An Angel Exposed [Safeword LLC 3] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  She nodded absently, still looking at Alec as if waiting for him to argue. When he still didn’t say anything, Amy softly crossed the room and walked down the hallway to her room. Chad waited until he heard the faint sound of her door closing before venturing into what he figured would be an argument.

  “She belongs at the hospital with us.”

  “I didn’t say a word,” Alec claimed, running a hand through his long hair and going to the closet to grab his black leather jacket that he’d had for years.

  No matter how much wealth either one of them accumulated, and it was substantial, his best friend refused to alter his attire or forget that they grew up fighting for every penny they could. Chad never forgot either, but even he realized that in business, first impressions went a long way. Plus, he couldn’t help it if he had a taste for the finer things in life—Amy being one of them.

  “You didn’t have to. I thought you said last week that you’d come to terms with having a permanent submissive.”

  “And I admitted to you that she was more than that. Isn’t that enough?” Alec asked, shoving his arms through the sleeves of his coat.

  “For now,” Chad conceded. He wasn’t able to say anything more as Amy walked back into the room, dressed in a black sweater dress with a zipper running vertically on the front. Her pert breasts sat perfect on either side of the silver teeth and Chad would have given anything to be able to remove the article of clothing, having an idea of what lay beneath. As it was, they had a family emergency and everything else would have to wait. “Let’s head out. Ruby’s waiting for us.”

  * * * *

  Amy hated the smell of hospitals. It brought back memories that she would much rather have been able to forget. Walking into the elevator with Chad and Alec reminded her of being fifteen years old and taking the same route with her brothers. She’d felt numb then, and wasn’t quite sure what she felt now. Amy gave a slight shake of her head to ward off the recollections.

  It was very hard to go from having a scene with Alec this morning and then leave that behind to deal with a possible tragedy. Well, it wasn’t quite a scene, but with each stroke of Alec’s brush, her arousal rose. By the time he’d finished his masterpiece, Amy would have given anything if he’d just laid her on the floor and taken her. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t, seeing as Kennedy had stopped by this morning so that all three of them could sign the annex. But if she were honest with herself, Amy’s emotions had been all over the place since she’d contacted Safeword LLC. Maybe it was a good thing she’d been given more time.

  “You’re a bit pale,” Chad murmured, picking up her hand and brushing his lips over the back.

  “I’m fine,” Amy replied softly, giving him a small smile. “Hospitals always make me a little uneasy.”

  “We’ll get you some coffee when we have a chance to,” Alec said, looking up at the numbers lighting up on the bar above the doors. “You could do with a little sugar and caffeine after this morning.”

  Chad raised his eyebrow, and Amy wasn’t sure why her cheeks flushed. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know what Alec had done. Or maybe he didn’t, she thought. Either way, they’d both seen enough of her and done enough to her that Amy’s response shouldn’t be to blush.

  “I think we could all use some coffee,” Chad exclaimed, squeezing her fingers.

  A bell dinged and the doors whooshed open, allowing them entrance on the third floor where they had been directed. Chad took the lead, still holding her hand, while Alec followed behind. She noticed that he seemed rather quiet himself and wondered if it had to do with the scene where she had asked him personal questions about him and Chad. Amy immediately felt guilty, thinking his mood was because of her, rather than Ruby’s predicament. Since when had she become so selfish?

  “Nurse, we’re Ruby Brewer’s sons. Is she—”

  “Mr. Brewer, your mother is still in surgery. Upon arriving at the hospital, it was determined that she did, indeed, have a heart attack. The cardiac surgeon on call felt it best to perform angioplasty right away. If you’ll—”

  “Is that stents?” Chad asked, disregarding the fact that the nurse called him by Ruby’s last name or that she had still been speaking. Amy shot a sideways glance Alec’s way, wondering if Ruby was his foster mother, how he’d come to take her last name. How young had Chad and Alec been when they had entered the system? Alec had mentioned he’d met Chad when he was sixteen, but had the two of them known each other before that? “Is she going to have a bypass?”

