Burn gave me a big hug. “Text us when you get close so we can help you bring all of this inside.” We talked about logistics for the evening a few minutes, and they left.
And I had to shake my head, because now The Burninator would always provoke this memory of hearing her force someone to wear a butt plug with Icy Hot lube. Fuck.
I thought Able had done a little of everything to me. Looks like I’d been wrong.
I fixed breakfast, started the dishwasher, and then organized my laundry and started washing clothes. I began the research for a speech I’d have to give in two weeks. The teacher had assigned us all a different topic, with the idea being the class would learn something about every topic while listening to our classmates. We were going to have a test after all the speeches had been given, and she promised at least two questions from every speech would be on the test. Talk about a way to make sure we paid attention and didn’t zone out. My topic was about how organized crime frequently makes use of culture to provide a framework of trust. The Japanese Yakuza, the Sicilian Mafia, Columbian drug trafficking organizations. It occurred to me that the RTMC was probably considered an organized crime unit, and that the fact they’re all shapeshifters without an Alpha is part of the binding force that holds them together and creates trust.
But Aaron Drake was friends with them. The Chattanooga bikers had all come to Aaron and Sophia’s wedding, for goodness sakes. And the President and VP in Chattanooga were super-close to Sophia. They’d helped keep her safe while she was in hiding from her father, back before she’d taken the crown from him.
I shook my head and decided to stop analyzing them. I was doing the criminal justice thing so I could work for a private security firm. I’d never be law enforcement. I’d never work in the actual justice system. Aaron had said a degree wasn’t even necessary. He’d given me a list of classes he’d like me to have — I’m the one who’d wanted the degree. When I’d started it, I’d never actually thought I’d go to work for him. Able was still alive and I was his toy. Sophia, however, had told me unless I came up with a goal and started doing something to make it happen, she’d pull me out of his household. She was beyond pissed when she found out I’d been given to Griffin for a month. Looking back on it, I can understand, but at the time, I thought she and Aaron were abusing their power and meddling in my life.
But then, when Able was killed, I was glad I had something else already in place. I was suddenly alone, but at least I had a reason to get up and get dressed. Or, I did once classes started back, anyway.
Dementor
The gate at the end of Ember’s driveway swung open as I neared it, and I went through, but wondered how it knew to open for me. Now that her house wasn’t being used as a safehouse, it opened automatically as Ember neared it, but I’d always assumed her car and the gate had a built-in handshake.
I hoped she hadn’t programmed it to open for anyone who happened to turn off. That wasn’t safe.
She opened the front door for me and gave me a hug. I held her until she pulled away a little, which means I had her in my arms around thirty seconds, and damn, it felt good.
“Have you had a good day?” she asked as I followed her to the kitchen.
“I haven’t been awake long, but it’s been wonderful so far.” She’d told me to be at her house at one so we could load up and then unload without being rushed.
The Birmingham league consists of three teams, and thus there are three matches. The first is at three, the next at five thirty, and the last at eight. There’s a junior team of teens, and then what amounts to an adult B-team, and then the final match is when the stars of each city face off against each other. Ember was, of course, one of the team’s biggest stars, but I’m not sure she realized just how big of a following she’d developed.
“I take it you’ve been awake longer than me. Have you had a good day?”
“Interesting and productive.”
“Better than boring, I suppose. What made it interesting?”
She turned and looked at me. “Do you get tired of hearing me talk about Able? Because I get tired of bringing him up, but sometimes there’s no way to answer a question without saying his damned name!”
“Tell me why it was interesting, and then maybe we can brainstorm another way you could’ve told me? Or maybe not. For the record, I’m fine with you talking about him, because I always learn something new about your past when you do, and I want to know everything about you.”
She pulled a teapot off the back eye of her stove and put it on a cast iron trivet on the table. “I’m going to have some tea before we start loading everything up. I need a few final moments of calm. Want to join me? I have real honey to sweeten it.”
I sat across from her, where she already had a teacup and saucer set out for me. “I’d love to join you.”
She handed me a teabag and she put hers into her cup. I followed suit, and then she poured hot water into both cups. Two items matching our cups were between us, and I assumed they held the cream and sugar. A honey bear squeeze bottle was beside them, so I figured neither of us would be using the sugar. I’ve never done a formal tea, so I followed her motions to put the honey in, stir well, and then finally pour some cream in.
And it was better than I expected. Really, really good.
“Wow. I had no idea tea could be this good when it’s hot with honey and cream.”
“It’s an excellent Earl Grey base.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I didn’t want to talk about the tea. “Are you ready to tell me about your day?”
“Several teammates came over last night to help with the final baking, and to individually wrap the items we’ll sell at the concession stand. Towards the end, we did some tequila shots. Burn and her girlfriend stayed longer, and we kind of all got shitfaced, so I put them in the murphy bed in the living room, and I went to bed.”
I grinned. “Damn. I was kinda hoping you were going to tell me about a threesome.”
She shook her head. “Able made me do girls sometimes, but it isn’t my thing.” She rolled her eyes. “Damn, and there I go again, fucking talking about him.”
“No, you aren’t talking about him. You’re telling me about your own past experience. If you want to say you had a Top who made you do girls sometimes, you can, but we’ll both know who you’re talking about. It honestly doesn’t bother me.”
“Well, it bothers me, and I’m not even to the part where I was expecting to have to mention him.” She took another sip of tea and closed her eyes to enjoy it on the way down. That’s one of the things I love about her — no matter what she’s doing, she does it. Skating, having sex, doing homework, or drinking tea. She has no attention deficits. At all.
“Okay, so, I came downstairs before they expected me to this morning, and I now know way more about their private life than I probably should. They didn’t stop just because I was there, but they paused when they finished that, ummm, task? And then later, went to the bathroom to finish, only the bathroom isn’t soundproof and I could hear every word they said, and they did something I had no idea people did. I thought that Ab—” She took a breath. “I thought my former Dom had made me experience everything possible when it comes to sex. I was wrong. Damn, was I wrong. And this thing they did, it’s kinky, and part of me wonders what it would feel like, but the rational parts of me are all like, fuck no, that ain’t happenin’.”