Page 40 of Take Me, Sir

“Did I catch you on a break?”

I rolled my eyes. “What do you want, Dalton?”

“Juliette and I would like to invite you and Dean to dinner Friday night.”

The tone of his voice told me that the invitation hadn't been his idea.

“Really?” I asked dryly.

“Unless you and Dean have other plans.”

I closed my eyes and counted to five. “Do you want us to come? Or would it be easier if I gave you an excuse you could tell Juliette? The last thing I want is to make things difficult for you.”

Silence fell, but the call hadn't disconnected. I hoped my sarcasm was soaking in. I refused to feel guilty about talking to Dalton this way. Sure, his problems with Dean weren't completely out of line for a big brother, but he'd crossed a line with his money comments, and he hadn't apologized for those yet.

“Just tell her we already had plans,” I snapped. “We both know that's what you'd prefer.”

“Dammit, Kyndall!” Dalton sighed. “Just come for dinner and stop being such a brat.”

“So, first I'm a prostitute, and now I'm a brat. Nice to know what you think of me.”

“That's not what I...fuck!”

“What, Dalton? What, exactly, are you trying to say?”

He blew out a breath. “I shouldn't have said any of those things about where your money was coming from. That's your business, not mine. If you say there's no reason to worry, then I believe you.”

“And if I don't want to tell you how I got the money?”

A beat of silence before he answered, “Then I'll trust you to let me know if you need anything from me.”

“And Dean?”

Another drawn-out silence, but this time, I waited. The ball was in my brother's court now.

“I'll work on it. Getting used to you and Dean, I mean.”

That wasn't precisely what I was looking for, but it was better than nothing.

“We'll be there.”

“Six o'clock.”

I set my phone aside, giving myself a couple minutes to think about the best way to present this to Dean. He'd tried to be nice to Dalton when we'd seen him at the club, but since then, we hadn't talked about him. How did a person start that sort of conversation?

Hey, so I know my brother's pissed at us, but how about we talk about how we can make things better, so he doesn't freak out about the two of us having hot, kinky sex?

Yeah, I could guess how well that would go over.

I reached up and pulled my hair out of the ponytail I’d thrown it in earlier. I wanted to go on Friday, wanted to see if Dalton could accept Dean and me together. I wanted to spend time with my brother's family. While I needed my independence, I hadn't realized how much I'd missed family until the wedding. And Dalton had been one of the reasons I'd chosen to stay in LA rather than finding some other place.

I rubbed my temples, the beginnings of a headache picking at the back of my brain. Most people would think that trying to have a relationship with someone like Dean would be complicated due to the different ways of looking at and experiencing sex. That, I accepted easily. The rest of it was what I found difficult. I'd heard someone say once that love was complicated and lust was simple. While I wasn't sure I wanted to use love to describe what Dean and I had, I couldn't deny that it was more complicated than simple lust.

I picked up my phone and made the call. He answered on the second ring.

“What are you doing Friday evening?”

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