Chapter 30 Sebastian
Sebastian
The lights in the hall of Sanctum blinked, notifying anyone still inside that they had two minutes to clear out. It was what allowed people to set up private rendezvous, like those I'd had with Mira.
What the hell had I done? I banged my head against the wall.
My vision blurred as I sank down the wall.
I wanted tonight to be special, and it had been until I'd called her name as I came, crossing a line I hadn’t meant to.
Twenty minutes— I'd held off her orgasm until she’d been pleading, her body shaking with need.
"Care to explain?" Ethan stepped into the room from the door in the back hall. "What did she mean by she didn't know you guys were in an arrangement?"
I gripped my hair with both hands, as if the pain might distract me from the ache hollowing out my chest. "I didn't know it was her when I offered to teach her. I gave her my card. I've done it before."
"True." He dropped onto the floor next to me. "When did you know?"
I let out a slow sigh. "Like right before the first session started. She was dressed, in the room, and went to put her wrist in the cuff--"
He connected the dots.
"Her tattoo."
I nodded and my shoulders sank.
"I fucked up."
He chuckled. "You think? HR is going to have a field day."
"HR can fuck themselves."
He glared at me. "Reid?"
"She's something else, Cross. She doesn't put up with my shit. Hell, she'll call me on it. I took her to Bastian’s a few weeks ago. We talked.”
Ethan studied me for a long moment, like he was looking at a problem without all the pieces. “Whatever happened in here,” he said carefully, “it crossed a line you don’t usually let anyone near.”
“I didn’t tell her I knew who she was.”
“Fuck it. And she just found out? How long?”
I sank my head between my knees. “Weekly, for the last two months.”
“Sebastian!”
I opened my mouth to defend myself but there weren’t words that would help. The back door to the room clicked open, and Mistress Vivienne swept in.
Her eyes swept over to me, her hands on her hips, unamused. I knew her outside of Sanctum and as much as I wanted to use that connect to lighten the mood, I knew it wouldn’t help. Even being an investor in the club, she had the right to throw me out.
“Reid, my office, now.”
She didn’t wait for an answer, just whipped around and left with as much demand as she’d come in with.
Ethan stood and offered me his hand, pulling me up. “As much as I’d love to see your flogging, I think I’ll skip this one. Don’t do anything any more stupid that you already have.”
“And I know I don’t need to say this, but this stays between us.”
He chuckled. “Oh, as long as I’m there when Victor finds out, that’s a given. He’s going to lose his shit.”
Vivienne’s office was quiet. Not the curated quiet of a playroom between scenes, but the kind that belonged to contracts and consequences. The door closed behind me with a soft, decisive click. No locks. No drama. Just finality.
Similar to Sanctum’s halls, it was decorated in dark cherry and deep reds but there were no toys in sight.
No silks, no cuffs, no reminders of what Sanctum held behind heavy curtains and closed doors.
This room was business. Just a desk, one that looked like it belonged in the Victorian era, immaculate.
An upholstered high back chair behind it. Two chairs on the side where I stood.
Vivienne didn’t gesture for me to sit so I didn’t. I’d played this game before in my own office. I didn’t like the tables being turned. I didn’t like it at all.
She stayed standing, arms loose at her sides, posture relaxed in a way that surprised me. She let the silence stretch. One beat. Then two.
“You entered into a training arrangement with an employee of your company without disclosure.”
It wasn’t a question.
I didn’t need to tell her I’d suspected all along. That I had hoped. “I didn’t know it was her at first. I’ve done private instruction before. I gave her my card and—”
“No.”
The word landed flat. Final.
Vivienne lifted one hand, palm out, and I stopped mid-sentence.
“I’m not interested in how it began,” she said calmly. “I’m interested in how it continued.”
She moved then, slow, deliberate, circling the desk without sitting. “You discovered her identity before the first session. You chose to proceed anyway. You chose not to disclose that knowledge. You chose to continue the arrangement.”
Each sentence was shorter than the last.
I swallowed. “I never intended to take advantage of her.”
“Intent is irrelevant,” Vivienne replied. “Impact is not. Not in this world, my dear boy.”
She stopped in front of me. Not close enough to invade my space, but close enough that I couldn’t pretend she wasn’t there.
“You created an imbalance she could not see,” she continued. “You removed her ability to make an informed choice.”
“That was never my goal.”
“And yet,” Vivienne said softly, “it was the result.”
She turned, finally sitting behind the desk, folding her hands neatly in front of her. “Two months,” she said. “Weekly sessions. She believed she was consenting freely. You knew information that fundamentally altered that consent.”
I clenched my jaw. “I should have told her.”
“Yes,” Vivienne agreed. “You should have.”
“This isn’t just a Sanctum issue,” she went on. “It’s a corporate liability. It’s an ethical breach. And it’s a failure of responsibility from someone who understands power dynamics better than most.”
I flinched at that. Just slightly.
Vivienne noticed the reaction.
“She trusted you,” she said, not accusing, just stating facts. “Not as a man with influence. Not as a boss. As someone who promised safety. I’ve watched that woman blossom under your guidance these last weeks and you’ve undone all of that. All that progress, all of that trust.”
I exhaled slowly, dragging a hand down my face. “I fucked up.”
“Yes,” she said. “You did.”
I straightened. “Whatever the consequence is here, I’ll take it. But I won’t have her dragged into some formal mess. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
A corner of Vivienne’s mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. More of an acknowledgment.
“On that,” she said, “we agree.”
She leaned back slightly. “Let’s be clear. Your financial stake in this club affords you access. It does not buy silence. It does not buy exemption. And it does not protect you from consequences.”
I didn’t argue. I couldn’t.
“Effective immediately,” Vivienne said, “you are suspended from teaching or training in any capacity through Sanctum.”
I nodded once.
“You will also disclose everything to her,” she continued. “Your knowledge. The timing. The choice you made not to tell her. If she will let you.”
My chest tightened. She had wanted nothing to do with me. Would that change? Would she even be at work on Monday? “And if I do?”
“Then this remains contained here,” Vivienne said. “Handled privately. With boundaries enforced.”
“And if I don’t?”
She met my gaze, steady and unblinking. “Then I will. And you will not like how that version unfolds.”
Vivienne stood, signaling the end. “This is your choice, Sebastian. Do the right thing now and absorb the fallout. Or protect yourself and lose control of how this ends.”
She walked around the desk and opened the door.
“Decide who you are,” she said without looking back, “before someone else does it for you.”
I stepped into the hall, already having decided what I was going to do.
After tonight, I would have tucked her master away, courted her properly, waited until we were far enough into something real to have that conversation.
Now I just needed to see if she’d even talk to me.
Make her talk to me. What if she wouldn’t? I’d already decided I wanted her in my life, but what I hadn’t planned on was finding someone who fit me just as well in the boardroom as she did in the dungeon.