Purgatory Masters(30)

Tucker turned away from the screen when the pain in his temple began to throb. He understood bad timing all too well and Maggie had it in spades. He pushed away from the desk and scooped up his phone. He flipped the screen to Maggie’s number and clicked new message.

It was time for them both to move forward. This time he’d try a different approach. He’d start a trail to lead her to him one step at a time. This time he’d make sure she got everything she needed without letting her go. He quickly typed a few words and pressed send. Time to get a shower and get some fresh air. He had a sub to go after.

Again.



The annoying ring tone of an incoming text message startled Maggie from her manuscript. Or more precisely her latest journal entry about her and Tucker. Why had she left the cursed thing on? She scooped the phone from her desk and stared at the screen.

We need to talk.

Maggie’s heart skipped a beat and she glanced around the café she’d escaped to, to make sure he wasn’t already watching her. She’d known this moment was coming for three days and had dreaded it as much as she’d questioned why she hadn’t heard from him. Her thoughts had ranged from nonchalance to complete irrationality. She still had no idea what to say or do. She’d tried over and over to restart her new biography to only keep erasing everything she wrote. The whole project was crumbling before he eyes. Finally, she’d set it aside and started a personal journal instead. Getting some of what she’d endured these past few months onto paper had led to not much sleep and a whole lot of pouring her heart out.

Now she sat exhausted, staring at the phone in her hand. Unsure. Maybe even as confused as ever. She looked up and stared through the window to the trees outside. What time was it anyway? She’d lost track. Not that it made a difference. The beauty of coming here in the first place was that there would be no schedules to adhere to. No lies to live. And certainly no one to answer to.

Unless she counted Tucker.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. Tucker had come to her out of the blue and shocked the hell out of her. Initially she’d been shaken to the core of her beliefs, but as she’d spent more time analyzing what had happened, her reaction to him had softened. It was kind of humiliating that she’d run away, but at the time, it had been all the logic she’d been capable of. In one scene, he’d twisted her inside out and upside down.

Her research still plagued her, but regrets no longer did. Everything up to now had led her to Tucker and who was she to discount fate for dropping him in her path on a cold winter’s night?

She slid her phone apart to reveal the keyboard and tapped out a return message.

I owe you an apology.

Her stomach tensed. There were a lot of creative ways for a Dominant to accept something as simple as an apology. She didn’t know whether to be scared or excited. It could easily go either way. Maybe if they talked first, she could explain some of what had been going through her head these past few days. There was a lot he didn’t know. Hell, there was a lot nobody knew. Some of which continued to eat her up inside. Somehow, someway, she needed to get it out if she ever hoped to put the past behind her.

For years she’d done what everyone else expected of her. Went to the right schools, took the right job and married respectably. The only thing in her life she’d taken a stand on had been her research. And the first time she stepped out of line, everything she’d built fell apart, leaving her with an unknown future. Her missteps had the tendency to leave her without the courage to face up to her mistakes. Maggie rolled her eyes. She needed to stop making so many damned excuses and just get on with it already. Maybe if she stopped worrying about every little detail she’d find if she and Tucker suited each other.

What a joke. The fallen prince and his scandalous woman. What a pair they’d make. The internet had become her friend these last few days as she researched for her book and the man who made her tremble. Much of what she’d read left her shocked about how clueless she’d been. Since her parents had moved from the area after she left for college, she’d never bothered to keep up with the local news, or any news that didn’t relate to her research, for that matter. She hadn’t exactly forgotten that Tucker’s father led a fringe religious group. But a cult? That had taken quite a while to digest.

Her phone beeped again.

Have dinner with me tonight. We’ll go out this time.

Such a benign request after the way they’d left things. A sliver of disappointment knifed through her before her brain kicked in. If she really wanted to have a discussion, dinner in a public restaurant sounded perfectly reasonable. Too bad her body couldn’t get on the same page as her brain. It was crazy hard not to think about the clever way he’d manipulated her body over and over until her head damn near exploded.