Secrets & Sin (Surrender to Them 3)

“You’re crazy.” I rolled my eyes and knelt down to look at the Halloween decorations.

“Nah, I can spot a naturally submissive woman from a mile away. Trust me, Brianna is begging to submit—even if she doesn’t know it yet.” Dante put his hands on his hips and nodded.

“Well, naturally submissive or not, she’s gone, so let’s get what we came here for.” I grabbed a few items off the shelf.

“Forget this place. It’s all cheap junk. We can make stuff that looks more realistic.” Dante motioned for me to follow him.

“We don’t have that much time, man—damn it.” I stood in a huff and put the items back on the shelf.

Dante and I made our living flipping houses and turning them into works of art. We looked for big houses that had been on the market for a while and bought them at a discount so we could maximize our profits. The Overlook Mansion in Bakersfield was a huge investment, but was going to be our masterpiece. It was old, looked almost Gothic, and had a bit of history behind it. All of those elements were perfect for the project we had in mind. I released a few teaser videos of our first walk through the house, outlining some of the improvements we wanted to make, and there were already a number of wealthy people asking for us to let them know when it went on the market. I wanted to keep teasing the potential buyers, and some Halloween decorations would give me a good excuse to post a few pictures.

“Do y

ou really think we should spend time making decorations when we could be working on the house?” I climbed into the cab of our truck and turned the ignition.

“They need to look authentic. You cut, I’ll paint. It won’t take long.” Dante waved off my concerns.

“It’s too bad we don’t have more time. We could turn the Overlook Mansion into one hell of a haunted house.” I put the car in drive and started towards the hardware store. “That would drive interest through the roof and we could charge admission.”

“I’d rather turn it into a Funhouse—for a very sexy cheerleader.” Dante looked at me and chuckled.

“Are you talking about that shit we did in college?” I laughed and nodded. “Man, that really was a lot of fun. It was so much easier to get girls back then.”

“It’s still easy. You’ve just been out of the game too long.” Dante leaned back against his seat.

“If I ever mention getting married again, just shoot me.” I sighed and shook my head. “That was the worst mistake of my fucking life.”

“I told you that the day you proposed.” Dante reached over and tapped my arm. “You’re about to miss the turn.”

“Fuck, thanks.” I cut the wheel sharp and made the turn before I passed it. “Sorry, I got distracted there for a moment.”

Thinking about my ex-wife was more than a distraction—it was a mind fuck. Five years down the drain because she thought I wasn’t spending enough money on her. In her mind, having a husband that ran a successful business and money in the bank meant we were supposed to live in the lap of luxury. I was a simple man, and while I was making money, I was still as blue-collar as the day I was born. A three bedroom house with a truck that got me where I needed to go was the lap of luxury. I thought she was going to tell me she was ready to try for a baby when she said we needed to talk, so the divorce papers hit me like a brick in the face.

“I still think it would be cheaper to just get some stuff from the Halloween store. We don’t need anything fancy.” I put the truck in park and looked over at Dante.

“No, if we want the Overlook Mansion to get the kind of attention we’re looking for, we need something that they don’t see on the shelf. I thought a small town store might have some decent stuff, but clearly they’re just as bad as the box stores.” Dante grumbled and opened the passenger side door.

That’s what I get for partnering up with an artist. Everything has to be perfect or his ego can’t handle it.

3

Dante

Shane and I made a good team when it came to putting our special touch on flipping houses. He was a visionary and I was an artist. He knew what would sell, and I knew how to bring those visions to life. His vision had been a little cloudy since his divorce though, and he was trying to cut corners. If the Overlook Mansion was going to be our masterpiece, we had to make sure everything was as close to perfect as it could be. Shane always considered my neurotic need for perfection to be driven by my ego, but there was more to it than that. I took pride in everything I did, even something as simple as Halloween decorations for the front yard. Those pictures were going to be on our website until we sold the mansion, and I wanted them to be a good reflection of what we had in mind for the mansion.

“Man, this is going to cost too much.” Shane looked at the stack of supplies on my flatbed cart.

“We got the mansion for a hundred grand less than we planned to spend and you already said that money is going in the budget.” I motioned to the supplies with my hand. “This will get buyers salivating over the finished product.”

“Yeah… I guess so.” Shane exhaled sharply and followed me towards the register.

If you weren’t so fucking annoyed by the world right now, you would see that too.

What Shane really needed was a distraction from the hole in his heart that his ex-wife left when she trampled across it in her designer heels. I knew the marriage was a huge mistake, but he wouldn’t listen to me. His ex-wife came from a wealthy family and she was used to being spoiled. Shane’s version of spoiling a woman was taking her out for a cheap steak instead of fast food. They were like oil and vinegar. I had a little hope when I saw him talking to Brianna and Jackie at the Halloween shop. He looked like the guy I remembered from college that would make all the girls swoon when he walked by in a tight t-shirt. Brianna and Jackie were certainly eating out of his hand, but, of course, I had to ruin it.

It certainly wasn’t my intention, but I saw something in Brianna’s beautiful honey colored eyes that called out to me. There was a flicker—the kind I had seen before when a woman was on her knees and ready to please in every way possible. I had a very commanding presence, one that I had to tone down with some women, but not one like Brianna. She was so naturally submissive that she withered when she saw me. I thought Shane was well on his way to convincing them to come hang out with us on Halloween until I realized that Jackie was getting nervous. I tried to dial things back, but the damage was done. Even my dominant personality couldn’t lure Brianna back in once Jackie brushed us off.

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