his father, and that had surely been terrible, but he’d had a loving mother and brother to help him through. The real question was why wasn’t he leaning on them now. “I guess I’m an optimist.”
Kyle studied him for a moment. “Yeah, I don’t understand that either. You know you only have two days, right?”
“Two days to what?” Hutch was pretty sure the case wouldn’t be over in two days. Between what Noelle had told them about Jessica’s suspicions and the possibility that Chris Taylor was working a federal investigation, they weren’t about to clear this up in a couple of days. This might be a long-haul case, and he welcomed it. It could take a while to break through Noelle’s reservations.
“Two days until she joins the training class and plops down on her training Dom’s lap.”
The thought made his fists clench, but he had to deal with it. If Noelle fell for her training Dom, or even if she simply decided she wanted the other man, he would have his answer. But she needed to understand that she had a choice. “Noelle wants to take the class. I have to hope her training Dom is unattractive but nice. Maybe an older dude who can view her as a daughter.”
Kyle’s lips quirked up. “You want her to call him Daddy?”
Hutch groaned. “No. I would prefer she have a friendly relationship with a nice Dom in training who just wants to learn with her.”
“Who wants to learn how to spank her naked ass?” Kyle held up a hand as though staving off a fight. “Sorry, man, but I think it’s kind of fucked up. If it helps any, Noelle doesn’t understand what’s wrong. She wanted to talk about it this morning on the way to work.”
He bet that had been fun for Kyle. “How can she not understand?”
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t think she truly gets how intimate this is going to be. She thinks she’s going to put on some fet wear and fill out a couple of worksheets. I worry that she’s going to balk when she gets to anal plugging 101.”
“She can always put that down as a hard limit. She’ll go through all of that on Thursday when she’s in class.” He didn’t think it would scare her off. Not the idea of taking a plug. He kind of hoped in a couple of weeks when they got to that part she might not want another Dom’s hands on her. In the beginning it would be an introduction to contracts, a whole lot of talking, and getting used to the equipment.
Why did she need to go through the class? Lots of people didn’t. Lots of Doms found their subs in the vanilla world and vice versa. They went through private training. He’d heard some talk that the board of Sanctum was discussing starting a new program where long-term couples mentored new ones or couples with problems.
Noelle didn’t want that. She wanted the class where she didn’t know anyone.
“I guess you have to hope she gets a training Dom with zero desire to fuck her,” Kyle said with a tip of his glass. “Good luck with that. She’s pretty cute.”
She was gorgeous and sexy and strong. She’d been broken and come through it with all of her light intact. He wanted that light.
That was what he’d decided this afternoon after his conversation with Ian. She was worth the potential heartache. “I want her to get everything she needs. I don’t understand why she feels like she has to take this class, but I’m comfortable taking the risk.” It was time to move on. “Speaking of risk, how much of one are you taking with Jessica?”
Kyle frowned. “Like am I risking falling in love with her? Dude, no.”
It was Hutch’s turn to roll his eyes. “I was thinking more about your body. Are you going to sleep with her? The way she was looking at you, I think you could easily slip into her bed.”
“I’m going to avoid that if I can. I don’t like the idea of fucking for information, and honestly, I don’t think sleeping with Jessica would buy me much,” Kyle replied. “I think I actually get more if I play it cool, let her chase me for a while. I also can’t protect Noelle if I’m sleeping somewhere else.”
“I can handle Noelle,” Hutch promised. “I know I’m not in the bodyguard unit, but I can shoot.”
“I think I would prefer to handle that part of the