“I didn’t hear you.”
He nodded. “What are you doing out here, sugar?” As he spoke, he pulled off his dark leather jacket and took a step forward, moving so quickly that she didn’t have time to avoid him. He placed his jacket around her. It was warm from his body heat. His scent invaded her, filling her with a sense of safety, security. She breathed deeply, letting herself settle for just a moment.
Except it wouldn’t do to let him get his way in anything, any chink in her armor and he’d slip his way through the barrier she’d erected against him.
“I’m fine. You’ll get cold without this.” She tried to pull it off, but he held his hands over hers, stilling her.
“Leave it. I’ll get it tomorrow. Besides, I’m not planning on staying out here long.” He nodded at the club. “Do you want to come in?”
“No.” Yes.
His gaze narrowed. “Then why are you out here?”
“Just walking.”
“At ten at night on your own?” he said incredulously. “Damn foolish idea, little girl.”
Temper heated her blood. Being mad at him she could deal with, but when he got all caring, that was when she started to crumble. And if he tried to dominate her? What then? She shivered slightly. She didn’t want to know, didn’t trust her body not to yield to him.
Little slut. No one will want you.
“You have no say in anything I do, Duncan. You don’t seem to get that you and I are nothing to each other.” The words were meant to hurt. Still, she wasn’t prepared for the flash of pain in his eyes.
He recovered quickly, his confidence back in place. “We will always mean something to each other, Laken. Haven is a safe town, but no place is completely secure. Now, you have a choice. Come inside with me or I will walk you home.”
“I’m not going inside.”
“I’ll pay your membership if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Damn him, she was not a charity case.
“For your information I have a membership.”
His eyes darkened, forming stormy pools. “And how did you get that?”
“What makes you think I didn’t just pay for it myself?”
“Because you’re broke after that bitch lied about you bullying her and you got fired.”
Laken was mortified that everyone knew what had happened to her—that her boyfriend and her assistant had been having an affair behind her back. That they’d stolen her designs and set it up so it looked like she was bullying that blonde bitch.
She’d been fired, lost the bond on her apartment, and what little savings she had she’d sunk into opening her store.
However, she was elated that he was taking her side automatically. He hadn’t once asked her if what that bitch had said was true. He’d known that the other woman was lying. That was Duncan. “Loyal” should have been his middle name.
“How’d you get a membership, Laken?” he asked silkily, his voice a soft croon.
Laken swallowed heavily. Damn, no way could she refuse him when he used that voice.
“Saxon gave me a year’s membership.”
His eyes widened. “Goddammit, Laken. You know Saxon never does anything for nothing. He’s going to want something in return.”
“I know.”
“So why did you take it?”
Because she was insane. She was being torn in two. Part of her didn’t want anything to do with BDSM. But there was this other part, deep inside her, a part that came out when she was lonely and tired. The part of her that just wanted to give in, to go inside the club, to find that sense of safety and happiness she only ever had when she was—she looked up at Duncan—when she was submitting to him.