Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(8)

“Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen her on Facebook.”

Grant let out a sigh. “Neither have I.”

They’d always been the Three Musketeers in high school, sharing a couple of classes and spending every spare moment together. Then college hit and they went their separate ways. Even though he and Grant remained close, they’d lost contact with her.

“She’s probably married with kids now,” Darryl mused.

“Probably.”

“Do you count mentally engaging in sexual fantasies as ‘fun’ this weekend?”

Grant let out a cute snort that always amused Darryl. “Man, I really spoiled you rotten with that, didn’t I?”

“Yeah.” He hugged Grant’s arm more tightly around him. “But in the good ways.”





Chapter Three


For once, Susan left work early on a Friday afternoon, at a little after four.

Okay, early for her.

She’d purchased the full three-day reunion pass. Meaning an informal poolside cocktail party Friday night, the “formal” dinner and party Saturday night, and a brunch Sunday morning at eleven.

If she was going to get drunk, it’d be tonight, at the Friday night poolside party where she expected many of her fellow classmates to get totally skunkfaced.

After the week she’d had, she desperately needed to get out of her head for a little while. Jack had stayed out of her way the last few days, shooting her dark glares when he thought she wasn’t looking, all the while bitching to anyone he thought might be on his side about his “new” car.

Every last gripe of which got reported back to her by delighted employees who were only too glad to see Jack get his comeuppance.

Why did I wait this long to do this to him?

Oh, yeah. I couldn’t deal with it before.

In the wake of John’s death, it’d been all she could do to force herself to get out of bed every morning. And even then, for the first several months, that only happened with a heavy assist from her new bestie, Xanax.

She’d eventually weaned down, and then off of the medication, only needing it on the occasions when she couldn’t sleep or burrowed too deeply into her head and wallowed inside her emotional pain.

Strength had slowly returned to her. Not just the emotional kind, but the physical. She could deal with Jack’s bullshit better now that she had the dealership running stronger than ever. She wouldn’t let him and his petty antics undo her hard work.

Now that she’d found the strength to hold off her ex-in-laws as well, she knew she could deal with Jackass.

After her shower she packed an overnight bag for the weekend. She knew she wouldn’t need much. Her laptop, iPad, phone, and chargers. Minimal makeup, because John had liked it when she used as little as possible, preferring a more natural look. A one-piece bathing suit and a sarong to wrap around her hips. A simple black dress and flats for Saturday night, and something for Sunday morning. A spare change of clothes—jeans and a tank top.

She still had plenty of room to spare. Into that bag would also go her leather cuffs and collar, once she took them off. This weekend, she’d need her bracelet, made out of niobium rod and which locked around her wrist with a special hex key. It’d been her “day collar” while not at work. At work, she had a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant on it that she still wore every day.

And her wedding rings, which she still wore on her left hand. She wore John’s wedding band on her right thumb, resized to fit her.

She put the bracelet on her right wrist. The bracelet gave her comfort, its solid weight reminding her of her husband’s love, the memory of the day he given it to her still fresh in her mind, when he’d locked it around her right wrist with a playful smile.

As she cupped her left hand around it, feeling its cool heft warming to her flesh, she fought back the prickle of tears.

Yes, she knew there were others who were into BDSM the way they’d been, but with what they did for a living, as visible as they were in the local community, she’d been more than reluctant to join any groups or go to the local BDSM club in Sarasota. John had relented on that point, not wanting to stress her out about it even though he’d wanted to meet and socialize with other kinky people. At first, she’d thought it was just something only they did, that she was weird for enjoying submitting to her husband in private.

In public, no one knew she was his slave. That was for them alone.

Recent books and movies had moved BDSM into the spotlight to the point that, when he’d died, she’d almost been ready to let him take her to a local munch.

Now…

The thought of finding someone else, despite people’s well-meaning platitudes that one day she’d meet someone special, nearly turned her stomach.

There was no one else. No one else she’d wanted. They’d been married sixteen years when John died. The thought of trying to replace him as her husband, much less as her Master, broke her heart all over again despite the fact that Ed had told her up front John had left another letter for him to give someone if she ever decided to get remarried.

After gathering a few more things, and laying out the outfit she’d wear tonight, she set everything by the front door, ready to go. Then she took off her cuffs and collar and placed them in the bag and zipped it up before donning her clothes. She walked over to the living room and knelt, conscious of the bracelet on her right hand.