Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
MADDOX
By the time the sun dips down behind the mountains and I get home that evening, I’ve gone from being pissed off that Austin ran out on me while I was asleep, to terrified I’d ignored a limit.
There’s an old notification on my phone telling me she’s live right now, so I log into the account I barely use anymore and wait for the video to load.
The first thing I see are the bruises my lips left on her throat and chest last night. The second thing is, of course, that she’s only wearing one of the lacy things she bought on my card last month and she’s got a bright pink dildo right beside her pretty cunt.
The camera’s aimed a little higher than normal and a hopeful part of me thinks maybe it was intentional. Maybe she wanted to show off my marks. Or maybe I’m bat-shit crazy and getting in too deep.
“Rancher!” she greets, her voice excited. It calms me slightly. She wouldn’t be excited to see a man who hurt her.
DamnDan: I thought we were done with this guy.
HornyHal88: What guy?
Munch3000: MustachedRancher.
DamnDan: You might as well log off, new guy. He’s gonna buy her for the night in a minute.
MustachedRancher: She’s not a fucking Redbox DVD, Dan. She’s a person.
I don’t usually mind the banter in the chat. I ignore it, other than a few snorts when a joke hits just right, but their jokes are getting less and less funny the more I consider Austin mine.
It’s stupid. She’s not mine. She won’t ever be mine if she has her way. Doesn’t stop me from being a fool, though.
“Now, now, Rancher. He’s just not a Southern gentleman like you,” Austin chides with a smile in her voice and now that I know it’s her, I can’t believe I ever missed it. She does her best to hide her accent, but it slips through every so often. “And no one uses Redbox anymore, old man.”
MustachedRancher: Not Southern.
She knows that, though. Said it just to piss me off. I can’t deny the old part, all things considered.
“Western gentleman,” she corrects. Or maybe this was her plan. I grin.
HornyHal88: She knows where he lives? Who is this guy?
MustachedRancher: Her biggest fan.
I was wrong. Chat banter is fun. Especially when I get to rile Dan up.
DamnDan: Now wait just a damn minute.
Austin and I laugh at the same time and hearing it eases my mind further because it’s a genuine one. She’s a good actress, but if she was mad at me or if I upset her last night, I think I’d be able to tell. Although, assuming is what got me into this fucking mental spiral in the first place.
MustachedRancher: Can I suggest a team building exercise?
Austin snorts quietly. “Sure, Rancher. Go for it. I’m not half-naked and about to fuck myself with a vibrator or anything.”
MustachedRancher: By all means, continue, Red.
MustachedRancher: While you’re at it, I figured we could type kinks in the chat and could say yay or nay. I’ll go first. Choking.
BigDickRich: Jesus Christ.
DamnDan: Incredible game, Rancher. Sorry about earlier.
Austin doesn’t answer right away and without seeing her face, I can’t tell what she’s thinking. The nerves slam back into me.
Moderator Notice: MustachedRancher has received a strike for violating RedRanger’s Room Rules
“No,” Austin says quickly. “He’s fine. Thank you.”
A notice comes up showing the moderator removed the strike from my profile.
Austin clears her throat. “Yay,” she says, but it comes out like a question.
MustachedRancher: You sure about that?
“Pretty sure I know my own damn kinks,” she says, the twang coming out a little bit as she sits up straighter. In doing so, she’s also hidden more of her neck from the view which has hidden some of my marks. I’ve gotta rein in the ridiculous part of me that hates that.
Daddysgirl05: Ooh he’s in trouble.
MustachedRancher: Sorry, Red. I didn’t mean to sound belittling. Your answer just sounded more like you were asking rather than telling.
“Cause I don’t get why you asked. You already know how I feel about choking,” she says, softer.
DamnDan: How does he know how you feel about choking?
BigDaddy69: Mommy and Daddy are fighting
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I grumble, hitting the button to request a private show.
It connects immediately, before she can even say goodbye to the other guys. She angles the camera up to show her face and I turn mine on as well.
“You left my bed last night.”
“Hello to you, too, Maddox. You’re aware you have my phone number, right? You don’t have to pay $250 every time you want to have a private conversation with me.” Her eyes are still confused, but she’s smiling and I’m grateful I can see it.
“You were already online. Did I cross a line?” I ask in a rush.
Her brows furrow. “What?”
“Last night. Choking you. I didn’t check with you before I did it. I’m sorry, Austin. I know better than to do that shit without asking first and I thought you were into it but if I hurt you—”
“Maddox, breathe.” Her voice is stern and I don’t understand why until I feel my lungs burning and realize I’d been rambling in a panic. I take a deep breath and it fixes the ache, but not the racing thoughts.
“Did I hurt you, Austin?”
My voice must sound as wrecked to her as it does to me because that pitiful look doesn’t leave her face and I can’t stand that I’m on the receiving end of it.
“No, Maddox. You didn’t, I swear. Everything we did last night was incredible and completely consensual.
You didn’t have to ask. You read me just right,” she says softly.
I rake a hand over my face, blowing out a relieved breath. “I should’ve asked.”
