Safeword: Arabesque (Safewords Book 9) (28 page)

“Tara used to be Terry, and she’s not only a Nurse Practitioner, but also a Domme,” Frisco said. “She’s in the process of switching genders, and is far enough along most people don’t pick up on it. She and Sam are friends; she helped us deal with the doctors and nurses in Vegas, and she’s a bit of a mother hen.” He looked at Cassie. “If she comes here, it may keep you from needing to go see a doctor, and dealing with a ride in the car, and the waiting room, and…everything else doctors put you through.”

Cam put his hand over Cassie’s. “Totally up to you. What do you want me to tell her?”

“Tell her to come, please. Someone will have to look; may as well be her. I like her, and I trust her.”

* * * *

Cassie worried as she finished dinner, and went to her room when she was done. She took her sweatpants off and donned her robe, and got into bed to wait.

As soon as she got in bed she realized she’d left her tea in the kitchen, and went back to get it. All three men were still seated at the table, but Isaac did a double-take when he saw her. It took her a minute before she realized she was wearing the robe he’d bought her. She looked down, thought of a zillion things to say, and landed on the truth.

“This robe reminds me not all men are assholes. You were kind and honest, and treated me like I was special. You talked to me like an equal when we weren’t in a scene, and you answered my questions instead of deflecting them. You walked away out of loyalty to your friend, not because you didn’t care how bad you hurt me. You cared, I could see it in your eyes.”

She reached for her tea glass and returned to her room, her insides shaking. She’d been talking to Isaac, but as she finished speaking realized the impact her words would likely have on Frisco, as he’d been the opposite of Isaac and had acted every bit the asshole.

Her ereader was charging on her nightstand, and she unplugged it and settled in bed to hopefully finish her novel, or at least take her mind off what Tara was going to have to do in the next twenty or thirty minutes.

Cam brought Tara to the bedroom when she arrived. Tara handed over a huge fluffy teddy bear, a box of fancy chocolates, and a basket of fresh fruit.

“Cupcake, there’s no way for me to do this without having to stick my nose in your girl-parts, so we’re going to make it as easy as we can and I’ll be quick. You lay on the bed and we’ll put this huge teddy bear on your stomach, and you and Cam can talk about how silly it is for a grown woman to get a teddy bear while you ignore me down below. Deal?”

Cassie nodded, and things went exactly as Tara said. As she finished, Tara sprayed something cool on her, and a lot of the pain went away.

Tara took her gloves off, covered Cassie’s legs, and moved up to talk to the teddy bear and be silly with them a few seconds before handing a small can to Cameron.

“Make sure she sprays this on the stitches every couple of hours. It has an antibiotic, but it’s also an analgesic so it’ll keep her from hurting as much.”

Tara looked at Cassie and said, “They have you on antibiotics, take them as instructed. There’s some redness around the stitches in your backside so we need to keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t get infected. How are your ribs, shoulder, and face? Anything hurt worse than it did? Better? About the same?”

“My jaw is worse but I’ve been talking and eating. My shoulder is…I’m not sure. I’m probably using it a little more, so it should be a little more sore, right?”

“Can you roll off the bed and stand for me? I don’t want you sitting up without your cushion.”

Cassie nodded and they moved the bear and got out of her way.

Tara gently placed her hands around Cassie’s shoulder and had her make some small movements.

“It’s still where it’s supposed to be. If it isn’t better by the day after tomorrow we’ll want to get some more pictures, but I’d rather not drag you into the office yet.”

Cam was sitting on the bed out of the way and he said, “Thanks for stopping by on your way home. This was so much less traumatic than having to come into the office.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m glad to help, and if anything changes or you aren’t sure about something, please text me right away and I’ll call as soon as I can. Okay? I know she’s a nurse and knows most of this, but she can’t see her hoo-hah.”

Tara stepped out of the bedroom but Cam stayed in the bed with Cassie. They heard Frisco insisting Tara eat before she left, and the three talking in the kitchen as Tara took him up on the offer.

Jake went back and forth, not sure where to stay, and finally parked himself at the door to Cassie’s bedroom where he could keep an eye on everyone.

Cassie took the opportunity to tell Cam about Isaac’s childhood, as well as the connection between him and Frisco.

“They shared someone? In the same bed? You’re sure that’s what Isaac meant?”

“It’s what he
said
, Cam. He didn’t hint around at it, he came right out and said it.”

“Do you know how the relationship ended?”

Cassie stared at Cam a few seconds before shaking her head. “Damn, I’m really not with it. How could I not ask him how it ended?”

Cam kissed her temple and fell beside her, so they were side by side, both looking at the ceiling.

“Don’t beat yourself up. We’ll find out.”

“Would you be interested in something between the four of us?”

“I don’t know, Cass. It almost seems too good to be true, doesn’t it?” He drew in a shaky breath and said, “I’m not sure I can ever trust my heart with Frisco again. Every time I look at him I see his face the night he threw me out.”

“Do you want me to insist he leave?” Cassie honestly wasn’t sure why she was letting him stay, because she knew if she put her foot down and pitched a fit about it, he’d leave. She kept trying to convince herself it was because she was afraid of Clemente, but with Isaac and Cam both having a gun, she didn’t need Frisco, too.

“No,” Cam said. “I’ve needed closure, and as much as it hurts to be around him, maybe it’ll finally let me put him behind me so I can get him out of my head and my heart.”

Cassie snuggled into him, and Cam held her as she drifted off.

* * * *

When Cam was sure she was sound asleep, he called Jake to come lay with her and he took his book bag to the kitchen table.

Isaac and Frisco talked quietly in the living room as he worked, but he blocked them out until he finished his assignment. He had some studying to do, also, but needed to talk to Isaac before he could concentrate enough to absorb the material.

