The Reluctant Dom

Chapter Four

Seth awoke to the smell of coffee and…

Mmm. Bacon.

Leah was a great cook. He remembered his stay with them after his surgery, when she cooked every meal for him. They’d spent a lot of time talking while he was with them, with Kaden gone to work every day. Leah stayed home and took care of him. She was always comfortable to talk to.

He rolled over and looked at the clock. Seven thirty.

He was about to get up when he heard a soft tap on his door. He pulled the sheet back over him because he’d slept naked. “Yes?”

The door opened. Leah peeked in, smiling. Despite her puffy eyes the smile looked genuine. “Coffee.”

He nodded. “Thanks. I’ll come get some in a minute.”

She pushed the door open. He was relieved to see she was wearing a long T-shirt in addition to the collar. “No, silly. I have your coffee.” He realized she carried a steaming mug.

“Oh. Thank you.” He nervously smoothed the covers to hide his morning boner, then realized that might have made matters worse.

She walked the mug over to him and set it on the bedside table. “You don’t have to thank me.”

“Um, it would be rude if I didn’t, babe.”

“I owe you, not the other way around.” She took a deep breath as her smile faltered before she regained it. “I’ve got maple bacon, scrambled eggs, and I’m starting the French toast now.”

“Jesus, Leah. I’m going to look like a water buffalo in a month.”

Her playful grin finally reached her eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll help whip you into shape.”

She left him laughing.

He’d take a shower at his brother’s before he went to class. He dressed, then walked out to the kitchen. Leah stood at the stove. The place smelled great. He had to admit he’d really missed this. During his earlier stay, he’d quickly grown to love being with Leah and Kade.

It felt like a home. In a way he’d never felt, even with his ex-wives.

“Where’s Kade?” He took his usual place at the counter.

“He’ll be out in a few minutes.” She walked over and took his mug without asking, poured him more coffee.

“Thanks.”

She started to say something, but he held up a hand. “Listen. Y’all are just going to have to get used to me saying thank you.” Leah smiled again. He studied her. “I’m still convinced this is a really whacked-out nightmare or something. No offense, hon.”

He wished he’d kept his fucking mouth shut, because she looked sad again.

Kaden’s dying.

She nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “Me too. No offense.”

They both froze, then nervously laughed. He stood and held out his arms. She went to him, and he hugged her. For once his cock decided to behave.

“You know,” he said, “after a month you might get sick of me and toss me out on my ass.”

She pressed tighter against him. “No. Never. We’d never get sick of you, Seth. I’ll never get sick of you.”

He retook his seat while she returned to the stove. “So what does one wear to a dungeon?”

She laughed. “You’d be surprised. Jeans are okay if you want, for tonight. Black jeans if you have them. I don’t think Kade’s will fit you.”

“Don’t feel like wearing clam diggers, even if I thought I could pull them over my gut.”

“Hey, no short jokes. I can’t help it you have long legs like a freak of nature.” Kaden rounded the corner and clapped Seth on the back. “Sleep okay?”

He nodded.

Kaden crossed the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Leah from behind, kissed the back of her neck. “Good morning, angel.”

“Good morning, handsome.”

Seth felt a little uncomfortable and tried not to watch but couldn’t help it.

He also couldn’t help the thought that both sickened and excited him, that maybe she’d say something like that to him one day.

kaden’sdying

Crap.

Seth tried to focus on what Kaden was saying and not on watching Leah at the stove. Even with the long T-shirt, he still made out the sweet curve of her ass beneath the fabric. Kaden reached into his shorts and handed Seth a set of keys.

“For the house, cars, everything. You need a set.”

Seth hefted them. He currently had two keys, one for his car and one for his brother’s house. It felt weird having a multitude of keys again. “Thanks.”

“The playroom code is also 1218.”

“I’m not ready to tackle that yet.”

“You need to know it anyway.”

They ate in relative silence. When they finished, Leah automatically cleared their plates and gently refused Seth’s offer to help. She grabbed a personal organizer and pen from her purse. “What’s your class schedule?”

Twenty minutes later, she had all the information she needed from him. Seth had to get moving to make it to class. He hugged Leah good-bye. Kaden walked him out to his car.

He looked aged, even from the day before. It saddened Seth to realize he wasn’t going to grow old with this man, sharing stories about kids and grandkids on a front porch somewhere while they put mileage on their respective rockers. Somehow, the thought that Kaden wouldn’t be around had never, before this, crossed his mind. If anything, he thought he would be the one dying first, strong and steady Kaden always there like the moon in the sky.

“What time do you think you’ll be back?” Kaden asked.

“My class is over at one. I’ll go back to Ben’s and start packing.” He snorted in disgust. “Won’t take long. I don’t have very much.”

Kaden nodded at the Ridgeline. He’d bought it a couple of months earlier. “Why don’t you take my truck? Make it easier on you.”

