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kind of hardcore, but people make up
stories to fill in the blanks they can’t fill with facts. He owns Bondage but
he doesn’t actively engage with anybody while he’s in the building, that I’ve
ever noticed. Whatever he does when he’s not in the building, he keeps it to
himself. Hence the rumors.”
    “I am so not going to ask what you do at Bondage,” Melanie
said. She was familiar with the fetish club—everybody was—but she’d never been
inside. Not only was Bondage a membership-only establishment except for one
night a month, but it was also a little bit scary. Even Brooke, who’d had three
Masters, steered clear. Melanie probably wouldn’t ever visit now, not knowing
if she might encounter David among the crowd. Ew. She shuddered. Extra ew.
    “Thank God for the little things,” Jovanna muttered. Louder,
she said, “He’s very experienced. He’s respected. He’s straight. He’s…whether
the rumors have any basis or not, he might be too serious for you, Mel. I don’t
think he’s the right man for experimenting or having a little fun.”
    “He seems like he could use some more fun in his life.”
    “Don’t play with him,” Jovanna warned, giving the exact
opposite advice she’d received from Brooke early that morning. Brooke suggested
some serious playing-with and insisted men like Sam thrived on being provoked.
    “But he’s fun to play with. I don’t think he knows what to
do with me.” Her lips curved and she closed her eyes. She’d rather follow
Brooke’s approach, since she suspected provoking Sam was the only way she’d get
him to look her way.
    Jovanna sighed and continued texting.
    * * * * *
    Sam sat at a poker table with David, David’s father Howard
and another man named Joaquin, who David introduced as his stepfather. Four
hands into the game, the two Burkes began to discuss Melanie. Since the day was
so early and the casino crowd slim, the dealer didn’t comment on the amount of
conversation.
    Sam requested a beer from a passing server and glowered at
his cards while he waited for the cocktail waitress to return.
    “I’ve decided to cut her off,” Howard Burke said. “She has
to learn she can’t keep throwing away money on stray cats. She calls me every
month asking me to send her deposit through early. How can she have nothing
left for her actual needs?”
    David flipped a plastic chip into the pot to up his bid.
“Leave her alone, Dad. The cats make her happy.”
    Joaquin chewed on the end of his cigar and placed his own
bid, nothing to add to the conversation. Nothing in English, anyway. He
muttered to himself in a language that didn’t filter through Sam’s rudimentary
background in French.
    Howard grunted. “You’re going to be taking a new wife home
with you. Your sister’s happiness shouldn’t be your concern, not if you want
your marriage to last. What does Jovanna think about having eight or nine
flea-ridden felines in the garage?”
    “Jovanna likes animals.” David glanced at his phone and,
frowning, started tapping out a text with one hand.
    “She won’t like them once she’s wearing a wedding ring.”
Howard folded and leaned back in his chair. “Trust me, son. You want to worry
about your wife’s happiness, not your sister’s. When Melanie has a man of her
own, she can have her fleabags again. Even better, the man will take her in hand
and put a permanent stop to it. For God’s sake, she could get rabies from one
of the little mongrels.”
    Sam stared at his cards until the cocktail waitress finally
returned. When he looked up, he found David watching him with an inscrutable
expression.
    Sam steeled himself to maintain eye contact and asked, “Your
sister likes cats?”
    “She’s been having a love affair with them since she was
seven,” Howard answered. “The skinnier and closer to death, the better. Now she
wants to go into veterinary medicine and it’s gotten out of hand. This is the
third time she’s changed majors. At this rate,