“You’d do that?”
“Of course. If you’re interested in learning about kink, there’s no safer place than Braden Elliott’s club, a fact I will be all too happy to remind him of.”
“Thanks, Cordelia. Seriously. For everything.”
“You’re welcome.” Turning her head, she pressed a kiss to Ivy’s forehead. “Come on, blossom. We need to get our boy home and get you both to bed.”
A tap to Ivy’s hip had the other woman sitting up, blinking owlishly at her surroundings. “Oh. Aria. You’re back. Did I fall asleep?”
Cordelia laughed. “You did. Which is why we’re going home, so you and Jacob can get some rest.”
“And you,” Ivy said, her attempt at looking and sounding firm somewhat ruined by her wide yawn.
“I’m not the one who just got flogged and fucked to multiple orgasms in front of everyone, but yes. And me.”
Rising to her feet, Ivy stretched and offered up a lopsided smile. “Night, Aria. Hope you had fun, even if your uncles ruined it.”
“I did. See you guys tomorrow.”
They said their goodbyes and she was passed off to Ruby and Beckett, who insisted on not only driving her to the hotel but walking her to her room. With another round of goodbyes, she slipped inside, kicked off her shoes and fell face first onto the bed.
And before she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, the last face she saw was her Daddy’s, watching her with those hungry, emerald eyes.
Chapter Ten
Killian
The door to the room clicked shut behind her, leaving him alone with the mess they’d made and his equally messy thoughts.
She was his. That fact had settled into his bones, into his very soul with a certainty he couldn’t shake. No matter what came next, what mountain he had to climb to convince her to stay his, everything in his being was all but screaming the same single word over and over.
Mine.
But now that she was gone, his dark-haired, pale-eyed princess, another certainty crept in alongside the knowledge that she belonged to him. The unsettling certainty that he knew her.
From where, though? That was the question.
Because clearly she didn’t recognize him. Or if she had, she’d done a damn good job of hiding it. But the more he thought about her, the more he pictured those bright eyes shining with mischief, the more certain he was that he hadn’t just seen her around the club. He knew her, really knew her, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly how.
Pushing those uncomfortable thoughts to the back of his mind, he surveyed the room. They hadn’t left it too much of a mess since they’d only used the bed, but that would have to be remade and the sheets washed. And he’d need to pay Braden for the toys.
With that in mind, he pulled his phone from the pocket of his discarded pants and snapped pictures of each toy to send to Braden along with his payment later. And while he was at it, he sent a message to his driver, letting him know he’d be ready in fifteen.
It took him nearly that long to dress again, even without bothering with his tie, and he gathered the toys he planned to use on his princess again the first chance he got before heading out to the main lounge. He paused by the bar to drop off a couple hundreds for Tara, which would hopefully grant him some leniency for leaving their dirty glasses behind, and made his way toward the stairs.
Unlike earlier, the pit was silent. Everyone else must have left, which meant the security system would be engaged. A nuisance, but he’d figured out Braden’s code ages ago, as it was the same one he used for the tablet he kept hidden in his desk.
Being a man of… questionable morals often came in handy.
By the time he turned off and reset the alarm, locking the door behind him with the key he’d had made years ago on the off chance he might need it someday, his car was parked in front of the club, waiting. Grateful he wouldn’t need to stand out in the cold and wait, he slid into the backseat.
“Home.”
As was his way, Sean simply nodded and shifted the car into drive. The youngest son of a cousin of a cousin, he wasn’t really part of the ‘family business’, but Sean’s mother had approached Killian a few months back, asking him to look out for the boy as he’d apparently made some rather unsavory friends at school and his mother worried.
The irony hadn’t escaped him, nor had the weight of what was being asked of him.
Reagan was waiting up for him when Sean dropped Killian off at the front door of the ancestral home he shared with his sister. Still dressed in what he’d come to think of as her work uniform of carefully pressed dress slacks, a white button down, and leather suspenders, she glanced up from the book splayed out on her lap and raised a brow. “You look… happier.”
