Sure you are. Keep telling yourself that, and maybe one day you’ll believe it.

  She didn’t try to argue with the voice in her head because she knew it was right. She was many things, but perfectly content wasn’t one of them.

  Terrence’s voice brought her back to the scene in the mirror. “This is interesting.”

  Veronica looked over the parts of the room she was able to see, but didn’t see anything that could be considered interesting. Maybe it was out of her range of sight.

  That’s when she noticed Terrence appeared to be looking directly at her in the mirror.

  “We have an uninvited guest, Hayley,” he said.

  Fuck, he was looking at her. She considered turning and walking away. Was it possible he knew someone was watching but not clearly enough to know who?

  “Come on inside, Ms. Fair,” Terrence said, shattering that possibility. He put down the crop he’d been holding on top of a table off to his side, beside several others. “It’s not polite to watch and not let people know you’re doing so.”

  Veronica stepped inside the dungeon. Hayley was still bound in the same position, so Veronica couldn’t tell if she knew her. There were a few part-time employees who came at irregular times to take care of odds-and-ends-type jobs, and she hadn’t met all of them yet.

  Terrence stood, arms crossed, frowning as she walked in.

  “Some would argue that is the exact point of the mirrors, to watch undetected,” she couldn’t resist saying.

  “They would be wrong,” he countered. “This is a school, and the mirrors are used in instruction. In addition, while the students don’t know, every instructor is shown where the mirrors are in the room that shows who’s outside watching.”

  So that was how he knew. Veronica didn’t say anything, and after a long moment, Terrence ran a hand through his hair and started unbuckling Hayley from her bonds. “I’m sorry our time was cut short today, Hayley girl. I’ll check with Master MacLure and see if he needs any further information. Are you okay to go into the dressing area and waiting for me?”

  “Not a problem, Master Buchanan,” Hayley said, rubbing her wrists once she was free and shooting Veronica a nasty look.

  Damn it, Hayley wasn’t a part-time employee. She worked in the housekeeping department, and Veronica had seen her around.

  “Apologize to my sub for ruining our scene, Ms. Fair,” Terrence said in a firm voice.

  “What? You have got to be kidding me,” Veronica answered instead. “Just because you’re Mister Hollywood doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do.”

  “I assure you I am not kidding.” Terrence had no hint of joking in his tone. “And when we’re in a dungeon, you are to address me as Master Buchanan or Sir, and yes, I do get to tell you what to do. Especially when it concerns my scene.”

  He was out of his flipping mind, that’s what he was. Veronica opened her mouth to tell him as much, but he spoke first.

  “Don’t even think about arguing with me,” he said. “Did you not read your employment contract before you signed it?”

  No, she hadn’t. She’d thought it was just a normal contract. That being the case, she didn’t have a leg to stand on with the current discussion. She looked at Hayley. “Forgive me, Hayley. It was not my intention to ruin your scene.”

  Hayley nodded. Terrence slapped her ass. “Go get dressed. I’ll be right behind you.”

  As soon as the naked submissive left the room, he turned his attention back to Veronica. “I assume you had a reason for coming to find me,” he said.

  “Yes, I —”

  He held up a hand to stop her. “That’s all I needed. I don’t need to know why right now. I’ll come find you, and we can talk when I finish aftercare with Hayley.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Veronica said.

  He gave a quick nod of acknowledgment and left her standing in the room alone. With his words, she’d remembered the aftercare he’d given her after their one scene. She’d been shaking a little, and he’d wrapped her in a blanket and sat with her on his lap until she’d stopped. For those moments she’d been in his arms he’d whispered about how well she’d done and how much he’d enjoyed playing with her. She thought she remembered him saying they’d get back together soon to play again if she wanted to explore more with him and they’d discuss removing her initial limit on sex.

  Of course it was also possible that she’d made up that part of the conversation.

  If the paparazzi hadn’t documented their exit from the club and plastered it all over the internet for everyone to see, would they have gotten back together for another scene? And if so, if that horrible time following that night had never happened, where would she be right now?

  It almost hurt to think about, and she wondered if that was why she never had? Had she always known deep down where she could pretend to hide such thoughts that if it weren’t for those pictures, everything would be different?

  Or maybe not. Maybe not much would have changed. His words on realizing who she was rang in her head as clear as if he stood beside her once more saying them.

  “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.”

  Those two sentences pretty much summed up everything. Terrence wanted nothing to do with her.

  Chapter 9

  Veronica

  It took less time than Veronica had estimated for Terrence to finish up the aftercare or whatever else it was he was doing with Hayley and make his way to her office. He had, she was both relieved and bummed out to see, put a shirt on. It was a black button-up, and he’d tucked it into his black jeans, making him look like every Dom she’d ever pictured in her mind. Especially when paired with the attitude he seemed to have brought with him from the dungeon.

  “You wanted to see me.” He crossed his arms.

