“I can’t just leave them like that.”
“I’m not saying quit, I am saying just not live there anymore.”
“And if it’s a live here or get fired what then?”
“It won’t be.”
“You know that for a fact?”
“I know Devi.”
“It’s my job. I agreed to be a live-in nanny from the beginning.”
“Yeah, but that was before me.”
“There wasn’t a well until I meet someone condition in my contract.”
“You signed a contract?”
“Yep.”
“And the contract said you had to live there?”
“Don’t remember.” I knew there was a non-disclosure along with some other contracts I signed to help protect them from the press, and I couldn’t blame them for it.
“You don’t remember?”
“Nope.” I really didn’t want to get into this with him again, but I knew he wasn’t going to let it go until he got what he wanted.
“So why not look through it and see if it does?”
“Because I like living there.”
“You like it more than being with me?”
“No, that’s not what I said. I said I like living there. I like the way things are going with us as they are now.”
“We’ve been together for eight months and no one knows about us, Ash, you’re okay with that too?”
“No, I am not okay with that,” I told him. “I’ve been thinking about this, let’s tell everyone this weekend at the bar-be-que.”
“What bar-be-que?”
I sighed then glared at him. “Do you ever listen to me?”
“Yes, I listen to you, sometimes.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Devi is having a bar-be-que this weekend for I think, Max’s birthday. Hell, I don’t remember.”
“Fine, you want to tell them this weekend, we’ll tell them this weekend,” he grumbled.
I smiled over at him. “Good, now let’s stop fighting and enjoy our day off.”
Cris
Sunday afternoon Max and I rode our Harleys to Devi and Seth’s house for the bar-be-que to celebrate Max’s birthday earlier that week. Since Sunday was the only day the shop was closed, it was the only day all of us could get together to really celebrate it. I was looking forward to seeing Ash, but I didn’t know what to expect when everyone found out about us. I also didn’t really give a shit, but I knew she did especially since it’s her employers as well as friends. We were going to say something before but things always seemed to happen to interfere with the timing, like Drake’s accident, so I was waiting for something else to stop us from finally letting the cat out of the bag.
“Ready for this?” Max asked as we were heading up to the door. He already knew about us and knew the plan to let everyone else know.
“Yeah, been ready for a while.”
“Well good luck, I don’t think they will care much,” he said and smirked over at me.
“Shut up, let’s go in,” I said, ringing the doorbell and walking in the door to chaos which is typical of Devi’s house lately. The kids were screaming, Jaks running around, and the guys were either trying to soothe a baby or completely ignoring it while playing video games—ah, life at the Taylor household.
I walked through the house to the kitchen and found Devi, Mags, and Ash in there getting food ready for the grill. I walked behind Ash and ran my fingers across the skin showing on her lower back and had to fight a smirk when I saw her shiver. I loved that I could get a reaction like that out of her. I happened to glance over at Devi and found her watching us. She winked at me and went back to what she was doing—well I guess we weren’t being as circumspect as we had thought.
“So Cris, more interviews tomorrow?” Devi asked.
“One, I am meeting Haven tomorrow.”
“I’ve heard good things about her.”
“Yeah me too, and she was trained by a pioneer of body modification.”
Devi nodded. “Let me know how it goes.”
I took a deep breath. It was still strange to think that Devi had just as many rights to my shop as I did, but Devi wasn’t acting any different than she normally would have. I had always discussed hiring and firing with her.
“Will do.”
“So how long have you two been together?”
I chuckled, that was Devi, she never missed anything. “About eight months.”
“And I am just now figuring it out, damn, I am slipping.”
“You’ve been a little busy.”
“That’s true,” she muttered.
I glanced over at Ash who was beet red. I guess she hadn’t realized her boss knew about us.
“You okay?” I whispered to her.
She nodded but didn’t look up at me; I didn’t know why she was embarrassed.
“So you don’t have a problem with it, do you?” I asked not really caring for me, but I knew Ash did.
“I don’t give a damn, as long as you keep everything zipped around my kids, but that goes for everyone.”
“Yes, I already received that lecture after X in your kitchen.”
She nodded. “Everyone did.”
“So we’re good?”
“Yeah we’re good, just be nice to her or I will kick your ass.”
“I would expect nothing less from you.”
She smiled over at me. “As long as you’re both happy, I am happy.”
“Thanks, Devi.”
“You’re welcome Cris, now get out of my kitchen unless you want to help cook.”
I knew when to get the hell out, so I went in with the guys. We quickly got into talking about music, tattoos, and bikes.
Chapter 3
Ash
I watched Cris walk out of the kitchen, then looked back at Devi. “You’re sure this is okay?”
Devi shrugged. “Is it really my place to say that I am or am not okay with it?” she asked looking me in the eye.
“I just don’t want this to screw up my job here.”
She nodded still watching me. “I can understand your concern over that, but I’ve never told you that you couldn’t date anyone from my tattoo shop, that rule has only ever applied to the band.”
Mags snickered and Devi shot her a glare.
“I am starting to think that a rule of all employees will be made though,” she mused. “I keep losing my best and favorite employees to these guys.”
“You… You’re firing me?” I stuttered.
“Of course not, but I know Cris and he keeps his private life private so if he’s making it public then it’s more than just play between you two. I just don’t want to see either of you hurt.”
I nodded a little confused by this. “I can understand that.”
She looked me over once more. “I don’t think you do, at least not yet. You will though, Cris has been hurt before,” she said sadly, “and I don’t want to see that happen again; he’s my friend.”
“I’ll try not to hurt him.”
She nodded again and gave me a small smile.
“So Ash,” Mags began smirking at me, “how’s Cris in bed?”
“Uhm,” I said eyeing Mags then looking over at Devi who was staring at Mags like she’d grown a second head.
“You can ignore her,” Devi said winking at me. “I already know that Cris can be a bit unusual, no one needs to know what you two do behind closed doors.”
With that, she turned and walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of food Mags following her asking questions about her last comment. It’s not that I was embarrassed about being Cris’s submissive, I just didn’t really want that information out to the general public. Like Devi had said some things were better left behind closed doors. It also left the question how did Devi know about Cris? As far as I knew, he didn’t go around advertising his sex life or what it entailed. Hell, it had taken two months of us dating before he told me about his less than vanilla likes; I just happened to enjoy the same thing. After that discussion, we never looked back, and we’d spent the last six months learning each other in that aspect of our relationship.