“What do you mean?” I said.
She chuckled and looked at me. “I know the way he feels about you, and I think you’re coming around too. That sort of relationship, it’s exclusive. There was a time I thought I might have been able to bring Kade around to becoming my exclusive Dom, but that’s not going to happen, I can see that now. But damn, am I going to miss subbing for that man, he really pushed me to my limits at times.”
She paused at the door and looked back. “Please don’t tell Kade I told you though. It’s part of his personality—he needs to show you first. Remember, he needs control to feel safe.”
Rita disappeared through the door, closing it quietly behind her, and I listened as her soft footsteps disappeared down the hall. I could hear Kade’s shower still running, and I sat there, pondering what the hell I’d just heard.
Chapter 8
Kade
I came out of the shower and made sure to change clothes into something that would in no way show myself off to Alix.
I noticed that Rita was gone when I came out, a note on my pillow.
Hey Kade. Had to go, I understand that you have family issues to deal with. If you need me again, I’ll be happy to serve. Rita
I smiled lightly and folded the piece of paper in half. Rita and I had found each other at a strange time in my life. We were one year apart in high school. I was a junior when she was a sophomore, and yet she was in many ways the more mature one. What started off as a friendship grew more sexual, and from the beginning she allowed me to vent the darker side of my passions without judgment, without anything other than acceptance and enjoyment. We never had feelings more than just friendship, however, and had willingly gone on and off as we tried other relationships. She and I both had times when we turned the other down sexually due to that, and it never hurt our ability to just hang out and chill when we wanted to.
It took me a while that day, however, to get over what Rita had done. She had heard, even before I did, Alix come into the house. She said nothing as I hurriedly pulled on a set of shorts I had lying on the floor, and only sat quietly as I left the room. While I hadn’t specifically asked her not to leave the room, she knew that I didn’t want Alix to see her. Yet there she was, not a minute after I’d left, walking out with little more than a silk bathrobe on and sashaying down the hallway.
Thankfully, the place had one hell of a hot water tank, so I was able to wash the tension away. By the time I got out, I was in control of myself again, and I felt my control reestablish itself more and more as I put on my clothes. By the time I had my shirt tucked in and my belt buckled, I was ready to face Alix.
I knocked softly on Alix’s door, hoping she was still there. “Alix? Can I come in?”
“Come on in, Kade,” she called, and I opened her door to find her sitting on her bed, a novel open face-down on the covers. “Nice change of clothes.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “Uhm, I suppose you’d like to talk about Rita?”
“Another time, actually,” Alix said, giving me a smile. “Kade, I don’t understand it all, and maybe there will come a time that I might. But for now, let’s just say that it confirmed quite blatantly something you and I joked about yesterday. You are most certainly not gay.”
I grinned in relief. Maybe I could get out of this without being embarrassed too much after all. “Yeah, but after yesterday, I thought you might have questions.”
“Oh, I do,” Alix said, picking up her novel and putting it on her bedside table before getting up. “Like how you and I are going to enjoy spending a little time together this evening. I was kind of thinking that maybe we could forget about what happened and have some fun. Before our little incident yesterday, I was having the best time with you that I’d ever had.”
Her words were like cool water to a parched man, and I grinned. “How about we just stay in tonight? As much as going back down to the ocean would be nice, I’d feel more secure just hanging out here. Would you happen to know if there are any Indian delivery places around here? I’m still looking for naan bread and some butter chicken curry.”
Alix laughed and came over. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Give me a few minutes to find the yellow pages, if they still have one around here.”
For the rest of the night, I felt like I was in Wonderland. When we found the yellow pages, she used her greater knowledge of the area to help me pick out the closest restaurant, while still giving me the choice on foods. As we waited for the delivery, we sat outside on the back patio, enjoying the late reddish purple of the sunset.