“I’m starting to fall for you.” She said it matter-of-factly, with very little emotion as if she was talking about nothing more shocking than the weather. “So, I decided we needed to break up.”
Wait… that was his line. Normally, when he sensed a woman was getting involved emotionally, Mitch would break it off—the polite thing to do, the gentlemanly thing to do—but he’d never had a woman break up with him because she was falling for him. He hadn’t realized Domi was starting to have feelings for him. Granted, they’d been scening together for far longer than any of his previous partners, and he’d gotten used to always scening with her… Hell, he hadn’t been interested in scening with anyone else in ages.
“I realize that’s not what we agreed to when we first started playing,” she continued as though she wasn’t messing with his entire worldview. “I don’t want to get hurt, and I didn’t want to put you in a bad position. I think it’s better we end things before my emotions get more involved.”
“You’re breaking off our agreement because you like me too much?” he asked, just to make sure he understood correctly.
Domi snorted. “When you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous, but sort of. I am emotionally involved, and you’re not, which seems like a disaster in the making.”
That was hard to argue with, but it also seemed she was making some assumptions. Like, the fact he wasn’t emotionally involved. Sure, he might not be a relationship guy, but he still cared about her. Liked having her around. Liked being with her. Those emotions might be confined to the times when they saw each other, which were all at Stronghold or Marquis, but they existed.
“I think I’m just past the point of wanting a fuck buddy.” A little note of yearning entered her tone. “I think I want a relationship. I know it won’t be with you, but I feel like we’ve been having a relationship of sorts, and it’s made me realize I might want more. At least, I think I want to try.”
Lots of ‘thinks’ and a ‘might.’ She wasn’t sure, then, but even so, Mitch didn’t see how that benefited him. She didn’t want him, not in the way they had been doing things.
“We could just scene together until you find someone,” he said lamely. The moment he started speaking, he’d known it was lame but hadn’t been able to stop himself. While knowing she wasn’t ditching him because of last night had loosened his chest, now there was an unhappy little ball of emotions right in the center of his stomach.
“As generous as that offer is, I’ll have to decline,” she said dryly.
Damn, he was going to miss her dry, sarcastic, sassy sense of humor.
“Yeah, no, I don’t blame you.” He looked down at his feet, staring at the carpet. The bland beige color did nothing to make him feel any better. “I… Yeah. Okay. Take care, Domi.”
“You too, Mitch,” she said softly, almost wistfully.
Hanging up, he stared at the phone and rubbed the achy spot in the middle of his chest. Unhappiness welled, along with the odd urge to kick something. To yell. To unleash the chaos of emotions that were beginning to swirl around inside him as he realized he wasn’t going to get to scene with Domi again.
Wasn’t going to be the one to make her scream, and cry, and beg, and plead, then scream some more as she cried out his name. Wasn’t going to have her dry wit to balance out his own goofiness. Not that he felt particularly goofy now. No more sassy, little sprite brightening up his weeks.
Shit.
Dropping onto his couch, he leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling.
Now what?
Domi
“I can’t believe you broke up with him.”
“We didn’t break up. We weren’t really together,” Domi insisted. Although it felt like a breakup. Enough so, Rae decided they needed to have a girls’ night out, saying Domi needed a distraction. They’d gone to Marquis, but not the kink-club part, the regular restaurant part. It had good food, and they got a small discount for being members. Plus, they both felt comfortable there.
Tucked in one of the bar’s booths, they could huddle together and talk about whatever they wanted without worrying they’d be overheard. The booths were leather, incredibly comfortable, and kept their conversation as private as they could get in public.
“You were basically together.” Rae gave her a look.
Domi made a face but didn’t argue, changing the subject instead.
“What happened with you and Brian last night? How did that go?”
Now it was Rae’s turn to make a face. She tugged on one of her long braids, a sure sign she was uncomfortable with the emotions Domi’s question brought up. They’d both gotten dressed up for the night to make themselves feel good, and Rae had put her braids into two pigtails, tied with thin green ribbons that blended into the green braids threaded throughout the black, which all matched the lime green top she was wearing. Domi had gone for purple and black, preferring to offset her diminutive stature with kickass fashion, so no one mistook her for a pushover. Sometimes, it was hard being petite.
“It was fine. He said a few things that made me think.”
Fine. Ha. Normally, Domi would have called her on that, but she was curious about what Brian had said. Rae looked more uncomfortable than ever. Domi wasn’t exactly proud of herself or what she’d said about Morgan, but she didn’t know what Brian could have said to make Rae look the way she did now.
“Like what?”
“Like how we’re very insular.” Rae tugged her braid again, harder. “I told him it’s not like Morgan was friendly to any of us, and he asked me how friendly we were to her or Samantha… or if we shut them out the way, we do to everyone.”
Domi’s mouth opened, then closed. Well… yeah. She and Rae were best friends. New people they’d just met weren’t going to have the same kind of bond they did.
On the other hand, she and Rae hadn’t actually tried to get to know the other two women in their new submissives class. Morgan hadn’t seemed super interested in getting to know them, she really hadn’t, but Samantha… well, she’d ended up talking to Morgan or being on her own a lot. By default. Because Rae and Domi had always been sitting and talking to each other, ignoring the other two.
More of the guilt she’d felt last night trickled through Domi.
“I don’t want to be friendlier with Morgan,” Domi muttered. She sighed. “But maybe we did Samantha wrong. She seemed nice.”
“She did.” Rae looked a little morose. “Are we… do you think we’re the mean girls of the new subs?”
Two days ago, if Domi had applied that title to anyone, it would have been Morgan. The woman was constantly preening, trying to attract the men’s attention, and often made incredibly insulting comments without seeming to even realize what she was doing. Now though…
“Shit. We might be.”
“We should try to make more friends… be friendlier.”
“Agreed.”
“And find you a new boyfriend.”
Domi made a face. She did think she wanted a relationship. Probably. If she could start falling for Master Mitch, maybe that was what she really wanted, but first, she needed to let the bruises on her own heart mend. It had been a little lowering how easily he’d let her go once he knew why.