Left of the Slash, page 19
“Oh,” says Simon, with a little pout. I recognize it as an attempt at being cute, and it fills my stomach with boiling hot rage.
“Yeah, it’s fine. This is Quinn, by the way,” Olivia says, finally acknowledging me. “We work together at Obsidian.”
And there it is. All the confirmation I need that Olivia is, in fact, not my girl.
Simon and Jed both give me quick looks that end with slight head nods. I reciprocate with a nod upward, but no words are exchanged between us, and my dark devil lets out a low growl that only I can hear. I wish they could hear it too, because then they’d know to say their goodbyes and be on their way. But alas, the growl is only for me. Only I know how much danger is present.
As if luck were miles away from the Wonderland Bar, Simon turns to Jed with a wide smile, taps him on the chest, and points his thumb at Olivia.
“Remember the girl I told you about?” he says. “The one who taught me everything I know about the BDSM lifestyle?” Jed nods with raised eyebrows. “This is her.”
“Oh, shit,” Jed barks, bringing his fist to his mouth and leaning back. “Wow. So, you're the reason this guy is a freak?”
Olivia flashes a glance at me again, then tries to calm them down. “Woah, now. I wouldn't say all of that. Simon and I dated for a few months, and then it ended. We don't need to get into the details of our relationship.”
“Oh, don't worry about that,” Jed says as he takes a seat on the other side of Olivia. “He told me all about it already. You changed this guy’s life. He said you introduced him to all kinds of new kinks. He said he learned so much about himself while he was with you. Ain’t that right, Simon?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Simon says with a laugh. “Before you, I was just a normal guy. Now I'm Christian Grey in the flesh and the ladies love it.”
Olivia rolls her eyes. “Wow. So you told him everything, huh? Did you tell him about how you wouldn't honor my safe word? Or about how you cheated on me with Lydia from work? Or how you didn't respect my hard limits? If you're going to tell all of our business, Simon, at least make sure you're honest.”
Simon’s wide smile quickly narrows. “Well, no. But why would I do that? I'm not trying to make myself look bad.”
Olivia rolls her eyes again as she spins back around on her stool. “Alright. Well, you two have a great night.”
“Our night is just getting started,” Simon says, just before he moves to the seat on Jed’s left. He sits down, orders two beers—which the bartender brings him immediately—and angles his body toward Olivia. “So, are you two on a date, Olivia? He the new guy you're showing the ropes? Or did he already know how to handle them when he met you?”
Finally, Olivia looks at me for more than a second. She places her hand on top of mine on the bartop and sighs. “Don't worry about him. There's a reason we’re not together anymore.”
“Ah, so he is your new beau,” Simon chirps with a giggle. “He's good-looking. Nice broad shoulders, thick arms. He's like the opposite of me. I must’ve really upset you if you're going out of your way to choose guys that are my exact opposite.”
I let out an exhale, but Olivia squeezes my hand and turns to Simon for me. “I really don't want to get into it, Simon. We’ve been done for months, and there's no need to keep talking about days gone by. Now, if you don't mind, we’re just going to go back to enjoying our evening.”
Simon raises his hands like he's backing off. “Oh, my apologies. I didn't mean to offend. But before we end the conversation, can I just say that you were the best I've ever had? Because you were. You're a lucky guy, homeboy. I hope you know it. Olivia is the best.”
As Jed and Simon chuckle like fucking idiots, Olivia squeezes my hand again, but it doesn't work this time. Anger climbs up my body inch by inch. I tighten my jaw, trying not to ruin what started as a good night, but there's only so much I can take. The same dark devil that loves to hurt Olivia in all the best ways, also wants to hurt these two fuckers in all the worst. My jaw stays clenched, but I can't fight the words back.
“Why are you calling me your fucking homeboy?” I growl.
“What?” Simon says, leaning forward to see around Jed and Olivia’s bodies.
“You heard me,” I reply. “I'm not your fucking homeboy, and Olivia asked you to stop talking to her about your history, but you keep going like you have no control. Are you trying to get a rise out of me? Trying to see how much shit I’ll let you get away with? You're about to find out that my patience has limits.”