  “The surgeon is placing the stents in to open up her artery and allow the blood to flow more freely. When the surgery is complete, Dr. Andrew Korse will meet with you in the waiting room to discuss your mother’s case and any future surgeries. In the meantime, the waiting room is down the hall, last room on the right. Coffee is available to you at the kiosk.”

  “Thank you, Nurse Mills,” Chad replied, before turning and placing her hand in Alec’s. Amy saw the nurse’s eyes widen at the action. Again, Amy flushed. “Alec, I need to make a couple of calls regarding the gallery. Amanda will just have to take over tonight’s showing. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

  Alec nodded, although he didn’t say anything. His hand felt warm in hers, although his grip seemed a little lighter than Chad’s. Amy knew that he must be dealing with a lot of emotions right now, and tried not to take it personally. They reached the doorway, where Alec paused ahead of her. She peered around him, seeing the room had other family members waiting to hear about their loved ones. She knew that he was going to pick the quiet corner, away from the people and televisions, before he even started across the room. She followed.

  “I’ll get you that coffee,” Alec murmured, as she took a seat. He went over to the booth that was imbedded in the wall and pulled two Styrofoam cups up and away from the others. He then poured the hot liquid inside as steam swirled up, creating a vapor that twirled into the air. With steady hands, he shook two packets of sugar and poured the granules inside each cup to dissolve. As he reached for the creamer, Amy had to wonder how he knew how she liked her coffee. Once prepared, Alec returned to her and handed her the cup with the added creamer. “The last time we visited your brothers’ club, Chad and I came to your office to collect a check for some of my paintings. You were making your morning coffee.”

  “How did you know what I was thinking?” Amy asked, more surprised by that than by the fact he knew how she liked her coffee. She wrapped her fingers around the Styrofoam.

  “After doing a scene with you every day, you’re getting easier to read than the Sentinel,” Alec answered.

  He shrugged out of his black leather jacket and tossed it on the table in front of them. Amy had left her dress coat in the car, not wanting to bring it in. At first, she thought that Chad and Alec had been going to protest, but seeing as they were in an attached garage and she didn’t have to walk outside, they’d conceded. Alec sat down next to her, close enough to hear her words.

  “You’re not so easy to read,” Amy whispered.

  Alec ran a hand through his messed up hair, before placing his arm on the armrest. His knee started to bounce up and down, showing his apparent unease. It suddenly hit her that maybe she wasn’t the only one affected by the atmosphere of a hospital. A foster parent, after all, raised him. Had he lost his parents sometime during his teens, like her?

  “That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Alec replied with a smirk, his leg abruptly stopping. “If you knew how we reacted in every instance, we wouldn’t be very good Doms, would we? Reading your body language is part of it. Take for instance when James stopped by last weekend. Do you think I didn’t see the tremor run down your spine or your cream drip down your inner thighs? Next time, maybe I will allow him to help insert your plug.”

  Amy couldn’t help but return his smile, her body immediately responding to the lift of his mouth. It could also be in response to his words and the picture he painted, because Alec was right. Having another man witness what was being do
ne to her by her Masters did something inside of her that she had only guessed she would feel. After having actually experienced it, she found she craved more. She glanced at his knee, noticing he started to bounce his foot once more. She, or the topic, had been keeping him distracted.

  “I’m sure Ruby’s going to be just fine,” Amy said, tentatively reaching for his hand, which was dangling from the armrest. She brushed her fingers of the back of his knuckles, feeling the paint specks left from earlier. It brought back the sensation of what she had felt previously, and her clit throbbed, knowing it was covered in paint. Taking a fortifying breath, Amy tried to focus her mind on the reason they were here. She wanted to reassure him and make him feel better. “The nurse sounded confident that the surgeon would be finished soon and that Ruby would be fine.”

  “I’m sure you’re right.”

