“Hey, you!” Serena Dean-Miles waved her way as Lisa walked through the ladies’ locker room. The locker room at Sanctum was a posh space with everything a submissive or Domme could need to pamper herself silly. Serena was sitting at one of the vanities, brushing out her brown and blonde hair.

Lisa waved back, moving out of the dressing area and into what she liked to call the “primp station.” Here there were a bunch of beautifully lit vanities where a woman could perfect her makeup or dry and curl her hair.

“Good to see you’re back,” Avery said with a wink as she moved a flat iron over her dark hair.

“I’m happy to be back,” Lisa replied.

And she was. It was incredibly good to return to Sanctum. And to have a job. And a Dom waiting for her in the lounge. That was a completely new situation. In all the months she’d played at Sanctum before, she’d never had a Dom who was hers.

Three days into their “relationship” and she still hoped he didn’t catch her drooling. Life was looking up. She had a job she hadn’t gotten fired from on the first day, one where the vents didn’t spit glitter at her and there was no public food for her to fall into. She was required to wear comfortable shoes. There were all kinds of things to eat in her refrigerator because her Dom believed in regular meals and they’d made a deal. He bought the food stuffs and she turned it into something he wanted to eat. And yes, she did put those quote things around the word “relationship” even in her brain, but damn he was fine.

“Where have you been?” Serena gave her a quick hug before sitting back down. “The kids have missed you.”

She hadn’t even met the baby yet. Serena had a new baby girl, but it had happened after she’d left Sanctum. “I got way too busy with my old jerk-face boss’s money laundering, and then it turns out when you’re associated with money laundering, no one wants to hire you even though you were the good guy who turned the boss in.”

“That’s rough,” Avery said. “I heard you’re working at Top now.”

Remy had gotten her the interview. Hell, Remy had gotten her the job. She’d interviewed with Deena Vail, who was running the business end of Top while Sean Taggart was on some mysterious mission in Fort Hood. She switched between bartending and waitressing. “Yes. I know Will is going to say I’m wasting my degree, but I actually love it there. I might have made a horrible mistake going with the accounting degree. Turns out it’s kind of boring.”

“I can’t imagine,” Serena replied. “But I would love to hear about the money laundering. Is the case over? Is that why you could come back? Are you playing tonight? Because I thought I saw Bridget walking around earlier.”

“Yeah, my Dom says he doesn’t care what deal I made with my brother’s tender eyeballs.” That was kind of how he’d put it. “He likes to play when he likes to play, and Will can get blinders.”

She was a bit worried about how this would go. Will had never actually seen her with a Dom. He’d been careful about it. She’d offered to try to find another club, but that idea had damn near melted her brother’s brainpan.

“Sanctum is big enough you can avoid each other,” Avery said. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

“Me, too. And I’ll be in the nursery on Sunday night.” She was eager to get back to the babies. She’d missed those kids.

“You’re working the nursery? Remy usually plays on Sunday. I heard you were with him now,” Serena said.

“He’s taking a dungeon monitor shift,” she replied. “But we’re kind of, sort of together. I mean we’re totally together, but only until he’s ready to move. He’s going home to Louisiana, but we’ve got a contract until then.”

A frown crossed Serena’s pretty face. “Are you okay with that? Short-term contracts can be hard on a girl. They’re kind of made of heartbreak. It’s why an awful lot of romance novels start with one.”

“We’ve been completely honest with each other. It’s an affair,” she said. “Not every relationship lasts forever. We’re two adults who’ve consented to enjoy each other while we have the time.”

Though it felt like more. It was awesome. Remy spent much of the days with her. Apparently he was taking some time off his job while he got his house ready to sell. He dropped her off at work in the afternoon and then showed up around an hour before closing and hung out at the bar and then ate with them before taking her home and making love to her until she couldn’t hold her eyes open. Then they would wake up midmorning and start it all over again.

It was practically heaven.

Avery sighed. “An affair. I had one of those. I met this tall, dark, and handsome American in London. He was the most amazing man I’d ever met. And the sex was incredible.”

Lisa felt her eyes widen. She couldn’t imagine Avery with anyone but her Irish husband. “Wow, a London affair. That sounds hot. Does Liam know? Like later on, do you still miss the hot affair when you’re happily married?”

“She can’t miss him. The sexy American turned out to be a sexy Irish guy on a mission. Yeah, she ended up married to him,” Serena replied with a sly smile. “Actually, now that I think about it, I started out thinking Jake and Adam were a pleasant way to spend a little time. An affair, nothing more. You should watch out, Lisa. Affairs around here tend to turn into weddings and babies and, in my case, way too much laundry. Everyone warned me about the laundry, but I didn’t listen.”

It wasn’t going to end that way. Not for her. There was an ache in her heart, but she ignored it. She’d made her decision and she was a big girl. Remy was signing paperwork with the bank in a few days, and then he had to go down to Louisiana sometime after that to close on the property. When he talked about his home, his eyes lit up and he practically beamed.

He wasn’t going to change his mind. He was going home and their affair would end.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy it while it was here. He’d done so much for her already. How had she ever thought that man was cold? He was the warmest person she’d met, giving and thoughtful.

Some day he would make a magnificent husband.

But for now, he was her Dom. Her first real Dom. She said good-bye to her friends and stopped to give herself one more look-over. She was wearing exactly what Remy had bought for her. Ruby red corset that cinched in her waist, tiny, clingy boy shorts, and a pair of heels that made her legs look way longer than they were. She’d left her hair down as he’d requested. He seemed to have a real thing for her hair. She put it up when she worked, but every night, even before they got to his truck, he would pull it down and tangle his fingers in it and hold her head still for a long, luscious kiss.

