Grounded by R. K. Lilley Read Free Book Online Page A

you,” I told him sincerely.  
    He shrugged.   “It’s an investment.   Stephan presented me with an idea that I think will be successful.   It’s as simple as that.   No need to thank me.”  
    I gave him a wry look, but that was all.
    We finished up, walking out with the guys.   I hugged Stephan goodbye and told them to have a good night.   James had gotten them their own car and driver for the evening, and they were in heaven, loving the VIP treatment.  
    Our car was awkwardly silent on the short drive back to the apartment, since Blake and Johnny had joined us in the back.   James linked his fingers with mine, but that was all.  
    “Are you going to explain to me about what happened this morning?   Jolene is married?   And you were friends with her husband?”   I asked, my voice pitched low.   I was trying to be reasonable, trying to get through the day without any more drama, but I needed some things made clear for me.  
    He sighed.   It was a resigned sigh, and his face was troubled as he looked at me.   “Yes, of course I’ll explain.   Thank you for asking, and not just reacting.   Let’s go up to bed.   I’ll tell you whatever you want to know there.”
    I studied him rather suspiciously.   “You can’t just tie me up whenever we need to have a talk that you think I won’t like.”  
    He gave me a smug look.   It was infuriating.   “As a matter of fact, I can.   But that’s not my plan right now.   I would just prefer to talk in the bedroom.”  
    We were in the closet, undressing for bed, before he spoke again.   “Scott met Jolene when she was my sub.   He was instantly taken with her.   When I ended our arrangement, Scott asked me if I minded if he asked her out.   I didn’t mind, but I told him that it may not be the best idea, for his sake.   That was all I said and all I knew.   Unbeknownst to me, they married less than two weeks later.”
    He managed to undress first, and moved close to watch me finish.
    “A few months after that Jolene called me, asked me to meet her for dinner.   I didn’t see a problem with that — didn’t even know whether or not she and Scott had gone out, and I was between subs, so I simply saw it as a chance to blow off steam.”  
    I made my face go carefully blank as I looked at him.   The blowing off steam comment made me feel…delicate, for reasons that I didn’t want to investigate.  
    “We were…together that night, and again a few days later.   She expressed interest in resuming our previous arrangement.   I tried to tell her gently that I wasn’t interested, and that I thought that she should move on.   That’s when she told me that she’d married Scott.   She threw it out as proof that she’d already moved on, thinking it would actually encourage me to reconsider.”
    “Needless to say, it didn’t do that.   I told her I wouldn’t see her, wouldn’t touch her, if she was married.   I never wanted to be an adulterer; the idea is abhorrent to me, especially when I was cuckolding a friend of mine.”
    I pulled a sheer slip over my head.
    “I stopped seeing her, stopped taking her calls, for at least a year,” he continued.   “I was between subs again when she finally managed to pin me down.   She was divorced by then, which I knew, though I didn’t know exactly what had happened at the time.   Later I would learn that she had filed because I’d refused to see her when she was married.   I never should have touched her after we ended our original arrangement.   I see that clearly now.   My friendship with Scott is irreparable now, unfortunately I figured it out too late.   He is completely enamored with her, so much so that he is incapable of seeing reason.   I used to be baffled by it — by him losing his head so completely over a woman.”   He gave me a self-deprecating smile.   “I’m not baffled by it anymore.   Now the only thing that baffles me is his taste in women.”
    I had to