Audria and Bree followed my gaze.
“Is that…”
“Landon,” I said in disbelief. “The dorky bastard came here by himself because I told him I had plans with you two tonight. He probably thought I’d never find out.” I fought the temptation to shout out and embarrass him right away. The more I saw, the more fun it would be when he realized he had been caught.
The dolphin swam over to him, inverted on its belly, and let Landon grab both fins. With a few pumps of its tail, the dolphin was dragging Landon across the surface of the water on its belly. Landon was laughing with delight.
My sisters and I were all laughing so hard our sides hurt by the time he was done getting his little joyride. He stood on the ledge while a family and their young kids stepped up to take their turn. He was still smiling when his eyes wandered our way. We all smiled back sweetly, waving.
Landon’s expression turned from a smile to an outraged scowl so fast we all started laughing again.
“I present to you, the dork dom,” I said. “Deceptively cute and good natured, despite all attempts to seem broody and angry. At times, it does stupid, very stupid things, but the dork dom also is an expert in apologies, among other things. Furthermore—”
Audria stopped me with a look. “You realize how hypocritical it is for you to call him a dork, right?”
Bree hugged her hands together and smiled. “They deserve each other, Audria. It’s really cute.”
I smiled, even though Landon was still glaring in my direction. I knew he couldn’t hear anything I said from where he was, but I did know Bree was right. In some twisted way, we really did deserve each other.34Epilogue - AndiTwo Months LaterAbout three months ago, I lost my grandpa. I thought his last gift to me was the Kindle. Instead, he had given me something far more precious. Landon Collins.
Granted, it was more accurate to say he had locked Landon and I in a cage and hoped we would learn to get along before we killed each other. Still, I had Grandpa Willy to thank for how things had turned out.
I couldn’t help thinking how happy he’d be to see where my writing was taking me. My little column on Rachel’s blog about BDSM had managed to capture some of those wandering visitors looking for “Rachel’s Ass to Mouth.” It turned out they were also willing to stick around and read a little bit of my trials and tribulations in the world of BDSM. Within a couple days, the trickle of traffic turned into a stream, then a river.
Rachel had practically forced me to take the hint and make my own blog to capitalize on all the attention.
I hadn’t even begun to figure out monetization or any of those fancy business aspects of running a blog, but I did have my first real taste of what I’d always wanted. I had readers. I had eyes on my words and a voice that people cared about listening to.
In his own way, Landon had helped me to find that, and it was just one more reason to be eternally grateful.
I grinned to myself when I thought of him. He was working at the moment, but I knew we had a date tonight. A date at The Golden Pecker, and he promised to use these fancy new knots he discovered on me.
I did feel a little guilty living in my own slice of paradise. Grandpa’s next video had appeared, and it would be an understatement to say all hell broke loose. But I’d learned that sometimes it takes an explosion to put two broken people together. And no, that didn’t exactly make sense in a literal way. But hey, Landon was the king of terrible metaphors. I at least got to have one or two bad ones, right?35Epilogue - LandonThree Months LaterAndi and I were in California for one of mom’s treatments. Given the relative chaos that broke out after dear old William Wainwright released his next video, it was probably a good thing.
With everything going on, Andi desperately needed the break. I didn’t mind the away time, either. Kicking Sydney and Edward out of the club had led to the kind of exodus of members I’d feared. But I hadn’t realized how many people who had reasons to hate Sydney and her father or Edward and his tactics were willing to join once the two were gone. In the end, profits had hardly dipped.
I was still waiting for some kind of unexpected disaster to arrive and sweep it all away. When Andi wasn’t busy during the days, we got to spend time together. A few nights a week, she came to the club and explored the world of being my submissive even further. It felt perfect. But for the first time in my life, I thought there was a chance this little slice of happiness was the kind that was meant to last.