Jed is the first to stand up, but Simon does all the talking.
“Woah, buddy. I didn't mean any harm by it, but if you've got a problem, we can handle it right now.”
Olivia turns her back to both of them and looks me straight in the eyes. “Q, it’s fine. Don't let them bother you.”
“Oh, now I'm back to being Q?” I snip as my frustration starts to take over. “And it’s not fine. You think I’d stand by and let them disrespect you? I know we’re just fucking around or whatever, but you should at least be paying enough attention to know me better than that.”
“I'm sorry,” she says empathetically. “You're absolutely right, but there are two of them, Q.”
“And there's only one of you,” I answer. “Only one person worth fighting for. One person worth protecting. One person worth going absolutely ape shit over. Two of them makes no difference when you're my one.”
Olivia’s hand drops from mine as she looks at me like she's startled. Her eyes fixate on my face and don't move, but my attention shifts as I turn around and face the standing Jed, who’s trying to stare me down. I almost laugh. He's trying to intimidate me, but I see the fear in his eyes as he glares at me. The second I react, he’s going to act like the victim. That’s fine. I'm going to make him one.
“You really want to do this?” I ask him as I set my feet squarely on the floor. “You want to stand up and defend your friend, knowing he was crossing the line with what’s mine?”
Olivia’s eyes threaten to burn a hole in my flesh, but I ignore the searing pain. Even when she says, “Quinn.” I don't care.
“You can see it how you want to, bro,” Simon says like a voiceover as I watch Jed. “So, do we have a fucking problem? Because I’m not disrespecting Olivia by saying she's the best I ever had and that she taught me how to be a Dom. Maybe you're an insecure prick. Olivia, you better talk to him before he gets himself hurt.”
“Quinn,” Olivia says again, but I stop her there.
“Don't even think to try to stop me,” I say without looking at her. “Because you want to be taken care of. Don't you?”
I hear Olivia gasp as my words from the first day we ever hooked up come back to her, reminding her who I am and what I'm here to do. She may have forgotten over our time together, but I haven't. So no matter what she says, I'm not budging. This is why I'm here.
Olivia swallows hard, then she answers. “Yes.”
“Good,” I say quickly. “Then sit there and let me take care of you. If Jed here is smart, he’ll sit down, too. Otherwise, he’ll get knocked down.”
Like a movie playing in slow motion, Jed’s index finger sticks out and jabs me in the shoulder. “You're not going to do sh—”
I see it all happen like I'm not me. It’s an out-of-body-experience when my dark devil takes full control of my limbs. I become a puppet, and the darkness is pulling all of the strings. So I'm only watching when I reach up and grab his finger, twisting and pushing it backward until I hear the bone snap, and I see the moment I grab the neck of Jed’s beer bottle and bring the glass crashing down on the crown of his skull. As he collapses onto himself, I stand up and backhand Simon before he can even get out of his seat. He falls off of it but grabs onto the stranger next to him to keep himself upright, and he manages to stay on his feet. As he steadies himself and prepares to swing, I lift my hand and reveal the half broken bottle still in my hand. I point it at him, the jagged edge only inches from his nose, and he quickly comes to his senses, freezing in place.
“Good boy,” I say to him as his eyes cross to look at the glass hovering by his nostrils. “You're a Dom? Because you're looking much more like a submissive now. Move an inch, and you'll never be able to sniff Jed’s asshole again.”
I stand there with my weapon, holding it in place as the entire bar watches us on the edge of their seats. I don't even realize what I'm doing until I feel Olivia’s hand on my arm.
“Quinn, we have to go,” she says quietly. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I steal another moment staring at Simon, making sure I've put the fear of God in him before I finally allow Olivia to pull me by the waist. I walk backward until I'm a few feet away from Jed’s unconscious body, then I drop the glass onto the floor and lead my woman out of the bar by her hand.
