Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 143779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143779 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
“Someone?” Laurel’s eyes went wide even as her voice went low. “Do you have a boyfriend? Lila didn’t mention a boyfriend. We should think about this if your boyfriend isn’t into the lifestyle. I know you don’t have to have sex to practice D/s but, honey, there’s going to be sex.”
Noelle shook her head. “No. I don’t. No boyfriend.”
But she had to admit that she might want one. The days with Hutch had been a revelation. They had pointed out how nice it was to have something beyond work to look forward to. He was even starting to charm Cara. He’d invited her to dinner the night before and then they’d played games. At the end of the evening Cara had grinned and told her she took back saying Kyle was hotter than Hutch.
Because Hutch was so much hotter, and it had everything to do with how he could make her feel.
“But there’s a guy you like,” Laurel prompted.
She wanted to talk, but Laurel was her stepmom’s sister, and her younger one at that. She’d come to realize Lila ruled the roost in the Daley family dynamic. Her younger sisters came to her for advice, and they would definitely report back to her if they thought something was up. Lila considered Noelle a daughter, and she would definitely want updates. “It’s someone at work.”
“It’s Hutch.” Erin moved in beside Laurel. “At least I hope it is because Hutch is acting like a mopey bitch, and everyone at the office knows it’s about his client. Well, most of us do. Li and I were talking about paying her to do Hutch so we can get him to do work without the sad puppy eyes. I asked him to run a couple of traces for me on a business guy in San Francisco named Noel and I swear he sat there and stared at the work order and actually touched the name on the page. It was the saddest most Hallmark shit I have ever seen. Please do Hutch, Noelle. Please.”
She felt her cheeks flame. She’d known he was going into the office while she and Kyle were at Genedyne, but he didn’t talk about it much.
Laurel sent the redhead a dirty look. “She’s new. You do not have to expose her to the sarcasm level at this stage.”
Erin shrugged. “She should get used to it. And seriously, it’s Hutch she’s thinking about.” Erin frowned suddenly. “Unless she’s into Kyle. Damn, girl. I don’t know that’s a good idea. Hutch is a great guy and he’s totally solid. Like we know Hutch isn’t going to explode at any moment.”
“It’s not Kyle,” she spat out and then realized what she’d given away. Well, there was nothing for it now. “I like Hutch, but I don’t know that it’s real. He’s intense, and I worry that he’ll figure out it can be hard to be around me.”
“Hard?” Laurel asked. “What does that mean?”
“It means I can’t take the stairs most of the time. It means I have to plan how I’m going to get around. I can’t simply walk into a building and go wherever I want to go. I know it seems like an easy thing to deal with but it’s not. What you take for granted, I have to spend time planning.” This wasn’t exactly why her other relationships hadn’t worked, but it was a part of it. There had been other factors, but somehow her legs exacerbated things.
Except Hutch didn’t seem to care. When they’d had sex, he hadn’t treated her like she was fragile. He’d fucked her hard and trusted her to tell him what she wasn’t comfortable with.
“I’m married to a dude who forgot most of our lives together at one point. He didn’t remember how our son was conceived,” Erin replied. “He’s still got long-term memory issues. I know it’s not the same, but when you find the right one, you do what you need to do. You also find a rhythm, you know? Like what seems odd in the beginning is perfectly normal ten years down the line.”
“Erin’s right. I married a guy with a whole bunch of issues, and we found our way through. I still have to work around the fact that it’s hard for Mitch to deal with his environment changing, but we get through it,” Laurel admitted. “You can’t know until you try, and Hutch is a great guy. He’s such a sweetheart and he’s good around kids.”
All around her the other women were gathering. She’d expected they would all be her age, but there were a variety of ages and races and yep, there was a pretty woman there with a prosthetic arm.
The men were showing up, too, and like the women there was a glorious diversity to them. Big and scarred or a little on the softer side, the men all looked excited to be here, too.