“Are you and Charlotte…” He couldn’t even stand the thought.
Ian shook his head. “We’re the parents of five kids. Sometimes we have to focus on them and put our marriage in that second-tier spot. I know that intellectually. The rest of me gets jealous even of my kids, who I adore. Don’t worry. I have plans to show Charlie she’s still my sub. What I’m saying is you already made a decision about Noelle.”
“And she made one about me.”
“Did she?” Tag asked. “You said she still wanted to sleep with you.”
She’d made herself plain. “She wants to use me as stress relief or something.”
Big Tag’s head fell back and he groaned. “God, I should have let Theo take this one.” He looked Hutch’s way. “Dude, this is not the time to clutch your pearls. You’ve trained for this moment. You’ve seduced woman after woman after woman, and many of them in places that go against all standards for comfortable fucking. This is your time, Hutch. Wrap that well-trained dick of yours and get on the field because it’s go time.”
He was confused. “You’re telling me I should have sex with her.”
“I’m telling you to fuck her until she can’t possibly fuck another man because you make her so happy, she wouldn’t think of it. She’s smart, but women think with their nether regions, too. Make her pussy happy. Don’t be a super douche outside the bedroom. Be better, hotter, cooler than her training Dom.”
The idea of her having a training Dom at all was enough to make his fists clench. He wasn’t used to this feeling. “I offered to train her privately.”
Tag pointed his way. “Ah, you were a jealous asshole. That’s cool. I get that. Shove it to the side because it’s not going to help your case. You two had a fight about this?”
“I don’t know that I would call it a fight.” He’d gone into retreat mode pretty damn quick.
“Good. Then when you see her tonight, tell her you want what’s best for her and you moved too fast. Tell her it’s great to be friends. Then be the best boyfriend she’s ever had. She’ll figure it out if you give her time and don’t let your butt hurt too much.”
“So lie to her?”
Tag’s eyes rolled. “It’s not lying. You’re going to be friends with her. You’re also going to be sneaky and slip in under all those careful walls she’s built. This is a mission, brother.”
He was getting hyped up. What Tag was saying made sense. Noelle was guarded, and he hadn’t taken that into account. “Okay. A mission.”
“You are going to get in there and convince that woman that against all odds and all her very real concerns, she should jump into a relationship with you. Because you’re Hutch and you can not only fix her computer, you can fix her pussy.”
“Uh, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her pussy, actually.” It was kind of his favorite pussy of all time, and he already missed it.
“Oh, yes there was,” Tag corrected. “It was empty, and you are the horndog who can fill it.”
He groaned and let his head hit the desk as Tag continued on like a BDSM coach facing the Super Bowl of submission or something.
But Tag was right about one thing. He was giving up too easily.
Noelle was worth the work.
And he couldn’t leave her alone with Kyle. He might have to protect her from his own partner.
* * * *
“You feeling okay?” Pete asked.
She looked up from the latest data and saw that hours had passed. It was almost time to go home. She’d been able to lose herself in an experiment and the gold mine of data she’d gotten from it. She’d briefly forgotten about the horrible morning with Hutch. But she wasn’t about to get into that with Pete. He’d done enough for her in the last few days. “I’m great. How about you?”
He stared pointedly at the black crutches she was using today. Her cane was often a neon blinking sign that said I’m different, but the heavy crutches really got the point across. “You sure about that?”
“I tweaked my back. I’ll be fine in a day or two.” She hoped she was okay by Thursday night. She hated the thought of joining her class like that.
Like what? Like herself? The cane and crutches and chair were a part of her. People would either accept her or they wouldn’t.
Hutch had seemed to accept her. He’d been the kind of Dom her aunt talked about. The lifestyle, according to Lisa, was open to all types of people, and no one would blink at her cane. It wasn’t like a trendy nightclub where only pretty people were welcome.
That wasn’t supposed to be true at Sanctum.
Hutch seemed to think she was pretty.