Chapter 23

Gage

Because Leah won’t be returning to my apartment, I remain in my office at the club. I enjoy the thought that she’ll be in the spare room tonight. Or if I’m lucky, she may visit my bed again.

Either way, my apartment won’t be empty.

A cowardly part of me knows that this is too risky. I shouldn’t have invited her to stay. I’m not ready and I never will be. I want to pursue a relationship? It’s as if my mouth was speaking those words before the rest of me had fully green-lighted the script.

If my life were Academy of Ghosts , I would be searching for a truth serum or some other magical reasoning behind my behavior.

I lean back at my desk. The photograph that reminds me of Leah is directly in front of me, mocking.

Perhaps I should pay for a hotel for the girl and set her free. She’s fifteen years my junior. It would be wrong to saddle her with my particularities and issues.

No. This is getting out of hand. I’m turning into Dmitri. In the end, he is too much of a coward to go after Leah. I can see it when he looks at her. The dynamic was present at the auction and beyond. He masks his reluctance beneath “loyalty” and tries to tell himself he’s protecting her. From what is he trying to protect her, though? He must have seen how readily she adapted to the submissive role she took on.

Disgusted with myself, I stand up and leave my office. I’ll find Betty and chat about business, the weather, her nephews, anything.

When I find her, she’s wiping down the counter and keeping an eye on a group of men surrounding a single woman.

“Trouble?” I lean against the bar, facing the club instead of Betty.

“I don’t think so.” Her voice is cautious. “I’m not entirely sure, though. Dmitri would have their dynamic figured out in a flash.”

“He’s off tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Did that woman arrive with those men?” I ask.

“No, but she approached them, not the other way around.”

“Ah.” It looked like they had her cornered, but perhaps the situation is very different from what it appears. I study their body language until I’m satisfied nobody is in danger or trapped in an uncomfortable situation.

“You figured it out, didn’t you?” Betty asks.

“I believe she’s an eager, new submissive. She went over there looking for one Dominant partner tonight, but all four of them are interested.”

“Juicy.” Betty chuckles.

From there, the two of us make light small talk. I think she realizes that I’m seeking distraction. Or she’s simply eager for someone to listen, uninterrupted, to the latest hijinks her twin teenaged nephews have gotten into. The current story involves a homemade catapult and a hundred dollars’ worth of cherry slushies.

“All right, Gage, how about you tell me what’s bothering you?” She drops her towel on the counter and levers herself up with her arms, projecting height.

“Nothing’s bothering me.”

“Something is. You never willingly listen to a story about my nephews, not for that long. And here you are grasping at every detail. So what is it?”

“I’m…not entirely sure. But I appreciated the story.”

She frowns, but she doesn’t press me for more information. I appreciate that about her.

I straighten up. “I guess I’ll head back to my office, look over Margot’s proposal for a new club.”

“Do you have early thoughts on her proposal?”

I lift one shoulder in a shrug. “It could be a good development, and the potential for profit is high based on Vice’s success. Location will be everything.”

“It always is.”

As I step away, one of the four Doms approaches Betty to request use of a play room for five people. Looks like that little sub is going to get more than she bargained for. I would be worried, but I know two of these men. They’ll make sure she’s treated properly.

I continue to my office. My phone vibrates with a text from Claudia. I frown as I look at the message. She knows I prefer phone calls.

But this message is three letters: WTF , followed by a link. I notice Javi’s name in the link’s text.

If she has sent me more drama about Nic and Javi, I don’t know what I’ll do.

No, Claudia knows better. I tap the link and it brings me to a news article.

Javier Nori Killed in Hit-and-Run Accident .

I pause, one hand on the doorknob of my office, the other clenching my phone.

Javi…dead?

Leah

When Danica’s house comes into view, I’m tempted to slam my foot on the accelerator and drive straight on past.

Dmitri’s Mustang is parked at the curb.

Yeah, no, that’s not what I signed up for tonight.

He showed up yesterday. With Gage, and the bodyguard guys. They saved me. I’m grateful, no denying it. And a little turned on when I think about how easily Dmitri tossed Randy Wentz’s guys aside.

But things aren’t good between us. If we want any hope of things being good, we need to have a long conversation.

That conversation cannot happen in front of Danica, because she’d lose her mind if she learned I slept with her brother.

She would also lose her mind if I were to flake out on movie night.

I guess I’ll have to put on a polite smile and spend the evening pretending everything’s great.

