All's Fair in Love and Mastery (Masters Unleashed 5)

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For maybe the millionth time, Dex stretched her back, shifting in her seat to try to ease the ache in her ass. By the time they got to Grant’s mysterious island, her butt was going to need reinflating.

Grant was behind the wheel, and although he’d stopped blasting the Kink Monsters on his truck stereo whenever she wasn’t on the phone with Andromeda about work, he still seemed to be thinking of all this like a grand adventure rather than a business trip. They’d been on the road for thirteen hours or so, and although Dexter had thought it was fun for the first few hours, all of the road snacks they’d bought felt like a lead weight in her stomach and she was feeling a little green.

Finally, she lost patience.

“You know, your idea might have made more money if you hadn’t bought an island in some obscure part of a foreign country.”

“Come on, Arabella. Canada is barely even another country. It’s America’s hat!” he said, his enthusiasm wilting. “Will and I used to drive up to Toronto to go drinking sometimes when I was underage back home. I love it here!”

“It didn’t seem so far when we were driving through the southern part of Ontario. Toronto was nice and busy. But I swear I haven’t seen a town for hours. Who’s going to drive this far? You’d have to have a couple of weeks off. This is too far to go for the weekend.”

“There’s an airstrip on the island. Tak and some of his pilot friends are figuring out flight costs and schedules. I also have to look into hiring seasonal staff, unless I keep the place open year-round. Apparently it’s set up to be used in winter, too, but I don’t know how popular the idea of heading to a snowy kink destination is going to be with people.”

“Is there a ski hill?”

“No.”

“Then I’d have no interest in going.”

He snorted. “Your idea of outdoorsy is walking a block from the brewery to grab a coffee.”

“I thought your idea of outdoorsy was fucking girls in parking lots.”

“Granted.” He winked at her, the dork. Using his own name as a joke was going to have to go on their list of things she got to punch him in the arm for. “The distance just adds to the allure, baby. Besides, do you think there are private islands available to buy around New Jersey? I’ll just cruise on over and make an offer on Manhattan. I thought about buying a decommissioned oil rig off the coast and making that into a kinky getaway, but it just doesn’t have the same feel as a private island in the middle of nowhere.” He smiled to himself. “Besides, when do we get to be ourselves outside, in the fresh air, with no one around to judge? Even at the club we have to be careful. Everything is indoors and at night.”

“Yeah, you have a point.” She sighed, and leaned her head back against the headrest wishing she could relax enough to fall asleep. It was dark and the music was a low hum, almost matching the tone of the tires humming along pavement.

“Or maybe I’m wrong and people like the forbidden feel of being at indoor clubs at night. I could lose my shirt.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you lose your shirts regularly. That’s all me though.”

He snorted, and she caught him glancing sidelong at her breasts—or maybe he was just checking to see if she was wearing one of his shirts again. Yeah, right.

They lapsed into silence, and eventually Dex felt her head starting to nod. She struggled to stay awake, and tried to think of things to talk about. The truth was, after so many hours she wished he would let her drive for a while. She was afraid that if she fell asleep he would too. It didn’t help that he’d asked her to watch for moose. Moose! Why the hell were they going to a place with signs warning them to watch for moose?

“I’m really grateful you agreed to come with me,” he said completely out of the blue.

“You thought I’d miss this?” She was mildly hurt, considering the fact that he was her best friend—he and Will. They were the closest thing she had to family now.

“The truth is, I’ve been looking for a chance to talk to you about something when we wouldn’t be interrupted and neither of us could storm off.”

The settlement of gummy bears currently residing in Dex’s stomach started having their own little mosh pit in her innards. For some stupid reason it had never occurred to her until now that this trip might be a trap.

“You have?” she asked, only managing to sound slightly less apprehensive than she was. They were pretty literally in the middle of nowhere, unless “somewhere” could be defined as an entirely uninhabited area with a shitload of trees and rocks. If they started arguing now there was no way to fuck off.

“You are one of the most important people in my life, right up there with Will and Beau. I don’t like that things between us have gotten so weird. We decided to have that one-night together in good faith, with the understanding that it was a one-off and it wasn’t going to affect things between us. I know I’ve managed to screw that up royally. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for being a jealous asshole when I have no right to be.” He swallowed. In the dashboard lights she watched a flash of grief cross his face that surprised her. “I’m going to do my best to stop being a dick.”

Tears welled in Dex’s eyes. She hadn’t been sure he’d ever wanted things to go back to normal, but the apology was a good sign, right? She wasn’t sure if she could trust it, but she was willing to try.

“You’ve had a change of heart about what you want from me?”

He avoided a small animal scampering across the highway in the glare of their high beams, and it dived into dark bushes on the side of the road. A weasel or rabbit or something.

“I never would have imagined myself as one of those guys who got pissy when he was friend-zoned. You have every right to choose who you do and don’t get involved with. Sure I’m disappointed, but the last thing I want is for you to date me because you feel guilty or something stupid like that. If you don’t want me I can be a grown-up about it.”

She felt weirdly disappointed. For the first time in a long time she’d considered taking things a step further with someone—but only because it was Grant. She never would have trusted anyone else again, but Grant had shown her that other than being a massively jealous prick who sulked when she chose other men’s company, he’d been patient. He hadn’t cornered her to steal kisses or demanded that she obey him even though he’d proven he had her number as a submissive.