She rolled her eyes. “Really, Lennox. How out of touch are you? Think about it from her point of view. An elusive Dom. He never plays. You rarely see him. And suddenly he’s in your classroom? Come on. I bet every submissive in that classroom wanted the same thing. She was the only one brave enough to do something about it. It’s like when a woman tells you she can’t orgasm. You take it as a challenge.”
“And you think I should just ignore her disregard for protocol?”
“Of course not. I’m suggesting you let Fulton or David deal with it. If you do it, you’re playing into her hands.”
He at least seemed to be thinking about what she said. Whether he would take her advice was something else entirely. He finished his wine and she offered to pour him another glass, but he politely declined.
“I better not, but thank you.” He stood up. “I should be going.”
It was driving her crazy that he hadn’t brought up the fire alarm. Shouldn’t he have at least mentioned it? At least in passing or something? He was almost at the door and, damn it, he wasn’t going to talk about it at all.
Just as his hand touched the doorknob, she blurted out, “Did you ever find out anything about the fire alarm?”
Lennox cleared his throat and turned around. “Interestingly enough, the files that contained the security footage have been deleted from the system’s hard drive.”
Yes! She’d been successful! She forced herself not to smile. “Oh.”
“But what the person who deleted them didn’t know is that all security videos are copied and sent to my personal hard drive.”
The wineglass almost slipped from her hands. She was totally screwed. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he would have something like that set up. His expression gave nothing away.
“So you know that . . .” she started.
“That you pulled the alarm?” The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “Yes. Good night, Marie.”
She stood, dumbfounded, as he left and silently closed the door behind him. He knew? He knew she pulled the alarm and he wasn’t going to call her on it? Hell, it appeared as if he wasn’t even going to bring it up. What did that mean?
She poured another glass of wine, knowing she was getting ready to face another night of insomnia.
WINNIE’S JOURNAL
I did it! I went out with Lennox! We had such a great time, I decided it didn’t matter that he was into kink and I’m not. It’s just a variation of sex, right? I mean, how bad can it be? Seriously, sex with Lennox? There’s no way it can be bad!
I’m going to talk with Marie and see if she can fill me in on this submissive stuff. She’s all into it. Heck, she’ll probably love the fact that I’m telling her I identify as a submissive. I know Lennox will be thrilled.
I’m so excited!
CHAPTER
Five
Early the next morning, Lennox called Fulton and David into his office. Fulton, who typically got up early in order to send Andie off, was all smiles, but David obviously needed coffee before he became human.
Lennox directed him to the freshly brewed pot and then waited for him to pour a cup and have a few sips before he started speaking. He began by giving them a rundown of what happened the day before. Though he left out the part about Marie being the one to pull the alarm.
He explained what Mariela had discovered and shared her opinion on Susan’s discipline. He wrapped up by confirming that neither man had ever had a problem with her in the classroom.
By the time he finished, David looked more alert. “I agree with Mariela,” he said and, beside him, Fulton nodded. “I don’t think you need to be the one to punish her. Especially if that’s the reason she was acting out.”
“I agree in theory.” Lennox pulled up Susan’s file on his laptop. “But I’m afraid it’ll be seen as me being weak if someone else administers the punishment and I don’t want to give anyone that impression.”
“No one who knows you will think that,” David assured him.
“The students might think that,” Lennox said. While he didn’t want to punish Susan, he knew whatever action he took had to be done swiftly and in a manner that was full of confidence. He was grateful to Marie for pulling the alarm, as it got him out of a bad position, but damn, it’d left him in a mess. “The other thing is, I don’t want to bring attention to Susan’s motives.”
“What you could do,” Fulton said, his hands wrapped around his own cup of coffee, “is have David or I be the one who actually punishes her while you’re in the room, overseeing everything.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Lennox thought it had a lot going for it. It was decisive and would get the point across and he wouldn’t have to lay a hand on Susan. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it.
“That’s a really good idea,” David said, echoing Lennox’s own thoughts.
“Don’t act so surprised,” Fulton said. “I do have them on occasion.”
David flipped him off.
“That’s what we’ll do then.” Lennox looked at his two most trusted staff members, outside of Marie. “Which one of you will volunteer to be my hands?”
“I’ll do it,” David said. “I’m afraid Fulton might have gotten too soft since he’s in love and shit.”
Fulton pointed at him. “I’ll bring Andie in here and she can verify I’m no softie.”
“That’s enough,” Lennox said. “If you’re finished comparing dick sizes?”
“Sorry, boss.” Fulton punched David’s shoulder.
Lennox rolled his eyes. “David, I’ll let you go inform Susan of our decision. She should be at breakfast now. Tell her to be in dungeon classroom B at eight thirty sharp. Let’s get this out of the way.”
• • •
LATER THAT AFTERNOON he walked down to Marie’s office, a fistful of papers in his hand. He’d received them the day before and wanted to share them with her. He’d planned to schedule a meeting, but Marie hadn’t attended Susan’s punishment session and he hadn’t seen her at lunch.
She couldn’t hide from him forever.
Her office door was closed, but he heard nothing coming from the other side. She probably wasn’t in a meeting. He knocked and at her softly spoken “Come in,” he pushed open the door.
She was sitting at her desk and looked up in surprise at him. “Lennox.”
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re trying to avoid me?” He didn’t wait for an invitation, but sat down in the chair across from her desk.
“I don’t know. I promise I’m not.”
He couldn’t help but notice that her normally jovial eyes looked tired and sad today. She had dark circles under her eyes, too. In fact, when he stood back and looked at her as a whole, something didn’t seem right.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You look tired.”
“I am. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
He nodded, knowing all too well how that felt.
“What brings you by?” she asked. “I’m assuming you did have some kind of reason other than to tell me I look like hell.”
“I never said that. You’re putting words in my mouth.”
She didn’t come back at him, she just stared at him.
He cleared his throat and brought out the papers he’d carried in with him. “Remember when I mentioned to you that I was thinking about turning the cottage into a public studio or gallery?”
At the mention of those plans, he finally caught a bit of a sparkle in her eyes. “Yes.”
“I’d casually brought the idea up to a friend of mine. Actually, the man who helped me with the blueprints for this place.” He looked around the office, proud of the academy he’d built. He especially liked Marie’s office. He remembered her delight when she saw the barre he’d installed and how he’d insisted the walls be painted in her favorite color, a pale blue.
“I didn’t ask him to draw anything,” he said. “Truly we had just a casual conversation. But apparently he was inspired and he came up with a