Danielle felt as though Gracie was talking in riddles. If kissing a woman didn’t excite her sexually, why would she do it for her Master? “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry. By the time you finish your training, you won’t remember a time you didn’t understand. Just keep an open mind and an open heart, and you’ll find answers to questions you didn’t even know you sought.” Gracie hopped up from the bed. “I’ll let you get settled, and then I’ll come by later so we can have dinner together. If you need anything, press one on the phone to call my cell, two for Adrian, or zero for Master Cole.” She threw her arms around Danielle and hugged her tight. “I’m glad you’re here. I’ve been waiting to meet you—I mean, someone like you—for a long time. I have a feeling we’re going to be good friends.”
After Gracie left the room, Danielle removed her coat, lay back, and stared at the chandelier. Everything here was so confusing. She rubbed her temples. Her vision blurred from exhaustion, and her head ached slightly from lack of sleep, food, and the stress of knowing her stepmother’s life was at risk.
In her purse, her cell phone rang. With dread, she retrieved it, then answered the unlisted number. Her stomach plummeted, and her pulse went into overdrive. “Hello?”
“You’ve been a good girl and followed my directions,” said a voice she recognized as the man who’d been in her bedroom last night. “I can’t wait to reward you. But first things first. You need to get into DeMarco’s private residence. The only way to get to it is through a secret room, which is behind the bookcase in his office. The password to enter that room is ‘benediction.’ From there you’ll need a key to get upstairs to his residence, and DeMarco is the only one who has it. Once you get in, you’ll need to find a jewelry box. Your locket will open that box, and inside you’ll find a trust document in your name, along with information on an offshore bank account. When you get it, you’ll call me at 313-555-2468, and I’ll give you further instructions. So far, Tasha is safe. It’s up to you to keep her that way. Tick-tock, Danielle.”
Chapter Five
SHE SHOT FROM the bed, her gaze darting around the room and the nape of her neck prickling. Despite Cole’s assertion there were no cameras in the bedrooms, Danielle couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
Nothing made sense. Why was there a trust in her name hidden in Cole’s residence in a box that only her locket could open?
Danielle had very few items of her mother’s, which was why the locket had meant so much to her when her father had given it to her on her thirteenth birthday. She’d worn her mother’s locket every day since, only removing it to bathe.
Clutching the locket in her hand, she caught her reflection in the dresser mirror, ensnared by the image of her corseted body and the wildness of her brown eyes. In less than twenty-four hours, how did a woman like her go from the quiet solitude of her desert home to kissing a female slave in a sex club?
The reflection staring back at her wasn’t someone she recognized. Sensuality radiated from her like a halo, from the flush of her cheeks to the unruly obsidian curls spilling down her shoulders. It was as if her arrival here had been a spark to kindling, igniting something in her she hadn’t known existed. As if she’d been holding her breath, waiting for her life to begin, and it finally had.
Only she’d never imagined it would take her stepmother’s kidnapping to do it.
Danielle had never been special. She didn’t have a particularly outstanding singing voice. Her grades at school had been decent, but she’d been far from an A student. And although she’d loved art, she couldn’t draw or paint anything worthy. She conceded she had a pretty face, but at a size sixteen, no one would ever call her beautiful.
Danielle’s throat clogged with unshed tears, and she took a deep breath to keep them at bay. She’d spent her life being invisible, watching from the shadows, observing like a ghost. But with all the cameras set up in Benediction, slinking around wouldn’t go unnoticed.
To get into his residence, she could either steal Cole’s key or convince him to bring her there willingly. In both situations, she’d have to get close to him, and there was only one way do that with an owner of a sex club.
She’d have to seduce him.
It wasn’t going to be easy. He already doubted her sincerity and questioned her motives. What would it take to get a man like him to lower his guard? Everything she’d read about BDSM in the last twenty-four hours stressed the importance of trust. Yet Cole had dozens of people literally bowing at his feet, and he still relied on cameras in almost every area of his club.