Chapter Thirteen

The long, mossy drops descended from the large overhanging limbs of the oak trees and swayed in the soft breeze. Stella tucked her leg under her body as she half turned to face her grandmother who took up the other side of the park bench. She loved the new location of her grandmother’s town house. She’d recently moved to Savannah and into a new townhouse right across the street from an amazing park with breathtaking views. When Stella was little, she used to love to lay on the ground underneath these giant trees and watch them sway.

It always felt like home just taking in the scenery. She definitely didn’t get views like this in Washington.

Stella looked around the park taking in the sights until her grandmother turned blocking her view. Ms. Hattie Monroe, without a question, was still as gorgeous as ever nearly forty years after her prime. Her long blonde hair piled sloppily on top of her head gave her a younger, more attractive look than other women her age.

If Stella wore her hair like that, she would easily be mistaken as disheveled or a bedhead On Ms. Hattie, the look was nothing short of beautiful. For being well into her sixties, the woman seriously lacked wrinkles in her face and neck. Her grandmother’s beauty also reflected the beauty she held in her heart. It hadn’t surprised anyone that Hattie Monroe had won the coveted title of queen in the Miss Georgia pageants not once, but twice.

“Not that I’m complaining about a visit from my girl, but it’s so out of the blue from you, Stella. Are you sure there’s nothing going on, sweetie? How are things at the club? Are you having problems with the girls?” her grandma asked, catching her gaze.

The two of them hadn’t had a chance to talk after Stella flew in last night since she hadn’t landed until after midnight. Hattie, being a straightforward kind of woman, didn’t let anything get past her, and if she thought she could help with a problem, she wasn’t afraid to say so. Plus, she knew all about the club and still supported her granddaughter’s involvement. She was the one constant person in Stella’s life whom she could always rely on.

Stella shook her head turning her gaze out to the park setting in front of her. Even though it was late morning, people were already out enjoying the summer sunshine. By the time afternoon rolled around, the weather would be pushing into three digits of unbearable humid heat.

“Can’t a girl come home to visit her grandma?”

Hattie dazzled her with a gorgeous white smile. “Well, of course you can, sweetie. You know I’ll always keep a room for you wherever I go. It’s a surprise is all. You normally call first, and I thought maybe there might be something going on that you need your grandmother’s tried and true wisdom on?” Her thick southern account curled her words. Stella had missed this. She had missed her grandmother’s voice.

“The club’s doing fine. Better than fine. I have the money for my studio already and it’s only been a few years. We have people on waiting lists to get background checks and pre-screening done. It’s crazy, the number of people who want to be a member. There’s so many interested people, it makes me realize what I’m doing actually matters to people.”

“Of course it matters, sweetie. That’s why you girls started the club in the first place. You all knew how important it is for your members to have a safe place they could share their likes with others. And there isn’t a man in charge. That’s what’s so great about it. It’s just you girls.”

“It used to be just girls. We have a few males who work there now and have for about a year, and another one is starting his training in a few days. We would be hypocrites if we didn’t allow men in. After all, that’s why we started this to begin with? We wanted our female members feel as comfortable as our male members.”

Her grandma’s gaze roamed her face, looking for any signs Stella was trying to hide from her. The last thing she wanted was for her grandma to worry about her. If she knew there was any sort of real trouble going on, it would put too much unneeded stress on Hattie.

“Honey, there’s something bothering you, I can see it in your eyes. Tell me.”

She would have to tell her something. Hattie Monroe was entirely too smart to know when someone was covering something up.

“There’s a guy who…”

“I knew it.” She sounded almost happy as she interrupted. “Sorry. Go on sweetheart,” she said, sitting back as she made a motion across her lips as to say they were zipped closed.

“He’s a guy who came in little over a month ago and right from the beginning, I felt he would be different. He has an edge on him. Not one of those scary kinds, but like he doesn’t trust anyone or want anyone in his life. You know, one of those I’m better off alone, types? He joined the club on a trial basis, and things got intense between us kind of fast. I even left the grounds and went to his beach house with him a few weeks ago.”

She watched her grandma’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “This is pretty serious,” she said, scooting closer on the park bench.

