The Submission of Alistair Ingram (5 page)

Bethany
pushed Alistair away. “You’ll take care of nothing.” She brushed by him and
strode to the chest of drawers where her phone sat. “I’ve been on my own a long
time.” She picked her phone up and turned to him. “I’m a big girl. I can take
care of myself.”

Alistair
studied her face intently, one hand on his hip. He had a way of looking at her
that made her feel like she was made of snow and stuck in the blazing sun. She
was sure she’d pool into water at his feet then evaporate altogether.

He
jerked his hand to his head and ran his fingers through his hair, lips pulled
into a tight frown. “I have no doubt you can take care of yourself. I only
meant--”

“You
only meant to be the hero,” she broke in. “You might play one on T.V. or in
movies, but you don’t know what you’d be getting into with this.” She held up
her phone indicating her ex.

Bethany
walked by him out into the hall and glanced back over her shoulder. “Stick with
what you know. Pretending.”

“Hey,”
he said, taking two long strides to catch up with her and grab her elbow. “I’m
very real. Just like Black Betty is your act, my characters are mine. Don’t
mistake me for a man who can’t handle the dark, shitty reality of your life. I
get it, okay?”

Bethany
jerked her arm out of his grasp and turned on him, barely able to control the
heated rage building in her chest. “Do you? You understand?” With one quick tug
over her head, her dress was off and she turned to her back on him. “Do you
understand
this,
Alistair?”

She
heard his faint, sharp inhale of breath, then felt his fingertips,
feather-light, touching her lower back where old scars crisscrossed.

Alistair
stepped closer. His other hand joined the first, touching and caressing gently.
“He did this to you?”

She
spun around to face him and pulled her dress back over her head. “Yes. And I
left him. Until today, he hasn’t known where to find me.”

Alistair
leaned against the wall, letting the back of his head bang against it. “Until
you were in the news because of me.”

The
guilt on his face was too much for Bethany to handle. She cupped his cheek and
rubbed her thumb under his bottom lip. “It’s my fault, not yours. I didn’t play
by the rules, and this is the consequence.”

She
watched her thumb trace back and forth, then raised her eyes to his and quickly
dropped her hand. Why was she feeling the need to touch him so intimately? They
weren’t in her lair, and this wasn’t part of her job. She shouldn’t be
consoling him. He had Heather Winston for that if it’s what he needed. One
apology and she’d be crawling back to him.

Bethany
would never let a man hold that kind of power over her again.

“But,
his ringtone…?” Alistair grasped her hand and held it.

“I
put his number in my phone so I’d know if he ever called.”

Mark
strolled down the hallway and stopped when he saw them. “No loitering, Ingram.
Paying customers back here only.” He chuckled, the only one of the three of
them amused. “Betty, you know the rules about personal calls to the house
phone. I had to give one of your boyfriends your cell number. You going to
break anymore rules today, or can we call this your limit?”

“That’s
how he got my number,” Bethany murmured, dread setting in. “Did you tell him
anything else?”

Mark
stuck his hands in his pockets and rolled up on the toes of his ugly brown
loafers. “He asked what nights you work, so I told him your schedule.”

“Fuck,”
Alistair said, verbalizing exactly what she was thinking. “You’re an idiot,” he
told Mark. “That was her ex-husband.” He pushed off the wall and got in Mark’s
face. “If that asshole comes here and puts one finger on her, you’re done. I’ll
make sure of it.”

Bethany
grabbed the back of Alistair’s shirt and tugged him back. “You’re not helping.
Losing my job is only going to make my life worse.”

He
pivoted to face her and took her hands. “No. That’s exactly what you have to do.
You know the cover story? How you’re training me for the
Hues of Black and
Blue
role? It can be real. Come to LA with me. Your ex won’t be able to
touch you with my security team watching over you.”

Bethany’s
brain could barely keep up. He wanted her to go to LA with him and pretend—no,
actually train him to be a Dom?

“You
can’t take her away from here,” Mark said, coming to stand between them. “She’s
my best Dom.”

Alistair
put a hand on Mark’s chest and pushed him back a step. “Find another. This
one’s mine now.”

Bethany’s
mind raced. “Wait! This is my decision. I need to think about it.”

Alistair
wrapped his arm around her and rubbed her lower back over her scars. “And what
if your ex comes looking for you before you decide?”

She
couldn’t tear her eyes from his. Why was this man so concerned for her? They’d
met less than twenty-four hours ago. Did he really have some kind of hero
complex, always needing to be the one to save the girl? Was it some power trip?
Maybe his pretend life was getting—

Her
phone rang.
Master and Servant.

Alistair
took it from her and silenced it. “Decision made. Pack your bags, Ms. Black,
you’re going to LA.”

Ask
And Receive

“I’m
driving my own car home!” Bethany struggled against his hold on her upper arm.

“Just
get in.” Alistair could throttle her. He’d never met a more stubborn woman in
his entire life. Why was she so resistant to let him help her? “The paparazzi’s
swarming outside that gate. My driver knows how to deal with them, and they
can’t see in my tinted windows.”

He
flung the back passenger side door open and practically had to shove her inside
before following her in.

Bethany
slid all the way against the opposite door and turned to face out the window.

Rolling
his eyes to the ceiling in frustration, he pulled his phone from his pocket as
the driver started toward the gate. “Kent,” he said, reaching his manager,
“I’ll be back in L.A. in about five hours. Release the story we went over. I
cleared it with her, but there’s been a slight change. She’s coming back with
me.”

“Why
is she coming with you?” Kent asked, and Alistair could visualize his
exasperated expression. He’d put that look on his face enough times to have it
memorized.

