Charted Territory || BDSM

Chapter 27.3 ~ Coming to Light

PLEASE READ: ❦ Hello readers. Thank you for all your comments and votes this last week. You're entering a cliffhanger-free zone as I decided to release BOTH Chapters today. 

❦Please also be mindful that these chapters uncover some heavy themes. ❦

If I could describe how my stomach feels at this moment, it's as if a pair of invisible hands grabbed hold of my guts, twisted them, and wrung them out like a wet cloth. 

Not Samantha. 

Not here. 

Not now.

This is the absolute last place I would ever expect Cameron to run into her.

All that demonization of the BDSM lifestyle to appear at a Dom's and Sub's Ball? Something was not adding up. Little Miss Kink Shaming should stay far away from here if she's so disturbed by people like us. 

"Don't worry about her. They're fundamentally incompatible," Josefina's hands curl around my shoulders. "He's not made to be vanilla and she'll never be a submissive. If she's here, she's just here to spend time with Jake and Amy. Or stir the pot."

"They're friends?"

"Yes, they've kept in touch. She uses a sob story that she has no family and friends to harness attention from people. She came here to London to start over and her grandparents are elderly. Not exactly the most lively of company for her. At the end of the day, she's lonely. She'll jump at any opportunity to spend time with others. Don't fret."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, if she is here to see Cameron, then that's her funeral. We all know he's not going to go back to her. Samantha should know what she's getting herself into but she's choosing stupidity. Jake says she disappears and reappears constantly. That's just how she is."

Jake appears and Josefina asks him, "What's Samantha Koss doing here tonight?"

"Amy probably invited her out of courtesy knowing my wife," Jake shakes his head with that smug grin on his face. "Always overextending herself. But, if you ask me, Samantha is addicted to hurting herself."

"Addicted to hurting herself?" I look at Jake.

"She chases after Cameron at least once every month or two. Just to be rejected every time. She doesn't understand the damage that has been done. Cameron's not interested in damage control anymore."

"Why are they talking right now?" I ask about Cameron looking down at the red-headed girl with an unreadable expression.

"Who knows? But I promise you, Miss Alexa, there's nothing to fear her. Samantha may be the little ex that Cameron loves to pretend he never had but he will never make the mistake of trying a vanilla relationship again. It's not for a man like him."

"I know."

"Oh has Cameron given you the story?"

"He has. He said it was a beyond toxic relationship."

"Perhaps. I mean, it takes two to tango," Jake remarks. "But, overall, Samantha is an angry, insecure woman."

"Then why do you and Amy keep in touch with her?"

"She's lonely and she's tolerable. It doesn't hurt to be a friend."

"At Cameron's expense?"

Jake's eyes narrow at me like he would punish me himself if he could, "It's not like that."

I shake my head, "This isn't good."

"What's wrong?" Jake holds me a little tighter.

"If Amy's ex showed up here, wouldn't you worry?"