Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Her survival is what intrigues me the most.” I finished pouring the scotch into my glass, strolled over to the binder, flipped it open, and gazed at Jasmine’s college graduation picture. It was dangerous to do this in front of Dawn. Look too much, drool even. I couldn’t help it back then. Something drew me to Jasmine, something primal and raw that triggered me to do the unexpected and abnormal.
Dawn cleared her throat. “I think she’ll know her place.”
With my finger on the picture, I traced the curve of Jasmine’s lips. “Meaning?”
Dawn slid the binder away from my hands. “She’ll know her position in our arrangement. Not like the other ones. They never understood.”
I didn’t grab for the binder. It would’ve been too much. Dawn didn’t deserve the blatant disrespect, and without her approval, Jasmine coming into our arrangement wouldn’t happen. Wendy’s vote always leaned on Dawn’s side. Lucy never enjoyed being the only man out, so she went with the group. Everything balanced on Dawn. I had to approach the situation with caution, not show my interest in Jasmine too much. I could never reveal the addiction that was slowly building in my core. I’d already been falling for her before the day of the interview. Her guards updated me on Jasmine’s movements and delivered daily images of her taking care of ordinary tasks. The running pictures made me hard. She stormed up that hill as if she were a knight and a dragon lay on the other side.
“So what do you think, Chase?” Dawn pushed me out of my thoughts. “Will this one understand her position?”
“I’m not sure if Jasmine will know her place or not. Let’s remember. This isn’t a ranking system.”
“How could it not be? You and I have been together for so many years. Have I not earned the right to be higher than the others?”
Not this again. No matter how many times I buy her something with the number one on it, she’ll still gripe about her placement in my life.
“I don’t like the ranking system,” I said. “How do you think the other women feel?”
“That’s not my concern. They’re agreeing to this and getting a good bit of comfort in the process. They only need to worry about respecting my rules and pleasing you.”
“They’re not pets or sex toys, Dawn. They’re human beings with their own minds, voices, needs—”
“They are sex toys.” She grabbed the binder and rose. “Every one of them. Little toys in our life that can be replaced, misused, or broken.” She gestured to her and then me. “We’re the primary relationship. The rest of them are just coming and going.”
I took a big gulp of my scotch. We’d had arguments like this before. There was no need to go back and forth on the same topic when Dawn was set in her beliefs, and I on mine.
“Benny won’t be happy with this.” Dawn made her way over to the bar. “Are you sure you want to go after his daughter?”
“That’s probably the icing on the cake.”
“Will you tell her that he’s her father?”
There were a lot of things I’d hoped to do with and to Jasmine, but discussing Benny wasn’t one of them. “Yes. I’ll tell her one day.”
“So Dawn had problems with Vicky?” Jasmine pulled me out of that day.
“Vicky didn’t know her place, according to Dawn.”
“Excuse me?”
“Vicky battled with depression all of her life. In her late twenties, she’d been diagnosed as bipolar. Our therapist advised against adding her to our arrangement. I overrode it.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t think it was a problem. I planned on providing her with the best team of therapists that money could buy. That had been my understanding. Once Vicky moved in, Dawn refused to have her go to any other therapist but our main one. I didn’t know about that until after she died. I think Vicky was afraid to tell on Dawn.”
If she’d only just said something, maybe I could’ve protected her.
“Because she was depressed, Vicky took up more of my time. I felt bad for her and tried to be there any time she needed me. This cut into Dawn’s time.”
“Lucy told me that because of Vicky, you put in a mental health evaluation when scanning for candidates to be your girlfriend,” Jasmine said.
“Yes. It’s hard enough being with all of these people together in one house and maintaining mental stability. To come in with depression problems is to disrupt your brain. Plus, I didn’t want another person to commit suicide.”
“You still think she committed suicide?”
“Part of me hopes so otherwise one of them has been killing for a long time. I can’t deal with this.” I held Jasmine close to me. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“I’m enjoying this.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, you should know your place.” She stuck out her tongue. “I’m the head boss now. I say finish or be punished.”