His little sister was brilliant.
Once the office was quiet, Elliott turned to the windows at his back, staring out at the busy Las Vegas strip. Cars passed by and thousands of people walked up and down the street. It never did go quiet down there.
That was one thing about Vegas Elliott didn’t enjoy. He preferred a quieter life. Yet with Ana in Vegas, the only family he had left, he knew he’d never leave. Vegas was home. Elliott had long ago accepted that.
He ran a hand across his tired eyes, since he hadn’t got much sleep last night. His thoughts oddly returned to Mary. Since she had left him so abruptly on Sunday morning, he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and he had just about enough of thinking about her and not doing something about it.
Elliott reminded himself that he hadn’t become successful by waiting around for things to happen. He took matters into his own hands. Even if Mary indicated clearly enough she didn’t want to investigate the connection bet
ween them, Elliott wouldn’t let her walk away from him that easily.
She showed too many mixed signals. And the good signals were too beautiful to ignore.
He wasn’t a young man anymore. He had waited a long time to find someone who was as connected to him on a D/s level as he and Mary had been. Something existed between them. Something special, Elliott didn’t doubt that.
Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his personal cell phone, dialed, and pressed it to his ear. Tension rode his shoulders, yet it was a strain he welcomed. It messed with his mind that Mary shut him out, and his response intrigued him. He couldn’t remember a time when he had the urge to pursue a submissive, especially when that submissive seemed to outright refuse any sort of relationship with him, even a simple friendly one.
The phone rang once before the low voice said, “Hello, Elliott.”
“Good morning,” Elliott replied, relieved that Dmitri answered.
The tension in Elliott’s voice was clearly apparent, since Dmitri asked, “Is everything all right?”
“Don’t worry, everything is fine, but I’m not calling about business.”
“What’s up?”
“I’m wondering if I could inquire about Mary,” Elliott said, controlling the strain invading him, and hating that he had to learn more about Mary this way.
Dmitri paused. “As in my Mary?”
Mine, if she’d allow it. “Yes, that Mary.”
The hesitation now was a little longer before Dmitri asked, “Have you seen her again since our dinner?”
“I have,” Elliott replied, not saying more than that. It wasn’t Dmitri’s business what he and Mary experienced together. “Would I be stepping over the line to inquire a little bit about her?”
“Depends,” Dmitri said.
“On?”
“What you want the information for.”
Elliott smiled, not surprised. He didn’t know who Mary was to Dmitri except that they were friends, but from the dinner he had had with them and the protectiveness in Dmitri’s voice now, he could tell they were close. “We have become friendly with each other, but I’ve received some mixed signals. I want to make sure that I’m reading her correctly before I proceed any further. Since you two are close, I hoped you could provide some insight.”
Dmitri’s voice lightened. “Are you interested in dating her or is this in regard to her being a play partner?”
“Both, if she’d be agreeable.”
“Well, this is interesting.” Humor touched Dmitri’s voice, which also sounded a lot like approval. “What has she told you?”
As a Dom, Elliott understood why Dmitri wanted to know what Elliott knew first. He also suspected that Dmitri wouldn’t tell him anything too personal about Mary without her permission. “She told me her husband passed away.”
“Yes, Charles passed many years ago.”
Sadness drifted through Dmitri’s tone when he said Charles, and Elliott began to wonder how they were all connected. Staring out at the hordes of people walking along the strip, Elliott said, “It’s pretty apparent that she’s still hurting from his death.”
“Incredibly so,” Dmitri replied in a solemn voice. “To be honest, Mary doesn’t talk to me about the past or about Charles. But I do know she gave up the lifestyle after he died, so as a play partner, you might have a challenge there.”