rule, and she didn’t advertise. All her clients came through word of mouth referrals, and an opening never remained vacant more than a week or two.
“I take cash only. All fees paid in advance at the beginning of the session. For the first session to evaluate him, one hour, one thousand dollars. After that, sessions are one hour each, three hundred.”
More than she normally asked, but it was an easy way to weed out a poser from the rest. He’d either choke, agree, or negotiate. “Also, you cannot be there after the initial negotiations. That takes about twenty minutes. The only reason I’m letting you be there at all is because he’s your slave and you need to participate in the negotiations.”
“Done.”
She felt her eyebrows lift in surprise. Honestly? She hadn’t expected him to agree, especially to the clause of him not being present. That tweaked her curiosity. “What exactly do you hope to gain from my services?”
“Slave tends to hold back sometimes. Information, emotions, for whatever reason.”
“He lies?”
“No, not lies, per se. Despite my repeated orders to the contrary, he tends to overthink things and not give me all the information I request. Be it sentiment or emotions, I don’t know.”
“What made you decide to hire someone to train him?”
At this, she noticed his face clouded. “I recently discovered accidentally that he withheld some rather important information from me. For years. Had he told me when we got together, I would have made drastically different decisions than I did. You see, we were together for a few years, then we broke up. Most definitely my fault. When we reconciled after being apart for several years, I was willing to do anything for another chance with him. I’d never stopped loving him.”
His gaze dropped to his hands. “The circumstances surrounding our reunion were difficult, to say the least. I willingly heard what he told me rather than digging deeper for the truth. My actions—or rather, my lack of action—unfortunately hurt another without me knowing it at the time, because of that withheld information. I doubt there is any way I can atone for it, or even rectify the situation. I must force slave to see what he has done as a result of his withholding that information. He must face the true consequences of his actions.”
Tilly studied him for a long time without speaking. Her bullshit alarm hadn’t gone off…yet. He still held her curiosity. “Again, I’m not sure what you expect of me .”
“I want him to go through a vicious training regimen with another Top. One who can adequately break through this willful streak of his. Someone who maybe has better perceptions than I do. Perhaps someone who can show him a different point of view than he sees with me. Someone who can help him appreciate the error of his ways.”
That didn’t tell her as much as she’d like, but she let it go. “I noticed your phone number isn’t local.”
“It will change soon. We’re moving here from Los Angeles. I have our place there on the
market.”
From behind the safety of her dark glasses she watched his face. He looked too pale for
someone from L.A., too drawn.
“Are there any health issues I need to be made aware of, Mr. LaCroux?”
He wanly smiled. “I start a regimen of cancer treatments next week. A biopsy first, probably followed by surgery, then chemo and radiation as warranted. I have not told slave this yet and would appreciate your discretion. If your question is are we HIV negative, yes, we are negative. I can give you copies of my most recent medical chart, and slave’s last check-up from three months ago, if you’d like them. No HIV, no hepatitis or other conditions. We are monogamous, and have been in the five years
since our reunion. Other than my cancer, we are both healthy. And I assure you, you cannot catch my colon cancer, Mistress Cardinal.”
She blushed. “I’m sorry.” She softened her tone, the man before her now