Now, if she could just handle the whole ‘submit to me’ thing, she’d be able to relax and get more out of the short time she would have them to herself. Kneeling between them had gone against her nature, and she’d found that part of the scene last night unacceptable. Then she recalled Troy’s tight pinch of her nipples, and his intent, probing gaze. A shiver rippled down her spine and her pussy clutched remembering that sharp pain, and the quick uptick of arousal it had generated.
She needed to talk to Penny, but she couldn’t say she was looking forward to seeing her smirk at Paige’s dilemma. Paige locked the Morgans’ door behind her then opened her purse to drop the key in. The folded paper she’d found on her windshield yesterday morning reminded her of the threat she likely didn’t have to worry about now. It still troubled her he knew their address, but since Damien was sure to ban her from Sanctuary, it looked like the bastard would win this round. She would continue to be diligent about watching out for herself, but wait until Penny came home and recovered more before revealing how close she’d come to her assailant. No sense in upsetting Penny, or ruining the few hours she would have with Troy and Trevor by showing it to anyone now.
After returning home to shower and change, Paige drove to the hospital and found her sister in physical therapy. Dressed in loose gym shorts and a plain t-shirt, Penny ambled up and down a set of parallel bars, her gait slow and uneven, but much improved from the last time Paige had seen her up.
“Looking good, sis.” She smiled as the therapist pulled a wheelchair up to the end and Penny eased down with a sigh. “No pain, no gain, isn’t that how the saying goes?”
Penny gave her a scathing look. “Just wait until I’ve recovered my full strength.”
“I live for the day, and the challenge.” Paige looked at the therapist. “I’ll take her back upstairs, if that’s all right?”
“Sure. Good workout, Penny. We’ll get in one more tomorrow morning before you’re discharged and then we can set up an outpatient schedule.”
“Tomorrow?” Paige asked as she wheeled her sister toward the elevator. “For sure?”
“That’s what Dr. Matthews told me this morning after another scan. I swear, I could line a room with the number of scans this place has of my head.” Penny reach up and grazed the bandage still covering half her forehead. “It’s a miracle I have any brain cells left functioning.”
“Yes, it is, so let’s not push it. Are you sure you’re ready to come home?” Backing her into the elevator, Paige reached around and pressed the button for Penny’s floor then stood at her side, watching her closely.
“If I don’t get out of here, I’ll go bonkers, Paige. I’m mobile now, enough I can take care of myself. I’ll have meds for the lingering headaches and you to make sure I do my exercises but don’t overdo it.”
“Damn right.” The door pinged open and Penny wheeled herself across the hall into her room with an airy wave toward the nurse’s desk, Paige following behind. When she went to assist Penny into the bed, her twin shook her off. “I’m not an invalid. I’ve got this.” She sat on the side, appearing content to sit up for a while longer. “Tell me what you did on your day off, besides come up here to see me.”
Leave it to Penny to hand her a tidy opening for what she wanted to discuss but didn’t want to. Settling into the chair facing her, Paige stated, “You likely won’t believe me.”
“But, you’ll tell her anyway, won’t you?”
Both women whipped their heads toward the door and that intruding, steel-edged voice. Damien leaned against the wall in a negligent, deceiving pose, his face taut, his eyes sharp and assessing when they scanned Penny from head to toe.
Paige found her voice first and scowled. “You keep turning up like a bad penny.”
“You keep insinuating yourself in my club under false pretenses,” he shot back.
Penny gasped, her eyes wide with shock and anger when she swiveled her gaze back to Paige. “You, what? Paige, tell me you didn’t.”
“She can’t, not without lying.” Damien sauntered in and stood at the foot of the bed, crossing his thick arms. “You don’t plan on lying to your sister, do you, Paige?”
Irritation slithered under her skin as guilt pricked Paige’s conscience. She never kept secrets from her sister, but given Penny’s condition, she’d refused to burden her with her plans. That, and she hadn’t wanted Penny to talk her out of them. “My conversation with my sister is none of your business, or your concern.” Paige ignored Penny’s gasp and refused to look away from Damien’s icy glare.
“Penny, sweetheart, tell Paige what happens when she exhibits such disrespect to a Dom. Oh, wait.” He snapped his fingers and a wicked grin ticked up one side of his mouth. “That’s right. Last night, you learned firsthand the consequences of going against me, and other Doms, didn’t you?”
“What’s he talking about, Paige?”
Paige disliked the flush that spread over Penny’s cheeks and the way her eyes rounded when the jerk called her sweetheart. How could her sister fall for a man so similar to the one who had turned abusive all those months ago? Seeing no way around it, she came clean with her.
“I was trying to help. I thought if I could get your assailant to focus on me, I could draw him out into the open again.”
Penny’s eyes snapped with anger. “At a huge risk to yourself? What were you thinking?”
Paige pushed to her feet and fisted her hands on her hips. “I was thinking I’d do anything, risk anything to nail the bastard who hurt you. Are you telling me you wouldn’t move heaven and earth to avenge me if the situation were reversed?”
Penny
hesitated, and Paige could easily read her answer on her face. Seeing the way Damien frowned, she assumed he also caught the guilt now reflected in her eyes.
“You know I would, but Paige, you… you’re not submissive!” Penny’s exclamation revealed her astonishment at the lengths Paige had gone through to avenge her.
Damien snorted. “You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen her response to her punishment last night. Your sister went off like a firecracker, draped over one of her buyers’ lap while they both played with her.”
With a giggle, Penny quipped, “Oh, to be a fly on the wall. I can’t picture you in such a scene, and with two men no less!”
Another voice intruded with, “It was a hell of a scene.”
With a low, muttered curse, Paige looked toward the door and Trevor’s slow drawl to see both Carlsons striding in. The small room shrank even more with their overpowering presence. Her heart, that traitorous organ, went pitter patter, and her vagina, the faithless bitch, went all damp and happy at seeing them. It seemed she couldn’t win. Somehow, that didn’t faze her with annoyance as it should have.
“Oh, my God—them?”
Paige grinned at Penny’s astonishment. It was only fair her sister get blindsided as well. “Yes, them.”
“Make your questions quick,” Damien told Troy and Trevor before dropping another bombshell on Paige. “I need to talk with Penny about coming home with me tomorrow when she’s discharged.”
“What?” Penny gasped at the same time Paige cried, “No way!”
Damien met their objections with a determined glint in his eyes. “Penny, we’ll discuss this in private. Paige, you don’t get a say so, this is between me and your sister. If you argue,” he added, playing a trump card, “you’ll upset your sister.”