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Even so, it took her a half hour to find the courage to return to the house. When she entered, she hoped he was there as much as a craven part of her wished he wasn't. The shower in their shared bathroom was steamed up, telling her he'd used it, but he was in his room, the door shut, his TV on. She didn't bother knocking or trying the door, knowing it would be locked.
She should have gone to work with Geoff.
*
"Not all Doms are obvious alpha males, and many alpha males are not Doms."
Her friend Flo had told her that. Flo was a Domme herself, so she'd know. Lying on her bed in the dark, Sam thought that through. Geoff was alpha with a capital A, automatically assuming leadership of any situation. A strong overachiever in college, he'd finished at the top of his class.
But Chris was no less resolute than Geoff on the things that mattered to him. When he'd told her to strip for him, the look in his eye told her he wasn't necessarily acting on whatever understanding he had of Sam's submissive desires, but pursuing interests of his own. Chris was always his own man.
Several years ago, a string of hurricanes had h
it the coast. Chris had come home with enough money to start his own landscaping company. Yet as usual, he banked it and went back to tending yards in Charlotte as part of Esteban's crew. He wasn't lazy, not in the least, and he was entirely self-sufficient. He just seemed to prefer working for someone.
Esteban was really good to him, because the company owner was no fool. Chris was a rare find. A twentysomething who worked hard, had a natural talent for landscape design and could be trusted with any task, large or small. Chris was smart enough to run all aspects of the operation when Esteban took a vacation, but he had no obvious desire to make that situation permanent.
The only time he and Esteban had had a disagreement of any seriousness had been when a new homeowner wanted a tree taken down because she didn't want the sprawling maple blocking the street view of her house. She felt the tree detracted from the house's curb appeal. Chris had explained it was nesting season for a great many animals and birds. If the owner insisted on killing a perfectly healthy tree, she should at least hold off until later. The customer disagreed.
The tree came down while Chris was on a lunch break, but when he returned and found Esteban and the crew about to cut up the branches and trunk, he shouldered them aside and fished through the branches until he found three nests. Two of them still had live birds. He gathered up the tiny bodies of three that had been thrown from the nest and hadn't survived the tree's fall. He also found a nest with squirrel babies.
The customer's eight-year-old daughter had been playing in the yard, and Chris's discoveries horrified her to tears. Chris had comforted her, letting her help him carry the nests to a neighbor's house, who'd agreed to let them put the nests back up in his trees, where the babies would be close enough their calls might bring the parents. Chris camped out in his truck on the street until he verified the parents returned to all but one of the nests. That one he brought home and handfed the babies until they could be released.
Esteban never again agreed to take down a healthy tree so readily, and never during the spring. The attention Chris's actions drew from surrounding neighbors, as well as the embarrassment of the homeowner when she had to deal with her daughter's dismay over the dislodged nests, even inspired Esteban to change his company's brand. Cortez Landscaping was now promoted as an environmentally conscious and wildlife-friendly operation. Chris was his "expert" advisor to the homeowners on the best way to live in harmony with nature and still have a beautiful yard.
She smiled a little. Even during that incident, Chris had never once said anything in anger about Esteban. It wasn't his way to rant or trash talk. He simply made his point and pressed forward, not letting anything deter him from his intent, until he brought everyone else on board.
At home, Chris was always cognizant of her or Geoff's states of mind. If Geoff was in a bad mood, Chris was the one most likely to coax him out of it. They'd been friends since middle school. According to Chris, they'd met when Geoff had been getting his ass kicked by three other boys for running his way-too-smart mouth. Chris had jumped into the fray. Geoff insisted he'd had everything under control. Nevertheless, they'd been friends ever since.
When Geoff had walked away from his family, he'd literally had nothing, his entire education and housing having been funded by his parents. He'd moved in with Chris. Though he'd eventually secured the jobs and loans he needed to finish his education, Chris was the one who'd given him a place to stay and food to eat until that happened.
She sighed, turning on her side. Chris never said what he didn't mean, so when he'd said this wasn't about her, she understood that the two of them had to work it out. But patience wasn't her strong suit. Not when she'd already opened Pandora's box.
She put her hand on the wall. Even by herself in the dark, she flushed as she thought of what Chris had said. He'd heard her masturbate, despite how quiet she thought she'd been. And he said he'd done the same, listening to her. While thinking about that heightened the arousal she'd been able to choke back down to simmering since the tree house, she wanted something more than the physical from him right now. As selfish as it might be, she needed some type of acknowledgement that they were still friends. That it was going to be okay.
She tapped the first few notes of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on the wall, waited, and hoped. It was their usual bedtime good night, but she told herself it didn't mean anything if he didn't respond. After the day he'd had, he could well be asleep. She closed her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat.
. . . went up the water spout. The taps came a few minutes later, when she'd resigned herself to falling asleep with only her own thoughts for company. Her heavy heart thumped with hope as she did the next few notes. He finished it, then did the two taps he always did at the end to say good night.
She did the same, two taps, but tonight she added three. I love you.
It soothed her enough to send her into a fitful sleep, but she woke around midnight to hear Geoff moving quietly down the hall. She was surprised to hear him open Chris's door. She couldn't determine from the murmur of male voices what was being said or the tone of the conversation, but then they both quieted and the house was still once more.
Whereas her mind was now spinning like a top. It took her another hour to get back to sleep.
*
Since Esteban's crew went to work at dawn, usually Chris was in the bathroom first in the morning. However, from his closed door, it appeared he was sleeping in today. Esteban had probably given them a day off after their nonstop work in Mississippi. Geoff's door was closed as well. She suspected he'd be working from home after such a late night at the office, unless there was a meeting or trial.
She took her shower. When she got out, she tucked the towel around her and cracked the bathroom door to let the steam out as she always did, since the bathroom didn't have a vent. She was putting moisturizer on her face when she looked in the mirror and saw Chris peering around the door at her. "Mind if I come in and keep you company?"
She felt like the sun had come out from behind clouds. "I can't think of anything I'd like better."
Pursing his lips, he lifted a Krispy Kreme bag. "So I get to keep all these for myself?"
"You're evil," she informed him, and he grinned. There were still shadows in his eyes, but he was obviously making an effort, and she'd do the same. She'd sit on every compulsion she had and try not to force a thing between any of them. At least not today.
Chris took a seat on the edge of the tub, straddling the wall as he pulled out her favorite, a raspberry-filled glazed donut with powdered sugar on top. He handed it to her with wax paper wrapped around the base. He also had a flat of coffee, and he offered her one of the three cups, which she wasn't surprised to find had been mixed to her preference. As she leaned against the counter, sipping on it and inhaling that intoxicating Krispy Kreme smell that even clung to their coffee cups, she was aware of his gaze drifting up her bare knees to midthigh. The towel was the only barrier concealing her from him. Was he as hyperaware of that as she was?
