sierra
“Do you know anyone just like me?” Annabella asked, holding my hand in her smaller one and staring up at me through huge hazel eyes. She pushed her tongue between her missing front tooth.
“What do you mean?” I asked, guiding her toward the playroom with the other kids during work the next day.
“Someone who doesn’t have a mommy and daddy?”
Tears welled up in my eyes, but I held them back. “I don’t have a mommy and daddy.” I crouched down in front of her and shook away my thoughts of them. That was not what she had asked. I took her hands. “But one of my really great friends grew up without a mommy and daddy. He is just like you.”
“Really?” she asked, lips turned into a frown.
“Really,” I said.
“Does he have a lot of friends?”
“I—” I paused. “Why?”
“Toni at school says I won’t ever have a lot of friends because I don’t have a family.”
“Don’t listen to Toni,” I said, intertwining my fingers with her small ones. “You will have tons of friends, just like my friend does.”
“What’s his name?” she asked.
“Steven.”
“Do you like him?”
My lips curled into a small smile. “Of course I like him! He’s my friend.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “But do you liiiiike him?”
“Miss Annabella,” I hummed.
She pinched my rounded cheeks between her fingers and giggled. “You do!”
I stood back up and took her hand. “All right, time to go play.”
Once I ushered Annabella into the playroom, I blew out a low breath and pushed away a tear from my cheek. I loved working here with these kids to show them the love that my parents had always given me, but working with children in foster care was difficult.
Kids said the saddest things sometimes.
After grabbing my things from the back room, I shrugged on my coat and walked out the doors to head back to my apartment, a short walk away. I pulled out my phone and noticed a message from Steven.
Steven: Be ready at six.
My eyes widened slightly, and I walked down the sidewalk past a couple of football players.
Me: Why?
Steven: I’m taking you to Market Square for the holiday market.
My lips curled into a soft smile as I checked myself into the building and headed for the elevator. Steven wants to take me to Market Square?! In the middle of the week? On a … date? I shook my head. Surely not.
Me: What if I already have plans tonight, Mr. Patton?
Once I hopped out of the elevator, I opened my apartment door.
Steven: Be ready at six.
After glancing at my phone’s clock, I dropped all my belongings on the counter and ran to Heather’s room.
She stood at her mirror, holding up two lacy lingerie sets to her body. “Do you like pink or purple?”
“Purple,” Athena, one of our friends, said from the bed.
“You guys have to help me,” I squealed. “I think he just asked me out on a date.”
“Shut up,” Heather said, dropping both lingerie sets and running for her makeup. “Finally!”
Nerves bubbled in my stomach, a giddy feeling rising in my chest. But was it really a date, or did he just want to fuck me afterward? I looped my thumbs around the ends of my sleeves and smiled softly to myself. Either way, we were going somewhere outside of Radiant.
Together.
She shoved me down onto a makeup chair. “Don’t move,” she said, moving a mascara wand close to my face.
Just as she was about to plunge it into my eye, I jerked back and squinted. “Heather!”
“I said not to move.” She grabbed my chin to steady it and moved the brush closer to my eye again. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just don’t pull away.” She snickered. “Just like you don’t with Mr. Professor Man.”
Once she finally finished my mascara ten minutes later, she opened my jewelry box and skimmed through it, glancing from me to the contents inside the box. Then, she pulled out some small diamond earrings.
“Did he buy you this?” she asked, staring at my necklace.
“Yes.”
“You wear it a lot,” she hummed. “Did he buy it for you as a collar?”
I pressed my lips together, thinking back to when Michelle had asked me the same thing.
“What’s a collar?” I asked, wanting clarification. “I mean, I looked up the meaning but …”
Part of me still wasn’t sure, and I didn’t really want to ask Steven because what if I was wrong and it really wasn’t a collar, but a nice necklace? I guessed they were sorta the same thing, but—gah—all this new terminology was really confusing me.
“Basically, a collar is a commitment to submit to a dominant,” she said. “Usually.”
“Usually?”
“Well …” She sucked in her cheek. “If yours is a collar, I don’t know why he didn’t tell you about it or explain what it was. Hector said that his brother has never officially collared anyone, so maybe he’s not into it?”
Steven hasn’t collared anyone?
Michelle had said it with so much confidence that I thought that this was a thing for him. But maybe not. Maybe he had just wanted to buy me something nice. Then again, he had been so concerned when I wasn’t wearing it for class.
“Has Hector collared you?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “He’s making me earn it.”
“What does that mean?”
“Hector enjoys absolute dominance,” she said. “He told me that in order for him to even consider collaring me, I would have to stop being so bratty and submit to him.” She playfully rolled her eyes. “And he wants me to be healthier.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and reached up to play with the necklace.
“By the way, my mom wants to know if you’re bringing a date to our Christmas party.”
I fiddled with the end of my sleeve and stared at my thighs. “No.”
“No?! You’re not going to ask your sexy professor?” she hummed. “Hector said that he’s British?! Why the hell didn’t you tell me that he’s freaking British, Sierra?! That’s, like, the first thing that should’ve come out of your mouth!”
“I’m not going to ask him to come with me,” I said. “We’re just casual.”
She arched a brow at me. “Buying someone a diamond necklace isn’t casual.”
“Yeah, but …” I glanced in the mirror at Athena on the bed.
“Tell her, Athena.”
“Do it,” Athena said. “Ask him to come.”
“Ask him to come,” Heather cheered. “Besides, Hector is going to be there.”
“You’re bringing Hector to your parents’ Christmas party?!” I exclaimed.
What would her mother say if she found out her daughter was dating someone twice her age who owned a BDSM club downtown?! She had to either be crazy or she loved the thrill of possibly getting caught.
“He’s my dad’s best friend,” Heather said.
My eyes bugged out of my head. “That Hector?! The one your mom kept calling Hec? I remember him from last year’s party.”
Goddamn, they weren’t related biologically, but the Pattons had adopted some attractive kids.
“Yes, the sexy Hector,” Heather said, wiggling her brows. “You have to bring Steven.”
“That means I’ll have to ask him,” I whispered.
“Duh.”
“Heather!” I said. “It’s not that easy.”
“It’s, Hey, Sexy Professor Man, come to a Christmas party with me and then fuck me afterward.” She giggled. “It is literally that simple. Men are not as complex creatures as you think, Sea.”
Athena snickered from the bed. “She’s right. That’s all it takes.”
“We’re more complex than that,” Charlie—who I hadn’t seen until now—said, waltzing into the bedroom and sitting beside Athena on the bed.
Charlie and Athena had been best friends since freshman year of college.
Athena playfully rolled her eyes. “Please.”
“You think I’d be convinced to go to a party if promised sex afterward?” Charlie asked her, his brown eyes wide, like a puppy dog’s.
They stared at each other for a few moments, Charlie giving Athena playful eyes while Athena attempted to be uninterested. I glanced at Heather in the makeup mirror and bit back a smile because we both knew they secretly had a thing for each other.
But Charlie was too good and too sweet to make the first move.
“Anyway,” Heather said, curling her finger around a strand of my hair, “you’d better invite him tonight or else.”
“Or else?” I giggled. “You’re not too good at threats.”
“Shut up.” She laughed, setting her hands on my shoulders. “You’re done.”
I nervously stared at myself in the mirror, heart racing at the thought of finally going on my first date since that idiot who I now called my ex-boyfriend. My lips curled into a smile, though my stomach was tight in knots.
Tonight, I’d have to ask Professor Patton to Heather’s Christmas party.