“Well, Joel, they look good. Are you going to let me have one before I leave?”
“Are you leaving?” The look of disappointment on his face nearly made her change her mind. But she couldn’t stay. She needed to get out so she could breathe.
“Yes, buddy, I have to get home. I have a whole list of jobs I need to do today.”
“On a Sunday?” he questioned.
“Sunday’s my cleaning and shopping day.” Not really, but it was such a small lie.
“Will you come and stay again sometime soon?” the little boy pleaded with a well of tears in the corners of his eyes.
Shit! How the hell could she answer that?
“You never know what will happen. I’m going to leave you in Caleb’s wonderful hands while I get my things.” If only that statement wasn’t so true. If his hands had made her skin crawl, that would have made this all so much easier. She rolled her shoulders back as she walked out of the room, not even looking at Caleb. Shield in place. She was going to get dressed and then go home and open her emergency stash of chocolate. Sit on the couch and watch a sad movie and cry and then after that she would shower, get dressed, and write till her fingers screamed in agony.
* * * *
Kyle watched from inside his closet as Petra entered the bedroom, grabbing her clothing from the chair beside the bed. She stripped off the shirt, and he looked at the bruises and marks she carried from her lashes last night. He felt pride at the markings that covered her olive skin. No other would be able to touch her without seeing she had been claimed. Part of him flinched when he realized that she must be in discomfort. But as he watched her dress, she didn’t jolt at any of her movements, so it mustn’t be too uncomfortable for her. As she bent over at the waist to pick up her dropped panties, he moaned at the sight of her exposed pussy. He wanted to bury himself again. He wanted to feel her slick channel sucking on his shaft. Stop! He had to rid himself of those thoughts right now. She was dressing to leave, and his son was awake. No, now was the time to ask her to see him again.
The realization that Caleb was also involved stopped him for a second. Would she be dating them both? Did Caleb want her to himself? Should he let Caleb have her? Would his friendship with Caleb be risked by dating her? Would she choose him first if there was a challenge? Did she even like him? Did she like Caleb? Could he accept a ménage relationship? Hell, he had friends in triads, so it wasn’t like he didn’t understand the concept. But his son, how could that happen? How would Joel deal with it? Did he even want to consider it? Fuck, this was much more difficult than he thought, and by the time he lifted his head from the daze of his musing, he realized that Petra was dressed and about to leave the bedroom. It was now or never. He stepped out of the closet and watched her jolt with shock.
“Sorry, I scared you.”
“It’s all right. I just thought I was alone in here.”
“So you’re going?”
“Yes, I have a load of things I need to do today.”
God, he felt like he was a teenager trying to ask out his first crush. “I would love to see you again.”
“Would you?”
He watched as she smiled a sexy, all-knowing smile that promised a future.
“Yes, I would. I’d love to know you, Petra.”
“You know what, Kyle? I think that would be a great idea.”
The smile on her face lightened his entire body, and he hadn’t felt this free and happy in so long.
“Great. When are you available?”
“I can work around most any time. You said last night that you worked with Caleb, so I’m guessing the medical industry is quite time demanding.”
“Yes, I’m a doctor. So even free time isn’t our own, and then there’s my son to consider.” He would make time for her though, even if he had to sacrifice sleep. “What do you do?”
“I’m an author.”
“Really! What do you write?”
“Romance.” It was a small lie. It was too early for the truth.
Now this just gets more and more interesting. “Do I have to Google you, or are you going to tell me some of your works?”
“Even if you did Google me you wouldn’t find any. I use a pseudonym.”
“Are you going to tell me your pen name?”
“Maybe.” She turned to walk out the door but turned and looked over her shoulder at him. “But not before our third date.”
His entire body broke into gales of laughter. She was so good for his soul. She had lifted a weight that he didn’t know he’d been carrying. He would do anything to keep this woman in his life. This petite little woman was his future. He felt it all the way in his bones.
Chapter Ten
Caleb got out of the shower just in time to reach his phone before it went to message bank.
“Hello,” he puffed. He really needed to spend more time at the gym. For heaven’s sake, puffing after a three-meter dash from the shower to the bedroom was goddamn shocking.
“Caleb, thank God I got you. I need you to come to the club. Official business.”
The panic in Craig’s voice thankfully reminded him that his current issues were nothing. It was so unlike Craig to be panicked.
“Craig, if it’s as serious as it sounds, call an ambulance, and I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that I need you to check Sophie over,” he muttered.
“Has something happened to her?”
“Yes, no, look, maybe. Just get your ass here. I need you to check her over.” He had never heard Craig sound so stressed and flustered.
“Okay, give me twenty minutes.” He expected Craig to hang up as he normally did and was surprised when he spoke again.
“Thanks, Caleb.”
Hmm, his mind wandered over all the possibilities of what could have happened. Last time he’d seen Sophie, she was fine. Her body had healed from her unfortunate event, and she was as fiery as ever. She was aggressive and assertive as hell, and the term ball-busting bitch came to mind. Not that he’d ever say that out loud, though. Craig was smitten, even though he denied it. But like him, Craig was not looking for a happily ever after. They were both not the settling down kind. Although he still wondered. Thankfully though, this had taken his mind off the whole issue of Petra. Damn it, now he was thinking about her again. He grabbed his keys, wallet, and pager off the hall table on his way out the door. Hopefully, Sophie needed some real medical help that would take him hours and hours. What was he thinking, hoping someone was hurt so he could be occupied with that instead of the problems in his life. Great doctor he was. A real humanitarian.
