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My phone buzzed again before I could get off the couch.

This time, it was a call from Erika. Small mercies, I guessed, but my point about all the attention to my phone remained. Thegroup chats were bad enough before they’d all decided to make me part of their fold, but at least I could mute them. Muting individual chats felt personal. Wrong.

“Hey, Erika.” I sighed. I’d have to sit with the feeling of ants crawling up my skin for a while longer. “What’s up?”

Like me, Erika wasn’t a fan of small talk. Even in the months after the article in that local newspaper had come out and she’d checked on me more than I would’ve ever asked of her, she was all business and direct questions.

I had appreciated it, then. It made me feel less like a pet project she was treading carefully with.

I still appreciated it.

“Just wanted to check in and see if you’re still doing the demo with Jaime.”

I frowned. “Unless you know something I don’t, then yeah.”

Did she? Annoyance swirled in, starting in my chest. I’d deal with having a group of people incessantly texting. I wouldn’t deal with using messengers as if we were back in middle school.

“Easy,” Erika warned. “I don’t.”

“Good.”

Was I curt? Probably.

All this attention on my every move was going to take some getting used to.

“Well, Eli’s still available if you want to demonstrate something harder on it.”

I snorted. “I know you’re not saying that because you need me to spank your toy for you, so I won’t tease you about it. But I appreciate the offer.”

I doubted I’d need it. Back when I’d signed up, the plan had been to use Erika’s slave as the spankee, but it wouldn’t be needed now.

Even when I thought back to Jaime’s room, and their warning about their pain tolerance, I doubted there were goingto be any issues. The pup was scared—and it was understandable—but a scared pup didn’t need a handler who was just as scared as them. They needed someone who showed them they were safe and everything was under control.

Erika huffed. She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. If I wasn’t used to the way she took time to phrase herself, I would’ve checked that the call hadn’t disconnected.

“How are things with Jaime?”

I tensed up right away—even if it could be argued that I’d had time to prepare. Erika didn’t leave things unsaid—or questions unasked, in this case.

“They’re good.” I rolled my eyes. As Jaime had pointed out that first day, I spoke in front of the EU parliament, for fuck’s sake.They’re goodwas the best I could come up with? “Too early to tell.”

“Hmm.” Whatever Erika was doing in the background, I doubted she’d tell if I asked. “Are you aware that you always go for someone with an established dynamic? I thought it made sense before, but you’re doing it now, too.”

I frowned. My first instinct was to fight the claim. That wasn’t?—

No, it was true, but it wasn’t… It didn’t mean anything. Just a coincidence.

Maybe not so much a coincidence. I observed people before I even considered to make a move on them. If a person already had some kind of dynamic? It let me see more into them. The way they behaved around a kink sibling, an anchor partner, or another sub spoke about a side of their character that wouldn’t be visible in any other scenario.

With Jaime, it was his Alpha ways with Cece. They might toy with taking the reins from me, but that didn’t come close to the way they dominated Cece. The way Jaime covered her bodywith theirs was not something they’d do with me, but it gave me deeper insight into their psyche.

Into the things they needed, and how they needed them.

“Is there a warning in that question?”

“No.” Erika clucked her tongue. “Just an observation.”

“You’re not the only one good at those.”