Learning to Trust - M.A. Innes Page 0,5

smile more.”

Leon smiled?

The snort he made said that wasn’t likely.

Destin sighed again. “It’s the concussion. You were a lot more friendly before you got your brains rattled.”

Really?

“You’ve got to be kidding?” Leon seemed to find that statement as unlikely as I did.

Destin giggled and turned his attention to me. “You guys have a lot in common. I know it’s going to help make getting to be friends easier.”

He’d been stalked by his roommate, too?

Well, kind of stalked.

I must have looked confused because Destin decided to very helpfully explain. “You both had the roommates from hell. Leon probably won the Who Got The Most Insane Roommate award, though. His beat him over the head with his textbook and it gave him a concussion. I think that beats psycho stalker.”

He said it cheerfully but it seemed forced, like he was fighting to put up a front.

“I was out for only a few seconds. You were still screaming at me on the phone when I came to. That’s what gave me the concussion. You’re loud.” Leon’s teasing had Destin perking up.

“Excuse me? I was passionate and worried, not loud.” Then he stuck out his tongue at Leon as he started to wander around the room. “No gratitude, even after I gave up all my time to watch over you and care for you.”

He turned to me. “I was a very good friend. You’re going to love having me around.”

Leon couldn’t seem to decide how to respond to that one either. “Come on, lazy. We’ve got more shit to bring in.”

Destin shrugged, giving me another drama-filled expression. “I’m just not appreciated.”

He was also slightly nuts, but since that seemed to be one of the things Detective Avery liked about him, I decided to go with it. “I’m sure you were.”

“Don’t encourage him.” Leon rolled his eyes as he started moving Destin toward the door. “If I wake up and find you coming at me with the thermometer again, I’ll be the one to spank you.”

Okay, maybe Leon wasn’t as boring as he seemed…or as vanilla.

Destin’s giggle said the threat was empty, though. “Ray won’t let you. He thinks I’m wonderful.”

Another voice coming from the living room had me looking around as I followed them out. “He also thinks you’re a handful who’s enjoying driving Leon insane.”

Destin didn’t seem worried as the big man frowned at him. “He’s the closest thing I have to a brother now, so it’s perfectly fair.”

There was a story in that statement, but since I didn’t want to talk about mine, I left it alone.

Before Destin could continue his justification, the large man turned to me. “I’m Ray. We haven’t officially met yet.”

Ah.

Destin had seen Detective Avery talking to me on campus and had come over to introduce himself. He’d kept popping up around me once Detective Avery had realized I wasn’t worried about him telling his partners about me.

Rumors were floating all over the dorms, so I hadn’t expected complete anonymity.

“Nice to meet you.” I forced myself to relax again and smiled. “Thanks for the loan of the truck and the labor before.”

He smiled. “Least I could do since I couldn’t help with the move.”

Ray had worked some magic and had found not only a truck I could borrow to move my meager belongings, but according to Destin, he’d magically found a mattress and a lot of my kitchen stuff too. “I appreciate all your help.”

He gave Destin a mock scowl. “I thought my help in anything was to have remained anonymous.”

Ray got an I’m so innocent expression from Destin that no one seemed to believe. “Of course it did, Daddy.”

Daddy?

I knew from the things Detective Avery had said that he was familiar with the lifestyle—I mean, why put a cop in charge of seemingly BDSM-related calls if they didn’t understand it—but Destin hadn’t mentioned much about how their relationship was handled beyond telling me about Ray and making some vague comments about the lifestyle.

But I hadn’t taken that too seriously because it seemed like half the campus was kinky in one way or another.

It was one of the reasons I’d picked the school to begin with, but I was starting to think my big head should have had more say in the decision…because the smaller one clearly couldn’t be trusted. It’d been the one to try to convince me that Stan was just a possessive Dom and not the dickhead my brain had tried to point out.

Eventually the little head had realized the problem, but by that time