“Then what do you calling it when a submissive woman sees someone at a club?” Sierra arched an eyebrow.
“It’s complicated,” Kenna said.
Si shook her head. “Okay, no way are you dropping ‘sex club’ and ‘sexual submission’ on me without the rest of the juicy details. Spill, little sister. Who is he...or, geez, who is she?”
“It’s a man,” Kenna said, chuckling. “His name is Griffin. And we were together for a little over a year before I enlisted in the Marines.”
“Wait. Really?” Sierra frowned, her gaze searching Kenna’s face. “I don’t remember anyone named Griffin.”
“I didn’t tell you. Back then, I didn’t know how to explain all the rest of this. And I felt like I had to keep it hidden,” Kenna said. Funny that she didn’t feel that anymore. After all, when your parents stopped talking to you because you enlisted in the military and then subtly reacted to your combat injury with an unspoken but clear I told you so attitude, you suddenly became less worried about what other people thought.
The Marines had given her that, too. And whatever else she’d lost, she’d carry that much with her. She’d been a damn good Marine. She’d been good at her job. She’d carried her weight and contributed. So hell if she was going to allow anyone to make her feel somehow less for her choices.
“So, have you two been doing a long-distance relationship all this time?” Sierra asked, a little sadness in her voice.
“No,” Kenna said. “Five years ago, I told him I was in love with him, and he told me he wasn’t interested in a committed relationship.” That moment seemed like it was a million years ago. She’d been a naïve twenty-four-year-old who didn’t think anything could ever go wrong. Now, she knew so much more—about herself and the world. Still, somehow, last night Master Griffin had made her feel like, in some ways, no time had passed at all. And that was more than a little scary.
“Oh, Kenna.” Sierra reached across the table and held her hand—her right hand. Realizing she’d grasped her prosthetic, Si went to retract her touch.
“I don’t mind if you touch my limb, Si. It’s a part of me. It’s all me, now,” she said, realizing an instant later that she’d just nearly repeated verbatim the kind, accepting words that Griffin had said the night before. She wasn’t sure what to make of that.
Sierra left her hand where it was. “Oh, my God, is that why you enlisted?”
“No. At least, not really,” Kenna said, knowing her sister was going to think that. And worrying that Griffin would, too, once she told him.
The night before, after he’d pressed her on whether they’d see one another again—and she’d agreed, she’d made her excuses and gotten out of there before he managed to hammer anymore chinks into the armor she thought she wore around her heart and her mind where he was concerned. So they’d never gotten to the talk about what happened to her.
Kenna sighed. “My relationship hadn’t worked out. I was unhappy being a paralegal at the law firm. I’d realized that I didn’t want to go to law school despite Mom and Dad’s constant pressure to do so, and I just needed to do something that meant something. And then one of partners’ nieces dropped by the firm to visit him, and I was assigned to keep her company while he was held up in a client meeting across town. She was a Marine, and we ended up going out to lunch while we waited. The way she talked about what she did was unlike anything I’d ever felt even once in my whole life.” With the exception of how she’d felt when she’d served Master Griffin. “I spent a week reading everything I could get my hands on, and then I signed the paperwork.”
“Just like that,” Sierra said.
“Just like that.” Kenna ate another chip, feeling lighter the more she talked. Which...wasn’t usually like her.
“I...wow.” Sierra sipped at her wine. “So what was it like seeing Griffin again last night? Was it weird running into him?”
Kenna released a breath. “I went there hoping to see him, and at first it was a little awkward. But, in the end, it was good. Maybe too good, because I don’t at all expect anything this time around. And, besides, I’m so different now...”