  Amy didn’t like his lifeless expression. It was as if he was trying to close himself off from what was happening. She didn’t blame him. But in Ruby’s case, the chances of her surviving were damn better than her parents’ odds had been. Maybe he needed to know that. Amy closed her eyes, taking a few seconds to gather the strength of recalling that tragic moment when her life changed.

  “My parents died in a car accident,” Amy said softly, not wanting anyone else to hear what she had gone through. It wasn’t their business. “I remember Josh and Tyler rushing through the front door, saying we needed to get to the hospital. I’d just gotten back from the football game, having spent the evening with friends. I had found it odd that I had arrived home before my parents, but thought maybe they’d caught a late movie or something. My brothers had been home visiting from college, enjoying hitting their old haunts.”

  “I’m sorry.” Alec turned his hand around, lacing their fingers together. “I knew you had lost your parents when you were young, but Josh and Tyler never mentioned the reason.”

  “A drunk driver,” Amy replied almost automatically, looking down at their connection. She hadn’t realized how badly she had needed it. “My father was killed instantly, but mom had managed to hold on, well, at least until she reached the hospital. She didn’t make it to surgery. I’m not telling you this to feel bad for me. I’m telling you this because Ruby did make it to surgery, and if she’s as strong as I think she is after having raised you two, then she’ll pull through just fine.”

  She was glad to see that Alec’s leg was still once more. Glancing over at him, she found that he was staring intently at her. She felt a tremor of unease shoot through her at his intensity, wondering what he was thinking. She didn’t have to wait long.

  “Is that what drew you to the lifestyle?”

  Amy wasn’t daft by any means, and in fact, thought herself rather intelligent. So she wasn’t going to pretend that she didn’t understand his true meaning. He wouldn’t have accepted it anyway. She thought maybe the change of subject is what surprised her, but then she reconsidered, thinking that it wasn’t really a variation in topics since one thing led into the other. That moment in her life had made her who she was. Inhaling air with a stutter, she figured that it was very early in their relationship to admit certain things, but having this type of rapport was essential in regards to building trust. She might as well start now and hoped like hell he reciprocated.

  “In a way, yes,” Amy whispered, admitting it out loud for the first time and feeling as if every word added to her vulnerability. What if she didn’t measure up to their expectations? What if this ended after their two months? But if her parents’ death taught her anything, it was that life was too short to have what-ifs. And isn’t that why she went to Safeword LLC in the first place? “I want to belong to someone. I want to know that I matter.”

  “You do, angel. You belong to us now.”

  Amy startled, whipping her head to the left and finding Chad standing to the side with his hands in his dress pants. He’d removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, obviously knowing that they would be here a while. Her eyes sought his and when she saw his dark eyes deepen with hunger, she felt her exposure lesson and felt a little more secure. Chad tended to do that for her.

  “Chad, you said you wanted coffee?” Alec asked, releasing her hand and swiftly standing. “I’ll get you a cup.”

  Amy knew that whatever momentary connection she and Alec had made had been severed by the break in the conversation. She didn’t blame Chad, because she figured Alec would have distanced himself anyway. Was there something about her that he didn’t like? Was he finding out that she wasn’t what he really wanted? When he touched her, though, like this morning, Amy had felt like she did belong. Did he not feel that way, too?

  “Give him time,” Chad murmured, taking the chair to her left.

  “If he didn’t want me, then why didn’t he tell that to Ms. Van Camp?”

  “Amy, there are things we haven’t told you and won’t tell you until I think you’re ready. But know this—Alec and I want you. We want no other submissive. Alec’s childhood wasn’t like mine, but that’s for him to tell you, not me.”

  She was grateful when he took her hand in his, for some reason needing the intimacy. Amy never thought of herself as needy, but this this last week had definitely shown her a different side of herself. She hadn’t lied. She did want to belong to a man, or in this case, two men. She wanted nothing more than to make them happy, and maybe that was why she was feeling melancholy at the moment. Alec didn’t seem happy with her. What could she do?

