Trust

by Sherri Hayes

  Slowly, time began to melt away, and we were once more in a cocoon that sheltered us from the outside world. Nothing existed outside the marble walls surrounding us.

  As I rubbed the soap onto her body, I relished every sigh . . . every moan. My cock ached painfully with the need to be inside her. Unfortunately, I’d not brought any condoms into the bathroom with us. It was tempting to throw caution to the wind and ignore rational thought, but I persevered. Somehow.

  Normally I would have let her wash me, but I couldn’t. I was afraid if she so much as touched me, I’d either explode on the spot or take her right then and there. To hell with precautions.

  As it was, I rushed through drying both of us off and carried her into the bedroom. She lay spread out on the bed, her legs loosely parted. I climbed on top of her, wedging myself in between her thighs. I leaned over and reached into my drawer to retrieve a condom. Tomorrow I would have to talk to her about going back to see Richard for another blood test. It had been more than three months, and once the tests came back clean, I hoped I never had to wear anything that would separate us again.

  Resting one elbow at the side of her head, I positioned myself at her entrance, rubbing up and down along her folds. She was wet, and heat radiated from her pussy. The whole evening had been foreplay, and we both seemed to not need any more stimulation.

  I pressed forward with my hips, feeling her walls take hold of me, hot and pulsing. Rocking my hips, I slowly seated myself fully inside her. “I want you touching me tonight. Place your arms around my neck and hold on.”

  Obediently, Brianna wrapped her arms around my neck and held on as if her life depended on it. I began to move, pistoning in and out with ever-increasing speed. It didn’t take long before I felt the first signs of my orgasm approaching. Lowering my head, I latched on with my mouth to the skin right above her collarbone while my right hand slipped between us to rub her clit. I listened as her breath hitched, and her pussy squeezed me tight almost causing me to lose control.

  “Come.” It was all I could manage to utter as I reached the point of no return.

  I bit down at the force of my orgasm. Brianna screamed, and her back arched. Her pussy spasmed around me as she found her own release.

  Coming down from my high, I looked beneath me at the woman I hoped to love for the rest of my life. She was flushed, and her eyes were barely open. There was a bite mark on her right shoulder. Her hair was disheveled from my hands, and it was matted around her temples from our exertion.

  I’d never seen anything more beautiful.

  Chapter 28

  Brianna

  As promised, Cal and Jade came to pick me up on Friday afternoon for my appointment with Dr. Perkins. Cal was quiet, pensive, but Jade was full of questions. She wanted to know how things were going and jokingly commented that Cal’s house wasn’t the same without me. I had little doubt that it was different without me there, but that was most likely a good thing. The two of them had to rearrange their lives to accommodate me and my issues. Now they could go back to the way things were before I’d changed everything.

  The two of them waited in the lobby while I went in for my appointment. I sat down, clasping my hands together and resting them on my legs.

  She always started with the same question. “How are you today?”

  “Good.”

  Instead of asking her typical follow-up question—did anything happen this week you’d like to talk about?—she remained silent. Her expression held curiosity.

  I started to get anxious. “Is something wrong?”

  Her eyes widened at my question, and then she must have realized her reaction and reined herself in. “No. I mean, it’s just that I’ve never heard you say that you were ‘good’ before. Usually when I ask you how you’re doing, you say you’re fine. Today, not only did you give a different answer, but you also appear more open than I’ve ever seen you. Your shoulders aren’t slumped, and you don’t have your arms wrapped protectively around yourself.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t really know what to make of her statement. It wasn’t something I’d thought about.

  “Something you want to share?”

  I pressed my lips together, pondering how much I should tell her.

  “Remember, Anna, anything you say in here stays between us unless you decide otherwise.”

  It probably didn’t matter. She’d find out eventually anyway since I wasn’t planning to ever leave Stephan again if I could help it. Neither one of us liked being apart. “I moved back in with Stephan.”

  If I thought she looked wide-eyed with curiosity before, then she looked downright flabbergasted with this new information. “You’re no longer living with your friends who are waiting out in the lobby?”

  “No.”

  “I see. And when did this happen.”

  “Saturday.”

  Dr. Perkins scribbled something down on her notepad. “So you’ve been living with Stephan for the last six days?”

  “Yes.”

  She was quiet for a long minute. “Will you tell me about it?”

  So for the next twenty minutes, I explained as best I could to her what had led up to my moving back home. Of course, she knew the first part. She’d visited me at Cal’s, and I’d seen her three times since I’d watched the news broadcast.

  “It sounds as if you talked things out. And I’m proud of you, Anna. You communicated your feelings well.”

  I tugged at the material of my jeans and noticed there were several loose threads. “It’s easier with Stephan.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “How so?”

  “I don’t know. It just is. He . . . he listens to me.”

  “And you don’t always feel others do?”

  Shrugging, I glanced over at the door. “My mom did. But then when I moved in with John, he never had time.”

  “What about your friends now? Do they listen to you?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Dr. Perkins leaned back in her chair. “How does that make you feel when they don’t listen to you?”

