Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (5 page)

“
Meaghan?”
Daniel broke her reverie, “Are you okay? You look a little
pale.”

Meaghan smiled, “Is
that even possible for me?” she asked, half teasing.

Daniel shrugged.
“Okay you look like you just swallowed an almond,” he
corrected.

“
I’m
fine. And we were speaking about you. Tell me, what exactly is it
that you feel for Bain?” she asked.

Daniel seemed to
take the question really seriously; thinking about it for a while
before opening his mouth to say anything, “Bain is a really
funny guy. He makes me laugh. And his heart…his heart is just
really…open and pure,” Daniel was rubbing at his chest
as he talked about Bain’s heart. “He cares about things.
The other day I told him about my brother.”

Daniel glanced at
her uncertainly, as if he wanted to divulge something to her but it
was personal.

“
What
about your brother?” Meaghan asked gently.

“
He
has HIV,” Daniel said and grimaced at her. “I’m the
gay one but he has HIV,” he said wryly.

“
That’s
too bad, is he on treatment?” she asked. HIV was something that
Meaghan had come across a lot. She worked in an inner city clinic
after all.

Daniel shrugged. “He
has the drugs, and sometimes he even takes them…” he
seemed sad and resigned. “Well anyway, I told Bain about him -
we live together and he’d come home high after disappearing for
a few days. I didn’t know where he was and I knew he wasn’t
taking his meds because he left them at home – and he was just
so concerned and he wanted to know how he could help…I mean,
his life is great, perfect. He had no reason to even bother himself
about my stupid brother and his stupid problems but he was there for
me. I think…for real…that was the day I knew he was the
one. You know?” he turned those dangerous gray eyes on Meaghan,
looking so sincere and earnest that she knew she was lost. She
wondered how Bain even had any room for doubts when he had those eyes
looking at him like that all the time.

“
Bain
is great,” she managed to croak out.

“
He’s…he’s
the most amazing human being ever,” Daniel said smiling softly,
eyes distantly thoughtful.

“
Have
you told him so?” she asked curious.

Daniel huffed a
laugh. “Ha, like he’d let me. You know Bain, deflect
deflect deflect,” he said.

“
Really?”
Meaghan asked intrigued. Bain wasn’t like that with her. They
talked about their feelings all the time. Of course it was usually
their feelings about other people they were discussing. Hmm, come to
think of it – and Meaghan was surprised she hadn’t before
– her and Bain rarely talked about how they felt about each
other. It was all just…taken for granted. Of course you could
say that action spoke louder than words and in their case they were
always there for each other, 100% of the time so maybe articulating
feelings weren’t necessary. It had never occurred to her that
Bain might be uncomfortable with discussing emotion.

“
But
you know he cares right?” she asked Daniel.

Daniel shrugged. “I
guess I do. He’s an action guy you know; turns up for all my
shows when he’s in town, helps me out with whatever I need…he
listens when I talk. It’s not just about how long my legs are
or how hot my hole is or how pretty I am,” Daniel said smiling
slightly, then his smile widened and he looked pleased. “Although
he does tell me I’m pretty a lot.”

“
Yeah,
Bain’s great with compliments,” Meaghan agreed
affectionately.

“
Not
just that. But like at work, when those guys tell me I’m
pretty, most of the time I just feel objectified. When Bain says it…I
just feel appreciated,” Daniel said looking into the middle
distance with a thoughtful look on his face. “God, I miss him,”
he continued quietly.

Meaghan laughed,
“He’s been gone like…six hours?”

“
Probably
less. But talking about him like this, just makes me wanna…”
Daniel trailed off and shot her a glance that let her know
everything
that Daniel wanted to do to Bain.

“
I
envy you guys,” she said wistfully.

“
Why?
You have that hot Dean who’s all over you all the time.
Seriously that white dude has got it
bad
.”
He teased.

Meaghan laughed.
“Really? You think so?”

