CHAPTER 159: SECOND MONDAY (4)

Jack held up his hand to forestall whatever Nora was about to say.

"I’ll be just as happy if you chose one of the other options. Though, if you decide you want to go the sibling route, you’ll have to settle for sister, not big sister. I will not tolerate being bossed around or talked down to."

Jeeves had mentioned that he might be able to make some alterations to his exiting soul bonds, so while Nora chewed on what he’d just said, he concentrated on their connection.

He mentally squeezed their connection with the intent to push her away emotionally. He didn’t want to cut off her ability to sense his emotions, or vice versa, but he did want to reduce or eliminate the sense of affection the bond seemed to be engendering.

As he pushed, he felt the bond shift almost immediately and felt her soul shift further away from him.

At the same time, he felt a hollowness form in his heart, like he was losing something precious to him. He was paying attention to her emotions over their connection and stopped when he felt that sense dim slightly.

He didn’t like distancing himself from her like this, but it was the only thing he could think of that would help her accept that he was not going to force her into a relationship.

And he was beginning to think that maybe she had some trauma in her past that was making it difficult for her to accept his words, even with the soul bond.

When he pushed her soul bond away from him, she gasped and clutched at her chest. And over their connection, he sensed the pang of loss.

"What, what did you just do?!"

"I altered our soul bond. I believe I’ve eliminated the affection side-effect, without losing our ability to sense each other’s emotions."

"But..."

She was still clutching her chest.

"Was that not what you wanted? You keep acting like I’m some secret lecher, just waiting to get you in my clutches. So I fixed the problem. No more undue affection."

Her emotions were a confused mess and while he could still sense them over their connection, his change to their bond had reduced that sense enough that he could not untangle what he was sensing.

Regardless, he figured she had some conflicting desires and needed space to work them out.

He patted her shoulder and said, "There’s plenty of time to figure things out. At least now maybe you can be certain you are not being unnaturally influenced."

Then he turned and headed towards his room to change into training clothes.

When he entered the training room, he found Rina practicing a throwing move.

She was so small that she had little chance of doing any damage with a punch, so she focused on dodging and momentum redirect moves.

She also practiced kicks, since she had the flexibility to hit a man in the face with her foot. Though that would only work if the man wasn’t a steel jawed beast.

In a corner was Isabella, kicking the shit out of a training dummy.

It didn’t look like she was just training; it looked like she was venting. Unlike Madison, Isabella already had some martial arts training, and it seemed like the training dummy only cared about combat proficiency and didn’t care what style you used to achieve it.

Before she noticed him, he looked into her mind to see what was bothering her.

She was still in jail, falsely accused of murder, and was frustrated because her lawyers were unable to make any progress on getting her released.

He’d forgotten to tell her about the results of his interrogation of Agent Jackson.

As he walked towards her, she noticed him.

She stopped pummeling the training dummy and started to bow, then caught herself.

"Sir?" she said hopefully.

He could tell she wanted him to command her. Her desire for domination surpassed Samantha’s.

While Samantha desired physical domination, she didn’t want to be treated as a slave. She still craved intellectual and emotional equality.

Isabella, on the other hand, craved utter domination. He didn’t understand it, but he could see into her mind, so the truth of it was undeniable.

"I forgot to tell you, Agent Jackson is the one that framed you for murder, among other crimes. I commanded him to confess to the district attorney. So I imagine you’ll get released in a few days."

"Oh, ma... Sir. That’s wonderful news! Thank you! Thank you for saving me. How can I ever repay you?"

He was paying attention to her thoughts when she spoke, and what he learned made his inner beast sit up and take notice.

Before Samantha, he would not have understood the appeal of what he saw in her mind. But what he experience with Samantha woke something in him, and he now felt some interest.

There were things she wanted to do, and have done to her, that he was certain none of his other girls would enjoy. Eventually, he knew he would take Isabella up on her unspoken offer. Just not yet.

"For now, just do your best to make sure Madison is treated well while she’s in jail. But make sure your actions are believable. I don’t want the entire underworld wondering why you suddenly care about her."

"Understood, sir."

Sensing that she needed some encouragement, some attention, he grabbed her by the throat, kissed her roughly, biting her lips, then smacked her ass hard.

She moaned and looked at him heatedly.

He smacked her ass again and said, "Get back to training."

Then he turned and headed towards his own set of training dummies.

He was practicing a momentum redirection technique when Madison, Samantha, and Miranda all walked into the training room.

The dummy threw a slow punch with its right hand towards his face. He deflected by pushing the dummy’s arm to his right with the blade of his right hand, then gripped the dummy’s wrist with his right hand and the dummy’s elbow with his left.

Then he pushed with his left hand, pulled with his right, and pivoting his body clockwise, pulling the dummy off balance and pushing it passed him.

Seeing the girls, he paused the dummy and walked towards them while checking their emotions through his connections to them.

Miranda overall was happy, and a little aroused; her usual state.

Madison was mostly just happy to be near him, and her earlier anxiety, while not gone, was significantly reduced from what it was an hour ago.

And Samantha’s earlier disgruntlement was gone, replaced with a sense of pride. He wasn’t certain, but thought it was mostly a sense of pride in him, of pride that she was part of his harem.

He gave each of them a hug and a kiss, starting with Madison and ending with Miranda.

Then he looked between Madison and Samantha, and asked, "Well, was I right? Did hugging help?"