Page 43 of Regal Feather
I chuckled.
Sergio was so damn expressive. I loved that about him. At first, it made me itch too much to relax around him, the comparisons something I couldn’t just get out of my head. Eventually, I found comfort in how diametrically opposite to me he was. How he was all too happy to steal the spotlight every single second of the day, while he really fucking cared about what you had to say.
“Because, if someone feels like they can’t set boundaries where they want them, I respect that feeling.” Erika held my gaze as she spoke. I pretended not to shiver. “I just remind them that the door is open for when they get their confidence back.”
I wasn’t sure when that was happening, but I appreciated the sentiment. I’d appreciate it more when I had more time to process.
Which wasn’t happening while they were here, and there was a rasp against the doorframe that had me on edge. A rasp could mean Santos.
“Everyone decent?”
León.
He was here, too.
I was not surviving today.
“I swear, Sir, you need to get your head out of the gutter.” Sergio huffed. “I’m not always fucking someone. Tsk.”
“Well, of course not, Mr. I think I’m a terrible top, please stuff me with your toys instead.”
I snorted, a dry chuckle coming out before I could help it. Every sub in the club—except for me, obviously—had some sort of banter going on with León and Danny. Sergio’s with León was my favorite. It only got better the more they played together when he and his Daddy went to León’s cabin to indulge Sergio’s sea monster fantasies in their hot tub.
“You’re so mean.”
“Anyway.” León focused on me. His scrutiny always had me wanting to retreat. Wanting to apologize because I wasn’t good enough. “Your man wants to know if you’re hungry.”
“Uh—”
“Wait, you’re together?” Sergio gasped. “Why was that not a part of your coming clean moment? I need details. Now.”
“We’re—”
“Nuh-uh. You tell me, or I’m gonna psych Jaime on your ass. And do you want that? No. No one does. So, speak.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I complained. The threat of Jaime worked to have me move off the bed, though. “Like, yeah, we’ve fucked, a few times, but see? That’s another thing I ruined, because it started out because Sir Ismael got in my head, and now it’s all wrong, and… It’s nothing.”
It was everything. It just meant nothing because Sir Ismael should’ve never been involved in it, and I didn’t know how to make it right now. How to turn it into everything that meant maybe not everything, but something close.
Sergio cocked his head to the side. “Please, someone tell me he hasn’t done the thing I do when I lash out about someone, and that someone happens to be right behind me.”
Oh, fuck.
I whipped my head around so fast, León had to grab me before I lost balance, but…
Nope. The coast was clear.
“You’re good, pretty boy,” León teased.
I blushed right away. I wasn’t wearing anything special. I didn’t have gloss on, and I only had a pair of old boxers and one of the more oversized clothes Jaime had picked out for me, but I liked that he called me that. Not in a kinky way, or in a having a crush on León way—even though I was pretty sure it was a rite of passage for every sub at Plumas. That, or people had no taste.
It was about the casual acceptance.
The problem was casual acceptance made me tear up now, apparently. It also meant that, in one sudden movement, tears were falling out, and I was clinging to León and his forest smell like it was a fucking lifeline, and he had to be hating me for it.
Sure, outwardly, he was hugging me back and making all the right soothing noises, but I wasn’t close with him.
This was embarrassing.
