AllFreeNovel
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I’m pushing our luck with how long we’ve been away from home. But the last time I called Kate, she said we should stay as long as we like. She was about to get Ma ready for bed. Another quick check of the app shows that Kate is making good on that promise.
“What’s with the phone, Klein? You cheating on Mia?”
I cut him with a side-long glare. “Give me a fucking break, Shep. You know me better than that.”
“Then what’s so important that you check it every five minutes?”
Shit. Can’t hide anything from these fuckers.
Why am I still trying?
It began as burying my head in the sand so I could stay in my denial bubble, but it soon morphed into something else.
A fear of something.
But I’m not sure what.
“Just a family thing,” I hedge, pivoting swiftly to another topic I’ve wanted to talk to Shep about. “Can I ask you something? It’s personal.”
His expression dances with amusement, the smirky bastard. “Personal, huh?”
A tumbleweed of nerves blows through my stomach. I’m a grown man. I should be able to talk about sex with one of my best friends.
Go ahead and spill it, kid.
“It’s bedroom related.”
Averting my eyes, I gulp my water, stalling and aiming to reduce the sudden dryness in my mouth.
“Klein, I thought you knew this, but I’m straight and taken.” He pats my head like a dog. “I’m flattered, but the little blond firecracker at the next table would murder you for even considering propositioning me.”
His teasing lightens the mood and somehow emboldens me to spit it out. “I have questions about… uh… punishments. In the bedroom. Is that something you have ever… uh… done?”
He sets his glass down and shifts in his chair, squaring his shoulders with me. “You? Or her? Or both?”
Okay, he’swaymore eager to have this discussion than I expected.
“Uh.” I mash my eyelids shut. “Her. Well. Wait. I mean, I’ve been the one doing the punishing.”
When my eyes spring open, his face is masked in something between amusement and shock. “Well, well, well.” He purses his lips and squints at me. “This is quite the surprise.”
My spine stiffens. “Really? Why?”
He swivels his neck one way, then the other, giving the area around us a good check. I do the same. Everything’s good. No suspicious characters. No one paying too much attention to us or the ladies, who are happily chatting.
“It’s a surprise because I never saw you as one for the lifestyle. And if I had to choose, I’d have pegged you for a subbie.” He snorts. “Pegged you. No. No, I would not. That’s funny. Pegging the sub.”
I can’t hold back my laugh.
“Who’s getting pegged?” Sawyer asks once he returns to his seat.
“Not me, and surprisingly, not Klein,” Shep quips.
Kill me now.
Sawyer’s brows do the wave. “Don’t knock it ’til ya try it, boys.”
Shep and I share a glance, then quickly shift our bulging eyes across the table to our friend.
