Second Base (9 page)

‘Of course.’ Another slurp of lemonade gave her a moment to think. ‘He’s always thinking of me. I get everything I need when I submit. Dan knows what makes me tick.’

‘He knows but doesn’t provide, from the sound of it.’

She bristled. Though it simultaneously surprised her, it comforted Karen to know that she still felt protective of Dan and her relationship with him.

Firm and deliberate, she set her glass on the table and leaned back. ‘Listen, Sith, I know you mean well, but this is really none of your—’ She broke off, staring at the door from the stairs as a new figure stepped into view.

He was familiar, in an eerie way. Skinny. Simple, boring clothes and shoes, but his long white hair swept out from his face like a wild fan to match the whiskers around his jaw and chin.

When he looked up, Karen grunted as though punched in the gut.

Holy fucking fuck.

She stood, then immediately dropped to a crouch behind a cluster of other kinksters.

‘Karen?’ Sith peered at her, his expression borderline stony. ‘Sorry if I offended you, but I think you should be able to—’

‘Shut up,’ she hissed.

Hurt blossomed in Sith’s eyes. Karen ignored it, watching the familiar figure.

Oh my god, it can’t be. It is. It is!

‘Karen—’

‘Don’t say my name!’ She stood, darted away from Sith and plunged her hand through Dan’s conversation. He gave a cry of alarm as she heaved on his shirt collar. ‘We need to leave,’ she snapped.

‘Kaz, what—’

‘Your dad is here!’

‘What? No, he’s having brunch with Mum.’

Karen pointed.

Dan choked. Colour drained from his face. He gave a little moan, dropping low behind Henrietta’s back. ‘Fuck!’

‘I know. Let’s just go. He hasn’t seen us yet. We can use the back way.’ She straightened and angled herself towards the opposite set of steps.

Sith stepped across her path. ‘Karen, please don’t go. Sorry if I said something out of line, but you don’t need to leave. Aren’t you overreacting?’

In the corner of her eye, Julian broke away from the greeters near the door and wandered over. He appeared comfortable, calm. Not at all like a man walking into a meeting he didn’t want to be part of. When he eventually grinned and waved at someone near the back, Karen knew the grim, slightly nauseating truth. Her insides squirmed. Dan’s grip on her hand tightened.

‘Sith, I’m sorry. I can’t explain now, but I have to go.’

He caught her arm. She snatched it back.

‘Karen, please!’ he cried.

Dan was already there, shouldering his way between them without a backward glance.

Sith actually stumbled, forced to steady himself on the back of his stool. ‘Karen . . .’

She backed off, hands raised. ‘I’ve got to go. I’m sorry.’ With that, she followed Dan, forcing her way through the press of bodies to reach the rear stairs.

Dan’s pulse hammered the back of his throat so hard he could almost taste it. Coat dangling from one arm, fingers still wrapped around his lemonade glass, he reached the back the bar and paused.

On the other side of the room, greeting kinksters like long-lost friends, Julian grinned and shook hands. A second later he sat close to Henrietta and held out his hand. His lips formed the word ‘Hi.’

Startled by Dan’s sudden exit, Denise swivelled to face him, his expression one of raw confusion. He pointed.

Dan stopped struggling into his coat long enough to wave his arms frantically, mouthing ‘NO!’ with big, exaggerated motions of his mouth.

Denise held up his hands in question.

‘Father,’ he mouthed back, begging the other man to understand. ‘He’s my father.’

Denise widened his eyes and pointed to Julian.

‘Yes!’

Jesus, this is the last thing I need. He can’t see me here.

He laughed. From across the room, Dan heard Denise’s guffaw of laugher and longed to punch something. He didn’t, instead pressing his hands together to mime begging. ‘Please, don’t.’

A quick thumbs up and shake of the head from the other man allowed Dan to release the breath he’d been holding. ‘Thank you.’

The look on Denise’s face said he’d pay for it later, but in that moment, Dan could think of nothing other than remaining unseen.

Karen stood beside him, her face slack with worry. ‘Did he see us?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘What the hell is he doing here?’

Dan clenched his fists. ‘Meeting other kinksters from the look of it. Not for the first time either. Shit.’

‘Did you know?’

‘Of course not! Do you think I would have brought you here if I knew he was coming?’

‘I was just asking,’ she shot back.

Every scrap of sense he possessed urged him to leave. To walk away and pretend he hadn’t seen a thing. But another part, a terribly curious part, with no sense of self-preservation, longed to find out more.

‘Maybe they’re just old friends and he spotted them at the bar.’ Karen’s voice was more hopeful than her expression.