  Chapter Nine

  They had waited three hours before the surgeon had come into the waiting room. He was an older gentleman, on the shorter side with closely cropped gray hair and round spectacles placed on the bridge of his nose. In his hands was a chart, which Amy assumed was Ruby’s, although the surgeon didn’t once glance down at it. She suspected this entire medical professor look was carefully cultivated to inspire confidence in the relatives and possibly him.

  “Your mother is in recovery and will be moved to her room shortly. She did well in surgery and the procedure went as planned. We placed two stents to keep the artery open. Her prognosis is good and we will watch her closely tonight. We will monitor her groin for bleeding, as that was the entry site for the cardiac catheter. She’s being placed in room 305 if you’d like to go wait for her there.”

  “Thank you very much, Dr. Korse,” Chad said

  “Do you have any other questions?”

  Amy could see that the doctor was no nonsense, having felt like he’d covered everything and was just waiting to be dismissed. Sometimes, as long as a doctor was great at his job, bedside manner didn’t count. Seeing that Ruby was going to be fine, Amy figured that was the case now.

  “No, thank you, Doctor.” Chad shook his hand, while Alec moved swiftly to the door. Amy had no doubt he was heading to Ruby’s room. Since Chad held on to her right hand, she had no choice but to stay with him. “Thank you for everything.”

  Chad turned and picked up his suit jacket, draping it over his back. She could tell he was checking to make sure they’d gotten everything, and once satisfied, he led her through the hallway and to Ruby’s room. Alec was already there, of course, staring out the window. The bed was empty, as Ruby was still in recovery. Amy heard a slight vibrating sound and after Chad threw his jacket over the top of Alec’s on the chair, he withdrew his phone from his pocket.

  “Damn, it’s Amanda. I have to take this,” Chad exclaimed, kissing the back of her hand. “I’ll be back shortly.”

  Amy could tell from the view of the window that dusk was starting to fall. It was still light, but the shadows were starting to show themselves. They reminded her of Alec, as he stood staring out at them. He seemed so alone, yet she hesitated letting him know that she was there for him. It hadn’t gone so well earlier.

  “You were right when you said Ruby must be a strong woman to have raised me and Chad. We were hellions, especially me,” Alec said, surprising her by speaking first. He was shaking his head. His eyes met hers reflected in the window.
“I did everything in my power to get her to turn me back over to the state.”

  “I take it she never gave up hope on the man you would become?” Amy asked rhetorically, although what she really wanted to know was how he became a ward of the state to begin with. But he was talking, and that was better than his silence. Baby steps. “She obviously saw something special in you.”

  “I don’t know what.” Alec leaned forward and laid his arm on the window, resting his forehead on his fist. “I’m no different now than I was then.”

  “You have become a very talented and renowned artist, Alec.” Amy sat tentatively on the arm of the chair, wanting to keep facing him. “I’m sure Ruby could see that. And I have no doubt that whatever struggles you went through as a boy turned you into the man you are today with the help of Ruby.”

  “Really? What did she see?” Alec said in a mocking voice. “Chad was the one who sold my first painting, and I still don’t know if it was based on talent. I paint because it’s what I love to do, but I’ve still managed to make millions off of my paintings. Anyone could do that if they have the right marketing person.”

  “You’re saying that Chad got you where you are today? I’m relatively certain that your talent speaks for itself. And if you disagree, you’re saying that not only Ruby but both Chad and I are wrong.”

  “That woman is never wrong,” Alec whispered.

  Silence descended over the room. Amy glanced around, knowing she kept expecting to hear the beeping of monitors and the dripping sounds of the IV, but there was nothing in the room with them except an empty bed, a rolling tray, and the chair she was using the arm of to sit on. She knew the only thing that was going to make Alec feel better was to set eyes on Ruby himself. Hopefully, that would be soon.