“No problem.” Violet tossed her hair over her shoulder and walked toward the door, then stopped. “Tabitha, talk to Grit. All those fears you’re harboring about your father, your bloodline… he won’t understand until you give them all to him. Every last one.”
Leaving her friend to mull that over, she stepped up to the door, cracked it open, and weighed up everyone’s current location. The bathroom was visible from the tables where the group congregated, but was shielded slightly from the main bar. As yet, Reaux hadn’t returned to sit with them.
If he wanted to call her his queen, that was fine. She summoned her inner royal bitch, straightened her spine, and walked out as if she owned the place. Instead of making her way back to the table, she simply veered left and pushed through the doors into the reception area.
Deciding that hacking the computer would take too long, she hurried upstairs, braced for someone to call her name and thwart her attempt at finding peace, solitary peace, for the night.
The call didn’t come, and she finally took a breath when she reached the top of the stairs. Just one night was all she was asking for—one night alone, without Reaux’s presence affecting her senses, his scent permeating her brain.
One night, that was all.
Boudreaux
He watched her go into the bathroom after the little blonde.
He watched as the blonde went back to the table, more than twenty minutes later.
Watching, it seemed, hadn’t benefitted him in the slightest because by all appearances, hispetite beignetwas clever enough to give him the slip. Still, he waited a few more minutes, his patience straining, but Violet didn’t emerge from the bathroom.
“Problem?” Levi asked, cocking his head so the small spotlights above the bar turned his hair a vibrant shade of dark red. “You’ve been glaring at the women’s restroom for nearly half an hour.”
“Hmm. Either Violet has barricaded herself in a stall, or she’s made an escape. She followed the small blonde in there, the one who moves like a ninja,” he explained when Levi looked baffled. “The blonde has returned. Violet has not.”
He laughed. “Ninja is the perfect word for Tabitha. Ninety-nine percent of the submissives are terrified of her, and aroundninety percent of the Doms. Think Molotov cocktail crossed with a firecracker, and add in a really short fuse.”
Reaux eyed up the woman—she was short, obviously fit judging by the graceful, predatory way she moved, and was blessed with delicate, feminine features. Her hair was an incredible shade of the palest blonde, drawing attention to her from all angles. “I’m going to scope out the bathroom. If Violet went home, I need to prepare myself for booby traps.”
Levi’s hand paused in the midst of raising his glass to drink. “Whoa there, buddy. We have strict rules here about safe spaces; the women’s bathrooms are off-limits to Doms and male subs. One of the girls will have to check for you.”
“Huh.” Reaux approved of the notion, even as he silently cursed it. “Perhaps this Tabitha will tell me if Violet remains inside?”
“No harm in asking.” Drink in hand, Levi nudged Elias, interrupting his conversation with Liam. “We’re heading back to the table to interrogate Tabitha. You guys coming?”
Liam’s eyebrow arched incredulously. “Hope you have good health insurance.”
“Is she that volatile?” Reaux wondered.
“Talking to Tabitha is akin to holding a bomb in both hands and trying to disarm it with a screwdriver between your teeth.” Elias chuckled and patted his shoulder. “You might walk away unscathed, or not at all.”
It would be simpler for him to just poke his head through the door and see if Violet was using the no-men rule to keep him at bay, if he was being honest, but he valued the importance of abiding by club rules.
Dutifully, he followed Levi to the table, followed by both Liam and Elias. He remained standing, smiling politely as Levi introduced him to Violet’s family circle, but his gaze was firmlyon the little blonde, studying her as though she possessed the answers to every universal question.
She stared right back at him, stunning ice-blue eyes searing into him.
“Tabitha, do you know if Violet is still in the restroom?” Elias asked firmly, demanding honesty with his tone.
Eyes unwavering, she rubbed the corner of her mouth with her middle finger, effectively flipping Reaux the bird. “No.”
“No, she’s not in the restroom, or no, you don’t know?”
“She’s not in there. I’m supposed to give you a message, though,” she said with a touch of glee in her voice. She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth, and Reaux knew Violet had recruited this one over to her side before he even got a chance to prove himself. “What was it now… oh, yes. You can sleep wherever you want because the Mistress won’t be going home tonight.”
The table fell silent, all eyes on him, gauging his reaction. From the combative gleam in Tabitha’s stare, she was waiting for him to snap his leash.
“Do you know where she’s planning to sleep?”
“Far away from you would be my guess,” she retorted glibly, then scowled when the man beside her cleared his throat in warning. She rolled her eyes, then added in a saccharine tone, “Apologies, sir. I don’t know where she is or what she’s arranged for sleeping arrangements. She didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask.”