  “It depends.”

  “On?”

  “On what it’s about.”

  She nodded. “Can you give me an example of something recently?”

  “Cal wasn’t happy about me moving back in with Stephan. He was really angry about it, and he wouldn’t listen when I told him that it was all a misunderstanding and that Stephan had apologized.”

  “And how did that make you feel—that he wouldn’t listen to you?”

  I thought about it for a minute. How did it make me feel? “Hurt, and a little angry.”

  She sat forward, clasping her hands in front of her. “That’s understandable, Anna. You made a choice for yourself, and he didn’t respect that choice.”

  “But why? I understand that he doesn’t like Stephan, but why can’t he accept that I want to be with him?”

  Dr. Perkins smiled. “I think that’s something you’re going to have to ask him.”

  On the way home, I thought about what Dr. Perkins said. She was right. Only Cal could answer my question. But was I ready to know the answer?

  “We’re here.” Cal sounded less than thrilled.

  When I remained in the car, Jade poked her head back into the vehicle. “Everything okay, Anna?”

  I was looking at Cal, debating whether or not to take Dr. Perkins’s advice, but I nodded, answering Jade’s question. When I still didn’t move, Jade slid in beside me, reaching for my hand. I took it, needing the support for what I was about to do.

  “Cal?” The words came out in a whisper, but when he turned, I knew he’d heard me.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why . . .” I swallowed nervously. What if asking only made things worse?

  He furrowed his brow in confusion. “Why what?”

  Closing my eyes, I forced the words from my throat before I could suppress them. “Why don’t you respect me?”

  “What?” His question echoed loudly in the small space of
the car. “Anna, what are you talking about?”

  I held Jade’s hand in a death grip and opened my eyes. “Y-you don’t like that I moved back in with Stephan. Y-you don’t respect my choice.”

  He sighed. “Anna, it’s not that simple.”

  “Why not?”

  Cal let out a frustrated breath. “It just isn’t.”

  Dr. Perkins said I should explain to him how what he was doing made me feel, so that was what I did. “It hurts to know that you don’t accept my decision.”

  His expression turned angry, and I cringed back in my seat a little. “Did that shrink tell you to say that?”

  “Cal!” Jade scolded.

  “She’s never said anything before, so that woman had to put the idea in her head.”

  Jade wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “You don’t know that.”

  “What’s going on here?” My head whipped around as I saw Stephan approach the car.

  Not thinking twice, I opened the car door and ran into his arms.

  He caught me, soothing me not only with his hands but with the steady rise and fall of his chest as he held me. “Are you all right, Brianna?”

  I nodded.

  Cal and Jade exited the car, and I could hear their footsteps as they approached.

  “Why is Brianna shaking like a leaf?”

  I didn’t have to glance up to know that Stephan was looking directly at Cal.

  “That’s none of your business, Coleman.”

  “Brianna is my business, which means whatever is making her upset is my business as well.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You’re back in the role of protector. Everything you’ve done gets swept under the rug as you swoop in and save the day.”

  Stephan didn’t respond right away. He tightened his hold on me. “This isn’t the place to have this conversation. You can either accompany us upstairs or leave. It’s your choice.”

  Without waiting for a response, Stephan turned us both toward the elevators.

  Stephan

  I was trying hard to control my temper. Brianna was trembling beside me as we rode the elevator with Cal and Jade. For a moment, I’d thought maybe they were going to leave, but Jade followed us into the elevator and Cal reluctantly did so as well. I had no idea what he’d said to make her so upset, but given how closely people were watching me lately, having an argument in a parking garage—even a private parking garage—wasn’t a good idea.

  As soon as we walked into the condo, I pulled Brianna off to the side. Holding her face between my hands, I searched her eyes. “What number, Brianna?”

  “Four.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Cal and Jade approached from my left, but I ignored them for the time being.

  “It’s my fault,” Brianna whispered.

  “I don’t recall asking whose fault it was.” I raised one eyebrow, letting her know that I was still waiting on an answer to my question.

  Brianna glanced down, and I tightened my hold. She snapped her gaze back up to meet mine. “I asked Cal why he didn’t respect my decision to move back in with you. He got upset, and I started to panic.”

  I glared at Cal. The man knew how Brianna reacted to aggression.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Coleman. It wasn’t like I meant to yell at her. She completely blindsided me. How was I supposed to react?”

  Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to speak in a calm, even tone. “Perhaps you should try listening to her.”

  He snorted. “You mean like you?”

  I lowered my hands and wrapped my arms around Brianna’s waist, positioning her in front of me. Her back was against my chest, so that we were both facing Cal and Jade. This discussion had been brewing for a long time. “I always make it a priority to listen to what Brianna has to say. She’s very observant, and when she shares something, it’s usually important to her. Having lived in the same house with her for four months, I’d think you’d have learned that.”

  That only made him angrier, but I didn’t care. No one else appeared to be willing to tell him the truth. He needed to get his head out of his ass.

  “You know nothing about me, Coleman.”

