Steady Rain Read online

  They cleaned up and returned to bed, Kyle happy to play little spoon tonight.

  Frankly, it felt good to not sleep alone. He damn sure wasn’t going to quibble about where he slept in relation to Tristan.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Kyle felt Tristan’s breath across his back when he spoke.

  “Sure.”

  “You knew Marilyn wasn’t kinky. Why’d you date her?”

  A question he’d asked himself too many damn times. He knew beyond the obvious issues with her that Tris hadn’t been attracted to her. Marilyn was a thin, petite woman, and Tris preferred women built with solid curves.

  “I thought…I don’t know. Maybe she’d get curious. She said she was willing to let me tie and play as long as it wasn’t sexual. But she refused to get involved in it with me. I think it was mostly Dillon. I wanted to give the kid a little stability. I tend to forget how lucky I am my parents weren’t raging Dumpster fires. He’s a good kid, and I really do love him like he’s my son.”

  Tristan squeezed him. “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown. How do you think she’s gonna react to this development?”

  “I don’t know. I hope she doesn’t take it out on Dillon by cutting all contact with me.”

  “Not your fault if she does.”

  “I know.”

  Tristan kissed the back of his shoulder. “I mean it.” His voice held no trace of humor now. “I love you. I’m in this for us. For life. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it. We only get one life, and it’s time we live it for us.”

  Kyle turned his head so he could kiss Tristan. “I love you, too. And ditto.”

  “You gonna let me marry you?” Tristan’s brown gaze burned into him.

  “You mean it?” Kyle asked.

  “Yeah, I mean it. I’m not stupid enough to let you get away.”

  “How do you know you won’t get sick of me?”

  “That would have been five years ago, when you moved in with me. I would have known within a month or two if I’d want to kill you by now.”

  Kyle had once sworn he’d never get married again.

  That’d been before thinking about marrying this man.

  “Yeah, I’ll marry you.”

  Tristan’s smile in the dim light threatened to harden Kyle’s cock again. He pressed his body along Kyle’s. “You decide when. I won’t pressure you for a date, but if I don’t have a ring on your hand in the next six months, I’m gonna start pushing.”

  “Pushy Dom, huh?”

  “Damn right, I am. Takes one to know one.”

  Kyle closed his eyes and enjoyed the feel of Tristan’s warmth against his flesh. “Sure does.”

  Chapter Nine

  It took Jessica another week to receive her insurance settlement, get her deposit check from her landlord, and finally make it through the receding floodwaters to see her place.

  A total loss. She was able to salvage about half her remaining clothes, and all her dishes and kitchenware. Some knickknacks that had been up on higher shelves, and some books.

  Jim and Brenda went with her, hugging her as she cried and helping her sort through everything. Fortunately, she’d lived fairly light, and while she hated losing her furniture and some of the books, it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be replaced. She took pictures of everything before tossing it.

  Meanwhile, Stanley had already gained a couple of pounds and was starting to fill in. He’d proven to be a quick study when it came to commands and housebreaking, and had only had one accident in the house so far. That had been because it’d been raining all day, and apparently he hated getting his feet wet. He’d been impossible to move off the front sidewalk or back lanai concrete and into the soggy grass.

  None of the humans in the house could blame him, either, considering his narrow brush with death. The poor Lab now apparently had a fear of “wet.” And since his accident had happened on the kitchen linoleum floor, next to the back door, no harm, no foul.

  He also considered himself Jessica’s shadow. While he would play with Topper and Herby, his preferred spot was next to her, either on the couch or on the floor next to wherever she was sitting, or in bed with her at night.

  She’d had to call as far north as Conroe to finally find a U-Haul place that had a truck and car hauler available she could rent one-way to Florida. Brenda drove her to pick it up. Jessica had used her waiting time well to sort and repack everything, buying boxes and plastic bins, until she’d consolidated and tightened the load to the smallest truck possible that could still tow a car hauler.

