“Are you sure he won’t notice whoever your brothers have watching over me?”
She didn’t like the idea of someone watching her, but what choice did she have? Duncan couldn’t stay with her all the time.
Duncan shook his head. “The men who work with Eli and Kellan are well trained. He’ll never see them. But I want you at my place during the nights. I’ll pick you up and drop you off.”
“Won’t he think that odd? I mean, for me to suddenly stay at your house all the time? For you to be driving me around?”
“We’ll stay a couple of nights at your place as well to make it look feasible, but not until you have a security system installed. And you no longer have a car, so I have to drive you around.”
“It’s talking Matt a long time to fix my car.” How much would this cost her?
Duncan ran his hand up and down her arm. Well, she guessed her car being out of commission was the least of her concerns right now.
***
Laken took a curious look at Duncan’s place as he showed her around. It was sparsely furnished. The lounge had a big, comfortable-looking sofa, a recliner and a television. In the bedroom was the largest bed she had ever seen and a set of drawers that didn’t match.
Duncan placed her bag on the bed. Then he turned to her. “I’m going to go work out at my gym.”
“Okay.” Obviously he was still too angry to talk. Maybe if she gave him some time he would calm down enough to talk this through with her. “I brought my sketch pad; I’ll just do some work in the living room.” Not that it was very inspiring.
Duncan shook his head. “You’re staying with me.”
She stared at him, but he didn’t waver. She picked up her pad. “Okay, lead the way.”
But he shook his head. “Leave the sketch pad.”
“Duncan,” she protested.
His gaze narrowed and she fell silent. Damn, his dominant side was really in charge right now. “Put the sketch pad on the bed and strip.”
Her jaw dropped. “I thought you wanted to go work out.”
“I do. I am. Stop delaying and do as I tell you. Unless you want to add to the punishment you have coming.”
“Punishment?” Was he for real? She had a maniac after her and he wanted to talk about punishment?
“You don’t want me to get into this right now, Laken. But you need to get used to being my submissive again in a very short period of time. You need to be used to my touch, my cues, and my desires so you don’t freak out in the club. We’ve both changed over the last few years. So, this is the way things are going to happen. When we are at home together, you are my sub.”
Shit.
“I’m not a slave,” she told him. No way. No how.
His eyes softened. Very slightly. “No, you’re not. I’m not talking about a master-slave relationship, although it might make it easier to protect you. I’m not going to tell you what to wear or make you ask for permission to speak.
“Knowing you are in danger is pushing the limits of my control and I have to know you are going to follow my lead, particularly when it comes to your safety. We need to use every free moment we have getting familiar with each other again.”
She hated when he made sense.
“If you can’t handle what goes on here, then you won’t be able to handle the club. He can’t think that this is pretense, there can be no hint that we’re setting something up. We have no idea if he’ll be inside the club or not. But if he is, then this has to look real, it can’t look like an act.”
He was right. Damn him.
She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
Duncan cupped her cheeks with his hands. “When we’re in this house alone, I expect you to be naked. When we’re playing, you’ll call me ‘Sir’ or ‘Master.’ You’ll be subject to my discipline when you break the rules. You’ve got some discipline you owe me for not telling me about Ricky and the flowers. This won’t work if we don’t trust each other.”
“I trust you,” she told him. “I just— things between us were only just getting back on track. I didn’t want to ruin it.”