His details were in my email less than a minute later, and with relief I decided, why wait? I could find a cheap motel in New Gothenburg. There was only one bed-and-breakfast in Minetto and it was expensive.
Whistling to myself, I pulled out of the parking lot and set off toward New Gothenburg.
I’d spent almost every day since I’d arrived in the city sitting around a cramped motel room by the New Gothenburg airport filling out job applications—whenever their crappy Wi-Fi would cooperate. In between scrolling through career sites, my paranoia over Miranda’s cheating had driven me to a local clinic. I’d felt both productive and thankful when I got back negative results from them. It had been a long, odd, boring week, and now that the hour had arrived to finally meet Declan, the man who thought it was a good idea to email strangers about talking dirty, my stomach was doing its best to shrivel into a marble.
This would be okay, I was sure, at the very least because we were meeting in public. I tried to talk myself out of feeling like I was doing something wrong, but Miranda wasalwaysmad when I went out.
Being all the way in New Gothenburg alone would have been unheard of while we were together.
Guilt lingered like a bad aftertaste from the relationship I was steadily happier was over. It was sad how things had detonated—a misery bomb—and I was still pissed off at my family, but to have freedom again? It was pure bliss. I tugged at my old red wool coat nervously as I walked into Grounds and Gears.
The humid air inside the boutique coffee shop hit me as I opened the door and scanned the round stainless-steel tables. The place was nice and had a masculine energy that had me feeling at home. Framed photographs of motorcycles broke up the matte gray walls. The air carried the tempting scents of coffee and vanilla and cinnamon, which coaxed me in a few steps farther. Overhead lights in cherry-red glass bulbs hung at intervals and gave the space a warm glow. There was a typical counter at the front with order and pickup spots. My mouth watered at the sight of a wrapped pile of monster-sized cookies displayed near the register.
But I wasn’t here for food, so I kept moving, and almost walked into a chair at the sight of a tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking blond man. He wore a smirk that was too friendly to be anything except wholesome and a hockey jersey for the New Gothenburg Blizzards. He sat with his back to the wall and had a big coffee cup in front of him along with a muffin that was simply massive. As I stood there staring like an idiot, he took a bite, then set the baked good down. I swallowed hard. He’d said he’d be in a jersey.
“Declan?” I asked, carefully moving toward him. He smiled and nodded, brushing his hands off as he stood, and I made myself reach forward to shake the hand he held out. He had callouses, but his grip on me was friendly, not a hard squeeze, and I relaxed a little.
“You’re not exactly what I was expecting.” There was some surprise etched into his smile and voice, though it didn’t seem to be a bad one because his eyes were happy, and his expression never slipped. I allowed myself to relax, difficult as that was turning out to be, and pulled out the chair across from him.
“Do you mind?”
“Go ahead. Totally meant for you to sit there.”
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you. You’re kind of a surprise, too.” I felt like an idiot, but he only laughed again. A woman with long red hair came over and settled a dangerously full cup of coffee in front of me, as if she’d been waiting for me to show up.
“Oh, I—”
“I took care of it. You do drink coffee?” Declan asked and his brow wrinkled. “Ope. I’m just used to ordering for two. Would you want something else? Hey, Red.” He looked after the woman who was already walking away. She was small and reminded me of Miranda, based on size alone. She paused and turned back toward us, her head tilted. My heart picked up.
“No! No, this is good. Thanks.”
The woman gave me a nod and walked away from us.
Declan leaned back in his chair, assessing me. I straightened up. “So….”
“Why aren’t you in your videos?” He sounded puzzled. “You’re camera-worthy.” His smile was bright as he flashed it.
The compliment caught me completely off guard. “Oh… I… work.” I shrugged. “In an office. Didn’t think it would mesh, what I did in my downtime with the daytime.”Not that it matters now.“Thought it might get me in trouble.”
“Like the kind you’re in now?” Declan beamed at me, and his words echoed my thoughts so closely that for a second all I could do was sit there while my face heated.
Not sure what to say, I nodded, and he went right on grinning as if I was something amazing.
“So, uh, how do you want to do this?” I hoped like hell he had some idea.
His smile shifted to something with bedroom heat in it, and he leaned forward. My stomach unexpectedly went warm and excited, and I gripped my knees under the table. “I want you to say all the things I know Jake likes to hear. I want you to tell him how much you missed him while you were gone. Tell him how much you want to hold him. Maybe add in some actual dirty talk. Here’s the tone I want, if you can copy it.”
He whipped his phone out of his pocket, and suddenly I was mortified. “No,” I said weakly, but he was already pushing Play. It was the newest audio track I’d made, and it was a shock to hear myself sound so put together and yet know how broken I’d been while recording it the night Miranda the Fish Murderer flounced off to fuck half a club.Too soon.
He turned the volume off after just a few seconds. “Uh… are you okay?” He frowned.
“I’m fine.” Smiling weakly, I lifted the coffee and sipped, barely tasting it. “I can do that.”
“Great. I thought about it, and you should probably meet Jake first, just in case he doesn’t actually like the idea of me putting someone else in our bedroom without asking.” He laughed like that was a spectacular joke, and my gut flipped.
“If he doesn’t want me to do it, will you want your money back?”
His smile softened. “No, that wouldn’t be your fault. You’re doing everything you should be.”