Seth started to protest, then snapped his mouth shut.

Kaden’s grey eyes met his and that fucking mental heart beat—

kaden’sdyingkaden’sdying

—threatened to take him over and drive him to his knees.

“Okay,” Seth said.

“We’ll have dinner before we go. We’ll leave around eight for the club.”

Seth nodded.

Then Kaden hugged him. He tried not to listen to the haggard, choked sound of his friend’s breathing because Seth knew it would send him over the edge.

After a long moment, Kaden stepped back and wiped his eyes. “Thanks, man,” he hoarsely said. “Seriously.”

Seth looked at the ground. “I’ve got to tell you, I’m not comfortable with some of this. I mean… Okay, yes, she’s beautiful. But she’s your wife.”

“Not anymore,” he whispered.

Seth dumbly stared at him, horrified. “Dude, you’re not dead yet! Please, don’t rush things.”

Kaden sadly smiled. “I decided the easiest way for me to get through this is to rearrange my thinking a little. It makes it easier that way. When I’m gone, she’s going to be your wife. Right now, she’s not my wife anymore, and she’s not yours. She’s ours.”

“You are fucking whacked. Even for a goddamned attorney.”

Kaden laughed. “Yeah, tell me about it. I’ll be honest, when I thought about it that way, something inside me was okay with it. I felt so fucking jealous and angry that you’ll have all these years with her that I won’t. I knew I had to get through that somehow, because she needs me to teach you and I can’t let my ego get in the way of that. When I thought about her being ours…” He wiped his eyes again. “Yeah, it’s fucking whacked. Give me what I can hold on to, buddy. Okay?”

Seth nodded. “Okay.”

Kaden helped Seth get his books and a few other things he needed and put them in the Ridgeline. It felt weird driving it, even though he’d driven it before.

It felt…

He shuddered.

kaden’sdying

His sister-in-law had the day off from work. When Seth walked into the kitchen, Helen turned, smiled, and then her face fell. “Seth? What’s wrong?”

He sat at the table, his head in his hands.

“Kaden’s dying,” he sobbed.

He barely felt her comforting arm around his shoulders as he cried.

Somehow, Seth made it through class. Helen helped him pack when he returned. He didn’t tell her everything about their new arrangement, only that Kaden and Leah had asked him to move in with them because of the obvious, that he wanted Leah to have help with him as his illness progressed. He did hint that Kaden was worried about Leah’s state of mind and wanted Seth there to take care of her as much as to take care of him.

Helen looked sad. “They’re so sweet. You guys have been friends for so long. Ben will be upset to hear about Kaden.”

“I don’t know how many people he’s telling right now. Tell Ben not to tell anyone yet, okay?”

She nodded. “Right.”

When all his stuff was crammed into the Ridgeline, Helen hugged Seth. “Give us a call. Don’t be a stranger.”

“I appreciate you guys putting up with me. I feel like the neighborhood stray dog everyone takes pity on.”

“Hey, don’t be hard on yourself. You’ve had a rough time. I’m sorry about Kaden.”

He struggled not to cry again. It’d been hard enough to hold it together during class. He didn’t want to break down in front of Leah and Kade.

“Thanks.” It was after four when he started for their house. Halfway there, he pulled into a Publix parking lot and cried again. How was Leah holding it together? He was a fucking wreck.

After twenty minutes he put himself together and pulled into their driveway a little after five. Kaden walked out, smiling, as Seth backed up to the garage. He already had the tailgate down by the time Seth climbed out.

“Glad to see you, buddy. I sort of worried you might have second thoughts.”

Seth snorted as they started unloading boxes into the garage. “I did. And third and fourth and fifth but I guess you’re stuck with me. God only knows why you want me.”

Leah walked outside wearing her collar and dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, much to Seth’s relief. Her sad smile and welcoming hug set something spinning inside him.

“I’ll take your clothes and get them unpacked for you.” He handed her a suitcase and one of the several garbage bags holding his clothes. She took them inside.

“That’s why I want you,” Kaden said in a low voice. “That woman right there. She needs you.”

Kaden helped Seth get the rest of the boxes neatly stacked in the garage while Leah took care of all his clothes. His ex-wife had ended up with the house and furniture. To avoid bankruptcy, he’d sold off everything relating to his business. That left him with a beat-up Mustang and what was now sitting in Kaden’s garage, mostly books and some personal mementos.

“We’ll get new bookshelves for the bedroom,” Kaden offered, studying the boxes. “This weekend, we’ll go out and get some.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.” Kaden turned to Seth and dropped his voice, angry. “What aren’t you understanding? This is your home now. You live here. Yeah, it’s my name on the deed, but you need to get used to the idea that you are lord and master of this fucking place, so to speak. The faster you can get that through your thick skull, the faster you can help her, because I don’t have time for this kind of bullshit when you’ve got serious stuff to learn!”

