Fortune Annabel Joseph (life books to read .TXT) 📖

Hunter was endlessly fascinating to Kat. It wasn’t that she didn’t already have a zillion little cousins just like him. It was that the little boy was Dave and Sophie’s child, and Dave and Sophie were just like them. Kat let herself imagine for the first time that she and Ryan might someday make a baby. The idea terrified her, but at the same time she caught herself wondering what it would be like. Ryan would be a spectacular father. Kat as a mother… Well…she just didn’t know.

That night Ryan got called into the hospital for an emergency surgery. Without him there was no talk of playing again. After Hunter went to sleep, they played cards and Kat discovered that Sophie was quite the poker shark. It felt okay not to do another scene. After all, they’d played so hard the night before that another encounter so soon might have been a letdown. Kat let herself just enjoy Dave and Sophie’s company. She hadn’t had a really good, close friend in so long and had certainly never enjoyed the novelty of having “couple friends”. When they put the cards away, Sophie and Kat sat together on the couch just talking. Sophie asked all the tough questions. It wasn’t Dave who would size up her suitability for Ryan, as it turned out. It was Sophie.

“You know,” Sophie said. “I have to tell you. I’ve never seen Ryan this way.”

“What way?”

Sophie paused, considering. “In love.”

Kat made a soft sound, maybe a laugh, although she felt alarmed. “I don’t know, Sophie. We’ve mainly been doing this D/s stuff. I’m not even very good at it yet. Maybe…as time goes on…”

“He’s in love with you. Hard in love. Kat, I know Ryan. I know he’s all about self-control and lectures and drinking soy milk and all that crap. He can be…hmmm… What’s a nice way to say this? Uptight. But I’ve never seen him like this. So possessive and crazy for a girl. So…monogamous.” Sophie grinned. “He used to be all about ‘love ’em and leave ’em’. I’m not kidding. He was a real manwhore, just into playing with the Barbie sluts. But he’s different now. So different. The way he is with you…the way he looks at you…”

Kat blushed, glancing up at Sophie. “He’s folded over eight hundred cranes for us. Something about good fortune. I can’t imagine why.”

“Can’t you?” Sophie shook her head with a rueful smile. “I guess I felt the same way with Dave. ‘Why me? What did I do to deserve this? He can’t really like me.’ All those questions screwed-up girls like us ask.”

Kat laughed. “I know. It’s terrible. It’s not that I question what he wants. I just wish I knew…”

“Knew what? How everything would turn out? I don’t know that anyone really knows that. Unless you’re a fortune-teller or something,” Sophie snorted.

Kat bit back a smile. “Yeah. Everyone knows that’s a load of bull.”

“Exactly. You just have to be brave. And you have to trust your Dominant. Ryan is trustworthy, Kat, believe me.”

I know he’s trustworthy, she wanted to say. I just don’t know if I am. But she held her tongue and sat still, wishing she was Sophie, settled and secure instead of scared and conflicted.

When they all said their goodbyes at the airport the next morning, Sophie hugged her and whispered in her ear, “You make your own fortune, Kat. Don’t let him get away.”

* * * * *

Kat was quiet all the way home from the airport. Ryan wondered if it was tired-quietness or problem-quietness. “Okay, doll?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“I’m fine,” she said, turning away from him a little.

Problem-quietness. Yep. “So what did you think of the weekend? Of Dave and Sophie?” he asked lightly.

“They were really nice. Fun. Their baby was adorable.”

He couldn’t draw much more out of her. Back at home, he stripped her in the bedroom and got out rope. She wasn’t really in the mood. He wasn’t sure he was either. Last night’s emergency surgery hadn’t been a success, and the weekend as a whole had brought up feelings for him that he wasn’t quite prepared for. It was somewhat difficult seeing Sophie and Dave so peaceful and content with their little child and successful marriage. He wondered if he would ever find the same with Kat and then he felt guilty for having those disloyal feelings at all. He thought perhaps he should start folding cranes again, although he knew, realistically, that folded paper wouldn’t save them if they weren’t meant to be.

But he kept all these feelings to himself as he tied her. She already doubted enough. If he voiced his own doubts on top of hers he knew she would bolt. He handled her gently as he decorated her body with the rope. He looped it around her nipples, just enough pressure to tease her. He placed a knot on her clit. She watched him with a purposely secretive gaze. Whatever thoughts and issues she was struggling with remained, as usual, unvoiced and hidden. He pulled the rope more tightly between her crotch in a fit of pique.

“What is it, Kat? Talk to me.”

“What?” She sounded defensive.

“What are you upset about? You didn’t like playing with Dave and Sophie?”

She shrugged. “I liked that part.” He met her eyes.

“Then what?”

She swallowed, bit her lip. He thought he saw her throat work a little. Was she going to cry? His hands stilled on the rope.

“Please talk to me,” he said. “For once, just say what’s on your mind.”

“I was just talking to Sophie…yesterday…” Again her lips trembled.

“About what?”

“She said you loved me. She said she knew it.”

He smiled softly. Any other girl would have been gooey over it. Kat looked about ready to spit. “Of course I love you,” he said. “Surely you knew that. I’ve never said it because…because of how you are. Because I knew it would upset you. But you had to know.”

“I don’t know what I know.”

He touched her cheek