Things Made Right by Tymber Dalton Page B

thing…
    The one thing she sometimes cried about, her head in his lap as he stroked her hair and looked so utterly sad that he couldn’t fix that for her.
    The one thing two more doctors had told her would likely never happen.
    The one thing she’d wanted, but it increasingly looked like she’d never have.
    The one thing she knew Ross would give anything to fix for her.
    The one thing she knew would forever shape how he treated her, trying to give her the moon and the stars, doing anything and everything else he could to make her happy, keep her happy, to make up for it.
    The one thing that, no matter how she tried to tell him she didn’t hold him responsible for it, he would forever feel guilty about.
    That one thing.
     
    * * * *
     
    Three months after Loren’s graduation, they were settling into their new apartment in Sarasota. She was three weeks into her new job at the high-end resort and had already dealt with four A-list Hollywood stars in the course of her duties.
    After Ross arrived home from school, she’d greeted him at the door as she always did, naked and with a kiss.
    His playful smile looked even more devious than usual. “What?” she asked.
    He had a bag with him. “I brought you something.” He set his stuff down on the sofa and snapped his fingers, pointing at the floor.
    Automatically, and with no hesitation, she sank to her knees in front of him, her pussy already clenching in anticipation.
    He opened the bag and pulled out a black leather collar. Hand-tooled with an intricate Celtic knot design, the edges were wrapped with leather lacing, and it looked soft and supple.
    “I think my gorgeous girl should be appropriately attired.” He leaned in and buckled it around her neck while she held her hair up and out of the way.
    The feel of the soft, supple leather, the smell of it made her nearly come right there.
    “And there’s more.” He dug into the bag and produced matching wrist and ankle cuffs. She had to stand while he put them on her ankles, kneeling in front of her to do it.
    “Well?” he asked.
    She threw her arms around him, kissing him deeply. “I love them, Sir,” she said. “Thank you.”
    He fisted her hair, which now grew past her shoulders. “I found out about a group that gets together once a month,” he said. “A group of people who have…common interests.”
    “Sir?”
    He smiled. “People like us. They meet at a local bar to talk. Sometimes they have private parties. They meet this Saturday night.”
    She hadn’t really given it much thought. Her pulse raced. “There’s other people like us?” Intellectually, she knew it. It just hadn’t blipped her radar before that there might be people she could meet and talk to locally about it.
    “Yes. Would you like to go meet them?”
    “Just to meet them?”
    His grip on her hair tightened. “I meant what I said. No one touches you but me. And I don’t want anyone else. But I thought it’d be nice to have another circle of friends who does this kind of stuff. Knowing that we’re not alone. Like that.”
    “Yes, Sir. I’d like that a lot.” She had a growing circle of friends.
    The last thing she could do was talk about this aspect of their lives. An aspect that was a core, integral part of their relationship.
    Her other friends didn’t understand why she served Ross his food first, or waited until after he’d started eating to eat her own food.
    Why she took great pride in how he always opened doors for her.
    Why she let their teasing comments about how she needed permission from him to do things roll off her shoulders.
    “So you’re okay with us going?” he asked her.
    She smiled. “I think it’d be nice to have some new friends who will understand this part of us.”
    “That’s what I was thinking, too, sweetheart.” He pulled her in for a hug. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay with going.”
    “I’ll go anywhere you want me to go.”
    “I know. But that’s why I asked. Because like