“
I
know
so”
Daniel said very definitely, reaching out to rest a hand on her knee.

Meaghan was silent
for a while. “He accused me of cheating on him today. Sent me
some really nasty texts in the course of last night basically calling
me everything from a slut to an evil cruel black-hearted gold
digger,” she said sadly.

“
Wow.
Why?” he asked, brow furrowing in confusion.

Meaghan shrugged, “I
had coffee with a colleague.” Daniel tilted his head curiously
to the side like she was some exotic bird he was trying to make sense
of.

“
Just
coffee?” he asked as if he suspected she wasn’t telling
him the whole story.

“
Just
coffee. He followed us to
La Trattoria
and watched us drink it. He might also have texted me at the time to
find out where I was. I said I was at work; which I kind of
considered I still was because this is my supervisor and he’s
kind of debriefing me about a tough situation that we had at the
hospital.”

“
Did
you tell Dean the whole story?”

“
I
shouldn’t have to!” Meaghan protested. “This is a
matter of trust.”

Daniel was silent
for a bit, looking like he was thinking hard. “I appreciate
that Bain comes to all my shows. But I don’t think he does it
just to support me,” he said at last.

Meaghan lifted her
brow at him, her cure for him to continue.

“
He’s
making sure that all I do
is
work,” Daniel continued.

“
You’re
saying he doesn’t trust you,” Meaghan intoned.

“
I’m
saying…he needs to know he can trust me so he’s keeping
watch.”

“
That
kind of seems to be contradictory to me. If he trusts you, he
wouldn’t need to watch you.”

“
I
guess it hasn’t been long enough for him to feel like he can
just leave me to my own devices in a roomful of men looking for sex,
or sexual gratification and just be okay with that. I’m okay
with him not being okay. He gives me enough space to work; but at the
same time, he’s possessive of me. I kind of like it.”

“
Well
all due respect Daniel, there’s no men at my work place looking
for sexual gratification,” Meaghan protests.

“
Yeah,
maybe. But there
are
men who are powerful and attractive who are known to date their
female workmates. How many hospital shows are on TV? In all of them,
the doctors are sleeping with each other, or with the nurses. Your
shifts are long right? These people they spend more time with you
than he possibly could…and now you’re having coffee with
one of them? Look at it from his perspective.”

“
So
I’m not supposed to socialize with my workmates?” Meaghan
asked incredulously.

“
Socialize
if you want; but don’t lie about it. Expect your boyfriend to
be insecure about it. If he wasn’t, you should be worried. It
would mean he doesn’t care.”

Meaghan sighed,
thinking about all this. Relationships were so hard…who knew?

“
So
what should I do then?” she asked Daniel. Who would have
guessed that he’d be such a mine of knowledge and wisdom?

“
Exactly
what you told me to do with Bain. Talk to him,” he said.

Meaghan laughed
softly, “I did kind of leave him high and dry.”

“
You
don’t want to do that. It just gives time for poisonous
thoughts to fester,” he said as if he’d been there, done
that.

Meaghan fished into
her bag, searching for her phone. She extracted it and saw it had
gone off. The battery must have died; she’d neglected to charge
it since last night, being rather distracted with other things. She
sighed and plugged it in, sipping another glass of wine while they
waited for it to get enough juice to switch on.

“
Do
you think Bain and I will make it?” Daniel asked suddenly.

Meaghan thought
about Luigi and how that situation could only be labeled as ‘it’s
complicated’. And then there was the fact that Daniel was a
stripper and Bain couldn’t exactly take him home to mama. Some
people got into stripping as some form of rebellion but she had a
feeling that Daniel wasn’t one of them. Which meant that he
couldn’t just…stop. He’d need to find other
employment and he had bills; stripping was probably more lucrative
than any blue collar job Daniel could get and that was why he did it;
she didn’t get the impression that he enjoyed it. And if he was
also looking after this sick brother of his, the hours were probably
advantageous too. Like a cherry on top, he was as much from the wrong
side of the tracks as Meaghan was. Worse than Meaghan because at
least she was a professional.

