Trained (The Mistress #2)

Prologue

The suitcase zipped shut behind Danica. She fixed her collar in the mirror, simultaneously inspecting her recently cut hair for any errant strands.

Better not be. For what she paid to have the best stylist in the region come by every week to keep her groomed…

well, if the woman couldn’t do something as simple as make Danica’s hair nice, then she wasn’t the best.

“Did you get everything, Mr. Clayborn?” she asked her assistant’s reflection.

Nigel Clayborn nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Five dresses, seven blouses, three pairs of pants, and plenty of undergarments to get you through your trip.”

“Excellent.” The collar was meticulously fixed by the time Danica walked away from the mirror. “Have Ms. Clayborn confirm that Ms. Colbert will be joining me before we take off.”

Danica didn’t like it when her obedient assistant didn’t act, hm, obedient. Whenever Mr. Clayborn looked like that, Danica knew that something sinister propagated beneath her feet. It was either boiling bad blood between the Clayborn siblings or… her father.

“About Ms. Colbert…”

Danica shot her assistant a biting look. Before Nigel could nuke his own ass, someone knocked on the chamber door.

“Ah, Danica.” Russell Moreau admitted himself without invitation. “Just the woman I wanted to see.” He smiled at the packed bags lining the wall. “Ready for Chicago?”

Danica tucked her hands behind her back. “Everything should be in order.”

“Excellent. I’m counting on you.”

Once upon a time, Danica loved to hear that from her father. Not that Russell ever withheld praise. He always praised his daughter… when Danica earned it. She would receive no participation trophies, but she would get a “good job” when she won a trophy.

Her father’s praise had been a drug for a while.

When an only child was rejected by her mother from an early age, it was natural to search for a father’s praise, wasn’t it?

At least I’m past that now. She couldn’t say that about some of her contemporaries.

Although Russell saying “good job” still felt pretty nice.

“When I get back,” Danica began, relieved to see a relaxed demeanor on her father’s face, “I’d like you to meet my new girlfriend. Perhaps we could have dinner together.”

Russell’s expression remained unchanged.

Yet the atmosphere? That completely shifted in Danica’s private quarters.

Russell had been brought up to speed about Alicia, right?

If he hadn’t seen the tabloids, then he at least heard about Alicia’s existence through the corporate grapevine.

Some shareholder or partner or direct underling would have said something about Danica cavorting multiple times with the same woman.

Her hookups and random one-night stands didn’t count.

People only took notice if the woman repeated.

My asking him to meet her must be like a stab in the stomach.

So was the day young Danica Moreau received the informal announcement that her perfectly matched parents were getting a sudden, messy divorce.

She had only been what, six? Seven? Barely starting school, let alone boarding school.

Mother Julia wasn’t around that much to begin with, but she always paid careful attention to her daughter when they were together.

Even with nannies, Julia was in charge and had the final say in everything.

“No, Danica, you didn’t finish your dinner, so no ice cream.

” “Did I say that you could touch that, Danica? Be a lady. Ladies don’t touch people or things without permission.

” “You can have it if you promise to play with it. Do you? All right, but if this is like the last thing we bought you, then forget any other toys for three months. Do you know how long three months is? A very long time.”

To have that kind of guidance leave her life, never to be seen again outside of tabloid speculation, would have broken lesser girls.

Particularly when said trash rags loved to lie about Julia’s supposed conditions.

Schizophrenia. Paranoia. Narcissism. Some said she had burn scars all over her body.

Others said she had tried to kill herself with Russell’s treasured Civil War pistol and was currently kept in a mental hospital.

Danica’s least favorite lie that actually made her sue for libel was the one that implied she had been beaten by her mother, prompting Russell to divorce her with no visitation rights.

“Your girlfriend.” Russell was a plaintive speaker when he wasn’t impressed. “I had hoped you had moved on from her already.”

Danica pretended she didn’t hear that tone in her father’s voice.

