Glancing around the bar, Mike made sure there was nothing else that needed his attention before heading home to shower and change. The last thing he wanted to do was to show up at Charlotte’s late. She’d sent him a text earlier with her home address. He’d actually been surprised since Nick had said that as far as he knew, Mistress China rarely played outside of the club. But Mike had been relieved she wasn’t throwing him to the wolves, so to speak, by taking him directly to The Covenant. He had no idea how that was going to go over with the men he knew that belonged to the club. With Nick as a sub there, he doubted they’d say anything to embarrass Mike, but that didn’t mean he still wouldn’t feel it.

The new waitress, Daniella, walked up to the bar. “Hey, Mike, can I get a chardonnay and a Coke, please?”

Since the bartender, Missy, was busy at the other end, Mike grabbed two glasses to fill the order. “Sure. How’s everything going? You’re picking things up quickly.”

Indeed, she was. He’d been a little surprised . . . okay, a lot surprised, when she’d handed him her resume. While the past few years, she’d been a homemaker, before that, she’d worked for some of the most prestigious restaurants on the gulf coast of Florida. And not as a waitress, but she had, literally, run the dining rooms—everything from handling the staff, hosting parties and wine pairing events, and making sure the atmosphere was just right. In other words, she was completely overqualified for the job. Her response to his incredulity was that she was going through a divorce and since she hadn’t worked in years, her connections had dried up, and there weren’t many places that could hire someone with her experience. The ones that could, weren’t in the market for a dining room manager, so she was taking what she could get. Jenn had been training her, but aside from pointing out where things were and how to work the new ordering computer, there wasn’t much she needed to learn. Daniella had even won over Harvey, the daytime chef, in no time, which was almost unheard of.

“It’s going well. You’ve got a great setup here, and Jenn is a sweetheart. I can tell she’s really going to miss working here.”

“She is great, but was never going to be a lifer. She’s really looking forward to a career in social work—it fits her personality, too. And since her uncles are in here all the time, I’m sure she’ll be stopping by so much we won’t have a chance to miss her.”

When he handed over her drinks, Daniella thanked him then brought them to her customers. The front door opened and two of his evening staff members walked in, causing Mike to check the clock. He had two hours before he had to be at Charlotte’s, but he wanted to stop by his mother’s house first. He and Jake were going to sit down and talk with her tomorrow about the assisted living facility. Mike was hoping she’d at least agree to go look at the place. If her memory was going to get worse, they’d rather she already be there. It would probably be less stressful on all of them.

Saying goodbye to his employees and telling them to call if he was needed, he grabbed the takeout container Jenn had prepared for him and shook hands with a few regulars on his way to the door. Less than ten minutes later, he pulled into the driveway of the house he’d grown up in. He had a love/hate relationship with the place. His childhood had been good, if uneventful, until Mike’s early teen years when Sean Donovan became more interested with Jake becoming a professional football player than anything else. From the time one of the Pop Warner coaches had told Sean that with the proper guidance his youngest son had the potential to go all the way to the pros one day, everything the family had done revolved around Jake’s training and games. While he loved his brother, Mike couldn’t help but know he was second best in his father’s eyes, and the boy he’d been had resented it. But he’d grown up so much since then. Not only physically, but emotionally. He was just grateful he’d been able to mend his torn relationship with his brother recently. It hadn’t been Jake’s fault their father had been an arrogant, selfish bigot. In fact, in the end, Jake had become persona non-grata in Sean’s eyes because of his homosexuality, which, itself, had never bothered Mike. He’d always regret telling their father in a moment of jealous weakness, but like Jake had said to him, the past is in the past. He needed to put that all behind him and enjoy the future.

Using his own key to let himself into the house, he wasn’t too surprised to see his mother’s neighbor there. A little younger than Emma Donovan, Linda Baker had befriended her when she’d moved in next door about three years ago. She knew what it was like to be a widow, and the two women had been able to commiserate with each other. It gave Mike and Jake an extra set of eyes on their mother and a backup in case neither of them were available in an emergency—which was rare, but possible.

The two women looked up from their perches on the couch where they were having some tea. Linda was the first to greet him. “Hi, Mike.”

“Hi, Linda. Hi, Mom.”

“Oh, hi, Michael, I didn’t expect you home from school this early. Was your class canceled?”

Oh boy. It’s one of those days. His gaze flitted to Linda’s sympathetic one before returning to his mother’s worn face. When had it gotten so wrinkled? “Mom, I’ve been out of school a long time, remember?”

She shook her head and waved a hand in the air as her memory cleared. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. Linda and I were just talking about when our children were young, and I got caught up in the moment. How was work, dear?”

“Good.” He raised his hand holding the takeout container. “Harvey made you some chicken piccata for dinner. There’s plenty, Linda, if you’d like to have some, too.”

The woman stood and took it from him. “Sounds wonderful. I’ll put it in the kitchen, and we’ll reheat it in a little while. Sit with your mom for a minute while I make us another cup of tea. Would you like one?”

She knew the answer to that, but it was nice that she always asked. “No, thanks.”

When she left the room, Mike took her place on the couch next to his mother. “How was your day?”

“It was okay. I was feeling a little lonely before Linda came over. There’s no one else around anymore.”

That was one of the things she complained about often, but when either Jake or Mike brought up the topic of an assisted living facility she usually balked. Biting his tongue, Mike didn’t get into that discussion with her again. It could wait until tomorrow when he had reinforcements. “Well, why don’t I come get you for lunch tomorrow? Jake and Nick are coming by the restaurant to talk about Jenn’s farewell party.”

