She replied right away.
I won't wait around until he does hurt you. Kate, this is for your own good. End it now before it goes any further and he either breaks your heart or hurts you for real. If you don't, I will send this to the head of surgery along with his FetLife profile. Do you know he calls himself Master D? I asked around the nurses at NYP and I heard an earful. They say he's a controlling bastard. Who knows what else I'll find if I have my PI dig a bit deeper… End it Kate. I don't care if you hate me. I have to do this to save you from even worse pain.
I didn’t respond. I just dialed Lara.
She answered on the second ring.
"Hey, Kate. What's up?"
"Lara, I'm in trouble. I need your advice as a lawyer."
"Uh, oh. Can I assume it involves Drake?"
"You assumed right," I said and related what happened. I didn't use Dawn's name but told Lara that it was someone who knew Drake in his professional life.
"What happened with his wife?" I asked, cringing, not sure if I wanted to know.
"Oh, that was overblown," she replied. "He tried to stop her from leaving the night she announced she wanted a divorce. He wanted to keep talking and she just wanted to leave. He stopped her physically. Didn't hurt her or anything, but by then, she was so cold to him, she didn’t care how he felt. When he persisted, calling her, wanting to get counseling, try to keep the marriage together, she took out the order of protection. It was only temporary, so no big deal. It wasn't a permanent order so the judge didn't think he was a real danger. Drake had been so busy with his work, with establishing his career, he didn't understand how far apart they had grown until it was too late. She just couldn't deal with him, had a new boyfriend and just sprung it on him out of the blue."
"Poor Drake," I said. I felt really bad for him.
"Christ," she said, sounding exasperated. "What did you tell Drake about this?"
"I tried to break it off with him last week, but he wouldn't accept it. He said he wants to stay together and that we would just be really discrete, but this person was able to find out that we were both in the Bahamas. She found a Private Investigator and did a background check on Drake. I didn't tell him any of this yet. I'm afraid for him."
There was a silence on the line. "I was a bit concerned about Drake. He's gone a bit native with you, Kate."
"What do you mean?"
"You know, a bit wild. Like the old Anthropologists when they stayed too long with the tribe. Not following his usual routine. He never sees his subs outside of the lifestyle. I don't know what he was thinking with you, but he saw you at the fundraiser, at your father's campaign fundraiser, at the concert, and now he's there. That really surprises me. He's not being sane about this. His reputation is far more important than training a potential sub."
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"I tried to talk to him, but he's just not listening. How bad would it be if the existence of a restraining order was made public, say to someone in the hospital?"
"I have no idea, but it would depend on the optics of it and the person who received the information. Some people might completely ignore it. This happened five years ago after all. But add in the whole kink element, his profile at FetLife… That might be too much."
I sat and chewed my nail. "What should I do?"
She was silent for a few moments. "What do you think you should do?"
"I don't want him to be hurt because of me."
"Then end it."
I closed my eyes. "I already tried that."
"You didn't try hard enough. Listen, Kate. I know Drake Morgan. You want to end it with Drake? Tell him he doesn't do it for you. Tell him you don't feel it. Or better, show an interest in meeting another Dom who might be better able to get you to submit. Technically, he should have just kept things totally professional with you and not seen you outside of establishing this D/s relationship. He screwed up. You can use that, claim that he feels too much like a boyfriend, not a Dom."
"I couldn’t do that! He does do it for me. He knows that…"
"Kate, you two have only known each other for a few weeks. Just cut him off. Be mean. Believe me, there are any number of subs who would be entirely grateful to have a Dom like him. I'll set to work finding a replacement for you. She'll be there to assuage any sadness he feels over your broken agreement."
"You really think I should do this?'
She was silent for a moment. "I think that this shouldn’t have happened. I think whoever found out about you and Drake is an evil person to threaten this. I'm so sick of the public's ignorance of this lifestyle and intolerance. Drake is my close friend. I think you have to put Drake's career before your own hopes for this D/s relationship. He's a wonderful man, Kate. He does really wonderful work as a neurosurgeon. Don't let your desire for him ruin his life."
"I know."