Page 12 of T is for…

He swallowed, willing down the anxiety that her words had raised. She’d said work was okay, but maybe she was taking a pay cut and going into academia?

The need to know was riding him hard, but she’d given him that look that said she didn’t want to discuss it further, and he would respect that. Even if curiosity was killing him.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” He rubbed the inside of her wrist with his thumb in a habitual comforting gesture he used with subs before and after applying cuffs.

It was terrifying that it didn’t feel weird to touch her this way.

Her breathing was uneven as she watched the small movement of his thumb. “I wish I could say nothing will change for us, but I know better. And I try not to lie to you.”

Slowly, Nathan released her wrist. He trailed his fingertips over her palm, eliciting a slow inhale as a reaction, before lacing their fingers together.

Tara gripped him tight, as if she were drowning and he were a rope.

His gaze flew up to hers, his heart hammering with panic. He didn’t know why she was holding on so tight, but if she needed him, he’d be there.

Tara showed no outward signs of distress, her head turned slightly away from him, her gaze focused on nothing in particular. Yet her hand still gripped his as if she’d fly apart if he let go.

“Tara.”

“Hmm?”

“Come here.” He tried to make it an invitation, not a command, but wasn’t entirely successful.

It would be easy to blame the location, say being in the club made him issue commands rather than requests, but it was more than that.

It was Tara.

Something was wrong. Something was causing her distress. And every molecule in his body wanted to wrap her up and hold her. To make her feel safe but also do things to her that would erase the rest of the world from her consciousness, at least for a little while.

Tara scooted toward him, still not looking at him. When her hip touched his knee, he gripped her waist, easing her up onto his lap.

She gasped in surprise, grabbing his forearms and holding tight.

Her body was soft and pliant under the robe. Possibly naked.

Was he really about to see his best friend naked?

Maybe. If they both threw all sense into the trash and went ahead with the game.

Did he want to?

Yes. He did.

And as she settled on his lap, Nathan slowly brought down the walls he’d mentally erected around Tara. The walls that kept her in a neatly labeled “friend” category.

Once, he’d let himself daydream about asking her out, but he’d been sure, so damned sure, that they wouldn’t be sexually compatible. And then their growing friendship had become a relationship he wanted to protect at all costs.

If he’d known when he was twenty that she was not only smart, funny, strong, and gorgeous, but also kinky…

College would have been a lot different.

His entire life would be different.

When he learned she was a sub, he’d mourned what could have been.

Tara couldn’t believe she was perched on Nathan’s lap.

She’d had a bad minute there when he laughed, almost dying of embarrassment when she thought he was rejecting her proposal. Now seated with her back to his front, she had a moment of privacy, and used it to squeeze her eyes closed and grimace.

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