Page 6 of Three Sweet Nothings (The Blindfold Club)

Chapter

THREE

Julius could say whatever he wanted, but his dark eyes went enormously white, and it confirmed my suspicions.

“No, man, it ain’t like that!” Once again, his gaze swept around to make sure we were safe. “She’s just a friend.”

“Yeah, a friend you want to stick your dick in.”

I probably shouldn’t have teased him. He was humongous, and I’d seen what he could do when he put power behind his fist. Former Congressman Bennett’s jaw was likely still wired shut. But I believed Julius was a gentle giant.

“Fuck you, Kyle.” His voice was warm. “Yeah, I wished she’d noticed me instead of him at OSU, but it’s a done deal.” He took the last sip of his beer. “She’s off limits.”

Was he relieved to have his secret out? It felt good he’d shared it with me, and I wasn’t going to tease him further. Instead, I stood. “You want another beer?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Discussion between us was relaxed up through halftime, even as the Bears fell behind on the score. Courtney Crawford had been a cheerleader at OSU, and Tariq had staked his claim on her before Julius got a chance. He’d been carrying the torch for her a long, long time.

“So, man, I gotta ask,” Julius said. “No lady for ya?” He made a face like he was displeased with his assumption. “Or guy?”

I chuckled. “No, no woman on the horizon right now.”

“I wondered,” he said. “Taylor came at you hard at Payton’s wedding, but you didn’t go for her.”

Taylor, one of Payton’s coworker friends had been beautiful, as all of Julius’s girls were. At the time, I hadn’t known what she did, but I’d pretended I was immune to her non-stop flirting. “She’s nice, but she was . . . a lot.”

I didn’t have anything nice to say, so I wasn’t going to. It’d been clear after the first thirty seconds Taylor and I had nothing in common, and the attempt at conversation became painful.

The leather seat squeaked as I shifted in it. “Since I got back from New York, it’s been a challenge meeting women I click with.”

“Why’d you come back?”

I still hadn’t found a convincing lie to tell about it. I stared at the man beside me, whose dark eyes were curious and free from judgment. I could tell him. I’d figured out his secret, and he’d seemed relieved. Maybe sharing with him could do the same for me.

“There was a woman I got involved with. I thought it was just sex, but she thought it was . . .”

“More,” he said, nodding.

I put emphasis on it. “A lot more.”

Sharon had thought it was the jewelry in a little black box kind of more, which I couldn’t have been further from. I understood loyalty and commitment, but what we had wasn’t in the same ballpark as love.

“We messed around for a few months. When the fun began to fade, she upped her game, and said she’d do anything I was into. I’d been curious about . . . well, shit. The kind of things that go on at your club. So, when she offered to let me explore that, like a fucking idiot, I took her up on it.”

“That don’t sound like it went well.”

Even though I knew he wouldn’t bat an eye, it wasn’t information I liked volunteering. “I bought a kit off of Amazon, like handcuffs and toys. Don’t judge me.”

He flashed a smile. “She wasn’t into it after all?”

“No, she seemed to be. I mean, she said she was, during.” I paused, remembering my confusion afterward. “I thought we had fun, and that’s all it was. In the morning, she pulled a one-eighty. It had been a tactic on her part, and she was really fucking pissed when I explained we weren’t on the same page.”

The memory of Sharon’s words echoed in my mind. “I endured your stupid fetish for nothing?” she’d yelled at me.

Fetish?

All I’d done was spank her a few times and used some dirty phrases. That night wouldn’t have even earned the #hardcore tag had it been a porn video.

---