Unconditional (Masters and Mercenaries #5.5)(25)

“Are you serious?”

Keith nodded. He could give his friend that satisfaction. “I won’t touch another woman as long as our contract is in place. Look man, I care about her. I’m not a long-term guy, but she’s serious about exploring the lifestyle. Do you want her to do that with someone else? I’ve been nothing but honest with her. Everything was laid out in that contract. Taggart wrote it and he’s a tough son of a bitch. Trust me. Ashley has a D/s mom and dad. The Taggarts have been watching over her.”

Ryan took a long breath. “Yeah, well, her family is back. We’ll watch out for her now. I wish you hadn’t done this.”

Ryan’s objections hurt way more than he’d expected them to. “You seriously wanted someone else to mentor her?”

He shrugged a little. “I guess I didn’t want to lose a friend, and I can’t see this going any other way. When the chips are down, and they will be down, I have to choose her. I have to protect her because she won’t have anyone else. Take care, brother.”

Ryan walked out, and Keith felt something stir inside him he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Regret. Pain. He’d been happily numb for so damn long that it lanced through him.

“Don’t take that too bad, mate.” The big Brit with the scars came around the lockers. He was dressed for play, but there was a grim set to his eyes. “At least your friend was honest. Most aren’t. Everyone f*cks you in the end, you know. Better to figure that out before you get a bullet in your heart. You mind if I switch on the telly?”

He’d just lost his only real friend in the world. God, Ryan didn’t really know him. How could he call Ryan a friend when he’d never even told him he’d been married? Never mentioned John Michael. “Nah. Go right ahead.”

He went back to his preparations while the Brit started watching some soccer game.

Maybe the big guy was right. Friendship, love, companionship—all those things were an illusion. If no one ever really knew him, knew his secrets, knew who he was on the inside, would it be like he’d never existed at all when he was gone?

All he knew was he had a contract to honor. That was real.



“Did you get a plate number?” Karina asked. She was wearing a corset that barely contained her magnificent breasts and a thong that didn’t bother to cover her ass cheeks, but there was a deeply competent look on her face that told Ashley she’d done the right thing.

“Yes.” She reached in her bag and handed her the slip of paper she’d jotted the number on. “But it’s probably nothing, right?”

Karina’s perfectly plucked brows rose. “Dallas is a city with a population of one point two million. What do you think the odds are that you see the same SUV following you more than once in a week when you don’t live in the same neighborhood and he’s not a student at your school?”

Her heart sank a little. It was highly unlikely. “Okay. I’ll try to get a better look at him next time. I could only make out that he was male.”

“And Caucasian,” Karina said, giving her a supportive smile. “Hey, it’s more than I have to go on sometimes. The last time Tag asked me to find someone and I asked for a description, he told me to look for the biggest asswipe I could find. I chose not to point at him and ask for my check. I’m smart enough to know which tiger’s tail to tug. And don’t you dare try to get a better look at this guy until I know more.”

“What does Keith think?” Avery asked from her comfy chair.

Ashley sat down in the chair Serena normally occupied. She’d gotten close to the pregnant twins, as the others affectionately called Serena and Avery. They had lots of questions about childbirth and Ashley was happy to help. It would be so good to have other moms to talk to. “I haven’t told him.”

“That’s a mistake.” Avery whistled a little. “You know, the kind that gets you tied down and plugged.”

They hadn’t even talked about plugging, yet. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go there. “I don’t want to bring him into my problems. We talk a little outside the club, but we don’t meet or anything. I don’t want to push him.”

And she sure didn’t want him to think she was some kind of clingy ball of neediness. That would put a damper on the relationship real damn fast.

“Yeah, I don’t think you know how this works,” Avery replied. “Doms like to solve problems.”

But no man wanted that much responsibility. He’d offered to help her find the discipline she needed to reach her goals. That had been ironed out in their contract. This was something else. “I’m handling it. That’s why I went to Karina. Speaking of, do you need a check or something?”

She had a little money saved up. Not much.

Both Karina and Avery laughed.

“What?” Ashley asked, not quite getting the joke.

“Honey, she makes two hundred dollars an hour,” Avery explained.

Shit and balls. Ashley quickly calculated her bank account. “Could you solve my problem in three hours and fifteen minutes?”

Karina chuckled and put her notebook in her locker. “You get the friends and family discount. I can look into it for free and if there’s anything really going on, we’ll go to the police together. Not that they’ll do anything, but we’ll get the stalking on record so when I shoot the f*cker, I’ll have cause.”