“Jenn’s leaving? I didn’t know she was moving.”

“She’s not, Mom. She’s got an internship for college and then she’ll be looking for a job in social work.” That was the fifth or sixth time in the past week he’d told her that.”

“Oh, good. She’s such a nice girl. You should ask her out now that she won’t be working for you.”

Looks like she forgot the huge age difference between me and Jenn, and that Jake’s a surrogate uncle to her. “She’s dating someone, Mom.”

He didn’t know if that was true, but it worked to get his mother off the matchmaking topic. “That’s too bad. But lunch sounds wonderful. Will Jake and Nick be there?”

Yup, and I just said that less than a minute ago. “They’ll be there.” As Linda came back into the room, Mike stood then gave his mother a peck on the cheek. “I’ll pick you up at noon tomorrow.”

“Oh, you don’t have to—I can drive myself.”

His eyes flashed to Linda who subtly canted her head toward the kitchen. It was clear that Emma was worse today than usual and the other woman needed to tell him something. Leaving his mother on the couch, he followed Linda into the other room. When they were out of earshot, she pulled two sets of keys from her pocket. “I’m worried about her. She tried to back the car out of the driveway earlier and couldn’t do it. She ran over the garbage cans and then ended up hopping the curb across the street and driving up onto the Hodges’ lawn. I was able to convince her to let me park the car back in the driveway then took her to the store in my car. I swiped her car keys. The second set I took from the table in the foyer. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Mike grimaced. “Damn. Thanks for taking care of her.” He pocketed the keys. “Hopefully she’ll think she misplaced them for now. Jake and I are going to talk to her about the assisted living facility tomorrow and take her over to see the place.”

Patting his arm, Linda gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know it’s hard, and I’ll miss having her as a neighbor, but it’s for the best. I’ll be more than happy to visit her there, though. If you need help with anything, you let me know.”

“Thanks, Linda. Jake and I really appreciate all you’ve done for Mom.”

“She’s a wonderful woman. I love spending time with her.”

Returning to the living room, Mike gave his mother another kiss on the cheek and said goodbye to both women. Ten minutes later, he pulled into his condo complex. During the drive over, he’d called Jake and filled him in on what Linda had told him. Once that was done, he was able to put his mother out of his mind for a bit and think about Charlotte and their . . . date? Mike wasn’t sure if that was the word for it. It wasn’t exactly a date, and meeting was too professional sounding. Rendezvous? Tryst? Whatever it was, he was certainly looking forward to it.

After taking a shower, he dressed in a gray polo shirt and a new pair of jeans. Sitting in the recliner in front of his wide-screen TV, he reread the research he’d done for the “homework” Charlotte had given him. When his mother had asked about school earlier, the sexy Domme had flashed in his mind. She’d been wearing all black—a leather skirt, lacy bra, and thigh-high boots while cracking a whip. Not an image he wanted to be salivating over while standing in front of the woman who’d given birth to him.

Once he was pretty sure he remembered everything, he folded the piece of paper with his notes on it and stuffed it into his back pocket—just in case he forgot something. Grabbing his keys, wallet, phone, and almost completed limit list, he headed out the door. Using the GPS in his truck’s dash, it didn’t take him long to reach Charlotte’s house.

At the back of a quiet cul-de-sac, her small, one-floor ranch sat on a lot that was about three quarters of an acre. A fence enclosed the backyard, and two lines of trees created a barrier between her property and the neighbors on either side. There were no vehicles in the driveway or in the street directly in front of the house, and he assumed she parked the SUV he knew she drove in the garage. Glancing at his truck’s radio, he noted the time. He was six minutes early. Parking in the street, he turned off the ignition and took a deep breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been nervous about being with a woman—not since he’d been a teenager, a very long time ago. But that nervousness wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, he was semi-hard just thinking about seeing her again, not to mention finding out what she had planned for him tonight.

Climbing out of the car, he strode up the driveway. The sky to the west behind the house was filled with slashes of reds, oranges, and yellows as the sun prepared to set. It looked like a painter had used the horizon as his latest canvas.

Mike’s heart pounded in his chest as he raised his hand and rang the doorbell. In the silence around him he heard the clicking of heels on tile on the other side of the door—they were slow and methodical, and he imagined Charlotte sashaying seductively down a hallway. The door was unlocked and then opened. As he seemed to be prone to doing whenever he was in the vicinity of this woman as of late, Mike almost choked on his tongue. Charlotte was dressed in a black, skin-tight cat suit that hugged every curve of her delectable body. A zipper on her chest was lowered to give him a very enticing view of her cleavage. The black, thigh-high boots he’d imagined earlier covered her legs. Her shiny black hair hung straight down below her shoulders and subtle makeup enhanced her facial features. She really was a stunning woman, and for the first time since all this started Mike wondered what the hell she saw in him. He wasn’t anything special to look at—not that he was ugly. He’d had his fair share of women flirt with him, but with Charlotte, he couldn’t help but feel she was way out of his league.

“Hello, Michael,” she purred. “Welcome to my home. Please, come in.”

Swallowing hard, he stepped inside before she closed the door behind him. His gaze darted around the place Charlotte owned and lived in. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but the comfortable, earth-toned decor hadn’t been it. When she passed by him and walked down the hall toward the kitchen, the sway of her hips demanded all his attention as he followed. While he was still on edge, his lust for this woman was quickly taking over his body. Never in his adult life had he wanted to beg a woman for anything but, with Charlotte, begging was something he was now looking forward to.