I was pretty sure that was the last time Iwas going to get to go to the club on my own. He’d been just a bit upset.
“I also told you that I had a nice eveningtalking to the other Dom.” Julian hadn’t asked many questions about him, but thatmight have been both because he was very focused on when we’d go out on our nextdate as well as the fact that I’d distracted him by talking to him about allthe sexy things I wanted to paint him doing.
“Yes, I was glad someone stepped in andmade your evening less stressful.” Julian’s fingers started stroking over myhand, making thinking difficult. He must’ve realized that because he smiledagain and took over the conversation. “Are you trying to tell me that you’dlike to keep seeing this other Dom?”
He was so smart.
“Yes, Sir.” Trying not to lose track ofwhat I was supposed to say, I shook my head to clear the fog he was creatingand tried to answer more thoroughly. “But I want to see you and Niall both, soplease help me figure out what rules you would like to put in place so I canmake sure you don’t worry?”
I thought I’d done fairly well at gettingthat out, but Julian blinked at me like he wasn’t sure what I’d said. Trying tohit the highlights, I tried again. “His name is Niall. He’s kind of straitlaced,but he was nice.”
And sexy.
But saying that didn’t seem like the bestidea when Julian was still blinking at me.
Maybe I should’ve described him first?
Chapter 5
Julian
That fucker.
It had to be him.
Forcing myself to think before I reactedand fucked everything up, I took a breath in and out and focused on what Keeganhad said. He was right. Niall was straitlaced and nice, and probablyfascinating to Keegan.
Adding in the fact that Niall had come tohis rescue, it was easy to see why he was drawn to the frustrating Dom. If it’dbeen anyone else with the same mix of characteristics, I would’ve done my bestto make sure Keegan got the time to figure out what he wanted, but this wasNiall.
“I know Niall.” Forcing myself to smile andlook more relaxed, I stroked his knee and did my best to figure out what to saynext. “We’ve been friends for a while and I can see why you were drawn to him.”
That didn’t mean I had to be happy about it.
I thought I was doing good at hiding howconflicted I was feeling, but Keegan’s head cocked to the side and his eyeslost focus as he studied me. “He’s not just your friend.”
Sometimes he didn’t see enough andsometimes he saw too much.
I wasn’t going to lie, but the answerwasn’t easy either. “It feels like a million years ago sometimes, but yes, wetried to date at one point. We just weren’t compatible in a lot of ways.”
And now every time I looked at him, I justwanted to throw something at him.
I was hoping that would be enough, but myscamp just waited patiently like he knew there was a lot more to the story. Lettingout a deep breath, I smiled as his hand moved down to lace his fingers withmine as he quietly gave me time.
Stubborn brat.
“He’s a good Dom. Don’t get me wrong. Buthe’s never really understood being a switch, and he refuses to…let’s just sayhe’s not flexible in ways that are important to me.” No matter how I felt abouthim, I couldn’t submit and exclusively bottom forever and still end up beinghappy in the long run.
There were a lot of ways to make arelationship between two Doms work, but Niall saw things so narrowly I knew I’dend up resenting him in the long run. So I’d forced myself to walk away beforeit’d gotten too serious.
He hadn’t agreed with my decision, but he’drespected it.
To a degree.
Which was why he was one of the mostfrustrating people I’d ever met.
“Did you need him to submit to be happy orjust to bottom?” There was no censure in Keegan’s voice which made it easier toanswer him honestly.
“I needed some kind of mix of the two.” AsI paused to find the words, Keegan’s fingers stroked over my hand again, slowlylending me strength. “There isn’t a submissive bone in his body, and he is anexclusive top. I know it might sound like I’m an ass for not being willing tocompromise, but I wasn’t willing to push away a big part of who I am.”