  Her mind went blank, and for a few seconds she forgot that she had approached him first. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. “Yes,” she said. “When you asked if you could route a few calls through the main office and I agreed, I was unaware that meant I’d be taking on the role of your personal assistant.” She shoved a handful of papers at him. “These are the phone calls I’ve taken for you today.”

  He grimaced as he flipped through the messages. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

  She had been prepared for him to argue with her, especially with the way he’d walked into her office. It caught her completely off guard that he apologized, and she didn’t know what to do with it. “You need to get a working phone or hire someone to take these calls,” she finally settled on.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “I’ll look into that. Thank you.”

  The office seemed to shrink with both of them inside. Funny how she’d never noticed that with anyone else. But Terrence was another entity altogether. Even as he stood there, flipping through the messages she’d written down, she could picture him in the dungeon, crop in his hand and the way he teased Hayley. The same way he’d teased her all those years ago.

  All at once, her mouth was too dry and her clothes too tight. Yet she wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet.

  “Did you get everything you needed for Master MacLure?” she asked, trying to act as if she didn’t care what his answer was.

  His only reply was a raised eyebrow as he looked up from the message he was reading.

  What did that mean? Was she supposed to somehow translate a cocked eyebrow into a yes or a no? Or was he waiting for her to add sir or Master Buchanan to the end of her request?

  Surely that wasn’t it. She could understand the use of such titles while in the dungeon but not in her office. Not to mention, it didn’t make any sense that would be what he was waiting for. No one had ever mentioned the need for titles around the academy in general.

  Hell. She needed to read her employment contract.

  His eyes seemed to pierce her soul. “Does your question indicate that if I didn’t get everything I needed, you would be willing to take Hayley’s place?”

  She’d been holding a coffee cup she’d planned to wash out in the kitchen once he left her office. At his question the cup slipped out of her hand and toppled onto the table.

  His eyes followed the path it took. “Guess it’s a good thing that cup was empty.”

  “It slipped out of my hand due to the shock I experienced at being asked such an inappropriate question,” she said. “And how does a question like that fit into our agreement to do our best to stay clear of each other?”

  “First of all, you’re working at a BDSM academy, so let’s drop the inappropriate question comment.” He took a step closer, and she instinctively did the same, gasping when she backed into her desk. “Second, and even more importantly, don’t stand there and tell me you weren’t thinking about being in Hayley’s place the entire time you were in the dungeon. Your lips might be able to get the lie out, but your body will betray you every time. I could tell what you wanted in that room, and I can tell what you still want now, standing here in front of me.”

  She lifted her head. “What I want and what I’ll allow myself to have are two completely different things. It doesn’t matter how my body acts. I don’t want to want you, and I have enough self-control to not follow every little whim of my body.”

  He lifted his hand and gently brushed her hair behind her ear, smiling at her sharp intake of breath. His hand dipped a bit lower to where his fingers rested on her neck. “Every little whim?” he asked. “Funny, this doesn’t feel so little. Not with your heart racing like it is.” He took a step closer, and she felt the heat of his body all up and down the length of her own.

  She had to stop him. It was too dangerous to be around him because, no matter what she told him, she knew for a fact she didn’t have the self-control needed to keep him at a distance. He had been right about everything so far. Not only that, but he had the ability to read her body as if it was a book, written in a language only he understood. And she couldn’t allow him to know so much about her.

  He didn’t step back or drop his hand. “It doesn’t matter how many times you tell yourself that lie. You and I both know we’ll never believe it. Hell, it makes about as much sense as you insisting that you aren’t in the lifestyle anymore. All that’s just a bunch of hot air. Trust me, no one believes you.”

  If she didn’t get away from him, she knew she’d wind up doing something she’d regret. She had to stop him, and there was one way guaranteed to work every time.

  Pulling herself to her full height, she looked him straight in the eyes. “Red.”

  Chapter 10

  Terrence

  Terrence immediately dropped his hand and took a step back at her use of the safeword. Damn. She was stubborn. Why did it make her even more attractive? When he’d agreed days earlier to keep his distance from her, he’d done so with the assumption that she wasn’t the least bit interested in him. But he’d have to be the world’s most clueless Dom to have missed the vibes she’d been putting off downstairs earlier.

  Those vibes got his attention quicker than anything else could have, and once she had his attention, he was able to see her. Really see her. Not as the nineteen-year-old he’d had a disastrous night with, but as a woman. And a submissive.

  He could see why she would tell people she wasn’t in the lifestyle. That was certainly a black-and-white issue. Either you were or you weren’t actively participating. No, what he had trouble understanding was why she would lie and claim she wasn’t interested? Especially when everything about her body language said the exact opposite.

  Regardless, whether she was interested was beside the point. He was both active and interested in the lifestyle, and respecting her use of red, even though they weren’t in anything remotely resembling a scene, was a given.

