Her little arms snaked around my waist from behind and squeezed. I could feel her cheek against my back. “You didn’t hurt me, big guy. I didn’t even know they were there until the hairstylist found them yesterday. After my moment of mortification in front of Keegan, I forgot about them, until Reese showed up here and my hair was in a ponytail. But, that’s not what this is about. This is about me having to explain to your little sister about working at The Booby Trap. Apparently, someone, as in you, blabbed to my brother last night.”
Fuck. “I was going to mention that, but we were having such a great night, I didn’t want to ruin it. I planned on telling you today, but I got called to the clubhouse before I had a chance to. Honestly, Harper, I had no idea that Duke didn’t know you were a stripper. He also didn’t know about Hilarie. Is there anything else you’ve kept from him that I should know about?”
She sighed and took a step back. “After my ordeal, Duke was beyond overprotective of me, even years later. It’s part of the reason I moved to Sugar Falls. I couldn’t do anything without him hovering over me and scaring away anyone who got too close for his comfort. He had the best of intentions, but he inadvertently kept me from moving forward. I didn’t tell him about working at The Booby Trap because I knew he would find a way to make me quit or get me fired. And I didn’t tell him about Hilarie, because I met her at The Booby Trap and I didn’t want him to scare her away. She was the first friend I made who knew nothing about my past. The only other thing I kept from him was how you and I met, but now he knows that, too.”
Everything she said made sense, but there was one thing I had to ask—as much as I didn’t want to—before we could put this behind us. I took her hands in mine and gently asked, “Are you afraid of me?” Watching her closely, I studied her eyes and looked for changes in her breathing pattern. I even discretely felt her pulse while I held her hands.
Her eyes never left mine, her breathing didn’t change, and her heart rate remained the same. “Of course not. Why would you even think that?”
“I didn’t really think that, but I had to ask. I know I can be a bit much in the bedroom, but I don’t want you to ever feel pressured to do something you don’t want to, and I never want to hurt you. Promise me you’ll tell me if we ever get to one of those points.” I could feel the tears starting to well in my eyes. If that made me a pussy, so be it, but I couldn’t bear the thought of causing her harm.
“I promise I’ll say something. We’ve never talked about this before, but would it make you feel better about things if I chose a safeword?”
“Yes, it would.”
“Okay, it’s artichoke,” she said, completely serious.
“Artichoke?”
“Yes, I hate them, and it’s not something I would accidentally say. Artichoke.”
I scooped her into my arms and covered her mouth with mine. “I love you, baby.”
“Love you, too, big guy.”
She pulled back and wiggled, letting me know she wanted me to put her down. Reluctantly, I released her. “Do we have to go back to keeping our distance after this weekend?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to, that’s for damn sure. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Phoenix or Badger about it. Nothing else has happened, so maybe it was just a random coincidence. I say we go back to spending our weekends together and see how things go. If shit starts happening again, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
She grinned. “That was the right answer. I was prepared to withhold my pussy if you didn’t answer correctly.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Harper
The next few weeks went by smoothly. During the week, I worked my regular schedule and alternated eating lunch and dinner with Hilarie. On the weekends, I was with Chase from the minute I got off work on Friday until I left to return to work on Monday. I still loved my job, but I hated saying goodbye to Chase on Monday mornings. I was certain he hated it as much as I did.
As per our usual, Hilarie and I went out to eat for dinner on Monday. We opted to try a new restaurant with a Tiki hut theme. The relaxed and upbeat atmosphere of the place inspired an idea.
“Are you still seeing Shaker?” I asked. She hadn’t mentioned anything about him in at least two weeks, but she hadn’t tried to invade my weekend time with Chase either.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘seeing him,’ but yeah, we still meet up and fuck on the weekends,” she replied.
“Oh,” I said, deflated. “I guess I kind of thought it was more than just casual sex.”
“Is there a reason you sound disappointed?” she asked.
“Yes. The summer is almost over, and we have a four-day weekend coming up. I was thinking the four of us could get one of those cabins and spend the long weekend at the lake.”
“I’m game if Shaker is. Just let me know,” she replied, not one ounce of excitement in her tone.
“It doesn’t sound like it.”
She huffed. “I’m not going to get excited about something that probably won’t happen. I doubt Shaker will go, and I’m certainly not going to sit in a mountain cabin and listen to that behemoth screw your brains out all weekend.”
I called Chase when I got home and told him about my idea. He said he would talk to Shaker and let me know, but either way, he and I could still go. When he called me back an hour later to tell me that Shaker agreed, I had a hard time containing my excitement.