“There’s
been an unexpected situation as a result of her being mentioned on T.V.” He
glanced at Bethany from the corner of his eye. She didn’t budge.

The
gate shifted open and the S.U.V. eased out into the sea of flashing cameras.

“I
don’t give a shit if the entire world is camped out on her front step,” Kent
said, and Alistair heard the distinct sound of an open-palmed assault to a
keyboard. “She’s not my problem or yours.”

“It’s
not the world. It’s one man, and it is my problem. Five hours,” he repeated and
hung up before Kent could give him any more grief.

“He’s
right,” Bethany said, her breath fogging the window, “it’s not your problem.”

“Don’t
start. I’m the Dom in this situation, so sit back and keep your trap shut.”

She
spun around so fast her braid flew out and almost smacked him in the face. “I
run my life, got it? Not you. Not any man. If I go with you--”

“It’s
out of fear,” he said, cutting her off. “I know. I owe you nothing, you owe me
nothing. This is a mutually beneficial solution, so accept it and let’s move
on.”

Bethany
yanked a pair of black sunglasses out of her bag and shoved them on her face
before turning back to the window.

If
she wanted to hate him, that was fine. But he was right. Getting her out of
Vegas was the fastest and easiest way to keep her from her ex. “If you have
somewhere else you want to go… Your parents’ maybe? Sister’s house? A brother?”

“There’s
no one,” she said. The sadness in her voice almost palpable in the air.

Alistair
reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder. She tensed, then relaxed under
his touch. “Then coming home with me isn’t such a bad plan, is it?”

She
shrugged. “Turn left at this light,” she called to the driver.

Alistair
took that as an affirmative answer. His plan wasn’t such a bad one.

After
receiving few more directions from her, the driver pulled into her driveway.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, and got out of the S.U.V.

Alistair
opened his door and followed her. “Think you can leave me waiting in the car
like a dog? You didn’t even crack the windows for me.”

She
tilted her head and looked at him like he was pathetic. “You have your driver
to keep you company. I’m quite able to pack a few things on my own.”

He
picked up a small potted plant from her porch railing and prodded a leaf. “I’ll
help.”

Bethany
stopped turning her key in the lock. “I promise not to escape out the back
door.”

Alistair
put the plant back. “I’m coming in.”

“I
didn’t invite you in.”

He
stepped forward, wrapped his hand around hers and turned the knob. “Yes, thank
you, I’d love to come in,” he said, and stepped into her small foyer.

“My
God. You’re so pompous.” She slammed the door shut and stomped up the stairs.

Alistair
had no idea why getting under her skin was so much fun, but he couldn’t stop
himself. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” he called out, running up the
stairs after her.

“Go
back downstairs and wait!” She yelled from the bedroom on his right.

“I’m
sorry. I didn’t catch that.” Alistair strode in and plopped down on her
queen-sized, unmade bed. Two towels lay in a pile on the floor at his feet, a
pink bra dangled from her doorknob, and a tall stack of haphazardly folded
clothes teetered on a chair beside her chest of drawers. “You’re a slob. Maybe
I don’t want you at my house.”

“Great,”
she said, slamming a dresser drawer. “Then you can leave.”

He
laughed and grabbed the armful of clothes from her. “Got a suitcase for these?”

She
flung open her closet and tugged a carry-on sized one out.

“You’ll
need something bigger than that. I’m not a quick learner. You’ll be training me
for months probably.”

Bethany
hoisted the suitcase up on the bed and opened it. “You’ll learn fast or get
punished. Trust me, you won’t want me around more than a week.”

He
grabbed her braid and tugged. “I thought I’d get pleasure from your punishment,
Ms. Black. Isn’t that the point?”

She
threw her clothes in the suitcase and turned to him with her hand on her hip.
“Keep it up, and all you’ll be getting is the paddle, not the penis love.”

“Penis
love?” He almost choked, then couldn’t stop laughing. “I’ve never heard that
term before.”

Her
icy exterior broke, and she let out a deep, rippling tide of laughter. “I might
have just made it up.”

“Penis
love,” he said again, sitting on the side of her bed. “Not your best effort, I
hope.”

“No.
A very poor attempt at threatening you.” She laughed and ran her hand over the
clothes in her bag.

“Penis
love. If that’s a real thing, sign me up. You can show me how that’s done any
day.” He stood and pulled her to him, holding her loosely in his arms. “I like hearing
you laugh. This doesn’t have to suck for you. I hope it won’t.”

She
held his eyes. She was smiling but didn’t say anything. He would’ve given a
million bucks to know what she was thinking.

He
let her go. “Can I help with anything?”

She
knelt and tugged an enormous black duffle bag out from under her bed. “You can
carry this for me.”

He
grabbed the handles and lifted what had to be a hundred pounds. “What the hell
do you have in here?”

Bethany
quirked an eyebrow and smirked. “You’ll see, Mr. Ingram. You’ll see.”

The
Darkness Inside

Bethany
could sense Alistair’s hesitation standing there with his hand wrapped around
the handles of her black toy bag. “Well?” she said, “are you going to carry it
out to the S.U.V. for me or not?”

Not
able to resist teasing him, she ran her finger down the side of his face.
“You’re not afraid of what I might have in there are you? What I might do to
you with the goodies in my bag, Mr. Ingram?”

His
eyebrow shot up. Bethany inhaled slow and deep at the intense look in
Alistair’s eyes. He licked his lips. “I’m not afraid of you.” The deep, raspy
timbre of his voice made her body arch toward him. “I can take whatever you
give me,” he said, wrapping her braid around his hand. “Can you take what I
give you? That’s the real question.”