A/N: A super early treat to make up for the previous delay.

“A NEW SUB? AND THAT too a virgin? How did that happen?”

Ethan looked up then, deciding he'd ignored Dahlia enough as he snapped his book close.

“Finally,” she sighed dramatically.

Dahlia sat opposite him, eyebrows raised teasingly and a smirk playing on her lips.

“So?” she pressed.

“It just did.” He replied.

“Oh bullshit. In the five years I've known you, you have never gone against your stupid rule.”

“Seriously Dahlia, you don't have anything else to do?”

“Oh, let me check,” she said, making a show of pulling out her phone and sliding through it.

“Annoy Ethan until he gives up his secret,” she read loudly. “That's all I have on my to-do list for today.”

Ethan rolled his eyes.

“She challenged me. Was stubborn. Persistent. The urge to teach her a lesson just took priority.”

“You know that that has never happened before with you, right?”

“We haven't had a sub like her before either,” he shrugged.

She hummed in response, looking at him with that look on her face, like his answer hadn't sated her curiosity.

“So, how is she?”

So fucking annoying because she was all he could think of when he wasn't with her. So absolutely insufferable because he couldn't have enough of her. So completely surreal because Ethan was sure people like her had stopped existing so long ago.

“She's okay,” he said instead.

She nodded, then slid the folder she'd brought along towards him.

“Does that mean you're done with the questions?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow, accepting the folder.

“For now, yes,” she grinned.

“It's my turn, then.”

“Your turn?” She asked, thoroughly surprised.

“Yes. What's going on between you and Xaden?”

She laughed, “Me and Xaden? Nothing. We fuck sometimes.”

“I knew when you used to ‘fuck sometimes.’ This is not the same.”

“I thought you didn't care about the happenings of the club.”

“The club, no. But you ask me questions you have no business asking, so I do the same.”

“Jeez, Ethan.” She laughed.

“So?” He prodded and the smile was replaced by a sly grin.

“We are more than ‘fuck sometimes’ partners. But we're not sure. We're trying things out.”

Ethan nodded, a smile forming on his face.

“I hope it works out.”

She looked at him with a cocked head, probably trying to read him but then she gave up.

She got up to leave but then paused midway, turning towards him. “I swear if you tell him I told you, I'll kill you.”

“You think he won't be here to tell me everything in disgustingly explicit details himself?”

She smiled and Ethan saw something like fondness in her expression.

“Still,” she said, putting on that killer expression back. The one that frequently brought men and women alike, to their knees.

It didn't do anything to intimidate him.

“I won't tell,” he said and she nodded before leaving.

Ethan flipped open the file Dahlia had left for him. It was a record of every Dom in the place along with the Subs that were under their care.

It was Dahlia's duty to keep it up to date.

He was about to close it and put it in his drawer when Amelia's name, there a second time, caught his attention.

It should have been there only once. In front of his name.

There was a separate section in the file where Doms put down the names of the Subs they were interested in but the Subs were currently unavailable, either because they were under the care of another Dom or because they'd taken a break from the club.

Her name was there. In front of some Dylan.

Something twisted within him. Something hot and painful. Something he was very unfamiliar with.

Ethan stared at the words for a long while and the feeling grew as well. 

He snapped the file shut, frowning at nothing in particular.

There was something going on with him and he needed to figure out what it was or else it was going to drive him mad.

Maybe he needed to see a doctor.

Ethan gave himself a little shake. In his thirty years of life, he'd never needed a doctor.

Then maybe, just maybe, what he needed was her.

A frustrated growl left his throat. He was so fucked.

_________

“Mr. Williams?”

Ethan groaned internally. Never a moment of peace in this place.

“Yes?” He looked up.

A guy with blond hair stood there. 

“I'm Dylan.”

Now, he was really the last person Ethan wanted to see. The feeling he'd fought back since this morning was back again.

The urge to break all of Dylan's fingers and then beat him bloody.

He quieted his mind and tried to keep his face neutral.

“Hi, umm… there was something I wanted to discuss with you.”

“Come on in, then.”

He did, settling down on the opposite seat.

“My contract is about to expire and I want to renew it.”

“You'll have to take it up with Dahlia.”

“Oh,” Dylan replied. 

This act really wasn't working. Everyone knew to contact Dahlia for contract renewals and Xaden for maintenance of the club.

“There was another thing.”

Of course there was. 

“Go on,” Ethan said, leaning back in his seat.

“There's a rule in the club's guidebook. That the Dom who gives a Sub their tour has to be given first priority to contact that Sub.”

He could see where this conversation was going and Ethan wasn't sure how badly he was going to react to it.

“Umm… so, your new sub, Amelia. I was wondering if maybe you can give her to me as you know, it is kinda the rule since I gave her the tour and everything and also because you already have a sub and you don't take subs who are new…”

He was rambling at this point and Ethan clicked his tongue, effectively making him shut up.

Ethan got up from his seat, satisfied with the way Dylan's eyes flicked towards the closed door almost fearfully.

He walked towards the front of his desk, settling at the edge so that he was closer to him.

“Dylan, you do know that I own this place, right?”

He nodded in response and Ethan raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Yes, I do. Of course I do and I meant no disrespect…”

“So, you must also know that none of those rules apply to me?”

He blinked up at him and Ethan cocked his head to a side, waiting to see whether he would object.

“Yes, sir.” He said quietly.

Ethan nodded. “Good. You can leave now.”

Dylan nodded hurriedly, not daring to meet his eye.

It was good. Or else Ethan might have just punched him.

“Oh and Dylan?” He said, stopping him midway. “I don't want to see you in this club ever again.”

“What?” He asked, eyes wide. “You can't… I mean, I'm sorry. I didn't….”

“Get the fuck out,” Ethan said, a growl in his voice.

Ethan could see the clenched jaw and the hard eyes but he nodded nevertheless, walking out the door.