Charlotte looked skeptical but she let go of the receiver and dropped into her chair.
“I don’t like it.”
“I don’t love it myself.”That was the understatement of the century.
I moved the box from my lap to the empty seat beside me and smoothed my sweaty palms over my skirt.Charlotte’s gaze shifted to Erik’s gift the way I imagined a hawk tracked a rabbit’s movements.
“What does Jensen want with you?”
Lots of things I was pretty sure I didn’t want to explain to my friend, no matter how close we were.I went for the easiest one.
“He says he’s a Dom.I think he wants to teach me stuff.”
“I don’t even know where to start with that.Naked stuff?I thought you worked with a guy before you started seeing private clients.”
I thought back to the Dom I’d met with before I opened the Gentleman’s Submissive.Whatever he may have been, he and Erik weren’t in the same league.I’d felt more fully clothed with Erik than I’d ever felt with Master Whatshisname.I was starting to realize some of that might have had more to do with my attitude and willingness to let go of control than the men involved.I remembered Erik’s voice in my ear when I’d been blindfolded.His hand warm and strong through his jacket against the small of my back.
Some of it was the man.
“I did, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn more.I won’t say it out loud, to anyone but you, but I do feel responsible for what happened with my client.I don’t want to let something like that ever happen again.”
She smoothed a hand over her already perfectly smooth chignon, and I got a rare glimpse at her internal struggle.Charlotte made a living hiding her thoughts and feelings and only showing people what she wanted them to see.We had that in common.
“So what kind of things did you and Jensen do?Naked things?”Her lips curved in the barest smirk, and the band around my chest relaxed a fraction.If she could tease me, I could believe things were going to be okay.
“He put my clothes on,” I said, remembering the way the backs of his fingers brushed my breasts as he’d fastened the buttons on my blouse, the silk adding its own kind of sensuality to his touch.
“You stripped for him?”
“Naked is my best battle armor, and the lack of blood flow to the brain usually works in my favor.”
“But it didn’t with Jensen?”she asked, smiling for real this time.
“Nope.It did not.”
“Are you going to see him again?”
“He already paid for a second session,” I said, thinking of the ease with which he’d dropped another grand into my bank account and the pressure it relieved.Financial pressure anyway.Hisdon’t come without telling mething added its own kind of pressure.
It seemed like a lot of money, and it was, but with the rent on my studio, my personal living expenses, and no money coming in, I was going to have to stretch to make it work.
“Is it okay for me to see other clients?”
Charlotte shook her head and my spirits dipped a notch.“Jensen is defying his own order by paying you.Although he’s on shaky enough ground for the stunt he pulled during the deposition.I doubt he’d breathe a word about it.The cease-and-desist is still in place.For now,” she added when I blew out a breath.“I put a call into Jensen’s firm to see who would be taking over for him.I haven’t heard back yet.”She paused for a minute, thinking.“If whoever takes over doesn’t have such a hard-on for you”—she smirked at the pun, and I managed to smile back—“maybe I can get them to settle the whole thing.The push to go to trial didn’t make any sense before, but if it was Jensen and not the client pushing, we should be able to make it go away quickly.”
I felt my smile widen.Whatever else might be going on, getting out from under the lawsuit would be a relief.