TWENTY-SEVEN - Olivia
“Quinn,” I say as he drags me out of the bar, his feet moving with no intention of slowing down even after we’re beneath the twinkling stars of a cloudless night sky. My mind races like a derailing train, and I have to snatch my arm away from him once we’re in the parking lot. “Q, stop!” He finally manages to bring himself to a stop, but he keeps his back to me. I can see him breathing hard from here, and when I walk around to his front, fury is still visible on his face like war paint, but I don't care. He isn't the only one who is mad in this situation. “What was that in there? Have you lost your mind?”
Q’s eyes narrow as he makes himself look at me, his angry gaze not softening a bit.
“Me? Have I lost my mind? What about you? Talking to those motherfuckers in front of me like my presence meant nothing. Letting this prick bring up shit from the time you and him were together. What did you expect from me? You thought I wouldn't react? As if I didn't break the law to protect you already. As if I haven't assaulted a motherfucker already. I haven't lost anything except for my sense of control when it comes to you, but you're the one who has lost your mind.”
I slam my hand up to my chest. “Me? I'm not the one bashing people’s heads in with beer bottles in the middle of a packed bar, Quinn! I'm level-headed.”
“No, you're not, Olivia,” he barks. “You talk to me about my dad, as if that’s not deeper than just sex. You hype me up, telling me that I need to be who I truly am on the inside, as if that won’t linger after you're gone. You support me, but try to cover it up by ignoring me at work, but that’s now how it works! Thinking that you could be perfect but somehow undesirable is just dumb. So you're the one who’s crazy if you think I could do all of this with you and somehow not care about you.”
“I told you the rules when we started.”
“I don't give a fuck about rules!” he screams loud enough for his voice to echo into the night like a gunshot. “How have you not picked up on that yet? I'm not going to sit there and let some asshole disrespect your wishes for him to stop talking, or disrespect me like that. Calling me homeboy and shit. You think I don't know what that shit means coming from him? There isn't a bone in my body that would ever allow something like that. Not ever, but especially not now. When it comes to disrespect, there are no rules. It’s the same when it comes to you, and I don't give a fuck if you don't like it. This is how it is.”
Quinn dismisses me with a wave and tries to walk away as if we’re done here. His car is parked just a few spots away from us, but mine is nestled in the back of the lot, further away from the building. As he tries to get away, I wrap my fingers around his wrist and start pulling him to my car … toward the darkness in the corner of the lot.
“Let go of me, Olivia,” he growls, but I ignore him until we reach my car. Now that we’re farther away from Wonderland, I don't have to worry about people sticking their heads out of the door and watching us argue.
“Listen to me,” I say, pointing my finger at Quinn. Considering what I just saw him to do Jed’s finger, I make sure to keep mine at a safer distance. “You don't get to tell me that this is how it is. I told you in the beginning how it was going to be, and you don't get to change the rules now that we’ve fucked a few times. Alright? You don't get to call me your girl in the fucking bar the way you did tonight. Did you think I didn't notice that? You did it multiple times, Quinn, and I let it slide when I shouldn't have. You know what I'm about, so don't ruin what we’ve started. You don't own me.”
“Bullshit,” he snips. His intense gaze focuses on me and makes me forget the rest of the world as he takes a step closer. “You let it slide? That’s fucking nonsense, Olivia, and you know it. You let me say what I wanted to in there because you liked it. You put up this front, acting like you're so closed off and cold that nothing can get through, but you're not impenetrable. You like when I call you mine. You like that I protect you, and you like that I hurt those motherfuckers just as much as I do, because you know that I did it in defense of you. Stop lying to yourself.”
“I'm not lying to myself. You're just in denial,” I bellow, but when I say the words, I don't feel them in my gut. My body knows the words are weak, but my mouth speaks them anyway.
“Bull-fucking-shit. You belong to me. You've been mine since the moment you told me you wanted me to take care of you. You said those words. You don't get to take them back now just because you're scared.”
My heart gallops. “Scared? What would I possibly be afraid of?”