She was going to play with him tonight. She would be the one he lavished all that masculine attention on. She would be the one he used his ropes on, to tie her up so she was helpless, and he could have his way with her.

For tonight she was his sub.

Lisa walked out of the locker room, head held high, and ran straight into Bridget.

“Tell me you’re not sleeping with him.” Bridget was in a long, see-through skirt and white bra, her round belly on display. No high heels for the pregnant chick. “I heard a rumor that you signed a contract with Remy Guidry. A D/s contract. Tell me that’s not true.”

There was a hint of desperation in Bridget’s tone that worried Lisa. Bridget was cool. She was the one who shrugged off most things. Well, not things like someone cutting her off in traffic. Then she let the volcanic rage flow, but family shit kind of washed right off her.

“I don’t know why that’s a problem.”

Bridget’s eyes closed. “Oh, you will. I think Will is going to make it into a big old problem. Me, personally, I get it. The man is hot, and honestly, it solves a whole bunch of problems, but Will is not going to see it that way and he’s on the protective side. He’s going to explode when he hears about that contract. Maybe if you walk out now, I can convince him it’s all a joke.”

“Since when does Will get a say in who I date?” She got it. Big brother was protective, but she wasn’t a teen. She didn’t have to have her brother vet her dates. He’d been weirded out when she took the training class, but he hadn’t tried to stop her. When she’d started playing, he’d gone a bit green, but worked out a schedule rather than telling her to go somewhere else. “Look, Bridge, it’s not even a long-term thing. Remy’s going home in a couple of weeks. I’m not going to hide the whole time.”

Bridget took her hand. “Is Remy waiting for you in the lounge?”

“Yes.” Before she could say another word, Bridget was hauling her up the stairs that led to the swanky lounge and the primary play space. To her left she could see someone already had a sub on the hamster wheel.

Hopefully Remy didn’t decide she needed cardio. That hamster wheel was the only punishment she actually feared here at Sanctum. It took a lot of energy to get that sucker to turn green.

“Why is this upsetting?” Lisa struggled to keep up. “Why does Will care who I date? It’s not like he’s some ex-con without a job who sits on my couch and cheats on me all day. He’s a good guy.”

“I know he is. He’s done a lot for our family. I’m surprised he would decide to start a relationship with you when he knows it’s not going to work. I think Will is worried that you shouldn’t be dating anyone right now,” Bridget replied.

“Thank god.” Laurel was suddenly rushing over from the bar. She was dressed for play, her corset a lovely purple with a matching thong. Ah, family life. They were having a family crisis in the middle of a BDSM club. It was perfect. “Mitch and Will are on their way up and they know. They know. Someone told them in the locker room.”

The look on Laurel’s face didn’t make a lick of sense. “Stop. First of all, is Lila about to drop down from the ceiling to put her two cents in, too? And second, since when do we treat my dating life like it’s highly classified and we’ll all get in trouble if the guys know?”

Remy looked up from where he’d been sitting at the bar and she damn near melted at the look on his face. His eyes were like lasers focused in on her. He stood up, his big body encased in leathers and his cowboy boots. She could see the wide swath of his chest where the vest didn’t cover. He was all muscle, all man, and it didn’t matter that she’d already had him ten times. She wasn’t ever going to get tired of the way it felt when he looked at her like he couldn’t get enough.

“Whoa,” Bridget said. “I know that look. That look is bad. That look is something you don’t come back from.”

She was going to ask her suddenly insane sister-in-law what she meant by that, but Remy had closed the space between them.

He reached out and took her hand in his, bringing it up to his lips. “Tu es la plus belle femme du club, ma crevette. Et je suis l’homme plus chanceux.”

She had no idea what he was saying, but it made her girl parts pulse.

Laurel and Bridget were watching him, too, their eyes wide like neither could think of what to say after that.

“If you’re done speaking douchebag, perhaps we should talk about what the hell you’re doing sleeping with my sister,” a dark voice said. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice that?”

She turned, putting her body in front of Remy’s and saw Will wince. Probably because her boobs looked good in a corset. Her brother stood there with Mitch, both in leathers similar to Remy’s, though neither man could fill them out the way hers could. And it was weird. He was right. It was creepy and weird to see her brother dressed for sex because she wasn’t sure she was ready to accept that he had sex. Even though he was working on baby number two and Bridget freely talked about their sex life. It was easier to pretend like Bridge was talking about one of her crazy characters instead of her brother when he wasn’t standing there in front of her.

“It was French and not douchebag,” Remy said. “That’s what Tag speaks when he starts talking about brogrammers and getting his manties in a wad. French is a perfectly civilized language.”

“So is the law, buddy, and you’re going to understand that when I sue your ass,” Mitch said.

“Mitchell.” Laurel managed to make her husband’s name an admonition.

“Why would you sue Remy for sleeping with me? I’m going to tell you I’ll be a very bad witness because I’ll go into ridiculously explicit detail on how good he is at it,” Lisa swore.

Everyone was watching them. Big Tag had Charlotte on his lap across the lounge. It looked like he’d been talking to Alex McKay and Liam O’Donnell, but now all eyes were on the Daley family as they hashed out their issues in public. They weren’t alone. Simon Weston and his wife, Chelsea, had been sitting with Jesse and Phoebe Murdoch, and there was no way to miss how the two couples were now avidly watching the scene in front of them. Jesse even asked Simon to pass him the bowl of mixed nuts on their table.