“Not now. I mean, it could’ve been.” She paused as a woman walking her dog passed them. No one knew her in Georgia, but she still didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation. “It felt like a whirlwind when Mason came to the club.”

She continued to tell her grandma everything that had happened between the two of them while leaving out the intimate details as she retold her story. At least where Mason was concerned. She left out the part about the pictures and the letters. No need to drag that up when she had taken care of it.

“Oh, honey. You really like this guy, don’t you? And what happened between you two? Sounds like more than just a disagreement. Why not tell the guy you’re wrong and move on? It sounds like he could be good for you. You said yourself, you’ve never felt this way with someone before. Are you going to let a little argument wedge itself between the two of you like this?”

Stella turned away so her grandma couldn’t see the emotion over ruling her face.

“Every good relationship that’s worth fighting for has its ups and its downs. Those are the ones that are special. Too many young people these days just want to cut and run when things don’t go their way. A relationship is something you have to work on every day.”

A phone ringing broke through their conversation making Stella reached into her shorts pocket to pull her cell out. Her heart started pumping faster as she saw the name that appeared on her screen. “It’s him.”

Hattie smiled at her granddaughter. “Well? Answer the poor man. Maybe he might want to work things out.

“I doubt it.” Stella moved her finger over the screen

“Hello”

“It’s me. Please, don’t hang up.”

She didn’t think she could if she wanted to. “What do you want, Mason?”

“I was hoping we could talk. Maybe have some lunch and talk about things. We need to be on the same page with whoever this person is who’s trying to blackmail us.”

“I already took care of that little problem. He won’t be…”

“What do you mean you took care of it? What did you do, Stella?”

“I did what I had to do in order to get things to go away.” She stole a glance toward her grandmother who pretended like she wasn’t paying attention to the one-sided conversation.

“What does that mean? Where are you? I went by the club and the girls said you left for a while. Are you in Georgia with your grandmother?”

Knowing Hattie was hanging on every word, she turned on the bench facing away from her grandmother and lowed her voice so she could end her call in semi-private. “It doesn’t matter where I am. We said what we needed to say last week. You’re right, this between us isn’t going to work anymore. I’m sorry, Mason. I’ll call you when I get back.”

“Damn it, Stella, we need to talk about this…” She pressed the off button before he had a chance to say anything else. She knew in her heart if she stayed on the phone with him any longer she was bound to listen and fall for whatever he told her. He had the ability to seep into her mind, and she couldn’t afford to let that happen again. She needed time to get over him, but she had her mind set on doing just that. Turning her phone on silent, she slid it back into her pocket before turning back toward Hattie.

“I take it that was him?”

She nodded. No point in lying when she heard their conversation. “If it’s all right with you, I would rather not talk about it. I came here to enjoy my time with you and to clear my head. Please, let me have a little bit of peace before I have to return to the headache I’m sure will be waiting for me when I get home.”

Hattie slid over the wooden seat and wrapped an arm around her granddaughter’s shoulders, giving her a tight squeeze. “Sure, sweetie. We won’t talk about your men troubles, and I’ll let you relax so you come to your senses.”

Stella didn’t try to hide the roll of her eyes as a response. Her grandmother laughed and gave her another squeeze of the shoulders. “Since you don’t want to talk about your love life…do you want to hear about mine?”

She tried hard not to, but Stella couldn’t help cracking a smile.

****

After hours of traveling, Mason sat inside his rental car outside Stella’s grandmother’s house. After Stella hung up on him yesterday, it took him another few hours of sweet talking Angel and Piper before he got Hattie’s address. He knew she lived in Georgia but to find out what city, he had to use some serious sweet talking skills he had learned over the years of kissing his client’s ass.

It might seem crazy to jump on a plane and fly across the country for someone who didn’t want to talk to him, but he had to give it a try. He needed to know things weren’t as bad between them as he feared they were. They also needed to talk about what they were going to do about the pictures of them that surfaced.

He waited just over an hour before he watched a light on the inside of the Savannah townhouse turn on. His watch showed a little after eleven by the time they returned to the house through the back door. Mason checked his reflection in the rearview mirror before exiting the car. He looked disheveled from traveling and would’ve loved to have freshened up and change before seeing her, but he had let this go on too long. There were some dirty words that had been spoken between them that needed to be cleared up.

