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“Well, it sounds like this is where we part ways,” Taylor said when they’d finished up their paintings and tidied up their spaces. She had a nice picture of an owl perched in a tree, and he had… well, some paint on a canvas anyway. “It was nice to meet you, Linc.”
“You too,” he told her with a smile and shook her hand before she headed back to her room. “Maybe I’ll see you around the resort this week. Have a good visit.”
Yeah, he was here to find a wife but that didn’t make other people not worth talking to. He’d go to the play party tonight and see if he couldn’t find someone who was more compatible.
What he really wanted to do was take Nova’s temperature on living someplace like Enclave. It would be a lot harder to shut that infatuation down than it had been to shrug off his vague attraction to Taylor. Maybe because it went deeper than an infatuation. Inspiration wasn’t a healthy way to start a relationship either, though.
Best not to let those roots grow any deeper if that wasn’t a possibility at all, but the idea of ripping his feelings for Nova out of his heart made him feel kinda sick. He ought to figure that out before he did something really foolish like realize he couldn’t live without her.
Chapter 12
“I heard someone is under strict orders to not be working all hours.”
“You have big ears,” Nova muttered, not looking up from her screen and smothering the smile that was tugging at her lips.
“And big hands.”
That comment and the delicious insinuation behind it made her head snap up. Yes, Linc was leaning against her doorjamb again, looking sexy as hell. Again. She wasn’t one of those women who insisted a beard made every man look better, but it sure did something for Lincoln Donall. Made him go from punk-ass kid to… well, probably a punk-ass man.
“But we can save those for later,” he told her with a wink. “I thought for now, I’d pry you out from behind that desk and get you to eat some lunch. Whaddya say?”
“You don’t have a lunch date already? Shouldn’t you be escorting every eligible Little here to some event or another?”
“Not every eligible Little. Just because they’re free doesn’t make them a good fit. Besides, you and I haven’t actually been able to catch up at all. I don’t know what all you’ve been doing for the past thirteen years.”
That was true. She still had so much to do though, and—
That was the moment her stomach chose to grumble like a freight train. Dammit.
“I heard that,” Linc said, pointing at her accusingly. “Now unless you want me to report you to Master Derek for not taking care of yourself, you’re going to come with me to lunch.”
“Narc.”
Linc grinned at her. “That’s the first time anyone’s ever accused me of that. But I’ll take it if it gets some food in your tummy. Now let’s go.”
Nova sighed. It probably wouldn’t be the worst idea to eat something. Especially since if she put it off for too long, she’d make herself sick and it would take longer to recover than to grab a quick lunch with Linc. And she had some questions of her own for the man. Like what the hellhe’dbeen doing for the past thirteen years.
“Fine,” she acquiesced, and stood. “But…”
“But what?”
Nova felt her cheeks warm. Even though she’d been ass up over Linc’s lap, and knew he was a Daddy, it still wasn’t easy to talk about these things. “I can’t stay for too long because I have a lot of work to do. And I have to be not Little. It’s too hard to go back and forth, and I don’t have the bandwidth to get back into grown-up headspace.”
“You strike a hard bargain, but I accept. I’m sure I’ll enjoy getting to know grown-up Nova Marchand as much as I’ve enjoyed getting to know Little Nova. Plus, I hear the burgers here are ridiculously good and it’s been a while since I had some beef.”
You and me both, Linc, she thought.You and me both.
“So how’dyou end up here, anyway?”
Nova shrugged and snapped off a bite of her pickle that had come with her sandwich.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Linc said, narrowing his eyes and jabbing his own pickle in her direction. “We’re both adults. Kinky as fuck adults. So you don’t need to be shy with me.”
Nova huffed a sigh and then held up a finger while she finished chewing her pickle, then dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. Such manners. She’d always been polite and that clearly hadn’t changed.
“My last job was a super high-pressure corporate C-suite gig,” she began. “I was really good at it, and I liked the challenge, but I worked constantly, and I could feel myself on the verge of burnout. I thought it would be easier to find a different role and dial back the stress than it would be to dig myself out from full-on burnout. And when I heard about this job… I feel like there’s a lot of lip service to work-life balance but then everyone expects you to bust your ass. Here, though, I thought there was a shot in hell they might mean it.”
He could see that. Anyone who lived or worked at Rawhide Ranch would understand the importance of being available to take care of your Little or submissive, the value to be found in taking time out to do kink no matter which side of the slash you were on. He suspected Taj’s actual employees of his security firm must feel the same way.