Seth stepped back as Kaden closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself. Had he thought Kaden was handling this remarkably well? Apparently not as well as Kaden tried to portray.

“I’m sorry,” Kaden apologized. He stepped closer to Seth, his voice low and calm again. “When I…when it happens, you need to be at the point where you literally step in and fully take over in name as well as function. Leah needs to see you in that role by that time. It’ll be too late to get her trust and faith in you by then.”

He jabbed his finger at Seth. “That means you need to drop the bullshit, right now, and step up, buddy. I know it sucks. I know it’s weird. I know it’s contrary to every fucking thing you might feel right now. But you need to get used to pulling up in that driveway and looking at this house and thinking, ‘I’m home. This is my house. That’s my wife.’ When you’re doing that, she’ll feel it, and it will help her.”

Seth nodded, unable to think of a reply. Kaden returned to the house. Seth looked around. Leah had already taken all his clothes inside. He suddenly realized she’d also grabbed a bag containing dirty clothes.

He grabbed his guitar case and hurried inside. When he reached his bedroom she was still there, organizing his clothes for him, some things now neatly folded and stacked on his bed, dresser drawers open, the closet half-full. He anxiously searched for the bag of dirty clothes. When she looked at him, she laughed.

“I already got the dirty ones.”

Stunned, his jaw dropped. “What, being into this stuff turns you psychic or something?”

She pointed to a pile on the floor in the bathroom. “You looked panicked. Don’t worry, I figured it out as soon as I opened the bag.”

He reddened, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Leah. I’ll go wash them.” He started for the bathroom.

She frowned, firmly shaking her head. “No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“That’s my job.”

“Leah—”

“No!” Her eyes widened. At her nearly frantic tone, Seth held up his hands in supplication.

“Whoa. Calm down, babe.”

But she wasn’t calm. “No! It’s my job, Seth. I do that. I take care of Kaden, and I take care of you.” Her whole body trembled. Kaden suddenly appeared in the doorway, a worried look on his face. He didn’t speak, just stood there watching. Seth suspected Leah didn’t know he was there.

Seth tried again, forcing his voice to stay calm. “Leah, honey, I don’t expect—”

She stepped forward, almost in his face now, looking up at him. “It’s my job. Please.”

He glanced at Kaden, looking for help, but his friend stood there, unmoving, observing.

Swallowing hard, Seth finally nodded. He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently squeezed. “Okay, honey. It’s okay. I’m sorry.”

He heard her ragged breathing, watched her pulse thrum in her throat, her face flushed not from excitement but…

She stared at him, and he recognized the look from the night before. Barely constrained anguish fighting to bubble to the surface.

He suspected this was his second lesson.

Not sure what else to do, he grabbed her hands and gently squeezed them. “Babe, he told you to go easy on me. You’ve got to teach me this shit, remember?” He attempted what he hoped looked like a gentle smile. From the dangerous roll his stomach took, he wasn’t sure he made it.

She finally took a deep breath, then stepped into him for a hug. “I’m sorry, Seth,” she mumbled against his chest. “I know.”

It felt weird to hug her like that, knowing Kaden was watching. But when Seth looked at his friend, Kaden nodded and offered up a smile before silently disappearing down the hall.

Seth figured he must have passed this test.

She clutched at him, the same desperation from the night before. He dared rest his face against the top of her head, inhaling her scent. She always smelled good.

“We’ll get through this,” he whispered. “I promise. I’m fucking lost and I might be stumbling and tripping all over myself, but I won’t let you down.”

“I know.”

After a couple of minutes she stepped back, sniffling, and forced a smile. “Let me show you where I put everything.” She finished putting his clothes away, showed him where she’d stowed his stuff, including his toiletries in the bathroom. When she finished, she turned. “Any questions?”

“What do you want me to do with my dirty clothes?”

“Just leave them on the bathroom floor for me. Do you normally take your shower in the morning or at night?”

That was a weird tangent. “Usually in the morning. I mean, I need one now after moving that crap but usually just in the morning.”

“Before breakfast?”

“Um, I guess. No one’s usually cooking for me.”

She smiled. “Get used to it. What time do you need to be up in the morning?”

He shrugged. “It depends on if I’m working or have classes. Well, I guess working doesn’t matter anymore.” He’d stopped by after class to quit and pick up his final check. When he explained the basics of the situation, his boss understood and didn’t give him any grief.

“I need to know so I can make sure you’re up.”

“Leah, you don’t—” At her storm-cloud look he immediately backpedaled. “You don’t have to do that all tonight. We can sit down this weekend and figure it out.”

At that she relaxed.

Fuck.

His three ex-wives never doted on him like this. And he wasn’t even sleeping with Leah.

