene.”

  She could only nod because her knees melted into jelly and she was thankful for the way he had her bound. If it weren’t for that, she’d no doubt have wound up a puddle on the floor.

  “Are you okay to continue now?” he asked, and at her whispered yes, he picked back up where he’d left off.

  Was he really Terrence Knight?

  Her mind couldn’t comprehend how John could possibly be one of Hollywood’s leading men.

  In fact…

  She sat up in bed and grabbed her laptop from the nightstand. Opening a search window, she typed in his name and studied the images it pulled up.

  She couldn’t decide one way or the other. John had dark hair, whereas Terrence was known for his golden locks. Granted, she had to admit he could have been wearing a wig. It wasn’t as if she paid much attention to his hair.

  The other big difference was that 99 percent of the photos only showed a clean-shaven Terrence. Pictures of him with any sort of five-o’clock shadow were hard to find, much less one with as much scruff as what John had been sporting today.

  Suddenly tired and definitely feeling a bit of sub drop, she shut her laptop down and curled back under the covers.

  * * *

  Was it possible to experience sub drop five years after a scene? No, she told herself. She’d been out of the kink scene too long to remember what anything felt like. The punch to the gut it felt like she’d just taken was a result of breathing the same air as Terrence—and the knowledge she’d be doing so all summer.

  Chapter 6

  Terrence

  Terrence walked halfway to his summer villa before remembering he never got the key. With a sigh, he turned back to the main building, but instead of going back to the office, he headed toward the dining room. Fulton and Andie would more than likely be there or in the kitchen.

  He found them in the dining room, sitting at a table with their heads close together and chatting. At his entrance, they jumped apart. Andie glanced at him before dropping her eyes to the table. Ah, so they’d been talking about him. It wasn’t surprising, he supposed, all things considered.

  “Terrence.” Fulton stood up and gave him a one-arm hug. “It’s good to see you. We were just talking about you.”

  “At least you’re being honest,” Terrence said with a smile.

  “I can tell you’ve been in the land of make-believe too long.” Fulton sat back down beside his wife. “Pull up a chair and sit down.”

  Terrence hadn’t expected to like Fulton that first summer. When Lennox had suggested the island, Fulton was his main objection to the offer. He’d told Lennox he doubted Fulton wanted to spend three months around his girlfriend’s ex any more than Terrence wanted to hang out with his ex and her new man.

  Lennox had insisted it wouldn’t be that bad, and since Terrence hadn’t had any other viable options, he eventually gave in. As it turned out, Lennox had been right. It had been Fulton who had walked with him to show him where he’d be staying for the summer. Fulton had stood outside the villa as Terrence dropped off his bags.

  * * *

  “Everything looked okay?” Fulton asked, watching as Terrence closed and locked the door. “Do you need anything? I know it’s not exactly an LA penthouse.”

  “A fact for which I am eternally grateful,” Terrence replied, and they started walking back toward the main campus. “If given the choice between a group of kink players and a group of Hollywood hotshots, I’ll pick the kink players every time. If nothing else than for the fact they’re usually honest about themselves and what they want out of you as opposed to making shit up and convincing themselves it’s the truth.”

  His answer obviously wasn’t the one Fulton expected as proven by the hearty snort of laughter that escaped the other man.

  “You just might fit in with us here after all,” Fulton said. “In fact, it might not be the strangest thing in the world if you and I turned out to be friends.”

  “Maybe not,” Terrence answered. “But I’m fairly certain it’d make the top ten.”

  * * *

  Top ten or not, five years later, Terrence could whole heartedly agree Fulton and Andie were a much better match than he and Andie had ever been. And while he wouldn’t go so far as to call the man one of his best friends, a friendship had grown between them.

  One of the things Terrence respected about Fulton was his straightforward manner. It was a relief never having to wonder if Fulton was telling the truth or not. So unlike many of the people he spent most of the year with.

  “I understand you and Veronica know each other,” Fulton said as soon as Terrence sat down, proving his tell-it-like-it-is personality hadn’t changed. “Is it going to be a problem with her working here this summer?”

  “No,” Terrence said, hoping he was right. “We met once, years ago. It was nothing.”

