Page 50 of His Dark Hunger

“She will.” Kyle answered for her that time, unwilling for there to be any doubt on the subject. “And there’s plenty of room at Brock Hall for you too, Jonah. You know that.”

“Thanks.” Jonah grinned. “I appreciate that, but I’m thinking I’ll work for a while, then travel while I wait for my results.”

“Travel?” Concern radiated in Amy’s tone.

“Yeah.” Jonah shrugged. “Just around Europe, probably. I’m only young once.”

“Good plan.” Kyle might have envied Jonah had he not had the privilege of relishing his mother in the meantime. “I say, enjoy yourself.”

“I suppose.” Amy sounded less certain as she assessed her more than six-foot son. “Just stay safe and keep in touch, please. I know you’re all grown, but I still worry about you.”

“I know.” Jonah wrapped his arms around her. “And I will. Don’t worry.”

“Need a lift back to university?” Kyle ventured as Jonah moved away from his mum.

“I’m happy to get the train, Mr. Kyle. You’ve done so much for me already.”

“Nonsense.” Kyle dismissed the idea. “Go back to Brock Hall and pack your things. I’ll ask Stevens to take you.”

“Today?” The same uncertainty echoed in Amy’s voice.

“Why not?” Kyle would have preferred she called him ‘sir’, but he understood her reticence to do so in front of her son. With Jonah departing, though, that would all change. “He has a life to lead, doesn’t he?”

“I’ll be fine, Mum.” Jonah offered her a reassuring smile. “And okay, yes, please, to the lift, Mr. Kyle.”

“Please, Jonah.” Stepping toward him, Kyle reached for his shoulder in an almost paternal way. “Call me William.”

“Thanks, William.” Disbelief shone in Jonah’s eyes as he met Kyle’s eyes. “And thanks for looking after my mum.”

Both men turned to take in Amy’s shocked face before Kyle replied.

“It’s my pleasure.” He slapped Jonah on the back as he guided him to the car. “Let me tell Stevens the plan.”

***

Amy

“You asked him to call you William?”

Amy fingered the stem of her wine glass nervously as she stared at Kyle across the table. Lunch had been a magnificent blend of fresh ingredients, but despite her happiness at Jonah’s freedom and the blossoming relationship between her and her ex-employer, she hadn’t been able to shake the nagging unfairness of recent events.

“That’s right.” His gaze was knowing, as though he’d been expecting the question.

“Why?”

She couldn’t wrap her head around it. All those months she’d known him, from the time she’d signed the contract to the weeks she’d been his lover and now his partner, he’d never once asked Amy to do the same.

“Whywhat,little girl?” He threw emphasis on the second word, his withering glare insisting she squirm in her seat.

The restaurant he’d taken her to in order to ‘celebrate’ wasn’t quite as swanky as Worthington’s, but it still had an array of clientele who she didn’t want to know about their kinky sex life.

“Sir.”

She mouthed the word, hideously aware of the two couples sitting on either side of their table. In principle, both were out of earshot, but still, it was a sophisticated place, and despite his warning about potential public punishment, she had no intention of demeaning herself for him there.

“Why is he allowed to call you William, but I’m not?” She realized how petulant she sounded, but in the hours that had passed since Jonah had driven away with Stevens, she hadn’t been able to get past the bewildering contradiction.

She was the one loving and supporting him, the one providing his footrest in the evenings and polishing his cock in the mornings, yet she couldn’t use his first name? It didn’t seem right.

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