He walked into the living room and tossed Jake’s ball to Frisco. “Can you take Mister Jake outside and play fetch with him a little? He’s been inside most of the day and I’m sure needs to burn some energy off. Maybe it’ll make him stop growling at you, too.”

Frisco stared at Cam a few seconds before hesitantly nodding. He walked to the bedroom door to show Jake the ball, and the dog gave a happy sound as he ran past Frisco towards the rear of the house.

Isaac laughed as the two went out the back door. “He knows you’re sending him out so you have a chance to talk to me alone, but he went anyway.”

“Cassie told me the two of you shared someone? Like, in bed, shared?” Cam put his hands in his pockets, unsure of what else to do with them.

“We did.”

“What happened? How did it end?”

“Sit down and stop fidgeting. I’m not going to bite.”

When Cam was sitting in the chair across from him, Isaac said, “A bunch of things went wrong. Frisco was bi, and she and I both knew he went to a club in Atlanta and beat on men occasionally. He also wouldn’t tell his mom or family what our arrangement was. I told my parents, and they didn’t completely understand but they accepted it.” He shrugged. “She was accepted at a doctoral program at Stanford, so it all became a moot point. There’s no way to know what would have happened if she’d stayed in town.”

“So, she went to his family functions, but you were left out?” Cam asked.

“No, she refused to leave me out, so Frisco went to family functions by himself.”

“Were you a Dom at this point?”

“I was, and she was submissive. I played rough with her mostly when Frisco wasn’t around, and when it was the three of us we gave her more sensation play than pain.”

“You know that won’t work with Cass.”

“Yes, I do. I have no idea what the future holds, dear boy. I’m prepared to ride the wave and see. Are you?”

Cam looked at the floor and allowed himself to consider the possibility a few seconds. He felt the pain of loss again. He missed Frisco’s touch, his orders, his cock, his whip and belt and flogger and…

He shut the feelings down as best he could and looked to Isaac. “I don’t know.”

“If there’s anything you need, you come to me, okay? Whether you need a hug or a flogging, or just someone to listen, come to me and we’ll figure it out.”

“I will, Sir. Thank you.”

Frisco and Jake came back in, and Jake brought the ball to Cam, who laughed as he accepted it from the dog’s large mouth. He dropped the ball in his lap and scratched below Jake’s ears, and laughed again at Jake’s goofy grin.

Jake gave him a huge slobbery kiss and Cam made a face and pointed to the bedroom. “Put your ball away and then go check on Cassie.”

He watched as the dog grabbed the ball from his lap, ran to the basket beside the kitchen, dropped the ball in, and then bounded into the bedroom.

“Smart dog.” Isaac said.

“You have no idea,” Cam responded. “He isn’t just smart, he’s
logical
. He figures things out. He’s smarter than a lot of people I know.”

“Did the two of you finish whatever conversation you needed to have without me around?” Frisco asked.

Isaac smiled and said, “Yes, I believe we did, but if you’d like to leave again I’m sure we can find something else to talk about.”

Frisco laughed and rolled his eyes. “You can be such an asshole when you want to be.”

“And you aren’t?” Isaac asked. “Remember the time you told my date I’d had the crabs, and was pretty sure I’d gotten rid of them?”

The two regaled Cam with stories of their childhood, and the three of them laughed and cut up with each other as if there were no tensions.

Cam’s phone let him know he had an incoming text, and he checked it to see a message from Cassie.

“Isaac, Cass wants you in the bedroom, please?”

Isaac looked at him in question and Cam held his phone up so he could see the request to send him in to see her.

“Why didn’t she text me?”

Cam shrugged. “She was hurting and took a pain pill. She may be a little foggy.”

Isaac walked out of the room and Cam reached to the side to get his Renaissance textbook, opened it to the correct chapter, and set about studying.

He lost himself in the text and images, and he jumped a little when Frisco spoke.

“When we get Cassie squared away so she can be alone, after Clemente is caught and she’s feeling better, do you think we could go out? Like, out to eat, and maybe catch a movie?”

Cam looked up from his book as he ran over Frisco’s question in his mind a couple of times. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“I’m trying to. Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know how else to start. Isaac says I need to show you I’m serious, and I have to earn your trust and respect, but I have no idea how to...” He shrugged. “Help me out here? What can I do to get you to look at me and talk to me?”

Cam put a piece of paper in his textbook to mark the place, closed it, and took his time putting it back in his backpack as he considered the best way to answer.

“I can’t just fall back into your arms, Frisco. I lost everything when you kicked me out. I lost you, my identity as a slave, my apartment, my job—”

“I didn’t fire you,” Frisco interrupted. “You could’ve kept coming to work.”

“No. There’s no way I could’ve faced you.” Cam’s eyes turned treasonous and teared up despite his best efforts to be stoic, but he stared at Frisco and let him see the pain he’d caused as Cam spoke through his tears to say, “It physically hurts to be in the same room with you.”

At least Frisco had the courtesy to look sad, but Cam didn’t buy it. Frisco had tossed him out of the house late at night without batting an eye. Cam would do well to remember Frisco had no real feelings.

“I’m sorry, Cam. I know the feeling.”

Frisco had caused this, he’d been the one to hurt them, and for him to sit there and try to pretend he was an injured party…Cam wanted to throw his Italian Renaissance Art History book at the arrogant man.

Frisco continued, saying, “Sitting across the room from you when I can’t order you to come sit beside me
hurts
. My heart feels as if it’s been ripped out. I don’t like this feeling.”

Another tear spilled out of Cam’s eye and it pissed him off even more. “Excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for you.” His voice was bitter, and he needed to go into the other room and just get away from the pain.