Damn it. They couldn’t have done this at home like normal people?

“Really? You think you know him?” Her brother had his best judgey face on. It had been the one he’d used on her when she’d come home late from a date or gotten a B on a test. “I don’t think you know all the facts, Lisa.”

Remy’s hands came down on her shoulders. “I don’t think you know the facts, Will. First of all, your sister is a beautiful, highly competent woman who is capable of taking care of herself, but she’s been struggling and everyone needs help now and then.”

“Yeah, not the kind you’re offering her,” Will shot back.

“Exactly how is your dick helping her?” Mitch asked, which promptly got him an elbowing from his wife.

Remy continued like Will and Mitch hadn’t said a thing. “I’m going to admit that I didn’t think I had anything to offer her until we met up again a few days ago. As many people in this club know, I’ve stayed away despite my attraction to her for that exact reason. But things changed recently. I moved into her building while my house is getting ready to go on the market. Some of my friends helped me move and we… Well, I took them out for drinks at Cherry Pies. Not the best establishment, but you know my boys will be boys. I was surprised to find Lisa working there.”

She went completely still. Had he meant to mention that?

Will’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Cherry Pies?” Bridget asked with a look that let Lisa know she understood exactly what the business was about.

Yeah, she hadn’t planned on mentioning her one-day job at a strip club to her overprotective family. She’d been planning on hiding it altogether. “It was an experiment. The guy who manages the place lives in my building and he offered me a shot at a job. It didn’t work out. No biggie.”

“What is Cherry Pies?” Laurel asked, looking from Lisa to Mitch to Will. “Is it a pie shop?”

Bridget sent Laurel a sympathetic look. “Oh, sweetie, you’re lucky you’re gorgeous. I do believe Cherry Pies refers to a woman’s virginity. You know, I got me some of that sweet, sweet cherry pie.”

Will looked down at her. “No one talks like that.”

“Tell that to Warrant and much of the 80s hair metal movement, and then you can explain why a strip club calls itself Cherry Pies,” Bridge shot back.

“You know it’s really false advertising,” Mitch pointed out. His eyes had gone a bit soft, a sure sign he was either thinking about his family or musing about a class action lawsuit. “I’m going to bet there’s not a single virgin in that place. Well, not females.”

Will seemed to know it was time to take control. “I don’t care about virgins. I care about why my sister was dropping her freaking clothes.” He went a little pale. “Holy shit. How did this happen? One job. I had one job.”

“Oh, god, he’s going to talk about the pole.” Bridget had her hands on Will’s arm, stroking him. “This baby is a girl and he fears the pole more than anything.”

“I wasn’t on the pole.” She was absolutely certain she’d gone beet red. “Remy, please tell them I wasn’t on the pole.”

“She was behind the bar where the topless waitresses hang out,” Remy explained helpfully. “Apparently they worked her eight hours without a break, and when I found her she was being accosted by a heinous drunk who ended up causing her to fall into the cold buffet. They proceeded to shoot glitter so hard out of the venting system that she’s still got a little glow about her even after we scrubbed her forty times. Mitch, some of that had to have gotten into her lungs. There’s your lawsuit. Anyway, when I got hold of her again, she was walking to the train station because she turned her car in months ago and didn’t tell you. She preferred to turn it in rather than allow it to be repossessed. Your sister was walking down the dark street, clutching forty ones to her chest like they were her lifeboat, and she was covered in glitter that likely would have shone in the moonlight like a Bat signal for rapists or other criminals.”

She turned on her lover, her hands in fists at her sides. “You are not helping the situation.”

Remy managed to look as innocent as a two-hundred-plus-pound ex-soldier could look. “I am explaining the situation to your brother. I’m explaining how I’m not the bad guy here. I’m the guy who picked you up and put you in my truck. I’m the guy who fed you that night and got you a new job the next morning. I’m the guy who drops you off and picks you up and makes sure you’re safe and happy because I’m the guy you chose.”

“I’m still stuck on the fact that Cherry Pies has a cold buffet,” Bridget said. “Was there shrimp?”

“I don’t want to talk about shrimp,” Lisa said with a shudder. She might never be able to look at a crustacean again.

“Sorry, I’m kind of hungry. Pregnancy cravings.” Bridget looked up.

“We are not going to a strip club for shrimp. We are civilized. We’ll find a Long John Silver’s.” Will turned to Lisa. “You turned in your car?”

She hated this. She hated everything about this. The pity in her brother’s eyes was far worse than losing her car. Lila would never be in this position. Laurel would have figured a way out of it. Only Lisa was the loser in the family. She was the one who hadn’t known what she wanted to do with her life, the last to make it through college. The first to fail. “I couldn’t afford it.”

“That is no excuse,” Will replied and she knew she was in for a long lecture.

Remy moved to her side. “No excuse? Her pride is no excuse? If you had been in the same situation as Lisa, would you have turned to your sister-in-law and asked her to pay for your car? I don’t think so.”

Laurel shook her head. “He wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Will, you raised us to be proud and not live beyond our means. We married really wealthy people. We don’t have to worry about money. Lisa is not in the same boat as the two of us.”

“I would have paid for the car,” Bridget said.

“That’s not the point.” Laurel held her hand as though trying to give her strength. “Lisa wants to make it on her own. You taught her that, Will.”

Will’s jaw tightened and he eyed Remy. “She let him help her.”

