The Right Thing Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: Allyson Young
regrets.
She’d given him one final, last part of herself, saved him from regret and self-hatred.
’Kenzie had begun to work on convincing herself she didn’t want to be in
service ever again and knew there wouldn’t likely be anyone to serve in any
event. Now she needed to take him off his pedestal and accept he was only a
man.
The best she could manage was
a cool, “I don’t know what you mean?”
Donna saw right through her. “Yeah, you do. I just thought maybe
you’d like to talk about it. I could use someone to talk to, and share things
with, but that’s okay. I open my mouth sometimes and stuff falls out. Forget
it.”
The pain in Donna’s voice was well camouflaged, but McKenzie heard
it. Maybe it would be okay to listen and maybe she could share a little of the
vanilla stuff. Maybe. Hurrying to reply before the silence dragged on too long
and the opportunity lost, she answered. “I haven’t talked to anyone about this.
Ever, Donna. I don’t know how. But I’ll listen and maybe you could teach me.”
Donna’s big brown eyes misted over and a faint flush spread over
round cheeks. ’Kenzie looked past the protective pounds and saw a lonely woman
who suffered too. Impulsively reaching out and to lay a hand on Donna’s forearm
McKenzie then snatched it back as though burned. Donna composed herself at the
move and managed a smile.
“Looks like we’re a fine pair, girl. Let’s just have the beer and
try again some other time.”
Feeling both relieved and rejected in that moment Mckenzie nodded
and played with the brew until Donna finished. The other woman grabbed hers
away to swallow it down in a few long swigs, throat working against the liquid.
“We can get a coffee or something next time. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Donna shoved up from the seat and nodded, then took her leave.
McKenzie found herself staring dumbly after Donna’s lumbering form
before standing to walk back to her present residence. At least her mind had
been taken off her own stuff, even for a few minutes. Maybe she would survive
after all, and not just mark time. Probably just needed to keep her head down
and keep busy and think about the fact other people had tough times too. After
all, that’s what she’d been studying for, studying to become and do before all
this. To help others with their tough times as a social worker. After this
realization, she decided she liked herself a bit better and that he existed in
another time and place in a universe far, far away. She’d also been in school
long enough to know what denial was, and how powerful it could be. But if
denial saved her she would savor it like a drug.
Chapter Three
The days ground past and the nights somehow brightened with the
rising sun and turned into more days, but Michael was impervious. He found McKenzie
on the security tape leaving the building in jeans and that hoodie, his last
sight of her. The guard hadn’t even protested when he yanked the tape from the
machine and took the precious thing with him. A quick sweep of the apartment
determined she took nothing not belonging to her when she’d come to him. In
fact, she took less than nothing, because he found the suitcase in the back of
the closet, mockingly empty. Michael flirted with the idea of reporting a theft
to the police in the hope they could find his woman, but what would he tell
them she’d stolen? His selfish heart? His soul? His life?
In the end he put a few more holes in the sheetrock and broke any
number of decorative items before calling everyone McKenzie knew, being totally
honest in his desperation to find her. They all denied any knowledge and not a
few of them told him to fuck off and die. Fair game. He then called the head of
the private detective agency providing security for his company. Giving them
the tape tore his soul, letting that last visual of his sub out of his sight,
because he had absolutely no pictures of McKenzie, not a video, not one.
Nothing. Not
She’d given him one final, last part of herself, saved him from regret and self-hatred.
’Kenzie had begun to work on convincing herself she didn’t want to be in
service ever again and knew there wouldn’t likely be anyone to serve in any
event. Now she needed to take him off his pedestal and accept he was only a
man.
The best she could manage was
a cool, “I don’t know what you mean?”
Donna saw right through her. “Yeah, you do. I just thought maybe
you’d like to talk about it. I could use someone to talk to, and share things
with, but that’s okay. I open my mouth sometimes and stuff falls out. Forget
it.”
The pain in Donna’s voice was well camouflaged, but McKenzie heard
it. Maybe it would be okay to listen and maybe she could share a little of the
vanilla stuff. Maybe. Hurrying to reply before the silence dragged on too long
and the opportunity lost, she answered. “I haven’t talked to anyone about this.
Ever, Donna. I don’t know how. But I’ll listen and maybe you could teach me.”
Donna’s big brown eyes misted over and a faint flush spread over
round cheeks. ’Kenzie looked past the protective pounds and saw a lonely woman
who suffered too. Impulsively reaching out and to lay a hand on Donna’s forearm
McKenzie then snatched it back as though burned. Donna composed herself at the
move and managed a smile.
“Looks like we’re a fine pair, girl. Let’s just have the beer and
try again some other time.”
Feeling both relieved and rejected in that moment Mckenzie nodded
and played with the brew until Donna finished. The other woman grabbed hers
away to swallow it down in a few long swigs, throat working against the liquid.
“We can get a coffee or something next time. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Donna shoved up from the seat and nodded, then took her leave.
McKenzie found herself staring dumbly after Donna’s lumbering form
before standing to walk back to her present residence. At least her mind had
been taken off her own stuff, even for a few minutes. Maybe she would survive
after all, and not just mark time. Probably just needed to keep her head down
and keep busy and think about the fact other people had tough times too. After
all, that’s what she’d been studying for, studying to become and do before all
this. To help others with their tough times as a social worker. After this
realization, she decided she liked herself a bit better and that he existed in
another time and place in a universe far, far away. She’d also been in school
long enough to know what denial was, and how powerful it could be. But if
denial saved her she would savor it like a drug.
Chapter Three
The days ground past and the nights somehow brightened with the
rising sun and turned into more days, but Michael was impervious. He found McKenzie
on the security tape leaving the building in jeans and that hoodie, his last
sight of her. The guard hadn’t even protested when he yanked the tape from the
machine and took the precious thing with him. A quick sweep of the apartment
determined she took nothing not belonging to her when she’d come to him. In
fact, she took less than nothing, because he found the suitcase in the back of
the closet, mockingly empty. Michael flirted with the idea of reporting a theft
to the police in the hope they could find his woman, but what would he tell
them she’d stolen? His selfish heart? His soul? His life?
In the end he put a few more holes in the sheetrock and broke any
number of decorative items before calling everyone McKenzie knew, being totally
honest in his desperation to find her. They all denied any knowledge and not a
few of them told him to fuck off and die. Fair game. He then called the head of
the private detective agency providing security for his company. Giving them
the tape tore his soul, letting that last visual of his sub out of his sight,
because he had absolutely no pictures of McKenzie, not a video, not one.
Nothing. Not