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Chapter One
It had been a week. Nah, make that a month.
Vance tilted his head from side to side, cracking the vertebra in his neck, releasing a tiny bit of the tension that had been gathering for quite some time. Work was crazy busy, and while he’d been to Hive a few times and he’d been able to find women to play with, it had felt…distant somehow.
No contest, spanking a woman was definitely better than not spanking a woman and he’d been able to play with a few familiar partners. New partners could be exciting, spark electricity regular partners didn’t, but there was also risk involved. Maybe there wouldn’t be much chemistry, and there was an added layer of caution that took a toll. Vance prided himself on being safe—not like Hudson, Ian, and Ryker would put up with anything less—but playing with people you knew was like putting on broken-in shoes instead of new ones.
But the familiarity had made him restless. He couldn’t win.
He pressed the gas pedal down and then shifted into a higher gear. Yeah, he was going higher over the speed limit than he’d usually chance but it was late on a Thursday night near the beginning of the month. State troopers shouldn’t be out in force and if he got a ticket, then he did. He could afford it. Worth it, maybe, if it could shake some of this…dissatisfaction.
Was that right? It didn’t feel right, and he hated to be an ungrateful piece of shit. What else could he want?
He loved his job, had great business partners in Arthur and Nikki, spacious townhouse in a good neighborhood, membership at a safe and clean fetish club where he could walk in and find a partner or three most any night of the week, nice ride that made the sweetest purr when he urged her still faster, and the cabin he was heading to now.
It’d been a while since he’d made it up to Thistledon, and maybe that was part of his agitation. Maybe he’d feel better after having some peace and quiet away from Tyndall, Soames, and Yardley; away from Hive as much as he loved it; away from Clover City. A change of scenery never hurt anyone.
He’d hike, maybe fish, catch up on the backlog of episodes ofBuild It Bradyshe had sitting on his DVR because home improvement shows were an obsession of his, jerk off a few times, sit on his deck and soak up some sun while he had a beer or five and gave his brain a break.
Vance steered the Mercedes onto the exit ramp to Thistledon and eased up on the gas. Staties might not be out in force but the Thistledon PD definitely didn’t have anything better to do than pull over the rich douchebags who owned cabins abutting the state forest. He’d learned that one the hard way.
Took half an hour off the highway until he was pulling up to his place. He hadn’t been here in months, definitely not since Hudson, Ian, and Ryker had stayed here first rescuing their little girl Cosima from her psycho ex and then nursing her back to health for a few days during a freakish spring storm.
There was a pang in his chest he tried to rub away because what the hell? Those guys were some of his good friends, and Cosima was the most goddamn adorable thing he’d ever seen, but he didn’t envy them exactly.
Yeah, he’d like a little girl of his own but not one who consumed him, not one who shaped his life as profoundly as most of the relationships he saw at Hive.
Vancehada life. He had shit todo. He was happy with how things were, and he’d worked damn hard to get here. He couldn’t just drop everything for a woman and he wouldn’t expect that from her either. He was who he was, and no partner was going to change that.
He grabbed his small bag and work satchel out of the back, slung them over his shoulder. There had been a split-second when he’d considered not bringing his laptop but who was he kidding? If Arthur or Nikki or one of his clients needed something, he’d be there. But hopefully it could sit by the door, forgotten, until he headed back on Sunday night.
The cabin wasn’t a big place, nor was it terribly luxurious, but it was his and there was a satisfaction to be had in tromping up the steps to the rustic one-room house surrounded by an acre of fairly dense old trees. Back in New Haven, he never could’ve dreamed something like this would be his. Nah, this would’ve been a pipe dream. As much as walking through the gates to the Yale campus and actuallybelongingthere would’ve been.
Well, he’d done that, hadn’t he?
Confusion gathered his brows as Vance reached the porch because there was definitely noise coming from inside the cabin. No one had been here in over a month and while Ian might forget to turn off a radio or the TV, Hudson and Ryker wouldn’t, even if they’d been distracted by their little girl.
Vance set his bags down at the side of the door and peeked in through the windows—one of the benefits of having a one-room cabin was that there weren’t a whole lot of places for an intruder to hide. Unless they were taking a shit, but nah, the bathroom door was open and the light was off.
Come to think of it, all the lights were off. The only thing he could see was the glow from the TV. From this angle, it didn’t look like anyone was sitting on the couch, and the bed was made. Not a thing was out of place as far as he could tell, and when he tried the door, it was locked.
Yeah there were sliders to the back deck but he forgot to lock those up half the time so those being unlocked wouldn’t tell him a damn thing.
Maybe the guys had been so fretful over Cosima they’d left the TV on. He couldn’t blame them, she could’ve died. So in the grand scheme of things, a TV left on? No big thing.
Vance shook his head and hefted his bags over his shoulder again before grabbing his keys from his pocket.