Making his way up the brick steps, he paused for a minute before pressing the doorbell. The front half of the darkened windows lit up. More lights were turned on throughout the house the closer they came to the front.

The wooden door crept open, and Mason lost all the air filling his lungs. Stella stood there peering out around the wooded panels looking simply beautiful.

“Mason? What are you doing here?” He could hear the surprise in her voice as she opened the door wider for him. He couldn’t tell if she displayed happiness to see him or pissed off and annoyed he followed her.

“I told you we needed to talk, but you hung up on me. What was I supposed to do? And don’t you dare say wait for you to call me back because we both know you were never going to do it. Not any time soon anyway.”

“So you got on a plane and flew all the way down here because I hung up on you?” She made him sound crazier than he felt.

“What else am I supposed to do? You show me these pictures someone dropped on you, I read this note that sounds to me like this guy…or person is out for you and then you just leave. We need to talk about this. You could be in some serious danger.”

“I told you, I took care of it…”

“Stella, honey, who’s at my front door?” A voice asked behind Stella. She turned to look at someone and before she had a chance to shut the door in his face, the sweet southern woman, pulled it wider allowing herself to step into view. If this was Stella’s grandmother, Stella had nothing to worry about when it came to growing older. The older lady was gorgeous. Stella had once said her grandma was in her sixties but this lady standing in front of him looked nothing like a day over fifty.

“Sweetie? Who’s your gentlemen friend?” her grandma asked pouring on the thick, charming account.

He chose not to wait and see how she would introduce him and took things into his own hands. “I’m Mason. I’m a friend of…”

She cut him off. “Ah, yes. I know who you are. My granddaughter has told me all about you. Stella, don’t be rude. Show our friend here to the kitchen. We just got in from seeing a late movie, so don’t worry yourself about the hour. It’s nice of you to drop by on us. Come on in.”

He stepped into the house as Stella’s gaze burned into his. She closed the door behind him, and he followed the two of them through the house to the open kitchen in the back.

“Have a seat right there. I’ll get the coffee.” Stella’s grandmother pointed to a chair at the table. “I don’t want to be in your way here, ma’am. I just came here because I need to talk to your granddaughter, who seems to have forgotten how to answer her phone.”

“Call me, Hattie. And if you came here to talk to my Stella, then talk.” She opened a cupboard to pull out a package of store bought cookies.

Placing the package on the table, she turned and grabbed the full coffee pot as Stella placed three mugs on the table between them. Were they serous about sitting down, the three of them and talk their relationship out?

He would have to figure out a way of getting around this without hurting Hattie’s feeling because he wasn’t discussing their relationship in front of her. Hattie poured each of them a cup of coffee and scooted the package cookies in front of him.

“Go ahead and help yourself.” She smiled at him. He didn’t want to be rude so he reached for a cream-filled cookie. Hattie placed her hand on his arm bringing his gaze to hers.

“Won’t you excuse me for a moment? We just got back home before you arrived and I need to go check on a few things.” She turned toward Stella and he watched a silent exchange happen between them before she left the room, leaving the two of them in the kitchen alone.

His gaze snapped to Stella’s where she stood near the sink with her back pressed against the counter. She brought her coffee cup to her lips, hiding behind the mug.

“Sorry about her. She’s a southern lady who thinks food is the answer to everything,” she said, motioning to the cookies in front of him.

He grinned. “She seems nice.” He glanced down the hallway where the older lady had disappeared to.

“She’s not coming back in here if that’s what you’re worried about. She’s been itching for me to talk out my problems and with you showing up, you’re the topping on the cake for her.”

His gaze dropped to the steaming coffee in the cup he held wrapped in his hands. “I tried calling, but you refused to answer. I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for how I acted that day in your office. I jumped to the wrong conclusions, and I’m sorry. You were trying to warn me and work with me, not against me. I know that now and after thinking it over, I appreciate that you came to me.”

Glancing back up to her, he watched her quickly look away. What more could he say to her?

She waved a hand in the air between them. “It’s over with. You’re no longer involved, so it’s not your fight any more.”