“The fact that you're breaking your own rules, and you know I'm right,” he says. “You belong to me. I'm your Dom, and you are my submissive. What the fuck do you think belonging to me means? You're my submissive. Mine. Based on the rules you put in place and had me fucking sign like a contract. What, you didn't read your own fineprint? You. Belong. To. Me.”
I glare at him, wishing for all of it to be untrue, but I feel my body trembling with emotion that I shouldn't have. Rage and sadness and happiness and fear. So much fucking fear.
“Stop saying that,” I force myself to yell. “I don't belong to you, Quinn. I never did. I never will.”
“No?” he says with raised brows. Then he nods to himself and says, “Get on your knees.”
My forehead furrows in an instant. “What?”
“You fucking heard me,” he says without hesitation. There is no trembling in his voice. He's standing on this fearlessly. “You let those pricks in there treat you like a slut—reminiscing about the past with Simon’s memories fueling his erection right there at the bar. But you're not a slut, Olivia. You're my slut. Now get on your fucking knees. Kneel for your Dom right now. Or do I have to sue you for breach of contract in order for you to understand? Kneel.”
I want to lose my shit. How dare he speak to me this way. How dare he try to remind me about paperwork that I drew up. He expects me, a fucking CEO to kneel in a dirty parking lot for him? I'm eight years older than he is. I tell him what to do all day long, and now he's trying to turn the tables on me? I'm his boss. He's my employee. Is he insane? I can't do it. I won't.
My mind runs rampant with thoughts reminding me of who I am, but my body ignores my mind. My body doesn't care about our age difference or Obsidian’s power structure. My body reacts to him. My body wants him. My body remembers his touch the same way my mind remembers what I just watched him do to two men who disrespected me. My body hasn't forgotten Quinn, so when he tells me to kneel, my brain shuts off. My body responds.
With a tight jaw, I begin to slowly lower myself to the ground in front of him. My eyes dart over to the lit part of the lot and to the entrance to the bar, but no one is around right now.
“Don't look over there,” he says when he sees me. “I don't give a fuck who’s around. You don't belong to anybody else. You belong to your Dom. Now do as you're told.”
In my head, I'm screaming at the top of my lungs with my hair on fire. I can't believe I'm doing this for him, and I resent my body for going into autopilot at his command. But regardless of how quickly my mind races, I listen to him. I wrinkle and dirty my pants on the grimy pavement, and kneel in front of Quinn. When I look up at him, he doesn't smile like a satisfied child who’s smug about getting his way. He simply raises an eyebrow and flexes his jaw.
“You see? You do what I say … because you're mine. Now say it.”
I swallow hard, ignoring the voices I hear coming from the bar. I don't even glance over to see if anyone can see us.
“I'm yours,” I say, hating how uttering the words makes me feel.
“Again.”
I sigh. “I'm yours, Q.”
He nods slowly, but still isn't satisfied. “Again. Make me believe it, Olivia.”
“I'm yours, Q. I belong to you,” I say, and this time I mean it. How wet I am is undeniable, even when I know I should be furious about everything that has happened tonight. I don't feel fury. All I feel is my hunger for him, and I can't fight it anymore.
Quinn nods his head and licks his lips. “Good girl. Now get in the car.”
“Yes, Sir,” I reply, quickly getting to my feet, unlocking my door, and climbing into my backseat as fast as I can.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Quinn gets in after I do and shuts the door, and the second we’re encased in my car, he looks at me as he begins taking off his pants. In a flash, his thick cock bounces free and my eyes go to it. I've never felt so powerless and desperate in my life. I want him more right now than I ever have before. What the fuck has this man done to me tonight? It’s like a spell I can't break free from.
“Take off your pants,” he demands without an ounce of kindness in his tone, but that doesn't stop me from listening to him. I snatch my pants and panties off like they're on fire, then turn to him and wait for further instruction like the good girl he has forced me to be for him. “Now, be my dirty little slut and climb on top me, and do not stop riding until you fucking come all over my cock. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” I say, nearly whimpering from my need to obey him.
