Page 187 of Bound By Her

For once, the girl seemed at a loss for words.

Good.

Loretta, ever perceptive, broke the tension. “Frances, why don’t you bring the girls to the car?”

Frances hesitated, a flicker of something in her eyes—something she wanted to say. But she swallowed it down, pasting her usual peppy smile back in place. “Of course.”

When the door shut behind her, Loretta exhaled, shaking her head. “Frances can be a little brash, but?—”

“It’s nothing,” Adria interrupted.

Loretta studied her.

“No judgment, Dri. We’ve all been there.”

Adria hated the way those words made her stomach twist.

She shook her head. “I’m not anywhere.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

A lie.

Herlie, heavy in the air.

Adria looked down at her lap, then, softly, barely above a whisper?—

“I don’t want to sell them.”

The words felt too raw in the quiet of the room. Too real.

Loretta sipped her tea, unmoved. But then, she lifted an eyebrow. “The right fit?”

Cole.

It had been a lifetime ago. He had been perfect on paper. The kind of submissive any Domme would kill for.

But these three?

They were a mess. Rebellious. Defiant. Trouble.

And yet?—

They fit.

So perfectly that it terrified her.

Loretta leaned forward, watching her carefully. “Are you in a position to keep them?”

Adria’s throat tightened. The question she didn’t want to answer.

She rubbed her face, sighing, “No.”

The weight of it crashing over her.

The Triune was watching. Waiting. Expecting to see them trained. If she bought them outright, if she tried to move them somewhere safe, they would know.

And then what?

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