CHAPTER9
As her eyes fluttered open the next morning, it took Kim a few moments to remember where she was. She’d had every intention of driving home last night, but the last guest had lingered until almost two and by the time everything was cleaned and put away, it was pushing three-thirty. All she’d wanted to do was kick off her shoes and climb into her old bed.
Thankfully, she’d done a little more than that. Before crawling into bed the night before, she’d stripped off her work clothes and slipped on an old nightshirt she kept in the closet for the rare occasions when she slept over. Her mom always washed it for her, so it was ready to wear any time she needed it.
Thinking about Belinda Langley brought a smile to Kim’s face. Her mom was the perfect balance of career woman and housewife. She’d stayed home with Mark and Kim until Kim was off to school, and then spent her days working as a mortgage loan officer up until two years ago when she retired. It was what Kim had always hoped to become. She wanted a husband, a family, and she wanted that balance in her life. The problem was she was now in her thirties and didn’t even have a boyfriend.
She dressed in her work clothes from the night before and ran a brush through her hair before piling it on top of her head with a clip from her old nightstand. Seeing Justin last night had caused everything womanly in her to sit up and take notice. She’d read countless books where women found that connection with a man, but she’d yet to find it with anyone else but Justin. There was something about him that sparked inside her every time they were in the same room.
Closing her eyes, she tried to push thoughts of Justin McKay out of her head. Dwelling on what couldn’t be wouldn’t do anything but make her miserable. It wasn’t going to change anything.
Grabbing her jacket from the back of the chair, she followed the smell of food to the kitchen where she found her mom and brother already sitting around the table. Belinda looked as if she’d had hours of restful sleep. Her brother, on the other hand, wore wrinkled clothes and his hair was standing up all over the place. Had he even brushed it?
“Morning.” Kim went straight to the coffeemaker.
“Good morning, honey. I made cinnamon rolls for everyone, or there’s bread on the counter for toast.”
Kim brought her coffee over to the table, sat down, and reached for one of the cinnamon rolls. She hummed as the sugar hit her tongue. “Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome.” Belinda smiled. “How did you sleep?”
“Good.” And she had. It was one of the blessings of being so tired. She’d been able to fall asleep, for perhaps the first time in three months, without dreaming about Justin.
She was halfway through her cinnamon roll when the back door opened and her dad strolled inside. He looked even more chipper than her mom. How was that possible? They hadn’t gone to bed any earlier than Kim and Mark had.
“You two sleepyheads are up, I see.” He gave his wife a kiss on the head before making his way to the coffeemaker. He took a loud sip of the hot liquid before joining the rest of them at the table. “Do either of you have any plans this afternoon?”
“Sleep,” Mark murmured. “Lots and lots of sleep.” He turned to look at his dad. “How are you not dragging this morning?”
Davis chuckled. “Well, for starters, I drank water instead of beer last night. And I always get a good night’s sleep when I’m next to your mother.” He winked at his wife.
Mark groaned. “TMI, Dad. TMI.”
Their father grinned into his coffee as he took another sip, but otherwise ignored his son’s reaction. “Think you can help me move the tables and chairs back into the garage before you catch up on that sleep?”
Her brother ran a hand through his already messy hair, then stretched his arms high above his head. “Sure.”
Belinda turned her attention to Kim. “Are you going to see Ali today?”
Her mom’s question wasn’t unexpected. Kim polished off the cinnamon roll she’d been eating and reached for another one. “I thought I’d stop by on the way home and see how she and her mom are doing. When I talked to her last night, her mom had passed out on the couch.”
Kim didn’t need to fill in the blanks. Ali’s mother had a pattern with men and that included showing up on her daughter’s doorstep, then drowning her sorrows in alcohol until she passed out. It also meant that by noon today, she’d be taking over Ali’s kitchen, cooking every sweet known to man, while going on about how men are the scum of the earth. In the thirteen years Kim and Ali had known each other, it had happened at least a dozen times and the pattern never changed.
Belinda stood. “I put some leftovers aside for her last night. To help balance out the sugar.”
“Thanks, Mom. I know she’ll appreciate it.”
One by one, Belinda removed enough food from the refrigerator to feed ten people and placed it on the counter.
Ali rarely asked for help, but Kim knew the toll it took on her every time Ali’s mom showed up on her doorstep after another breakup.
After devouring two cinnamon rolls, Kim kissed her parents goodbye and drove to Ali’s apartment. She desperately needed a shower and a change of clothes, but her best friend wouldn’t care what she looked like.
Kim stood outside Ali’s door with two grocery bags full of leftovers. She could hear lots of movement inside and knew that Zelda, Ali’s mom, must already be in the kitchen. A few moments later, the door swung open, revealing a weary-looking Ali.
Stepping inside, Kim dropped the bags on the floor and pulled her friend in for a hug. She held her there for a good minute before releasing her. “That bad, huh?”
“I should be used to it.”
“Who is it?” Zelda yelled from the other room.
