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That was true. It was another awkward time of year at the gym when some of her more high-profile clients were likely to cancel at the last minute because “something came up.” Paige either passed the time doing paperwork and using the facilities for herself. She had never been so limber from yoga or strong from bench pressing. It almost made her want to start up her YouTube channel again, but then she felt like she was running away from home.
To be fair, Danny was not the worst long-term guest they ever had. He mostly kept to himself, watching TV in the living room or napping in his room. The nurses helped him bathe if he was too tired to do it himself. Rhea hung out with him in the pool where he looked like “just another guy” shooting the shit with his daughter. Occasionally, the three of them walked around the neighborhood, Rhea pushing her father’s wheelchair to the local taco place or fish and chip stand. Danny never complained about going. He got out of the house,andhe got to eat something that wasn’t “rabbit food,” as he called Paige and Rhea’s new cooking style.
That was what he grumped about the most, and he blamed Paige for it.
She took that blame with her head up, but she had her limits.
“Tell me what I have to do,” she teased in the shower when Rhea joined her one night before bed, “to getyouinside of me.”
Rhea flicked one of the hardened nipples in front of her. Paige enjoyed the jolt of sexual frustration it gave her, but she feared it was about to go nowhere. “Honestly, I could use some caffeine. Between working on this new novel, getting back my edits on thelastone, and helping take care of my dad…”
Paige sidled up beside her. “What if I smack your ass?”
“Will it wake me up?”
Paige told herself that this was temporary. Yet as the weeks went by and Danny showed no signs of good enough improvement to be left alone most nights, Paige was about to take drastic measures.
“Good God.” Rhea came out of the bathroom one evening to find her naked wife lying spread eagle across the bed. She already had the nipple clamps out and the strap-on beside her. “Is this a cry for help?”
“Yes!” Paige cried.
Rhea did her best that night, but Paige could still tell that she was a million miles away. It was enough for Paige to bring it up at their next appointment with Dr. Seville.
“These things can disrupt the natural rhythm a couple comes up with,” the counselor agreed, sympathy dripping from her voice. “As you’ve discovered, just because one of you is ready, it doesn’t mean the other is. Rhea, what do you think is the number one reason the shoe is now on your foot and you’re not feeling the sexual urges your wife is?”
That required a few moments of thought on Rhea’s part. “A lot is going on. Even if we have time and I’ve got some energy, it feels like I’m trapped inside my head. Our whole house feels so foreboding. I keep waiting for something to be wrong with my dad.”
“Do you think it might be feasible for you two to book a hotel room for an evening and attempt to reconnectawayfrom the house?”
“Between the costs of a room and having an overnight nurse…”
Even Paige had to agree that a “getaway” might not be in the cards right now, as frustrating as it was to admit.
Still, something else had been bothering her, long before Danny’s second heart attack.
Rhea was hiding something. Maybe she didn’t know it. Maybe she subconsciously kept it to herself. Yet Paige still remembered her wife’s outburst in the car only a few weeks ago.She claimed I didn’t know her.As a wife. As a lover. Something was blocking Rhea’s ability to fully make love, and it wasn’tjusther father’s presence, let alone his health problems looming over everyone’s heads.
It bothered Paige enough that she did the unthinkable.
She had to wait until both Rhea and Danny were out of the house for one of his checkups. Long after Rhea pulled out of the driveway with her father in the passenger seat, Paige called into work and announced she’d be late.I’m a co-owner. What are they gonna say? No?
Once she was sure Rhea and her father weren’t coming back for something, she walked to the back of the house, past Danny’s guestroom, and toward Rhea’s office.
She knew where Rhea kept the portfolio she intended to send her publisher. Paige had seen it a week ago when she came in to collect something from the printer. When she asked Rhea about it, she got a stoic yet slightly concerned,“Don’t worry about it.”As if Paige needed more information to go off when Rhea tended to wear her truths on her sleeve.
Would Rhea be mad to know Paige had snooped?Yes.Was Paige willing to take that chance in the name of her marriage?Yes.
This wasn’t curiosity she couldn’t wait to sate. This was her desperately trying to tap into a part of her wife that begged to be acknowledged.
Paige was prepared for anything. She knew that her wife had written “raunchy” stories for fun and as an outlet for her fantasies. Yet when Paige sat with the portfolio in Rhea’s reading chair that overlooked the pool, she immediately saw a title that made her double-take.
“The Butch’s Guide to Feminization.”
Those were words Paige knew. Singularly. Individually. She had no idea what they meant together in this context.
A cursory glance told her that these were not Rhea’s take onPenthouse Stories.The denizens of Hellfire wouldn’t look at these and yawn. If anything, Rhea might make some friends with a story titled “Midnight Stranger.”
“What the…” Paige had to go back to the start of the story. This was no run-of-the-mill tale of two people meeting at a bar and then having a passionate one-night stand. Nor was it a stepmother getting too close to her husband’s college-aged daughter while they swam together in the pool.God help me, I thought that was hot already!
