I rolled my eyes. “And the asshole youhired doesn’t know that, does he?”
“No, he thinks—” Shane stopped and turnedto look back at me before walking toward the front of the store again.“Asshole?”
I snorted. I was surrounded by idiots mostof the time, and it looked like Austin’s friends weren’t going to be anydifferent. “Ask me why he’s an asshole.”
That way I could say Shane brought up thetopic if Trouble got upset.
“Why is he an asshole?” I wasn’t sure ifShane was just good at following directions or if he was actually curious, butI didn’t really care.
“Because he calls Austin names under hisbreath and acts like Austin is a moron who can’t keep his dick in his pants. Idon’t know what you guys said to that asshole when you hired him, but he’s definitelynot worried about impressing Austin.” Shane was just watching me like I wasspeaking gibberish, so I tried to spell it out more clearly. “If he callsAustin another name where I can hear it, I’ll bury his body in my basement. Weclear?”
Shane started shaking his head, then nodded,then started shaking his head again…this was the guy the genius business mogulcouldn't live without? It took all types, I guess.
Finallyhe seemedto find his brain cells from wherever they’d been scattered to. “I had no idea.No one does, I can assure you.”
That wasn’t what I’d asked, so I juststared. Shane seemed lost in a fog and shook his head again, that time like adog clearing off water. Focusing on me, his eyes started to clear. “I don’tblame you. I’d have similar thoughts as well if the situation was reversed.”
As he started to process it, I finallybegan to see the inner Dom in him coming out, and fire began radiating from hiseyes. “That will not happen again.”
“Good, because I’m honestly not sure thatguy would save Austin from a bug, much less angry paparazzi or anything elsethat could go wrong.” Then I decided to push it a bit more. “Ever wonder why hedoesn’t go to more premieres lately and has stepped back from the spotlight?”
Shane took a long breath. “I was told itwas because he needed a change and with the club coming up, he didn’t want todraw attention to it.”
I rolled my eyes. “He likes attention.”
And really, him distracting the media withthe right hand so they wouldn’t look at what his left was doing was a time-honoredtradition I knew Trouble was familiar with.
Shane’s head fell back. “What happened?”
“He was blackmailed by a few of the paparazziafter they heard one of the comments the driver made. He paid them off to keepthem from posting the stupid rumors because he didn’t want to hurt Wade.They’ve guilted him so badly over the driver issues in the past that he thinkshe has to take it all so he won’t upset Wade.”
I was starting to get a bit worked up andfound myself leaning over the counter toward Shane. But that didn’t mean Isoftened the next part. “I don’t care about anyone but Austin, so everyone elsecan go take a flying fuck. The driver stops messing with him or I’ll dosomething that will land everyone on the front page of the fucking news.”
Austin looked good on camera, so I didn’tthink he’d mind. I wasn’t worried about myself because the media wouldn’t wantto touch me with a ten-foot pole since that would open up a whole can of wormsabout sex and omega rights.
Shane nodded, but the look on his face saidhe wasn’t brushing me off.
Just to make sure we were on the same page,I continued. “And we didn’t have this conversation because Austin doesn’t wantto hurt anyone’s feelings, and I don’t want my boy hurt. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.” The passionate look on Shane’sface made me think he understood just where I was coming from. Now maybe my boycould stop stressing and get back to being the fiery drama queen he was withoutworrying about what the driver would do.
Sometimes it just took a Master to step inand butt a few heads.
Chapter 13
Austin
“So I hear Mr. Tall, Sexy, and Rough has abit of a bite to his bark.” Dakota gave me a questioning look as he took a seatacross from me.
I shot Tanner a dirty glare and rolled myeyes before turning back to Dakota. “You’re insane. He’s sweet and perfect.”
So what if he wasn’t the most personable businessowner to some of his customers or the cops? He was perfect. Tanner was just adrama queen.
“Sweet?” Tanner shrugged like he wasn’tbeing a complete asshole.
“Just because you like your Doms so sugarysweet you could gag doesn’t mean all of us need our kink that way. I like himand he goes out of his way to give me what I need.” Silas was the best Domever.
Wade chuckled but gave us both long looksbefore settling down beside me on the couch. “You’re both right. All of you willlike something different. Just because everyone says they want a Dom doesn’tmean your relationships will look the same. That would be boring as well asimpractical.”
