“I’m serious.” But I hugged him again and started for the door. “I’ll see you later. I’ve got to head in.”
“Don’t forget that fundraiser next month.” Dad’s reminder had me groaning as I reached the door. “I got a call earlier that you haven’t RSVP’d and they’re very excited to have you joining them.”
“I did not agree to go. You signed up for that.” He loved schmoozing with people, but it was my idea of hell. “I donated already, that’s it.”
It was a ridiculous waste of time and money, and even worse, they wanted me to bring a date.
He scoffed. “They’re expecting the company to make an appearance. I donated personally, so my going won’t count. Don’t forget it’s black tie. Oh and you’ll talk to Gerald? I think I make him nervous.”
Because all Gerald saw when my father called were all the things that could go wrong.
He was just a barrel of sunshine today. Russian alphas, now black-tie events. “I’ll have new cards sent over. But we’ll see about the dinner. I’m not making promises.”
Maybe if I was lucky there would be some kind of natural disaster. With a hurricane barreling down at one of our ports, I couldn’t very well take the night off. Hell, maybe I’d come down with food poisoning.
* * *
I hada thousand text messages before I even made it into the office. Most were from Austin, but there were a few from everyone else as well. Evidently, my conversation with Shane had made the rounds.
I finally gave up avoiding the drama when Austin called. “You’d better be dead.”
I snorted. “Hello to you too.”
“I can’t believe you would leave us all hanging.” He honestly seemed insulted, but knowing the drama queen, I wouldn’t count on it being real.
“I can’t believe you’re all talking about me behind my back. I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell you about my talk with Shane.”
“I was with Wade when you called.” He said it like I should have known it. “You didn’t keep him informed, either. That’s just rude.”
“I texted him everything had gone fine. You’re insane.”
“That has nothing to do with this. Now, how did your talk go?” That he assumed he was entitled to the information should have driven me crazy, but he was saner than my father, so my tolerance for crazy was probably higher than the average person’s.
“It went fine. You already knew that.” But that was an understatement. “We actually went out to dinner and he seems to understand what I’m looking for.”
Austin’s squeal was so loud I almost crashed the car as I pulled into my parking space. “Damn it, Austin.”
Nothing fazed his excitement. “Just dinner or was it more? Please tell me you at least made out with him. Was he a good kisser? Did he go all dominant and growly on you or was he still polite? I guess polite and dominant could be good. He was polite, wasn’t he? How did it—”
“Stop.” He paused, but I knew it wouldn’t last for long. “I’m not going to kiss and tell.”
It was Austin’s turn to snort. “We’re going to be at the same BDSM club. If you make me wait until that’s built to figure out how things are going, I’m going to drive you insane.”
“You already do.” But I had to grin. “Let’s just say he has no problem taking charge. I’ll also point out that he didn’t leave my house until about an hour ago.”
Austin let out another squeal that made me glad I was parked.
“I need my hearing. Stop that.” He was insane.
“You’re the first besides Wade to actually find an alpha who doesn’t think being dominant is evil. Of course I’m excited. He doesn’t think it’s crazy or evil, does he? That would be tragic, but as long as he could accept his evil nature—”
“You’ve been reading too many dirty books online. He doesn’t think he’s evil and he doesn’t think I’m crazy. It’s a new idea to him, but he’s been looking things up online and seems to get it. We’re going to sit down and talk more tonight, but I think last night went really well.” Hot sex aside, the talking we’d done said we had more in common than dirty fantasies.
“Aww.” Austin sighed. “Tell me it’s serious and not just one random night of wicked, dirty sex.”
“You need a hobby.” I turned off the car and let my head fall back against the seat. “That’s something we need to talk about. He made it sound like this was more than casual for him, but I want to make sure that wasn’t just the hormones talking.”
Austin snorted. “That’s crazy. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. If he said it was serious, then he meant it.”
