Page 89 of The Best Bad Decision

I liked his house too…so moving would be a pain for a variety of reasons.

Casimir cocked his head like that was a curious option but quickly straightened and shook it. “No, but that’s an interesting idea. You’re very creative.”

“Thank you.” I was out of reasonable and slightly unreasonable things to say, so I shifted to another topic. “I’m also very well-behaved, so I was promised a reward.”

No matter what he’d done, I wasn’t going to let him forget that point.

Too many late meetings and unexpected crazy at work had screwed up our usual schedule and I was at the point where I was going to start telling clients no when they asked to meet at seven in the evening.

No matter how much money they had.

Casimir’s smile peeked out before he remembered he’d done something to frustrate me. “We’ll come back to that.”

When he saw if I was pissed or not?

“Alright.” He wasn’t mad at me and he wasn’t the type to cheat. It seemed like there could only be so many ways the situation could go wrong. I wasn’t that dramatic no matter what he liked to say. “I’m trapped and in a good mood. I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”

“I can’t stay in my lane.” His dramatic announcement wasn’t a surprise or enough information. “It’s okay to be frustrated at me.”

Were Doms supposed to stay in their own lanes?

“We might need to come back to that whole in-your-lane thing because I kind of thought Doms just barreled through whatever lane they wanted, respecting limits, of course.” Casimir was always careful with limits, though.

Did he think he’d railroaded over one of mine?

He barely let me process the ridiculous idea before he shrugged. “You never gave me a limit on this.”

I’d given him limits about how often he could meet me at the mailbox…anytime he wanted because he liked it…so how could he have found something we hadn’t talked about?

I’d filled out a limits list on the bathroom for crying out loud.

“That’s very confusing.” I didn’t feel bad about confessing that because Casimir was generally one surprise after another and we’d reached the point of illogical. “What happened when you found a new lane?”

He actually squirmed and frowned again, looking a bit like a kid who’d just gotten caught having to explain the shenanigans he’d gotten up to. But after a few moments he huffed, probably frustrated with himself, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I had good intentions.”

He was fascinating.

“Thank you.” Looking cute was the only online advice that seemed to apply in our current situation, so I kissed his cheek and wrapped my arms tighter around him. “I like it when you look out for me.”

It seemed like a good choice when he curled into me and let out a deep breath that was almost a moan. That didn’t mean his confession was quick, though. No, it took more low grumbles and a few confusing comments about minding his own business in the future.

“Um, we both know that’s not a reasonable goal.” My helpful response finally got a snicker out of him. “So let’s just see what happened.”

His groan made me think he agreed with me, but it was kind of fun being the voice of calm and reason. That was usually his job, but I’d felt so good lately my doctor had tried to figure out why my blood pressure had gone down so much.

No, I was not explaining my new routine… Yes, that had made him insane.

He seemed a bit too straitlaced for that kind of conversation.

“I might’ve hired a private investigator to do some research into your family.” He paused at that point, probably to let me react, but I was slow on the uptake. Mostly because the answer was unexpected.

“A private investigator?”

Really?

“Yeah, they just aren’t acting reasonably about anything in this situation and your lawyer isn’t taking it seriously enough.” He wasn’t wrong about that. She thought this was one last bout of drama before Valerie would agree to finalize the divorce. She kept claiming that people did strange things under stress but Casimir hadn’t liked her responses.

So he’d decided to handle the situation himself.