AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She resisted the urge to snap at him, and took a deep breath before calmly saying, “Yes, but not tonight. I need to process what I’ve read and decide how I feel about some of it, and talking right now will just further confuse the issue. I’m going to sit here and munch on my potato chips and dip, check my email, look a few things up on the internet, and then I’m going to crash. Thank you for being concerned. Really. I appreciate it. Goodbye.”
He laughed. “I never have to wonder what you’re thinking — I like that about you. I’m here when you’re ready to talk, and I’m probably going to bug you every other day or so until you’re ready. Sweet dreams, my sexy little Spitfire.”
“Thanks Marcus. Good night.”
Chapter 15
Kyle was sitting on his front steps looking sexy as sin in jeans, a tight t-shirt, and sunglasses, the breeze ruffling his hair around his face, when Heather pulled into his driveway the next evening. By the time she’d parked and unfastened her seatbelt, he was opening her door.
She slid out and allowed him to fold her into his arms and hold her a few moments. Just as she was ready to take a step back, he released her, reached to hold her hand, and walked her to his car.
“We’re going out to eat?”
“How does tapas sound?”
Her stomach growled and they both laughed. “You know I’m addicted to their blue cheese thingies.”
“I’ll order you a half a dozen of them as we walk in the door.”
Because his life’s purpose when he was away from work was to make her happy.
Heather had felt a little guilty about that before reading Marcus’s books, but she thought she understood, now.
Just as she hoped he understood why she’d needed the night alone.
“You didn’t think I was rejecting you last night, did you? I was just beat, and needed some time to eat junk food and veg out.”
“I understand, but you can always veg out at my place.”
“Marcus lent me three books, and I managed to read them all during my down time in New Orleans. All three Doms submitted to someone so they could learn how to be a good Dom or Top or whatever. Do you think Marcus is trying to get me to submit to him, or is that kind of a standard thing?”
“I honestly don’t know how standard it is. Have you asked Marcus?”
“No, and I think I want some impartial advice. How would you feel about me talking to my friend Eric?”
He kept his eyes on the road. “Have you and Eric ever been romantic with each other?”
“Nope. He never hit on me, and that was a relief, but before he met Kendra Ididwonder why he didn’t, and I guess now I know why. To be honest, I think one of the reasons we’re such good friends is because he’s always treated me with respect, and he never treated me like a girl. I don’t remember him ever making me prove myself to him, either.”
She thought back to their first conversation. “I met him while hang-gliding. We talked a little at the top, and I went just before him. While we put our gliders away, he asked me how I’d done something and complimented me on how easy I’d made another move look. He didn’t have a problem with asking a small female how to do something, which isn’t the norm. Over the years, we’ve rock climbed, caved, hiked, kayaked, and gone hang-gliding together. I don’t know that we’ve ever sky dived at the same time, but I’ve taken him up plenty of times. That’s the problem with being a pilot — I don’t get to jump as often as I’d like because most of the time I’m the one taking everyone up.”
Kyle glanced at her and then looked back to the road. “If you feel comfortable talking to him about this stuff, I think that might be a good thing. He said you’d once spent a week caving together. Why did you spend so long underground? Did you get lost?”
She shook her head. “We were being paid to map the cave system. We had five people on the team. The geological people hired Eric and I because we’d be able to climb up or down to places they may not be able to get to — and I often get called on for that kind of thing because I’m so small, I can squeeze into tiny places. Plus, since I’m an EMT and have the first responder certification, I can double as climber and medic all in the same person.”
“I’ve never asked you about your finances before, but I’m constantly amazed at some of the things you get paid to do. I know you do okay for yourself — you have your own helicopter, you drive a nice car, you have horses, and all kinds of cool toys like hang-gliders and kayaks. You have to be spending a ton of money traveling around the world to do some of the adventurous things you do. I enjoy what I do, but it’s my job — not what I do for fun. You get paid to have adventures, and you apparently make a damned good living at it.”
She shrugged. “There’s still a difference in the things I do for fun and the things I get paid to do. I mean, on that caving trip, Eric and I couldn’t just take off in any direction we wanted. The geologists took our recommendations into account, but they were the ones deciding which areas to investigate and survey, and that kind of exploration involves lots of picture taking and notes and measurements. Take yesterday, for instance. I flew some people to New Orleans, sat around on the plane all day while they visited job sites and went to meetings, and then I flew them home last night and handled the paperwork. There’ve been times I’ve rented my own car and explored a town if it’s some place I haven’t been before or haven’t had a chance to explore, but most of the time I do what I did yesterday — sit on the plane and find something to do. I almost always have work to do — catching up on emails, or researching for an upcoming trip, reading about the latest equipment in one of my sports — but still, on those days it’s my job to fly them there as comfortably as possible. I can’t play around with the plane. Most people’s definition of a good pilot is one who gives them a smooth ride, and not someone who hot dogs. I’m just a really well-paid chauffeur to them.”
“But the caving trip was still fun though, right? Exploring a place you’d never been before? Do you get paid well for that kind of thing, or just a pittance? And I’ve heard you talk about the construction company’s plane, how nice it is to fly. So it’s still a good experience, right?”
“Yes, it’s still something I enjoy doing and it’s another plane I can add to my list. And yes, on that particular caving trip Eric and I were paid quite well, plus all our expenses were taken care of, and I ended up with some cool equipment that they let me keep, since some of it was custom sized for me. We had a lot of interesting experiences on that trip, but we also had to be the professionals they expected us to be.”
“You’d be comfortable talking to him about sex?”
“Not sex, exactly, but I’d feel comfortable asking him about what it takes to be a good Dom. Also, from what I’ve been able to tell from my internet searches, masochistic Dominants aren’t exactly a common occurrence. Eric is familiar with the extra steps I have to take to be safe since I don’t feel pain. You saw him help me Sunday, when I needed to figure out whether I’d injured something. I’ve had to explain it to him since we’ve spent so much time in the middle of nowhere together. Since he’s already part of the lifestyle, I don’t think it’ll take much to explain it’s not really masochism for me, it’s just what I need in order to be interested in, well,sex.” She sighed. “Okay, so I guess Iwillneed to feel comfortable talking to him about sex.”
She waved her arms and fingered her hair back away from her face. “I don’t know. I’d just like to have someone else to talk to, and since Eric happens to be a Dom and he’s also a good friend, it kind of makes sense that maybe he’d be a good sounding board.”
