Page 44 of Dominate Me

“Of course, it’s fine.”

I gestured toward the way she was nervously spinning her wedding band around her finger. “Would you feel better if you call your husband? Have him join us?”

“Um...”

I had no clue what Haley had told Anya about me, but it was clearly enough to make the girl slightly uncomfortable. I’d never cared about anyone’s approval before, but for some reason, I wanted Haley’s friend to like me. I frowned at the thought.

“We’re regular people, you know,” Dylan said, speaking up before I could. “We have other interests outside sex and it’s not like we carry around floggers and canes in our back pockets, whipping them out in public.”

“Which I’ve always believed is a shame,” Gabby said, wiggling her eyebrows and managing to pull off a cutesy pout while she handed Dylan and me the same drinks we always ordered here. With her other hand, she slid two more beers onto the table I assumed was where Anya and Haley had been sitting.

Master Dylan rolled his eyes at her.

“Your call,” Haley said. “I’m good with either.”

“It’s fine. He’d love to get out, I’m sure.” The tiny redhead excused herself and headed toward the front door, pulling her phone out of her purse while she walked.

“Are you sure?” Haley asked, turning toward me. Her brows were furrowed in a way I didn’t fully understand.

“Why wouldn’t I be? It’ll be fun.”

I wasn’t actually certain. Could be fun. Could be a disaster.

I’d been the one to draw clearly marked lines, but this week I’d shaken them up. When I wasn’t around Haley, though, I was thinking about her. And it wasn’t just the way her ass looked, or the feel of her slick, warm pussy.

When I came home from the office, stressed when some cases hadn’t gone my way, I hadn’t given any thought at all when it was Haley’s laugh I’d wanted to hear. We’d talked for hours, about our families and our lives and our interests outside work. She’d told me more about the resort and how much it meant to her, how much she wanted to prove she could do a good job running it and ideas she had for expansion depending on how this summer went.

I liked it. I liked her company even if it was just over the phone. I might have liked it too much. It went against my first declaration that I wasn’t going to date her. Not ever.

A part of me wished I had never said it.

Because at this bar, with Haley looking so uncertain at the idea of spending time with me, I wanted that to be us. For the first time I could remember, I wanted a woman to be mine. In more than one sense of the word.

“Right,” she said, still looking doubtful, and chewed on her lip. “This will be fun.”

I shook off the unease, the slight hesitation as she slid into the booth and I joined her. Dylan found an empty chair and pulled it up to the end of the table and we waited for Anya to return.

When she did, only a few minutes later, she had her husband Lance with her who immediately went to the bar and ordered a Budweiser.

The five of us sat around the table, making introductions and it wasn’t long before Lance, Dylan and I became immersed in the Red Wings’ playoff schedule and how the season opener had gone for the Tigers.

But even while we talked sports and the girls whispered and giggled next to Lance and myself, Haley was never far from me. I threw an arm over her shoulder and tugged her close to me. With her being so close, I couldn’t help myself. I needed to hold her. To touch her.

To keep her safe and next to me.

To keep her warm.

To make sure she was happy. When she continued to drink, I pushed mine away and stopped. I had already learned that Lance was planning on driving the girls home, but that wasn’t going to happen. Haley was mine to take care of. Mine to watch out for.

And I decided, as she threw her head back and laughed at something Anya said, curling herself more firmly into my side, that I would do both...

More than just in the bedroom.

Haley

We weren’t supposed to date. We weren’t supposed to spend time together outside playing, but as soon as Jensen and Dylan walked into the bar earlier, it had felt like a date.

A triple couple’s date where the men talked about the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Tigers chance of a decent baseball season. While Anya and I laughed too loudly and drank too much, the men had only had a couple of beers and then stopped, apparently letting the women get inebriated while they stayed sober to drive us home safely.

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