Cherished (Masters and Mercenaries #7.5)(55)

“He’s a nice guy.” He was a nice guy and she was a woman with a bad attitude. Could they have lasted longer if she hadn’t brought him here where her family problems seemed to have pushed her over the edge?

Serena sat back, regarding her. “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. He hasn’t been that nice. Oh, according to club gossip, he’s really good in bed, but he never spends a whole night with any of his lovers and he’s usually done with them after one go. He’s never rude but always cold. He takes the D/s very seriously. It’s why I was worried. I thought you would have a problem with an über Dom.”

He liked to spank her, but that was just play. “Will? He’s not a super Dom. He never truly tops me except in the bedroom. He’s the kind of guy who gently suggests. He wanted me to stop working at night. How crazy is that? He seems to think that I need down time. So he started rubbing my feet, but only if I wasn’t typing. Does that sound like an über Dom?”

“How often have you worked at night in the last two weeks?” Serena asked the question with a sly grin on her face.

“I…” Holy shit. She’d stopped. She sat with him now. He didn’t even have to rub her feet anymore. She set the computer aside when he came home. “I don’t. Damn him. He trained it out of me.”

Serena nodded. “Sneaky Dom. He’s totally changed his approach because he figured out what you need. Most Doms aren’t so adaptable. I thought it was going to be a train wreck, but he totally loves you.”

That was where she was wrong. “He doesn’t. He’s made that very plain.”

“He said he doesn’t love you? Or he hasn’t said anything yet? It’s early. Guys can be dumb.”

“And so can I. I said the words. He very gently explained that he couldn’t return them.”

“Are you kidding me? He said he couldn’t love you?” Serena’s face took on that expression she got whenever her loved ones where threatened. Bridget liked to think of it as her “Momma Bear” expression. She needed to shut that shit down or Serena would be cornering poor Will.

“He told me he doesn’t believe in the word, and you know what that means. It’s okay. It’s not going to work long term. I didn’t go into this expecting to find the love of my life.” That was the way it had worked out though.

Serena relaxed. “Oh, good. He’s just stupid then.”

“He’s not stupid,” Bridget shot back. “He’s one of the smartest men I’ve ever met. Hello, brain surgeon. He’s just…I don’t know. He needs someone different.”

Serena groaned. “Get your self-esteem in check, Eeyore, because I’m calling bullshit. I’ve seen how he looks at you and how’s he’s changed his whole life for you. If he’s saying he doesn’t believe in love it’s because he’s a dumbass, and you can’t hold that against him. It would be really mean to dump him because he’s emotionally stupid.”

“Serena, you don’t understand.”

“I am married to Jacob Dean. Trust me. I understand emotionally stupid men. Now, I am also married to my gorgeous drama king, Adam, so it all…I was going to say it all works out but it’s more like grand and beautiful chaos. And that’s kind of what love is really. Trust me. I’ve been watching him with you.” Her hand slid over Bridget’s with a comforting squeeze. “You took care of me for years. I want you happy. Don’t let a single word screw things up. What you call love, he might call devotion.”

Bridget shook her head. “Teamwork. He called it good teamwork.”

Serena gasped and seemed to share in Bridget’s disdain. “Oh, that is horrible. I’ll have Adam work on him. The man does know how to use his words. Luckily, Jake knows how to use his tongue for different things. In some men’s cases, sex is how they communicate. It’s the only way they know how.”

He’d asked her not to give up on him. She’d thrown a shit storm at him the night before and he’d asked her not to give up on him.

What was she willing to throw away over a single word? Over the possibility of failure?

“Bridge, are you okay?” Serena asked. “I’ve never seen you cry before.”

She’d never let anyone see her cry before. It had been a weakness, something to hide. That was before Will. He was right. No one ever fought for her. Will had fought for her the night before—he’d been forced to fight her. Any other man would have walked out the door, not fought to stay and held her all night.

What was a word worth in the face of his care and devotion?

She stood up, jostling the table. All around her, family members stared up as though they’d been waiting for her to cause trouble. They started to talk behind their hands.

Amy left the group she’d been talking to and made her way to Bridget, a concerned look on her face. “Hey, you okay?”

She was about as far from okay as a woman could get, but it was her sister’s wedding day and she didn’t want to drag Amy into her drama. She would have enough of her own. “I have to go.”

Amy put a hand on her elbow. “Uhm, I think you should stay.”

“I have to find Will.” She couldn’t leave things the way they were. She needed to find a way to make the idiocy of the previous night go away. She would sit down with Will and do what she should have done in the first place. She would talk to him and make a plan about how to deal with her father.