Casey's Secrets (Full Trilogy) by Ophelia Bell Page B

set you off after I left yesterday. Come inside and talk to me, okay?” My stepdad’s best friend was the sweet, honorable, heroic type. He squeezed my ankle and reached across the gearshift to grab the duffel bag I’d tossed in the floorboards when I’d climbed into the truck the night before. I’d meant to go to my friend Sarah’s house, but she’d been unavailable, in spite of our near constant communication since turning eighteen and our subsequent high school graduation. We had big summer plans now that we were officially adults. Mine had mostly involved trying to understand some of the darker thoughts I had about sex. But I had a feeling all that would be changing now that Max and Rick had opened my eyes up to the true wonders of the BDSM world. At least that’s what I’d gone to sleep imagining last night.
    The humiliation of the experience was still acutely with me. Seeing my stepdad Max in bed with my mother again after we’d talked about how over their marriage was … his hands on her … it had all been too much. I couldn’t stay in the same house with two people I couldn’t bear to look at after the events of the last two days.
    I let Rick help me out of the truck and lead me to his front door, my eyes hazy from tears. I had always adored his house, but had trouble appreciating the architecture of the Craftsman style bungalow my family had visited so many times for barbecues before Rick’s wife had died a year ago. He’d built the house himself before even meeting his wife. My stepdad had helped him, and I still remembered coming around sometimes with Mom while the pair of them were in the middle of some project or other. Laying the plumbing or hanging drywall. It had been when I was too young to appreciate how gorgeous the two men were without shirts, but I could still recognize their masculinity even that young, and I loved being around them. I’d felt safe, protected.
    It was a far cry from how I felt now. Max had betrayed me. And my mother … why was she acting that way if she was divorcing him?
    Once inside, he urged me onto the sofa. I flopped down and buried my face in my hands, trying to hide behind the tears.
    “Was it too much for you yesterday?” Rick asked softly. “The first session can take a lot out of you. I was a bit of a mess the first time Lola dominated me. Felt like such a baby for a few days afterward. The second time was very different, though.”
    I shook my head. “It wasn’t that. I loved it.” Those were the only words I could get out before emotion bubbled up again at a fresh image of Mom’s naked back hovering above Max on their bed. Rick left the sofa next to me and a moment later a box of tissues hovered in front of my face. I gratefully grabbed the box and he sat on the coffee table in front of me, resting his strong, calloused hands on my bare knees.
    “Take a deep breath, honey. Talk to me.”
    “Mom … came home,” I said, the words coming out in a stutter. I blew my nose and tried to catch my breath for more. “Last night … I saw them … together. Why would he do that?”
    Rick’s lips tightened, his jaw clenching tightly. “He wouldn’t, Casey. I know Max.”
    “Oh yeah? Well I know what I saw!” I yelled at him, standing abruptly. “She was naked and … on top of him.”
    “When did you see this?” he asked, his voice harsh and serious.
    I shook my head, trying to remember. I’d woken up in the middle of the night but couldn’t remember what time it was. Late was all I knew. Then I remembered trying to call Sarah.
    “About one a.m.”
    “Want to know something?” Rick asked. “I crashed hard last night when I got home. Not even a fucking hurricane could have woken me up, and your dad … er … Max did more work and was under more stress than I was yesterday. He’s not a light sleeper, Case.”
    “He was touching her.”
    “Tell me exactly what you saw.”
    “He was lying there … and Mom was on top of him … and his hands