“I’m sleeping with him. He should help me. Not for the simple fact that I’m sleeping with him but because he cares about me. And he’s not handing over cash. He helped me get a job. He bought food and I cooked it. It’s a more even exchange.” Lisa looked at her brother. He was way more like a father when she thought about it. He’d had a hard burden at a young age and handled himself and them with grace that most teenage boys wouldn’t have had. He’d kept them all together, but he needed to understand that she made her own decisions now. “Look, Will, I love you, but I’m a grown woman who makes her own choices, and I’m choosing to be with Remy for now.”

“You don’t have all the facts,” Will said, his voice tight.

“Will, please think about this for two seconds,” Bridget warned. “Do you want to start a war over this? Because what happens when you force her to choose? Believe me, I know what a family looks like after that. She might choose her family, but your relationship with her will never be the same. And she’ll be far more likely to rebel than you can imagine. Think about everything that’s at stake.”

There was some weird subtext conversation going on that she didn’t understand, but Bridget and Will could be like that at times. They had a whole shorthand no one else got.

“Will, I’ve been open and honest with her about how long I’m going to be in town and what I can offer her while I’m here,” Remy said quietly. “I’ve been attracted to your sister, well, since the moment I saw her. I stayed away because I didn’t think I was good for her, but we sat down and talked and I can give her something for these weeks. I can give her my full attention and my full promise to be present every second I have to spend with her. We’ve signed a contract with an end date, and we’re both going into this knowing that it will end and agreeing to be friends afterward.”

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Will said. “A contract with an end date. Who does that?”

Bridget’s eyes went wide, like supervillain, she-could-kill-you-with-lasers-from-her-irises wide, and everyone took a step back. Even Remy seemed to know Hurricane Bridget was about to get her storm on. Remy’s arms went around Lisa as though he could protect her from the coming winds.

Will had the good sense to turn a bit pale. “Now, baby, I wasn’t talking about us. That was a totally different thing. Totally.”

Bridget pointed a finger his way. “Signing a contract with an end date is stupid? Is it, Will? Is it? Because you’re calling the mother of your babies stupid, mister ‘I don’t know what the word love means so let’s take it real slow.’ Oh, hey wait, the sex is pretty good. We can go another month but stop using that love word.”

“I love you, baby,” Will said. “I love you so much. See how trainable I was? Am. You recognized that in me right away. Trainable. I don’t think he’s trainable.”

“Trainable, my ass,” Bridget shot back before she looked over at Remy. “If you hurt her, I will skin you alive and then I’ll sew the skin back on and let it heal and skin you again for the fun of it. Do I make myself clear?”

“In a very intense way, Mrs. Daley,” Remy said from behind her. “I have no intention of hurting Lisa. I genuinely care about her. I intend to protect her and take care of her until I have to go home to my family.”

Bridget studied him for a moment and then looked over at Laurel, and the two seemed to come to some kind of decision.

“He’s just a dumbass,” they said at the same time.

Laurel gave him a grin. “It’s all right. We both married dumbasses. Dumbassery can be cured.”

Mitch put a hand on Remy’s arm. “Usually with pregnancy. You want to keep your dumbassery, wear a condom, brother.”

“I thought we were sticking together as the men of this family.” Will sent his best friend a dirty look.

Mitch slung an arm around Laurel. “I think the ladies are right. He thinks this is going to go one way, but it’s going to swerve, brother. It’s going to swerve hard, and that’s when you wake up and suddenly there’s a kid in your arms and she’s got this ring on her finger and you kind of scratch your head and wonder how you got there, but then you figure out there is really fucking nice. There is warm and happy and good. And suddenly all those reasons you limited the contract in the first place seem fuzzy and vague and you kind of give in. I give him three weeks.”

Will’s eyes had narrowed, seeming to fixate on that place where Remy’s hands touched her. “I’ll take that. He looks even more dumbassy than you did. Five weeks before they elope.”

They’d changed tactics on her. Assholes. “We’re not eloping, guys. It’s not going to happen.”

“I have to go home. I’m buying my family’s business back,” Remy said, as flustered as she’d ever heard him.

Yet he held on to her. “It’s okay, babe. They’re trying to scare you. They figured out they couldn’t make me back down so now they’re working on you.”

Will seemed to have settled, his shoulders finally dropping from around his ears. “No. No, I think Mitch and the girls are right. I’ve played this whole thing out before. A long time ago, I signed a short-term contract with a woman I thought I could get out of my system. Turns out she was a necessary part of my system.”

Mitch smiled. “And I didn’t use a condom.”

Laurel huffed and slapped her husband gently on his six-pack.

Mitch laughed and cuddled her close. “I wouldn’t go back for anything. I would throw all my condoms away, baby.”

“Hey, do we have an over/under yet?” Taggart yelled across the room. Charlotte was grinning in his arms.

Will nodded. “Yeah, let the betting begin.” He moved over to Lisa. “If he hurts you, I’ll let Bridget do all the horrible things she likes. In addition to the pregnancy cravings, she also gets a wee bit violent when she’s gestating. I love you, sister.” He kissed her forehead. “Now please put on some clothes. You, too, Laurel. I thought we had a deal.”

“All bets are off now. If Lisa gets to play any night she wants, I do, too.” Laurel winked her way. “We get dibs on the office space. I’m his horny secretary tonight.”

“And any night you want to be, baby,” Mitch said with a smirk.

