Submission: Guilty Pleasures #3 (BBW Erotic Romance) by Adriana Hunter Page B

nodded.  “But I want to
talk about Jane now, not what happened with Chase or Jake.” I took another
swallow of coffee. At this rate, I’d be up all night again.
    “Anyway, the spanking for
discipline was apparently just like what her step-father did before he, well,
did whatever he did. Jake didn’t go into details. He said she’d never gotten
help for whatever happened. So she ran out and he never saw her again. She just
vanished.”
    Leslie let out a breath. “Wow.
Heavy stuff. So what’s your reason for wanting to find Jane? Doesn’t what Jake
told you sound like the whole story?”
    “No. Or yes...or maybe it’s Jake’s
version. I was so happy he’d finally let down his guard, let me in on why he’s
so controlled all the time. He’s convinced he’d hurt Jane, that if somehow he’d
have been less...aggressive...she’d have been okay.”
    I was circling a phone number on
my scratch pad. “Apparently their sessions were quite intense, on all levels. Jake
wasn’t the restrained dominant I know.”
    “So you think he’s a ticking time
bomb? Like tie you to the bed and then go all wild on you?”
    I shook my head. “No, not so much.
Or if he did, I’d probably like it.” I felt myself blush.
    “Chase is a lot like that. Not the
tie-me-to-the-bed part...um, but the wild part. He’s quite...aggressive in his own
way.” But he did tie you to a table. In public. Don’t forget that.
    “Yeah, but why do you want to find
Jane? Do you think she has answers you’re not getting from Jake?”
    “I’m getting there. Chase knew
Jane...or knows of Jane.” I waited. That was too big of a bombshell for Leslie to
pass up. I was right. I cringed again. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
    “You’re kidding? Really? Like,
from the club?” Smart girl.
    “Actually it’s Chase’s office
manager, or assistant manager, or assistant something, Stacy, who knew her. They
worked at the same dance club. Stacy told Chase that Jane told her that Jake
abused her, beat her and treated her badly. Something like that. Not quite what
Jake told me.”
    “Oh, man. So you’ve got two sides
but you want it direct from the submissive’s mouth?” She leaned forward, a
little too intense, a little too interested. This was what I wanted to
avoid.
    “I guess that’s it.” And it was,
pretty cut and dried.
    “So call Stacy. She must have
Jane’s number, right?” Leslie sat back, sipping her coffee. I heard the chime
of another incoming message. I tapped my mouse, bringing up an email from my
boss, Burke.
    “Well...I don’t know. I mean, Jake said
Jane disappeared. Cell phone disconnected, family hadn’t heard from her. I don’t
know that Stacy would know anything else, but she’s the only connection left I
can think of.”
    “So what are you waiting for? Call
Stacy.” Leslie is pretty much straight to the point on things.
    “I am...I will. But I don’t want to
call the club if Chase is there. I feel like I’m checking his story or
something.”
    “You are! And you’re checking on Jake’s.
You have a right to know the truth, don’t you? If you’re in doubt, you need to
know, Abby.” Leslie reached across the desk, her hand resting on mine, squeezing
it briefly.
    “This has gone past just who
you’re going to be fucking in the future. It kind of involves your safety in either
relationship, doesn’t it?”
    ––––––––
    T he number I’d been circling on my
notepad was the number to Chase’s club. I’d written it down in what seemed like
an eternity ago, on the day Jake had said we’d gotten an invitation to the
club. To Chase’s club. To a club he’d been to before, with Jane.
    My mind went back to the
conversations we’d had about visiting the club. How he’d heard that we’d need
an invitation from the club’s owner in the first place.
    How he’d had things in storage he
needed to put in the tower room.
    And his first message to me, on
the dating site that brought us together.
    I