Mirror of My Soul by Joey Hill (readict books txt) 📗

feel like I’m standing in the doorway of a room and everyone’s staring at me, waiting for me to say and do the right thing and I don’t know…”

He felt the fist around his gut ease at the stream of words. Relief that her struggle was not in how to pull away, but how to become closer.

Despite the amazing breakthrough of the past day and a half, he knew that

Marguerite’s past would not let go of her without further struggle. Perhaps full-pitched battle.

“Angel.” He pressed a kiss on the lid of each of those confused blue eyes. “Since the time I’ve met you, you’ve set your own style, your own way of doing things. You can call me anytime you want. Anytime. Every second, every hour. And every time, I’ll answer the phone with the same eagerness to hear your voice as I did a second before.

I’m here. I told you that last night. I’m not going anywhere.

97

Joey W. Hill

“Now.” He wrapped a hand in her hair, played in the strands as she tilted toward him, moving her head in that way that she’d started to do, telling him she liked to be stroked. “I’ve always loved watching you be a Mistress. Come stay with me at my Tampa house next weekend and we’ll talk about it some more. We’ll figure it out. Mac and Violet are staying with me that weekend and I want you to come.” He traced the shell of her ear. “Maybe she’ll let you play with Mac some. Or maybe we’ll cover that Zone requirement we missed. The one where you submit to a Master’s desire to share you with another Dominant.”

She jerked back from his touch, her eyes narrowing. “Do snowballs and hell mean anything to you?”

He burst out laughing. It caught her breath, the rich, sexy sound of it. Marguerite realized suddenly how rarely Tyler laughed like that. Almost as rarely as she smiled.

And it made her realize that perhaps she was changing his life as he was changing hers.

It was a startling thought, one that made her reflect ruefully that love could cloud your perspective so you could be surprised with the obvious. “You were teasing me.”

“While the idea of you and Violet together would be every man’s fantasy, I do

recognize it’s a safer bet as one of my and Mac’s prurient dreams.” His eyes sobered and he twined her hair back around one of his fingers.

“They’re good friends of mine. I’d like you to see the side of them I’ve seen. Will you come?”

She nodded, started the car, gave him her look of practiced diffidence. “Now leave me alone this week. I have a business to run.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. “I was just thinking I’ll be in Tampa most of the week. Since they’re doing some work on the house, I may just have to come and do some paperwork in a corner of Tea Leaves. It’s a wonderful venue for working. The service is topnotch, the waitstaff very solicitous and the owner… Well, one glimpse of her is enough to get me through the day.”

“Ass,” she said, shaking her head, hitting the up button to her window, forcing him to back out of it. He did with easy elegance and a grin, sliding his hands into the pockets of his slacks and keeping his gaze on her while she backed the car, put it in drive. Marguerite kept both hands firmly on the wheel, knowing that otherwise she’d be tempted to leap out and snatch one more taste of his lips.

* * * * *

Unfortunately, the renovations at the Tampa home and the lackadaisical attitude of the overpaid coastal contractors who preferred to fish during the warmer days required him to stay on the premises Monday and part of Tuesday. Then a problem came up with the actress he’d wanted for a production Michael Atlas was handling. Persuading her to change her schedule required a quick flight out of town to her home in Cape Cod.

Tyler had to be satisfied with daily calls to the woman whose very existence now burned in him like a fever. He made a habit of calling the main number of Tea Leaves to 98

Mirror of My Soul

talk to Gen and Chloe first, before they transferred him into Marguerite’s office. While he didn’t pry or ask any questions about Marguerite he did not ask her when she came on the line, he knew Gen and Chloe would convey any problems just by the tones of their voices. And it was that which caused him concern on when he called Wednesday late afternoon, for there was definitely a hesitation in Chloe’s voice when she picked up.

“Are things going okay, Chloe?”

“Oh, sure, fine. Um…let me get Marguerite.”

“Chloe.”

“Well…”

There was a sharp comment in the background and Tyler was put on hold.

Marguerite picked up in her office a moment later, and he heard the snick of the office door as she closed it.

“Good morning from New England,” he said. “Are you all right?”

“You know, babysitters get at least five dollars an hour now,” she said caustically.

“And Gen and Chloe are putting in overtime for you.”

“I’m not…” He closed his eyes, massaged the bridge of his nose. “Yes, I check with them about you. I care about you. And I know you get down sometimes. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

“Why wouldn’t I be all right?” Marguerite stared down at her day calendar. At the date marked with a red X. Somehow the past few weeks had allowed her to push to the back of her mind the last thing that ever should have been relegated there.

Everything had been about Tyler lately. Each day since she’d seen him, without his touch or his smile, things inside her had gotten progressively darker. Knowing the danger of opening her heart, now she faced the reality of an addict deprived of her daily fix. Each day the doubts