Rapturous Read Free Page B

bull by the horns, and Natalie’s odd reaction to my plans has put me further on edge than I already was.
    But that kiss… Thatdamned kiss. Whatever happens next is his own fault. He started it. I intend to finish it once and for all. It’s about damned time.

    I’m gripped with indecision. Do I tell Flynn about Addie’s plan, or do I keep it to myself? Addie has no idea that Hayden, Flynn and the rest of the Quantum principals are Doms. She doesn’tknow about Club Quantum or the playroom in Hayden’s Malibu house that tipped me off to his preferences even before I knew that Flynn shares them.  
    My stomach hurts when I think about Addie getting way more than she bargained for with Hayden. But then I tell myself Hayden loves Addie. He’d never hurt her or push her too far or… God, I don’t know that for sure. Yes, I’ve gotten to know Hayden muchbetter since our inauspicious first meeting when I messed up his shot in a Greenwich Village park and was subjected to a tirade. But I don’t really know him all that well. I certainly don’t have the first clue how he treats a woman in bed outside the Dom/sub relationship. Does he even have what they call “vanilla” sex?
    I don’t know, and the fact that Addie could be walking into something she’swoefully unprepared for has my nerves on full alert. My dilemma is not something I can easily hide from my incredibly attentive husband.
    “Why are you fidgeting?” he asks when we’re settled in the backseat of the car he hired to get us around on Oscar night.
    “No reason.” Addie has been a good friend to me from the first day we met, through the storm of my past being made public, to my marriageto Flynn and everything in between. She’s made me feel welcome in my new life, and I want our friendship to flourish. How can that happen, though, if I betray her confidence?
    Flynn snuggles up to me, and I end up on his lap with his arms around me and his lips doing wondrous things to my neck that have me on the verge of forgetting all about Addie and her plan.  
    “Tell me what’s wrong. Did someonesay something nasty to you? Who do I need to have killed?”
    “Don’t even say that. We’ve had enough murder mysteries tied to your name to last us a lifetime.” I’m still getting my head around the fact that my father killed the lawyer who ratted me out to the press. My father didn’t do it to avenge me, though. No, he did it because the lawyer besmirched my dad’s precious friend—the same friend whoattacked and raped me when I was fifteen. My father has always chosen Oren over me—and he always will.  
    “The girls had a good time tonight,” he says of my sisters, who’ve gone home to spend the night with his parents.  
    “Thanks for including them.”
    “Of course they’re included. They’re our family.”
    “Yes,” I say with a happy sigh, “they are.” I love having my sisters back in my life, which hasbeen the best thing to come out of the recent uproar over my past. Well, Flynn is the very best thing, but my sisters are right up there, too. Candace and Olivia grew into lovely young women during the eight years we spent apart, and I’m so proud of them.
    “Someone asked Jasper about Olivia,” Flynn says.
    I’m immediately on alert. “What about her?”
    “Whether she might be interested in modeling.”

    “Seriously?”
    “Jasper wouldn’t have told me if it wasn’t serious interest.”
    “I don’t know what to say to that. She’s got school and work and… Wow.”
    “I know, right?” His smile stretches across his handsome face. He’s had a lot to smile about lately after sweeping the award season for his amazing performance in Camouflage , not to mention getting married. “Will you tell her?” he asks.
    “I supposeI’ll have to. It should be her choice.”
    “I agree.” He kisses my cheek and then my lips. “Now will you please tell me what’s got you stressed out?”
    “You won’t like it.”
    “Tell me