the week, as long as she could submit to him and offer him her trust.
Bodie might be a train wreck for a Dom in her present state of mind, but the potential was there to guide her into becoming a strong, confident submissive if someone had the time, patience, and desire to throw himself in front of the train.
*
Something weird had just happened.
Boadicea couldn’t put her finger on it, couldn’t define it, but something had shifted inside her the moment she set her hand in Braun’s. She was shaken down to the core, rocked by the surge of unwelcome arousal that smacked her in the womb and caused a warm rush of slick to gather in her private parts.
She actually liked him.
No, she didn’t. Uh-uh. No, she did not like Braun or any part of what he was involved in. Master of perversions, King of sexual deviancy. She had an inkling of what would go on when Avalon opened its doors in a couple hours and visions of orgies danced in her head like a pornographic carousel.
But he was nice, wasn’t he? Even when she’d insulted him and tried to give the money back, he hadn’t lost his temper or raised his voice. Voice quiet and calm, he’d lulled her into a state of acceptance. Just like in his office. Her anxiety attack made her act like a child, stress showing itself in temper rather than tears, but he’d simply...ignored her.
By not feeding her attitude, he’d starved her of the fuel needed to keep the attack running. As though she was a candle in a jar, burning all the oxygen that drifted close, and he was the lid sliding into place to smother the flame of her distress.
Fuck.
Braun Fitzpatrick was a dangerous man, she realized. The way he acted around her, the good girls and careful touches...he posed a threat to her perfectly constructed fortress of protection. If he had a mind to, and she had no doubts a man with his dominant nature would, he could raze years of meticulous self-preservation defenses to the ground and simply stroll into the dark, shitty tempest of what she truly was inside.
It cannot be allowed.
A little unsteady on her feet, Bodie staggered down the hallway back toward the “social area”. She couldn’t afford to think about Braun anymore, not if she wanted to stay strong and in control. Not when there was a job to do, a performance to plan, and a testing night ahead of her.
Braun’s office was tucked just to the right of the doors leading to the next section of the club. There were no windows in the wooden tunnel, but the lighting was warm, ushering her along. The carpet beneath her feet was soft, springy, beneath her feet and the color of crushed blackberries. Not quite black, not quite purple, but an attractive mix of both.
By the time she made it back to the first barn, she was steadier. The quiet, confused woman who’d slipped into position and been blinded by Braun’s magnetism drifted away again, leaving the Bodie she knew and understood in her place.
Liam leaned on the bar, laughing with a strange man who looked like some kind of Nordic god. She considered them both warily, pausing in the doorway before she attracted their attention, and weighed up the newcomer.
At least two inches taller than Liam, lean and fit. Dressed in black leather pants and, oh joys, a black silk shirt with the Avalon logo in silver on the breast pocket. Okay then, the guy was a club monitor. His hair was cropped short and the whitest shade of blond she’d ever seen.
Liam, in all his handsome scruffiness, looked like a Viking warrior.
This guy was an ice king.
The light glinted off a stud in his ear, twinkling bright as a star as his head fell back on a low, rumbling laugh. Whatever they were talking about, it was hitting his humor button repeatedly.
Liam glanced at his watch, then at the door. Warmth spread over his face when he caught sight of her lurking. “There she is. I thought the boss might have stolen you away for good, Bo. Why don’t you come say hello to a good friend of mine?”
Glacier blue eyes winged across the open space to lock on hers, and she found herself taking a hasty step back from the power of them. She recognized the gleam in his gaze, and it was one that terrified her beyond measure.
This was a man who took