Jerking his head up, he looked at her surprised. “What do you mean, I’m no longer involved?”

“With the pictures. I haven’t been able to find out who it is behind them but whoever it is, sent another letter saying they would keep your name out of it from now on. So you don’t have to worry about your privacy leaking out to the public.”

“What are you talking about? Why would they do that?”

“I’m not sure, but for now I have to believe him.” She moved to the table to sit in the empty seat next to him.

He almost smiled at how naïve she sounded. For being a tough, leather-wearing Domme, she acted kind of innocent. “Sorry, sweetheart, but you’re crazy if you think talking to this guy will actually matter. Psychopaths don’t always do as they say they are going to.”

“Maybe not, but I have to try something.”

Mason felt like an asshole for abandoning her last week and making her feel like she had to handle all this crap on her own. If he would have believed her a week ago when she tried to explain it all to him and tell him she wasn’t behind the pictures, he wouldn’t be sitting here across from her feeling like an asshole. He reached his hand slowly across the surface of the table hoping when he grazed her skin with his she wouldn’t pull away.

His fingers moved over the edge of her wrist pulling her hand away from her cup of coffee and toward the middle of the table to meet his halfway.

“I want to tell you how sorry I am for what I did and said the last time we spoke. It was a dick move on my part, and I’m sorry. I just…have these unfamiliar emotions going on inside me from the fight we had at the beach house. I didn’t handle the news of the pictures well.”

Her head tilted with a little bratty boldness to one side. “You think?”

“Stella, why are you here? Why did you come all the way out here? Are you running from scandal and this person or are you running from me?”

“You made it pretty clear you didn’t want to have any part of this. I wasn’t running from you. I’m trying to fix something before it breaks for good, and I’m getting a visit with my grandma in at the same time.”

“The girls at the club are under the impression you won’t be back for a while.”

She pulled her hand back to her side of the table. He didn’t like her pulling away from him. An unfamiliar tug pulled in his chest and the sensation didn’t sit well in his mind.

“I’ve decided to take a little break from the club for a while. Spend some time with the only family I have left. That club isn’t who I am anymore.”

Even if she didn’t feel it any longer, being a Domme was exactly who she was.

“Are you kidding me? You’re the heart of that place and it had been your life. You’re a Dominant. Tell me you don’t need that structure in your life because I know you do.”

“How do you know that? You barely know me as a person. Me taking some time away from the club has nothing to do with you.”

She pulled farther away from him, building walls around herself in order to keep him out. He recognized the actions from those he had done to people his whole life. Shut down and shut them out before they got too close. She was doing a damn good job attempting to keep him at arm’s length.

“Maybe not, but it sure as hell is because of me. You would never have come back here if I hadn’t pulled away from you and acted like a jerk. Admit it.”

Her gaze snapped up to his. “Are you gloating about being a douche? Trust me, that’s not something to be proud about.”

“I’m not gloating. What I’m saying is, I fucked up in my reactions. I know that. But I’m here now, and I want to help you figure this out, together.”

“I told you, I already took…”

“…care of it? You said that. Do you really think that someone who’s willing to go as far as to blackmail one or both of us is willing to just go away quickly just because you asked them to?”

“I didn’t just ask him to. We made a deal.”

Mason could feel the blood running out of his face, leaving a chill to settle over him. “What are you talking about? What kind of deal?”

He watched her sit up a little straighter and stiffened her back as if she were bracing herself for the outcome.

“He told me if I wanted to keep you out of this, then I needed to…”

“…needed to do what, Stella?” he asked, cutting her off.

Her gaze held his. “I left. He said if I was willing to leave the club, he would get rid of any of the pictures that showed your face.”

“And you believed him?”

Her gaze dropped from his and she peered down into her coffee cup. “No. I don’t believe him. But what else could I do. I thought if I left for a few weeks, it would give me a chance to think what to do next. I haven’t heard from him. Maybe it’s a sign he’s going to hold onto his word.”

“Like the gentleman he is?”

Anger beamed behind her eyes when she looked back to him. “What am I supposed to do, Mason? I’m doing what I feel is the best for both of us. It’s my club so it’s my responsibility to keep my clients safe and to keep their identities out of the public eye. I’ve never had to deal with a stalker before, so I’m sorry if it feels like I’m winging it, but I am.”

