Free Burn for You by Annabel Joseph Page B

died.”
    “You didn’t tell him who he was? Who you are? You have to be careful telling strange guys about your money.”
    “I didn’t tell him anything, except that my husband died.” She put her shoulders back in a gesture of annoyance. “Anyway, it wasn’t like that. Like he was honing in on me with some ulterior motive. He was just a friendly person. We ate pie and chatted for like, five minutes.”
    “You can eat pie with whoever you want. Just be careful.” Okay, Mephisto had to back off, regroup. Jealous, petty anger coated all his words. “I think... I think it’s great that you met a friendly guy who bought you some pie.” There were long minutes of silence, his fork clinking on his plate.
    Molly toyed with her napkin. “He was... I don’t know. Really young though.”
    “Kinky.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    Mephisto chuckled. “No, I meant it’s kinky that you’re going after a younger guy. But he’s not kinky, you don’t think?”
    Another shrug. God, to be able to forbid those shrugs, and punish every one of them. They’d be in the dungeon for a week. “Who knows?” Molly said. “I don’t think you can always tell, but my dom radar is pretty developed and it didn’t go off. Still, it was nice to talk to someone normal. To make a friend.”
    In other words, Mephisto wasn’t normal. Or her friend, in her eyes. He suddenly hated this Pie Casanova with a vengeance. He forced approving words from his lips. “I’m happy for you, Molly. Sounds like it was a good day. Do you think you’ll meet with him again?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She was lying to him. Mephisto stood abruptly, feeling rage which he could not,
could not
give voice to. “Help me clean up the kitchen, please. It’s almost time for the club to open.” It took everything he had to keep the words calm and casual.
    “Yes, sir.”
    They cleaned up in silence. Mephisto was glad. He didn’t want to think of chatty things to say when he was all tied in knots. He should be happy for her. If she met some vanilla delivery guy who bought her pie, and that kind of stuff made her happy now, that’s what Mephisto wanted for her. It just wasn’t what he wanted for himself. Why did relationships have to be about two people? Why couldn’t he just force Molly to be his slave? Make her kneel at his feet, serve him, suck his cock and do whatever other perverse sexual acts he desired? The necessity of consent made everything so goddamn complicated. He chuckled softly at that thought.
    “What?” Molly asked, turning to him. “What are you laughing about?”
    “Nothing,” Mephisto said. “What kind of pie was it?”
    Molly gave him a look. “Cherry.”
    Cherry. Of course.
    *** *** ***
     
    Molly tried to put Eliot out of her mind, but he crept back in at the least opportune moments. She was being so stupid. It was so stupid to get obsessed over someone just because she liked his looks. Because he was nice to her. Still, she took twice as long to get dressed and ready on Friday as she usually did, to the point where the other volunteers at the Family Center noticed and asked if she had a hot date. They were teasing her, sweet natured teasing, but she felt mortified. If they noticed, then Eliot would, and he would know...
    Know what? That she was interested in him? Why was that so bad? Why was she so scared?
    She dragged her feet all the way down the street to the diner, thinking every moment that she still had time to turn around and flee. She also thought he might not show up at all. That would be embarrassing after the way she’d built this up in her head. It wasn’t like they’d set up an official date. She thought back to their parting conversation.
I’m usually here on Fridays. Around noon.
    Cool. Maybe I’ll see you then.
    Oh God, maybe he’d be there but not actually talk to her. He’d nudge his work buddies. “Look, she actually came back.” All of them would give her the side eye and snicker and she’d feel that