Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“Dork,” I teased. “I don’t know.” There was a whole hell of a lot I didn’t know. I’d stick with sex. That was the easiest.
CHAPTER THREE
David
“Jesus, that was an ugly break,” Dr. Kurt Paulson said.
“Yeah, but I made it all pretty again. I’m good at what I do.”
He rolled his eyes, but we both knew he couldn’t deny it. “Do you want to grab a drink after work?” he asked.
Kurt was an associate of mine—a nice guy, sexy, good doctor, queer. Not often, but every once in a while, we grabbed dinner or a drink together. I enjoyed going out for a nice meal. I usually dragged Aidan with me once a week, but I was more of a people person than he was. It was impossible to get him out more than that on a regular basis. It had been hard even before Finley, but it was worse now. He was at work, or he wanted to be with his boy—not that I could blame him.
I enjoyed Kurt’s company, but sometimes I wondered if he hoped we could be more. He’d never come out and said it, but I wasn’t dumb. I noticed the looks he gave me. What he didn’t know was that even if I were interested, it would never work out between us. Kurt wasn’t in the lifestyle, and that was something I needed.
I’d tried without it before, with my ex, Tony, who was still a friend. I’d tried to lock away my needs, and that hadn’t worked out so well. It had broken my damn heart, and I had no interest in having a repeat of that situation. I only dated subs, or switches who didn’t need to dominate very often.
“I can’t,” I told Kurt. “I’m meeting up with my sister.” Which was true, but I’d already decided to slow down on the dinners with him so I didn’t give him the wrong idea.
“Okay, maybe another time.”
“Sure thing.”
We said our goodbyes, and I finished up at the hospital before changing and heading out to my car.
Instead of going to my house in Santa Monica, I drove straight to Zoey’s. She and my mom shared a house—the first place I’d ever bought. I had a few properties I’d grabbed at a low price when the market crashed, and now they were making me quite a bit of money monthly.
I was proud as hell to be able to do things like that now; I’d worked my ass off for it. I knew what it was like to have nothing, and I’d done everything in my power to make sure my mom and sister and I would never have to live like that again.
Their house was in an older neighborhood. Mom and Zoey teased me for turning posh on them, but I couldn’t help it if I liked nice things. And I felt as comfortable driving down their street, where some houses had bars on the windows and kids played in the road, as I did at my place close to the ocean.
“Knock, knock,” I said through the locked screen door.
“Oh, hey.” Zoey opened the door for me. “I was just making dinner.”
The moment I stepped inside, a feeling of warmth enveloped me. Photos of Zoey and me through the years greeted me everywhere I looked. Even when we’d lacked in other things, we’d always been happy. Zoey had never married or had kids, and Mom joked that between the two of us, she would never be a grandma, but we knew she would never expect us to live our lives for her. “Smells good, sis.”
“Thanks.”
I sat at the breakfast bar. We chatted for a few minutes, about the hospital, Mom, who was at work, and things like that. Mom had gone back to school as an adult and was now a therapist working with at-risk and homeless youth. I figured those kids were like her own, which was probably why the no-grandchildren thing didn’t bother her.
“I went on a date last night,” Zoey told me. She was thirty-one, ten years younger than me.
“No shit?”
“No shit. I haven’t decided if I want to see him again, though. He has this weird nasal laugh.”
“Oh my God.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re so damn picky.” That was part of why Zoey was single. She found something wrong with everyone.
“And you’re not? You’ve had one serious relationship in your life, and since then, all you do is play with your boys.”
While Mom definitely didn’t know the things I was into when it came to sex, Zoey did. I shared almost everything with my sister, while Mom still talked to me about Tony, not understanding why things hadn’t worked out with us, even though we’d broken up in college. “Playing with boys is fun.” I winked, and she shook her head.
“Is it? Last time we talked, you said you felt like something had been missing lately.”