On the other hand,
Bain did spend a lot of time angsting about Daniel and worrying about
whether or not he was using him. Which meant he was emotionally
invested in this relationship. Would he have the courage to take
Daniel on long term though? Meaghan couldn’t say. Bain was one
of the bravest people she knew but he chose his battles. Did Bain
think that Daniel was worth fighting for? Did Dean think that Meaghan
was worth fighting for? Meaghan didn’t want to be drawing these
parallels but they seemed to be doing it without any help from her.
Daniel was right about one thing; she needed to talk to Dean.

*****

Her phone finally
powered on to a series of notifications. It seemed she had a number
of text messages; all from the same number. She sighed, wondering
what Dean was going to tell her now. Maybe he was breaking up with
her. Probably it was more insults. How many was one expected to take
of those before the earrings, and all bets, were off? She scrolled
through them, just to get the gist;

“
I
can’t make you forgive me. I get that. I would if I could but I
can’t. But there is a choice, Megs, you know there is. I did a
bad thing, I get that. But you lied to me. You did a bad thing too.
You know. But I won’t… I won’t make you forgive
me. So you call me when you can, okay?”

That was the first
message and it almost undid her. Meaghan didn’t know how she
was supposed to read through the other, God knew how many. She
scrolled down, picking another at random. She’d go through them
carefully later, when she was alone but for now she just wanted to
see how bad things had got.

Please, Megs.
Just. I need to know you're still breathing, okay? You don't have to
call. And. And I won't pick up if you do. Just... something, okay? A
text, just so I know you're... please.”

Wow, Dean. Pleading.
This was not a good situation they found themselves in. Things had
gone left a bit too fast. She needed to get things back on track
sooner rather than later. She scrolled down to the last messages.

“
...you
bitch, you fucking witch, why won't you just fucking... call me,
Meaghan, come on, please. It won't be like a third degree or
anything. I won't, okay? Not anymore, I swear I won't. I just want to
hear your voice, please, Megs. Please-please, okay, just…
fucking please.”

Ouch.

She didn’t
know Dean even knew such language let alone spoke it. Her fingers
skipped to the last message without reference to her brain. She had
to know where his head was currently at.

I’m sorry.
I’m drunk again. Seems I keep repeating my mistakes. You’re
turning me into someone I don’t recognize Meaghan.

Meaghan’s
heart ran cold.

“
Daniel.
Thanks for the talk, and the wine and the meatloaf but I gotta go
okay?” she said as she stuffed her phone and other things that
had managed to creep out of her bag back in it.

“
Sure
darlin’ I get it. Boyfriend shenanigans huh?”

“
Boyfriend
shenanigans,” she agreed standing up. “Now I gotta go nip
those poisonous thoughts in the bud before shit gets too real.”

“
Good
luck,” Daniel came over to her and enveloped her in his big
strong arms. He smelled of sandalwood. Meaghan could not absolutely
help that her heart sped up. “And thanks,” he added
quietly.

“
You’re
so welcome. And thank
you,
”
she said disengaging herself from him. He smiled down at her with
those devastating gray eyes. “I think you and Bain will be just
fine,” she said with a smile.

Meaghan knocked
tentatively at Dean’s door, expecting that he would ignore her
totally.

“
Who
is it?” his voice over the intercom was irritated and not
exactly sober-sounding.

“
Megs,”
she said voice trembling only slightly.

She was very
surprised when Dean tore open the door and more or less tackled her
into the opposite wall yelling about what an asshole she was.
Meaghan’s back thumped into the wall, breath leaving her like
she'd been punched, because Dean was not really holding back.
Meghan’s arms wrapped around Dean more or less in self-defense,
because her body was reading this as an attack, and her heart rate
was spiking accordingly.