by Sherri Hayes
We’d had lunch at a little café, but by the time we wrapped up for the day it was dinner time, so I picked up a pizza on the way home. I didn’t want Brianna to have to cook after such a grueling day.
When we arrived home, Logan took their bags upstairs while Brianna and Lily got plates and drinks for all of us. I carried the pizzas into the living room. By the time Logan made his way back downstairs, everything was ready for us to dig in.
I sat on the floor with Brianna between my knees as we ate. Lily was still buzzing about our day of shopping. Sometimes I wondered where she got all her energy from because she seemed to have an endless abundance of it.
Conversation eventually circled back to Logan and Lily’s upcoming wedding. “Do you think you guys could come up to Minneapolis next weekend? I need to start looking for my dress and I need a companion that isn’t Logan.” She sent a very serious look her fiancée’s way. “He’s not allowed to see the dress before the wedding.”
“Wanting to sneak a peek, are you?” I asked Logan as I leaned back against the base of my chair. Brianna shifted closer, adjusting to the new position. I wrapped my arms around her and placed a soft kiss at her temple.
He shrugged. “I’m not all that big on tradition as you know. I don’t really see the point.”
“The point is it’s tradition. That’s all that matters.”
Logan tilted his head down and gave her a look. It was a warning, but she either didn’t pick up on it or she was outright ignoring it. I didn’t know which.
“We’ll be spending the night before the wedding apart, too.” She paused. “Which reminds me, I need to set up visits to the high-end hotels in the area. Five months really isn’t that much time, but I have a few places that owe me favors, so we’ll make it work.”
She’d been going on and on as if she hadn’t noticed the change in Logan’s mood. I did. And so had Brianna.
Logan stood. “It’s been a long day. I think we’re going to turn in.”
He reached for Lily and she took his hand. Without another word, they headed upstairs to their bedroom.
Brianna wiggled, her backside brushing against my cock. There wasn’t anything sexual about it, however. I knew exactly what she was thinking. “Lily will be fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“More than likely, Lily knew what she was doing. Even if she didn’t, she knows the rules and the consequences.” I cupped her face with my hand and brushed my lips against hers.
Her wide blue eyes stared at me. “What will he do?”
I ran my hand down her arm and entangled our fingers together as I answered her question. “He’ll most likely spank her. That or orgasm denial. Logan tends to prefer spanking, though, when Lily loses control of her tongue and he isn’t willing or able to restrict her speech.”
Brianna thought about that for a few moments and I waited while she processed what I’d said. “Why wouldn’t he restrict her speech instead?”
The corners of my mouth ticked up. “Given they’re here visiting for the weekend and Lily doesn’t get to spend all that much time with us anymore, I doubt he’ll want to prevent her from communicating with us. That’s why I think he’ll choose something a little more direct.”
She seemed to consider that, and then lay her head on my shoulder.
When she didn’t speak for several minutes, I decided to change the subject. “It’s early, would you like to watch a movie?”
“Can we watch Buffy?”
I had to suppress a groan. Brianna had recently become addicted to the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’d downloaded the first season after reading several reviews that had raved about it. We’d watched the first twelve episodes and Brianna had asked if we could get the second season.
It was a good show. Entertaining. But I was pretty sure Brianna had a crush on Angel and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Unable to deny her, especially after I’d suggested we watch something. I picked up the remote, brought up Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and settled in for an hour of demon slaying and snarky banter.
Chapter 3
Brianna
The best part of waking up was having Stephan beside me. Before him, I couldn’t remember sleeping so soundly. He made me feel safe and protected. I knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to me and so I could let go and relax.
Of course, it helped that he tended to give me a couple of orgasms every night before we fell asleep as well. That always released any tension I had built up throughout the day. I’d come to realize sex was wonderful. Or maybe that was just sex with Stephan.
After getting dressed, I went to the kitchen to get breakfast started. It was Sunday, which meant waffles and sausage. I had a routine, so it didn’t take me long to fry up the sausage and mix the batter for the waffles. Digging out my waffle iron, I plugged it in and lined everything up so it would be ready to go as soon as Logan and Lily came downstairs.
Stephan strolled into the kitchen, freshly showered. He laid my journal on the counter beside the refrigerator, and then began carrying the fruit I’d cut up and the juice to the table. It was then I heard movement coming from upstairs.
“Should I start the waffles?” I asked.
He paused to listen. “Give them fifteen minutes or so, and then you should be good. I’d rather wait for hot waffles than to have them go cold while we’re waiting.”
Nodding, I moved the sausage to the warming drawer. I didn’t want them to overcook or get cold while we were waiting, either.
It was a good thing I hadn’t made the waffles because it took Logan and Lily almost thirty minutes to appear. I was starting to get hungry. We didn’t usually wait this long after waking to eat.
I took a good look at Lily as she made her way to the table. She looked fine. Normal. That is until she went to sit down. I noticed her take more care when lowering herself onto the dining room chair. Stephan was right. Logan must have spanked her.
