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“No, no,” Jesse said, waving his hand. “That would be too much for a kid. I’m thinking twilight shifts for me though, maybe? One until one or something? Then I’ll see her in the afternoons, you in the evening? When you’re not working, that is.”
Emory smiled softly. “I’d like that. Let’s see how that works, shall we?”
“Yeah,” Jesse said, fighting a yawn. He checked his watch. “A few hours left. Gonna get a coffee and take a shift in the security room.”
“Stay safe,liebling.”
He left. Jesse gazed into the fire, trying to decide if he had meant to commit that much to Emory before he’d entered the room, then admitted he’d been at Emory’s command the minute he met his eyes at the Christmas lights ceremony.
The memory of Oliver made Jesse’s heart clench. He brought out his phone. Nothing from Anton. He stopped himself ringing, telling himself it was too late…in more ways than one…then went to the staff kitchen to pour the strongest coffee they had.
* * * *
Jesse spent the next week swinging between a place of joyful contentment and gut-wrenching fear that he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. He woke around noon each day, and the first thing that happened was Ant’s words and the image of his face twisted with hatred would race back to him. He would hurriedly get out of bed and bury himself in work until it was time for lunch with Dimity. They usually ate with Joanna in one of the airy sitting rooms that overlooked the grounds. She liked to go for a ride after lunch, usually with Joanna, though Jesse was occasionally cajoled into accompanying her instead. He began to get a better feel for Thor and was reassured that Filip always followed at a discreet distance. They always steered away from the moor gate, though no one had come near it since the night with Lucien.
The crowd at the front gates thinned as the days went by and Emory wasn’t arrested. But there was always someone there. Fresh graffiti had to be whitewashed off the gates every other day. But as he rode or walked through the chilly grounds with more grass showing through the melting snow, wind in his face and the sound of birds in the air, it was easy for Jesse to pretend that protestors and hate-fueled headlines didn’t exist.
Until he logged into his computer, anyway. The internet continued to churn with supposition and speculation, but it had changed direction since Kelly had finally issued a statement. The legal language he’d used was so dry and remote that it seemed to have taken the wind out of the protestors’ sails. But the revelation that a haemophile was fighting for custody of a human child was rippling around the world.
Trixy’s crowdfunder exceeded its target in days. She had tried every possible way to get in touch again, he suspected for more insight into his sex life. In the end he blocked all her numbers and distributed her picture to the security team with his cheeks burning.
He was grateful for his time with Dimity, when he could remember what it was all for.
“I met the teacher last night,” she said one afternoon when she was chatting her new school as she reined Ruby in from another trot. “And Daddy says I can take biscuits for the class on my first day. Miss Henderson so much nicer than the teacher at my old school,” she added with an expressive frown. “He was always angry. And he smelled funny.”
Jesse made polite, noncommittal replies and tried not to think about what might happen if this all fell apart.
Joanna would usually meet them at the stables and take Dimity inside while Jesse joined Tom in the security room for the afternoon and evening shift. That day, though, Joanna wasn’t alone. A woman Jesse didn’t recognize but who looked vaguely familiar stood with her, wearing a small smile on her pleasant face as she watched Dimity dismount. Dimity handed Ruby to the groom and walked over, beaming at the woman as she removed her helmet. Jesse got down off Thor with considerably less dignity and hurried to join them, but the strange woman had already returned to a car parked in the stable entrance.
“Who was that?” Jesse asked Joanna as the woman drove away. “Did she have security clearance?”
Joanna gave him a funny look. “Yes, she has clearance.”
“Who was she?”
“That was just Sofia,” Dimity explained before Joanna could reply, striding back toward the house. “My mummy.”
Jesse blinked, but Joanna was already directing Dimity upstairs to get changed. Jesse stood in the hall, staring after them. But he was already late for his shift, so he turned and made for the security room.
Tom nodded at Jesse’s question. “Sofia calls by sometimes, just to see how Dimity’s doing. It’s all agreed and pre-arranged.”
“Doesn’t that confuse the hell out of the kid?”
“Did she look confused?”
Jesse sighed and sat at his workstation. “No. She never does.”
“Well then,” Tom said and turned the conversation to work.
The minute the sun went down, Jesse joined Dimity to wait for Emory. They would spend a few pleasant hours together, watching a film or playing with her art supplies or computer games. It was all so comfortable and domestic that Jesse had a hard time remembering there was anything unusual about the situation. Apart from the fact that he couldn’t get enough of ‘comfortable and domestic’ for the first time in his life, that was.
Then it would be time to put Dimity to bed, and Emory would take him to the master bedroom for more of the most mind-blowing sex of his life. Emory produced ropes, chains, cuffs, toys… There were build ups that felt like they lasted for hours, orgasms so intense they left Jesse breathless and reeling. Whatever had happened that day, Emory seemed to instinctively know what Jesse needed and gave it to him, over and over.
It was so easy to convince himself that this was what he wanted forever. So easy. And yet…
“Are you all right?” Tom asked the night before the deposition.
Jesse started, realizing he’d been staring at a screen of code without seeing it for several minutes. “Yeah…fine.”
