From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(6)

But at least he could pay Kori well now. She deserved it. He wouldn’t be here without her.

“Look, I know the woman has resting bitch face, and trust me I’ve seen her active bitch face as well,” Kori shot back. “That was not anger. She was afraid.”

He would love to talk to her about it, but there was the little problem of patient therapist confidentiality. He took it seriously. “I can’t talk about it.”

Kori’s eyes went wide. “Shit. You told her about the baby, didn’t you? Damn it. I knew she didn’t know. What is wrong with you?”

“Hey, that is supposed to be confidential information.”

Those pretty blue eyes rolled in a way that made him ache to spank her round ass. “Nothing is confidential around here. Not about the club crew. The subs have been talking about it for the last couple of weeks. We overheard Eve talking to Charlotte about the fact that Erin’s been throwing up every day around ten. She tries to hide it, but that sound is distinctive. Also, she was complaining in the locker room the other day that her boobs were sore. She said she thought her period was coming, but with the throwing up and stuff it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that girl is four kinds of knocked up.”

“How can she not know she’s pregnant?” He was going to have to have a long talk with Big Tag and his wife, Charlotte, about the club submissives running amuck. They’d recently brought in a new training class and apparently they were being taught to gossip.

Kori stepped back, glancing out the door. “I’m sure she does know on some level, but there’s no question she’s in denial. Did you treat her like she’s a delicate flower who might wilt at the news?”

“I treated her like a woman who recently lost her lover.”

She shook her head. “That’s where you went wrong, boss. I’ll go talk to her. She headed straight for the bathroom. You have a four o’clock with someone named Squirrel. Are we taking in the furries now?”

That made him groan. His brother’s best friend from high school was now a member of his entourage. The fact that the kid was at least thirty and still called himself Squirrel did not bode well. “He’s one of the guys from the film crew. I had to promise to show him around Sanctum.”

“Film crew?” Her eyes widened.

Had he not told her? It had only been a few days since Alex had explained what the FBI needed from him, but that was going to have to wait. He had other problems. “Can you go and see if you can coax her back in here? I would go myself, but…”

“You’re scared of the women’s bathroom,” Kori surmised. “You know it’s actually very nice in there. I made sure of it. The guys’ bathroom is a pit of despair.”

“It’s clean.” He wasn’t sure why women needed the place where they answered nature’s call to be some soothing spa, but Kori had insisted on it. “It’s got a toilet and a place to pee and a place to wash your hands. It doesn’t need anything else.”

“Then why do all the guys who know about it use mine?” She’d insisted on a budget to redo the ladies’ lounge, as she called it. Kori shook her head and strode out. “Hey, McKay. Boss, Alex is here.”

It seemed to be his day for f*cking up. Damn it. He hoped Kori knew what she was doing with Erin because another problem strode into his office with the confidence of a man who knew his place in the world.

“Have you ever been in the ladies’? That is one tricked out bathroom.” Alex glanced back. “I saw Erin running for it as I came in. Is everything all right?”

Kai sighed and slid his glasses on before moving back to his desk. McKay wasn’t here for a therapy session. Kai would be the one who needed the couch if anything. No. He needed the sturdy feel of his desk under his hands to get through this conversation. And the beer he’d bought and put in the fridge upstairs to get through the next few weeks. “Apparently she didn’t know she was pregnant. I can’t say she believes it.”

Alex nodded as though his suspicions had been confirmed. “Eve was worried about that.”

Kai didn’t understand. “If I had lady bits I would track that shit. I would know the minute I missed a visit from Mother Nature.”

Alex grinned as he sank his big body into the chair opposite Kai’s desk. “I can imagine. But then Erin’s not likely to live the life of a manwhore.”

“Yeah, I’m living it up,” Kai complained. “Don’t take every rumor you hear as truth, Alex. I haven’t actually had a girlfriend since I came to Dallas and I’ll be honest, sleeping with my play partners has gotten boring.”

He wanted something more. He wanted the connection that came when a Dom and a sub truly fit together, when their needs dovetailed and they could give to each other.

“I thought you were humping Kori’s sister.”

Not for all the money in the world. Shawna was a hot mess with a tendency to addiction and a severe narcissistic bent. How they were even siblings he had no idea. “She’s a patient. I don’t f*ck patients.”

Or employees. Even when he really, really wanted to. He had to wonder if Kori wasn’t the real reason he’d lost interest in Sanctum’s pretty subs.

The ones who weren’t scared of him anyway. He was known for being a bit more hardcore in his play than the other Doms. Hell, some of the subs called him Dexter—the undercover sadist.