“Well, I call privacy room where I don’t have to see my sisters play,” Will said. He smiled down at Bridget. “And I already had the room stocked with snacks and massage oil and hot cocoa, and my iPad is full of Grey’s Anatomy, the season you missed while breastfeeding.” Will sighed. “Sometimes kink comes in weird packages around here. I’ll be watching you, Guidry.”

Her brother strode off with his wife.

She turned and Remy was looking a little pale himself. “Are you okay? That was a heavy scene.”

“Lisa, I…”

Shit, she was going to kill her brother. Everyone was betting on them. Everyone was looking at them. “Remy, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. These guys fuck around with everyone.”

He stared down at her. “I don’t want to hurt you. Your brother… I’m not your brother. It’s not going to go that way for us. If I took you with me, god, Lisa, I would be taking you into something you don’t deserve. My family is difficult and the town is weird and you deserve your life.”

He wasn’t changing his mind. She wanted to tell him that she liked weird, but he’d been honest with her. He was worried she would get hurt if she started to believe that she could change him. Hell, she didn’t want to change him. It was okay. “I’m not asking for more than you’re willing to give.”

Maybe if they’d had more time before he needed to leave. Maybe if he’d said yes to her the first time, but he hadn’t and she couldn’t ask a man she’d been with for three days to take her with him when he left town.

Even if she really wanted to.

“But your brother…”

“My brother likes to screw around with people,” she said. “I don’t take him seriously and neither should you. Consider that nothing more than a bit of hazing. And all the betting is going to be for nothing. Maybe we should get in on that. Would that be fair?”

He reached for her hand. “Maybe I should back off.”

Now tears threatened. “If my family makes me less desirable to you, then yes, we should reevaluate.”

“Nothing in the world could make you less desirable to me,” he said. “Not now that I know you.” He brought her hand to his mouth, kissing her. “But I’m not Prince Charming.”

“I don’t need you to be.” She wished he was, but she was going with the flow, taking what life had to offer her. “I need you to be Prince Right Now. And if you want to tie me up and do nasty things to me, all the better.”

He took her hand. “Now that I can do.”

He started to lead her toward the playroom, and she swore that she would live in the moment. It wouldn’t be that hard. After all, the future wasn’t all that bright.

 

* * * *

 

Remy led her to one of the small rooms off the main play area. It was a room specifically done up for suspension play. It was the room he spent most of his time here in. All of his life he’d been around rope, learning to sail from an early age. It wasn’t surprising that a lot of his kink centered around ties and knots. He’d grown up being told to make sure his precious boats were secure or they might drift away and all would be lost.

He felt the same way about the woman trailing after him. He had the sudden desire to make sure she didn’t drift away, the waves of life taking her far from him.

“You know what I like to do, right?” The sex had been fairly vanilla up to this point. Oh, he’d used her panties to bind her hands together and spanked her pretty ass. She had a couple of bite marks because it turned out she enjoyed the sensation, but he hadn’t gotten around to his central kink.

“Suspension,” she replied with a sigh to her voice that let him know she wasn’t going to be scared.

He was starting to think nothing at all scared Lisa Daley. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s in here yet, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be alone the whole time. How far are you willing to go?”

“How fast can you get these clothes off?” Lisa replied.

Damn she was going to kill him. “Pretty fast.”

She followed him into the room. “Does it bother you? I wouldn’t do it anywhere I didn’t feel safe, but that’s kind of the point of Sanctum. And I think I might have some exhibitionist in me. When we were training partners, Linc and I would do it in his truck in the parking lot and the thought that someone could catch us kind of did something for me.”

“Excuse me?”

She flushed slightly, as though realizing her mistake. “The class would get us all hot and bothered and we would… You know how it can be between training partners. Especially when you agree it’s all about sex and nothing else.”

A rush of indignation shot through him. What had she said? She hadn’t… “Lincoln? Linc was your training partner? The same Linc I recently got you a job working under?”

Lincoln ran the bar at Top. Lincoln had smiled brilliantly when he’d been told Lisa would be working with him. Remy had been watching them across the dining room. At the time he’d thought how nice that the big guy would give Lisa such an enthusiastic greeting. He’d thought it was good because she needed some enthusiasm in her life.

That bastard had probably been thanking heaven she’d walked back into his life and he got a second shot at getting into her pretty panties.

“I didn’t mention that?” She had a cute, quizzical expression on her face. “Huh. I guess because it was so long ago and it didn’t mean anything. Now he’s just a friend. It’s cool to be working with him again. You know it’s always nice to catch up with an old friend.”

Oh, but Linc wasn’t old at all. “He was the last sex you had.”

She shook her head. “No. It was the last good sex I had. Before you.” She stopped, her lips curling up. “But you’re way better. You have nothing at all to be jealous about.”

Except that Linc was younger than he was. Linc was staying around. Somehow he couldn’t quite believe the whole “let’s simply have sex for six weeks because the class makes us horny and you’re convenient” thing had been Linc’s idea. He would have been a moron for not using that time to convince a woman like Lisa to settle for a dude like him.

Of course, that was exactly what Remy was doing, but he knew he was a moron.

“I’m not jealous.”

Her smile dimmed. “Of course you’re not because there’s nothing at all to be jealous about.”

He pointed her way. “I’m righteously pissed, and if he touches you in any way that doesn’t concern making sure you don’t fall or pushing you out of the way of danger, I’m going to have his ass. I don’t care that the bastard goes psycho from time to time. If he touches my damn sub, he’s going to find out how psychotic a Cajun boy can be. Do you understand me?”

