Deep in the Woods (14 page)

“Not that I worry about that. He’s not stupid.”

Sophie suppressed a shudder. “No, not Barry.”

“He’s not going to try to win you back. I should hope not.”

No, thought Sophie. He wouldn’t try to win her back. He wouldn’t do it that way.

* * * * *

Long after he took Sophie to bed, long after he loved her senseless, Dave lay awake worrying about the events of the day and those little tense lines he’d seen around her mouth. She was more upset than she was telling him, but Dave didn’t want to force the issue and reveal the depth of his own misgivings.

For Barry to call, he would have had to uncover Dave’s unlisted home number, which was a little aggressive. And it didn’t escape his notice that he called while Dave was away. Coincidence? The alternative gave him a chill—that Barry might be monitoring him and Sophie in a more involved way.

It made him never want to leave her alone again. Thankfully Cerberus was always around when he left her. Dave knew without a doubt Cerb would do his best to deter anyone who intended Sophie harm. He looked down at her in sleep. The strength of his feelings for her always surprised him, never more than in quiet, intimate moments like these.

Dave jumped as the phone jangled in the silence. He lunged for the receiver and saw his friend Ryan was calling. He left Sophie to sleep, taking the call out in the living room.

“Hello?”

“David, you jerk. Why haven’t you called me?”

“Why haven’t you come to visit me?”

“Well, what are your holiday plans? ‘Cause it’s cold as fuck up here and I’d love to head south.”

Dave smiled. Ryan was one of his oldest buddies, a tall, dark-haired, Irish Bostonian with the intelligence of Albert Einstein and a mischievous streak a mile wide. Ryan loved reason and bedlam, discipline and disruption, and smart girls who were sluts. Dave had met Ryan in his fifth-grade class in parochial school. Ryan was the one who both charmed and flabbergasted the nuns. Dave, the shy one, had watched him from a distance until they’d ended up in a karate class together. Their personalities clicked and they’d been fast friends ever since, even rooming in college together. It was in college he and Ryan set about exploring the world of BDSM, discovering they shared similar tastes in kinks and girls.

“You have to come down, Ry. Seriously. As long as you like. Atlanta is awesome.”

“How about the week after Christmas? Are you going to be in town?”

“Sure, we’re not going anywhere.”

“I can’t wait to meet your lovely subbie. How is Sophie?”

Dave had been telling Ryan about Sophie since the week he met her. Ryan knew about her past with Barry—and about her unfulfilled fantasy of being with two men at once. He and Ryan had shared a few women in their kink history, but those had been nothing more than play partners. Dave heard the unspoken query in Ryan’s conversational question.

“Sophie is great. We’re closer than ever. When you come down, we’ll have to spend some time together. I think you’ll really like her. And I’d like her to spar with someone besides me. It’s too hard for me to be tough on her, to really teach her self-defense—”

Ryan’s raucous laughter interrupted him. “It’s too hard for you to be tough on her? Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”

Dave joined in his laughter. “It’s a different kind of tough. I can be her sadist, but I can’t be her assailant.”

“I’m just teasing you. I get it. Yeah, I’d be happy to spar with her a little. Think she can hold her own against me?”

“I don’t know, but I’d like to find out.”

Ryan didn’t miss the sudden tightening of Dave’s voice. “What’s up?”

“The psycho ex actually called here today. I mean, I’ve been working with her, so she’s pretty prepared. She’s a scrappy fighter, but as I said, it’s hard for me to come at her like he would come at her.”

“Sure. I can help out. I’d be happy to.”

“The rest, we’ll see. I can’t make any promises just yet.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to. We’ll see how it goes. Either way, it will be great to see you both.”

A scream sounded from the bedroom.

“What’s that?” asked Ryan.

“Sophie. Nightmares. Gotta go.”

Dave was already running into the bedroom. He felt a moment of panic to find the bed empty, but there she was, huddled in the corner with Cerberus plastered against her side as if he could rescue her from her dreams. He’d expected this tonight of all nights, after the phone call.

“Sophie. Baby…” He knelt beside her and hauled her into his arms, ignoring her halfhearted attempts to fight him. Cerby’s soft whines sounded along with Sophie’s sobs. He patted the dog, soothing him, as Sophie grew still in his arms. She buried her head in the crook of his neck and he felt hot tears trickle down to his shoulder. “Sophie, it was just a dream. Wake up.”

“I’m awake.”

“Take some deep breaths. Tell me about it.”

She turned her face away from his inquiring gaze. “I don’t want to.”

“You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know. I don’t want to tell you about this. I just want it to go away. I don’t even know why I dream these terrible dreams. And sometimes they feel so real.”

“Maybe if you talked through them with me, just to defuse the—”

“No!” She sounded horrified. He decided not to push her any more in her current agitated state. She was closing him off purposely, and he didn’t like it, but now was not the time to press her. He rocked her until her breathing slowed and the shudders went away. Long after she drifted off, he saw her eyes move and twitch beneath her closed lids.
If only I could see what you see
, he thought.
If only I could save you from these nightmares…

Chapter Eight

Sophie’s shift was nearly over. Finally. The afternoon had crawled by. Sophie thought for the thousandth time that she didn’t even need to be here, she didn’t even need to slog through her interminable shifts at The UPS Store. Dave had told her many times that he was happy to support her while she was in school. But she had plenty of downtime to study and do assignments at work, and she felt better contributing something to the bills and Dave’s mortgage payment. And a part of her just didn’t want to ever depend completely on a man again.

Dave understood. Somehow he understood everything. Just like the lens of his ever-present camera, he always took in the whole picture, saw and understood nuances that most people missed. That’s why Sophie worried so much about him finding out about her secret trips to Overton Park.

