Except this time it was the fermented kindof sugar, not too much juice.
“You are looking very intent for someonewho’s watching a sounding scene.” Dakota’s teasing voice made me smile.
Looking over, I kept my voice low andpointed toward the back of the room. “Just thinking.”
As we moved farther from the scene so wewouldn’t interrupt anyone, I shrugged. “Just thinking that this job is kind oflike babysitting or being a playground monitor at school.”
He giggled. “I’m going to figure out how toput that in a book at some point.”
Rolling my eyes, I refused to say anythingthat would encourage him. “How is upstairs?”
His grin was still ear-to-ear. “It’s goinggood. There are two private scenes, but everything looks fine and theirsafewords are posted outside the doors.”
The private rooms still made me nervous,but it was more about what might go wrong than what people were actually doing.I didn’t care what they were using that bathroom for as long as it wasconsensual, but we’d all dated too many idiots for me to relax completely.
“Great.” I’d been planning on asking aboutthe playroom with the littles, but Dakota jumped in.
“You’ve been dodging questions about yourdate with Griffin for long enough that we’re going to sic Austin on you ifyou’re not careful.” When I smiled, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Andwithout Silas there to make sure he behaves.”
Now that was a threat.
“It was not a date. But dinner was nice.” Ihuffed when Dakota rolled his eyes, doing a damned good Austin impression. “I’mserious. We just had dinner and he showed me his new house and told me aboutthe business.”
Dakota’s gaze narrowed. “No teasing orlooks that were too long or asking about your submission preferences?”
“What kind of list is that? Of course he’snot giving me long looks.” He might have watched me curiously a few times, butthat was to be expected since he was learning about a new side of my life. “Andreally, he saw me for the first time in years at a BDSM club; of course he hadquestions about that.”
Snorting, Dakota didn’t look like hebelieved me at all. “Questions like how long have you been in the scene orquestions like what’s your favorite way to be spanked?”
“Really.” I shifted so I was looking backat the scene. “It wasn’t like that.”
Not really, anyway.
“How was it then?” When I opened my mouth,he jumped in again. “Specifics.”
His comments about how the guys at thefirehouse had seen me weren’t really questions. Therefore, I didn’t feel theneed to rehash that part of the evening with Dakota, so I thought about whatelse to say. “He had questions about our relationship.”
I thought that was simple and to beexpected, but Dakota grinned. “Like what?”
Trying not to squirm, I shrugged. “Wantingto know how I was doing and asking about scenes and stuff. He was making sure Iwas okay.”
For some reason, Dakota’s expression wasmaking me feel guilty. “He was nice.”
“Sure he was.” Dakota nodded, but he didn’tseem to be agreeing with me. “I’m sure his questions about how often you’vebeen doing scenes with people and if you’d started dating were perfectlyreasonable.”
“He didn’t ask that, exactly.” Just kindof. “And he was always a good friend. He’s just learning about this part of mylife now and had questions.”
“That makes sense.” Dakota smiled, but itseemed a bit wicked for some reason. “You going to see him again in a fewweeks? Coffee or something?”
I couldn’t decide why I felt the urge tosquirm. “Well, we’re going to have dinner this weekend. He’s making me Italian.We had more stuff to talk about.”
Dakota gave me an open, curious expressionthat made me nervous. “Like what? Is he seeing someone? I bet you havequestions about that.”
“I…well, we were talking about…things and Imentioned he had to make me another dinner to get the good stories about mewhen I was drunk.” That wasn’t anything strange, though. “I would have said itto Austin or you. It wasn’t…I mean…”
I wasn’t sure what else to say, but thesentence felt very unfinished as it unraveled away from me.
“But you weren’t flirting with him. I mean,he’s just a regular friend, not like the guys.” Dakota’s smile made me want toagree with him, but had I been flirting? I teased the guys and we were…casualabout that kind of stuff, but was it inappropriate with Griffin?
