“After such an intense experience, it’s important to care for your partner. Aftercare is the most important thing you can do for your sub after a session like this.” Dominic unhooked Lauren and sat down with her in his lap on a chair someone brought up for him. He held her and stroked her head and back. He made calming noises the same way he’d done with me after our last night together.
I felt like something inside me was being crushed. I sat there, unblinking, watching the man who’d just kissed my cheek and looked at me like I meant something to him as he did the same with another woman. In front of the whole club. And Leon and Theo forced me to watch. Leon had called Dominic my master.
My vision blurred and I stopped seeing Dominic and Lauren embracing on the stage. I saw nothing. White hot anger burned through my body and mind but still I sat perfectly calmly and counted the minutes until I could leave and never come back. I hated all three of them right then. I hated them for making me think they felt something for me and for making me feel something for them. I was nothing to them. I was a combinationof warm holes and a conquest. That was all. I was my mother, falling for any and every man who wanted to screw her.
I didn’t even notice when Theo left and Dominic took his spot at the table again. I only realized Dominic was back when he rested his hand on my thigh and it was his voice I heard whispering into my ear.
“It’s over. We can get back to our night now.” He lightly squeezed. “We can talk later about your outburst. I just want to enjoy the night with you.”
I looked down at his hand on my leg and thought of how that same hand had just been all over another woman. I didn’t know what he expected me to say. Did he think I needed to apologize for myoutburst? Was what he’d just done so normal for him thatmybehavior was what seemed outlandish to him?
I’d been so wrong about them. What I’d just watched him do was normal to them. And I really was just the nanny. The stupid nanny who’d assumed their interest meant something more than it did. They weren’t going to settle down with me and promote me from nanny to girlfriend. I was the help.
“Sutton?”
I slowly looked over at him and took a deep breath. “Yeah?”
Dominic frowned and leaned closer. I could smell the mint on his breath and wondered if he’d freshened his breath for Lauren. “Yes, Sir.”
I forced a smile and nodded. Sure. If he expected me to call him Sir and drop to my knees for him again, he was going to be an unhappy master of none.
“I’m going to throw up. I need the bathroom.”
I didn’t wait for his response. I stood and walked away, not stopping even when I was outside in the fresh air and cutting across to the house. Hot tears leaked down my cheeks and I let them fall. I didn’t want to cry over them. I wanted them to be just a job since I was just an employee. I stripped and threw theclothes in the trashcan in my bathroom before washing my face and dressing in my pajamas.
If there were still tears trickling out of my eyes when I crawled into bed that was just because of allergies or something. It had nothing to do with my chest feeling like someone had cracked it open.
CHAPTER 31
Theo
I went straight to my room and turned on my screens so I could see Sutton. Dom was heading to her room to try to explain his colossal fuck up but if he expected privacy for it, he was sorely mistaken. I was so angry with him that I wanted to knock his fucking teeth down his throat. If he didn’t fix things with her, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t knock his teeth out.
Sutton was in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She looked like she was lost in thought but as soon as she heard her doorknob turning, she rolled to her side and curled up like she did when she slept. When Dom let himself in and called her name she didn’t budge or make a sound. She was pretending to be asleep. Dom walked across the room and called her name a couple more times but when she continued to pretend to be asleep, I watched him rub his face and then leave.
The second the door shut Sutton was out of her bed. She crossed to the door and locked it before coming closer to the camera. I shot to my feet as her tear-streaked face was caught in perfect clarity for a moment before the feed cut. Just like that, I’d been cut off from her again. I was going to murder Dom.
I was still glaring at my reflection in the black screen when he let himself into my room. He didn’t seem to understand the danger facing him because he came right up to me and tapped my desk.
“Pull up the footage of her coming back here.”
I cut my eyes at him and scowled.
“You have a lot of fucking nerve.”
“Just—” He cut himself off and blew out a deep breath. “I know. Please, Theo. Pull it up.”
Knowing she’d been crying was bad enough but seeing it twisted something in my chest. I followed her through the cameras as she left the club and cut through the woods. The lookon her face was haunting as tears streaked down her cheeks. We watched her run up the stairs and close herself in her room. We watched as she changed into her pajamas and hid under the blanket. I could’ve saved him for seeing her ignore him but I didn’t. I let him see her face when she turned the camera off, too. He needed to see what he’d done.
“Fuck!” Turning, he paced away from me and then back again. “It’s my fucking job! The demonstration had been planned for weeks. It’s never been an issue to step in and lead things before.”
I knew Leon was coming before my door exploded open again. I also knew he was possibly even angrier than I was.
“Come on in, I guess.”
Leon grabbed the front of Dom’s shirt and got in his face.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
