“I won’t. I’m even going to the hairdresser’s Friday morning.”

“Why? You getting a cut? I like it long.” He sort of pouted, and yet he still looked hot and menacing too.

“No, silly. I’m having the pink stripped out and going back to my natural color. I can’t meet your family of cops with pink hair, Todd.”

“The hell you can’t! You will not color your hair any which way unless you want to. My parents know about you. My brother and his wife are big fans I’ve recently come to find out. I love you and you’re a free spirit. If you want pink hair, you’ll have pink hair. I don’t want you thinking you have to change yourself.” His eyes darkened and she realized this was about more than just pink hair.

“I didn’t think they’d hate me. I just didn’t want to scare them or have them think I was wrong for you. I want them to like me.” Which was sort of scary for her. She hadn’t worried about Jeremy’s parents liking her, although they had. But Todd meant too much to her, and she knew he was close to his family so that was important. Being part of them was necessary. She’d gladly go back to dark blond if it meant easing the way.

He kissed her hard. Fiercely. “No one else in the universe makes me feel so at home with who and what I am. Do you know what a gift that is? I love you. I love your tattoos and your funky hair and your artsy-fartsy clothes and attitude. I don’t want you to change who you are. I love who you are and I want you to be comfortable with that. If I ever thought I made you feel ashamed of that, I’d hate myself.”

Oh. That was so sweet. “You’re going to make me cry. Stop it.”

“Keep the hair?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“See you at seven. Don’t wear panties.”

With that little missive, he let himself out and stood there while she locked up and turned on the alarm for the front of the shop. She looked at the bag but left it there. Obeying him was hard sometimes, but he always made it worth her while.

Todd opened his door to meet her as she walked up his front steps. He took the pizza from her and noted the flush on her face. “You wearing them?”

She nodded and he chuckled. “Good.”

Ben was there already, drinking a beer and watching television. His gaze went to Erin and the long expanse of leg she showed in the skirt she wore.

For some reason, it turned Todd on to see it, to see his best friend attracted to Erin and to know Erin was his. How could a man not look? She looked ridiculously sexy in what she wore. That Todd knew what she had on underneath made it all even more delicious.

“Be right back,” he called out after he put the pizza down on the table. The remote fit nicely in the pocket of the cargo pants he wore, and he gave the knob a pulse of power, smiling to himself as he imagined what her face must have looked like.

When he came back around the corner, she was bent over, putting plates on the table. Nothing indecent showed, but the fine, pale expanse of upper thigh made his fingers twitch.

“You’ve been very busy,” she said in an undertone as she moved to grab the red pepper flakes he liked so much.

“Not as busy as I’m gonna be, making your cunt nice and wet as I play with the vibrator all night long. I can’t wait to watch you squirm. Like now.” He turned it on, knowing the vibe was inserted deep in her cunt. With his free hand, he reached under her skirt and felt the rubber attachment that fit over her clit. The soft hum let him know it was working.

Her breath caught and her eyes cut to the doorway where Ben leaned. He probably heard and saw. Todd moved his hand away and turned off the vibration. The scent of her cunt filled his nose, made his heart beat all the harder. He wanted to f**k her right then and there.

“Dinner ready?” Ben asked in a slightly teasing tone. Yeah, he’d heard.

“Everything is ready,” Erin answered as she sat and took a pull of her beer. Automatically and with her own grace, she put two slices of the pie on a plate for Todd, even shaking on the red pepper just how he liked it. “Ben? Two slices?” she asked, holding another plate. It wasn’t the same as it had been for him, but she was being nice to his friend and Todd liked that. Liked that Ben and Erin got on so well.

Todd watched her, knowing she wore the weights on her nipple rings, wondering if they throbbed yet in just the right way. He toyed with the remote, watching her face flush as pleasure rolled through her cunt.

Her fingers flexed on the table’s edge; her eyes went glassy. There was no way Todd would be getting up from the table anytime soon; his c**k threatened to burst through his jeans.

He eased back and she blinked. Her ni**les stood hard against the soft material of her shirt, and he saw the shadow of the weights hanging from the rings. He’d gone a little retail crazy at a few places online. Then he’d finally gotten out of his truck and gone inside The Crypt, a sex toy store in Capitol Hill. The name made him sigh, he didn’t really envision himself as the kind of DOM who spoke in all CAPS and made his sub call him MASTER and all that stuff. He supposed his mixed feelings about what he’d come to realize was a very wide variety of people involved in BDSM was one of the biggest things that had kept him from really investigating without shame.

But once inside the store, he’d begun to relax. There weren’t black candles and people in ball gags, although they certainly sold ball gags and enough  p**n  to supply the entire state of Washington quite happily. The gear went from mild and silly to items that gave him pause and even a wince or two once he’d looked at them carefully.