Page 86 of His to Possess
“He wouldn’t do that,” I say, sounding more confident than I feel. “He would never be with someone like you.”
The girl lets out a peal of laughter. “Oh my god, you’re even more naive than I thought. You think I haven’t been with Master Matthews?” She points at Jane’s sub, who’s now watching us with wide eyes. “You think Kim hasn’t? Jesus Christ, he’s been with nearly every sub who’s ever set foot in Wyld.”
That’s not true,I want to shout. He hasn’t been with Rebecca, Harper, or Emma.
And how do you know that?A nasty voice in my head whispers.Because he told you so?
“It’s different now,” I whisper, hating how weak I sound.
She rolls her eyes. “He had Kim strung up on his St. Andrews cross not even three weeks ago.” She glares at the girl. “Didn’t he? I believe he used his whip on you. Or was it the paddle? There were definitely nipple clamps involved.” She turns back to me and gives me a wink. “He’s more of an ass man, but he does love a good session of tit torture.”
I want to cover my ears, want to block out her words. But I can’t help the images invading my brain. Philip punishing and fucking a long string of subs, one after another.I’ve seen Philip with a lot of girls,Harper had said. Never with the same sub twice. A Dom so well-known even the waitresses at clubs in other cities remember him by name.
You knew that about him going in,I remind myself. His past doesn’t mean he would invite this witch into the bedroom with us.
“Tell me,” she says, leaning in close enough for me to smell the hint of vile tequila on her breath. “How much of a virgin are you, exactly? Please tell me you at least have been sucking him off. Or maybe you prefer to let him in the back door?” She gives a dreamy little sigh that’s completely incongruous to everything else about her. “Master Matthews is the best at anal. That big cock of his. It hurts so good.” She grins. “He was my first there. You never really get over your first, do you, Kim?”
Kim is looking at me with so much sympathy in her expression I want to burst into tears. What if everything this bitch is saying is true? The two of them certainly seem to know Philip and his life here better than I do.
I try to call back the certainty of my decision before. I trust him. I do. He isn’t just trying to get into my pants—if that was the case, wouldn’t he have just done it at Rendezvous? Or sometime this week? He could have asked me to fulfill the contract at any point.
Unless he didn’t want to pay the money…
Stop it,I order myself.You know Philip.
“Who I am in this building is different from who I am outside of it,”he’d told me back at The Chambers in New York.“Places like this, places like Wyld, that’s where I can truly be myself, in all ways. Being with me means you have to accept that.”
Is this what he was talking about? Is Club Wyld Philip the kind of guy who would bring another woman in to finish the job in case taking my virginity fails to be satisfying?
Hadn’t Philip told me just today that Luke won Rebecca in a lottery? Hadn’t I seen men at the club in New York trading a sub as chips in their poker game? Maybe that’s just how it is—subs are nothing more than property and the Dom calls all the shots.
The rules here are certainly different from anything I’ve ever known, and my naïveté suddenly seems like a massive hindrance.
The one thing I do know? I need to get the hell out of this room. I need to talk to Philip and figure out what, exactly, he has planned for me tonight. And I need to never set eyes on this Heather bitch again. I push past her and head to the door.
“Wait,” Kim calls after me, sounding concerned. “We shouldn’t go out there before they come back to get us. My Domme said—”
“Fuck that,” I mutter as I push through the door. Fuck their rules. And fuck being a submissive if this is what it means. I’m not going to let anyone treat me like this—not even Philip Matthews.
He’s going to tell you she’s crazy,I tell myself as I rush down the hallway toward the steel door and the front lounge. He’ll be able to explain.
But will I believe him?
The lounge is still crowded when I get there, but I have no problem finding Philip. Jane stands out from everyone else in the room. They’re sitting at a table in a back corner, their heads bent close together while they talk. Philip’s back is to me so he doesn’t see me approach.
“Be discreet around her,” I hear him say. “I don’t want her to know about the investigation.”
I freeze in my tracks. What investigation? Is he talking about me?
“She’ll understand why you hired a PI when you’ve explained it,” Jane says dismissively. “And if she doesn’t, just spank her ass until she quits her bitching.”
He chuckles at her remark, and I feel a chill deep in my bones. This is how he talks about me to other people? This is what he finds amusing?
“Seriously, though,” he says, running a hand through his hair as he sighs. “She’s just starting to trust me.”
Jane gives him a wicked grin. “Does that mean you’re finally getting some ass tonight?”
“You know I don’t talk about my conquests, Jane,” he says and Jane throws her head back and laughs.