  “I know that you have a temper that you let get the best of you more than you should. You don’t like me, and under normal circumstances that wouldn’t bother me. However, given how much we both seem to care about Brianna, we are going to have to find some way to put those differences aside for her sake. I know you don’t like the fact that I’m wealthy, and what happened with your neighbor has clearly defined how you view what I am.”

  His face turned red. “She told you about that?”

  “Brianna doesn’t keep secrets from me.”

  “Unlike you from her.”

  “I don’t have to explain myself to you, Ross. Brianna has accepted my apology, and that’s all that matters.”

  Ross clenched and released his fists several times. He didn’t like my answer and was trying to rein in his temper. I was feeling just as frustrated as he was, but over the years I’d learned to control my anger—most of the time. If I was honest with myself, though, Ross pushed my buttons more than most.

  “Ask him your question again, sweetheart.”

  Brianna continued to shake, but she did as I instructed. “W-why don’t you respect my decision?”

  I’d expected to see Ross’s anger flare again, but instead he sighed. “It’s not that I don’t respect your decision, Anna. I just don’t think it was really your decision.”

  She tensed in my arms. “I don’t understand.”

  It was my turn to sigh. I rested my chin on her shoulder and whispered in her ear. “He thinks I talked you into it.”

  Ross snorted. “Manipulated her would be more like it.”

  Brianna stood up straight, and I didn’t have to see her face to know she was getting angry. There weren’t many things that would set her off, but attacking me was one of them. “He didn’t. He asked me to move back in, and I said yes.”

  “Of course he did.”

  “You don’t believe me.” She sounded sad.

  He was quick to try and correct her. “No. That’s not what I meant. I believe that you believe that’s what happened.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Gah!” Ross pulled at his hair in frustration. “Anna, people like him . . .” Ross nodded in my direction. “They’re experts at manipulation. They know how to get people to do what they want them to do and make it seem like it was their idea.”

  “He’s not like that.”

  “How do you know, Anna?” Ross gestured to me with his right hand. “How do you even know what he told you about that woman is true? Have you talked to her? Has she confirmed his story? For all you know the baby really is his and he’s just covering his tracks.”

  Brianna shook her head violently. “No. He wouldn’t lie to me.”

  “But how do you know that?”

  It was Brianna’s turn to sound defeated. “I just do.”

  I hated seeing her like this. Kissing her cheek, I hugged her tighter. Sarah had been begging me to set up a meeting between her and Brianna, but the timing was never right.

  No one spoke for several minutes. We seemed to have reached a stalemate.

  As the silence continued, Ross seemed to lose his conviction. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

  “Trust me,” Brianna whispered.

  I was so proud of her. She was speaking her mind even though I could feel doing so caused her heart to pound rapidly in her chest.

  “I do trust you.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t.”

  At this point, I was surprised he didn’t stomp out. He did turn and walk away, but he only went as far as the couch. Ross sat down and held his head in his hands. I almost felt sorry for him.

  Brianna twisted in my arms. She gazed up at me, her eyes pleading. “Should I go to him?”

  I wante
d to say no, but logic won, and I dropped my arms, releasing her. “Do what you need to do, Brianna. I’ll wait here.”

  As I stood by and watched Brianna walk away from me to go comfort another man, I had to tamp down my jealousy. I knew she didn’t feel that way about him, but it was instinctual, not logical.

  “He really does care about her, you know.”

  I didn’t take my eyes off Brianna when I responded to Jade’s statement. “That’s the only reason I allowed her to go with him in the first place. If I didn’t think he cared, I wouldn’t have let her leave.”

  “You know when you make statements like that it only solidifies Cal’s position.”

  This time I did glance over at her briefly. “I will do whatever it takes to protect Brianna. I won’t apologize for that.”

  We both watched as Ross and Brianna talked on the other side of the room. They kept their volume low, so other than a few words here and there, we couldn’t hear what was being said.

  I was attempting to read Brianna’s lips when Jade broke through the silence with her next question—one I wasn’t expecting. “How long have you been a Dom?”

  “Almost six years.”

  “And this Sarah . . .”

  “Sarah was my first submissive. We were together for almost a year and a half.”

  “Why did you break up?”

  “She graduated and moved away.”

  “So you didn’t want a long-distance relationship?”

  Although I didn’t mind explaining my relationship to Jade—I liked Jade—I wasn’t willing to divert my attention from Brianna. Ross might mean well, but he had a tendency to do things that sent her into a panic. “Our relationship was never traditional, so it wasn’t an issue.”

  Wanting to redirect the conversation away from my past relationship with Sarah, I decided to ask her a question. “Do you think Ross will ever be able to accept our relationship?”

  She sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “She’s right, you know. I would never hurt her. Not like he thinks I would.”

  “I sort of figured as much. The few times I’ve seen you with her, you’ve always been affectionate and loving . . . gentle even.” She turned to face me, and I looked over to meet her gaze. “But just to be clear, if you ever do hurt her, I’ll help Cal kick your ass.”