Sighing, I pull up to the curb and park behind Dmitri’s car. I gather the snacks I bought on the way from my last tutoring session and head to the front door. Each of my steps is more reluctant than the last.

Danica opens the door and throws her arms around me. “Finally! Are you ready to party?”

“Um…yes?”

“One hundred points for your enthusiasm and an extra hundred for your certainty.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Everything okay? Why all the make-up?”

“Everything’s great. I was just messing around with some new kits. Hey, check it out.” I open the bag of snacks. The bright array should distract her from asking about my overly made-up face. I have on a shit-ton of concealer to hide the bruises from yesterday. “What’s Dmitri doing here?”

“It’s been a while since I saw him, and since you were watching AoG together, I thought he should come as well. Is that a problem? Did living together for two weeks make you hate him? God knows I hated him when we were kids.”

“No, it’s cool,” I say. “I was expecting girls night, that’s all.”

She snorts. “He’s practically one of us.”

A faint alarm beeps behind her. She jumps. “Oh! The brownies. Come in. Dmitri! Leah’s here!”

I follow her into the house. I could’ve been living in this house. Staying here would have prevented quite a few issues. What would’ve happened with me and Dmitri if that one night at the auction had been the only time we were intimate? We probably would’ve gotten past it.

But then we had to go and get freaky on his couch.

Well, no more of that.

Danica ushers me into the living room before hurrying to the kitchen.

While Danica gets the brownies out of the oven, Dmitri turns to me. Lowering his voice, he says, “You haven’t told her about what happened yesterday. When I said something, she was confused. I brushed her off because it’s your news, not mine.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“You should tell her. Talk to her.”

“I will.”

“She’ll want to know what you went through. And talking about it might help you, too.”

“Yeah.” I nod in Danica’s direction. “She’s going to get mad at Mick, though, and I’d rather enjoy tonight. No drama.”

“Sure, no drama. There never is with Danica, right?”

We laugh, but the truth is, we both love her and her feisty dramatics.

“So where did you leave off with AoG?” Danica shoves a plate of brownies at me before hurrying back to the kitchen. She returns with some snack bowls so I can load them up with the chips and candy I brought. Then she’s off again to get something else.

“I’m at the end of Season Two,” I call after her. “I was about to start the season finale.”

My memory of the previous episode is a blur after everything that happened, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Even though Danica adores everything AoG, my recollection of its details is pretty low-stakes.

“Perfect,” she sing-songs. “The cast gets infinitely better in Season Three. It’s going to be awesome.”

“We should back up a little.” Dmitri grabs the remote. “It’s been a while since I saw the end of Season Two.”

Danica returns with three cans of a fruity, alcoholic beverage. “Don’t be ridiculous, you’ve seen it at least twice. No more wasting time, let’s get started!”

I take my drink and rock-paper-scissors with Dmitri over who gets control of the remote. This tradition, at least, hasn’t changed. When I win, I stick out my tongue at him.

He shakes his head in disapproval and it makes me feel a little melty inside.

Danica and Dmitri both ask questions about where I think the finale will take us, and what Season Three might have in store. I share wild theories that I only half believe, mostly to make them laugh.

Things are almost normal. Almost.

It’s when the first episode of Season Three starts that Dmitri gets extra quiet. Danica has a manic look of excitement in her eyes. Dmitri appears full of dread.

The opening credits start. I pick up the remote control to skip past them, but Danica says, “No, let them roll—you’ll see all the new actors.”

The music is the same rock ballad as Seasons One and Two, but new faces flash with the actors’ names.

Javier Nori. Nicola Johnson. Claudia McAvoy . They all look and sound vaguely familiar. As popular actors twenty years ago, I’m sure they were in the news and magazines. I didn’t purposefully follow a lot of pop culture in the media, but it has a way of seeping into daily life.

A new actor on the screen makes me pause. Dark hair, wide smile, a glint in his brown eyes. With just the face in front of me, I would’ve overlooked it as a passing similarity.

But then the name appears in charcoal-gray letters next to him. Gage Hawthorne .

Hawthorne . Not Jannik .

The last name doesn’t matter. That teenager on the screen—I know those eyes. I even know that smile, although the wide grin on the screen is much more open and happy than the one I’ve seen in person.

Everything else around me is forgotten as I stare at the TV.

I’m looking at the teenage version of Gage.

Thank you for reading Mastered by Desire ! It was a joy to write, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Leah, Dmitri, and Gage’s story continues in Mastered by Lust !