Page 31 of Night By Night
“Not at all. I meant it. Like I’m having kids anytime soon.” Dox laughed. “Mom has stopped asking me about that, and now asks if I’m going to become a crazy cat guy or something.”
“You’re still young. You’re only thirty-four. And you don’t have any cats. Yet,” he playfully added.
“Yeah, not exactly dating, though. After what Kelly put me through, I’m gun-shy, anyway.”
“At least youcandate.” Hank laid his head back. “Going to be a long time before I date.”
“Well, I date in a very specialized pond,” Dox cryptically said.
“What?”
“How open-minded are you?”
“Depends.” He lifted his head again and looked at Dox. “Why?”
“I like to be in charge in a relationship.”
“Here’s my shocked face,” Hank teased, giving him a deadpanned expression. “You’vealwaysliked being in charge. Even when we were kids.”
“Yeah, well, not everyone likes that in a partner,” he said. “And I like a little…morethan that.”
Hank sensed hesitance in Dox’s tone and something clicked in his brain. “Like thatFifty Shadesstuff?”
“Would that shock you?”
“As long as she’s willing to do it, no,” Hank admitted.
Honestly? He’d had fantasies of his own over the years, of being able to let go and be a toy to someone, but it wasn’t anything he’d ever shared with anyone else. Some of the happiest days of his life were when he followed Dox’s lead and let him decide what they were doing so he could shut down his own brain.
Hell, Dox was the one who pushed him to study and frequently overruled Hank about how they were spending their time together. More than once he’d made plans to go out with a girl, but Dox overruled him.
Like hell he would’ve talked back to him, either. Mostly because every time he did what Dox told him in terms of studying, he managed to pass. Maybe by the skin of his teeth, but it counted.
When he got into trouble was when he didn’t do what Dox told him to do.
But once their parents died, all the responsibility had fallen on his shoulders, to help keep Lois on track and in school, for all the good it’d done him.
He was also convinced she would’ve reconciled with Cameron after the initial attack, had it not been for him supporting her and insisting she press charges and getting her moved back in with him.
And JJ would’ve likely been injured or killed. Or never been born in the first place.
He wouldn’t give her up for anything. He loved her, and she was all he had left of his family.
Except for Maddox.
Dox turned, sitting sideways to face him. “My bosses run a BDSM club here in Sarasota, place called Venture. I haven’t been yet, but I probably will start going. I used to go to a club up in Pinellas.”
“Is that like a sex club?” The thought of random sex with someone sort of squicked him out.
The thought of Dox having random sex also squicked him out a little, but he couldn’t exactly put his finger on why.
“No. They don’t allow sex or alcohol. Like they have classes on artistic rope bondage, things like that.”
“Oh. That sounds…different. So why are you telling me this?”
Dox seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “Well, because I didn’t want you to think I was ditching you if you know I’m doing stuff and I don’t invite you along.”
From feeling a little…weird, to feeling a surge of love pulse through him. “I appreciate you not wanting to hurt my feelings, but it’s okay.”
