Bondage Wedding by Tori Carson Read Free Book Online Page A

and he’d found out the club’s video system had been compromised by someone stalking his cousin and receptionist. Not a good night for André.
    “I spent most of it in the back office talking to the police. How are you getting along with Amanda?” André sounded tired.
    James wondered if he’d even left the club. He knew his friend sometimes crashed on the couch in his office rather deal with the estrogen ocean he called home.
    “She isn’t talking much. What can you share with me?” James was hoping André could shed some light on her home life.
    André sighed heavily. “Her mom is a loser magnet. She’s had more husbands than I’ve had submissives and that’s saying something.” His friend’s laugh sounded a bit forced, confirming to James that André was having a hard time keeping harmony at home.
    “From what I hear, Amanda wasn’t abused, but she sure witnessed enough of it. Her mom was a punching bag for several of her exes.”
    “What brought her to Phoenix?” James was careful to keep his voice neutral.
    “Trix, her mom, gave me a call. She was really upset.”
    James waited and couldn’t help wonder if the story would continue to match the blog. He was a little depressed that her posts were ringing true.
    “Amanda came home one night crying with bruises on her arm. Someone had man-handled her and Trix was pretty sure it was a boyfriend. She was scared to death her daughter would follow her path. She thought that if Amanda went away to school, under my supervision, we might be able to break the cycle. So I sent her a plane ticket.”
    There was no mention of bruises or any physical harm befalling the girl in the blog. “Did you see the bruises?” Then realizing how that had sounded, James quickly covered his tracks. “Did they look like a handprint?”
    “She had some smudges on her arm, but she said a customer had grabbed her to get her attention and that her mom wouldn’t believe her. I don’t know which is true and it doesn’t matter to me. She was working as a waitress in a biker bar, getting her out of there was imperative.”
    “What about this boyfriend? Was he a Dom?” He believed Amanda’s story about the customer. It fitted better with the blog posts. He remembered reading a tirade about arrogant men who thought they had the right to touch women and how they needed to respect ‘personal space’.
    “I don’t believe she was tight with anyone, but I wouldn’t say she’s ever been forthcoming with information. She arrived with a chip on her shoulder. She refused to take any money from me. While we were still in the airport she gave me the money back for the airfare. She spent the first day here at ASU working some kind of magic. Granted, she has excellent grades, but she managed a full-ride scholarship from their prestigious business school. Her second day here she found an apartment, bought a piece-of-shit car and moved out.”
    “Where was the money coming from?” James had never known André to lie and he had no reason to that James could see. No matter which way James looked at it, Amanda was one interesting woman.
    “I think she saved it. She pinches a penny better than anyone I’ve ever met. The only thing I’ve managed to do for her is give her a decent salary and after I wrecked her car she agreed to take my old one.”
    “You wrecked her car?” James laughed, surprised.
    André chuckled. “I had the girls drop me off at work so I’d have an excuse to borrow hers when I made my nightly dinner run. Have you been in her apartment? There isn’t enough food to keep a rat alive—so every night she works I make sure I bring a pizza or something and make her eat it. Anyway, I ran it into a ditch. It was a rusted death trap. I tried to buy her a new car, but she wouldn’t take it. I tried to give her a raise and the down-payment for a new car, but she wouldn’t take that either. So we compromised and I gave her my old car.”
    This didn’t sound in any way like