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“In love?”
“Look at yourself. She’s gone, you’re miserable, how else would describe your state of mind? You’re right, you’re just like an eighteen year old school kid.” He tried to keep from laughing.
“Will, she’s not the kind of woman that I’m accustomed to. I’ve been a sexual dominant for years and it’s satisfied me. And now, something else comes along that’s so absurd and I have my friends telling me I’m smitten.”
“You should have heard Alex after you left the other night.”
“What did she say?”
“The same thing. Let me see…I quote, ‘Reggie is hopelessly in love, and the first opportunity I get I’m going to throw it in his pretty face’.”
“I’ll paddle her ass for that one,” Reggie said dryly.
“But, it’s true.”
“It’s true.” He shrugged. “I tested myself today. A little spanking aficionado, little nymph of a naughty brat, just hired her. And I find out after she’s already on the payroll that she likes to be ‘disciplined.’ My God, I was going back in time, way back, farther back than Alex, farther back than…”
“So you paddled her butt, then what happened?” Will asked.
“I didn’t say I paddled her butt. I told her I was out of the business.”
“But you paddled her anyway.”
“She was a charming little thing,” Reggie admitted. “But I don’t want to do it anymore. It isn’t what I need. It’s a lot more complex than that, and a lot simpler too. I need something more substantial.”
“And that’s Jocelyn,” Will said, as if he knew it all along.
Reggie sighed deeply, the warm eyes of his nurturing friend had helped him pick up pieces of broken plans a number of times in his life. He’d helped Will, too, mostly with Alex. It was a good gift to give a friend as good as Will. If he was going to admit anything, it was a perfectly good time and the easiest place he’d find. “And that’s Jocelyn,” he repeated Will’s remark as if it was mantra to be repeated over and over, just to see how well he could handle the news. He’d thought around the idea for days, for weeks in fact. All his musings on the nature of himself and his bizarre relationship boiled down to this one fact.
Chapter Eleven
Jocelyn picked over the fruit in the tiny grocery store, looking for something choice. Nothing seemed to suit her, and she ended up putting a little bit of everything in the basket. Quandaries, puzzles and decisionless days were never her best. Two days back from London, however, and she’d still not reached an answer to her present haunting problem.
“Jocelyn, is that you?” a female voice cut through her thoughts.
She turned.
“Alex!” The lovely blonde’s amiable face appeared just steps away from her. “What a surprise to see you here.”
“I don’t come down to this market often, but I love the produce. The best in town don’t you think?”
“Exactly,” Jocelyn replied. Such a change from weeks before when she first met the woman. There was none of the tension that was present in that first and very bizarre evening.
“You know we really should get to know each other better,” Alex said. “Our dinner party, well you know how that ended up. I’m really sorry. I was a little screwed up about the whole thing. Reggie has always had a way of shaking me up so much, I manage to screw things up even more. Of course, that’s in the past.”
“Reggie does have a distinct effect on people,” Jocelyn agreed.
“Speaking of Reg, he dropped by the other night and said you were in London?”
“I just got back.”
“So you’ve called him?”
“No, I haven’t,” she admitted. “I really needed some time to myself.”
“I can understand that. Reggie’s pretty intense.”
“Frankly, Alex, I’m not so sure that there’s going to be a relationship.”
