“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Daniel said. “Just to check on you. And I’ll have Julie talk to you as well.”
“That’s not necessary,” Lynne said. “There’s no need for you and Julie to go out of your way.”
“It is necessary, and we’re not going out of our way.” The way Daniel spoke let her know in no uncertain terms that it was not up for discussion.
Lynne nodded. “There is one thing I was wondering.”
“What’s that?” Daniel asked.
“Why do you think I giggled so much? I never heard of that! Is that normal?”
Daniel exchanged looks with Luke, and Luke was the one who answered.
“First, throw away any definition you have of normal. Second, it’s not common, but it happens. Some people react differently to pain than others. Some people cry, and a few of them laugh. That doesn’t make it wrong. Understand?”
No, she didn’t totally understand, but she knew that normal was different for everybody. She just wished her normal were more in line with everybody else’s normal.
“I would suggest alerting the Dom you’re playing with about your tendency to giggle,” Daniel said. “Again, not because it’s wrong, but because it’s different. And you don’t want him to be caught off guard.”
It all made sense when they said it, but Lynne still felt like the biggest freak there was. Suddenly, she wasn’t warm and weightless anymore. She was cold and alone. A tear escaped from her eye.
“Master,” Julie said, with a nod toward her.
“And she crashes fast, too,” Daniel said, scooping her up in his arms right as the dam burst.
• • •
Later that afternoon, Lynne went for a long walk, just to clear her head and to allow herself time to think. She couldn’t believe she’d cried all over Daniel like she had. He assured her it was fine and completely understandable, but she still felt utterly foolish. What would Simon think if she cried after her demo with him? She tried to decide which was worse, laughing during the scene or sobbing hysterically after?
Maybe Simon had been right all along about her not being a submissive.
Daniel had repeatedly told her it didn’t mean any such thing. When she’d finally stopped crying, she’d been mortified, but he’d taken it all in stride and asked her to join him and Julie for lunch. She’d almost said no, but Luke had given her a look and Julie had taken her hand and begged her to join them.
Lynne had ended up giving in and had a delightful lunch with the fun-loving couple. They were both so down-to-earth and funny. She didn’t feel like a third wheel at all, and by the time they finished and she had returned home, she’d felt much better.
Daniel had mentioned that a bit of exercise would also help keep the symptoms of subdrop down. He’d told her that was what she’d been experiencing when she’d cried and it was a common reaction to the endorphin drop after a scene.
As a whole, she didn’t exercise all that much. When she was in Delaware, the kids kept her busy, and in the city, she usually walked. But she thought she needed to walk farther than she normally did, so once she stepped out of the penthouse building, she headed away from school, toward an area of the city she didn’t often frequent.
Once there, she wandered around, feeling almost like a tourist taking in all the shops and cafés that had been added since her last visit. She’d just passed an ice-cream shop and was debating on whether she wanted to get a cup or a cone when she saw a new jigsaw puzzle store.
All thoughts of ice cream left her mind. She’d loved jigsaw puzzles in college. They’d provided an outlet for stress relief. In fact, she’d enjoyed them so much, she couldn’t remember when she’d stopped doing them. Probably when she took the job at the law firm. The long hours and almost nonexistent weekends hadn’t allowed her to have much time for hobbies.
But now . . . She stepped inside and felt the same feeling she did when she walked into a bookstore. So many options to pick from. She knew she was taking a puzzle back to the penthouse; she just didn’t know which one.
Fifteen minutes later, she’d narrowed it down to two: a ten-thousand-piece New York City scene or an eight-thousand-piece puzzle of a painting that featured a medieval peasant couple. Deciding she would rather have the couple, she put the cityscape box back and started toward the register when the shop door opened and she stopped in her tracks.
Simon. Simon was here in the jigsaw puzzle store.
He didn’t see her right away. He was all smiles as he walked up to the counter to speak to the sales associate. It was clear from their conversation that he was a frequent customer.
She didn’t know how long she stood there, frozen, trying to decide if she wanted to withdraw deeper into the store or to place the puzzle on a nearby shelf and try to leave without being seen. Or if she wanted to stay right where she was so she could look at the all-male deliciousness that was Simon.
“Can I help you?”
A sales associate she hadn’t been aware of came up behind her. At the same time, both Simon and the guy he was speaking with looked her way.
“Ma’am?” the person behind her said.
Simon turned a bit pale, and his eyes grew wide in recognition. “Lynne?”
“Simon . . . uh, hi,” she said, feeling like the temperature had risen twenty degrees in the last thirty seconds. She lifted the box she was holding. “Just looking at puzzles.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward in the slightest hint of a smile. “I see that. I didn’t know you enjoyed puzzles. And not the simple ones from the looks of it.”
“Oh, yes.” She nodded. “The harder, the better. I like it hard.” Fuck. “I mean, I like them hard. The puzzles. Not anything else.” That didn’t sound right. “Except some things.” She realized she was staring at his crotch. “I . . . uh . . .”
Even the sales associates were stunned into silence. She set the box on a nearby table. “I’ll just, uh . . . yeah.” She ran out the door as fast as she could and headed straight for the ice-cream shop.
Dammit, she thought, wiping the tears that threatened to fall. She should have gotten ice cream like she’d planned to in the first place and never gone into the new store. Now she didn’t have a puzzle and she’d made herself look like an idiot in front of Simon and his friend, the sales guy. Plus, she could now never go back into that store again.
The chime on the door rang out as the door opened, and she shifted lower into the booth she was sitting at. If only she’d thought to bring a book. Then she could pretend to be reading. Or taking notes. Or doing anything other than sitting in an ice-cream shop, trying not to cry.
Maybe whoever it was would order and leave.
“Lynne?”
But no. It had to be Simon.
She didn’t look up. “Just leave me alone. I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one century. Please don’t make it worse.”
“Lynne.”
The way he said her name, the way it washed over her body, left chills in its wake. She couldn’t help it. She lifted her head, and the sight of him took her breath away. She’d forgotten how his very presence invaded her space, like he was filling her up completely. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it. And all too soon, she knew he’d leave and she’d once more be without his strong presence.
“Hello, Simon.”
Chapter Six
Simon knew he shouldn’t follow Lynne out of one store and into another. Even if it weren’t for Nathaniel’s warning sounding loud in his head, he knew better. He’d been so shocked to see her standing there in the jigsaw store, he hadn’t known what to say, and then she’d gotten all flustered. And he’d felt bad because it was his doing.
Sitting in the booth by herself, she looked so miserable and alone, he wanted nothing more than to sit by her side, gather her in his arms, and tell her everything was going to be all right.
But she wouldn’t allow that, and he couldn’t afford to do it. Instead, he did the next best th
ing. He pulled the bag out from behind his back and placed it on the table.
“You forgot something,” he said.
She sniffled. “I didn’t forget it. I never paid for it.”
“You were going to. That is, I assume you were. So I went ahead and did it for you.” He didn’t add that he’d been impressed with the level of difficulty of the puzzle she’d chosen.