Mirror of My Soul by Joey Hill (book club recommendations .TXT) 📕

lips and draw out his passion toward her. He noticed, because his grip tightened, putting the firm pressure of him against her loins. A promise of what he would give her later.

“Good to know,” she murmured, running a finger just under the lobe of his ear, playing in his hair. She looked over, saw Chloe had captured Brendan’s hand and was reading his palm. He studied the crown of her head, a bemused look on his face, that pleasant bewilderment that most people experienced when first exposed to Chloe’s joyous nature. “Brendan just wants someone to take care of, someone whose heart answers his. Someone who will be loving and loyal, who will ease the little boy deep inside who’s afraid he’ll wake up and find everything he loves is taken away. For some men I think taking care of the woman they love is what matters most, whether they do it as a Master or as a submissive.” Her gaze shifted briefly to Mac who was dancing with his wife now, his powerful arms holding her close to him. “And Brendan can teach Chloe how to lead the dance. It’s not in her blood, but if they fall in love and she enjoys it, even just as role playing, it will be enough. It wouldn’t be enough for every submissive, but it will be for him. He’ll care for her as a cherished Mistress, even if she never takes the title.”

“Because he has the Mistress of his heart already.” Tyler pressed his hand low on the small of her back, making desire curl low in her stomach. “Like the knight who chooses his queen or another woman out of his reach as the lady who inspires him. She motivates him to be who he should be in this life, even when he gives his heart to a wife or lover.” Before she could get flustered, as if he anticipated her discomfort, he changed gears. “Somehow, however, I don’t think it will be difficult to talk Chloe into tying him up and having her way with him.”

At the moment she slanted a teasing glance up at him, getting a bit lost in the sexy mischief evident in his amber eyes, a flashbulb popped. Marguerite saw Violet sitting back down with her camera. She and Mac had returned to their table and now Mac leaned back in his chair at the round table. He held on to the back slat of Josh’s chair while Violet sat to his left. She was carrying on an animated discussion with Josh’s wife Lauren and two others Marguerite didn’t recognize.

Tyler followed her gaze and chuckled. “Oh, God save us, there’s a couple you need to meet. Justin Herne and his wife, Sarah. A different Sarah from ours. Justin runs a women’s erotica shop. Sarah is a police chief.”

“I’m sure that was an interesting love story.” She took in the dynamics at that table, two Mistresses with submissive males, though one always applied that term to Mac Nighthorse with some degree of astonishment. A man who ran a sex shop, who had a police chief as a wife. Then there was the potential of Chloe and Brendan nearby, obviously intrigued with each other. But how much less remarkable was her situation?

A Mistress dancing with her new husband, also a Dominant.

220

Mirror of My Soul

“It really can’t be predicted, can it? Relationships are more fluid than we think they are.”

He picked up on her thought, brought her closer so he could brush his lips along her cheek. “There’s no other option when you can’t imagine being without someone.”

She leaned further into him, feeling the music and the night surrounding them, the love of friends.

As the song came to a conclusion, she stepped back, but retained his hands. “I have a gift for you.”

Tyler lifted a brow. “Angel, you never have to give me a gift again. You’ve given me what I want for every birthday and Christmas for the rest of my life.”

Her blue eyes softened, her mouth trembling a little. He knew she was on emotional overload today, gripping every moment with both hands like that teddy bear that now held a place of honor on their bed. She wasn’t afraid to savor it now and it made him want to kiss her again. And again.

But before he could act on it, she looked toward Josh. As if he was waiting for her signal, he reached over, tapped Justin Herne’s arm. As Justin rose, Josh leaned over to Lauren, dressed in a strapless sequined gown, to kiss her bare shoulder. Reaching up, she cradled his face to press her own lips to his jaw.

“You are an extremely confident man,” Marguerite observed, watching Justin

Herne move toward them with the easy elegance of a wild creature. Looking

deceptively civilized in black tie, he wore his dark brown hair pulled into a sleek tail at the nape, emphasizing the chiseled planes of his face, the dark eyes, the dangerously sensual set of his mouth.

“Admit it. You think I’m the handsomest man here.”

She suppressed a chuckle, shot him an amused glance. “Those are wedding day

blinders. Keep men like this around and see what happens.”

Justin arrived before them then, so Tyler swallowed his threatening retort. The man withdrew a slim box from inside his jacket. “Per your specifications, Mrs. Winterman.”

The look on her face as the first of their friends called her by the title was worth everything to Tyler. Her wonder and delight was such that she didn’t speak for a moment. Justin waited, a slight smile on his lips as if he knew the impact the words had had on her.

Tyler put his hand to the small of her back, touched her with simple intimacy. And not just to reassure her. Watching the close attention of the women clustered around the dance floor, he knew she was right. He really did have to cultivate some less distracting male friends.

“I’m sorry…” She cleared her throat. “I asked Josh—”

“Josh’s contact