Bind and Keep Me, Book 2 by Cari Silverwood Page B

fight the cops, and Steph…I could take her out with one finger. Maybe it was a male instinct of some sort, buried under millennia of evolution. When threatened, pick up a big stick so you can beat your enemy’s fucking brains out?
    Maybe. Besides, I could then teach Jodie myself. She’d had lessons from Chris for weeks. Time for me to do the same.
    Once we’d both changed into shorts and t-shirts, we strolled up the hill road to the park. A few tourists sat on picnic blankets and benches eating ice creams and other crap. We ignored them, though once we started sparring most of them looked our way.
    Actual kicking and punching wasn’t the strongest part of judo, since it was more a grappling-style martial art incorporating ways to throw someone or, in the groundwork, ways to choke, pin, or lock them down. From how Chris moved and responded to my combinations, he’d blended several martial art disciplines seamlessly.
    After twenty minutes we were both running with sweat and we needed time to shower and change, so I called a halt. To cool off, we sat on the grass swigging from our water bottles. I plucked at the chest of my t-shirt and waved it to and fro to help the sea breeze dry the sweat.
    “That was…” I looked for a good word. “Enlightening.”
    He swung to face me. “A compliment? What brought that on?”
    “A brain aneurysm maybe?” Grinning, I shrugged. “Take it while you can get it. You’re a good teacher. I should know. I used to teach at the club.”
    “You’ve stopped?”
    “Yeah. A month ago.” I swigged down more cool water. I looked about to see who was nearby. “Kink and doing things to Jodie to make her scream, even if she wants me too, it made teaching judo seem strange. That’s the best I can explain it. I stopped before I got to the stage where I was forever self-analyzing and gazing at my navel. Life’s too short for getting hung up on hang-ups.”
    “Truth. Here’s to that.” He waved his water bottle at me and chugged down a few swallows, then wiped his mouth. “I know just what you mean, man. Some days…” He shook his head and grimaced. “Some days I feel so fucked up. Some of my kinks I could follow down a rabbit hole forever and never come up for air. You get me?”
    “S and m? That power rush you get?”
    “That, yeah, sort of.”
    “Yes.” I nodded. Chris was a sadistic Dominant too. “I understand. Kat’s helped me sort out when to pull myself back, but I’m always having to double-check myself. I don’t want to hurt Jodie more than she needs me to, or more than is wise.”
    “Yup. Though Kat?” He shot me a quizzical look. “That woman is so confusing, so enigmatic. Bouncy, bubbly, mean too when she switches. Says she’s a sub, but naaah. She never really submits. If she did, though…” He pursed his lips. “She’s damn hot. I’d have kept her.”
    “You too?” I smiled. “She’s left a trail of perplexed Doms in her wake. I don’t think she understands herself either.”
    Fate likes to mess with us humans—to run us over and then come back for a second and third try. When I got back into my office, I clicked to the local news update before getting stuck into work again, and there was the report on two bodies being found at Leon Edante’s mansion. Nothing as yet revealed by the police except that the deaths were suspicious and homicide detectives were handling the case. Any members of the public with information regarding the incident were urged to contact the police.
    I sat back in my chair and gnawed my lip. Shit. Well, it had to happen. Now to hope none of the evidence led to us.
    My cell phone rang, I picked it up, and Kat was there.
    “Klaus?”
    “Hi, Kat.”
    “Have you seen the news? About Leon Edante?”
    Fate was backing that truck over me as we spoke. “Yes. Just now.”
    “Probably another case of too rich and too many designer drugs. Fucking painful how many idiots can’t handle being well off.”
    I grunted.
    “Say,