Re/Bound (Doms of the FBI Book 1) Read Free

trained a full staff to oversee the department. Victor wanted her to stay with him, to run everything. Darcy didn’t want to give up her business in order to do that. Scott seemed to be the only one who had understood how her work fulfilled her. He alone had urged her to hold fast to her dreams. Actually he had ordered it, and she had loved him all the more for it.
    She was under no illusion that her mystery Dom, Theo, would or could give her what she really needed. On occasion Scott had provided a stern reprimand or two to another submissive. This outward display of his generous spirit had drawn her to him in the first place. Theo seemed to be cut from the same cloth, but she had to be careful to not transfer her feelings for Scott to Theo. It wouldn’t be a true emotion, and it wouldn’t be fair to any of them.
    Perhaps he would want to buy her a drink or let her buy one for him. She would thank him and call him “Sir.” If anyone had earned that title, Theo had.
    As she sat at her assigned seat on the dais with the other weekend presenters, Darcy looked around the room. It didn’t take long for her to find Theo. The rich depth of his dark brown hair stood out in this crowd from the west side of Michigan with its large Dutch population. Most people were blond or bald. Even her light brown hair blended in with everyone else. Not Theo. Even if he were blond, which wouldn’t look right with his angular, olive-complexioned face, he would stand out. The authority he carried on his shoulders shone like a broadcast beacon, pulling every eye toward him.
    Theo wasn’t handsome in the traditional sense. His cheekbones were too sharp, and his long nose had a hawkish bend to it. A scar crossed his left eyebrow, interrupting its thickness and giving him an air of danger. She could study his lips for hours. Already she wondered if they were soft or if they were as hard as they looked. She could easily picture his face as a granite bust.
    A pang of guilt hit her chest, and she drew a deep, ragged breath. Scott would want her to move on with her life. He would want her to find another Dom. He would want her to be happy.
    The event organizer sat to her right. Colleagues took up the remaining seats. Theo had said he would find her afterward, and she trusted him to follow through. She didn’t really have anything on which to base her assumption other than intuition and hope. Having been around the scene for more than a few years, she’d seen good Doms and bad ones. Theo struck her as the former. She wasn’t necessarily looking for another relationship, but she could use a friend.
    For the first time since those horrible weeks after Scott disappeared, Darcy felt a knot of peace unfurling in her chest. She turned her attention to the people around her and focused on staying in the moment.
    After dinner Darcy tried to make her way from the room. Various people stopped her along the way. Some exclaimed over her speech. Several business owners pressed cards into her hand. Others told her they looked forward to attending her portion of the conference the next day.
    She smiled and made eye contact. She shook hands and memorized names. Using what she hoped were surreptitious glances, she scanned the room for Theo. The vacant seat where he had eaten offered no clues as to his whereabouts. She fought disappointment and concentrated on the man who had held her hand in his for far too long.
    “I saw you speak last year,” he said. “We were seated together for breakfast both mornings.”
    She stared at him. His nondescript brown hair and eyes offered no clues to jog her memory. If the conference had been a year ago, she had likely attended with Scott. Though their schedules had sometimes conflicted and he couldn’t always travel with her, he tried his best to attend the larger gatherings where her nerves presented the worst. Thinking of Scott brought her up short, derailing her attempt to remember the man.
    “Which conference was this?”