The Submissive's Last Word (The Power to Please #4) Read Online Free PDF

was
ridiculous. Stupid dreams. Stupider memories. Stupidest ... me.
    It took a long time to fall asleep.
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    I had to remove my sunglasses when I entered the building.
It was dark inside, even now at noon. Elaine Hoyte loved her dive bars, I
thought, as I waited for my eyes to adjust.
    I heard her before I saw her.
    “Nonnie! Over here!” she called out, her voice carrying
easily through the joint.
    I felt a brief surge of panic at her calling public
attention to me. I nearly crammed my sunglasses back on my face and raced out
the door. But I took a deep breath. I told myself no one in the place had seen
my videos, and if they had, they wouldn’t recognize me with my new short hair.
    It helped, too, once I was able to see clearly, that the bar
wasn’t crowded. Elaine sat in a booth about halfway down the long, narrow room.
She leaned out into the aisle and merrily waved an arm at me. I gave her a
quick nod, acknowledging that she was seen in the hopes that she wouldn’t shout
again.
    I kept my eyes on the booth as I walked what felt like a
gauntlet. I had tried to convince Elaine to come to the estate for lunch, but
she’d said she didn’t have the time for the trip. Hence, her selection of
meeting place, another vaguely skeezy bar that still smelled faintly of the cigarettes
that were once smoked here, a plus for the ex-smoking Elaine, or so she said.
    I slipped into the booth with no small relief that nothing
happened, that no one recognized me or said, “Hey, look, there’s that slut who
was in that filthy porno.” Always a good day when that didn’t happen.
    Of course, that had never happened, and it wasn’t likely
that it ever would. Yet I couldn’t stop fearing it, dreading its eventuality.
    Elaine smiled and greeted me. She looked expensive that day,
her shining brown hair twisted up into an immaculate do, her petite full figure
tucked snugly into a tailored suit and silk blouse. She had come from work.
    She patted my hand. “Isn’t this fun? Girl’s lunch out.”
    I smiled and agreed. The waitress was on the ball that day,
and handed me a menu before I had a chance to find a place for my purse.
    “Just order the cheeseburger and chili fries,” Elaine said.
“It’s what they do best here.”
    What the hell. I’d been eating so healthy of late I could
afford the splurge. I nodded to the waitress and added a beer to the tab.
    “So, how are things on the fancy-pants estate?” Elaine asked
after the waitress left.
    “Fancy.”
    She laughed. “And how’s Xavier?”
    “He’s fine. We went fishing together yesterday.”
    “That’s good.” She studied one of her manicured nails. “And
Mistress Paulina?”
    “She’s fine. I saw her right before I left to meet you.”
    “Did you now?” Elaine futzed pointlessly with her nail. “And
what was she doin’?”
    “It’s actually a good story. I was walking to my car when I
heard something strange behind me. I turned around and you’ll never guess what
was coming down the gravel path in front of my house.”
    “You’re right. I won’t. Just tell.”
    I grinned. “Okay. It was Paulina and she was driving the
cutest little cart I’ve ever seen. She was perched on top of this bench seat
and cracking the reins like nobody’s business.”
    “Was she? What was she wearing?”
    I stared at her. “Seriously? That’s what you want to know?”
    “Just tell me what she was wearing.”
    Well now. Elaine’s strange interest was setting off warning
bells. And what was with the “Mistress Paulina” thing?
    “I don’t remember exactly,” I said. “She had on one of those
long, flowing skirts she likes to wear. It was dark blue, or purple maybe. And
she was wearing a thin blouse that was loose over a fitted corset kind of top
thing. I don’t know, Elaine. She looked like her usual self. Except for one
thing. She was wearing a hat. A ladies hat, like back in the day when women
rode around in carriages and wore