Page 68 of Lesson In Honesty
“Mmm-hmm. What’s with all the pensive shit, then?”
It wasn’t difficult to trust the rope master with his secrets. Fordham was already gaining a reputation at the club as a bit of a loner. That wasn’t to say he didn’t pull his weight—he tended to his DM duties diligently, stepped in to aid and teach when he saw someone struggling, and didn’t discriminate in his choice of sub for demonstrations.
Outside of the official boundaries of his duty, however, he was proving to be very selective with whom he spent his time.
“I’m wondering how hard he’s going to break Sierra’s heart in three weeks’ time when he goes home. Whether it’s kinder to put an end to it now before, fuck, we all go down with the ship.”
Ford dropped the table with a loudthud, shaking his head as Liam was forced to release his end. “You make it sound as though you’re all going to be madly in love and completely inseparable in a month. Come on, Liam, life isn’t a romance novel.”
Oh, if only he knew, Liam thought. “If it’s not, it’s only because we’re blind to what’s in front of us when it’s offered. I met Sierra on a cold night on the porch of Avalon. Wyatt dragged her along for company but wouldn’t let her come inside, he wasthat embarrassed by her. The moment she set her hand in mine, before I ever saw her face, I knew she was it for me.”
“Bullshit,” his friend scoffed.
“I knew,” Liam repeated, unoffended. “Part of her clicked with an empty part of me. I would’ve protected her, defended her, regardless. But she held my hand and I was ready to dismantle Wyatt piece by piece to stake my claim on her.”
They shuffled the table where it needed to go, inch by inch. Maybe he should have selected a lighter, more manageable piece, but Liam understood how much weight it needed to support, and Sierra’s safety came first above all else.
“All right, let’s agree for argument’s sake that true love or instantaneous love—whatever you want to call it—existed for you in that moment. Why doesn’t it work that way for everyone? I’ve never heard…” He rolled his eyes. “Jesus, Liam, instant lust, yes. Love, no.”
Liam perched his hip on the edge of the wood and pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Ever been to Phoenix, Ford?”
“A few times, for business.”
“Never visited a club or two?”
“I’ve never been to Avalon, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Following Liam’s example, he hopped up on the table. “Are you homesick, is that the issue?”
“I miss my friends,” Liam admitted. “I don’t think I’ve told you about them, have I?”
“No.”
“Let me fill you in. Braun and Bodie. My boss and my best friend. She was Braun’s before he laid a hand on her. Jasper and Anarchy—she loved him the moment she saw him and every single one between then and the day he finally came to his senses.” Smirking, he glanced at Ford. “Connie and Thane—he was smitten as soon as he saw her. Same with Atticus and Alicia—he didn’t give a fuck she was disabled, he just didn’t dare acton what he felt because she was Bodie’s baby sister. Saul and Caera were set up by Connie. Sierra and I were an accident. Loki and Myna met through fate; Zeke and Olivia through intimate circumstances.”
“All of them experienced this magical insta-love?”
“Maybe it wasn’t recognized as love, but they felt it nonetheless.”
“Hmmm, and you’re a mind reader who knows what they felt, right?”
Swinging his arm out, Liam thumped him on the arm. “Unlike certain unsociable assholes I can name, we’re a family unit. We talk, we figure out problems, we communicate. There are no secrets—none that remain so for long, anyway.”
“Sounds like hell,” Ford muttered.
“As one of those unsociable assholes, yes, I imagine it would be for you.” Yet again, Liam wondered what secrets the dark Dom was hiding; he had some, it was obvious, and Liam was willing to bet it had something to do with Callie.
The chemistry between them wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t friendly either.
“My unsociability comes from not wanting to be social with assholes.” Tapping his fingers on the tabletop, Ford sighed and slanted a look at him. “Are you hoping Mack will stay here with you, or thinking about moving back to wherever he’s from?”
The plan was always to go back to Phoenix when—if—the strife surrounding Sierra dissipated. While the move had been stressful, not to mention the run up to it, he’d been praying for a miracle.
Mack was making life easier, more exciting, more worthwhile in so many respects. He didn’t bitch, complain, or whine. It didn’t matter if Liam came home in a mood after dealing with entitled pricks all evening or Sierra was having a meltdown because her Little was cranky and tired; Mack just stepped intothe fray and calmed the situation down with jokes and sparkling wit.
Nothing fucking fazed him.
If he really was the missing piece in the crazy jigsaw of Liam and Sierra’s world, there were some complex and painful decisions coming in the near future.
Liam didn’t know what was the right path—did he stick with the past and return to Phoenix and the family waiting fortheirmissing pieces to come home? Could he choose the present, building a life here for Sierra in Denver? Or was the only real option to follow Mack into the future, wherever that might be?