Page 53 of Triple Pucked
The best thing of all is that the desk is pushed up against Robyn’s chaotic desk. Hers is pine and cluttered with papers, empty wine glasses, and a dozen phones.
D’Angelo strolls to the lime couch, which rests against the back wall, beneath photographs of the hockey team with D’Angelo at the center and Shay smiling next to him.
Underneath are the staff, including Robyn, Cody, and me.
“I have a fully equipped gym as well just further down the corridor. Code helped me to make sure that I installed the right equipment for your physio.” He throws himself down onto the couch. “Did I get this room right?”
He installed a gym for me too…?
No one has done anything like this for me before.
Is D’Angelo truly more than my boss? More than my lover’s boyfriend?
A true brother?
I walk to the ranks of filing cabinets, glancing at the bulletin board and black board that hangs above it. I’ll need to put D’Angelo’s schedule up for the next week.
My throat is thick. “Perfect. You’re the best boss.”
D’Angelo preens.
“Except,” my lips twitch, “there is one thing missing from the bulletin board. Where is Robyn’s daily inspirational quote?”
D’Angelo groans, sprawling out more dramatically.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I have one for you:Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, and today a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”
“God save me.” D’Angelo looks at me, pained. “Sadist.”
“Accurate, according to the BDSM test that we took.” I quirk my pierced brow. “And is the other room still there?”
D’Angelo looks confused. “I do have rather a lot of rooms in this place.”
“The one where I saved you from Heine? In the basement? The playroom?”
D’Angelo’s breath quickens on each word. His expression becomes shuttered.
He wants me to notice these cues.
I have.
Carefully, I walk toward D’Angelo, perching next to him on the couch.
“Breathe.” I rest my hand on his shoulder. He takes a shaky breath. “Slower.”
He clenches his hands, making an effort to follow my directions and take slower breaths.
I study his pinched expression.
I triggered him. But the room is part of this mansion. He could wall it up or keep it locked.
Yet it would still always be there. The memory would still be in his mind.
If he wants this to be our home, then he can’t let Heine taint it.
Heine is ruining enough else.
“I haven’t been able to go back in there yet,” D’Angelo admits, quietly. “It has always been my favorite place in themansion. I designed it with some friends. It was where I could be most myself. Charles turned that on its head, however, when he broke my hard limits. You know what I said about forced submission? I’m dominant and I need to be in control. Losing it like that made me feel powerless and degraded like all the times in the Discipline School when I was humiliated, hurt, and unable to escape.”
