Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(4)

“Not that far away, no, sweetheart. Never.”

Laurel, so far, had handled the divorce well. Maybe because she’d sensed the growing tension between him and her mom that led up to the actual final fight where’d he’d admitted to Eva he was gay. They’d never fought in front of her, and for the most part had kept any animosity away from her, putting on a good front for her benefit.

The counselor assured them Laurel’s reaction was one of many “normal” and healthy possibilities. That at some future point she might rebel or act out, but she was likely enjoying the new peace between the two adults.

And it wasn’t like he didn’t talk to Laurel every day, and see her several times a week, nearly daily.

He even still had a key for the house, so that when Eva had to work night shifts, he could stay there with Laurel, rather than moving her to his apartment and then messing up her morning schedule.

Yes, Eva had a key to his apartment, in case of emergencies.

Laurel stared at the order pad. “Are you going to order some sushi, Daddy?”

He realized that, for all this time, he’d been sitting there frozen in thought. “Yes, sweetheart. I’m going to order some.”





Once Laurel was tucked in for the night, Leo went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer. He wasn’t a heavy drinker but tonight he needed one. He didn’t want to approach Eva out of the blue and ask about the new man in her life, but he also didn’t want her to start engaging in a pattern of dating without adhering to their agreement.

Something else had started to seep in. What if Eva wanted to move one day? In their divorce agreement, he’d had it added that if one parent moved more than twenty miles away, the other parent would become the primary custodial parent, to prevent Laurel from being upended from her school and friends.

Eva had readily agreed to it, even though Ed Payne, Leo’s attorney, had privately warned him that she could always challenge that stipulation later if she wanted to.

I’ll have to deal with that if or when it ever becomes an issue.

For now, he had plenty of legitimate issues to worry about without inventing any out of thin air.

Like why had Eva been dating this guy for several weeks, including spending time with him with Laurel around, and not bothered to mention anything about him?





Chapter Two


Friday night, Jesse Morrow sat at a table in the middle of the social area at Venture and observed the ongoing rope scene with great interest. He enjoyed watching Kel suspend people. The guy was highly skilled. He could do artistic ties, as well as functional and fast ones, meaning someone just looking to fly could get up in the air in a few minutes, or if someone wanted an artistic tie for photo purposes, he could take far longer.

Tilly slid into the chair next to him. “How you doing, kiddo?”

He shrugged. “I’m okay.”

She reached out and squeezed his hand. “You sure you don’t want me to go pay him a visit? I’d be more than happy to.”

He finally smiled at her. “No, that’s okay. Besides, who would I get my masochistic fix from if you went to jail?”

Tilly had sort of adopted Jesse after the very public and ugly dumping by his ex-boyfriend and Master nearly six months earlier.

A public drama right in the middle of Venture’s dungeon, and a tantrum that got Jesse’s ex, Mario, permanently banned from Venture because Mario had tried to force Jesse to play with someone Jesse didn’t want to play with.

When Jesse called red, Mario tried to overrule him. He told Jesse that since Jesse was a slave, he didn’t get safeword privileges.

Cris, Ross, and Landry had their hands full trying to hold Tilly back to keep her from murdering the guy, while Tony and Derrick promptly escorted Mario out of the club and revoked his membership, earning him a lifetime ban.

Mario had ordered Jesse to leave with him, or that it was the permanent end of their relationship.

Jesse had told Mario to go f*ck himself.

And then all hell broke loose. At least, that was what it had felt like at the time. When Tilly learned that Jesse had just moved in with Mario the weekend before, and that it was Mario’s place, she’d led a cavalry of their friends, including the Collins brothers, to get Jesse moved that very night over to Kel’s apartment on the backside of Venture.

Which was where he now lived.

Probably a good thing they got his stuff out. If they hadn’t, Mario likely would have trashed it all, or kept it and not let Jesse have it. As it was, they’d somehow beaten Mario back there and the group effort had saved all of Jesse’s belongings.

At the time, Jesse had been in too much shock to process everything. Now, with his emotional feet once again securely under him, he felt more sad than anything. The signs of emotional and mental abuse had been there throughout the six months they’d dated and he’d been collared to the guy, but as a gay man, he honestly had blown a lot of stuff off, attributing it to him being too sensitive. Mario was fifteen years older than his own twenty-eight. Surely he knew better than Jesse did.

Wrong.

So now Tilly played with Jesse, topping him just as a friend, nothing more. Landry and Cris had offered to top him, too, if he wanted. But Jesse knew it wouldn’t get weird with Tilly, and he didn’t want to risk falling for a guy he could never have as anything more than just a friend.