Luscious (Topped #1)(20)

“They’re actually Dr. Daley’s sisters. Nice ladies. Laurel and Lisa.”

“And they babysit?”

“They’re sub…substitutes. Substitute teachers. They make money on the side this way.” He’d almost explained that the young women were training as submissives at Sanctum, Big Tag’s club. Well, it had been his club before it was blown up by an asswipe traitor who should have his entrails ground into dust and shoved up his anal cavity without lube. Tag’s words, not his. Apparently the dude was dead, but Macon wasn’t so sure that would stop Big Tag. If he thought he could properly punish a corpse, he might do it. The new Sanctum was under construction.

“They’re substitutes? Seriously? One of them was talking about working for a law firm. She said babysitting wasn’t a big thing because she had to deal with shit all day long and at least babies are cute. When do we need to get the cake over? And what about the appetizers? Should I be at the big house heating them up?”

She would have to go to the big house since there was absolutely no heat in this house. None. No making out. No cuddling. For five days she’d babied him, making sure he ate healthy and got enough water. She’d made him stay in bed the whole first day and kept him from working out. She’d driven him to physical therapy and then nagged the therapist about making him do too much.

Not once had she kissed him or even said a thing that would make him think she wanted him to kiss her. They ate together, watched TV together, cooked together.

They were roommates.

“Don’t worry about it. Adam’s going to finish the apps and Serena has all the salads. It’s only a little buffet.”

“A little? It’s magnificent. I can’t wait to see it. Do you think they’ll mind if I sneak a plate? I promise to hide in the kitchen. We should get catering uniforms. You know, black pants, white shirt. They could come in handy.”

“You’re not going.” He’d thought about it that first day. He’d thought about the fact that he could take her over to the mini club the McKay-Taggart group had set up and he could watch her. He could see if she had any interest at all. Of course, that was when he’d thought they would at least have had a heavy make-out session by this point. Now that he realized she was simply looking for a place to stay and a bit of friendship, he thought taking her to watch his friends have sex in kinky ways was probably a mistake.

God, he wanted to have sex with her in kinky ways. Hell, he’d take straight up vanilla. Being close to her for days was killing him. She wore boxer shorts and a tank top to bed and she would walk out of her room in the morning with her hair all mussed and her sleepy eyes and he would put a cup of coffee in her hand, and all he could think about were her nipples. Until she turned around and then he thought about her ass.

She required two cups of strong coffee to get her going in the mornings. She particularly liked the Sumatra blend. He hadn’t told her he was experimenting, but he changed the blend until he found the one that made her sigh and lick her lips. By the time she was awake, he was putting an egg white omelet with whatever veg they had on hand and a bowl of fresh fruit in front of her. She’d been surprised at how healthy he ate. He’d explained that he was a pastry chef. Everything else had to be healthy or he’d weigh a ton.

“You don’t need any help tonight?”

He shook his head. “I’m going to drop off the cake and then I’ll come back over and we can play with the babies.”

A frown creased her forehead. “But I heard you talking to Adam about how you were looking forward to this.”

That had been when he’d still had hope that he might participate. Even if it was only in a voyeuristic fashion. “I’m taking the night off.”

Her eyes narrowed and he was really worried she could see past his layers of skin right down to his soul. She turned without another word and walked back out of the kitchen. He should have let it go, pleased that she wasn’t questioning him any more.

But he’d started to know that look. That look in Ally’s eyes meant trouble. He followed.

“How’s the substitute teaching business these days, ladies?”

Shit. And shit. And more shit. “Ally…”

Laurel was holding one of the babies. One of the ones who wasn’t Tristan. He knew his nephew but the other babies all kind of looked alike. Tristan was currently pulling his baby body up on the sofa. He grinned, showing one tiny tooth.

“Uhm, I’ve never done that. That sounds perfectly horrible,” Laurel said with a shudder. “I’m a paralegal.”

She pointed back to him. “That one said you were watching the babies because you’re subs who need extra money.”

Lisa shook her head as she laid one of the twins down in the traveling bassinet the Taggarts had set up twenty minutes ago. “Oh, no, he meant we’re in submissive training.”

And that was the way his night went to shit. “I wasn’t going to tell her that. You two need to learn what ‘private club’ means.”

Lisa winced. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

Laurel looked between the two of them. “I apologize. I assumed she would know what a sub is given the fact that she lives with you, Sir.”

“Submissive?” Ally said the word in that way that let him know she kind of knew what it meant but wasn’t exactly rah-rah about it.