She’s quiet. When I finally look back up at the screen, her narrowed eyes are reading me. “Have you ever been diagnosed with anxiety?”
“What? No. I was just worried I’d hurt you.”
“Okay,” she says calmly, nodding. “I think there’s a difference between worried and panicking though, and—”
“And I wasn’t panicking,” I tell her gruffly. I was, but she doesn’t need to slap a label on me like that. “Why’d you leave?”
I’m expecting her to slide back into her bratty little persona, toss a cavalier quip at me with a smirk, but she doesn’t this time. She shrugs with one shoulder, a rueful smile gracing her lips. “Didn’t wanna do the whole morning after thing.”
“Could’ve texted,” I grumble, because I can’t really blame her for not wanting to deal with breakfast and Mama and awkward conversations. “I’ve been worried.”
“The phone works both ways.” Her smile’s grown—still small, but a little less self-deprecating. “Could’ve told me you were worrying.”
I nod and then sigh. This is the most expensive silence I’ve ever sat in—both from a financial perspective and from a dignity one. “How much do you know about BDSM dynamics? You seem to know a lot, but I don’t want to keep assuming things.”
“I’ve never been in a serious dynamic or anything, but I respect them and feel like I know a decent amount about the culture. We did the aftercare thing before we fell asleep. I didn’t skip out on—”
“You leaving my bed when I’m under the impression you’ll be there in the morning is a hard limit for me, Austin. From here on out. If you don’t want to sleep over, that’s fine, but I need to know that before I fall asleep.”
“Okay,” she says immediately, and it shocks me. I thought she’d argue or try to make a joke of it, but for the second time tonight, I feel like I’m getting her without her walls. “If I agree to spend the night and then I change my mind…?”
“Then you wake me up and let me know. I won’t try to convince you to stay, I swear. I just… need to know.” I trail off because I’m not even sure why it’s so important to me. It’s not right of me to ask this. She’s not mine to keep tabs on.
“You don’t have to explain it, Maddie,” she tells me. “I won’t skip out on you again. I’m sorry.”
The last bit of the wild feeling I’ve been dealing with all day leaves me.
Anxiety, she’d called it. And logically, I know that’s probably what it is, but I can’t afford to be anxious over trivial shit like this.
I’ve got a ranch to run and all the stuff that falls under that as well.
Mouths to feed, paychecks to sign, animals to take care of, trucks to keep running.
Where my little sister’s best friend spends the night shouldn’t even make the list of shit I’m concerned about, much less take the spot at the top.
“Thanks, Tex.”
She rolls her eyes and smirks, and just like that, we’re back. “Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of hassle, honestly. You owe me, for sure.”
“I do, don’t I?” I run my thumb and index finger over my mustache to hide my smile. “Why don’t you let me take you out to dinner to make up for it?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of orgasms,” she says, sitting back on her bed and spreading her knees again.
The lacy little contraption looks better now than it did in the picture she sent from the store.
My dick twitches in my jeans, but despite how I’ve been acting lately, I’m too old to let it take over my thinking for me. I’ve got a goal in mind.
“Makes sense,” I agree. “Considering I had you whimpering for me so prettily last night. I’ll give you your orgasms, but I want to take you out first. Be a good girl and say yes for me, Tex.”
Her eyes narrow, but it only makes me grin. “I don’t need to be wined and dined, Maddox. Consider yourself getting the cow for free.”
“I don’t have any use for another cow. I’ve got a lot of those. I have plenty of use for a bratty camgirl with pretty pierced nipples who loves giving me a hard time just to get her ass spanked though. Know where I can find one of those? I’d like to take her on a date.”
I watch her lips twist and her nose scrunch. She’s fucking cute, though I’d sooner sign the ranch over to Colt than tell her that. I’d like to keep my balls where they are.
“It’s just dinner, baby.”
“We’ve gotta find something you’re good at, Maddie, cause keeping things casual damn sure isn’t it,” she says with a huff.
“Definitely not sex, either.”
“No, definitely not.”
I hide another smile, but she doesn’t make the same effort.
“Let me take you to dinner, brat. It doesn’t have to be a date. It can just be for shits and giggles.” It’s definitely going to be a date.
She snorts. “We shorten that phrase now, old man. It’s shits and gigs.”
“Austin Taylor, I swear on all that’s holy—”
“Now don’t go doing all that,” she says with a grin. “You can take me out, Rancher. When?”
Fuck. I didn’t think this far in advance. “You work tomorrow?”
Her brow raises. “Eager. Yeah, only til five though.”
Damn right I’m eager. “I’ll pick you up from your place at seven.”
“Pick me up from the bar at six. I’ll just change when I get off.”
“Now who’s eager?” I ask. “You know I’m supposed to shake hands with your dad and tell him my intentions.”
“That’s not necessary,” she says quickly, and it stings a bit. I know I’m temporary to her, but damn. “He won’t be home. Besides, if you pick me up early, we might have time to fit in a quickie in the backseat before we eat.”
There’s not a damn bit of me that wants to argue with that logic. I clear my throat. “Six it is.”