She held her hands up as though letting go of the argument. “I understand that I am somehow surrounded by crazy, freaky overly protective men.”

He needed to make something plain to her. He wasn’t her brother. Not even close. He took her by the shoulders and got into her space, so close that she had to tilt her head up to look at him. “Your brother is overly protective, and maybe I can be considered that, too, but this is me being stupid and overly possessive. It’s not a pretty thing to be, but I can’t deny it. I know we’ve got an end date, but I can’t stand the thought of that pretty boy putting his hands on you.”

She groaned. “He’s the pretty boy? Let me get you a mirror, Sir, because it’s obvious you have no idea what pretty is.”

Her smart mouth did something for him. “Get in there and I would like to see a proper greeting for your Dom before we get to the night’s fun.”

She stepped back, her head bowing in perfect submission. It was all play because that chèrie bowed to no one and nothing she didn’t choose to bow to, and it would only work as long as she believed she was being treated fairly.

Like the queen she was.

She walked into the room, her heels clacking along the floor. He watched as she disappeared into what they liked to call the blue room. It had been painted shades of midnight blue, even the ceiling, to give the illusion that the sub was suspended by ropes that stretched up into the night sky, as though the night itself could hold and cradle the submissive close. All theater, of course. It would be him and his ropes keeping Lisa secure and ready for pleasure.

He entered the room and Lisa was in slave pose, on her knees, head down.

That was when he realized he wasn’t the only person in the room.

A woman was suspended a few feet off a red pad on the floor. She was elaborately tied, her torso held in place and one leg pulled up behind her. There was rope threaded between her toes and wrapped around her foot causing her foot to curve. She lay in place, breathing steadily, as if remaining still would save her. It was obvious the sub had found a fairly comfortable position. However, eventually she would have to try to stretch, and then she’d be trapped, the tension of the rope forcing that leg higher and torturing her foot.

Predicament bondage. He only knew one couple who played that way on a regular basis. Predicament bondage put the submissive between a rock and a hard place. No matter what happened, the submissive would end up in a tortured position, often having to choose between two bad outcomes. It took a sadist to come up with the scenario and a masochist to find it fun.

He kept quiet, holding a hand out to indicate Lisa should do the same. They might have to find another space.

Kai looked up and smiled. “Hey, you two. Come on in. There’s plenty of room.”

“Hi, Kai,” he said, finding the Dom sitting in the shadows, watching his sub. “Kori, you’re looking lovely tonight.”

Kai stood up, his mouth curling in a slightly evil smile. “I think I’ve finally figured out what to do when I want her to stop talking. If she moves even an inch, the rope around her foot tightens. Doesn’t she look pretty all perfectly silent?”

Without moving another muscle, Kori’s right hand middle finger came out.

“Love you, too, babe,” Kai replied with a chuckle. “Hey, Lisa. Good to see you back. Kori says, hey, too. You know, if you want in on this we could tie them up in such a way that they have to decide between giving themselves pain or forcing their partners to take it. It’s a fun game, man.”

He looked over and Lisa’s eyes were wider than he’d ever seen. “I don’t think my girl’s quite ready for that level of kink. We’re just going to tie her up real nice, suspend her so she knows she’s helpless, and then make her scream. Is that going to disrupt your scene?”

“Not at all. We’ve got a bet going. If she makes it an hour like this, I have to adopt another dog, so dear god man, make your sub scream. Any help I can get. We’ve already got two and one’s a chewer. Like he chews on everything, but she insists that number three is going to be a perfect angel.”

“You go, Kori. Get that puppy,” Lisa said, her voice positive but low.

He frowned her way. “I’m sorry. Did I give you permission to speak? This is my space, ma crevette. This is where I rule.”

He’d given her his most intimidating voice, but she simply shrugged, her eyes focused on the floor. “You didn’t say I couldn’t talk.”

“Master Kai, maybe I should rethink.” He moved around her, breathing in her beauty. She was so damn gorgeous. She was always gorgeous, but like this, she was damn near perfect. “I should rethink what I said though. It wasn’t perfectly true. This is our space. This is the space where we can drop our daily roles and find that other part of ourselves. When we walk into this room, I want you silent unless I ask a specific question. Would you like to take off your clothes or do you want to do this with the corset on? I assure you I can make it work.”

“Naked works for me. I told you, Master Remy, that I have some exhibitionist in me.”

“Have you ever watched me scene?” He thought he knew the answer to that, but he wanted to see if she would reply honestly. He moved to her back, reaching down to let the laces of the corset out.

“It was my hobby while I was here, Sir. I think I caught most of your scenes. I’m surprised you came back here. There are hard points on the stage you usually use.”

“I wanted some intimacy this time,” he replied. “I don’t want a huge crowd because like Kai here, I’d like to let my freak flag fly, and there are things I like to do when I hold a sub dear that I don’t on a simple scene partner.”

Like fuck her silly. He didn’t mind having sex in the club, but he wanted more intimacy with her. And then there was his other kink.

“Ow. Ow. Fuck you, Kai,” Kori said.

“I believe my lovely wife is making those hand gestures because she wants to know if you would like us to find another spot,” Kai said. “Yes, keep it up, love. The rope is doing its job nicely. Your poor foot. I could help you, you know.”

“You were here first,” Remy replied. “And what I’m going to do won’t bother you. Now if Big Tag was here, I’d gag him.” He didn’t do this often, though the words flowed through his head every time he picked up a length of rope. He wanted to do it with her. He wanted to give her the words that flowed like an easy river. “You have a safe word. Will you promise me to use it if I scare you?”