* * * *
He arrived at the club a few minutes later than he’d estimated, and Craig was waiting at the open back entrance with a scowl on his face.
“You’re late,” Craig stated.
The beast inside him awoke at the other Dom questioning him. “Traffic.” Not that there’d been more than usual, it was just what you blamed when you arrived later than you’d originally estimated. He hushed the beast to sleep again. At least today it was so much easier, as the beast was still sated from last night, having been given the freedom to taste the pleasure and pain that Petra provided. How long would it last, how long before the beast demanded to be freed again?
“Okay, fine. She’s in my apartment upstairs.” Craig turned and rushed them both toward his apartment level.
“What are her symptoms?”
“Umm, none that I know of. It’s just that. I kind of lost it,” Craig stammered.
Craig Blackwell lost it. What the hell was going on? Caleb prepared himself for the worst. He didn’t want to judge his friend. He needed to help his patient. The very one who was lying on Craig’s bed, her head on her elbow, on her side, looking up at him with a smirk on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. Somehow this didn’t seem right. Something was terribly wrong with this situation.
“Well, hello, Dr. Caleb,” she drawled. Not in a seductive tone, actually, her voice reminded him of the mermaids of yore, who would lie on the rocks beckoning sailors to their watery deaths.
“Sophie. Are you in need of my assistance?” he queried, scanning her from head to foot and seeing no visible sign of blood, bandages, or trauma.
“Nope, but it looks like Craig is. Can you give him a tranquilizer or something and tell him I’m fine?”
Caleb looked back at Craig and then again at Sophie. He needed to separate them to find out what the hell was going on.
“Craig, could you please leave the room so I can assess my patient?”
“Of course. I’ll wait in the living room.”
Before he left the room, he placed a hand on his shoulder. “Please take care of her.” Then he looked at Sophie with such compassion and shame. Some of the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. As soon as Craig had left the room, he turned to Sophie.
“You set him up?”
“Yep.” She smiled like a cat that had gotten the cream.
“There’s nothing wrong with you, is there?”
“Nothing that a good bath won’t fix.”
The final pieces slid into place in his mind. Somehow this woman had messed with the ever in-control Mr. Blackwell. He had always thought he deserved to be brought to his knees, but now he was looking at it, he did have some sympathy for Craig. The mightier they are, the harder they fall. He just hadn’t counted on having to hear the crunch as Craig hit the ground.
“Have you led him to believe that you’re hurt?”
“Nope, he just got that idea in his head and ran with it.”
Now this woman even frightened him. Any moment now he was expecting her to call Craig her submissive and order him into position. He chuckled to himself at the thought of Craig on his knees. “Do you want me to check you over?”
“Really, Caleb let’s not make this any worse than it already is. How about instead you tell me about the woman you carried out of the club last night.”
She sat up with an expectant look, waiting for him to deliver all the details just for her amusement. Just as if they were two girlfriends gossiping over coffee. He shook his head. This was no submissive pet. What the hell had Craig gotten himself into?
“You saw that?”
“Yes, how do you think I got Craig to crack?”
“Well, I, umm…”
“You know, I try to have an open mind, and then, well, something comes along to show me once again that maybe I’m not as open as I thought. I mean the whipping. Shit, that was nasty. But the three of you enjoyed yourselves, so who am I to judge? Well, I am judging you all actually, I suppose, by the nasty comment. But really, Caleb, that’s got to hurt. Has anyone ever whipped you like that so you know how it feels when you’re cracking that thing at her? Craig assured me though that Petra—that’s her name right?—well, that she’s that way inclined and into it. A masochist, he called her. Hell, I don’t get it, but whatever floats your boat, I suppose.”
Caleb just shook his head as he looked down at her. Sophie was, well, unique, which was the most polite term he could think of at that moment. She’d have to be to have Craig so tied up in knots.
“Well, your lessons in the lifestyle continue then, Sophie.”
“Seems like my lessons will never end. Anyway, we are off the topic. Tell me how it all went? Oh and then you’re so going to have to tell me how a great doctor like you is a…What is it, a sadist? I mean come on, isn’t that like a conflict of interests or something? A healer and then a pain giver. Like come on. But off topic, back to Petra.”
“Well, Petra is fine, and we had a good night.”
“Fine, hey. Well, well, what went wrong?”
“I said she was fine. Why do you thing something’s wrong?”
“Because, my dear doctor, no one is every truly fine. Good, great, okay, but fine is code for fucked up.”
“She’s not fucked up. She’s good, it’s just well…” What was he doing talking to her like this? A Dom never explains his actions or feelings to anyone. She truly was a siren.
“What? Come on you can tell me.”
Fine, if she wanted to be nosey, he would tell her and be done with it. “I don’t share.”
“Ah, so the other guy is the problem. Who was he?”
“Kyle, and he’s my best friend.”
“So you both don’t share regularly.”
“No.” Was that the problem? No, it was only one of the many problems.
“And now you don’t know how to go forward.”
“There is no forward. It was a one-night thing.”
“Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?”
“What?”
“You want more than one night, just admit it.”
Fuck, no wonder Craig was twisted up in knots. He’d only been in here, what, three minutes, and already this woman was twisting and turning him around.
“Maybe, but there’s Kyle.”
“Kyle wants more than one night?”
“Yes.” He remembered the look of hope and excitement on Kyle’s face when he told him that Petra had agreed to date him.
“Is he unwilling to share?”