“Jake’s a former soldier and now he’s a construction worker,” she said, beaming at her aunt, who dropped his hand like it was a hot potato. Jake’s spine stiffened.

Okay, it was one thing to run interference for her cousin after she’d been asked to, but he did not appreciate being dragged into it. Especially since the way she said it... It wasn’t exactly disrespectful, but he was proud of his service and his rank and he didn’t like the little emphasis Sharon put on both of his job titles. Something about her tone made it sound like she was challenging her aunt with both of them.

“Construction?” The older woman’s lip curled as she looked him up and down with new eyes. “Are you a manager?”

The question was almost a challenge, and he realized that Sharon had just offered him up as a sacrificial victim to her aunt’s displeasure, just to distract her. Sharon’s mother had just reached them as well and she looked at him rather than speaking, her head tilted to the side as she awaited his answer. His suppressed irritation was quickly turning to justified anger, but he kept a tight lid on that emotion because it wasn’t going to serve him to show it.

“Not yet,” he said, practically holding himself at attention under the two women’s scrutiny. “I work for LD Construction and Remodeling now, but I’ve only been there for a few months.”

“He’s got great muscles,” Sharon interjected, beaming and again speaking much more loudly than she needed to. More than one person turned to look. As if to demonstrate, she let go of his arm and tried to wrap her fingers around his bicep while Jake seethed with irate tension.

He wasn’t the only one. Sharon’s mom was back to looking like she was sucking lemons while her aunt looked downright appalled.

“Could you at least try to be ladylike for once in your life?” she hissed at her niece.

All things considered, Jake couldn’t help but empathize more with Sharon’s aunt than with Sharon at the moment.

He didn’t know how he had suddenly become Sharon’s sacrificial goat, but he didn’t like it. Especially because he couldn’t imagine her treating her ex this way. Brian was pretty easy-going from what Jake had observed, but he wouldn’t have tolerated this.

Was that the answer? Did Sharon respect him less because he wasn’t going to spank her for bad behavior?

Would she have chosen a different route to distract her aunt if Jake was a Dom?

Asking himself those questions made him feel even more incensed at the whole situation. Yeah, he wasn’t a Dom but one of the biggest things Patrick and his friends emphasized about BDSM was communication and consent.