He had friends everywhere. Well, connections. He wouldn’t call anyone his friend. The idea of friends was nonsense, a social construct meant to force people to behave in a certain way. Connection was a better word for it. He knew people who owed him favors, and one of them was a higher-up at the cellular company who serviced Madeline Hill’s phone. It was easy to track it, and she’d spent the whole weekend at the hotel, only leaving it once to have brunch at a place in the city.
If only he could track Jane the way he could pretty much everyone else in his life.
Was that why he was so fascinated with her? She was the one woman who could actually play his game.
The phone rang before he could message Madeline back. He glanced down and the number was unavailable. His heart rate actually ticked up. She was the only thing in the world that could throw him off, make him feel anything at all. There were times when he was sure once he’d had her, he would be able to move on with his life, get back to normal. He would see she was just a woman like the rest, and life would settle back down.
Sometimes he resented her every bit as much as he wanted her.
Still, he found himself taking the call when he should show her it wasn’t like he sat around waiting for her. He had a business to run, after all. “This is Byrne.”
“Is your friend back?”
No sweet hellos. She’d explained that once they had a proper D/s relationship in place, he could guide how she greeted him, how she related to him in every way. She’d offered him the world, but only after she’d danced to his tune.
He hoped she enjoyed pain as much as she claimed to.
“Yes, and she’s with her Dom. I’m going to meet him for lunch sometime this week.” It annoyed him to no end that he couldn’t simply buy his way into this club she wanted to go to. Hell, he’d thought about buying the building and forcing the fuckers to let him in. He would be making a note of everyone who tried to keep him out. They’d learn what happened when a person didn’t show proper respect to the king. “I could set up the meeting in a private dining room if you would like to join us.”
Because she almost never would meet him in a public place. Another intriguing thing about her. She was a puzzle he wanted to solve. Then he could likely play with her for a while and toss her out when he got bored.
“I can’t right now. I’m not in town,” she revealed. “I’m on another job, but I need to send you the final code for the project.”
“I thought you would bring that yourself.”
“I’m sending a courier. You’re going to have to work on it a bit to ensure it’s properly integrated with the AI. The group doesn’t want there to be any problems. Unless you’ll let me send one of our people out there.”
He wasn’t going to let anyone touch his tech. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not until I’ve been invited into the group.”
Not even after he was invited in, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.
“I can understand why you’re wary,” she conceded. “So you’re going to have to be the one to ensure everything is properly integrated before launch. We won’t exactly get a chance to tweak it once it’s up in orbit.”
“I’ll deal with it, Jane. When are you back in town?” He didn’t want to wait until he was invited into The Consortium to finalize his relationship with her. He wanted her to wear his collar when he walked in to that first meeting, wanted to show them all that he could master their queen.
“I’ll be in this weekend. That would be a good time to meet with Madeline Hill and her…friends,” she said, suggestion plain in her tone.
He needed to get that invitation to The Reef as quickly as possible. “All right. I’ll arrange it. It looks like I’ve got a few more hoops to jump through before they let us in. I thought perhaps we should practice. We wouldn’t want to look completely green now, would we?”
“Oh, I think we’ll figure it out,” she replied. “It’s not hard. But you should start looking for a collar for me. I want something lovely, something that shows the world how good it is to be your submissive, Nolan.”
When her voice went soft and sexy, he felt it in his dick. It wasn’t the first time he’d bought her jewelry. She’d been very specific about what she’d wanted then, so he liked having some freedom when it came to her collar. “I’ll have it by the time we go to the club.”