  Brenda and Jim helped her load her things. Now that she had a plan and a destination, she was itching to be out of Houston and return to Florida for good. But she made herself spend one last night at their insistence, not wanting her to risk driving an unfamiliar vehicle—towing a car hauler—at night through still iffy streets. Not all the traffic lights were working yet, and there were still flooded sections of road. Tuesday morning would be soon enough to leave.

  Early the next morning, Jess stood in their driveway, exchanging tearful hugs with them.

  “Make sure to text me how you’re doing at every gas stop,” Brenda said. “Don’t you make me worry.”

  “I promise.”

  “And come visit us and send us pics of our godson,” Jim added.

  Jessica laughed. “I will. I promise.” They’d adopted Stanley as much as they had her. Part of her regretted pulling the dog away from his new buddies, except she suspected he was one of the few things that would keep her sane over the next stage of her life.

  And dammit, she’d been lonely. With Stanley, she wasn’t nearly as lonely now.

  At least she felt secure he wouldn’t betray her trust.

  By that afternoon, she was making good time across Louisiana on I-10. There literally wasn’t a need for her to use a map app, because she’d take I-10 east until I-75, and then I-75 south until her exit in Sarasota. From there, it was just a couple of blocks east, where the apartment in the industrial complex awaited her and Stanley.

  Stanley proved to be an excellent traveling companion. As she reached the Florida Panhandle just before dark, she pulled in at a rest area to hit the potty and walk Stanley. During the drive, he would either sit up in the passenger seat and look out the windows, or curl up and sleep. No bouncing around, no trying to climb into her lap. Like he knew this was his job, to be her co-pilot.

  She’d already used the bathroom herself, and was walking Stanley in the designated dog walk area at the rest stop when a guy approached through the trees. She’d been scrolling through email on her phone, and it was Stanley’s growl that alerted her and made her head snap up and her attention focus on the guy. And she kicked herself for not paying better attention—she knew better than that.

  The guy stopped about thirty feet away. What alarmed her was how she realized—belatedly—that there weren’t many people at the rest area, and the dog walk was away from the main building where the few people were at. Stanley’s hackles stood up all the way down his back, and he’d dropped his head, his threatening growl loud in his chest.

  “Dude, step back,” she said, loudly, quickly snapping a picture of the guy with her phone, just in case.

  “I’m just stretching my legs, lady. Chill. Wanted to pet your dog.”

  A wave of nausea threatened. “He’s not interested in being petted. And go stretch your legs somewhere else.” He looked up as another car pulled into the rest area, and she used the distraction to dart around him and hurry back toward the truck.

  She was aware of the guy calling out to her and trying to follow her, but then she pushed it into turbo and instead of loading Stanley into the passenger door like she had been, she scooped him up in her arms and, with trembling fingers, got the key in the driver’s door lock, opened it, and jumped up. By the time she had locked herself in the cab, the man stood about twenty feet away and darkly glared at her.

  He looked like he was going to walk toward her when a FHP marked unit
pulled into the rest area. She laid on the horn and started flashing her headlights, and that did it. The trooper hit the brakes and flipped on his bubble lights, backing up to her as the guy bolted.

  She rolled down her window, quickly told the trooper what happened, and he went peeling out in pursuit of the guy after ordering her to stay put.

  Heart racing, she stayed put. Not that she could have driven right then from how shaky the adrenaline jolt had left her.

  Stanley quietly stared in the direction the trooper had driven, then looked at her. She’d swear he nodded, as if saying, Well, that’s that.

  He looked proud of himself, too.

  “I owe you some beef jerky, or a cheeseburger, or something.” She cradled his head in her hands and his otter tail thumped against the seat. “Guess any guy I date needs to pass Stanley approval before I go out with them.”

  He licked her nose.

  The trooper returned twenty minutes later, after three county deputies had also arrived. Apparently, the guy had an outstanding warrant for sexual assault in Alabama, so now she had to file a formal statement for the incident report.

