She suddenly narrowed her eyes when the headlights of a familiar black Lexus lit up the parking lot. She sank down in her seat, barely able to see over the steering wheel, and watched as Lady A maneuvered her vehicle out of her spot.Follow her.Jaime swallowed hard. She had a few seconds to make a decision.No. She asked that you don’t see her again.
Jaime chose not to follow Lady A. Maybe in time they would see one another again, but tonight wasn’t the night when that would happen. She needed to process their session before she even considered looking in that woman’s direction again.
Anya pulled into her garage,checking her surroundings before closing the garage door. As she turned off the engine, the car filled with silence. A silence she didn’t want. Thinking had been drowned out the entire way home by loud music and off-key singing. The truth was, Anya didn’twantto think about what had happened earlier that night. She didn’t want to think about…
She shook her head. “Nope. You’re not going to start just because you’re home now. It happened, it’s over. Move on.”
She grabbed her phone and keys and climbed out of the car. Just a few more steps and she’d be in the house behind locked doors. Once there, she’d be able to breathe again. Keeping her thoughts at bay, Anya continued with her routine. Lock the doors, change into slippers, start heating the kettle of water. She abandoned her usual yogurt, not having the stomach for it tonight. Anya leaned against the counter as she pressed the feed button on Derek’s feeder.
“Meow!” Derek appeared out of nowhere, jumping on the counter to get at his food.
“One day, I would like for you to greet mebeforethe food. Seriously, where are you when I get home? Do you come out of some portal when the food hits the bowl?”
Derek ignored her as he chowed down on his food. Sometimes she wondered if she should spoil him with the fancy food, but the way he materialized from thin air every time he heard his feeder, Anya was sure he was happy.
“Guess who visited me at the club.”
Derek finished his food and began the chore of cleaning himself. He gave Anya a small courtesy ‘mew’ before getting back to it.
“Detective Jaime. Andnotto interrogate me. Though I have a feeling that’s why she told herself she was there.”
Anya turned off the flame under the kettle and grabbed her teapot. She added a couple teaspoons of loose jasmine tea, then filled it with the boiling water. Tonight called for a pot of soothing tea instead of her normal one mug. She took the teapot and her favorite teacup to the alcove overlooking her backyard. Anya had put lights along the fence, illuminating the immaculately manicured lawn. The space was perfect for get-togethers. Or barbecues. Which was ironic since Anya had no friends. The only people she saw were the ones who paid for her time at the club. Like the detective.
Derek, apparently offended by Anya leaving him, made his disapproval known by jumping up on her lap as she was pouring her first cup of tea.
“Derek! If you burn your tail, that’s on you.” She sighed and lay back on her oversized beanbag. “She’s carrying something so deep she thinks it’s better to be punished than to be… attracted to me,” Anya said absently of Detective Jaime Baros.
“Meow.”
“No, I don’t think it has to do with Maisie. Or even my profession. This was personal, Derek.” Anya sipped her tea and thought about Jaime’s reactions during their session. The slight panic when Jaime thought Lady A had left her tied up. The sadness when asked what she desired. The pure, unadulterated need when Lady A touched her. And then the anger, fear, and…guilt, when she climaxed.
“Do you think she’s married?” That thought made Anya irrationally sad. Even though Anya hadn’t seen a spouse or girlfriend when she did her little Google search, it wasn’t out ofthe realm of possibility that Jaime kept her private life private. Wasn’t that what cops did? “I don’t think she’d come to me if she was. She doesn’t seem to be the type. She seems…loyal.”
Anya sighed softly. “I don’t know why I’m thinking about her now. I told her not to come back.”
“Meow. Mew.”
“I’m not attracted to her,” Anya argued… with a cat who said nothing but “meow.” “I don’t want to feel something for a person who thinks I’m capable of murder. I use whips and handcuffs for pleasure, not to kill.” She took another sip, eyeing Derek, who was staring at something on the ceiling. Anya glanced up just to make sure there wasn’t a spider. Per usual, Derek was staring at nothing. Or whatever it was that cats usually stared at. She shook her head and wondered for the umpteenth time how she became a hermit with a cat as her best friend.
Anya chuckled quietly at the absurdity of it all. The conversations with the cat, the accusations from the sexy detective. The smile faded when she thought of Maisie. Hopefully, Jaime Baros would be looking for the real killer now that Lady A was out of her system. Maisie deserved justice. Anya automatically shut down any other thoughts of the situation. As sad as she was about Maisie, there was nothing Anya could do for her now. She gulped down her tea along with the lump of guilt that built up in her throat.There’s nothing I can do, Anya reiterated silently.
Anya sat there for a long while, the teapot now half empty and tepid. Her thoughts were rapid and confusing, doing nothing to help her relax. A glance at her watch told Anya she’d been sitting there for more than thirty minutes.
“Bath time,” she said suddenly, her eyebrows raising when Derek popped off her lap and ran away. “I meant for me, not you, goob!” Anya took her teacup and pot to the kitchen sink, giving them a good rinse.
She performed her nightly ritual of checking the locks and turning off the lights before making her way to her bedroom. She took a pit stop in the bathroom to get the bath started, pouring in some eucalyptus bubble bath and a scoop of bath salts. Anya stripped off her clothes as she padded from the en suite into her room. She tossed everything in the hamper and then hesitated by her nightstand.
“It’ll help you sleep,” Anya said, trying to convince herself that it was theonlyreason she was thinking of grabbing her waterproof vibrator. It had nothing to do with seeing Jaime naked or listening and watching her come. Anya rolled her eyes as she opened the drawer and plucked out her favorite toy. “It’ll help this fucking ache you have for some woman you don’t even know.”
Chapter Twelve
This has to stop!
Jaime braced her forearms against the counter, rubbing at her temples. Her coffee sat untouched in front of her, the aroma doing little to motivate her this morning. She hadn’t slept last night. Well, she had, but every time she fell into a deep sleep, the dreams reared their ugly head again. First, it was Lady A… and her talents. Then it was Taylor and her bitter disappointment in Jaime’s choices last night.
“How fitting that you’d replace me with a sex worker!”
Jaime shook her head, willing the image of Taylor to disappear. She knew what she’d done was wrong; she didn’t need her dead fiancée to remind her. Oh, no. Jaime didn’t needanyreminders from anyone at all. The guilt that sat low in her belly practically had her gagging over her cup of coffee.
