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He hunkered down next to me. “I like you, Toby.”

Obviously not a man for small talk. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“So this is gonna be said with love, okay?”

I stared at him, my eyebrows arched.

Butch squared his jaw. “Break his heart, and I’ll break you.” And with that, he stood and walked off.

Oh my God.I felt like some kid who’d asked a girl to the prom, only to be threatened with bodily menaces by her dad, if I dared bring her home in a less than perfect state—or broke his little girl’s heart.

Is anybodyelsegoing to threaten me?

Then I realized that was a dumb question—Teague was back in camp, and he was heading my way.

Before he had a chance to open his mouth, I surged to my feet and got in first. “Look, if you’re here to tell me not to get too close to Robert, a couple of guys already beat you to it.”

That didn’t slow him down for an instant. “He’s had enough heartache. He’s already dreading you leaving.”

I glared at him. “There’s not a lot I can do about that, now is there?”

Except there was.

Maybe it was time to discuss my plans. Because if hishandswere thinking this way, Robert had to be too.

That was it. My mind was made up. I’d make the long-distant D/s relationship work—for both our sakes, because I needed this too.

I sighed. “I will do everything I can to ensure he isn’t hurt. Is that good enough?”

Teague frowned. “I don’t see how you can do that when you’re in San Francisco and he’s here, but I suppose we’ll have to see.”

“Let me guess. If I don’t come up with a solution, you’re going to talk with your fists?”

“No, I won’t lay a finger on you.” His eyes sparkled. “I won’t have to. There’ll be guys lining up to do that for me.”

He strode off, leaving me with my jaw on the ground.

This is so fucked up.

I knew what the problem was. If this had started out at the club, or via Recon, that would’ve been fine. All the club guidelines were in place, our roles would’ve been discussed…

But thiswasn’ta normal D/S relationship.

I’d gotten to know—wasstillgetting to know—Robert outside of all that. There’d been mutual attraction from the beginning, and we both knew it, and that was growing kind of naturally. Damn it, I hadn’t come to Salvation as a Dom—I was just a guy going to a dude ranch, who happened to like its owner, and D/s had progressed from that.

But Icouldsteer it back onto a path I was more familiar with—right?

Then I saw Robert coming my way, and my heart thumped.

This waswayoutside of my agreedno emotional tiecomfort zones in a D/s relationship.

I went into the tent and grabbed the bedrolls, more with the thought of comfort rather than activity in mind. As an afterthought, I rummaged through my toiletries bag, removed the lube, and shoved it into my jacket pocket.

It never hurt to be prepared for any eventuality.

I went back outside and waited. When he came to a halt, I sighed.

“Let’s go for a walk.”