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“Yes?”

Fuck. What was it with the high-pitched questions today?

Ugh.

Maybe I should’ve waited to have Cece with me. They were good at mellowing me out or whatever.

Tony just sighed. Then he looked up as if he was praying for patience or some shit I knew wouldn’t make any sense. He was atheist—like all of us at Plumas, really, not that it was a requirement.

“Sit your ass on the couch and start from the beginning. Lose the sass, too.”

I frowned. I opened my mouth, about to argue, because what the fuck did losing the sass even mean? It wasn’t my fault that?—

You know what,fine. I could sit on the couch and behave. For a fleeting second, Tony got that look he used to get before setting Marga or Jen on his lap for a spanking.

I enjoyed a spanking, too, but he made them look intimidating as fuck. No, thanks.

So I let go of my backpack, threw myself on the corner of his big ass couch, and placed the laptop on the coffee table. I knew he’d have one of those glass ones that didn’t look sturdy at all. There were books at the bottom. History about the conflicts in SWANA, from what I could read.

Leaning down to peer through them was probably not the best thing to do right now. I wanted to, but I didn’t get the feeling that I’d given a great first impression.

“Just read through the emails first,” I grumbled while pointing to the still-on screen. I knew it wasn’t great for battery life, but I’d set it up so it only turned off if it was in low power mode. “Please?”

Tony watched me with that frown of his for a second. I scowled, but he grabbed my laptop and started scrolling, so it worked.

There were at least a dozen emails full of lengthy paragraphs, so I tried to make myself comfortable. And I studied his face. After he reached the first email, he pulled a pair of black, thick-rimmed glasses out of the case he must’ve kept on the arm of the couch, put them on, and started reading. The screen glared against the glasses as his eyes darted from side to side. His lips pulled down from time to time, his eyebrows pinched. I was very curious and wanted to ask why he scrunched up his nose and all but snarled in disgust while reading a certain paragraph.

I didn’t.

I tried to brace myself. If I was honest with myself, I shouldn’t have come here. Tony wasn’t supposed to be trustworthy. He had said shitty stuff in the past. For all I knew, he’d agree with my professor—who really did have it out for me ever since I’d called him out for spouting transphobic shit my freshman year. But I acknowledged I could be impulsive. I’dseen red when I’d read through the last email he’d sent me, and I’d acted out. Acting out meant coming here.

I started lifting my legs to the couch. Sometimes, after all the adrenaline left my body, I just wanted to curl myself into a ball and hide from the world.

“It’s bad enough you didn’t take your shoes off. You are not putting them on the couch.” Tony’s voice cut through the voices in my head.

Fuck.

“I wasn’t going—” I cut myself off before my temper proved whatever idea he had of me. In my defense, I didn’t notice. Only Erika and Kara had a rule to leave shoes at the entrance, and I didn’t crash at their place often. Erika wasn’t into having lots of guests over, and Kara shared a house with two ER doctors, so it just wasn’t a thing. “Sorry.”

I rushed out of the living room before he could give me that quirked eyebrow look all Domms had perfected.

Sure enough, there was a low shoe rack by the door, next to where I’d dropped off my backpack, really. I toed off my loafers and stacked them neatly next to it. At least I was wearing socks. The skin on my toes was supersensitive, and I always ended up with blisters if I didn’t wear anything.

But they were the low-cut ones that kind of looked like flats on their own. It didn’t help the buzzing settling underneath my skin.

Whatever.

I scrubbed my hands down my face and breathed in. Breathing exercises were important. They didn’t make a big difference, but Cece—my best friend and kink sibling—always made me do them, and they were way more put together than I was.

Ugh.

This really had gone way better in my head.

Too late to do anything about it, though.

So I dragged myself back to the couch and brought my knees to my chest.

“Better?”