How May I Please You (The Darkest Kink #2) (The Darkest Kink Duet)

Chapter 26

chapter

twenty-six

“He’s my friend, Journey.”

“Okay, so that means you let him talk to you however he pleases?”

“No, and I didn”t,” I reply as I slam the door behind us. We step into the living room and face each other, two opponents arming themselves for battle. “Trey let the alcohol get to him, which is why I told him to relax with how he was talking to me. But I was the one who fucked up, alright? I shouldn”t have said anything about Cain at all. It’s my fault.”

“Now you”re defending him?” Journey says, frowning hard. “I don”t understand what’s wrong with you, Evan. He spoke to you like you were a child. He chastised you for speaking ill of the man who used to verbally abuse you at work every day before you met me. Then he followed that by acting as though he is now your bully, because he tells you what to do all the time. He”s your boss every day, all day. Is that it?”

“Journey, I love you so much it fucking hurts, but you”re pushing it. I want you to have a voice and be as strong-minded as I know you are even though you are my submissive, but don”t forget who you”re talking to.”

“You”re my Dom, right?”

“You’re goddamn right.”

“So you’ll put me in check? Punish me if I go too far? If I disrespect you?”

“Of course I fucking will, and don”t ever forget it.”

“But you have nothing more for Trey than a few words? Put me in my place but let him walk all over you? How does that work?”

“I didn”t let him walk all over me,” I yell, taking two steps closer to Journey. “You don”t know what you”re talking about. Now sit the fuck down and listen.” Journey stands there, truly pushing her luck by acting like a brat, but I am in no mood for bratty fucking behavior. “Sit. Down. Now. I’ve told you a million times, Journey, you belong to me. You do as I tell you, and I have been as patient with you as I can possibly be, but you are pissing me the fuck off. Sit down or there will be consequences unlike anything in your worst nightmares. Sit!”

Sit your ass down before I grab you by the throat and force you down. You’ll turn every shade of blue before I let you go, because that is what you deserve. That is what you have earned.

Journey swallows hard, defiant despite herself. But she sits.

I take a deep breath and try to calm the voice inside my head. I see the mist in her eyes, but I don”t let it deter me.

“I know how you feel about me,” I begin again, calmer now. “I know you love me, and I know that you and I are not like the people we are surrounded by every day. We don”t stand for disrespect. I’d liquify someone in a vat of acid before I stand by and watch you be treated poorly, and I know you’d do the same for me. But Trey is a friend, and friends have disagreements from time to time. He, out of all the people in this world that I can’t stand, gets a bit of a longer leash. I’ll try to talk it out with him, and you”re going to have to accept that. In fact, you don”t have a fucking choice. Do you understand me? Let it fucking go. I’ll deal with it myself.”

The room goes silent as we look at each other. Journey tries to maintain eye contact, but eventually her eyes fall to the floor.

Exactly where they should be when dealing with her Dom.

“Okay,” she says quietly.

“What was that?” I ask with raised brows. “Say it louder so I can hear you, Little One.”

“Okay,” she repeats.

“Okay what?”

“I’ll let it go. I apologize for being disrespectful.”

“Say that part again, too.”

“Sir,” she says, finally looking up at me. “I apologize for being disrespectful. I’ll let it go.”

I stare down at her, my anger not dissipating in the least. “Good.”

After a sigh, I turn around and walk into the kitchen, leaving Journey silent on the couch while I go to the fridge and grab a bottle of wine and a glass for myself. This was supposed to be a fun night with Trey. I never thought it was going to come to this, but now that it has, I could really use a glass of wine. But as I fill the crystal with the dark red liquid, Journey’s cell phone rings.

“Fuck. It’s Summers,” she gripes before answering the call and placing the phone on her ear.

As she begins talking, Journey gets up from the couch and walks into the hall just as I return to the living room. As I place my wine glass on the coffee table, I hear Journey speaking.

“And it has to be now? Fine. I’ll meet you there.”

When she comes back to the living room, a fresh layer of annoyance coats her face.

“I have to go,” she announces.

“What?” I ask. “Why?”

She lets out a long, tired sigh. “Summers says he got permission to speak to Chad Swanson. He wants to go over the timeline of his alibi one last time before we remove him as a suspect.”

“And that has to happen at nine o’clock in the evening?”

“Yeah, I guess so. He says the captain wants us to do it now so we can start fresh on the case in the morning. I’m sorry. I’ll do everything I can to try and hurry it along, but I have to go.”

My brows furrow, a strong sensation stinging in my stomach without a single sip of the wine on the table. I bite my bottom lip as a million questions fire up in my head, but I don”t stop her. In fact, I’m mad enough at her that I almost want her to go.

“Alright then,” I say, then I sit down and grab the glass and bring it to my lips.

Yes, give me space before I do something I regret.

As Journey grabs her keys, she stops at the door and turns to face me.

“Sir,” she says, all the aggression in her voice now abandoned. “Never forget that I love you.”

Then she”s gone.

Hey, I just wanted to reach out and make sure everything was cool. I think we all let the wine get to us a little bit. We were all doing too much. Are we good?

After half an hour goes by,I realize that I’m not going to get a response from Trey. Understandably, he’s probably pissed. I am, too. But like I told Journey, friends can have disagreements and still be friends afterward. I’ve known Trey for a while now, and it would annoy the shit out of me for our friendship to end over a night we were supposed to be having a good time. Journey and I were supposed to show him what a happy couple looks like. Instead, we gave him a sneak peek at a side of us he wasn”t supposed to see.

After another five minutes goes by without hearing from neither Trey nor Journey, I decide to force the issue. If he won”t answer my texts, I’ll do this the old fashioned way.

I get up from the couch and go into the kitchen, where I open the fridge and pull out a six-pack of canned beer. Trey is more of a liquor guy, but alcohol is alcohol, and I know he won’t turn it down once he realizes it is my peace offering.

With my olive branch in hand, I hop in my truck and head to Trey’s house.

I’ve beento Trey’s place three other times. In the past, he would invite the crew over after we’d finish a project, and we would all celebrate our accomplishment here. Trey, always the gracious host, would be sure to have a keg on-hand to go along with some perfectly seasoned barbeque and tons of alcohol. The last one we had was right after Cain was killed, so it took on a more somber tone, but Trey still pulled it off. His personality was infectious as usual, and by the time the party was done, it almost felt like we were celebrating Cain’s life. Only Trey could do that.

As I approach his ranch style house from down the road, headlights shine from the opposite direction. I’m surprised when they turn into his driveway just as I step on the brakes and come to a stop in front of the house across the street. I see Trey get out of his car just before I reach down and grab the six-pack of beer in my passenger seat, but when I turn to wrap my fingers around the handle to get out, I see movement out of the corner of my eye that makes me pause.

Trey, who clearly ignored my text, slowly makes his way up the driveway with a plastic bag from Walmart in his hand. He angles his body toward a door that is centered beneath the small carport in front of him, and doesn”t hear or see the shadowed person moving quickly behind him.

I tilt my head and squint, trying to get a better view of the cat-like person progressing up the driveway with something in their hand. They close the distance in no time, and I am knocked backwards by pure shock as realization hits me like a gunshot blast.

“What the fuck?” I say aloud to myself. “Journey?”