“But what about security?”I asked, going off script yet again.“Surely in your line of work, you must have some mechanism in place to protect you from potentially dangerous clients.”If she said no, I was going to have to sit on my hands to keep from shaking her.The idea of her inadvertently putting herself at the mercy of one of the many crazies out there made my jaw clench, and I could feel my blood pressure spike.
“I have a screening process in place before I take on a new client.If I have any reservations at all, I will subcontract security for our first session.”
“Perfect.So they have to wait until the second session to let the crazy show,” I muttered to myself.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said, forcing myself to move on to what the Dom in me and not the lawyer really wanted to know.“What does a typical session consist of?”
“I’m not sure how that’s relevant, Counselor,” said Ms.Ellis.
It probably wasn’t, but this was part of discovery and not a trial.As such, I had more leeway in my line of questioning.
“In order to understand the extent to which your client is infringing on my client’s brand, I need to establish exactly what constitutes a session with the Gentleman’s Submissive.”I was laying on the bullshit pretty thick.I knew it and I could tell by the pit bull set of Ms.Ellis’s pink lacquered lips that she knew it too.The challenge, however, seemed to have taken some of the steam out of Dr.Smithson.She straightened in her chair, looking slightly wary.Good.I wanted to know exactly what she was playing at and keeping her off-balance seemed like the best way to find out.“So tell me, Dr.Smithson, what exactly do you do during one of your sessions?”
She glanced to her attorney and then back to me, her brown eyes wide behind the inky fringe of her lashes.Her lips parted but no sound came out and when I saw her hands go white-knuckled on the arms of her chair, it was over for me.I was done.
“Perhaps you’d rather simply show me?Take me through a typical new client session.If there’s nothing illicit going on and you have nothing to hide, why not just show me?”
“That’s enough, Counselor.”I knew Ms.Ellis was objecting, but her voice barely registered.
My entire focus—every atom in my body—shifted to Alexandra and the way she sat frozen in place like a rabbit in front of a wolf.I could be a wolf.Lord knows I’d been called much worse.
“If you are so sure you know enough about the BDSM lifestyle to take men’s money to train them to be Doms, then surely you have no reason not to show me—and the court,” I added, although in that moment I couldn’t have cared less about the case or my trumped-up client.All I cared about was getting Alexandra alone and putting her through her paces.Showing her just the edge of everything she didn’t know.“I’m sure I could get Judge Black to order you to follow through as a condition of the suit.”It was utter bullshit.Judge Black was no more likely to order Alexandra to take me through a session than he was to suggest we move the trial up a month and hold it in Tahiti.But my words worked.Behind the fear in Alexandra’s gaze was a thin sliver of challenge.I’d double-dog dared her and she didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who’d let a challenge go unanswered.
“That’s enough, Mr.Jensen,” said Ms.Ellis, leaning far enough forward in her chair to put her in my line of sight and interrupt my view of Alexandra worrying her bottom lip, her small white teeth dragging against the plump, pink flesh.
“I withdraw.”
“The question?Good,” said Ms.Ellis, so angry she was practically vibrating.
I didn’t blame her.My whole line of questioning had veered completely out of line.I didn’t care.I wanted to know—no, needed to know—what was going on in Alexandra’s pretty head.
“No, I withdraw from the case,” I said, not believing the words until I heard them from my own mouth.It would be tricky, but since I’d been the one pushing for the litigation, I shouldn’t have any trouble getting Judge Black to let me off the case.There’d be hell to pay with the other partners, but it was a chance I was more than willing to take.
IRODE THE ELEVATORTO the street level of Charlotte’s building, still shaking from the confrontation with Jensen.His hatred for me and my business felt much too personal.A feeling he’d only reinforced by withdrawing from the case.What was his deal, anyway?
