Chapter 13

FBI Field Office
San Francisco, CA

Rossi

"So I have to ask." Rossi started as he settled in opposite the seemingly fragile woman. "Are you the same Lady Victoria who hosts the high protocol dinner at the Red Door Club every year?"

Alice smiled and relaxed a little more. "I am. I thought you looked familiar. Padrone di Rosso as I recall."

"Outed." He replied with a smile. "I always hate meeting anyone from that community in a professional capacity."

"I can see why now. Oh." She buried her face in her hands for a moment. "I can't believe it's actually over. I keep expecting to wake up and still be there."

"That's a reaction to the trauma." He had to be gentle here. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"He was jealous because of Joey. Because I convinced Joey not to go back to him. Because I repaired the damage he did."

"You repaired?"

"We helped Joey get over what that monster did to him. Of course he ended up falling in love with Tomás, hardly a surprise. But in the end he's mine. They both are."

"And you?"

She smiled, just a little. "Oh, I loved him from the moment I set eyes on him. Not like that, I know that now, but he is such a wonderful young man."

He was going to have to go at this from a different direction. "I have to ask, why do you have a House full of gay men? You could have a string of submissives of your own just waiting on your every breath rather than having to go through Tomás."

She sighed. "Unfortunately most of the straight male submissives I've found aren't really interesting in belonging; they're interested in having someone create a fantasy for them. Usually some combination of forced sissy, CBT and humiliation. I don't enjoy any of those activities and I don't appreciate being topped from the bottom. And besides, when most men get to know me they aren't interested."

"Why on earth not? You're attractive, intelligent, cultured..."

"Because I'm not attractive." She looked down at herself with a sigh. "My mother runs the family charitable trust. It's popular today to say that she 'leaned in', and put her career ahead of her family, and expected me to do the same. She never married, I never knew my father, and our family isn't a close one. So when I started school she decided I was old enough to look after myself afterwards and I became a latchkey child. One day I decided I wanted grilled cheese sandwiches after school." Alice was wearing a grey long sleeve t-shirt with a fairly high neck and holes in the cuffs for her thumbs over soft black pants. Now she raised the hem of her shirt to reveal the rough, red-brown twists of burn scars that cascaded down her torso. "Most straight men I've met prefer their Dommes to be flawless."

"Ouch." Rossi nodded. Scars like that would make even vanilla dating a lot harder. "But how did you end up with a house full of gay men?"

"I met Tomás back when we were in high school. His sister and I were roommates, she set us up for a school dance. He wasn't out to his family yet. He told me though and we decided we enjoyed each other's company enough to hang around together, let everyone believe we were a couple so he wouldn't have to come out until after high school, and so I could get all my friends off my back about dating. Now, when I went to boarding school my mother decided she didn't need a house anymore so she sold it. I spent my first Thanksgiving vacation with her in a hotel in Chicago, bored out of my mind. When she asked me where I wanted to go for Christmas I said Disneyland, being all of twelve, so she sent me there."

"Alone?"

"Yes, for most of it. I had an unlimited pass for the park, ample funds, safe transportation to the park via monorail, I could order anything I wanted from room service, and housekeeping kept the room up. I was kind of lonely but otherwise it was ideal. She showed up on Christmas Eve, we spent Christmas Day together, and then she went back to work and I went back to school. The next vacation I was invited to my roommate's family home in the city. Mom didn't want me staying with strangers; I know it makes no sense, so she reserved a room at the Intercontinental here in the city. I ended up spending most holidays there, usually hanging out with Tomás."

"Okay."

"Anyway, one time we were bored and decided to see what all the fuss over pornography was about. We started with straight vanilla porn because I was paying for everything. But it wasn't...the men weren't all that attractive..."

"Most men who watch straight porn don't want to feel outclassed."

"...and I was envious of the women and all the focus was on them and it just...it just didn't do anything for either one of us. Then Tomás asked if we could try some gay porn. It was...a revelation. No flawless women to be envious about. All of the focus was on these amazingly beautiful men. Really, I don't know why more straight women don't watch gay porn. They're all so lovely, their faces and voices and bodies espcially." She smiled gently. "I guess I fell in love with all of them. I told Tomás he could bring his boyfriends to my hotel room whenever he liked, so long as I didn't have to leave. One thing led to another."

There was more to it, she was evading something, but Rossi decided to go for that a bit later, give her a little more time to get comfortable. "You said not like that..."

Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to find the words. "He said he honestly doesn't care." She replied. "He doesn't care what I look like. I supposed we'll see what happens when he has his vision treated, and when all of this is truly over..."

Ahhh. "If he said that he meant it. I have never known Dr. Reid to be free with his attachments to women. In fact I've only ever heard him say anything once before."

"Maeve. He told me. I just never thought..."

"You love them, all the men in your house, like a good Master loves those under them. But in the end, while they are yours they don't return that love, not in the way you give it. You never thought you'd find someone who would."

"...as an equal." She replied. "He's not really submissive you know, for all that he is very gentle."

That kind of surprised him. "He always said he wasn't an alpha, his words."

"Nonsense, he's just vastly quieter than all the other alphas I know. Quiet and very strong." She shook herself back to the topic at hand. "Anyway I do love Joey. He is mine, even though he and Tomás are so very in love still. And Blackburn knew that." He could see her mind reverting to the horrors of the recent past. "He knew it was my house all along. That was why he took his revenge for losing Joey out on me."

"How?"

She looked at him with sorrowful eyes and began.