Yet.

Fuck.

Seth took a shower and joined Kaden in the den. Kaden sat on a stool as he idly strummed his guitar. Leah had already moved Seth’s to the den, the case freshly dusted and leaning against the wall in the corner. Kaden didn’t lift his head, but his eyes met Seth’s.

Seth took a seat in one of the chairs and shook his head. “Fuck.”

Kaden smiled and returned his attention to the guitar. “See why I needed you to move in? That isn’t something I can explain.”

“She nearly had a meltdown over my dirty clothes, for chrissake! Why the fuck didn’t you come in and help me, asshole?”

He shrugged. “I watched. I was worried for a minute that she’d need to go to the playroom. You did good. That was smart, reminding her what I told her about teaching you.”

Seth closed his eyes. “That wasn’t planned, dude. I didn’t know what else to say.”

“But you said the right thing.” He laid his palm over the strings to silence them and looked at Seth.

“I have to let you find your way with her as much as I can. It’ll be too much of a shock for her to lose me and try to adapt to doing things your way all at the same time. There are some things you have to learn to do exactly right, and those I will work with you on. Those relate to safety and to her security. There’s stuff like what happened earlier… There’s not a lot of time, but we have enough for the two of you to work on some things on your own. I won’t be there to help you out. You need to learn to deal with her in your way, not mine. To find things that will work for you and her. I can give you the map. You’ve got to make the journey.”

“Thank you, Master Fucking Yoda.”

Kaden smiled and strummed his guitar.

Leah called them to dinner. Seth noticed she’d prepared his favorite foods. After dinner, he walked into the living room to watch TV with Kaden.

“This feels weird, to be able to sit back and relax,” Kaden said.

“Relax?”

“Yeah, I know. Weird, huh?” He sighed. “New perspective. What’s really important now. Usually I’d still be working on a night like this. Getting home about this time, wolfing down dinner and changing clothes so we could turn around and go to the club.” He looked at Seth. “It changes a man’s perspective, that’s for sure. When you go back to school and get your degree and start working again, don’t ever forget what’s important.”

They talked for a little while, then Kaden stood. “Time to get ready.”

Seth wasn’t sure he had the right wardrobe. “I’ve got jeans, but I’m a little short on latex.”

Leah walked in from the kitchen and laughed. “I picked you up a couple of shirts this afternoon you can choose from. They’re in your closet. Just wear jeans and your black sneakers.”

They retreated to their rooms. Seth looked in his closet and, sure enough, found the shirts Leah had mentioned. Three button-up long-sleeved chambray shirts, nothing especially noteworthy. One black, one navy, one dark purple.

It didn’t take him long to change. She’d apparently already washed and ironed them, because they smelled like detergent.

He nervously waited in the living room and debated having a drink but wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. Kaden appeared first, a long duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He wore black jeans, black sneakers, and a button-up long-sleeved charcoal-grey shirt.

“Somehow, I always pictured leather vests and metal studs,” Seth snarked.

Kaden set the bag on the sofa. “Yeah, leather’s too damn hot. I usually take my shirt off anyway, keeps me cooler and more freedom of movement. I’m not in this to make a fashion statement.” He glanced down the hall and dropped his voice. “Tonight, just watch. Don’t object to anything we do, and don’t act shocked at anything you see. The only time you think about stepping in is if she calls red, I call red, or I ask you in to help.”

“You said I wouldn’t have to do anything!” Seth felt panic clambering for a hold again.

“I hope I don’t. But if I need help, I’d rather ask you than Tony or someone else.”

“How are you explaining who I am to these people?”

Kaden shrugged, sadness in his eyes. “The truth. That I’m training you to be Leah’s new Master.”

Seth didn’t think anything could break through the shock that Kaden’s matter-of-fact tone had struck him with.

Then Leah emerged from the bedroom.

The stiletto heels set off her long legs and curvy hips. The black leather skirt was marginally longer than the one she’d greeted him in the night before but not by much. The black leather bustier pushed her breasts up. He suspected her nipples would be visible if it wasn’t for the short white cotton shirt that barely concealed her cleavage. She wore a different collar, a little heavier looking than the one she’d had on before, still attached with a heart-shaped lock and with a small silver tag hanging from it. Makeup and hair the same as the night before.

She stopped in front of Kaden. With her head tilted to the floor, she lifted her eyes. “I’m ready, Master.”

“Very good, love. You look beautiful. Doesn’t she look beautiful, Seth?”

Seth nodded, finally croaked, “Yes.”

She bashfully smiled, which Seth thought was weird considering what he’d already witnessed. “Thank you, Sir.”

Shocked, Seth looked at Kaden. “We’re in formal mode now,” Kaden explained. He grabbed the duffel bag—Seth wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what was in that—and took Leah’s hand. “Let’s go play, love.”