Dan grunted. ‘Old friends? Is that why he’s holding a dildo the size of a cucumber?’ As he said it the bile rose in his throat. He clutched his stomach, but the spasm passed quickly. As Julian brandished a long green box, with a plastic window showing a black, heavily veined dildo, Dan couldn’t help but wonder if he’d fallen headlong into a bizarre nightmare.

I’m still in bed. This is a dream from when Robert punched me. I’ll wake up in a minute, in bed, with a massive bruise and a hangover.

To speed up the process, he pinched his arm. The pain drew a yelp from his lips. ‘Oh, good God,’ he moaned. ‘Dad’s a kinkster.’

‘Dan, let’s go.’ Karen tugged his arm. ‘Why are you standing there?’

‘I can’t believe it. I need to see.’

‘No, you don’t. You need to get out of here and keep your mind clean of any weird stuff your dad might be getting up to with those kinky fuckers we know and love.’

He faced her. ‘Weird? Is that what
we
are? Is that what
we
do?’

She hesitated. ‘No. But come on, Dan. It’s your
dad
. Do you really want to see that? There are some things you don’t share with your parents.’

She was right, but Dan couldn’t take his eyes off the familiar form of his father sitting to one side of Denise and Henrietta.

‘Mum isn’t here,’ he said at last.

Karen rolled her eyes. ‘Good. At least if Julian sees you he won’t rip you a new ear hole talking about it. But Maxine?’

‘Kaz, Mum’s not here.’ He narrowed his eyes at his father’s profile.

‘Yes, I got that.’

‘That means Dad is here
without her
.’ He watched Karen open her mouth to speak, then snap it shut again.

‘Oh . . . oh! But he wouldn’t—not your mum. Not Maxine, no way.’

‘I can’t see Mum going for any of this stuff.’

Karen gripped his arm. ‘But Julian wouldn’t cheat on her. He loves her, despite the crazy—maybe
because
of the crazy—but he’d never cheat on her.’

He shook her loose and clutched the door frame. ‘Your dad cheated on Charlaine.’

Her lips tightened. ‘Robert is an arsehole. If he hadn’t got Mum pregnant, he would never have stuck around long enough to cheat on her. Your dad is different, trust me, This isn’t the same.’

‘Then where is she?’ He craned his neck, standing on tip toes to see over the milling crowd. ‘Where’s Mum?’

‘I don’t know.’

He’d heard enough. Thought enough. Turning away he thundered down the stairs and through the back rooms of the pub. Only when the doors slammed behind him, did he hear Karen’s bell jangling as she dashed to keep up.

The car groaned as he jerked the doors open and the silence within warred with the battle raging in his head.

Karen clambered in beside him and placed her hand on his knee. ‘What can I do?’ Her voice was gentle. Hushed. The same voice one used in funeral homes or care centres for the elderly.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Maybe we should go home?’

‘Yeah.’ He started the car, the ache from his knotted jaw crawling up the side of his skull. ‘Let’s do that.’

Dan paced the living room, a beer in one hand, his mobile in the other. Karen watched him from the sofa, her face a curious mix of pain and concern. ‘What do you mean you don’t know?’ he snarled into the mouthpiece.

From the other end of the phone, Maxine gave a small huff of impatience. ‘I don’t know how else to say it, darling. I don’t know where he is. I felt terribly ill after the party, so I stayed here. I think he went shopping.’

‘Dad? Shopping? Are we talking about the same man?’

‘Of course, Daniel. Do stop being silly. Now tell me what this is all about.’

‘It’s fine.’ He tangled his fingers in his hair.

‘Something must be wrong. You’re clearly terribly upset. I know, I’ll come over—’

‘No!’ He thumped the bottle against the fireplace. ‘Sorry. Don’t let me disturb your rest.’

‘It’s no trouble, darling. It’s my job to look after you.’

Dan gritted his teeth. ‘No, it isn’t.’

‘But I want to. Is Karen there? Does
she
know why you’re so upset?’ An accusatory barb crept into her voice.

He cut a glance at his girlfriend and saw her sneak her laptop from beneath the TV. ‘She’s fine,’ he murmured. ‘She’s doing everything she needs to.’

‘If you’re certain. When your father returns, I’ll tell him you were asking for him. Would that make you feel better?’

‘No, don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to you later.’

‘Bye, darling.’ She made soft kissing noises.

Dan hung up. Burying his face in his hands, he flopped on to the sofa beside Karen, hard enough to make her bells chime. ‘You can take that off now, you know.’

She stroked it, barely lifting her gaze from the laptop screen. ‘I like wearing it.’

That made him smile. ‘I like seeing you wearing it. Is that
Kink4Life
?’

‘Yep. I thought I’d check the comments from the munch.’

He nodded, only half listening. His head whirled through dozens of questions, none of which he had the answers to.

He thought again of his father, struggling to pin point exactly what it was about the idea that made him so uncomfortable.