The truth didn’t make him feel any better either, but he liked that she was finally letting him in on the facts. He tried to soften his features. “I know this is got to be hard for you. After I allowed myself some time to think things through, I realized I was being completely unfair to you. I’m not the only one who got invaded, it’s your privacy too. I want to help get whoever is behind this. I don’t care if pictures of me surface in the public eye or not.”

Did he not care if his clients or his boss saw pictures of him? Giving the question some thought, he realized that others seeing pictures of him with Stella somehow no longer bothered him. His focus needed to shift to finding out who this person was making Stella so miserable she no longer felt secure in her business and her home.

“We need to find out who’s behind this. Do you have any guesses at all on who it could be?”

“After you left my office last week, I had the guys pull all the security camera angles and we found there’s no way someone could’ve been in some of those places to take pictures. The angles are exactly as the cameras are. Meaning they didn’t take them, more like they stole them. We think he or they, tapped into our security feed and watched the cameras until they got the shots they wanted.”

“That explains the pictures in the parking lot but it doesn’t explain the pictures that were taken of us on the beach.”

“Do you think whoever is behind this, followed us to the beach just to get the shots they did?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I think it’s safe to say this person is obsessed with you. Blackmail isn’t this guy’s only intention. I think I’m just a threat standing in the way at this point.”

“You think this is all about me?”

“I think whoever is behind this, wants dirt on you or wants something they can hold over your head to try and control you.”

Her nose wrinkled and her brows creased.

“Think about it? Why did they contact you and not me? If they were in this to get money, then why not contact me? I have more money and access to millions more, thanks to my line of work.”

“You think it’s someone I know? Someone from the club?”

He took a drink from his coffee before answering her. “I believe it would have to be, don’t you? It has to be someone who has access inside the club and knows where the security cameras are. Maybe it’s someone you canceled a contract with. Or maybe someone who wanted to be a full member but you denied. Does any of that sound familiar?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t had clients in a while. Other than you, I didn’t have other subs.”

He tried to hide his content shock. “You didn’t have any other submissives? You weren’t working with anyone else? At all?”

“I told you before, I wasn’t. Oh, let me guess. You thought I was lying about that too?”

He dropped his gaze away from hers because that was exactly what he thought. “I thought you were just telling me that to ease my mind.”

She leaned her body away from the table as if she were undecided about jumping to her feet. “Did you think I was lying when I told you I wasn’t sleeping with anyone else too?”

Shit. This conversation wasn’t heading in a direction he wanted it to go.

“If I’m going to be completely honest, then I have to say, yes. I thought you were lying, but only at first.”

“Oh, that makes me feel a whole lot better.”

The sarcasm in her voice wasn’t welcome but he would let her have this one. By admitting that he hadn’t believed her had hurt her feelings. She wore a hard-shell exterior most of the time, but still human on the inside. Softening his voice, he chose to be more sensitive toward her feelings.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I’m a man who’s been lied to a lot in my life. I guess I used to believe all people were the same, and no matter how much you didn’t want them to, they would stab you in the back at the first chance if it benefited them. I’m sorry I put you in that category. You, of all people, have been the best to me, and I still treated you like shit.”

Her gaze lifted to his, and he saw a softness of her own.

“Why didn’t you have other subs?” The question burned him like acid. The desire to know the truth ate at him.

She shrugged her shoulders as if the answer didn’t matter, but it did. “I wanted out of the active play. I still love the lifestyle and everything it stands for. But I feel ready to leave public playing. I helped my submissives find other Doms months ago.”

Surprised to hear that she wanted out he asked, “If you were looking to get out, then why take me on as a submissive when you didn’t have to. I mean, it’s not like you up charged me a ridiculous price or something. Why did you take me on as a client if you were ready to let the others go?”

Her gaze dropped to the table like as if searching for an answer she expected to be there. Slowly, she brought her caramel gaze back to his and answered. “I took you on because you needed me. I know you don’t agree with that, but you do. I’ve seen plenty of men walk through those doors who were in your shoes. Works hard and plays less, takes no time for themselves. There was something different about you that made me want to help you. It’s what pulls me to you. I know it sounds like a made-up line but it’s the truth. I wanted to help you. My inner Dominant came alive with you.”

