Safeword Quinacridone Read Online Free Page A

and then I’ll follow you back to your place if I’m still invited. Do you know what a safeword is?”
    She shook her head and he nodded without looking pleased or displeased. “Okay then, anything I should know about meeting your housemates?”
    It was another question but she didn’t correct him. “Yeah, be nice to Papa Bear or he’ll boot your ass before you get near my room.”
    He raised an eyebrow but only said, “There’s a drug store across the street. I need to make a quick stop.”
    Normally she’d have said she had condoms, but she wasn’t comfortable sharing that information at the moment so she nodded her assent. He pulled her to him, kissed her lightly on the forehead, and unfolded himself from her car.
    She reached for her phone and switched the music to Bohemian Rhapsody before pulling out of her parking spot and waiting for him to follow.  

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Cara parked and stepped to the sidewalk to wait for Travis to exit his car. They walked side by side to the porch and as they went through the front door she reached for his hand to lead him through the house, avoiding the de n area so she wouldn’t have to make introductions. This felt even more uncomfortable than usual, with him tongue-tied and politely awkward again. She wanted him to have his paws all over her making her wild with desire so she didn’t have time to think about the fact she was about to have sex with someone she didn’t know. This wasn’t working — the kiss had probably been a fluke and this was definitely a mistake.
    Papa Bear was sitting on the steps leading to the bedrooms, as she’d known he would, and he stood as they neared. He was only about three inches taller than Travis but easily had a hundred pounds on him. Travis offered his hand, suddenly socially at ease with no sign of awkwardness. “Hello, I’m Travis.”
    “Most everyone calls me Papa Bear,” he said as they shook. “You can call me Bear if you prefer.” He turned his head to Cara. “I’ll be around if you need me.”
    She grinned. “I know you will. Thanks.”
    He grunted at her and walked past them towards the main part of the house.
    “He was waiting here to meet me?”
    “Yeah, he does that. C’mon upstairs, this is where the bedrooms are.”
    “I love these old houses, and this one’s beautiful. I wouldn’t want one but I enjoy spending time in them.”
    “Why wouldn’t you want one?”
    He grimaced. “Too hard to retrofit and too much of a pain for upkeep. I engineered my home so it can easily be upgraded to better and better technology as it’s invented.”
    “Ah, right. Geek stuff. Here we are.”
    She opened her door and motioned him in. He stepped through and looked around, saying, “Wow, this is a big room, and you have your own bathroom too.”
    “Yeah, the bedrooms in these old houses were small so most everyone ended up with two rooms as their personal space, allowing for a bath and a large closet. They tore the wall between the two rooms out and...” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I like it. The people on the floor above share a bathroom between two rooms and have barely any closet space. The extra rent for this floor was more than worth it.”
    She could have kicked herself, talking about mundane things like rent to a billionaire. Looking around, she tried to see her space through his eyes — the pale pink walls, flowery curtains, solid light green comforter with a zillion pillows matching either the striped loveseat or the floral window treatments. He seemed to take it all in, but gave the most attention to her computer’s dual monitor setup and pen-tablet input devices. Figured.
    They talked for another five minutes without him making a move as he sat in her desk chair while she perched on the edge of her bed. They covered her computer set-up and the software she preferred, they discussed the pros and cons of different pressure sensitive pen-tablets, and