Was it that his dad was interested in kink at all? Or that they
both
were? That his mother had no idea what was going on? Did he really think his father was a cheater?

He picked up the phone again and dialled out.

It rang once before connecting. ‘Daniel, my boy.’

He swallowed. ‘Hey Dad. Can I talk to you? Is this a bad time?’

‘Of course not. I’m in a cab on my way back to the hotel. What’s the matter?’

‘A cab? Where’s Mum?’

‘I left her in the room bemoaning her sore head. Apparently she hasn’t felt so sickly since her student days
.
’ He laughed. ‘Did she ever tell you how much of a rebel she was when she was younger?’

Dan snorted. Though he had every intention of trying one of the cookies he’d managed to salvage from the night before, now was not the time. ‘Only when trying to convince me not to do the same.’ He raked a hand through his hair. ‘What were you up to?’

Julian hesitated. ‘I stopped to pick up some odds and sods for your mother, then had a drink at the pub. Just one or two while the cricket was playing.’

In his mind’s eye, Dan saw a cricket match playing on the big screen mounted on a wall in a far corner of the pub. He licked his lips. ‘See anyone you know?’

‘As a matter of fact, yes. Odd—it’s a long time since I socialised in this city—but I saw a few faces I recognised.’

‘Where from?’

‘The working men’s club back in Ely. Dan, are you okay? You sound peculiar.’

‘I’m fine.’ His grip tightened on the phone. Once more he paced the length of the room.

‘What did you want to talk about? Surely not how I spent my day.’

Dan flexed his fingers, then forced them to loosen. The knot of stiffness in his jaw pulled tight. ‘Actually, I wanted to talk about Robert.’

‘Karen’s father?’

‘Yes. He cheated on Charlaine. Lots of times. He still does from what I can tell.’

Silence from the other end.

‘Dad?’

‘Yes, I’m here, my boy. Just confused. You want to talk to me about Karen’s dad’s marital issues?’

‘That’s right. I want to know what you think.’

‘Well,’ he stretched the word. ‘If Charlaine is anything at all like Karen in her looks, then I’d say this Robert character is a special kind of idiot. I didn’t get a good look at her last night before things got overexcited. A shame as I would have liked to talk to her. How’s your face by the way?’

‘What?’

‘That punch. Did you bruise?’

Dan touched his cheek. He barely remembered the pain with this new, all consuming distraction. ‘I’m fine. We were talking about Robert?’

‘Oh, yes. Well, I’d also say if Charlaine is anything like Karen personality-wise then he doesn’t deserve her either.’

‘But the cheating. What do you think of that?’

Julian’s voice hardened. ‘It takes a special kind of man to cheat on his wife. To break the vows he made before family, friends and God. A man like that doesn’t deserve the love of a woman.’

‘Really?’ The sick feeling returned to Dan’s gut. He swallowed it down.

‘I know not all marriages last and that some relationships fold, but there’s no reason why that can’t be dealt with in a sensible, grown up manner. Sneaking around, lying, cheating—that’s wrong. There’s no excuse.’

Confusion and distress slowly hardened into anger. ‘No, there isn’t.’

A long pause followed. ‘Is something happening between you and Karen?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Sometimes you take a roundabout route like this to tell me about your problems. You used to do it when you were younger, all these
hypothetical
questions about this, that and the other when what you really wanted was advice. Are you asking for advice, my boy?’

‘You mean, am I cheating on Karen?’ He gnawed his lip until a hot burst of metallic fluid told him he was bleeding.

More silence.

‘No, Dad. I’m
not
cheating on her. I never would. I don’t have to. Our relationship doesn’t work that way.’

‘I’ve upset you. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to say. Unless you can be more open about what you’re really trying to ask.’ A hushed whisper cut across his voice. ‘Sorry, I must pay this fine gentleman and get out of his car, but I need both hands. My hips aren’t what they used to be.’

Dan sighed. ‘It’s okay. You’ve told me what I need to know.’

‘Good. I hope so. I need to go.’

‘Fine. Bye Dad.’ He hung up without waiting for an answer.

At his side, Karen looked away from her laptop screen. She gazed at him for long, steady seconds. ‘He’s not cheating on Maxine.’

‘I don’t know what to believe.’

‘You think he’d lie to you?’

‘I don’t know.’ He sighed and shuffled across the sofa, curling his arm around her shoulder. He buried his nose in the space beneath her ear. ‘I
do
know that I don’t want to talk about it any more. I just want to sit with you and browse slaves for the Library.’

‘I messaged Mandy to apologise.’

‘Who?’

‘The sub, Dan.’ She gave him a playful shove. ‘The one we went there to meet in the first place.’

It all seemed so long ago. A distant dream where life was normal and the kink scene, safe. ‘Great. What did she say?’