“I promise, but I don’t frighten easily and I’ve waited for this,” she whispered. “For a long time.”

He eased the corset off her. “I’ve waited forever to see your skin. To make it my canvas. I won’t use paint. I’m not an artist whose strokes hang in a gallery. There is no immortality in my work. It takes this flesh and binds it.”

He’d prepped the rope he would use and called the dungeon monitor, who seemed to have properly set up his scene.

He dropped the length of jute in front of her. “This is my only artistry. My one talent. To bind my chèrie in rope worthy of her, to hold her close so she knows each wrap of my rope is a manifestation of my affection, my need. Can you accept my gift?”

She looked up and tears were already in her eyes. She nodded slowly.

He reached down. “I don’t mean to make you cry.”

“Don’t you dare stop. If I only get a few weeks, I want all of you. I want this part. You let me feel it all. You don’t hold anything back on me. I want it all and I definitely want those words. I used to watch you and you would take your hair down. I waited for that moment because that was the moment you took control.”

“I cut my hair because I had to have surgery,” he explained as he began to wind the rope around her torso. “I’ll grow it back out and it wasn’t a huge deal. I’ve got a metal plate in my head from an injury.”

“What?”

“Hush, this is my time. In my head, this is a lush dance. In my mind, this is art.”

She went still, her obvious trust in him allowing him to find that place again.

“You think I’m hard in this place, this top space, but this is where I find peace.” He worked the rope, the ties perfectly familiar, his fingers moving almost without his brain. The muscle memory took over, knowing where to go as he concentrated on her. On how the rope looked against her skin, how it would leave an indention he could touch and kiss for an hour after. “This is where I let go, allowing my body to serve yours, my mind flowing like that river, gently easing everything out to sea.”

He started in on her breasts, working the rope around each sweet mound. “My rope binds you to me, reminds you that I am the one who touches you, brings you to the ultimate pleasure. My rope binds me to you, reminds me that this connection, the one that flows through each wrap and binding, comes only from this soul I wind myself around. For I am in this rope, in every tie, every inch that caresses you. This rope is the touch of my hand, the loving touch of my mouth and tongue, the offering of my body to yours.”

He let the words flow as he worked his rope. He spoke of her beauty, his affection and need for her, all the while winding the rope around her body, showcasing her breasts and preparing her for more. She wanted the full experience? He could give it to her. He would let her feel it all.

Not every scene had to be hardcore. For Remy, D/s was about having a spot where he could open himself up, allow himself to be as vulnerable as the submissive he was about to suspend. He’d been looking for the right sub, the one who would relax him enough to allow him to be exactly who he was without self-consciousness or fear.

“You look perfect with my rope your only clothing, nothing between us. Do you want to fly, ma chèrie? Because I will take you there,” he said as he tied off the last rope that would connect her to the rope he would suspend her with. He’d attached it carefully, her safety his highest concern. It was attached at two points on her “flight suit,” forming a triangle that would hold her up and let her float.

“Yes. I want to fly,” she said, her voice tremulous.

He pulled on the rope and she was in the air, her lovely body hanging and dependent on his craftsmanship. He pulled her up so she was roughly at the height of his chest. He could reach down and touch her, caressing her skin through the ropes. She was facing up, unable to see what he would do to her, only able to hear his voice. “My ropes leave marks, tiny indentions to prove I was here, but they will fade to memory. No, my mark will not stay on this perfect skin because I would leave no scars to mar you. But remember the feeling, remember the care when you are alone. When I am far from you, remember how I lavished you with affection, with worship.”

He sighed, a blissful but bittersweet breath. He could smell her arousal and see the way she relaxed, giving over to the experience. He looked up at her, at the beautiful way her luscious cheeks pressed against the rope. She was safe and secure, and he’d done this for her. He reached up, letting his fingertips trace along her body, skimming from flesh to rope and back again, loving the shudder that went through her body.

“I have worked this rope a thousand times before, and yet this one is new. This one is fresh, and I want to hold it, too. I want the marks on my skin, to make them indelible so I do not ever forget this first night. This first night, one of a handful I will spend with you. One of a handful of nights, of scenes that will feed my soul for the rest of my life. Looking at my angel, flying. Not free for now, but safe and warmed and cared for in my ropes.”

He finished the poem that ran through his head by going on his toes and managing to capture her lips with his. He knew some of his counterparts would tease him for the poetry that he sometimes wrote down but mostly left in his head, but those words were as much a part of him as the way he fought or how he did his job. He accepted them, used them when he needed to.

How many times over the next forty years would he form words in his brain that spoke of her? He forced the thought out of his mind. He had to live in the now when it came to her. This whole damn night before he’d taken her in here had been walking a tightrope. He’d planned on talking to Will in the locker room, but he’d missed the man and then he’d been sure Will was going to out him. Not that he was doing anything wrong. The relationship was real and the job was real, and the fact that he was involved in both didn’t make either less important.

“How do you feel?” He meant the question to come out in a patient tone, but he kind of ended up growling the words her way. There was something about the words playing through his head that made him anxious.

“I feel good, Master Remy. I like suspension, but I wish your hands were on me,” she whispered. “I like this, but I like being close to you more.”

The words in his head started to shift from pretty poetry about emotions to something more primal, dirtier, and yet still very much how he felt. “For some subs, this is what they want. They want to sit here in suspension and float for a while. Others, well, they want things a little different.”

