He turns in my arms. “Are you telling me to disobey Ma’am, Sir?” he quietly asks.
There’s something in his tone, borderline agony, that backs me off. Spanking his ass is one thing.
Hurting his feelings?
Even I’m not that much of a bastard. “No. I’ll ask her, boy. It’s okay.” I pull him into my arms for another hug.
From the way he relaxes, I know that was the right answer, but I’ll need to figure out how to make sure Casey isn’t feeding me a line of bullshit.
I want the truth from her.
About everything.
Less than twenty-four hours into whatever the hell this new thingis, I realize that I’m going to fight with everything I have in me to keep it going. I don’t care he’s a guy. It’s like Fate stepped in to try to help balance the scale back toward center. I won’t even say balanced inmyfavor, because that ship has long since sailed. It can never again be balanced in my favor.
Not without my girl.
In the cold light of the morning, I finally admit I cannot continuetrying to bare-knuckle my personal and professional life the way I was.
I…fuckingsleptlast night. Literallythebest night’s sleep I’ve had since my nightmare started.
Thanks to Declan.
* * * *
We’re downstairs in the kitchen when Casey arrives. I’m barefoot and in slacks and my dress shirt, which is still unbuttoned over my undershirt.
Declan is naked except for my robe, which I untiedso it can hang open, because I’m a fucking sadist and I want to see my marks on him.
Or if I do something that makes him hard.
I briefly pinned him against the kitchen counter and kissed him while in my head I worked through a great fantasy of fucking him right there with his legs wrapped around me, but we don’t have time for that this morning.
If we did, trust me, that’s how Casey would walkin and find us.
As it is, we both hear her unlock the front door. Declan turns like he’s going to go greet her, so I pull him in for a long, deep kiss that quickly disengages his brain and has him draping his arms around my neck as I cup his ass.
Casey clears her throat from the kitchen doorway. I turn us so we can both see her, but I don’t stop kissing him.
She’s holding a garment bag andwearingthatsmirk. “I’m glad to see the two of you are getting along so well.”
I finally release Declan and he approaches her.
I’m watchingher. I see the way her eyes scan his front, where four really good, dark hickeys are clearly visible with the robe hanging open.
Then her gaze cuts to me, she realizes I’m watching her, and it darts back to Declan as she schools her expression.
Snappingher fingers, she points at the floor in front of her.
He immediately drops, kneeling, back rounded and his head touching her toes.
Now she looks at me again. “Greeting, boy.”
He nuzzles her feet with his lips, pausing there, his hands loosely cupping her heels. “Good morning, Ma’am.”
“Were you a good boy for George last night?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
