joking. “It was years ago. I’m good. I made my choices and I walked away. All I’m trying to tell you is that you might never be normal again, but you find a new normal. You find a…what should I call it? Peace. I’m at peace.”
“What am I going to do?” Erin asked, her voice so quiet.
It didn’t matter. Kori could still hear her. “The best you can. It’s all you can do.”
It was all any of them could do in the end.
Ten minutes later, she promised Erin she would send her all the information on Dr. Melinda Bates, including her first appointment time. She gave Erin a hug and turned to go into Kai’s office. She wasn’t going to tell him what Erin had said, merely that Erin was going to the doctor and she had everything well in hand.
A vision of Kai smiling and telling her she deserved a treat for a well-done job floated across her brain. He would thrust his hands in her hair and force her to her knees. He would offer her a choice. The cane or the whip. She loved the way the man held a whip. Once he’d warmed her up, ensured she would feel those stripes he would leave on her ass for days, then he would lay her out on his desk and shove his face in her…
Damn it. She couldn’t think of him that way. She couldn’t. He was her boss, and he was a fucking gloriously beautiful sadist.
Not again. Never again. She wasn’t going back into that particular part of the D/s world. No more serious sadists for her. She’d promised herself.
So why was it getting harder and harder to not think about Kai? To watch him with other subs?
She hated the thought, but it might be time to move on. He was too tempting. Maybe she was hormonal or something. She couldn’t leave now. Erin needed her.
She was about to walk into Kai’s office when she saw the door was open. Kai was talking to someone.
Her heart nearly stopped as she recognized Jared Johns. Flipping Jared Johns was standing in Kai’s office. He was older than she remembered, but time had done nothing to dilute that man’s hotness. He was roughly six three and had the body of a tank that had been designed by Michelangelo. When she’d met him he’d been a kid starting out in the television world. He’d been working on some Canadian soap when she’d told Morgan he would be perfect for Dart.
She might have sworn off going back into that world, but apparently she couldn’t stop it from invading.
Kai looked up. “Hey, Kori. Come on in. I’d like you to meet my brother.”
Brother? Jared Johns was her boss’s brother? She turned and walked away as fast as she could.
CHAPTER TWO
“I was expecting Squirrel.” Kai moved back behind his desk, putting some much needed distance between himself and his brother. Kori was apparently still in the lounge with Erin or she might have announced that they had a guest. He kind of hoped she stayed there for a while. Maybe if she stayed in the ladies’ room long enough, he could avoid introducing her. “Actually, I was surprised to hear his name. Wasn’t he your friend in high school? He’s still hanging around?”
Jared looked good. It was obvious he took his training very seriously. There wasn’t an ounce of fat left on his baby brother. Kai had been through the military, but Jared looked like a warrior with his close-cropped sandy hair and rigid jawline. It was easy to see why he was considered by millions of women to be the hottest man on the planet.
“I’m still friends with most of the guys I hung out with in high school, but Squirrel travels with me. He helps out around the set and does some stuff my personal assistant can’t do.” He was wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, his shirt tucked in. Aviator sunglasses hung from the pocket of his T. Naturally it was V-neck. Wouldn’t want to hide skin when he could show it off. “Would you have been here if you’d known it was me coming?”
“Of course.” This wasn’t family therapy. It was business and baby brother needed to know that now. “I agreed to the terms of the contract. For the time it takes to produce this film, I’ll meet with you whenever you need.”
Jared shook his head, an entirely unamused chuckle coming out of his mouth. “Contract. You like