“I want whatever gets your hands on me. Please. But nothing, I mean nothing, ever made me feel as close to you as your words. It was beautiful. I never heard you talk like that during a scene. Were you quiet about it with the others?”

Oh, she needed to understand. “I’ve never done that in a scene. The words run through my head, but I never shared them with a sub. And honestly, what would have come out of my mouth with other subs had nothing to do with the things you make me feel. All my life these words have run through my head, but I never felt like I had to say them until tonight.”

“If you don’t fuck me hard, I’m going to die because I’ve never wanted a man in my life the way I want you. I want the poet and the Dom and the, god, I want the dirty, filthy lover I can’t get enough of. You say you’ve never done that before. Don’t you stop now. Give me all your dirty words, too. I want them.”

He let his hands find her breasts. He’d bound them tight to make sure she would feel them, be deeply aware of them. “This is the sweetest fruit there is, your feminine beauty. Never have I seen anything I wanted more. I worship here.” He tweaked her breasts before moving under her. He had to shift her slightly to get those pretty nipples in his mouth, but he moved back and forth, licking and sucking them. “These buds are the softest flowers…” He stopped because his head was suddenly filled with words he couldn’t speak.

I see children here.

I see life here.

I see future here.

He stepped back, desire churning inside him, but there was more. He knew what lust felt like, what pure molten sex felt like when it rolled through his body in a volcanic state. This was something more. He wanted her but more than her body. He wanted her soul, her future, every ounce of love she had to give. It wouldn’t last. The love inside her would grow and multiply as she grew their children. As her body bore their future, she would love more. Her love would be endless, growing forth from their children and grandchildren and sparking beyond.

This woman had been made for him.

He couldn’t tell her that. Those words were caught, strangled by his past because he couldn’t give her what she deserved. All he could offer her was hard work for years, an entire community that depended on him, responsibility after responsibility.

He could love her, but he didn’t deserve her.

He moved to the rope that held her up. She was too high. He’d wanted her to feel suspended, but in order to join her, he had to lower her down.

God, wasn’t that a metaphor for their relationship? To have her, he had to drag her down. He had to bring her low. She deserved the world and he could only give her a dive bar in flyover country.

But he could give her this now.

He eased the rope down, lowering her to the perfect height. He could see the look on her face, trusting and relaxed, as though she knew he would give her everything she needed. He would give her what she needed tonight. She needed a Dom who was crazy for her. He would show her.

“This body is mine. Its beauty infuses me with light, makes me strong. This gift is more than I deserve, but I will give you, mon ange, a gift of my own.” His hands went to the ties of his leathers, opening them with ease and releasing his cock. He stepped between her legs. He’d tied her thighs apart for just this moment.

His cock strained as desire pounded through his system. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew they’d drawn a crowd, but he couldn’t care about that. They’d been perfectly silent so he ignored them. He stroked his cock, getting ready to roll the condom on. “Pleasure is my gift, but more I want comfort for you. Physical comfort in the form of my cock, my ropes, the warmth of my hands on your skin. Soul comfort that comes from knowing my whole being is here in this moment with you and I would be nowhere else.” He rubbed his now sheathed cock against the heat of her pussy. She was wet and ready, and he could see how her fingers curled around the rope, seeking balance. “I worry I will come back to this place, this night, this moment when we are together again and again, that I will stay caught here. It’s all I can hope for—to be young and yours forever.”

He stroked inside her, words failing him. All that mattered now was giving her what she needed. He thrust in and pulled back out, going slow at first so he could feel every inch of the slide of his cock against the delicate but strong muscles milking him inside her. He wanted to stay here, right in this moment. The world could end right this moment and he would be perfectly happy.

But the world didn’t work that way. The moment lengthened, time moving forward, and he couldn’t hold out forever. He stroked into her, moving faster and faster, finding the rhythm that sent them both over the edge. He felt the moment she came, her body tensing around his, clamping down hard and causing him to fall with her.

Pleasure hit his brain like a runaway train, making his eyes roll back as his body took over, pulsing out and thrusting in until he’d given up everything he had.

And still he had things to say to her. He put a hand on her belly, keeping them connected. “And still, after the moment is done, I would stay with you because the after with you is as sweet as the during, more meaningful than the before because we are one.”

She looked down, staring at that place where his hand rested possessively on her belly. “Because we are one.”

Tears rolled from her eyes, but it was all about feeling. She felt. He felt, and it was good.

“You can have the puppy,” a low voice said. “You can have all the puppies.”

Kai had his wife out of her suspension and wrapped around his body. He lifted her up and started out of the room, kissing her even as he headed for the privacy rooms. His hands moved over her, holding her close and making obvious his passion for her.

“Hey, what’s up with the poetry stuff? Is that like spoken word Cajun version?” Adam Miles asked.

Big Tag’s hand came out, smacking the back of his head. “Hush, Charlie liked it.”

Charlotte was draped over her husband’s lap, her head in the crook of his neck, and Big Tag was whispering something to her. Something that made her glow and cuddle close. Whatever he said made her kiss his jawline and say something back.

Serena frowned at Adam and shifted closer to Jake. “It was beautiful.”

Adam turned a nice shade of red. “Sorry. I didn’t get all the talky parts.”

Jake grinned and settled their wife firmly on his lap. “I love it when I’m the smart one. Remy, you know every dude in the company is coming to you now to write our Valentine’s cards.”

Damn. It was a good thing he was leaving soon.

“Get your own poet, ladies,” Lisa said. “This one is mine.”

He moved back reluctantly. He was hers. For now. He had to find a way to make that time count.