With wobbly legs and aching muscles, he approached the tray. He removed the condom with a tissue. Then he cleaned his thumb with an antibacterial wipe. He never took his gaze off her as he drew up his pants and pulled up his zipper.
He settled in next to the pole, and Cora’s gaze held his. Trapped in a soul so loving, a frigid emptiness stuck him hard in the chest. What had he done that made Cora unable to talk to him?
Where had he gone wrong?
A hundred questions flashed through his mind as he removed the rope from her wrists. Free from the bindings, she wobbled on her feet, and before she dropped to the ground, he gathered her in his arms.
Unexpected emotions gripped him and his heart swelled when she leaned in to him. He didn’t care what he needed to prove to himself during the scene. Or that he needed with desperation for Porter to see her explode under his touch.
His focus remained on the sweet woman in his arms. He stared down into her glossy gaze, knowing one undeniable truth: He couldn’t endure this distance between them. “Are we okay, Cora?”
She gave a dozy grin. “Yeah, sir, we’re okay.”
Chapter Eleven
Dinner at the sports bar, Mickey’s, on the Vegas strip had been a tradition of the Club Sin Masters. Nothing was off-topic for discussion as they drank beers and ate great pub food. Since Club Sin Master Kyler Morgan had to w
ork a late shift for the force on Wednesday, the night got switched to this dreary, rainy Monday evening.
The dark clouds matched Aidan’s mood. His workday had never felt so long, but it’d kept his mind off Cora. Now all his troubles with her flooded his mind. Wishing to be somewhere else, he watched Porter devouring his chicken wings.
The newest addition to their evening hadn’t been his idea, it’d been Kyler’s. Though Aidan didn’t mind Porter on a personal level, sitting with the man who had gotten Cora to open up when Aidan couldn’t didn’t improve his day.
Aidan ate another bite of his prime-rib burger and looked at the large flat-screen displaying the football game. Even his favorite team played like shit. He wiped his face with a napkin and then drowned the heaviness in his body away with his cold beer.
Atop wooden stools in front of a thick oak table in the center of the bar, the loud noise in the pub washed over him, not nearly equaling the chatter in his mind. With Dmitri next to him, and Kyler beside Porter, Aidan grabbed a couple fries before dipping them into ketchup.
As he ate, he looked to Porter.
What was it about him that Cora trusted so much? Why could she talk to him the other night, when she couldn’t to Aidan? Porter had been with her for a year. Aidan had dominated her for two years.
He tried not to allow jealousy to consume his thoughts, but he also couldn’t push away the burn in his veins. He brought Porter in to help Cora because he had failed to find out the real reason behind her pain. It didn’t mean he had to like it.
He didn’t like it.
He fucking hated it.
“Instead of glaring at me,” Porter grinned at him, “why don’t you just get it out, and then you can actually enjoy yourself tonight?”
Aidan looked from Porter to Dmitri to Kyler, who all smiled at him. Apparently, his emotions showed on his expression. He had never intended for this to get so messy. He liked Cora happy and content. He wanted her playing in the dungeon free from all reservations. Each time they played it relieved him when he made her smile more sincere.
Now it seemed he wasn’t helping her at all.
His Dom instincts called to fix that issue, and fix it now. Rubbing his tired eyes, he faced reality that the choice didn’t belong to him. As a submissive, Cora needed to submit and bare those thoughts to him. And she hadn’t.
He couldn’t stand simmering in the unknown any longer. “Is she in trouble?” he asked Porter.
“Honestly?” Porter shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Still dressed in his cop uniform from the afternoon shift, Kyler took a sip of his cola, since he’d refused to drink a beer in his uniform. His messily styled light brown hair dangled over his forehead. “She seems like the same old Cora to me.” His blue-green eyes cut to Aidan, twinkling with their usual mischief. “From what I’ve seen, she’s acting more annoyed with you than anything else.”
Aidan agreed. She was annoyed at his questions, but Kyler didn’t know Cora like Aidan did. She and Kyler were close friends and had been since she’d joined Club Sin. But if Kyler thought she was fine, then he didn’t know her all that well.
Even as Aidan looked to Porter, he noticed the creases in Porter’s brow, a telling sign Porter thought along the same lines as Aidan. “Continue,” he said to Porter. “Tell me what you think.”
Porter wiped his mouth with his napkin as his gaze drifted to the football game and one of the teams scored. “She’s hiding something.”
Dmitri dropped his finished chicken wing into the basket and asked, “What?”