“That won’t work. He’s just enough of a stubborn asshat that he won’t leave until he talks to me. But I really don’t want to talk to him.”
“Let’s go ask Daddy. He’ll have an idea. He always does. We should also probably call Master Fletcher, too,” Sadie grabbed her hand and pulled her behind her toward her husband’s office.
Twenty minutes later, Master Derek turned the speaker on his phone after dialing the front gate. They’d come up with a plan, she just hoped she could stick to it and not get herself in trouble for cursing.
“Front gate,” Tiago answered on the first ring. “Please tell me you’re going to deal with this jackass before I have to get physical to keep him off the Ranch.”
“Yes, we are,” Master Derek answered. “Can you hand him the phone please?”
It took a moment before Mitchell came on the line, sounding more than a little pissed. “Mallory, what the fuck took you so long? And why can’t I come in there and see you?”
“Mr. Harrison, this is Derek Hawkins. I own Rawhide Ranch and to protect my guests, I do not allow outsiders who have not made prior arrangements on the property.”
“Well then, send her out here so I can talk to her,” Mitchell demanded.
“No, that won’t work. Mallory has agreed to meet with you but won’t be available until tomorrow. She’ll meet you at ten o’clock in Porter’s Corner at Leroy’s Place. It’s the only diner in town.”
Mallory looked at Fletcher with wide eyes as Mitchell let loose with a string of curses. Her Dom pulled her out of her chair and onto his lap, cuddling her close.
“He’s a true ass, isn’t he?” he whispered in her ear so hopefully the man on the other end of the phone wouldn’t hear.
“Yep. That mouth of his can do a lot of damage, which is only one reason why I broke up with him after my mom died.”
“Is that her? Mallory, get your ass out here and talk to me. I’ve come to take you home.”
Mallory sucked in a breath and stiffened. Looking at Fletcher, she returned his nod of support before turning to the phone. “If you want to see me, I’ll be at the diner at ten tomorrow morning.”
When he started blustering again, Master Derek disconnected the phone as Fletcher cuddled her close. “Good girl.”
She looked from Master Derek to Master Fletcher. “Thank you both for helping me with this.”
“Oh, we’re not done. We’ll be going with you tomorrow,” Master Derek said, “Right, Fletcher?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Fletcher said. “There’s no way I’d let my sweet rope bunny near a man who swears like that at strangers.”
Mallory’s eyes filled with grateful tears that quickly overflowed and ran down her face. “Thank you.”
“There’s another reason we wanted to talk to you,” Master Fletcher said, holding her secure when she would have stood up.
“Oh?”
“Let’s bring Sadie back in,” Master Derek said hitting the intercom button on the phone. “Erika, could you please send my wife back in.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door to Erika’s office flew open and Sadie bounced in.
“Did you tell her, Daddy? Did she say yes?”
“Not yet, little girl. I thought you’d like to be the one to explain what we discussed.”
“Don’t hate me,” Fletcher whispered in Mallory’s ear as Sadie skipped around the office to stand beside her husband on the other side of his desk.
Mallory looked at him with a small frown and confusion clear in her expression. “Why would I hate you?”
“Because he showed us your portfolio,” Sadie answered before he could. “He wanted to share your beautiful artwork and get our opinion. Daddy and I were talking and decided having an art show featuring your work would be a perfect event to hold at the Rawhide Ridge community center. We could highlight your older work as well as the sketches and caricatures you’ve been doing for the past few months. If we work fast, we could even put together the coloring book Payne and Reese have been talking about.”
When Mallory paled as her expression grew shocked and she began to tremble and breathe faster, Fletcher knew it was time to step in before she had a full-fledged panic attack. Pressing her head to his chest, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
“Breathe, bunny. In-two-three-four. Hold-two-three-four. Out-two-three-four,” he focused on his woman instead of Sadie who continued to chatter with the plans she’d come up with in the past hour.