Russell had only readily approved of about three women in Danica’s dating life since coming to terms with her persistent sexuality.

Gale, the daughter of a Scandinavian shipping magnate; Patrice, a Georgian debutante whose family used to be one of the richest plantation owners in the Confederacy; Mika, a Japanese diplomat’s daughter with ties to the royal family and untold riches.

That last one only got a pass because of the connections.

Who cared if she wasn’t white if it meant the Moreaus tangentially became Asian royalty?

Russell had many business associates in Japan and South Korea.

They were all in the business of making each other more money.

He didn’t even like that I was dating the heiress of a Hong Kong empire.

If Danica’s beloved was to be non-white, then she must be of some kind of noble blood.

Money wasn’t enough. The Moreaus already had money.

Must she continue to insult the Moreau name with her lesbianism? And now the girl wasn’t even white?

Alicia was white, but she had some of the worst breeding possible. Danica had looked into it shortly after realizing she was falling for the former hostess of Midnight.

Alicia … Danica had forgotten the fortune teller’s Tarot cards until that fateful night in which she met and seduced Alicia Colbert. She looked like that card. So many fortunate signs in such a short span of time.

“You remember what you once told me about meeting ‘the one?’” Danica attempted to keep her countenance chipper. “I haven’t stopped feeling that since the moment I met her.”

“Yes. At that club of yours.”

Danica shrugged before grabbing her wallet off the nearest table. “Does it matter where I met her when it comes to my instincts?”

“I’m happy for your current happiness. Truly.

” Russell walked farther into the room. He nodded to Nigel Clayborn, who took the massive hint to get the hell out of there.

As soon as the man had scurried from the room, Russell continued, “A father wants nothing more than to see his child succeed and be happy. Ensuring a good match for her is one of those keys to happiness.”

Danica knew exactly where this was going, but decided to play dumb. She was too content with her thoughts of Alicia to do otherwise. “Then you’ll be even happier to know that things are going well with her. I’ve already had her background checked out. No criminal history, and a scholar.”

“If you think I haven’t helped myself to her background too, then you might be a fool.

” Russell sat in a chair in front of the coffee table.

“No one has ever heard of this Colbert family. Her parents are a schoolteacher and a nurse.” Russell scoffed.

“I know I told you to follow your gut while you’re young, daughter, but you must realize that we have standards to adhere to.

It’s one thing to have your fun with pretty but poor women.

It’s another to make accusations that you think she might be the one.

Come on, Danica, you’ve known her for what? A month?”

“Short of that.” Danica checked her collar again.

Was that a tag she saw? Damnit. She wanted to be perfect for once in her life.

Yet her clothing always had plans of its own.

Alicia doesn’t seem to mind. That made Danica smile at her reflection.

As long as Alicia was happy with her girlfriend’s appearance.

God knew Danica was more than happy with hers.

“When I was your age, I was falling in love with women and calling them ‘the one’ every other month.”

“When you were my age, you were already married to my mother.”

“It was an arranged match. You’re old enough for me to be candid about my feelings toward the woman. It was never love.”

I figured as much. “What is this really about, Father?”

“For your own good, Danica, break things off with this woman before you seriously cause some damage.”

Danica turned toward her father. The man sat with one leg over the other, eyeing a painting of a lily in water.

“What damage would I be causing?”

“Do you really need me to give you a lecture about what it means to be a Moreau? You’re lucky your mother and I didn’t betroth you from the moment you were born.

Certainly wasn’t due to a lack of interest the moment you were announced female.

There were many young sons in America, let alone Europe, who would have been happy to be adopted into the family. You could even keep your name.”

“Because it went so well for you.”

“Your mother and I had extenuating circumstances that made us the first in a long line of arranged marriages to divorce. Trust me. I did not take any pleasure in it. You’ll also notice that I’ve never remarried.”

Would cut into your lifestyle, I’m sure.

Danica and her father did not share predilections.

