Submission Impossible (Masters & Mercenaries Reloaded 1)

Kyle’s eyes rolled. “Don’t be a dick. I’m serious. The love thing is bullshit.”

“Or you found the wrong one and you’re letting a bad relationship ruin any good ones you could have?” Hutch had been in therapy long enough to know a few things. “Your mom had two good marriages, right?”

He’d spent some of his afternoon studying up on Kyle Hawthorne. He’d been fifteen when his father had died in an accident.

“Sure, but that’s different,” Kyle countered. “My mom and dad were good partners, and she and Sean are similar. I don’t know that I would call it some great love story. I mean I know they have a good sex life. I wish I didn’t, but I get that the lifestyle stuff works for them. But what really works is that they have a great partnership. I would bet my mom and Sean never once had a real fight. She met him, realized he would be a good partner, and the rest was history. Sean is the same. He’s a solid guy. I would bet a lot he never lost his head over a woman.”

Hutch would totally take that bet. It answered one question. Kyle had no idea what his mother had gone through all those years ago. And he’d been through something rough with a woman. Had that woman been Julia Ennis? “I am going to ask the obvious question. Who hurt you, Kyle?”

He asked it with a twist of humor, though damn, he was interested in the answer.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is I learned my lesson,” Kyle replied, sitting back. “The question is how have you not been hurt enough? After everything you’ve been through, why are you so willing to throw the dice again?”

He could tell Kyle the truth he’d learned about the world, but he wouldn’t want to listen. He’d learned that often the adults who had the most heartache and trouble were the ones who’d never dealt with it as children. Kyle had lost his father, and that had surely been terrible, but he’d had a loving mother and brother to help him through. The real question was why wasn’t he leaning on them now. “I guess I’m an optimist.”

Kyle studied him for a moment. “Yeah, I don’t understand that either. You know you only have two days, right?”

“Two days to what?” Hutch was pretty sure the case wouldn’t be over in two days. Between what Noelle had told them about Jessica’s suspicions and the possibility that Chris Taylor was working a federal investigation, they weren’t about to clear this up in a couple of days. This might be a long-haul case, and he welcomed it. It could take a while to break through Noelle’s reservations.

“Two days until she joins the training class and plops down on her training Dom’s lap.”

The thought made his fists clench, but he had to deal with it. If Noelle fell for her training Dom, or even if she simply decided she wanted the other man, he would have his answer. But she needed to understand that she had a choice. “Noelle wants to take the class. I have to hope her training Dom is unattractive but nice. Maybe an older dude who can view her as a daughter.”

Kyle’s lips quirked up. “You want her to call him Daddy?”

Hutch groaned. “No. I would prefer she have a friendly relationship with a nice Dom in training who just wants to learn with her.”

“Who wants to learn how to spank her naked ass?” Kyle held up a hand as though staving off a fight. “Sorry, man, but I think it’s kind of fucked up. If it helps any, Noelle doesn’t understand what’s wrong. She wanted to talk about it this morning on the way to work.”

He bet that had been fun for Kyle. “How can she not understand?”

Kyle shrugged. “I don’t think she truly gets how intimate this is going to be. She thinks she’s going to put on some fet wear and fill out a couple of worksheets. I worry that she’s going to balk when she gets to anal plugging 101.”

“She can always put that down as a hard limit. She’ll go through all of that on Thursday when she’s in class.” He didn’t think it would scare her off. Not the idea of taking a plug. He kind of hoped in a couple of weeks when they got to that part she might not want another Dom’s hands on her. In the beginning it would be an introduction to contracts, a whole lot of talking, and getting used to the equipment.

Why did she need to go through the class? Lots of people didn’t. Lots of Doms found their subs in the vanilla world and vice versa. They went through private training. He’d heard some talk that the board of Sanctum was discussing starting a new program where long-term couples mentored new ones or couples with problems.