When she’d first gone to his home, she’d pictured him riding up to her on a horse, one of those cool hats on his head that had a wide brim and not much curve, a whip coiled at his hip (of course).
But as far as she could tell, Stellan didn’t even own a pair of jeans. He wore suits to the club, expensive, tailored ones. And when he worked a sub, he wore banded waistband or drawstring, low-slung, loose-fitting men’s lounge pants, his chest and feet bare (if he wasn’t nude).
In fact, remembering how Stellan’s sculpted ass looked in those pants, Evangeline decided she needed to get some of those for Branch because Stellan looked amazing in them, but Branch would rock the heck out of them.
As she walked toward her office, Evangeline turned her mind from those pants and back to Stellan showing out of the blue.
He might be there (she hoped, she wouldn’t refer him to another agent) because he was looking for a new place. His sprawling, ranch-style, Southwestern pueblo mansion with its slanted terra-cotta tile roofs, heavy, carved-wood doors and log-adorned back veranda was spectacular and oddly fit someone who looked more like he worked on Wall Street and owned a penthouse filled with leather and chrome.
But it had to cost millions, and if he was ready to trade up, Evangeline was ready to help him find what was perfect for him.
She turned into her office and saw him sitting in one of her desk chairs, his ankle on his opposite knee, wearing one of his elegant suits that highlighted the broadness of his shoulders (a broadness that had nothing to do with shoulder pads, she very well knew).
His dark head was turned to look over one of those broad shoulders, his hooded, midnight-blue eyes were on her.
Yes, she would have liked to have the opportunity to switch an alpha like him, in a number of ways.
But she had the most magnificent alpha-sub there was, so she’d gotten exactly what she needed.
She just had to find a way to keep him.
“Stellan, this is a surprise,” she said with a smile.
“Close the door,” he replied.
She felt a slither she didn’t know how to read, not simply at what his command could mean but the way he delivered it, the blatant Dom coming from him. And even as a Domme herself, she noted that slither was nice.
It also was ominous.
She closed the door and, gaze to him, walked behind her desk.
She sat.
He didn’t make her wait.
“You were at the club a while ago.”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“Rumor has it, you spent most of your time there in the booth with Dillinger.”
He knew Branch’s last name?
Which meant he knew Branch?
“You know Branch?” she queried.
“I know a lot of things,” he replied, an answer but also not.
She powered through that because she had to.
Branch wanted things on the down low and she wanted to keep them there for him, and no longer just because she’d signed that document.
“I’d really rather not talk about that, Stellan.”
“Have you turned?”
She wasn’t following.
“Turned?”
“Against your nature,” he explained.
“You mean, away from the life?” she asked.
“Away from you,” he answered. “Who you are and how you like it.”
She shifted in her seat and responded, “Stellan, again, I’d really rather not—”
“There are parts of me that might understand that. He’s good-looking and it wasn’t lost on anyone you had a fascination with Damian. Doms enjoying subordinate positions under the rule of an advanced Dom isn’t unheard of. However, I’ve seen your work, at least what you’d show, and you’re not a sub, Evangeline. So it concerns me you’ve turned from your nature after having Damian.”
“You think Branch is a Dom?” she asked, not entirely surprised about this.
His brows went up briefly before he shifted out of his apparent surprise and returned, “We’ll talk about Dillinger in a second.”
She closed her mouth, knowing how she felt about that, and it wasn’t pleasant.
It was just ominous.
“If you need to break yourself back in, and you’re concerned about working with Damian and the extent you enjoy that, then I’ll take a female and male sub and we’ll work them together,” he offered then shrugged. “If it goes somewhere that we share something together along with our work with our slaves, to be honest, this would please me. I’ve always found you more than attractive, so feeling that, it was regrettable, knowing your leanings. However, although I think you’ve made the right decision to steer clear of Damian as the extremes he needs in play don’t coincide with your style, you’d be safer working with me in an effort to return to finding what you need rather than being with Dillinger.”
“I … this offer is lovely, Stellan,” she said softly, stunned in a nice way to learn he found her “more than attractive” even if that no longer factored in the slightest. “However, without sharing too much because it’s private, I’ll just say you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Just you saying that, Evangeline, means I do. Because you’re a real estate agent with a house in Willo and a talent with a switch. What you’re not is the kind of woman who should be with the kind of man Dillinger is.”
She felt her chest seize so she was forced to wheeze out, “Stellan—”
“He’s not a good man,” he declared.
“How do you know that?” she whispered.
“Because I’m not a good man,” he answered immediately. “And the kind of man I am knows the circles a man like Dillinger doesn’t quite run in because he doesn’t quite exist, which is another reason you should be cautious. But something else I know is the kind of not-good I am is absolutely not the same as the kind of not-good Dillinger is.”
Branch didn’t “quite exist”?
What on earth did that mean?
She didn’t ask.
She started, “I think this is something that we shouldn’t—”
“Aryas sent Dillinger to deal with Kevin,” he shared.
And she relaxed.
“I know that, Stellan,” she informed him. “And I also know how he did that. Not because Aryas shared. Because Branch told me.”
“Has he told you it all?” he asked.
Evangeline tensed again.
“What do you mean when you say, ‘it all’?” she asked back.
“I’ve no idea. But you asking that means he hasn’t shared it.”
Damn it
“That’s not your business,” Evangeline declared.
“He hasn’t,” he again accurately deduced. “And I can’t share because the kind of man Dillinger is, I don’t know the extent of what there is to share. Which is another concern. However, just the not knowing is of greater concern, considering what we both know he’s capable of.”
Even if he was flipping her out, she was beginning to get angry.
“You do know I’m an adult and can make decisions for myself,” she remarked.
He unhooked his ankle from his knee and leaned slightly her way. “What I also know, Leenie,” he started gently, “is that you chose badly with Kevin. And it’s my opinion you chose badly with Damian, even if Kevin explicitly requested him. It’s not that Damian isn’t in your league. It’s just that Damian doesn’t share your style and you should never have had anything to do with him.”
She felt her face turn hard. “So, if you knew all this, maybe you could have shared while I was with Kevin or before we had our scene with Damian.”
His face turned as gentle as his tone had been and it made him so handsome it almost hurt to look at him.
“I don’t want to hurt you, honey. And I’m not saying this to cause harm to you. I’m trying to make a point and I’m using that in an effort to get you to listen to me. Like everyone, I was surprised at what Kevin did. The fact he wasn’t good enough for you, I always knew. What he was hiding, I didn’t. And I’m not saying you should have. What I’m saying is, we all need to learn from our mistakes. Including you.”