There had been so many times in the office he’d wanted to rest his hand on the boy to see if that would help him calm down. Wyatt had probably been trying to push back his natural tendencies around a Dominant as well. It only made him jumpier than usual.
As a more lifestyle-oriented sub attracted to a Dom, he’d probably been afraid he would unintentionally out himself. Garrett still couldn’t quite figure out why Wyatt had thought he needed to hide his preferences. It probably didn’t even matter at this point.
Just being able to touch Wyatt, to take control of him and the conversation made both of them relax more. “I think we’ve been fighting our instincts, and that made everything weirder. He’s still wiggly but now I don’t have to try to treat him like a vanilla guy.”
“Sounds like you two hit it off, about time.” Then Brent gave a wicked grin. “When you gonna tell Mom?”
“You throw me under the bus and I’ll tell her you’re lonely. I’ll sweetly tell her that you thought she should come back home for a while. She could even stay with you.” Two could play that game.
Brent grimaced. “All right. I was just teasing. No need to haul out the big guns.”
“Have you heard from her lately?” Their mother was currently touring Italy with some of her friends. At least, Garrett thought that was right. Maybe it was France?
“Entirely too often. You?”
“Same. I thought when she started traveling, she’d find something else to obsess over besides us. I think being gone made it worse.” Now when she called it was endless questions on what they were doing. Garrett had hoped the traveling would give her other things to talk about. Instead, it made her more focused on them. Why would she want to talk about what she’d seen when she had children to interrogate?
“Yup. Now she doesn’t have anyone to boss around and control on a regular basis. She’s going through withdrawal.”
“Serves her right for putting together a travel group with only Dominants. I told her she needed to mix it up more.”
“You heard her. She was afraid too many of them would getdistracted.” Brent was laughing but only because their mother had been a lot more descriptive in her explanation. Something about wanting to keep them focused on doing stuff outside the bedroom.
When their dad passed, she lost not only her husband of forty years but the only submissive she’d ever had. It hit her hard and for about a year they’d been afraid she was going to follow him. She lost her will to do anything.
Eventually, they’d stepped in and made her see a therapist. She slowly got better and turned her need to control on them. That’s when they decided she needed a hobby. A few trips slowly turned into a travel group for Dominants.
They’d all decided she didn’t want the temptation of submissives around. She wasn’t depressed any longer, but she wasn’t ready to admit there was a possibility that she might fall in love again. There were some mixed feelings on that in the family.
Of course, they had mixed feelings on everything.
With Dominants, a submissive, and a switch, along with assorted personality traits, they never saw things the same way. Garrett thought it made their family more interesting. Except when they were driving him crazy. Then he just wanted them to give him some space and let him do his own thing.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“It sounds like you like him.”
“I think I might. I never let myself really see him.”
“Well, you’re going to have that chance tonight.”
CHAPTER 6
Wyatt
“So how was your night?” The look on Carter’s face when Wyatt walked into the store said he had a good guess how well the evening had gone.
“How did you know?” Wyatt had barely had enough brain cells to get home, much less call anyone and try to explain what happened.
Carter laughed and leaned back against the counter, his long flowery skirt swishing over his black boots. No more almost-masculine. Wyatt was betting Carter’s evening hadn’t gone nearly as well. “How do you think he found you?”
Um. “I hadn’t thought about that.” Higher reasoning had been beyond him last night. Just the Dom’s presence made all the blood in his body run south.
Shaking his head, Carter laughed again. “He came by the store last night to see if you were still here. He had this look.” Carter’s smile turned into a mischievous grin. “That man seemed very excited to see you. So I told him you were down at your shop. I’m assuming I did the right thing?”
“Oh, yes! It wasincredible.”
“Tell me all the details.” Carter grabbed his mug and went over to the funny little chairs to sit down.