Not that I’d doubted him. Stephan knew Logan well. They’d been friends for years and Stephan had trained Logan as a Dom.
Still. I didn’t like seeing Lily in pain. I worried about her. I couldn’t help it.
“Everything all right?” Stephan asked, coming up behind me.
One thing I didn’t do was lie to Stephan. “Logan spanked Lily.”
Stephan glanced over to where they were sitting. “Is her bottom a little sore this morning?”
I nodded. “She was really careful when she sat down.”
He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed the top of my head. “Maybe after breakfast you and Lily should have a talk. You can ask her about it.”
“Okay.”
He gave me a squeeze and released me. “I’ll bring the sausages over while you get the waffles ready.”
I was quiet during breakfast. Stephan didn’t push me to talk. He knew I was concerned about Lily.
Once everything was cleaned and put away from breakfast, Stephan asked Logan if he wanted to walk the property with him before we headed to Stephan’s aunt and uncle’s for Sunday dinner. I knew it was really just a way for Stephan to give me time alone with Lily.
“So, what’s up?” she asked almost as soon as Stephan and Logan were out the door. One thing I’d learned about Lily, she was always direct and to the point.
“Logan spanked you.”
“How did you know that? Could you hear us?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. This morning. When you sat down. I noticed you were . . . cautious.”
“Ah.” Lily took a seat on the couch and patted the space beside her.
I took a deep breath and lowered myself onto the cushion, facing Lily.
She reached for my hands and held them in her own. “Have you ever been spanked before? When you were a kid, I mean?”
“No. My mom didn’t believe in spanking.” I looked down at our hands and soldiered on. “One of Ian’s friends. He liked to . . .” I didn’t finish the sentence, but I didn’t ne
ed to.
Lily gave my fingers a comforting squeeze. She knew a small bit of what Ian and his friends had done to me, but it was enough. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Did I? Not really. But I never wanted to talk about it. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. That it was . . . consensual.” It was a word I’d learned from Stephan and then was re-enforced by both my therapists.
“Everything we do is consensual. I have my safeword and he’ll stop if I use it.” She paused and then added, “He’s proven that more than once.”
“You’ve had to use your safeword before?” I felt my anxiety rising and did my best to keep myself calm. We were just talking. Everything was fine.
She nodded. “Not recently, but in the beginning when he was just learning, I used it quite a few times. He’d get carried away and focus too long in one spot or tie something too tight.” Lily shrugged. “It happens. But the important thing is that when I used my safeword, he stopped like a good Dom should.”
Although I’d been with Stephan for over four years, I was still learning, understanding dominance and submission and play. I knew how it worked with us, but it was different for every couple.
“Have you ever had to use your safeword with Stephan?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer her question. Technically, I had, but never during sex. Unlike Lily and Logan, Stephan had me use a number scale. He said this way he could better gauge where I was. “Only when something’s happened that’s triggered a memory or something.” I ran my teeth over the bottom of my lip deciding if I wanted to say anymore. “He’s really good at reading me.”
Lily chuckled. “Stephan’s always been like that. It’s one of the things that makes him a good Dom.”
I nodded. It was true. Sometimes he could sense a shift in my mood within seconds. A slow smile pulled at my lips thinking about one time recently when I’d wanted sex but hadn’t been comfortable asking. We’d been sitting in the living room watching a movie. All I did was glance over at him for a second before returning to look at the screen. A few seconds later, he had me on my back with my arms pinned above my head. We never did finish watching the movie.
“You’re blushing.”
I looked up to find Lily grinning, which only made more heat rush to my cheeks. We’d gotten off the subject and I still had questions for her. “Do you like it when Logan spanks you?”
“It depends.” She sat back on the sofa, making herself comfortable. “If it’s when we’re playing, I like it a lot.” She got a dreamy look in her eyes for a moment before she refocused on me. “But play spanking and discipline spanking are different.”
The only experience I had with spanking was when I was with Ian and I’d learned over the years that wasn’t the best gauge. I doubted Lily had bruises from the spanking she’d received last night, but I figured it was best to ask. “Do you have bruises?”
Lily shook her head. “No. He never spanks me that hard.” She paused. “Although, there are some subs who like to be marked like that.”
My eyes went wide. “Why?” I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting that.
“Some of them enjoy the pain. Others view it as a badge of honor.” She shrugged. “It’s different for each person.”
I twisted my fingers together before looking up at her. “I don’t like thinking about you getting hurt.”
“Logan would never hurt me. Not really. And a sore backside doesn’t count.” She stood abruptly and reached for my hand to pull me up. “While Logan and Stephan are off doing whatever it is they’re doing, let’s get a head start on dress shopping. You have a computer, right? I want to show you this website I found and see what you think.”
“Yeah, it’s on the nightstand in our bedroom.”
She took hold of my hand and we were off.
