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There was also a bunch of cheese and fruit and, Christ, was that a guy making sushi? Wow. And these were just the appetizers because dinner was a sit-down affair.
Jethro had just plucked a few shrimp from an enormous crystal platter and spooned one of three sauces onto his plate—who knew there was more than one kind of sauce for shrimp cocktail?—when someone at his elbow cleared their throat.
He turned, bracing himself to see Duncan, but saw Arthur Tyndall instead. He’d met Arthur at Hive originally, but they’d stayed friends with an occasional round of golf at Arthur’s country club even after he’d gotten married to a woman who was not down with the fetish club scene. Now ex-wife, which was just as well with Jethro since Renata had been seriously high drama and high maintenance, and not a lot of fun.
Not that being with Sable was a piece of cake, but he got a lot of satisfaction out of helping her and supporting her, and she was so goddamn delightful so much of the time. Made him feel like king of the world to be with a woman like that. Arthur had just seemed exhausted.
In addition to be a good person to ruin a walk with, Arthur was a great attorney and his firm had handled some business matters for Jethro. He was genuinely glad to see the guy.
“Arthur, how are you? Didn’t expect to see you here, but I guess you’ve gotta do something when the greens are closed, huh?”
Arthur shook his hand. “Even the indoor driving range is closed for the night so I figured I’d show up. I’ve done some work for our hosts’ real estate company. But what the hell are you doing here? This isn’t really your scene.”
“Would’ve expected me to be here earlier putting up the pine boughs, wouldn’t you? Maybe outside valeting the cars.”
Arthur grinned and offered a clink of his champagne glass to Jethro’s beer bottle. Jethro was pretty sure Arthur was loaded but the guy wasn’t pretentious, not like the Hollingsfords.
“I’m actually here with the woman I’m seeing. She’s the only reason they let me into this place.”
“Oh yeah? And who’s the lucky lady?”
Jethro glanced over Arthur’s shoulder to see if he could locate Sable but she was nowhere to be found. “Sable Hollingsford, actually.”
Arthur looked impressed or maybe surprised and Jethro tried not to be insulted, although who was he kidding? Sable was young, sexy as hell, and rich. Who the fuck was he to be dating her?
“She’s always seemed very…reserved.”
Ah, that was why. How to put this without throwing Sable under the bus. Although Arthur knew some of the shit Jethro was into because he was into it too and they’d seen each other play at Hive. By saying he was dating her Arthur would assume some things. Though Jethro didn’t think his ex-wife Renata had been kinky at all and that had been just one of their mismatches.
“Sable is misunderstood. You gotta crack through that shell to get to know her and then she’s really something. Just, amazing woman. I’m lucky she gives me the time of day.”
“You seem pretty smitten,” Arthur observed.
“Completely,” Jethro admitted, letting himself smile because it was the truth. He’d walk through hell and back for Sable and grin the whole way knowing he was coming home to his baby girl, his little miss.
