“Oh, true.”
He’d laugh if the stakes weren’t so high. Todd had gone silent again and was watching them like a ping-pong match.
Then Hunter himself walked in and the three of them turned to stare at him.
When Coop saw Hunter’s face go red, he knew he had to act quickly. The familiar reaction in the man meant he was close to an anxiety attack.
Margie turned on him. “Hey, please don’t be upset with me, but I asked Coop if we could invite your friend Dani to dinner tonight.”
Hunter’s gaze immediately sought out Coop’s. He met and held it, hoping his boy would be a quick study.
“Dani?” Hunter asked.
Margie grabbed Hunter’s hands. “Please don’t be mad at them. I think it’s sweet you were trying to cover for them being gay. Dad and the others accidentally walked in on them kissing.”
“Kissing?”
Well, on the plus side, the confusion in Hunter’s voice told Coop the impending anxiety attack had been derailed.
Temporarily, at least.
“Yeah,” Coop said, “I goofed up. I know you warned us about no PDAs, but I didn’t think your dad and the others would walk in on us. Sorry. And I just made her promise not to tell you we told her about Dani.”
Coop arched an eyebrow at Margie, enjoying that she went red in the face, meaning she was at least a little embarrassed about not holding the secret longer than most people could hold their breath.
Which he’d expected, counted on, and had worked in his favor.
“Dad’s not going to care Coop and Todd are dating,” Margie told Hunter.
“He’s…not going to care Coop and Todd are dating?”
Coop struggled even harder not to burst out laughing. There were two conversations going on right now—actually three if someone counted Coop overhearing the garage discussion—and only he was privy to all of them.
“And then I told Margie you’re dating Dani,” Coop said. “Look, dude, you know we love you, but I’m going to go ahead and put it out on the table. Dani’s great for you. Maybe she’s not going to push you, but as your friends, we’re going to.”
Coop resorted to a little subtext that would hopefully sail right over Margie’s head. “Boy, heh, you need to not push Dani away. Ask her to come over to dinner tonight. Just burgers.”
“I… I…” Hunter swallowed hard, still meeting Coop’s gaze. “I…don’t know if she can or not.”
Bless his heart, Hunter was really trying so damn hard to stay true to their do not lie rule.
Coop made a mental note to praise and reward him for that as soon as he could.
Margie, her back to Coop and Todd, pulled Hunter in for a hug even as Hunter’s confusion obviously grew.
Coop silently mouthed, “Good boy,” to Hunter and nodded, hard. “Well, how about we give her a call and ask her, huh?” Coop said as Margie released Hunter.
“Um…I—”
Todd found his voice. “Coop, you should probably call her. You’ve known her longer. She can’t ever say no to you. Neither can I.”
He reached out and slapped Coop on the ass, hard, a playful twinkle in his green eyes.
“Sure.” Coop pulled out his phone. “Oh, my battery’s low.” He held out his hand to Todd. “Can I have the keys, babe? I’ll use your car charger while I talk.”
“Oh, sure.” Todd fished them out of his pocket and dropped them into Coop’s palm.
He headed straight out the utility room door and down the driveway to where the car was parked, leaving Todd and Hunter in the kitchen with Margie.
Actually, his battery was fine.
He didn’t want there to be any chance of anyone overhearing what might be a very interesting and difficult conversation.
* * * *
The only reason Dani answered the phone was because Ned had caught her during a potty break between recording chapters.
“How’s the move going, Sir?”
“Um, heh, funny you should ask that.”
Something about his tone of voice gave her a feeling that, whatever he was about to say, she wouldn’t like it much.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t have any plans for tonight, right?”
He knew damn well she didn’t. This can’t be good. “I thought you were going to spend it with Todd and Hunter to help him recover from today.”
“Yeeaah. Uh, slight change of plans.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I need to borrow you tonight.”
“Huh?”
“Long story short, Hunter’s family thinks I’m gay, that me and Todd are dating, and that Hunter’s been secretly dating you.”
“Say whut?”
“Exactly what I just said.”
She reached over with her left hand and pinched the inside of her right upper arm, hard.
Nope, she was wide awake.
Unfortunately.
“How did I get dragged into this?” Screw protocols, this wasn’t what she’d signed up for.
“Dani, please. I’m not going to order you to do this, because I know that’s the fastest way for you to tell me to go fuck myself. I’m begging you, as a friend, asking a favor for another friend. A mutual friend. Please?”
She liked Hunter, but she wasn’t sure yet if she could honestly call him a friend, much less wanted to pretend to be dating him. She barely knew him. “Why can’t he just tell them all to go fuck off?”
“You know why, sweetie. We’ve been through this. The two of you are very much alike in many ways. Please? I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important. It’s a yes or a no answer.”
She definitely wouldn’t be getting any more work done today, that was for damn sure. She felt her gut tighten, her blood pressure soaring.
“You’re asking me to willingly go over and have dinner with a bunch of strangers while pretending to be Hunter’s girlfriend? Are you new here? Do you not remember everything we’ve discussed the past couple of months? Or are Hunter’s feelings more important to you than mine?”
