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On Saturday afternoon, Connie knocked on Braun's door before walking into the house. She'd deliberately waited for the man himself to cross the parking lot separating the house from the club, avoiding confrontation with him at all costs. After the quiet hour she'd spent with Thane spooned behind her last night, thoughts and emotions colliding like a pair of freight trains in a wreck, she'd dressed and hightailed it out of Avalon without speaking to anyone.
The new Dom was a clever bastard, she thought, using compassion and a firm hand to dredge up memories she’d kept suppressed for years. She hadn't meant to tell him about Evan, about that night when the sleeping Domme inside her had been woken by cruelty and pain. Evan had unleashed her in his haste to destroy her; the strongest part of her rising to protect the sweetest part, and staying in the position of guardian for ten years.
Thane threatened to upend everything she strived to be.
“Hello? Bodie?” Connie's voice echoed in the empty house, concerning her. She kicked off her sneakers and padded into the living room in her socks, sliding a little on the hardwood floor when she stopped dead. “Sorry, sweetheart, did I wake you?”
A disheveled Bodie sat up slowly, her black hair in complete disarray and her blue eyes heavy. The bedclothes were rumpled, as though she'd had a rough time sleeping, but she seemed relaxed enough. “No, I wasn't sleeping.” A rosy flush highlighted her cheekbones as she smirked. “Braun's been in a weird mood since last night, so we…he…I thought I'd try and get him in a better one. I think it worked.”
“Well, there's an advantage to having a bed in your living room,” Connie said with a chuckle. She knew Jasper and Braun had moved one of the beds from an upstairs guestroom down into the living room for Bodie's comfort after she came home from the hospital. “How are you feeling?”
“Like if someone picks me up and shakes me, I'll rattle. The doctors changed my meds, but they seem a little more hopeful about the prognosis. I'm sick of staying in bed all the damn time while Braun runs around doing everything.” A slim, bare shoulder shrugged. “He says he doesn't mind, but I do. I was helpless for long enough with my stupid legs, I don't like feeling this way again.”
“If he says he doesn't mind, you should listen to him, Bodie. That man adores you.”
Bodie's gaze dropped to her hands. “How long does adoration last when you become a burden? The man runs a business, and he's working from home because he doesn't dare leave me alone. His sisters asked him to go to his parent's anniversary party, and he refused because he didn't want to leave me alone. Hell, I had to beg him to take me to Avalon last night before I clawed my eyes out from staring at these four walls. The asshole made me go for a goddamn nap in his office after an hour.”
He left you for ten minutes, Connie thought, wisely keeping her mouth shut. Admitting any knowledge of seeing Braun last night would open a door she wouldn't be able to close fast enough. “Right now, loving you means coddling you to the point of smothering. He almost lost you once, Bodie—he stands to lose so much more now. You're carrying his baby, sweetheart. This baby isn't just a part of him, it's part of you too. The man's a Dom, it's his nature to tend and protect what he loves. That's all he's doing.”
“I know, I know.”
“You want some tea while I'm up?”
“No, I'm good, thanks. I'm sick of it. If I blink, Braun shoves a cup under my nose, and he'll be back in a few minutes. The first thing he'll do is go put the kettle on and fall into his house-husband shoes.” Blue eyes watched Connie carefully. “You can sit down, Con. I'm pretty sure Braun didn't boobytrap the couch.”
A nervous laugh bubbled up from Connie's constricted chest. “Why would he do that?”
Bodie pushed herself into a straighter sitting position, keeping the covers pulled up over her chest. “I may be out of the Avalon loop more than I like, Connie, but I know you and I know my Master. See, I saw your car in the lot last night when we walked to the club, but you were nowhere to be found. I know that when I was supposed to be napping, the safeword alarm went off in Braun's office, and he went to investigate. When he came back, he looked as though someone had hit him upside the head with a shovel and he wanted to rip that someone apart, limb by limb.”
Connie swallowed and decided sitting down would be a good idea. She forgot how inquisitive Braun's submissive could be, how tenacious she was when she got her teeth into something. “I wouldn't know anything about that.”
“Pretty sure I can tell when you're lying, Connie. You've been antsy since you got here, you haven't sat down until now, and when I said my lover would be home in a few minutes, you looked as though you wanted to bolt.” Bodie gestured to the window that offered a view of the parking lot. “You got here twenty minutes ago, and you waited in your car until Braun passed by and went into Avalon. Why are you hiding from him?”
“I-I'm not.” Damn, that could have been a more emphatic response.
“I've got two theories I've been playing around with this morning. I like puzzles, they keep my mind busy, and this is a doozy for sure. Theory number one is—and I'm not too focused on this one—you've found a sub to play with, you're a little rusty after a year's break, and your sub safeworded.” Bodie's eyes were locked on Connie's face. “The problem I have with that is, my friend doesn't get rusty. She's kind, she's firm, but she's fair. She wouldn't do something that pushed a submissive to his limits.”
Tears filled Connie's eyes. She blinked them back as she absorbed Bodie's words. Her friends had so much faith in her, she didn't know how she was supposed to shatter it by telling them she was a fraud.
“So, my second theory is that one of my best friends, one of the best Dommes I know, is something…more than she lets on. More,” Bodie said quietly as Connie's heart plummeted into her feet, “not less. There's not much that shakes Braun, he's like a massive fucking boulder in an avalanche. He doesn't move for anything. But he was shaken last night, and I think he answered the safeword alert, only to find someone he loves like a sister—aka you—in a situation he never dreamed of.”
“Trust me, it wasn't one I'd dreamed of, either,” Connie muttered, dropping her face into her hands.
“I knewit. I fucking knew it!” Bodie grinned widely. “Don't look at me that way, Con. The world isn't ending because you're exploring yourself and your needs. Hell, that sounds like something you'd say to me, doesn't it? So, you have to tell me who you were playing with. Braun hasn't said a word, and it's been driving me cray-cray. Like, above and beyond staring at the walls crazy.”
“Why aren't you angry with me? Shocked, outraged, disgusted?”
“Should I be? I don't recall you being any of those things with me when I got together with Braun and admitted I was a complete lifestyle novice. Okay, maybe there was some shock when I told you I was a virgin, but that was expected, I guess,” Bodie mused, tapping her finger on her cheek thoughtfully. “But you didn't berate me or make me feel like shit for being who I was then, did you? You were the same supportive person then as you are now—stripping naked and submitting to a Dom instead of wielding the crop doesn't change the heart of you.”
“I'm scared,” Connie admitted, pressing her fingertips into her eyes. “This is all his damn fault. Him and his fucking intervention. Him and the other jackasses over there in the club. I wish I could hate him, I really do. I wouldn't be dealing with this if he hadn't stuck his nose into my business.”
“Okay, you've lost me. Who are we hating, and why, exactly?”
“Atticus! Atticus and his fucking sidekicks.”
“Liam and Loki?”
Connie dropped her hands and slumped back on the couch. “Apparently, according to the three wise monkeys, I haven't been myself. Atticus thinks I've taken too much on, that I'm depressed and borderline suicidal. He believes I'm headed down the road of drugs, alcohol, and death.” She snorted in disgust. “Like I don't know myself and my limitations. Who the hell does he think he is? I should go hunt him down and kick his ass into next week.”
