She followed her friends and sat in an empty space between them. There were twelve desks in the room and only six had been taken before they walked in.
When they were seated, the teacher began to speak.
“What class is this?” Kyra whispered to Sadie.
“Creative writing,” Mr. Rogers answered her.
“Thank you,” Kyra said, a little embarrassed that he’d heard her. He didn’t reprimand her, but he didn’t have to. Just the tone of his voice made her tummy dance with nerves.
After about ten minutes of class, Kyra truly felt like she was back in school, and she was raising her hand and participating with gusto. She’d loved school growing up and this was so much fun.
“See, you fit right in.” Sadie linked arms with her as they made their way out the door when class ended.
Wren waved goodbye before she headed out to the stables and Hayleigh had gone to see her Daddy, who was the Head Chef of the Ranch. They’d all decided to meet in the cafeteria and have lunch together at noon.
“That was amazing.” Ky giggled. “I can’t believe you get to do this every day.”
“I wear lots of hats here, so my days don’t look the same all the time, but yeah, the Ranch is a pretty great place to live. What do you want to do next?”
“I don’t know, there’s so much. What do you suggest?”
Sadie grinned. “Want to see the indoor playground? The outside one is fun too but it’s really hot today.”
Kyra loved to be outside but the idea of staying in the air conditioning sounded pretty good. “Let’s do it!”
They headed to the end of the hall where there was another elevator and took it down to the lower level. Sadie explained how half the basement was a BDSM club and the other half was open to the Littles. Kyra was intrigued by the idea of the club, but once she saw the playground she forgot all about it.
“Oh. Em. Gee,” she said in awe of what she was about to experience.
Sadie signed them in at the entrance and they headed inside. Indoor playground was an understatement. It was like one of those playsets that used to be in fast food places, only it was supersized, and everything was made for adult-sized Littles. There was a maze of tubes overhead with colorful slides and obstacles, a bouncy area, and she could hear the unmistakable sounds of an arcade nearby. But Kyra instantly zeroed in on the massive ball pit.
“Last one to the balls is a rotten egg,” she squealed, running at full speed from Sadie.
She cannonballed into the ball pit without even thinking and giggled as she sank down into the colorful balls all the way up to her neck. Sadie jumped in right next to her.
“It's like quicksand!” Kyra giggled as she tried to gain her footing to move around.
“Right! The trick is to spread your body out and like roll, kinda.”
Sadie expertly moved around the pit while Kyra floundered around like a drowning kitten, laughing so hard that her sides hurt. They played in the balls for a little while longer before trying out some of the tubes and slides and finally ending up at a racing game on the arcade side. Kyra could not remember the last time she’d had this much fun, and she swore then and there that she was going to make regular trips to the Ranch because she needed this.
She needed to feel free and not judged. She needed to feel loved for who she was, not only for her fame or fortune. The only person she got that from was Kierra.
And Brock, she reminded herself. There was never an ounce of judgment from her Rock. He just stood by her side, constantly taking care of her and protecting her and guiding her in his own gentle way, and she knew it wasn’t just because she was his job. Brock cared about her.
“You ready to head up to the cafeteria for lunch?” Sadie asked when they finished their racing game.
She was honestly ready to go back to her suite and be with Brock. She missed him. But no, she needed to give herself this day. All of it. He would be waiting there when she was finished, just like he always was.
Her stomach picked that exact moment to help her with her decision. “Yep, I’m starved, this was better than any workout I ever had.”
“Right?” Sadie giggled. “Playing burns lots of calories, and so does laughing and we did a lot of that.”
“We definitely earned lunch,” Kyra agreed, and they headed back up to the cafeteria.
After a good long workout with weights and some cardio on one of the treadmills, Brock thought it had to be close to the time that Kyra was going to come back. But when he looked at his watch and realized it was barely noon, he realized that no matter how he tried to occupy himself, Kyra was always front and center in his mind and dammit, but he missed the little brat.
She was his everything, yet giving in to the urges he found himself having more and more often was dangerous. Yes, he needed to care about Kyra at least a little to want to do his job well, but this was way more than that. She was under his skin and consuming his heart and he was helpless to fight it off. And he should, shouldn’t he? He realized he had so many questions lately, about who he was to her, who he wanted to be, who she wanted him to be to her. They were questions he couldn’t seem to answer himself. After a shower, he went in search of Derek. He had no idea how the other man could help him through this, but he needed to talk to someone or he was going to implode.