Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Camille
“So, how was last night?” Julie’s smile matched that of the Cheshire Cat, smug and completely pleased with herself.
“Oh, are you who Freddy was with last night?” Olivia asked before Camille could respond, her eyebrows rising on her forehead with interest as she opened her napkin and settled it on her lap. “I was wondering when I saw that he’d reserved a room at the last minute.”
Julie’s eyes lit up, and she sat up straighter.
“You two got a room?!” Sheer delight colored her voice, and Camille sighed. Julie was going to be a pain in the butt to deal with, taking all the credit for matching Camille with Freddy.
“Yes, one of the rooms had a cancellation, so I had Freddy reserve it for us.” She gave Julie a look. “Since we agreed that last night would be a onetime thing, for now, we wanted to make the most of it. No, we did not stay overnight.”
Although she had considered it, but in the end, the need to keep some boundaries—and the lack of clothing for her to change into the next morning—had won out.
She knew it had been the right decision, even if she’d regretted it almost the second she got home and had to get into her lonely, empty bed. But it had been the right choice.
At least Julie had messaged her this morning to distract her from her regrets, asking if she wanted to meet her and Olivia for lunch at Murphy’s Meals to make up for being ditched the night before.
Even if being ditched had come with some very nice benefits, thanks to Freddy being on hand to keep her company.
If she hadn’t heard Julie’s distress when her cousin called, she would have suspected it being a setup.
“Well, I hope it was a good night,” Julie replied smugly in a tone, indicating she was completely sure it had been. Camille wasn’t about to malign Freddy by lying and saying it hadn’t been.
Still.
“It would have been better if we didn’t still have our clients hanging over our heads,” she said with a sigh.
At Olivia’s confused look, she explained that she and Freddy were representing two opposing sides in a contested divorce, though she didn’t give names or go into details.
Still, Olivia was astute enough to pick up on the fact that Camille’s client was a jerk, the same way Julie had.
That or maybe she just assumed due to knowing Freddy and his firm’s reputation that he was on the side of the good and the righteous.
“So, basically, as soon as you’re done with your douchebag client, you can date Freddy?”
Julie choked on her drink at Olivia’s blunt summation.
“As soon as the divorce has been resolved, I can date Freddy,” Camille replied smoothly. “But I wouldn’t want anyone to think that I’m not giving my client my best services because of who I’m dating.”
“Are you worried you might end up on opposite sides again?” Olivia asked, leaning forward on one of her elbows while she stirred her drink with the straw. It looked like her brain was whirring with possible hazards for Camille and Freddy, something Camille had already thought about a lot.
“No, because if we start seeing each other and end up across from each other again, I can let the partners know it’s a conflict of interest, and they’ll be able to make a decision based on an established relationship.
That’s a little different from dating or starting a relationship while we’re working at cross purposes.
” A bit of guilt trickled through her. Last night was not something she should have done.
On the other hand, it made her more determined to do her job to the best of her ability. Possibly even better than she would have otherwise since her personal dislike of Mr. Alexander made it very hard to want to give him her best. So, really, he might be better off this way.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Olivia said thoughtfully.
Camille had the oddest feeling she’d just passed some sort of test. Well, maybe she had. Julie had mentioned Olivia was very protective of all the submissives in the club.
Which was why she didn’t let the little shot of jealousy that trickled through her affect her too much.
As much as she wanted to say another Domme didn’t need to worry about her Freddy, the truth was he wasn’t her Freddy yet.
In some ways, Olivia had an even better claim to watch out for him than Camille did.
That might grind her gears right now, but she was glad he had a good friend looking out for him.
Mostly. She would just have to look forward to the day when she was the one with the right to look out for him.
“Well, I knew you two would hit it off.” Julie’s smugness continued unabated. “Though I didn’t expect the rival clients wrinkle, but at least it’s a temporary situation.”
“Yeah, it could be worse. By the way, how did things go with your cousin last night?” Camille didn’t want to talk about her and Freddy.
Talking more about what they weren’t doing would only depress her.
Although the topic of conversation she’d chosen wasn’t really an upper either, but she was curious.
Julie’s face darkened with anger.
“We got her stuff moved out, but I thought I was going to have to beat her boyfriend’s ass before Connor stepped in.
Misogynistic asshole… her ex, not Connor…
didn’t have the intellect to realize I could have killed him where he stood, but he sees a big man and suddenly, he’s making himself scarce. ”
“What was Connor doing there?” Olivia seemed as confused as Camille felt.
