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of her taste that remained and capturing a tiny bit of her own essence. He smiled at her, flashing his white teeth.
    “Thank you, Mistress Star.”
    “You earned it,” she reminded him.
    She busied herself releasing the last wide strap and then easing out the nipple rings. She removed the tiny vibrators and set them aside before cleaning his entire body of the oil with wet wipes. Lastly she wiped down the rings and carefully inserted them back into the holes pierced for them, being very gentle with the tender tissue. Before she allowed him to move from the board, she fetched a bottle of water from the tiny fridge in one corner of the room and waited while he drank at least half of it. Then she held out her hand, although she knew he did not need her support. He had not gone as deeply into subspace as she’d taken him many times, so his recovery time would be faster.
    She watched the flex of the tight muscles of his buttocks as he strode over to where he had placed his clothes. The entire time he dressed he never looked away from her. When he finished, he stood for a moment, head bowed.
    “Thank you for tonight, Mistress Star. I hope I pleased you.”
    She laughed. “You always please me, Drew, even though I sometimes feel you keep one last little piece of yourself apart. But we’ll work on that.”
    He raised his head and looked for a moment as if he wanted to say something more.
    “Yes?” she prompted. “Was there something more?”
    “Forgive me for my insolence, Mistress, but tonight I had the feeling you were not, well, totally committed to our playtime.”
    She studied his face for a moment and then his eyes, which she had a feeling saw far too much.
    “I’m fine, Drew. Perhaps it was just a very tiring week.” She grinned. “I’ll let you distract me more thoroughly next time.”
    “Of course.”
    But later, as she drove home through the dark streets, she wondered if Drew might not be too perceptive. Despite her best efforts to concentrate on her sub tonight, he wasn’t the one whose image flashed in her mind and kept intruding on her thoughts. Far from it. Every time she looked at Drew’s face, it was Branch Colby who teased at her and ramped up her arousal. Damn!
    How had the man lodged himself so firmly in her head so quickly?
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Branch swiveled in his desk chair to look out the window behind him. The entire wall was floor-to-ceiling glass, giving him an outstanding view of downtown San Antonio, including the famous Riverwalk. The location was what had inspired him to buy the ancient building on the site, tear it down, and build this one, keeping the top two floors for Colby, Inc.
    He’d waited out the first three days of the workweek, doing his best to keep from checking his cell every five minutes in case he’d missed a call or a text. Not that he had a lot of time to sit around doing nothing. He was on the move a lot, visiting projects in process, some of them in other states, and that required taking his private plane. He had new project proposals to study, reports from his site manager to check out, and myriad other tasks that usually kept his brain fully occupied.
    But not this week. Instead, his brain was filled with images of a tall woman with a thick head of sable hair, mysterious hazel eyes, delicate cheekbones, and a mouth that just begged to be kissed. By him, if he was honest enough to admit it. The casual clothing she’d worn to the picnic did little to disguise a body that he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on. Long legs that he could imagine wrapped around his waist. Slender shoulders. High, firm breasts and a nicely rounded ass that he itched to spank, turning the flesh a warm shade of red.
    When Max had finally gone home the other night, Branch had stayed in his office a long time, driving himself nuts reliving his brief conversation with Lee Sullivan. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had gotten to him this way. What in hell was it