“Kim stopped by with some food from her mom’s party last night.” Even though Kim hadn’t told her friend what was in the bags, Ali knew Belinda would send leftovers.
“Oh, good,” Zelda said, appearing in the archway between the kitchen and the living room. “I have cupcakes in the oven and I’m almost done with the no bake cookies.”
“Hello, Zelda.” Kim picked the bags up off the floor and headed into the kitchen to put the food away. When she’d first met Ali’s mom, she’d called her Ms. Foster out of respect, but Zelda wasn’t having any of that. She insisted Kim call her by her first name.
Ali took the bags from Kim and began unloading them.
“Do you have any plans today, Kim?” Zelda asked.
“Beyond a shower and a change of clothes? Not really. I was kinda hoping to veg out on my couch and catch up on my shows.”
Zelda waved her hand in the air before going back to her cookie mix. “Boring. You need to come shopping with us. We’re going to have a girls’ day out, right, Ali? No boys allowed.”
Kim looked at Ali, but her friend was avoiding all eye contact. Ali hated shopping. Not that she didn’t do it, but more that she was one of those people that if she needed something, she’d go to the store, get it, and then get out. She hated marathon shopping trips, which Kim knew was more along the lines of what Zelda had in mind.
But she also knew Ali wouldn’t tell her mom no. So what was a best friend to do? “I’ll need to stop by my apartment first.”
“Yay! This is going to be so much fun.” The look of excitement on Zelda’s face was a complete contrast to the dread on Ali’s. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more Kim could do until her friend stood up to her mom and Kim didn’t see that happening anytime soon.
Four hours later, they were in their fifth store, Zelda combing through racks of clothes while Kim and Ali hovered around the cart that was full of clothes Ali’s mom would never wear. In fact, two or three days from now, Zelda would conclude that she didn’t need the new clothes and return them. This would usually come the day after Zelda had met a new man.
Something caught Zelda’s eye in another aisle, leaving Ali and Kim blissfully alone for a few seconds. “Are you ready for tonight?”
Ali frowned. “No. I know Thelma and Louise is supposed to be a great movie about female empowerment, but just thinking about watching it again makes me want to hide.”
“Maybe you could suggest another movie.”
Her friend snorted. “I’ve tried that before. It never works. She says there’s nothing that says girl power more than Thelma and Louise.”
“Girls, you’ve got to see this,” Zelda said from two aisles away.
Kim put an arm around her friend and squeezed. “Two more days at most.”
Ali sighed. “I know. That’s what I keep telling myself.”
It had been two days since Kim had seen Justin. She would love to say she hadn’t thought about him since, but the truth was that she couldn’t stop thinking about him...about their encounter in the hallway.
She’d done her best to avoid him since their night together. It was a matter of self-preservation. He’d only promised her the one night and she’d eagerly accepted thinking it would be enough.
What a fool she’d been. It hadn’t been enough. Not even close. And a part of her dreaded the possibility that their night together hadn’t had the same effect on him.
But he didn’t look unaffected when they’d come face-to-face on New Year’s Eve. If anything, the opposite was true. He’d looked at her as though it was taking every effort he had not to push her up against the wall and kiss her.
Which was why she was currently standing outside his mechanic’s shop dressed in a knee-length pencil skirt and a red blouse that dipped low enough to give a hint of the cleavage beneath. It wasn’t the sexiest outfit she owned, but in order to get here before he closed, she’d had to come straight from work.
Taking a deep breath, she hiked her purse a little higher on her shoulder and strode inside.
Sandi, the receptionist slash office manager, looked up as Kim walked through the door. Her smile was instantaneous. Sandi had been working for Justin since he opened his shop five years ago and she knew all the Langleys well as they were frequent customers. “Kim. How have you been? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“I’m good, Sandi. Work’s been crazy. What about you?” Sandi was two years older than Kim. She’d gone to school with Mark and Justin. In fact, at one time, Kim thought there might be something between Sandi and her brother, but nothing had ever come of it. At least, not that she knew about, anyway.
“The same.” Sandi chuckled. “There’s always something to do around here. Justin’s reputation for fixing older cars has started to grow and business has been booming lately.”
“That’s great.”
Sandi stood and walked around the desk to stand in front of Kim. “So, what brings you by today? Everything okay with your car?”
Kim shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Why was she so nervous? Oh yeah. Because she was there to talk to Justin. “Nothing major. It just needs an oil change. I was hoping maybe Justin could squeeze me in.”
“Let me check,” Sandi said. “Chuck and Zach were still working on a transmission last I checked, but I’ll see if Justin’s free.”
Before Kim could say any more, Sandi disappeared through the door that led out to the shop area. The sound of a tool being used filtered through for the few seconds the door was open before it swung shut behind her. Kim was tempted to follow Sandi, but she kept her feet planted firmly on the floor. She wanted to talk to Justin, but not with an audience. If she’d played her cards right, Justin would agree to do the oil change and by the time he was finished, it would only be the two of them left in the shop. She didn’t want to have this conversation with anyone else around on the off chance she’d read him wrong the other night.
