“Well that’s disappointing,” he grumbled. But he got her the requested clothes and, as she curled up around his back, spooning him in his bed, he reflected that he actually didn’t feel disappointed at all.

Despite everything, he felt really good.

The next morning found Maria and Rick curled up on the pull out with Molly laying over their feet. She thumped her tail at Luke but didn’t come into the kitchen until she heard her food being poured. Whatever was wrong with them, it was definitely calling to his dog. He remembered when he’d gone to Patrick’s and Molly had been all over Rick then.

Huh.

Still unable to figure out what the problem might be, Luke shrugged and got to work preparing breakfast for everyone.

Eggs, sausage, cinnamon French toast, orange juice, and coffee.

It didn’t take too long before everyone was drawn to the kitchen by the delicious smells wafting out of it, although they did try to keep it down until Rick finally woke up. He looked awful and Maria fussed over him until he finally snagged an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap, threatening to feed her the breakfast if she didn’t just eat something on her own.

The at-home dynamic of dominants and submissives wasn’t really something Luke had gotten to see before and it was fascinating. Rick let Maria up to make her own plate and sit down next to him. Patrick fixed a plate for Lexie and brought it to her at the table. Michael and Ellie did their own thing, although they flirted the whole time and then held hands under the table, forcing Michael to eat with his left hand. Luke filled up a plate for Olivia and handed it off to her to carry herself. With vanilla relationships he probably wouldn’t have thought anything of the various ways everyone did things; in this group, seeing how they handled a meal was interesting. They all could have been totally vanilla couples, but because he knew they weren’t he could see how and why they were doing the things they were doing.

Molly sat between Rick and Maria, pretending she was too well-behaved to beg for food and just happened to be sitting there for reasons. The couple seemed a little better this morning, although Rick was definitely groggy. Maria smiled and even laughed during the conversation.

When what to do about Olivia’s day came up, everyone tensed.

“I have some things I need to get done at Marquis,” Olivia said, which set a muscle ticking in Luke’s jaw. Good thing he hadn’t had any plans for today because there was no way she was going there alone. “I didn’t get to finish everything yesterday.”

“I want to go back as well,” Patrick replied blandly.