Page 28 of At Her Will

“Not just with kids. He has this knack...” Cherry stopped. “Anyway. He’s good with people.”

“I went to his church this past Sunday.” Vera turned as if starting for the office door, but casually threw that out. “I saw him help a sick woman, just by holding her hand and talking to her. Singing to her.”

“Yes. That’s just like him.” Cherry’s more open expression told Vera she’d knocked on the right door to find out what the admin had been going to say. Her voice dropped a little. “My husband and I, we were going through a rough patch about a year ago.”

“I’m so sorry.” Vera’s sympathy was genuine. She came back to the desk. “I hope that means you’re okay now.”

“We are. Much better.” Cherry offered a grateful smile. “Thank you. Anyway, Rev happened to come by my car when I was feeling low about it. He took my hand and told me it was going to be okay. He asked to pray with me. For me.”

She waved a hand. “I’m not really into that, but he said I wouldn’t have to do anything. He put his hand on my shoulder, and prayed, and I did feel better.

“Later that day, I felt like my husband and I had just been looking at the problem in the wrong way, drawing battle lines instead of working together. I was about to call him when he called me, and we both said how sorry we were…”

She shook her head. “That all sounds just like common sense, stepping back from the problem, giving it time to breathe. Maybe that’s all it was, but honestly, that day before I saw Rev, I was reaching my wit’s end. I was considering whether we needed to separate. I don’t know what it is about him, but it’s something special.”

Her blue eyes fastened on Vera. “He’s important to all of us here.”

“Is that a warning?”

Cherry’s cheeks warmed. “I apologize. I wasn’t trying…”

“Watching out for a friend isn’t anything to apologize for. Not in my book. I’m asking if I’ve given you reason to think I need the warning.”

“Not at all.” Cherry tapped her pencil on her desk. “Rev doesn’t need anyone’s protection. Most people, if they have the wrong intentions, they won’t make any headway with him. He’s not a pushover.”

Vera agreed with the assessment, but still… “Most?”

“Just a general qualifier,” Cherry said.

She was covering the slip, and Vera could let it go, but Rev’s wellbeing was becoming important to Vera as well.

I am a Mistress. Don’t fuck with my toys.

A T-shirt message Vera had seen on Lace M. Tight, a Mistress/switch who did whip demos, as well as bondage performance art. Her real name was Laci Montague, and when she’d shared a drink with them at the BDSM conference they’d all been attending, she’d told the TRA women she liked being a rope bunny for the Zen of it all, and using the whip to exercise her inner warrior. She refused to be classified and changed her preferences all the time. Whatever served her art, she would follow.

Vera thought Rev would like her. Lace would like him, far too much. But she’d also fully understand what drove Vera’s surge of protective feelings now. “When I was at the church, I noticed some not-so-friendly vibes from his cousin and aunt,” Vera said. “I expect that’s who you mean by ‘most’?”

Vera spoke plainly, so the woman could decide how she wanted to answer. And if she wanted to answer.

Cherry’s gaze flickered. “When they come to the school to pick him up for church events, they don’t seem to like how much we appreciate Rev. Truthfully, it seems to bug them, like they’d rather him not work here at all.”

“I thought Witford got him the job.”

“He helped him apply, because Rev insisted he needed a job outside of the church, but they really want him to come back to work fulltime with them.”

A teacher entered the office with a folder in hand and an expectant look for Cherry, so the secretary handed Vera her visitor pass. “I may have spoken out of turn,” she said, “but Mavis trusts you, and if you and Rev are becoming…closer, I wanted you to know.”

“What you told me is nothing Mavis wouldn’t have told me if I asked the same questions. You can verify that with her.”

The slight tension in her expression eased. “Thank you. And by the way,” her eyes danced, “Mavis loves knowing you’re interested in him. She says he deserves a good woman who’ll treat him right.”

“Tell her if she’s not going to pick up the slack and handle it, someone’s got to.”

Cherry’s laughter followed her to the door. Vera smiled at the incoming male student who held it for her. Under her approving smile, he nearly tripped over his own feet. He watched her head down the hall, something she noted in her peripheral vision, but his act of courtesy had earned him the look. It was never too early to teach boys the rewards for service to a Dominant woman.

The playing fields were overrun by kids on their lunch period. As Cherry had warned, Rev had company, but Vera wanted to watch him a few minutes before announcing herself, so she leaned against a post by the back entrance.

He sat on the bench that hid the first part of the intriguing quote. An open container with a half-eaten sandwich was on his right, his lunch companion on his left.

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