Page 49 of Their Ruthless Sadist

Zeke groaned as he leaned back in his chair. “Are you serious?”

“Well, yes,” she practically shouted. “You’re not the only one who’s into this stuff, Zeke. I’ve always been … curious. And there are tons of books about it, so I read them.”

“You know that shit’s romanticized, right? It’s not all about spanking some sweet little girl’s ass while she giggles and laughs, then cuddling her close and telling her how wonderful she is.”

Jamie glared at her brother again. She was the only person I’d ever seen look at him that way. And based on Zeke’s reaction to her, they were close. It was interesting to see the dynamic between the two. I had a close relationship with my brothers and sisters, too. I could recall many times I’d been in the same room with them, engaging in conversations similar to this one. Well, not quite like this. My family wasn’t aware of my kink side. However, we could give each other shit for days because we were close, always had been. Oh, sure, we’d had our falling-outs over the years. What siblings didn’t?

“But it’s not as scary as you make it out to be,” she argued.

“Depends on who you ask,” he countered.

“Okay, fine. We’ll ask an impartial party.” Jamie turned her attention to me and Case.

Shit.

My eyes remained fixed on her, but I didn’t miss the warning look Zeke sent my way.

“I’m still curious as to what interests you about the clubs,” I said, hoping to deflect. “I mean, are you interested in dominating someone? Submitting?”

“Submission,” she said quickly. “And I don’t know what the appeal is exactly, but when I read those books, I can relate in a lot of ways. Like I said, I’m curious.”

Couldn’t blame the girl for being curious. A lot of people were.

“Not just from a psychological perspective?” Case asked.

Good question.

“No, although I can’t deny that’s part of it.” Her eyes shifted to me. “When did you start going to the clubs?”

“Not until I met Case,” I admitted.

“But you knew on some level you were submissive?”

I shook my head. “No, actually. I didn’t know anything about it before him.”

“So, you didn’t want to be roughed up by one of your sexual partners?”

Case choked on his juice, and I sat stone-still, staring at the woman. How the hell was I supposed to answer that? Especially with Zeke glaring holes through me.

“I … uh…”

“Plead the Fifth, man. Plead. The. Fifth,” Case mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

Surprisingly, Zeke chuckled.

“You stay out of this,” Jamie bit out, pointing her fork at her brother. “But you went to a club anyway? And you liked it?”

Son of a bitch. She backed me into a corner there. I could feel the heat coming out of Zeke’s ears.

“Yeah.” I dropped my gaze to my plate.

Case, on the other hand, seemed to be quite content to watch the verbal volley. He hadn’t said a word to help defuse this situation. I could understand Zeke’s desire to keep his little sister out of the club. I wasn’t sure what I’d think if one of my sisters wanted to venture into the world of BDSM.

“My brother’s a hypocrite,” Jamie said, her eyes swerving back to Zeke.

“No, your brother’s protecting you,” Zeke said roughly.

“From what? I didn’t see anything wrong with Razor Wire,” she said. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t get inside.”