Page 36 of Primary Seduction
“Wow, now I understand why he doesn’t do PDA’s, everyone in the vicinity would get hot under the collar.” She laughed even as her face flushed red.
Max gave a small smile as he wiped the blood away. “Yeah, they would.” Because he certainly had. What the hell was that all about?
****
Trent
What the hell what that all about? Trent thought as he walked out of the hospital and towards his car. Logan had moved his car when he’d arrived, which had still been parked on the double yellow lines, but amazingly hadn’t been ticketed. He couldn’t believe he’d kissed Max.
When the nurse had mentioned about kissing him goodbye, Trent’s heart had begun to pound and his brain had whispered,if Max had been your boyfriend, you’d have kissed him goodbye.So initially it had been to keep up the pretence, so he’d be able to get back later to see him. But once he’d kissed him, he had no idea what had come over him. It was the first time he’d properly kissed a guy, if he discounted the kiss they’d had last night, and he’d enjoyed it. His cock had too.
He was so confused. He didn’t understand how he could’ve had a reaction to Max when he’d only ever had a similar reaction to women before. At least, he thought he had. Trent blew out a breath as he unlocked his car. He had to shelve this for a later time to think about.
The phone call he’d received had been Trish, yelling at him for not giving the money to her like he said he would. He didn’t know how many times he’d told her he didn’t have any until the end of the month, but she wouldn’t listen. He was going to speak to Samuel. He hated asking for money, but he needed Trish off his back. He went to his big brother to help bail him out of this drama.
****
Trent pulled up to his old house and cut the engine. He didn’t want to go in there. Ever since she’d had it re-decorated last year, it hadn’t felt like his home. Although saying that, it hadn’t before either. It was only having the two kids there that made it anything close to home.
He knocked on the door—he’d made the mistake once of not making his presence known and never would again.
Trish opened the door. Every time he saw her, she looked so far from how she looked as a young woman. She was still a brown-haired, Spanish beauty with Mediterranean skin tone, a button nose and large brown eyes. He had always thought her mouth showed how strict she was as it was thin and sharp, though now they looked definitively plumper. Her make-up was done with a precision known to supermodels, whereas before it used to be natural looking. Her clothing style had changed too. Gone were the jeans and comfortable tops; they were replaced with tight fitting dresses and pencil skirts. He had no issue with anything she had done, but he hardly recognised the woman he’d married. No wonder she didn’t have any money to pay for Harper’s things if she kept using it to “preen” herself.
“Have you got the money?” she spat out.
“Some of it,” he replied, waiting for the explosion. He didn’t have to wait long.
“You’re making us look bad, Trent,” she snarled.
“What are you talking about?” He had no idea where the outbursts were coming from lately.
“Do you want Harper to walk around town looking like she wore hand-me-downs? What would everyone think? I’d be the laughing-stock of the town.”
Now he understood. It was all about her perceived “status” within the town. It was all her parents’ fault. Before Trish had been born, they had moved from a coastal town in Spain, where they were highly thought of, to Cambridge, and they still truly believed that their status was at the same level here as it was in Spain. Over the years, he had tried explaining to Trish that things didn’t work the same way here, but it had been so ingrained in her beliefs that he could never dissuade her.
“Don’t you roll your eyes at me! Ever since you left, you’ve been dragging us through the mud with you. We would have been better if you’ve had left and never come back.”
Trent had enough. Trish had put him down for years while they were married, but he was beginning to find his backbone. Now he was on his own, he knew what he wanted—kind of—and it wasn’t her and her “status.” He didn’t even think Jocelyn and Harper wanted it. But Harper was stuck until she’d finished college. Once she was at uni, it would be easier for her. At least, he hoped it would.
“Well, if I’d done that, you wouldn’t be getting any money right now, would you?” Trent snapped back.
He almost laughed at the shock showing on her face. When they’d been married, he had let her walk all over him, but now, he didn’t give a damn.
She straightened her spine, looked down her nose at him and held out her hand.
Trent shook his head and handed over the envelope. “You get one-fifty, that’s all. If you need more, you either find it yourself or wait until I get paid.” With that, he turned and walked back to his car.
He laughed. If she was so worried about her reputation, she really shouldn’t have had a yelling match on her own doorstep. He could already see one of the neighbour’s curtains twitching. He heard the front door slam just as he reached his car. Yet again, he realised he was better off without her.Max’s face swam to the front of his mind. He wouldn’t regret him. The thought flew through his head. He wasn’t sure what to do with that.
He drove home to grab a shower and a change of clothes, grabbing some extras for Max in case he didn’t have any. He hesitated at the underwear. After seeing Max in that strap harness, he wasn’t sure whether that was his usual or just something he wore for the club. He decided to pack some briefs anyway, and if Max didn’t want to wear them, he didn’t have to.
The thought of the harness though made him think of it stashed in the wardrobe. Trent took it out and laid it on the bed. It was almost like the kind of thing you’d wear on a bungee jump. He remembered the sight of Max with the straps fitted snugly over his chest and down his sides and he wondered what they’d feel like. With a slight hesitation, he took his t-shirt off, then lifted the harness from the bed and slid it over his arms to his shoulders. The feel of the cold leather against his warm skin made him come out in goosebumps. Making sure the straps sat flat against his back, he felt for the clasp. Tightening it, he let out a breath, then felt his way to the straps hanging down by his hips. He had no specially made jockstrap to clip them too, but he did have his jeans, so clipped them to his belt hoops.
Once he was completely fastened in, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. If didn’t feel as strange as he expected it to. The leather had warmed to his skin temperature, so the only time he felt them were when he moved. If he tightened them to fit him as it should, he would probably feel it more, but he wouldn’t do that as they were set for Max’s measurements. He walked to his bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. He just stood there, looking at the floor, feeling like the minute he saw himself in it,something would change.
He took another shaky breath, then lifted his gaze.All the air went out of his lungs at the sight of his tanned skin in sharp contrast to the black leather. He felt himself getting hard again. He was right; something was changing inside him. Trent had felt as if something had broken inside him over the years, but seeing himself like this felt like coming home, like something was being fixed, like he was beginning to see the real him that had been there all along. Which didn’t make a lot of sense when he’d not been inclined towards BDSM before.
He could probably understand why he’d gone “into hiding” when he was younger if that’s what he’d done. With Trish getting pregnant when he was twenty, he’d had no time to just be. He’d gone from a university student to working full-time and a father within the space of a year, and then another child two years later. He loved his kids and would do anything for them, but maybe now was his time. Maybe. He just needed to figure out what to do with it.
