16 Lindsey #2
Salt-and-pepper beard, cut jaw, perfect nose, and determined eyes.
A nose I’ve seen before. Eyes I know I’ve seen before.
I would bet millions of dollars that if I got closer, I’d see their hazel color, the pretty mix of blue and green with flecks of golden brown and a dark-brown ring around the iris I found so fascinating while he was staring back at me.
Everything clicks into place all at once.
The reason I thought I recognized DomInTheWoods’s nose, why his voice sounded familiar and safe.
My gaze trails down his neck, the tattoos I studied online greeting me.
Peonies on the right and a sparrow on the left.
On his left forearm is the unique compass tattoo I couldn’t stop looking at during our video call.
I feel lightheaded as it all makes sense. How could I not have realized it before? He’s the man I ran into at the games this past weekend. Not only that, Mr. Perfect Nose is my Dom and now my kid’s obstacle course instructor. I don’t swear a lot, but what the fuck?
I flick my gaze back to him, and his eyes lock on mine. The way he’s watching me says he recognizes me, too. He visibly tracks his gaze over my curves then back to my face. Is he remembering how my nipples got hard against his chest, how his hands held me firm to keep me from falling over?
My heart pounds wildly, and my blood pressure has got to be spiking.
I stare, unblinking, taking in the full experience of him.
He’s intense. Beautiful. And there’s no question in my mind why he’s a Dom.
His mere presence commands attention, and his focus remains zeroed in on me.
The corner of his lips tips up a bit, and my skin prickles.
That near smile tells me he knows who I am to him, that he knows I’m Lindsey, his submissive. Did he know as soon as he found out my name when I emailed him? Has he seen me before? Did Morgan tell him? Did he already know I’m a mom?
I have so many questions, and it’s becoming hard to breathe. My brain tells my feet to move, to grab him and find out the answers I need to know.
“He’s staring at you,” Mandy says giddily.
“More like eating you with his eyes,” another mom adds, and the group laughs.
I inhale a sharp breath as my cheeks heat. Mandy bumps my shoulder, and I pry my focus from Sir to look at her.
“Do you know him?” she asks.
“Sort of.” I would’ve preferred to say no, but it would be obvious to everyone that that’s a lie.
“He’s coming over here,” the same mom from before whispers.
Goose bumps break out over my arms, and I turn my head to my approaching Dom. The group of parents next to me all stand up straighter, and the air around us seems to vanish.
“Ladies.” He addresses everyone before stopping my heart with his next word. “Lindsey.”
His deep voice zips through my body, and my mouth goes dry. He does know it’s me. I don’t know what to say back, though. I don’t know his name, and there’s no freaking way I’m going to call him Sir or DomInTheWoods. Mr. Perfect Nose might be even worse.
He turns his gaze from mine back to the parents. “For those of you who haven’t met me, I’m Dane. I’ll start in a minute; you’re welcome to stay and watch or pick your kids up at three.”
The parents mumble their thanks, but their attention is on me and the dominating man before us who I now know as Dane.
D. Woods. I guess that is his real last name.
I want to roll the full thing around in my mouth, let it fall from my lips and hear it out loud.
But I don’t need to say it to know it suits him. Dane Woods.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” he asks me directly.
“The kids…” I say.
“We’ve got them,” Mandy chirps, pushing me toward Dane.
It catches me off guard, and I almost fall forward.
He comes to my rescue, grabbing onto my bicep much like the first time we ran into each other.
His touch is searing, and my damn nipples harden like they’ve been conditioned to pop out when he touches me.
Thank god I’m wearing a real bra with pads today so they’re not visible through my shirt.
“You okay?” he asks as he rights me.
I nod, pulling back so we’re standing side by side and I can avoid his eyes. His hand drops from my bicep to my lower back, not touching me but hovering over my skin. The phantom feel is hot against my body, and even though I don’t know what to think right now, I wish he’d just touch me.
Dane dips his head until his lips are by my ear and says, “Let’s go next to the bathrooms.”
I wordlessly agree. We walk away from the other parents, and I glance at Kas. She’s not paying attention to me, her eyes still on Tyler. They’re talking about something, and she’s smiling so wide I smile, too.
“Which one is yours?” Dane asks, his hand still hovering above my lower back, its force field guiding me to the bathrooms. God, he’s tall.
I lick my lips, and I don’t miss how he observes the action. “Auburn hair, pink shirt, jean shorts. Her name is Kasandra.”
He nods but doesn’t say anything else. A moment later, we’re next to the bathrooms, the cement structure blocking us from the prying eyes of the other parents.
Maybe I should have said no to talking alone or lied about knowing him, but they’re going to have questions regardless and will probably start rumors.
Not that they wouldn’t have anyway. The visible reaction I had to Sir—I mean, Dane—and the way we stared at each other, they’re going to talk no matter what. The downside of a small town.
I find it’s better to accept your fate and let people think what they want.
That’s what Morgan, Fox, and Nathan do when people talk about their poly relationship, and it’s worked out for them.
That’s what I did when I first moved here and people wondered where Kas’s dad was.
Eventually, the gossip blew over, and people got to know me. Now, it’s old news.
Dane stands with his back to the cement wall of the bathrooms, and I face him. I don’t know if he placed us this way on purpose, but I appreciate that I’m not boxed in and that if I want to, I can flee. Not that I will, but it still feels safer.
A warm breeze blows through the strands of my hair, and the corner of Dane’s lips lifts.
“Hi, Lindsey,” he says. The warm rumble of his voice, a voice I cried to last night, seeps through my skin.
“You know who I am.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement of truth.
He sticks his hands in his pockets, veins in his forearms straining. “And now you know who I am.”
I want to say How could I not? but instead counter, “How long have you known it was me?”
“Not long. We ran into each other at the games. Then I saw you again at the hospital, and that’s how I put it together. You signed my friend Levi’s cast.”
That day, I’d been so in my head about making my decision to work with Sir, the very man standing in front of me. I remember when Levi asked me to sign his cast, but I would remember if Mr. Perfect Nose had been in the room, and he wasn’t.
“I don’t remember meeting you. And trust me, I would have remembered.”
His mouth forms a full smile. It’s disarming.
“You passed us in the hall on our way out. You were looking at your phone, and Levi asked the nurse with us if that was you. He said your name, and I put it all together.”
More pieces click into place, and heat rises in my cheeks. Was I emailing him at the very same time I passed him in the hall? My mind feels as if it’s about to explode.
“You knew this whole time?”
“What did I know the whole time, Lindsey?”
His question, the way he asks it, the way he says my name with so much authority, don’t help my nipple situation, but they also anger me.
“That I was the Lindsey emailing you,” I say.
He shakes his head. “I couldn’t have. Not until I saw you at the hospital.”
“You should have said something.”
“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. You know my business is based on anonymity. There wasn’t a reason for me to tell you.”
I could argue a million points in the other direction, but I can also understand his. I nibble on the inside of my cheek before I ask, “Did you know I have a daughter?”
He shakes his head. “Of course not.”