“I do not fall in love lightly, Father. I’m not even saying that I’m about to ask Alicia to marry me.

” The thought may have entered her head once or twice, though.

“I would like to at least cordially introduce her to you.”

Danica could not read her father’s expression.

That’s never a good sign. “I know she’s very pretty.

That I cannot deny.” Russell stood. “Yet, like you claim to not fall in love easily, I do not give out my advice on such matters as easily, either. Quite frankly, this Ms. Colbert isn’t good enough for you, Danica.

Perhaps if we did not claim the status that we do.

As it is, we need your future wife, if she must be such, to be a woman of upstanding character and breeding.

We know nothing about this young woman.”

“I can assure you that she has an upstanding character.” Well, Alicia hadn’t tried to steal from her yet. She was already ahead of fifty percent of the women Danica dated.

“Does she have excellent breeding?”

“Unfortunately for you, I believe she’s of simple English and Irish peasant stock.”

“Then she isn’t good enough for you.” Russell sighed. “I don’t say this to upset you. I say this because I am your father, and I have to watch out for your future. One day, when you are a parent, you will understand.”

Would she, now? Danica was never sure about that. It’s hard enough to imagine myself as a mother, let alone what kind I would be. “What are you going to do to replace her? I fully expect a lineup of beautiful, well-bred women waiting for me when I get back from Chicago.”

“You jest, but if that’s what you want, I can employ the matchmaker they use in Europe to find you more suitable matches.

It’s true. You are now at an age where we must start considering your marriage status.

I won’t live forever. Would be nice to see some grandchildren before I pass on from this world.

Particularly a grandson. Pick up where your mother left off. ”

Danica pretended to inspect the luggage Mr. Clayborn packed on her behalf.

“I don’t think a matchmaker would be necessary.

” Bad enough her father was always inviting over other fathers to meet Danica…

fathers with daughters. Well-bred daughters.

Because nothing turned Danica on more than having lovers forced upon her.

Hilariously enough, that really didn’t turn her on.

She preferred to find women on her own. Like Alicia.

Danica had only been looking for her because she heard a new hostess was at her club.

After that? Everything had been organic.

The pursuit. The seduction. The never-ending thoughts as she tried to get back to her life after their first encounter.

Alicia had come so willingly, too. Sure, lots of women did, but with the fervor and the lust for experimentation that Alicia had? Didn’t happen often.

There was still so much to expose her to. At first, Danica was content with having a new plaything that reminded her of the beautiful woman she had been imagining for the past ten years. Then Alicia told her that she was a virgin when they first met.

Hadn’t the fortune teller said something about that?

“Let the girl go, Danica,” her father said. “It’ll be easier for both of you if you do it now. She doesn’t get her hopes up, and you don’t…”

Neither of them would say “get your heart broken.” The idea was silly. My father was far from heartbroken when he divorced my mother. Contrary to what the papers said, it had nothing to do with her beating him.

“I’ll think about it,” Danica said. She stepped away from the luggage and checked her phone.

No messages from Alicia, but there were about five from Ms. Sarah Clayborn.

“In the meantime, how about you let me be the adult we both know I can be?” Danica was ready to show herself out of her own chambers.

“Your objection, however, has been noted.”

Russell said nothing. Not that Danica cared. She was an adult, wasn’t she? Of course she was. So was Alicia. Together, they were quite the pair of adults.

Danica pulled out the black box she had kept in her jacket pocket as soon as she was away from her father. The man would have feared it was a diamond ring. Not quite. More like her new pair of diamond cufflinks.

They had her name on them.

Soon, so would Alicia. Danica’s name on her body. Hearing her name in the back of her mind at all hours of the day. Physically. Emotionally. Psychologically.

Legally.

Soon, Alicia Colbert would no longer be known by that name. Danica didn’t care what her father thought about that. Danica respected her father, but she was not subservient to him. Life was too short to be betrothed to anyone but the woman of her dreams.