“I don’t know, Jesse. They’re your family.”
“I’m seeing them tomorrow. I don’t know if I can handle being with them now.” Tears filled her eyes at the unfairness of it all.
“We’ll get through this together, Jesse. You’ll visit your family tomorrow like normal.”
Staring at her lap, her nerves started to get the better of her. “Will you want to see me again?”
Ryan cupped her face, tilting her head back. “Baby, we’re not done at all. We’ll be seeing a hell of a lot more of each other in the future.” He pressed his face against hers. His lips brushed over hers. She wanted his kiss. “We’ve got so much to explore with each other, sub.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Chapter Three
The following Friday Ryan sat at his office desk going through some of the membership requests made in the last month. He liked to check through all of the applications personally while also conducting a background check on every member. Out of the ten he was checking through, two of them wished to become a full-time Dominant within his club. One of them he’d consider but the other stretched the limits of what he accepted in his club.
Knife and blood play was accepted but for Ryan that took the boundaries of his desire for Extreme too far. Before setting up his club he’d been part of a private one that accepted anything. He’d seen knife play performed under proper supervision. Extreme would not be accepting that kind of play anytime soon as he opened to the whole of the public. Picking up the phone, he declined the membership, giving his doubts and the wished the man well in the future. There was no bad blood and soon he moved onto the next call, organizing an interview to see the Dom in question in action.
All the time he worked he couldn’t stop thinking about his blonde bombshell waiting for him at her house. She phoned him earlier asking for him to stop by to stay. In the last week he had stayed in her house twice. Nothing happened between them as he slept on the sofa in the living room. Slowly, he started to see her bloom. Her fears of him were disappearing every day he spent with her.
Placing the phone back in the cradle, he declined three more applications as other places spoke of their violent behaviors. Once he settled on the people who would be allowed membership into Extreme, he sat back enjoying a few minutes of peace.
His peace was short lived as a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” he called out. The door opened and he pulled the folders into one neat pile before filing them away in his cabinet.
Jake stood in the doorway before closing it behind him.
“What do I owe this visit to?” he asked, taking his seat back at the table.
“I wanted to talk to you about Jesse.”
“We have an agreement, Jake.” He stared at the other man waiting for whatever warning Jake felt he had the right to voice.
“I know. I just need to make sure everything is going okay. I mean, I saw her at dinner on Sunday—”
Ryan knew all about the dinner. At around five in the afternoon, Jesse phoned him to tell him everything that happened. Holding his hand up in the air, he waited for Jake to stop talking. “I’m not going to talk to you about my woman or my methods with her. You had your chance and it wasn’t working between you.”
“I don’t want to cause any problems.”
“You’re causing problems now by thinking I’m going to talk about our time together with you.” He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “Let me make one thing clear, Jake. You passed her on and she’s no longer your concern. I’m going to take care of Jesse how I see fit.”
“She means a lot.”
“Yet you’re not in love with her. Your feelings are of friendship not lust or love. You’ve never made her feel like you wanted forever,” Ryan said, feeling defensive against the man opposite him.
“You’re wrong. I care about her. She means the world to me. I’d hate to have anything happen to her. Jesse doesn’t want anything—”
Shaking his head, Ryan glared at the other man. “You don’t even have a clue what Jesse wants. She’s a lot stronger than you or that family of hers gives her credit for.”
“You’ve only known her a week,” Jake said.
Ryan stared at him without saying a word.
“We’ll not be talking about this again, Jake. The same rules apply. Do not think to say anything to me about Jesse. Now, get out.”
He waited for the other man to leave before he relaxed back into his chair.
Checking the time he saw it was close to midnight. He picked up the phone to dial Jesse’s number.
She answered on the second ring. “Hello,” she said, sounding awake and alert.
“Hi, honey, I’m not going to be done for another hour. Are you sure you want me to still come see you tonight?” he asked, wishing she’d say yes. In the last week he’d grown attached to her as well.
They hadn’t developed their relationship and were more friends than anything else. He knew in time they would be more. Their attraction between each other would see to that.
“Yes, I’ve not got work tomorrow. This Saturday is my day off.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon.”
“Drive safe.”
Breathing out a sigh of relief, she cut two slices, handing him tea and cake together. She took the seat opposite him, giving him a fork to eat the sticky cake.
“You made this?”
“Yeah.”
“Out of a packet?”
She scrunched her nose up. “Packets are not that great. No, I made it from scratch from a recipe book I own.” Cookbooks were another of her few simple pleasures.