  It took an hour to get out of there, but at least she was able to walk Stanley—again—and make another trip to the bathroom.

  And all the officers had given Stanley pets and good-boys before she left.

  By the time she reached the next exit, her stomach had settled itself and actually growled in hunger. She pulled off to get gas and take-out. Then she and Stanley ate in the cab—Stanley earning himself a plain cheeseburger—as she put Brenda on speakerphone and updated her.

  “No shit? Damn, girl. So much for an uneventful drive.”

  “Right?” She fed Stanley a fry. Normally she wouldn’t give a dog human food, but dammit, he’d earned it. “I’ll be so glad to get to Sarasota.”

  “I bet. Make sure you send me a text when you get there, no matter what time it is.”

  “Will do.”

  After she finished and shot Kel a text to update her timeframe, she got on the road again.

  Despite it being dark out, Stanley sat up in the passenger seat and stared ahead through the windshield, as if on guard.

  At least I’ll have someone watching my back.

  Except in Sarasota, once she reacquainted herself with the local kink community, she’d have friends again. Close friends. In Houston, she hadn’t had many friends in the kinky community beyond Brenda and Jim. Everyone she’d known had been the asshole’s friends more than hers, and she’d gladly ceded custody of them to him when she’d left him.

  Wasn’t worth the stress trying to date or scene with him and the toothpick active in the same kinky circles.

  It was probably not a coincidence that Brad had hated Brenda and Jim, and the feeling had been mutual.

  I wonder if Stanley would have growled at Brad?

  That thought made her smile.

  * * * *

  Between taking it easy and the unexpected delay, it was after two a.m. Wednesday morning when she finally exited I-75 in Sarasota and made the final turn into the plaza.

  When she pulled up in front of the building, where a pick-up truck was parked, the door opened and Kel stepped out.

  She nearly burst into relieved tears to see her old friend.

  In fact, she did start crying when she climbed out of the cab and he offered her a hug.

  Stanley had crawled over and stood in the driver’s seat, tail wagging as he watched.

  “Is this your new baby?” Kel asked.

  “Yeah. And you won’t believe this.” She updated him about what happened.

  Kel held out his hand to Stanley, who sniffed and then started wagging.

  “Looks like I pass.” Now she realized the deep lines in Kel’s face weren’t just a trick of the shadows. He looked aged from the last time she’d seen him.

  “I guess so.”

  He smiled. “How’s your stomach?”

  “Actually better than it’s been in a while, once I hit 75 and turned south.”

  “Good. Come on, and I’ll show you around.”

  She got Stanley out, let him potty real fast, then followed Kel inside the unit.

  The apartment was upstairs, the bottom portion both an office and a large storage bay. And even better, the apartment was fully furnished. She decided the first bedroom would be hers, since it had a king-sized bed in it. Each bedroom had its own full bathroom, and there was a half-bath downstairs, off of the office.

  “I’ll unload tomorrow,” she said. “I’m not even going to try tonight.”

  He handed her a set of keys and a piece of paper with the alarm code and WiFi password written down. “Good. We can handle the lease paperwork tomorrow, too. Oh, and I already talked to Ted Collins. If you want to interview with them, they could use an extra hand right now with Essie pregnant.”

  “Are you all right?” Now in the kitchen’s overhead light, she could clearly see Kel looked…weary.

  “I’m…fine.” He forced a smile that didn’t fool her. “You’ve been gone, so you probably haven’t heard, because we’ve kept it pretty quiet. Mal had a miscarriage, and now she’s battling an eating disorder. She’s inpatient right now, at a place up in Tampa.”

  Jess sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh…man. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.” Now she felt even guiltier that she hadn’t been a better friend. She’d been so wrapped up in her own drama and problems she’d sort of dropped contact with the people she’d been close to.