His throat tightened as her words swirled around in his head, making him dizzy with thoughts. He reached for his coffee again just to have something to hold onto. Was this her way of admitting she had feelings for him? His face felt feverish and his heart thudded quickly in his chest. She wanted this kept as business like as possible. He didn’t want to scare her away.

“Then let me return the favor. Besides the fact that this asshole is blackmailing you, I don’t like the fact this dick has pictures of you either. What kind of stalker freak are we working with here?”

He more than didn’t like it. It downright made him want to rip the fucker’s head off. What other pictures did this guy have of her? Fuck, what did he have on him? At this point, he could give a rat’s ass. Stella was the one he worried about. Her words from moments ago sliced back into his memory. “You said you took care of this guy? Besides you leaving, what exactly does that mean?”

“He gave me back all the pictures he had. I know in this day and age that doesn’t matter but it’s not the pictures that were bothering me. It’s the fact that he hacked into our cameras putting all our clients at risk for exposer. The club can’t afford to lose all their members because this guy as a hard on for me.”

“You’ve been talking to him? How did you get the pictures back? Were the pictures part of the deal with you leaving?”

She nodded. “He sent them to me in the mail. He had agreed to keep you out of this.”

“I don’t for one-minute think he’s going to forget about this and just quit. There’s something he wants from you, and he’s not going to give up until he gets it.”

“Like what? I don’t have anything left. I gave the guy everything I had. There’s nothing left.” Her voice grew louder as she threw her hands in the air.

“What are you talking about? What did you give him?”

Moisture started to build in her eyes and she looked away from him. “Money. I gave him everything I had to give to buy those pictures back from him.”

He watched her use the back of her hand to wipe away any wetness that appeared on her cheeks. His anger ready to boil over to rage. This bastard took advantage of Stella and that just pissed him off even more. The fact that she gave him any of her money pissed him off. “How much are we talking?”

“All I had. Over a hundred thousand.”

Mason stared at her as he tried to pick his jaw up from the floor. Astounded at the amount she handed over to keep his face out of the public. It took a minute before he could speak. “You gave him all of the money for your studio?”

Her head bobbed up and down as a sob rolled through her. She jumped from the table moving to the sink with her back to him. Slipping from the chair, he moved silently behind her not sure what he intended to do once he was there. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to sooth her and kiss her until she forgot all about her problems and the pain this asswipe had given her.

One hand moved to her shoulder while the other to her waist. “You gave up your studio to buy this man off?”

“That’s the thing.” Her voice sounded shaky as she continued. “I gave up the money but for what? Like you said yourself there’s nothing saying he won’t come back in a month, a week, or a year wanting more. What do I do then? Keep buying him off? It’s going to take me another three to four years to get that much money built back up.”

It wasn’t going to take that long because he was going to make sure she got every penny of her money back. But she was right, they had to do something to stop this guy one way or another.

They were going to catch this guy if he had to drag her back to Sublime and go through every single client of hers until they came up with something. He turned her body until she faced him. Placing a hand under her chin, he tilted her face up to look at him.

“I have an idea. I’m going to get your money back to you. Better than that, we’re going to find out who this is once and for all. It has to be someone from the club. Someone who wants you all to themselves or is obsessed with you. We’re going back to the club and comb through any and all records until we get a lead on this.”

Her watery eyes met his and after a minute she finally offered him a soft smile. “You’re willing to help me do that?”

It stung his pride to hear her surprise about his willingness to help her. Leaning closer, he brought his lips to hers and half expected her to pull away but within seconds of their lips meeting, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss. The feel of her body pressing against his made his cock jerk in response.

Pulling away to stare into her eyes, he saw her staring up at him. “Thank you for helping me. I don’t have anyone else who would do something like this for me. Hattie and the girls would, but I would rather my grandmother not know what’s going on. I don’t want her to worry. And the girls have enough on their plates running the members and the club.”

“I don’t want that either. We’ll take a flight back home in the morning. We will find who’s behind this. I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to run away again.”