She let Dave think she got off at five, even though she got off an hour earlier some days. She glanced at her watch. She would have a good half hour to walk the trails before Dave would start to get suspicious about her coming home late.

To assuage some of her guilt, she told herself it was only for exercise. Anyway, she was his submissive, not his child. If she chose to hike a trail after work for relaxation and exercise, she didn’t suppose she needed to report to him like some little girl. She was a grown woman. But she knew deep inside those weren’t the reasons she didn’t tell him. She didn’t tell him because he would ask too many questions she didn’t want to face. Not yet.

She was still trying to unravel the mystery that dogged her, a mystery that made her heart beat hard and her stomach ache with some kind of uneasy pain. She wanted to figure it out on her own, so she went a few days a week to the small clearing at the top of the rocky, eroded pathway and sat. She sat and tried to remember what it meant to her. She knew it was tied to her nightmares, horrible vague nightmares where nothing made sense and bright flashes blurred her vision so she squinted and cried. Even those nightmares she tried to hide from Dave now, from his probing, dissecting gaze. And at Dr. Perez’s office, she only smiled and said she was doing better.

And she was doing better, mostly. She was excited about tonight, because Dave’s friend Ryan would be arriving for a stay. Dave had spoken highly of his old friend, showing Sophie photos and telling her stories of their childhood together, and all the scrapes they got into as teens. And their experiences with women. Dave had asked her in the course of conversation if it was okay if he loaned her to Ryan, and Sophie had said yes.

He was very cautious in the language he used. “I’m considering lending you to him. I think he would enjoy you.” He phrased it as a statement, but Sophie knew it was a question. If she had made the slightest movement or expression of unease, he wouldn’t have mentioned it again, but he knew she was curious about being shared. There was something so hedonistic about being loaned out to another man. Of course, it wasn’t just any man. It was a man Dave trusted to be with her, and a man who shared Dave’s proclivities. “He plays hard, harder than me, but he plays safe, Sophie. I think between the three of us, we’ll have fun.”

So Dave would be there. He wouldn’t just shove her at Ryan and wait in another room for her to be returned later. No, she had known all along that wasn’t his style. He was far too possessive of her, which was a big part of why it felt so okay.

It would be an interesting experience, but before then, while last night’s dream was still fresh, she would spend a little more time out in the woods.

* * * * *

Ryan’s flight was early, so Dave decided they might as well swing by Sophie’s work on the way home. Lord knew she always complained about how bored she was. They could rub it in while she was trapped behind the counter. Dave had told her enough times that she could quit any day she wanted to. When her medical courses started in earnest, he and Sophie’s father both agreed that she would not continue working, but let them support her. Sophie, of course, had other plans.

Well, Dave knew how to get his way with her if he really needed to. He could always bring out the Dom voice, but he didn’t want to overuse it. She was getting mouthy enough now that he was hopelessly wrapped around her finger. Maybe the Dom voice did need a little fine-tuning. There was always tonight. He glanced over at Ryan.

“So I spoke to Sophie about the group thing.”

Ryan stretched his long legs out in the passenger seat. “And what did she say?”

“She sounded up for it, but we’ll see how the evening goes. No pressure on either side.”

Ryan nodded. “Sure. I mean, it will either click or it won’t. No need to force anything.”

The two men fell silent as Dave remembered exactly why he and Ryan had been friends for so long. Things were always easy between them. Dave felt a sense of pride in introducing Sophie to Ryan. At the same time, he was worried about them not hitting it off. When they arrived at her workplace, Dave didn’t recognize the guy behind the counter and Sophie was nowhere to be seen.

“Can I help you?” the guy asked. He looked like a high school dropout. Why the hell was Sophie wasting her time working here?

“I came to say hi to Sophie. Is she around?”

“She left almost an hour ago. She got off at four.”

The kid turned his back on Dave as if that settled things. Dave narrowed his eyes and looked at Ryan, then back at the skinny kid behind the counter. “I thought she was supposed to work until five today.”

“She only works to close on Fridays now.”

“That’s interesting,” Dave mumbled, before turning on his heel. Ryan followed him out the door. “Let’s head home. I’m sure she’s waiting for us there.”

Luckily for his temper, Sophie was waiting back at the house. He introduced her to Ryan and then waited for her to tell him where she’d been. When she didn’t, he pulled her into the bedroom and shut the door, leaving Cerby to entertain the new visitor. He turned to face her with his arms crossed over his chest.

“So we stopped at The UPS Store on our way home from the airport.” The alarm that flared in her eyes confirmed his suspicion that she was keeping secrets from him. His frown deepened. “Rather than giving me any apologies or excuses, let’s cut to the point where you tell me exactly where you’ve been going between the time you leave work at four and the time you come home after five.”

“I’ve been going to Overton Park.”

“You’d better add a Sir.”

“I’ve been going to Overton Park, Sir. To walk after work.”

“And is there a reason you thought I wouldn’t want to know that?”

“I don’t know.” A hint of petulance lurked around the corners of her voice. “I just like to get some fresh air after being shut up in the store all day. And get exercise.”

“I’ve told you how many times by now that you don’t have to work there if you don’t want to?”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with that. Sir,” she added quickly as he arched his brow. “I mean, I’ve explained to you why I want to keep working.”

“Fine. Now explain to me why you’re sneaking off to the park after work.”

“I wasn’t sneaking off. I just…they started letting me go at four and I thought I’d use the extra time to visit the park. I just…I like it there.”

“It’s not safe, you going off on your own on those trails without letting anyone know where you are. I don’t understand this behavior, Sophie. I really don’t.”

“I just need some alone time sometimes. And I was afraid if I told you about it you’d stop me from going—”