Owned by Fate (Serve #1)(21)

Furthermore, if his instincts proved correct, he’d want her again. Immediately. To guarantee she’d come back for more, he’d need to tap into needs Caroline wasn’t conscious of yet. Draw responses out of her she didn’t know were possible.

Tonight, he’d make Caroline Preston an addict.





Chapter Eight


Caroline squeezed her clutch bag in a death grip as she walked into Serve. Since it was Tuesday night, the crowd was smaller than the last time she’d been there but still considerable. Colognes and perfumes wafted through the air around her, mingling with the darkly sensual music pumping through the lounge area. Just like last time, she felt distinctly out of place, possibly more so now because she’d witnessed first-hand what went on upstairs. A group of male customers sent her interested glances, and she quickly looked away before one of them could ask to drip candle wax on her private parts. Or something.

If nothing else, they’d confirmed her outfit had been a decent choice. Never one to agonize over clothing, she’d nonetheless found herself trying on no less than five different outfits. While comfort and sensibility usually reigned as deciding factors, tonight she was merely dressing to get undressed. It called for a completely different stratagem. She hadn’t analyzed her underwear so thoroughly since Prom. In the end, she’d worn a strapless nude cocktail dress that was completely out of her comfort zone, but then again, what about tonight was in her comfort zone? A big, gelatinous blob of nothing, that’s what.

As she’d dressed for her preplanned one-night stand, Caroline had allowed herself to shed the pretense that Jonah must have placed her under some form of Dom hypnosis and it merely needed time to wear off. She needed to take control of this urge and stop letting it own her. So she’d thumbed her nose at comfort, shimmied on a thong, and gone braless. If this night was the final stop on the Jonah Express, she wouldn’t hold anything back. Walking out of Serve with anything less than resolve would be unacceptable. And along the way, nothing he said or did would convince her to accept this place or what happened here. Tomorrow morning, she would go back to Preston’s and continue her quest to save it the right way.

Caroline skirted past a man leaning against the bar in full latex attire. Then she saw Jonah. Sitting directly underneath a stainless-steel light fixture, his features were perfectly illuminated. The untouched drink in front of him occupied his attention, but the expression on his handsome face brought her to a halt. For just that split second, right before he looked up and caught sight of her, she glimpsed…pain. Loneliness. Her determination to keep herself emotionally removed tonight felt terribly selfish and wrong upon seeing it. Knowing the alternative was to open herself up, she almost turned and ran out of Serve like the worst kind of coward. But when Jonah looked up and smiled, pleasure chasing the sadness from his face, she walked forward as if compelled.

He said something to the bartender, then stood to pull back a stool for her. When she reached him, he slid an arm around her waist and brought her close. “Caroline,” he breathed in her ear. “I knew you’d come, but I didn’t think you’d show up dressed to make me beg.”

Heart hammering, she swallowed the knot in her throat. “I like to keep you on your toes.”

“Let’s see if I can return the favor.” Before she could decipher his intention, he tightened the arm around her waist and lifted her onto the seat. Everything south of her waist clenched at the unexpected action, his show of strength enticing her in a method as old as time. Part of her resented him turning her into a cliché, but the rest of her wondered how else he could employ that power. If she’d get a chance to experience it tonight.

The bartender set down a familiar-looking drink, garnished with a lollipop, on the bar. Almost recovered from Jonah’s unexpected maneuver, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t even think about it.”

He smiled devilishly. “A man can hope.”

Caroline sipped her drink, thinking of the research she’d done on him. “Is it true you won this place in a high-stakes poker game?”

“Doing research for your article?” Jonah’s mouth twitched as he leaned on the bar, his posture casual yet somehow authoritative. “Partly true. I won enough money to make an offer alongside an investor. I’ve since bought him out, making me the sole owner.”

“What hand did you win with?”

He looked amused by her question. “A straight.”

Caroline absorbed that with a reluctant smile. “I bet you find something funny about financing a BDSM club with a straight.”

Jonah laughed softly. “No one else has ever picked up on that.”

She sipped her drink with a flourish. “Impressed?”

“By you? Continually.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Do you always perform research when presented with something new?”

“Always.” Caroline gave him a long, meaningful look. “About everything.”

For a heated moment, Jonah scrutinized her. “And it appears you’ve come here tonight for some hands-on experience. Good to know, sweetheart.”

Before she could lose her nerve, her voice dropped to a whisper. “What do you want to do to me, Jonah?”

He set down his drink a little too hard. “You don’t waste any time, do you.” It was a statement, not a question, so she didn’t answer. Ever so slightly, she regretted steering them to this point so quickly, but she didn’t want to know more about him. Already, she’d let herself become fascinated, and it had to stop now. She didn’t want to see this night as anything other than a purely sexual encounter. If his expression served as any indication, he’d guessed her intention. “Are you asking me what I’d like to do or what I plan to do?”