Read Divine Solace: 8 for Free Online

through a light,
changing lanes with a hairsbreadth between him and the cars fore and aft in the
heavy traffic. He did it so smoothly, she didn’t feel nervous in the least. She
wondered where he’d acquired his urban driving skills.
    “Better not thank me yet,” he said. “I haven’t done tilework
in a while. You may have to pay someone to fix what I screw up.”
    She sincerely doubted that, since Marguerite wouldn’t have
recommended him otherwise. “I’ll report you to Lyda if you do a shoddy job. She
seems like the type to demand perfection.”
    His eyes slid over her face before they returned to the
road. “She has a way of demanding a lot from everyone around her. Things you
don’t think you have inside of you, but it makes you a better person to find
out they’re there, if that makes sense.”
    She thought about the way her day had gone since Lyda had
crossed her path. How Gen had reached out and touched Noah in a way she’d never
spontaneously touched a man. When he’d been washing cups and busing tables,
she’d felt a thrill every time she thought about him coming home with her. But
that had connected to Lyda as well. It was as if, by letting Noah stay with
Gen, Lyda was sending her some kind of secret message. Gen couldn’t deny it
gave her a tiny yet equally strong thrill, like being passed a note at school
by a secret crush.
    I’m being an idiot. “Does she always come off so
overwhelming?”
    That grin reappeared. “Actually, that was Lyda way toned
down. Her inside voice, if you will.”
    “Geez.”
    He laughed, a pleasant sound that caressed her senses. Then
he gave her a thoughtful glance. “You know, if you want to ask things about
being a Dom or sub, it’s okay. I’m used to talking about it. If you don’t want
to talk about it, that’s okay too. I just don’t want you to feel like you can’t
ask. You seem like you maybe want to ask some things.”
    Great. She’d been able to rein herself back under the
illusion of respecting his privacy, but he’d just removed that barrier.
    “Oh, that’s okay. I can always ask Marguerite and Chloe that
kind of thing.”
    He changed lanes, a quick glance over his shoulder and at
the mirrors. She liked watching him drive. His focus on the road let her study
him at her leisure, those attractive details that a woman didn’t get to study
as closely when a man’s attention was on her. The flex of his forearms as he
adjusted his hold on the wheel, the shift of thigh when going from gas to
brake. When she next sat in the driver’s seat, her backside would be nestled
where his nice tight one had been. Crazy, silly thoughts. That was why it was
safer not to talk about these things. She was only foolish to herself, so the
pleasure was undiluted.
    “Chloe said you haven’t ever asked anything. She figured
that either meant you aren’t comfortable with BDSM and prefer not to talk about
it, or you have Family Syndrome.” At her look of puzzlement, he elaborated.
“You’re like family, so you don’t really want to know about each other’s sex
lives. The Ewww factor. Chloe’s term and description.”
    “I guess it could be that,” she hedged. “I don’t know enough
about BDSM to be intolerant of it, so I’ve never really had that issue. I knew
Marguerite quite a while before I knew the other stuff about her, but she’s the
type of person, once you find out she’s a Mistress, it’s like…”
    “So incredibly obvious it’s a ‘well, duh’.” His eyes
sparkled. “Another Chloe term.”
    “She has her own language.” Fondness for the girl welled up
in Gen. “And even if I did have a problem with BDSM, it wouldn’t matter. M and
Chloe could bury bodies in the garden, and all the good things I know about
them would outweigh that. I’d just assume the True Lies Arnold line.”
    “‘They were all bad’,” Noah supplied, making her
chuckle. “You’re loyal. That’s a nice quality. One of the best, no matter what
people