cup and downed the last of its contents. “C’mon, I need more coffee for this.”
Viola followed her to the break area and watched silently as she poured. “You don’t look so good. Did he hurt you?” Her eyes narrowed, Shelby felt hers watering. She blinked a few times to hold off the tears. Yes, Mason had hurt her, but not physically. Threatening to end their association, telling her he was going to put her on display, and then kicking her out all because she’d called him by his name? Every bit of it bothered her. She didn’t know what she expected, though. He wasn’t her lover, not really. He was part of her job. She’d done this to herself. If she hadn’t gotten too close to him, none of this would matter.
It did.
“I was bound last night. No lasting marks.” On the outside. The inside was another matter, and one she wasn’t ready to address. She headed to the conference room, and Viola followed silently beside her. When they got in, they sat beside each other and greeted the others as they came into the room. Shelby tried returning Darrell’s smile, but it felt shaky. God, she wasn’t looking forward to rehashing what had happened with Mason in front of Darrell.
The man frowned at her, obviously noticing something was off, but she quickly looked toward the door as Rick walked in.
“Thanks for getting here on short notice. I have an update, but first Shelby has a status on her investigation. We’ll start with her.”
Shelby’s hands started sweating, and she looked down as she drew in a full breath, finding the strength to confess. When she looked up, all eyes were on her. She couldn’t drag this out. The sooner she said the words, the faster this would be over with.
She looked directly at her boss because it made her feel more detached. “During my scene last night, I had sexual intercourse with Showalter.” She didn’t say she’d had sex with him during the first scene. She didn’t want her ass chewed for keeping that a secret. The number of times it had happened wasn’t relevant to the case. Although, if it had any importance at all, she’d lay it all out there.
Nobody made a sound, and Shelby was too nervous to look at their expressions. Rick didn’t even flinch. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“Were you forced?” he asked as he rubbed his chin.
“No, sir. I was a willing participant. I could have used my safe word to stop, but I didn’t.”
“Were you able to get anything out of him last night?”
“Not much.” She swallowed, focusing her energy on the details and not the emotion involved. That was incredibly hard since sex on a normal day for her held a lot of emotion. Sex with Mason was off the charts in that department, in every department. But it was easier to stay detached if she relayed the specifics without the feelings. “He’d intended on me staying the night with him, but when I began asking questions, he ended our evening.”
Rick’s eyes darkened. “Were you made?”
“No,” she said quickly. He had no idea she was an agent. “It took him a while, but he did say he thought his boss was up to no good, and he’s stressed about it. I’m not sure if he would’ve said anymore last night because he’s very closed off. I think he was surprised he said that much to me and used an excuse to put up a wall.”
“What excuse?” Darrell asked, and Shelby wanted to groan at the sharpness of his tone.
She bit her lip and looked at him. “I called him by his first name.”
“What do you normally call him?” Carson asked, perplexed.
“He’s into BDSM,” Viola said, and Shelby was relieved she’d come to her rescue. “What do you think?” she asked sarcastically. Shelby looked at her, and she was glaring at Carson. Then she looked at Shelby and gave her a short nod of encouragement.
“I call him Master during a scene. He and the other Doms that own the club are called Master by all the subs who are members.”
Darrell mumbled something unintelligibly, and Shelby was smart enough not to ask him what he’d said. She was pretty sure she heard the words kill and motherfucker, though.
She swallowed before going on. “He’s rattled. At one point, he was ready to call it quits with my training. Besides his boss, he mentioned details we already know—where he’s from and his