“Roller Derby isn’t a career. I’ll finish out this year’s season and then....” and then I’ll be a dragon, but I didn’t tell him that. I wasn’t sure if Aaron wanted me to talk about it. No, that was a copout. I wasn’t ready to talk to him about it. I finished with, “Once I’m working for Aaron, I’ll need to be available for clients at the drop of a hat, if necessary. I can’t risk being needed when we have a big match or tournament.”
“The sentiment is the same. If you’ve cut back on skating time because of me, you need to add it back in.”
“I did homework one day this week instead of going to the park and skating between classes, but it’s fine. I still skated three days this week, counting our regular practice.”
“You did homework instead of skating so you’d have time to spend with me?”
“Just Monday, because we had plans and I wanted to spend as much of the evening as possible with you.”
“Okay. Every once in a while is fine, but don’t do it every week.”
“We didn’t have sex this morning. You never came to bed.”
“I slept on the sofa. You needed your sleep and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Fuck.” I didn’t tell him I was sorry again. “Thank you for watching out for me when I wasn’t watching out for myself. I feel terrible to have put you out of your bed. I’d like to do something to make it up to you. Will you let me rub your shoulders?”
“I’m not a pansy-ass. I can sleep on the sofa without needing a damned massage. You have to dress up a little more today, right? The capstone/intern thing?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Get moving. I’ll fix breakfast.”
“Can I give you a blow job?”
“No sex this morning. No edging. Go get ready.”
I went, but I worried he’d have sex with one of the sweetbutts. He was used to a lot of sex, and I loved giving it to him, but what would happen if I couldn’t?
He came to the bathroom door, leaned against the jamb, and crossed his arms. “Something else you need to tell me?”
Shit, I hadn’t even thought about what he’d scent. There was no way around it but to tell him what was bothering me.
“I want you to use me instead of the sweetbutts.”
He stared at me without responding. I didn’t know what to do, so I faced the mirror and brushed my hair.
“Looks like we need to work on trust in both directions. I told you I wouldn’t fuck a sweetbutt until at least Sunday, and that we could figure things out from there if you decide you still need other men to Top you.”
“I don’t want or need other men.”
“Then I’ll stay off the sweetbutts. Doesn’t matter if you have time for me every day or not. If at some point that no longer works for me, we’ll sit down and talk about it. I don’t cheat.”
“Okay.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
And he was gone. Fifteen seconds later, I heard him working on breakfast again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ember
After derby practice, a few of my teammates decided to go to the local roller skating rink to get some more skating in. I texted Dementor to let him know where I’d be, not because he’d told me to, but because I figured he’d worry about me if I didn’t come home when he expected me to. The rink closed at midnight, and then a couple of us went to Steak and Shake.
He texted me at twelve forty-five to see if I was okay, and I realized the control room had probably told him I wasn’t back at his apartment yet. Sorry I worried you. We were hungry so some of us went out to eat.
Glad you’re safe. Have fun.
When I finally got home around one thirty, someone knocked on my door about ten minutes later. I looked out the peephole to see Velvet.
“Hey,” she said when I opened the door, “do you have some time to talk?”
I motioned her in. “Sure. What’s up?”
She took a seat on the sofa and smiled up at me. “I just wanted to check in with you. Dementor’s important to us, and you’re important to him. We’re all glad you’re here, but we’ve left ya’ll alone so you can have time together. I wanted to make sure you understood why we haven’t been all up in your business. We aren’t snubbing you.”
I sat in a chair across from her. “It never occurred to me ya’ll were snubbing me. I wasn’t paranoid, but maybe I am a little now.”
She laughed. “We’re a family. We’re smaller than we’re used to being, and that’s creating some challenges. It means we’re all carrying a heavy load and can’t spend as much time together just hanging out. I miss that, but it can’t be helped. We have it better than most of the rest of Birmingham.”
I nodded. “A safe place to live and enough money to survive is a luxury, right now. Evil was winning. I thought we’d lost. I’m almost certain we had, and then everything changed.”
“Yes, the forces for good in Birmingham got our asses kicked, but fortunately we were just one battle of many, and other people won the war for us. Still, it’s making it harder for our city to bounce back, I think.”
“Can I get you something to drink?” I asked her.
“No, I’m good. I sense your thirst. Get something for yourself.”
“I’m going to make some chocolate milk. You sure you don’t want some?”
“I can’t remember the last time I had chocolate milk.”
“I make it with real milk and real chocolate.”
“Sure, I’ll have some.”
She watched me incorporating the cocoa powder and sugar in, and the finally the vanilla towards the very end. I poured it into mugs and grated a piece of a chocolate bar over each mug as an extra garnish.
She took her first sip and groaned. I love hearing people enjoy things I’ve prepared.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“So simple, and it brings back memories of happy times. I’m so glad you’re here. It’s good to see The D happy.”
“It was just a trial week. We have to sit down Sunday and see if we want to continue.”
“Do you?”
I shrugged. “I like my house, but I admit it’s easier to be close to everything. This is the only way for me to see much of Dementor, so yeah, I hope he wants me to stay, but I also hope we can spend a few days a week at my place.”
She tilted her head a little. She wasn’t entirely pleased with my answer, but I didn’t understand why until she spoke. “You still want your fallback position, and I get it because ya’ll are new, but you won’t fully fit in here until you’re here.”
I looked around. “There isn’t enough room for me to fully move in. My closet is the size of his kitchen and living room put together.” Fuck, I sounded like a snob. “My derby equipment takes up a lot of room. I have several pairs of skates and more wheel sets than I’m willing to admit to. All my protective gear, and then the clothes I wear when we practice or when I just go for a skate. Then there are my everyday clothes, and...” I trailed off. She didn’t need to know I had clothes for clubbing, and also clothes for the kinky parts of my life.