  Terrence flashed her a smile. “You didn’t have to go so far as to safeword, princess. You could have just told me to mind my own damn business.”

  “Don’t call me princess, and no I couldn’t have.”

  “I would have backed down,” he said, completely ignoring her princess request. “And I’ll take care of the phone issue. As for the other, don’t expect me not to react when you look at me as if kneeling before me wouldn’t be the highlight of your day. I’d never touch you or any other woman without implicit consent, but you better damn well believe I’ll call your ass out on it every time.”

  She didn’t back down, and he had to admit he liked that about her. With her shoulders straightened, she looked him square in the eye. “I don’t see how you’ll ever have the opportunity to call me out on anything since we’ll both be doing our best to avoid the other.”

  He couldn’t help but think that agreement on her first day might have been one of his worst mistakes ever. It’d been foolish of him to do so before he had a chance to appreciate the fact she was no longer a nineteen-year-old teen but rather a captivating woman.

  But he had, and he was a man of his word.

  Even so, he didn’t try to hold back his reply. “I notice you didn’t deny what I said about how much you want to kneel before me.”

  “I didn’t think such nonsensical drivel was worthy of a response.”

  He might have believed her if it wasn’t for the way her cheeks flushed an enchanting shade of pink, not to mention her body language in the playroom. Were her quick and witty responses due to her upbringing, or were they inherently part of who she was?

  He wasn’t sure, but it would be fun to try to figure it out. For the moment though…

  “Keep telling yourself that, princess.” He turned to leave. “But you’ll never convince me it’s true.”

  The door slammed shut behind him as soon as he stepped into the hallway, and he swallowed a snort.

  “I see it didn’t take long for you to find our newly hired admin’s last nerve.”

  Terrence turned to find Fulton walking down the hall. “That?” he asked. “Nah. She just needed a quiet moment or two so she could reflect on her true self.”

  Fulton seemed to think for a moment, and then nodded his head as if decided on something. “Walk with me,” he said.

  Surprised but unabashedly curious at the same time, Terrence followed the other man down the hall toward the outside exit.

  “When you say Veronica’s true self,” Fulton began as they stepped out of the main building and into the sunlight, “you’re talking about her being a submissive?”

  “You picked up on that too?”

  “I would have, yes,” Fulton said. “But I didn’t have to. She told me she identified herself as a submissive the first day I met her. In our first conversation. Of course it was quickly followed with her clarifying that she meant she identified as such years prior when she was active in the lifestyle.”

  “My point to her exactly,” Terrence said, glad he wasn’t the only one who saw beneath Ronnie’s I’m not part of the lifestyle anymore nonsense. “You don’t stop being a submissive just because you woke up one morning and decided you’d rather not be one.”

  “That’s true,” Fulton agreed. “But there’s one thing you’re forgetting.”

  “What’s that?”

  Fulton stopped walking and Terrence did the same, wanting to hear where the conversation was headed.

  “You’ll never convince a woman, especially one as stubborn as the one who just slammed the door on your ass, that she’s a submissive just because you said she was.”

  “I don’t have to convince her,” Terrence argued. “You just said she admitted being one the first time the two of you spoke.”

  “Veronica saying she was a submissive years ago is quite different from her saying she’s one today. In her mind, they are two separate things.”

  “Okay,” Terrence said. “So how do I get her to admit she’s still submissive if I can’t tell her?”

  “You know, I really thought with you being a Hollywood hotshot and all, you’d have a better grasp on how women operate.”

  Terrence couldn’t tell if Fulton was joking or not, but decided not to push it. It was true he didn’t understand how the female brain worked, but damned if he’d be admitting that to the man who married his ex.

  “In that case,” Terrence said, “enlighten me.”

  “You can’t tell her she’s a submissive. She has to come to that conclusion by herself,” Fulton said as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

  “She’s never going to reach that conclusion because she’s not willing to consider the issue in the first place.”

  Fulton chuckled and shook his head. “I guarantee you she’s not only willing, but she’s already considering it and probably doing so at this very moment. And before you shake your head at me, ask yourself why she felt the need to slam the door after you left.”

  Terrence could think of at least twelve off the top of his head, and not one of them had anything to do with her battling the question of whether she was a submissive. He didn’t feel like getting into an argument with Fulton, so he replied in a grunt Fulton could take to mean almost anything he wanted.

  Fulton smiled. “You don’t have to believe me. Just be patient, watch, and listen.” Before Terrence could reply, Fulton looked at his watch. “I have a meeting I need to get to on the mainland. I’ll see you tonight at dinner.”

  Chapter 11

  Terrence

  After his run-in with both Ronnie and Fulton, Terrence walked back to his villa and went to work exploring the possibilities of updating his phone. He’d already decided he’d do whatever it took to ensure there was no need for Ronnie to take his calls again. By the time he headed to the main building for dinner, it had been taken care of. Ronnie would be shocked he’d handled it so quickly, and he couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he told her.