“That’s not fair, and you know it. Either you say yes, or you say no. You’re lashing out at me because this is unexpected, and it’s triggering you, and I’m sorry about that.”
It was his even, steady, patient tone of voice that, ironically, drove her to tears. “Then why ask me to do something like this if you know it’s going to trigger me?”
“Sweetie, please, it’s only because I have faith in you. Pretend it’s an acting role. Pretend it’s an improv gig. I’ve seen you stand up in front of a bar full of complete strangers and absolutely own it and bring down the house. You can handle a backyard full of people for an hour or two.”
She closed her eyes against the sting of tears. “What if I say no?”
He let out a sigh. “I can’t and won’t force you to do this. I will not order you to do this. If you say yes or no, it’s your decision, not mine.”
“And I guess if I say no then that’ll be it between us, huh?”
“No,” he quietly said. “It won’t. I know this is far outside of our negotiated limits. You’re absolutely right, you didn’t sign up for something like this. And no, I don’t think Hunter’s feelings are more important than yours. I’m not asking you to do this as your Dominant. I’m asking this as a friend, and I’m really sorry I’ve put you in this position. If you refuse to do it, I’ll just have to lie and tell his family that you’ve already made plans for tonight that you can’t get out of. I was hoping that it would get Hunter’s family off his back for a while if you could come over and meet them. But I’ll make it work somehow if you won’t.”
That would mean forcing him to lie. For her.
She already knew what her eventual answer would be. “What if I can’t do it? What if you’ve got a lot more faith in my abilities than I do?”
“I promised I would never do anything to harm you,” he said, still using that soft, gentle tone. “If I thought this would harm you, I never would ha
ve asked you to do it, as your Dominant, or as your friend.”
“But I’m the only single person you know who will be home tonight to ask, right?” She knew she sounded bitter and didn’t care.
“No. I said the first name that popped into my mind while trying to protect him. I’ll admit it. I also wouldn’t hesitate to stand up for you if I needed to. I see what you go through, what you both go through. I won’t lie and say I know what either of you go through because I’m not wearing your skin. If it means anything to you, I feel horrible that I’ve put you in this position. I can hear you crying, I can hear the stress in your voice, and I hate that I’m the one causing it. I promise, if you say no, nothing changes between us. At all.”
That finished her. No snark, no pettiness, not even a hint of impatience colored his tone. “You’ll need to come get me,” she choked out. “I’ll need to take an extra Xanax.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be happy to do that.”
“And you’ll need to give me a pep talk before we leave. So plan accordingly.”
“Understood.”
She sniffled before drawing in a deep, shuddering breath. “What time?”
“I’ll come get you around five. Shorts and a T-shirt, casual. It’s just a backyard cookout.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. This means a lot to me. You have no idea how much.”
“Yeah, well…I hope it means a lot to Hunter.”
“It does, I’m sure. And you and I can spend all day together tomorrow, if you want.”
“I thought tomorrow was Hunter’s day?”
“I think under the circumstances that he’ll be okay giving it up for you.”
“He’d better.”
Another of those soft sighs. A disappointed one. Not passive-aggressive, either. “There isn’t a competition between you two.”
“It feels like it sometimes. I mean, I know you’ve been playing with him for years longer than you and I have even known each other. It’s just really confusing to me emotionally sometimes. You say he likes me, but most of the time he doesn’t want to see me with you.”
“I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry. And I know sudden changes like this throw you off.”
“No shit. Ya think?”
He didn’t reply.
Fuck. At the rate she was going, she wouldn’t blame him for breaking up with her tomorrow.
Another deep breath before she spoke again. “So you’ll be here around five, Sir?”
She wasn’t expecting his next comment. She’d expected a lot of things he might say, anticipated pretty much everything in a split second.
But of all the possibilities, she hadn’t hit upon his actual words.
“I love you, pet. I’ll text you as soon as I’m underway and know how long it’ll take me, but I’m planning to be at your place around five, yes.”
“What?” She couldn’t manage anything over a whisper.
“I love you, pet.” He softly chuckled. “I know this isn’t easy for you. Anyone willing to at least try under these circumstances is someone I’m proud to love and call my pet. And I’m very proud of you for saying yes, even though I know you’re scared to death.”
Now her heart pounded for a totally different reason. “I love you, too, Sir,” she said.
After he ended the call she sat there, staring at her phone and wondering if she’d had some sort of weird break with reality.
She reached over and pinched herself again, just to make sure.
Nope, still not dreaming.
He’d never belittled her, never discounted her issues, never berated her or tried to goad her into something.
Empathy.
What if their positions were reversed? What if it was Ned lying to protect her and asking Hunter to do something like this for her?
She knew, despite his personal feelings, that Hunter would step up, immediately and without hesitation or thought for himself, simply because Ned asked it of him. Not even because Hunter considered Ned his Master and the ultimate final authority, and that she was Ned’s pet and property, too.
But because Hunter trusted Ned.
The question was, did she trust Ned? Really trust him?