  “Not your fault. Not anyone’s fault. It just…is.” He leaned against the counter. “We’re working through it. If you have free time and want to volunteer at Venture, Cali’s the volunteer coordinator. She and her guys, Max and Sean, they take a full weekend, and help out with the rope group, too.”

  “Wait…Max and Sean of Two Crafty Bastards Toys?”

  “Yeah. Wait, that’s right, you moved before they got together with Cali.” He filled her in, including the fact that Lydia had been murdered.

  Her eyes widened. “Holy fuck, that bitch bit the farm? Wait, sorry, that was insensitive. That bitch was killed?”

  This time, his smile seemed to reach his eyes a little. “You aren’t the only one who felt that way, believe me.”

  “She thought she could order me around one time when I was doing a photo shoot with Scrye and June, and I thought June was going to pop her one in the snoot. Lydia thought she could do it just because she was a ‘volunteer.’”

  “Yeah, well, she was kicked off the volunteer roster a long time before her untimely demise. You really have missed a lot of the backroom gossip that doesn’t make it to Fet.”

  “I guess.”

  After a few more minutes of chatting, a huge yawn hit her. “Sorry, I need sleep, and you look like you do, too.”

  “Yeah. Let me help you repark the rig so you’re not blocking any of the other units. The one next to this one is vacant.” Twenty minutes later, she and Stanley were safely locked inside the apartment, and she was standing under a hot shower, trying to ease her aching muscles from the drive.

  It was hard to process she was…here.

  Yes, this was the perfect place to rent, because she could set up kinky photoshoots next door at the club, or hell, downstairs in the bay area. Kel was willing to give her a lease with a double-ended escape clause, so either she or he could break it if needed. But she’d known the guy for the better part of thirty years and trusted him not to enact it for bullshit and leave her hanging.

  If he tried it, she’d sic his mom on him.

  There was a Suncoast Society munch this Sunday, and she was tempted to go. She wouldn’t be doing a lot of eating out in the near future as she pinched her pennies and saved up money. It’d be good to see her old friends again.

  She still kicked herself in the ass that she let Brad talk her into moving from Florida. But she’d been in looooove.

  Bastard.

  She wouldn’t make that mistake again. She was thirty-six and while yeah, she’d l
ove a guy—hell, or guys, plural—to warm her bed at night, she was done putting herself last. It hadn’t made her happy, and had only led to her getting stuck in Texas and putting parts of herself in forced storage.

  It used to be she played, had fun. Laughed.

  Hell, she’d laughed more in the weeks she’d spent with Brenda and Jim than she had in the past several years.

  She’d started rediscovering parts of her personality she’d forgotten existed.

  No more. Next relationship distraction in my life, after passing the Stanley test, needs to prove to me why I should invest time and energy in them.

  And even then, she might still decide she only wanted friends with bennies.

  Until she figured herself out, figured out how she’d let herself get to this point, and figured out what she really wanted to do with the rest of her life.

  Chapter Ten

  Jess awoke a little after eleven that morning to find a text from Kel.

  Let me know when you’re awake and want to schedule help.

  He’d stocked coffee and nukeable, frozen breakfast sandwiches for her in the kitchen. She put the coffee on before walking Stanley, who seemed a little curious about their new digs, but content to walk calmly at her side. She scooped his poop in a bag and tossed it in the community Dumpster outside before heading in with him.

  Jeez, it’s only Wednesday. It felt like way more time had passed since she’d pulled away from Brenda and Jim’s. And now her body had to get used to the time change, too.

  She waited to text Kel back until she had a full mug of coffee and a cooked breakfast sandwich in front of her on the kitchen counter.

  Stanley sat at her feet, hopeful, waiting for anything that might get dropped.

  Kel called her after receiving her text.

  “Morning. You sleep okay?”

  “Better than I have in a while, yeah. Thank you for this, seriously.”

  “No problem. Ted and Josh Collins, and Sean, Max, and Cali, can come over later this afternoon and help you unload the truck. Whenever you want.”