Page 26 of Until Daddy

How to go about telling her best friend she’d started dating her boyfriend’s friend? She should ease into it, mention that she saw him at the club first, right?

“You know Jamison, right? Garrick’s friend.” Good, nice and easy, she coached herself.

“Yeah, what about him? Did you finally call him back?”

“No.” She bit into her nail again. “It’s worse than that. I’m dating him.”

Jade gasped. “What? No way!” A giggle, followed by a clearing of her throat. “That’s great! How did that happen? You finally took his call, texted him back? What happened?”

“I’ve lost my mind, that’s what’s happened.” Carissa needed Jade to put her back on track with her original decision to stay away from any sort of real relationship in the kink world. Playtime was fine, but nothing real could happen. No matter how natural being held in Jamison’s arms felt. It would not, could not happen.

“Why? Did he do something wrong?”

“He’s dating me, Jade. Of course he did something wrong!”

Jade gave a dismissive grunt. “You’re just being silly—and scared. Mostly scared, I bet.”

“What are you talking about? Scared?” What was there to be afraid of? Carissa was already clued into exactly what would happen with Jamison. It was everyone else who seemed to be out of touch with reality.

“He’s the first guy to ever take you on, like call you on your bullshit. You like to play with daddies at the clubs, but now you have one who wants to take you home. It scares you. I’ve known you too long for you to be able to hide from me.”

“Okay, you’re insane.” Carissa walked down the length of her hallway to her living room. “You know a kink relationship won’t work for me. They don’t work.”

Jade sighed. “Really? That’s not at all what you told me two weeks ago when it was me and Garrick we were talking about.”

“You and Garrick are different. You have like the real deal. Inside the bedroom, outside the bedroom, you guys are meant to be together. This isn’t the same thing at all.”

Jade chuckled. “He’s going to have a time of it with you.”

“What does that mean?” Carissa asked, clenching the phone. She walked into the kitchen to get the coffee pot going.

“It means you have all the answers for everyone else, but completely disregard the same advice for yourself. Whatever you’re afraid of, get over it. Jamison’s a good guy. Garrick wouldn’t have let him anywhere near you at the Mistletoe party if he wasn’t.”

Deciding she wasn’t going to be getting any support from Jade, she changed the subject. “How is Garrick? I see the two of you have patched things up pretty well?”

Jade made another dismissive sound. “Yes, everything’s fine now. We’re working on it, anyway, so it’s going to be fine. But we weren’t talking about us—we were talking about you. The biggest mistake you can make right now is to tuck tail and run, Carissa,” Jade said in a soft voice.

Carissa considered her friend’s words for a moment. This wouldn’t be the first time she cut her losses and ran, but it would definitely be the first time she wasn’t one hundred percent sure she wanted to do it.

“Do you call him Daddy?” Jade whispered the question.

“Is Garrick there?” Carissa demanded, turning on the water to fill the coffee pot.

“No! He’s at work. It’s just me. So, do you?”

“You know, this conversation has gotten off course. You were supposed to be supportive and tell me to forget the whole thing. Month or no month.” She leaned back against the counter and watched the coffee begin to drip into the pot. Wasn’t anyone on her side? Didn’t they understand how horribly this whole situation could turn out?

“What month? What does that mean?” Jade asked with a little more excitement than Carissa could deal with at the moment. Way to keep the conversation low key and smooth.

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“Carissa McAllister, you are a liar. Tell me now.”

Carissa laughed. “Sometimes I think we’re still in high school.” Not that Carissa would want to relive that era of her life over again.Ever.Best time of her life—fuck no. “Fine. We’re only going to date for a month. Then it’s over.”

Jade gasped. “What? Just over?”

“Well, technically we’re supposed to talk about it and see if we want to continue or stop. But we all know it’s going to be over.” Carissa toyed with the end of her hair, wrapping it tightly around her finger.

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