  Fulton’s lips pressed together, and Terrence wondered how loud he and Ronnie had been earlier. Not that it should matter. He’d been praising Fulton in his mind for being honest, and here he was doing the exact opposite.

  “I didn’t know her as Veronica Fair,” Terrence said. “When I met her, she went by Ronnie. I later learned her last name was Lewis.”

  Andie made the connection first. Her eyes grew wide with realization. “She’s the girl you were with that night at the club. She’s Senator Lewis’s daughter.”

  “Fair is her mother’s maiden name,” Terrence said, repeating what Ronnie had told him. “She dropped Lewis right after everything went down.”

  He still hadn’t had time to think through her comments on being alone and how he’d never followed back up with her. It wasn’t something he was looking forward to, but it had to be done. Later though.

  “Shit,” Fulton said. “Veronica Fair is Ronnie Lewis? I wonder how Lennox managed that one?”

  Terrence’s bottom jaw dropped as Andie wrinkled her eyebrows. “What do you mean how did Lennox manage it?” she asked. “He didn’t manage it at all. I called the agency we always use and asked them to send someone out.”

  Fulton nodded. “And that someone just happened to be a person with the administrative skills we needed as well as being familiar with kink and a guest who would be staying on the island all summer?”

  “When you put like that, does make it seem a bit far-fetched, but how could he have possibly known Lisa would ask for a leave during the summer?” she asked.

  “That I don’t know.” Fulton shrugged. “But the one thing I do know is that there are no coincidences on this island, and that Lennox has a funny way of knowing everything that goes on whether we tell him or not.”

  “Are you saying Lennox knew who she was and somehow worked it out so she’d be working the same time I was here?” It was the most ridiculous thing Terrence had ever heard.

  “I’m just saying something isn’t adding up.”

  “You’re probably doing your math wrong,” Andie told her husband. “I can’t believe for one second Lennox orchestrated this entire thing.”

  “When are they coming to visit?” Terrence asked. He wouldn’t mind asking his old friend a pointed question or two about Ronnie. Lennox and Mariela had always visited the island at least once during the summer. He expected this summer would be no different, and when Lennox arrived, he’d find out if he’d had anything to do with Ronnie showing up.

  Andie caught his gaze and he nodded. At least the two of them were on the same page.

  “Last time we spoke,” Fulton said, “he said something about the middle of June, so maybe two or three weeks?”

  That was a bit longer of a wait than Terrence would have liked, but as long as Lennox showed up at some point and answered questions, he could live with it.

  “Good,” Andie said. “Then we can get to the bottom of this.”

  Fulton rested his hand on top of hers. “I think it might be for the best for you to sit this one out, love.”

  “What do you mean, sit it out?”

  “I mean it has nothing to do with you.” Fulton tilted his head toward Terrence but kept his eyes firmly on Andie’s. “Let Terrence handle it. And Veronica if she chooses. But I want you out of it.”

  “You do, do you?” Andie asked, and they hadn’t been apart for so long that Terrence couldn’t tell when she was approaching pissed as hell, level five. Surely Fulton, being her husband, could tell as well.

  “I know you like to be involved. To help. Give advice.” Fulton seemed to be doing his best to defuse Andie before she went off, but Terrence didn’t think he was doing a very good job at the moment. “I’m just saying to let it go this time.”

  “Let it go?” She pulled her hand out from under his. “Do you think Lennox and Mariela would be together today if I’d just let it go when he had his head up his ass about how he felt about her?”

  Even as Fulton continued talking with Andie, Terrence replayed their conversation. He leaned toward the couple as he realized what they had been discussing.

  “Andie,” Terrence said. “Please tell me you have no intention of doing anything to try to get me and Ronnie together.”

  “I guarantee you she has more than intentions,” Fulton answered. “She probably has a game plan with several different possible scenarios already worked out in her head.”

  To her credit, Andie didn’t confirm or deny the allegation, choosing instead to throw an icy glare at her husband.

  “Seriously, Andie?” Terrence asked. “Ronnie was nineteen. Barely.”

  “Five years ago.” Andie rolled her eyes. “And she goes by Veronica now.”

