“I think someone’s played a practical joke on you, Mr. Hazelle.”
“I have a pretty good idea who, too.”
As if on cue, he heard her voice, and it sounded as if she was trotting.
“Okay, sweetie! I’m in Morehead, so it will take some time for me to get home. Can you put Grinnie on the phone for me? Hi! It’s me. I still have to finish up. Is he okay? Good. No, don’t wait for me if he’s hungry. I’ll see him before bedtime. I’m glad he’s okay. I love you, too, Grinnie.” She had her eyes on her phone as she rounded the corner, and he caught her as she collided with him.
“Oh! Sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going—”
He had to close his eyes, his senses reeling, fighting the urge to wrap his arms around her and squeeze her. This was what he’d been craving all day, a repeat of their embrace from the fantasy weekend hidden from view in his private stairwell, only this wasn’t private by any means.
Compartmentalize, man.
“We were blocking the corridor. It is we who should apologize, Ms. Carrigan,” Hughes said, dignified as ever, but Joseph saw the good-natured sparkle in his normally staid butler’s eyes. It would seem Bunny had won over a comrade on the Hazelle House staff.
Bunny giggled, a sound that shouldn’t have been as thoroughly disarming as it was. “Well, it’s probably not a good idea for me to text and walk, much less text and drive, Mr. Hughes.” She turned her gaze up to Joseph and smiled. “I was just looking for you. I didn’t mean to crash into you.”
His tingling dick was ever so happy to crash into her and would’ve gladly taken more, but he set her on her feet with reluctance and replied, “I was looking for you, too, when we found…this.” He pointed to the male statue. “Care to explain?”
“Uh,” she said, putting her hands on her hips, “why do you automatically think I did that?”
“Intuition,” he said as he pointed at the tumescent cock on the male statue, which was currently adorned with a pink condom.
“I thought it was a positive message to send to your visitors. Safe sex is a good idea,” Bunny said, her voice trembling with laughter before she bit her lower lip. “I think the pink is a nice touch on the white marble. Really makes it pop.”
The only thing he wanted to pop at the moment was her luscious, rounded derriere. She smiled up at him, her turquoise blue eyes sparkling with devilry, and he nearly forgot what he’d planned to tell her.
Removing the condom with a tissue, Hughes said, “If you’ll excuse me, sir, I need to see if all is set for your supper. I’ll dispose of this for you.”
After Hughes left, she said, “I’ve been looking for you for the last fifteen minutes. I guess we’ve been going in circles, missing each other.”
“I could always put a bell on you, fiammetta.”
His abdominal muscles tightened at the thought of her in a collar with a bell, and he had to breathe deeply, glad he’d put his suit coat back on. Otherwise, she would’ve seen that he was erect—again.
“What? Like a dog?”
“No, a kitten. Come with me.” He masked the fact that he was biting his lip by turning and leading her behind him and grinned as she hurried to catch up and walk beside him. What pleasure he’d take, not in forcing her to walk behind him but in her doing it willingly, to please him. As they passed an adjoining hallway, he spotted Jade in the shadows. She pulled up short, and her jaw dropped before she caught herself and stepped back, averting her eyes, but not before he saw the heat in them.
His inner sadist smiled, thinking it was good to see a sign of life, a little spunk, in Jade. In her view, Bunny should probably be walking behind him with eyes downcast. It was healthy to grieve a loss, but she needed the reminder that she still lived in the real world. He needed to get her into the right Master-slave relationship so she could find happiness on her knees, as well as on her feet.
“What’s her problem?” Bunny whispered with a hand on his elbow once they were down the hall.
“It’s a complicated, private matter.”
In his peripheral vision, he noticed when Bunny frowned and missed a step and then sped up. “Well, listen, I’m done for today, and I’d like to be on my way. You said check in with you, so I’m doing that now. I’ll get out of your hair so you can deal with your…stuff.”
“Come to my office. I have something for you, remember?”
“Okay.”
His own steps faltered when he recalled the half-conversation he’d overheard in the corridor. Did he have any business opening the can of worms his gift could entail? “I have a question.”