“Oh, he and Sandra work together,” Julie replied. “Sandra’s not kinky, but she knows I am and knows about Marquis and Stronghold. Somehow, kink came up at work one day, then she told him about the clubs, and that’s how he ended up here.”
Olivia blinked. “I had no idea.”
Camille got the feeling the Domme wasn’t usually in the position of not knowing.
Their food arrived, derailing the conversation, and when it picked back up, it was about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff at Marquis and Stronghold.
Julie and Olivia were invested, and Camille was interested.
With the holidays over, the next big event would be Valentine’s Day.
Not something Camille had celebrated in a long time, but she couldn’t help but think about Freddy now…
She could only hope all the papers would be signed before then, and she could have a Valentine for the first time in years. Not that she’d particularly cared the years she hadn’t had one, but right now, she wanted any excuse to spend time with Freddy.
“Oh, look at her, getting all day dreamy about Valentine’s Day,” Julie smirked.
“Hey, do you think your secret admirer will reveal themselves on Valentine’s Day?” Camille asked, deflecting the best way she knew how. Besides, it was a legitimate question.
To her surprise, Julie made a face.
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
“How can you not want to know?” Olivia stared at her, which almost made Camille laugh. She might not know Olivia well yet, but she wasn’t surprised she hated the idea of not knowing something.
“Knowing might ruin it.” Julie shrugged.
“Right now, it’s a fun mystery, but part of it is not knowing who it is.
What happens if it’s someone I’m not attracted to or not interested in?
Then I’ll have to feel bad. I know it’s coming eventually, and while best-case scenario it’s someone I might have chemistry with, I honestly can’t think of a submissive at the club whom I would hope it is. So, I’d rather not know.”
Camille blinked. Okay, she could see that since Julie did know all the submissives at the clubs.
“Do you think your mind might change about some of them if you knew they were your admirer?” she asked.
Julie shrugged. “It’s possible.”
“I was thinking it might be Mark,” Olivia said, watching Julie closely. “You scene with him on a fairly regular basis.”
“It’s definitely not Mark,” Julie said, shaking her head.
“He has a crush on a woman at his gym, but he’s too shy to approach her and too worried she might not want anything to do with a submissive like him.
I’m working on helping him with his confidence.
He’s a delightful sub, but there’s no spark. ” She said it rather wistfully.
Camille felt bad that she’d been so caught up with her own life and with Freddy, she hadn’t noticed her friend was yearning for a little romance, too.
“Well, maybe there’ll be a spark when you find out who they are. If not… there are new members coming in soon, and you’ll get to meet all the single ones first,” Olivia pointed out with a small laugh.
“There is that.” The hint of wistfulness was gone, and Julie was back to her usual, brisk self.
“In the meantime, I enjoy having a little romance without having to actually do anything about it. Hopefully, my admirer understands there’s no obligation on my part to reciprocate, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. ”
“I’m going to hold out hope for you that when they do reveal themselves, there’s a spark,” Camille announced, laughing when Julie shot her a wry look.
“You do that. You know, it’s nice to see you being more yourself.”
“It’s nice feeling more like myself.”
“How’s the job hunt going?”
“I’ve gotten a few phone interviews scheduled, so we’ll see how those go.” Camille shrugged. “I’m hopeful, and I’m sure as hell not giving up. If I don’t find a new firm… maybe I’ll strike out on my own.”
That was an absolutely terrifying thought and not what she actually wanted to do, but she was starting to feel as though there was no way she could stay at Donaldson, not for any amount of money. Even if it meant having to move her mom to a different home. Her mom would want her to be happy.
She wasn’t sure how she’d deal with the guilt if it came to that, but she knew her mom would be mad at her for sacrificing her own needs.
She might not be able to say so right now or be able to participate in the decision-making process, but Camille knew if her mom was capable, she would have already told Camille to get out of Donaldson and to move her. That it wasn’t worth it.
“I bet you’d do great. Have you asked Freddy about openings at his firm?”
“No, and I’m not going to.”
Julie gave her a look as if she thought Camille was cutting off her nose to spite her face, but Camille ignored her.
Beginning a romantic relationship and starting to work at the same firm sounded like a recipe for disaster.
Workplace romances were hard enough to navigate when it was between long-time workers.
She didn’t want to get a new job only to find herself at the center of relationship drama and possibly out of both at the same time. Maybe she was playing it safe, but there was nothing wrong with that.
“So, I think I’m going to propose to Luke on Valentine’s Day,” Olivia said, successfully dropping a conversational bomb and diverting all attention to her.
Camille wasn’t sure if she’d done it to help Camille out or just because she’d been dying to share the news, but either way, she was grateful.