“I’m sorry. You’ve talked a lot. I shouldn’t have asked.”
He tightened his fingers behind my neck and shook his head. “No. You do not have to edit yourself. If it hurts too much to speak, I will tell you. Don’t add that worry.”
A blink.
Then two.
I hadn’t even considered it like that. Because why wouldn’t I try to make things better for the people in my life? But also…
Yeah. He could tell me or text me if he didn’t want to speak. And with those couple of sentences, he lifted the burden of constantly worrying whether he was feeling well enough to speak off my shoulders. “I’ll try to remember.”
“Good. Early in my career, I misread someone I was fighting, and I dodged the wrong way. It put me off balance. I couldn’t recover, and the guy was also an asshole. He knew what he was doing. The full force of his punch hit me in the throat. Once they took me to the hospital and made sure I would live, we learned it had permanently damaged my larynx.” He paused for a second. “Honestly, I was lucky. It could have been much worse.”
“But you still fight?”
“It’s what I’m good at. And I’m much better now than I was then.”
I snuggled down further into him. “I don’t know much about fighting or how you even get into it.”
“Brooks and I were energetic kids, and we were a little hot-headed for normal sports. So our pack put us in martial arts to help us use that energy and also get a hold on our tempers. It worked. I kept winning competitions until it made sense for me to give it a go professionally.” He shrugged. “Brooks tried for a bit, but he didn’t enjoy it. So he got certified to be a trainer.”
“If I were familiar with the sport, would I know who you are?”
He chuckled. “Probably.”
“Oh.”
“You’d probably know all of us. Logan’s one of the best surfers inthe world,” he lowered his voice, “though I don’t even think that most people familiar with sports know competitive surfers.”
I laughed and closed my eyes, enjoying the rough sound of his voice along with the rumble of his purr and the warmth of his body. This was perfect.
“And Theo won gold a couple of years ago at the last International Olympiad.”
I froze. “Really? Which race?”
He laughed again. “Pretty much all of them.”
“I feel bad for not knowing that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It feels like I should have known? Like most people watch those, and I think I might have seen some. So why didn’t I recognize him?”
“Mm.” He rested his lips against my temple. When he spoke again, I could hear how his voice was weaker. “He looks very different in goggles and swim gear. I also don’t think most people are looking for an elite athlete at a BDSM club, and Theo never expects people to know who he is. He gets recognized sometimes, but that’s it.”
He was telling me not to feel bad, and I had to stop, because that was twice in the last few minutes he relieved worries and fears I hadn’t realizedwereworries and fears.
“Do you need to stop talking? Your voice sounds different.”
Bastian nodded. “I do.”
“Okay. I should probably get ready for work.”
He flipped us so he was on top anddevouredme. For a second I thought he wasn’t going to let me get up, and I was okay with that, until he softened the kiss and released me with a wink.
I had to make myself leave so I could get ready. It wasn’t late, but I knew myself, and I could lose time fast if I got distracted.
My blood sugar was okay. A bit of a miracle considering I completely forgot about my insulin yesterday. But I also hadn’t eaten that much, and had sex, which I was counting as exercise for today, so it balanced out.
