“Bobby, you are not.You are who you are.”She knew heworried about her.He worried he broke something in her, but that wasn’t true.She didn’t blame him for being who he was.He had never promised her anything.He told her when she tried to kiss him once and then he cried because heworried he would lose her friendship.
Never.
“I know, and I can’t tell you how much I love you forbelieving that and letting me be who I am when I’m with you,” Bobby replied.“For keeping my secret all these years.But I worry I’m holding you back.”
“You are not.”She said the words, but she knew that beingaround Bobby was an excellent excuse to not pay attention to her own love life.She could keep telling herself that she would start trying after her travelschedule calmed down.After Bobby’s graduation.After her brothers’ wedding.There was always a reason to stick her head in a book and pretend the worlddidn’t exist.
Bobby’s voice dropped to a whisper.“When was the last timeyou had crazy, righteously nasty sex?You belong to a whole sex club and fromwhat I’ve heard you never go.”
She felt herself flush because the real answer was sad.“Ido.I was at The Hideout a couple of weeks ago.”
“And did you play?”
She sighed and sat back, taking another sip of champagne.She was in Dallas every couple of weeks.The company kept an apartment there.She always had a meeting with her uncle, and she always went to play night atThe Hideout.She did not always play.The Hideout was as much for socializingas it was for D/s.“No.I sat in the locker room most of the night listening toChloe complain about Seth.”
Bobby leaned in because he loved some gossip.He alwaysclaimed the gossip in his lab was boring compared to Bliss and Dallas.“That’sBig Tag’s older son and the really scary dude’s daughter, right?I mean I knowshe’s got a fluffy, happy dad like most of you do, but the other one is… He’s alot, and I say that as a guy who’s known Big Tag for years.I would be kind ofscared to be Seth.”
Ian Taggart would have usually been the scariest authorityfigure in their world.He was an ex-Green Beret, maybe not-so-ex-CIA operative,but they weren’t supposed to talk about that.He ran a security company.He wassix and a half feet of pure sarcasm on a good day, and he could freeze a personwith his stare.
He was nothing compared to Julian Lodge.Oh, he would argue,but Taggart followed rules, and she was pretty sure her Uncle Julian made therules up as he went along.There were always rumors that he was mafia, but shediscounted those.He was just a ruthless billionaire who didn’t mind gettinghis hands dirty.That’s why they made soap, he would always say.
In a lot of ways, Julian was her mentor.Oh, Dad wasruthless, too, but Uncle Julian took it to new levels.
“Yes,” she replied.“But I happen to know that the wholeSeth and Chloe thing is never happening.He’s one hundred percent into her, andshe is dating some asshole named Tom.Seth is a singer/songwriter.Tom has anMBA and all the right qualifications.She’s looking at her relationships likethere’s a checklist she has to fill for it to be real.She thinks she needssomeone who’ll look good standing next to her in boardroom photos.”
“Uh, Seth is hot as hell.I mean seriously, he’s glorious.Ishould know.I’m a connoisseur.”
He was, but Chloe wasn’t simply looking at Seth’s hotnesslevel.“I mean in a business sense.She’s known for a long time that she’lltake over Lodgecorp and her mom’s business one day, and she wants to presentthe right image.Apparently a super-hot guy with a guitar isn’t it.”
He shook his head.“We are getting off topic.”He looked upas someone approached their table.“Hey, when was the last time Olivia had hotsex with a random, gorgeous man?”
“Bobby,” she admonished.He was usually so discreet, butsomething about making the decision to be open and honest had caused him tothrow all his caution straight to the wind.
Miranda McNamara-O’Malley’s pretty face lit with a grin.Amischievous one.She was the daughter of one of the members of theBarnes-Fleetwood Collective, a group of independent cattle ranchers who workedtogether to get the best prices and deals.They found they had far more powerin negotiations when they worked together.And when they sent in a shark inheels and a business suit.That would be her.One of the blessings of her job wasgetting to make friends all over the country.Miranda was a good one.“Well,she had the chance a couple of months ago.She came up to teach my parents howto use the new accounting software and my brothers tried to seduce her.”
Olivia couldn’t help it.She rolled her eyes.It wasn’t thatTanner and Kade weren’t hot.They were gorgeous, but they were also way tooyoung for her.They were young bucks doing all kinds of things with the oatsthey were supposed to sow.“I remember them as toddlers.I can’t.Same with allthe Harper boys.”She looked to Bobby.“You know you could have been a way moreprotective fake boyfriend.”
He laughed.“Oh, I think most of the younger set has figuredme out.I tend to go to Hell on Wheels when I come home.Naturally my parentsthink I’m at church functions or helping the sheriff with his Internet.It’s aweirdly good place to pick up guys.Unless you’re with Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood,and then she scares them off.”
“Do not.”Except she kind of did.She was starting to worry thatshe wasn’t capable of love.She had grown up around so many beautiful,beat-the-odds love stories, but she had never felt for anyone the way she didBobby.It might be that fate or the universe had screwed up, and she hadn’tfound a way to settle for less.
Not that they’d ever had a physical relationship.
She’d had them.He’d had them.But never together.Bobbywasn’t one of those guys who needed to try sex with a girl to see if he wastruly gay.Nope.He’d always known.
Olivia had a couple of boyfriends over the years.In highschool she had dated a football player.She thought he was brave and crazyabout her since her family was still known as the town scandal.Then sheoverheard him talking about how her parents were rich and he didn’t care thathis momma called Jack Barnes the devil.He wanted to cash in.Marrying OliviaBarnes-Fleetwood was the ticket to an easy life, and he wanted it.
She dumped him before the championship game and the WillowFork Tigers lost.Then she was the child of the scandalous family who also costthem the state title.
Then there was the college math major.They had a good time,but when he left for his graduate work she hadn’t been heartbroken.
For a little while she thought she might try with a rancherwho had joined the collective a few years back.He was perfect on paper.Theyhad a lot in common.He knew about her parents and wasn’t worried about it.Hegot along with Josh and Grim.Then she heard him talking about how hard it wasto work with a woman.
It was the last straw, and now she was done with all thingsromantic and she was barely thirty.
“Oh, no.She’s thinking about all her other relationshipsand coming to the conclusion that she should be a nun.”Gigi Dawson sank ontothe seat beside Miranda, who looked their friend’s way and nodded heragreement.She wore a yellow cocktail dress that clung to her every curve.Herglorious, naturally curly hair was in a halo around her head.
“I don’t have a look,” Olivia insisted.