  * * *

  Andie ended up leaving the table shortly thereafter, telling Terrence she’d pick up his keys from Ronnie. For some reason, he couldn’t call her Veronica. In his mind, she was Ronnie.

  He hadn’t traveled with a lot of bags. Almost everything he needed for his summer stay had been shipped to the island ahead of his arrival, and the boxes had been placed by someone—Terrence assumed Fulton—in the middle of the living room floor.

  Terrence took his time unpacking. Over the years, it had become almost ritual-like. As he emptied boxes and settled in, he stripped away the Terrence everyone thought they knew. Little by little, Hollywood’s golden boy reverted back to the Terrence relatively few people saw. Every summer, without fail, he saw it as a cleansing process. As much as he talked about how he detested the fakeness of the film industry, he’d be a foolish hypocrite to think himself blameless or unstained. But on this island, for the short amount of time he stayed, he didn’t have to be anyone other than who he was. That freedom brought along with it a peaceful quiet. A quiet he’d never found off the island.

  It pained him to realize that in the aftermath of that notable night, he hadn’t given two seconds thought to how Ronnie handled everything. The knowledge chilled him. As bad as it was for Senator Lewis to know who he was, at least he wasn’t related to the man. What had Ronnie gone through?

  Based on what he remembered being shown on the news stations, which Terrence knew was biased, the senator didn’t appear to be a happy man, or even someone who was pleasant to be around. Of course it was possible he wasn’t anything at all the way the media portrayed him. Terrence himself had been the subject of more than one erroneous article. It didn’t matter that the paparazzi were the ones responsible for those. In his mind, 99 percent of any news articles were nothing more than clickbait.

  He placed the box he’d been emptying on the floor, rubbed his head, and looked out a window over the academy’s grounds. At the moment, there was no peaceful quiet to be found, only the heavy weight of guilt. Guilt that Ronnie had been right earlier—he hadn’t been there for her after that night. Instead of doing what was needed and what was right, he’d concerned himself with saving his own skin.

  In short, he’d failed at being a Dom.

  Looking back on that time, it didn’t matter that Ken advised him not to make any contact with Ronnie. There was no way his agent could have stopped him from doing that very thing if he wanted.

  Likewise, it didn’t count that he’d picked up his phone numerous times to call or text her. Didn’t count because he’d never gone through with any of them. His half-hearted, half-assed attempts had done nothing to help Ronnie.

  His fallback comment about her young age only underscored how royally he’d fucked up. Knowing how young she was made his oversight even worse.

  A movement outside captured his attention. Ronnie. She was walking toward the dock with a book in her hand, obviously taking advantage of afternoon’s rare sunny weather. Without giving it further thought, he turned and hurried out the door.

  She saw him approach and straightened her spine as he grew closer, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun behind him. “Perhaps I need to explain what stay the hell away from me means.”

  He hadn’t expected this would be easy. “Let me say one thing, and then I’ll stay as far away from you as you want.”

  She gave a dramatic sigh, slipped a piece of paper into her book, marking her place. “I’m listening.”

  She might have been, but she wasn’t happy about doing so.

  “I wanted to apologize for my actions in the past.” He didn’t want to beat around the bush with her. She deserved better. “I’ve always prided myself on being the best dominant possible, but I see now that I failed you. Failed you horribly. I’m so sorry.”

  Surprise flashed in her eyes at his pronouncement, but was gone so quickly he wondered if he’d only imagined it had been there because he wanted to surprise her. He wanted to prove to her that he wasn’t the insensitive dick she thought he was. And he knew she had to think he was a dick. How could she think otherwise when her only interactions with him were that night five years ago and his coming into the office earlier in the day and threatening a spanking?

  Why do I care so much about what she thinks of me anyway?

  What Ronnie Lewis or Veronica Fair or whatever name she wanted to go by thought shouldn’t matter one bit to him.

  But for some reason it did, and he’d be damned if he knew why.

  If she’d been surprised at his words, that surprise wasn’t reflected in her voice. “Thank you,” she said. “But it was over five years ago. You really don’t need to apologize. I’m over it. It’s no big deal.”