Stephan
When Logan and I came in from our walk, Brianna and Lily were no longer in the main living area. He headed upstairs to look for them while I scoured the downstairs.
I found them both sitting on our bed looking at Brianna’s laptop. “There you both are.”
“We figured you’d be a while, so we thought we’d look at some bridesmaid dresses,” Lily said.
I strolled over to the bed and glanced at the screen. There was a ball gown style dress with a long slit down the side. It looked rather sexy for a bridesmaid dress, but what did I know?
Brushing the back of my hand along Brianna’s cheek, I smiled down at her doing something so normal. I loved seeing her like this. It was so simple, but that was the beauty of it.
“We have about a half hour before we have to leave, so you two need to wrap things up here.” With that, I left them alone and went to find Logan.
I ran into him at the bottom of the stairs. “Did you find them?” he asked.
“They’re in our bedroom looking at bridesmaid’s dresses.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “She has wedding fever and we still have five months to go.”
I went to the refrigerator and removed a pitcher. “Water?”
“Yes, please,” he said and took a seat at the island.
“You know Lily. She’s in her element planning a big event and this is her wedding. She’s going to go all out.”
“I know. And I want her to. I just hope I have the stamina to keep up.”
I set a glass of water in front of him and pulled out a stool. “You keep up with her any other time. Why would this be different?”
He took a drink before he answered. “I want it to be perfect for her.”
“I can understand that.”
A few minutes passed as we sat there sipping our water and looking out at the river that ran behind our house. On warm nights, Brianna and I sat on our deck and watched the water flow. She found it peaceful, and so did I.
“You and Brianna think you’ll get married?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
Logan turned to look at me. “Never thought about it?”
“I would marry her in a heartbeat if that’s what she wanted.”
He raised his eyebrows. “She doesn’t want to get married?”
“It hasn’t come up. She’s just now getting her feet under her and finding her way in the world. I figure if it’s something she wants to explore; she’ll bring it up.” I couldn’t hide my smile as I remembered some of the stranger conversations we’d had. Brianna had gone from not wanting to ask anything to asking everything. I never knew what topic of conversation we’d discuss from one day to the next.
No more was said on the topic as Brianna and Lily exited the bedroom and joined us at the island. I tugged Brianna to stand between my legs, resting my hands on her hips. “Are you thirsty?” I asked.
She nodded, so after giving her a quick kiss I got up and poured her a glass of water.
“Lily?”
She picked up Logan’s glass. “No, thanks. I’m good.”
“Stephan said you guys were looking at bridesmaid dresses,” Logan said. “Find any you liked?”
Lily hummed. “I’ve got it narrowed down to a few different styles. It’s all going to depend how they look on.”
She went on about ruching and cinched waists for a few minutes while the rest of us sat and listened. It was starting to make my eyes glaze over, so I was relieved when I noticed the time. “We should probably get going if we don’t want to be late.”
Since Logan and Lily would be driving back to the city after dinner, they drove separately. It was the perfect opportunity for Brianna and me to talk uninterrupted. I laced our fingers together, resting them on my thigh. “Logan has a friend who’s starting a nonprofit and would like my input.”
Brianna didn’t respond right away. “Does that mean you’ll be going into the city more often?”
“I don’t know. It depends.” I wasn’t sure how she’d react to the information, although we’d been talking recently about me finding another position. It wasn’t that I had to work, but as time went on I had less and less to
do with the foundation my family established. For the past six months, the only thing I did was attend monthly board meetings. That left a lot of extra time on my hands. As much as I loved Brianna and enjoyed our time together, I knew it was best for both of us if I found another job.
She was quiet for a long time. I knew she was thinking things through. Brianna didn’t sulk like some women. She also didn’t throw temper tantrums when she didn’t get her way. No, Brianna was mulling over her thoughts and feelings regarding what I’d told her.
When she did finally speak, it wasn’t about my potential new job. “I want to learn how to drive again.”
I glanced over at her. She was looking at the road ahead, not at me. “Brianna.”
That was all it took for her to turn in my direction.
We’d known each other for four years and not once had she indicated she had a desire to drive a car. “Not that I object to you learning to drive again, but what brought that up?”
“If you’re going back to work, then I want to go back to school. I want to be useful. But I can’t do that unless I can drive.”
Well, that explained the long silence that had filled the car after my announcement. It wasn’t as if we hadn’t talked about her going back to school over the years. We had. However, it had always been in the abstract. Something far off into the future. Apparently, the future had arrived.
I couldn’t dismiss the grain of fear that settled into the pit of my stomach. Even though I knew I couldn’t protect her from everything, I still wanted to. My protective instincts when it came to Brianna were always out in full force.
Logic and reason won the day, however. “All right. I’ll have your car brought to the house. We can begin working on some things in the yard. Once you’re comfortable there, we can try driving on an actual road.”
The sound of skin rubbing against leather assaulted my ears a moment before I felt her head resting on my arm. “Thank you.”
