We’re downstairs eating in the den an hour later. I use fresh pizza dough I made the night before and stored in the fridge to make us a custom pie. It’s healthier and it means I can feed him comfort food that’s not complete junk.
Elliot’s in his collar and bracelet and naked, curled up on the sofa while I handfeed him bites of pizza.
That’s when the burner phone rings with a Signal call where it’s sitting on the end table next to the sofa with my other eighty billion phones I now have.
Except my personal one. That’s upstairs.
Elliot freezes.
Guess he got Leo’s attention.
My heart’s pounding as I reach over, grab the phone, and answer it in speaker mode before handing it to him.
Here we go.
He sits up. “Hello, Master.”
There’s a pause. “You’re home?”
My heart pounds at the sound of his voice. Damn, have I missed him.
“Yes, Sir.” Elliot wears wide-eyed terror as he stares at the phone in his hand.
Leo sounds exhausted. “Is there anything you want to tell me, pet?”
We covered this on the way home today, how he’s to deal with Leo.
He’s to play fuckingstupid. “Tell you what, Master?”
“Anything happen today? Anything…big?” I can imagine Leo standing there, eyes closed, and rubbing his forehead with his other hand. “Anything ofnoteyou might want to talk to me about?”
“I-I mean, I officially declared today, and—”
“Yeah,that. Let’s discussthat.”
Elliot’s cheeks flush. “It’s just a formality—”
“It’s a formality we haven’t discussed,pet.”
Oooh, Leo soundspissed.
Somewhere deep inside me, I feel a little guilty that there’s a part of me jumping up and down and cheering over that.
Takethat.
Elliot sucks in a deep breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the event, but I know you’re busy on the trip.”
“A little heads-up would’ve been nice. Hearing the fucking press cabin suddenly sound like someone fed a live baby through a woodchipper on national TV wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to find out about this.”
“I cleared it with Shae and Kev. The timing was Kev’s idea.” This is another of my contributions to the discussion. Personally, I want to drive home to Leo that Elliot isn’t the only one in this sitch with emotional issues.
Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, as they say.
When there’s no response, we both look at the phone to make sure the call didn’t drop.
It hasn’t.
Elliot finally says something. “Leo?”
