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Les had needed something from him that day. It hadn’t been him respecting her need for time and space. The certainty of it sharpened to an edge that cut through his resolve now and reminded him of the Patrick Swayze Roadhouse comment, “Be nice until it’s time not to be nice.”
Fuck it. He was calling her after he got Tish safely home. And if that conversation confirmed that feeling, he’d be back on Les’s doorstep this weekend.
Whether in the ways he wanted, or only how she needed them right now, he’d be her Dom.
Chapter Five
The rain had followed Les into Virginia, staying with her the way the memory of Brick’s visit had. Though she reached Richmond after nightfall, traffic was still busy and nerve-wracking. She had his address, a townhome in the south part of the city, but when she reached the complex and parked her car in a guest spot near his unit, she didn’t see his truck, and only the porch light was on.
Les hadn’t doubted herself during the couple hours’ drive to get here, but with rain hammering her car, and faced with the sudden lack of forward motion, she realized how insane this was. For all she knew, he was out of town.
A shred of rational thought suggested she find a cheap hotel and a shower. In the morning, she’d evaluate what she should do, when her mind was clearer. He never had to know she’d done something this crazy.
But she couldn’t move. She needed to be here, until she was sure he wasn’t going to be.
She put her hand over her necklace, fingering the two pendants strung upon it. She’d been bad, opening his gift before her birthday, but she’d always had trouble waiting to open gifts. She’d told herself she’d put it back in the box once she knew what it was, so she could truthfully tell him she’d opened it on her birthday—leaving out that it was for the second time.
But she hadn’t put it back in the box. Brick had given her a fire charm. The leaves of the Maltese cross were engraved with a crossed pair of axes and the location of his first firehouse, Fairhope, North Carolina. The badge number he carried, 285, was in the center. In high school, she’d doodled that number on the inside cover of her notebooks.
Her thumb passed over its raised silver outline. He’d probably intended it for the charm bracelet Marcus had given her one Christmas. A thoughtful gift giver with deep pockets, her brother-in-law had included a charm subscription from the company that crafted the bracelet. She’d added a paintbrush for Thomas, a football for Rory. A book, to represent Daralyn’s love of reading. A caduceus for herself.
Instead of putting Brick’s charm on the bracelet, she’d strung it on the necklace she wore most of the time. It held a gold cross her father had given her for her sixteenth birthday. At its center was a tiny, glittering star made of diamond chips.
During the most challenging parts of her day, she’d been clasping those two talismans in her hand. She’d think about her parents’ faith in her, and Brick’s confidence. He’d told her the more she learned, the better she’d get at her chosen field. She’d considered it a good luck charm.
Thoughts too painful to contemplate now, but she still held the empty comfort in her hand for its physical substance, and a reminder of the inner magnet that had pulled her to him.
She got out of the car. The rain would soak her to the skin in minutes, but she didn’t care. It was better than the damning silence in the vehicle, the repetitious drumming against the metal. She couldn’t feel the damp or cold anymore. The shaking of her hands that had persisted while she was driving was only mildly interesting to her.
Lights flashed through the parking lot, and she drew in a shuddering breath, the ache in her throat like a knife. It was Brick’s truck.
But as she watched, he pulled up in front of a townhome that wasn’t his. Had she written the wrong number down?
As he emerged and came around the front of the truck, Les started forward, wanting to get close enough to call out to him. Her voice was raw, hoarse from crying.
She froze as he opened the passenger door and a long, shapely leg emerged. He took the extended manicured hand, opening the umbrella he carried with a quick snap. It sheltered the leggy blonde who slid to the ground, his grasp steadying her on her fashionable heels. She wore a tailored suit with a modestly short skirt.
He tilted the umbrella over her, rain pattering his broad shoulders. He guided her up the steps of the unit several doors down from his. He did it the way he’d shepherded Les into the diner, a hand at the woman’s lower back.
Les’s heart thudded like the rain, but louder than thunder. She’d had no plan. She’d put something into the vacuum of her despair to keep it from sucking her in, in the hopes that this one act would help her…what? Figure it out? Make it better?
It couldn’t be made better, and she found it horribly, wretchedly funny that this made it worse.
When they reached her door, Brick spoke to the woman, holding eye contact until she nodded, a confirmation she’d heard whatever he’d just told her.
Because she was in the mood to lacerate herself, Les didn’t look away as he brushed a kiss over the woman’s dark pink mouth. She gave him a half smile, then her gaze slid past him, and she stilled.
Les couldn’t move as Brick turned, the two of them staring at the figure standing in the parking lot. A person cloaked by the rain, the night and the street light glare off the asphalt, but noticeably ogling them.
Oh God. Go, you idiot, before he recognizes you.
She jerked into motion, turning to walk away, adjusting her heading to direct herself back to her car. Maybe he’d think she was a gawking neighbor. One taking a walk in the rain with no coat, by herself, no dog needing a bathroom break as an excuse.
It was okay. He wouldn’t think it was her, showing up like this. Why had she thought this was the right thing to do? He’d said he’d give her time. No promises about either of them not being with someone else. That would have been unreasonable.
Even if everything in her howled that she’d wanted it to mean exactly that.
She would figure it out, she would. She was strong, she could handle everything if she stayed calm and worked it through.