The quiet, calming response floated up from her subconscious.
I trust Ned.
Anyone else looking at this from the outside, without the insight into her and Hunter’s issues, might shake their heads in aggravated disgust. She knew that, because she’d dealt with it plenty of times with Clayton. Giving lip service to knowing she was sometimes crippled by anxiety and her OCD and yet not actually caring, or worse, thinking it was all in her head.
Which, yeah, it was in her head, but it wasn’t something she had willful control over. No one would choose to live like this, respond like this.
Be afraid like this.
Ned understood. Ned had taken it as a simple matter of fact and not once had he ever made her feel self-conscious over it.
She’d seen him deftly handle Hunter and take him from the all-too-familiar brink of a panic attack and bring him safely back to grounded reality.
Hell, Ned had done that for her, too.
Isn’t this what I’ve always wanted? To feel like I could really let go and submit?
To trust?
Well, duh. She finally had that guy. And it was a relief.
She could only imagine what a relief it was to Hunter to have Ned’s calm, soothing influence in his life.
And how much fear Hunter must have felt when Ned introduced her to them. It didn’t matter that Ned had tossed Bethany out the door when she’d challenged him. Bethany hadn’t been kinky. Bethany hadn’t been submissive. If she were Hunter, she would feel terrified that Ned had met someone he could not only have sex with, but with whom he could fulfill his sadistic and Dominant urges, too.
Despite his obvious reactions, Hunter had, overall, treated her with far more grace from the very beginning than she’d been treating him. Especially considering how much he had to lose. She was lucky that she wasn’t dependent upon an asshole family for making a living, housing, or having a financial carrot dangled over her head like he was.
That, on top of not being able to openly love the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Taking another deep breath, she saved her work in progress and headed to the bathroom to grab a shower.
If she was going to perform in front of an audience, by god, she’d show up ready to break a leg and get a standing O from them.
Or, if she was lucky, maybe Ned would give her as many Os as she could handle later on as a reward for being his good girl.
Chapter Sixteen
Margie had left the two of them alone in the kitchen. Hunter had gone from feeling afraid he was going to throw up from the stress, to confusion, to absolute gut-wrenching terror of another kind.
Hunter was no dummy. Dani tolerated him in Coop’s life, and she was more than smart enough not to pull a Bethany with Coop. Hunter did his best to talk the talk, but in his heart, he knew the truth.
How long it took Coop to decide Dani was the complete package remained to be seen, but the writing was already on the wall. Until now, Coop had never dated someone as perfect for him as Hunter could see Dani was. Only an idiot who didn’t know Coop would say they weren’t perfect for each other.
In fact, if Hunter let it play out in his mind, he could envision the entire series of events, from their play dates growing more infrequent, their dinner nights evaporating from the schedule, then his daily text message rituals becoming scattered and infrequent. Morning and evening text rituals would disappear entirely as Coop’s time became swallowed up with Dani. Hell, he could beat her and then fuck her. Why frustrate himself with him when Coop could have all he wanted in one pack—
Todd snapped his fingers in front of Hunter’s face. Hunter looked to see Todd’s green eyes staring into his. “Stop,” he whispered. “Coop will be back in a minute and give you a Xanax.”
�
�She’s going to take him from me, isn’t she?”
“Stop. Take a deep breath and hold it.”
Hunter did.
“Slowly let it out.”
Hunter did.
“Where are you?”
“In Terry and Margie’s kitchen.”
“What do you smell?”
“Newspaper and cardboard boxes.”
“Take a slow, deep breath and let it out again.”
He did, his pulse calming as Todd walked him through it to help derail the impending panic attack and ground him.
“Good,” Todd said, keeping a safe distance between them in case Hunter’s family returned. “When Coop gets back, just keep breathing.”
“How do we do this tonight?”
“We take it one minute at a time.” They heard others approaching and Todd flashed him a smile before he picked up a box and carried it outside. Hunter’s mother and Margie entered the kitchen, passing Todd as he left the kitchen.
“Oh, there you are,” his mom said. “Margie said we might have an extra for dinner tonight?”
“Uh, maybe.”
His mom patted Hunter on the shoulder and gave him that smile he knew all too well.
The bless your heart smile. “I don’t know why you push women away, sweetheart. You’re a handsome man.”
“I told you,” he mumbled. “Grandpa always warned me about being careful.”
Breathe. In…out…
“You take everything so literally. You always have. Besides, if you decided to get married, your dad would give you the trust to help out. And the lawyers told you it’s not marital assets. It’s outside of that. So even if something happened, no one could touch it.” She pulled him in for a nearly choking hug. “I just wish you’d let us into your life. You’re always so closed off.”
“Sorry,” Margie silently said from where she stood behind his mom, sending Hunter an apologetic smile.
But if it meant his family didn’t think he was gay, the extra stress would be worth it. Especially if it meant his dad would finally quit dangling the damn trust over his head and let him have it.
Freedom.
It wasn’t like Dani would give him cooties. He’d just pretend she was another female friend playing a role, like others had in the past.
Rhymes With Orange Page 15