A few minutes later, the door opened again. But instead of Sandi, it was Justin. He was dressed in overalls that had a patch with his name on it over his heart. There was a smudge of grease on his cheek and his hair was sticking up in several places.
His gaze raked over her from head to toe before coming back to her face. “Sandi says you’re here for an oil change.”
“Yes.” Her response came out less confident than she wanted, so she tried again. “Yes. I was hoping you could fit me in before you close.”
Justin glanced at the clock. “We close at six.”
“Yes.”
“It’s five-forty.”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“An oil change takes at least thirty minutes.”
These were all things she already knew. “Does that mean you can’t do it?”
He looked at her so long it took everything in her to stay still. Kim wished she could know what he was thinking, but he was giving nothing away.
“Give me your keys.” Justin held out his hand and waited for her to drop them into his palm. “Take a seat. I’ll come get you when I’m finished.”
With that, he turned on his heels and strolled into the shop, leaving her alone.
Kim blew out a breath and sat down on the faux leather couch that had seen better days. She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through her emails. Eventually, Sandi returned to the desk and began closing everything down for the night. “I can go ahead and get you checked out.”
Nodding, Kim tucked her phone back in her purse and dug out her credit card. Once all the paperwork was done, Kim returned to her place on the couch and reached for her phone again.
At six o’clock, Sandi turned off the lights on her desk, made sure the coffeemaker was ready to go for the morning, and strolled over to where Kim sat. “Did you need anything before I go? I hate leaving you here.”
“No, I’m good. Enjoy your evening,” Kim said with a smile.
Sandi gave one last glance into the shop before heading to the door. “It shouldn’t be too much longer. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Kim watched as Sandi locked the door behind her, essentially securing Kim inside. Once Sandi pulled out of the parking lot, Kim watched as the other two mechanics who worked for Justin got into their vehicles and did the same. Kim and Justin were the only two left in the shop.
It was now or never. She stood, walked over to the door that led to the shop, and turned the knob.
Her car was at the far end of the room, its hood up. At first, she didn’t see Justin, but then he appeared from behind a large toolbox that was as tall as him. He leaned over the front of her car, pulling the overalls tight over his ass. Her muscles clenched in appreciation.
Justin’s head whipped around as soon as he heard her heels clicking on the concrete floor. His brow furrowed and his lips turned down in a frown before going back to whatever he was doing. “I told you to wait in the lobby.”
“No, you told me to take a seat, which I did.”
The scowl on his face didn’t go away. “I also told you I’d come get you when I was done.”
She ignored him. “Sandi ran my credit card already and locked everything up.”
“I know.” He stood to his full height, grabbed the top of the hood, and lowered it back into place. Without a word or a look in her direction, Justin strolled over to the sink and washed the grease from his hands. “What are you doing here?” he asked as he turned off the water.
No beating around the bush. Now or never, right? Why did this seem harder than showing up at his place and kneeling naked in his living room? Oh yeah, because a relationship was worlds different than one night of kinky fun.
She took a step forward, then stopped herself. “I wanted to talk to you.”
He reached for a towel to dry his hands. “I wanted to talk to you as well.”
That surprised her. “You did?”
“Yes. I know you joined Serpent’s Kiss to explore your submissive nature. The best way to do that is to find a Dom, one you’re comfortable with and can experiment with to find out what you like and don’t like.”
Justin unzipped his overalls and stripped them off, tossing them into a nearby bin and leaving him in jeans and a T-shirt that had her wanting to investigate the muscles beneath. She was so transfixed by his body that she almost missed what he said next.
“You need to find a good Dom and I’ve decided to help you.”
Kim blinked. Surely, she hadn’t heard him right. “What?”
He handed her the keys to her car before walking over to the far side of the room and turning off several lights. “Finding a good Dom can be difficult, especially given your strong-willed personality and the fact that you’re new to the lifestyle. We need to find you someone who’s willing to deal with your somewhat bratty nature.”
“I’m not a brat,” she said, somewhat offended. Over the last three months, she’d been learning more about the lifestyle and the terminology. Strong-willed? Yes. A brat? No. She didn’t act out or object to be contrary or to get attention.
Justin gave her another long look. “No. You’re right. You’re not. But you’re also not a trained submissive.”
She took a few moments to digest what he was saying. “So you want to help find me a Dom.”
“Yes,” he said, lifting the bay door, then opening the driver’s door of Kim’s car for her, motioning for her to get inside. “I think that’s the best solution.”
Had she really misread the other night so wrong? And what about their night together? Had the sparks she felt only been on her side?
Lowering herself behind the wheel, she looked up at Justin. He seemed perfectly at ease with the conversation.
Before she could put words to her feelings at what he was suggesting, he continued. “We can start tomorrow. Meet me at the club around seven-thirty and we’ll begin weeding through the prospects.”