“You are an amazing, beautiful woman.” AJ began to look around to see who had spoken but then realized with a start that it had been his own voice.
Buffy’s face jerked toward him, her mouth open and her eyes wide.
“Oops. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.” AJ felt his own face go a little hot. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Her head ducked down, hiding her expression.
AJ regarded her. If it hadn’t been for Tammy—
He forced his thoughts away from that direction. He had just seen her kissing Crash, and no one who’d watched could have any doubt they had both enjoyed it. How could he imagine taking her for himself after that? “Thank you for what you did for him,” he said, concentrating on keeping his voice neutral. “If he had passed out again, especially in front of you, he would never have forgiven himself.”
“Again?”
“Shit. That was out loud, too, wasn’t it? I don’t know how you get us both so flustered.”
She just stared at him.
“Anyway, I promised to tell you how he got his name, didn’t I?” He spoke low, glancing at Crash to make sure he couldn’t be overheard. Crash stared at Beth and Susan as if just realizing he had done the same thing a few minutes before.
“Yes.”
He sighed. “He’d kill me for telling you this. It was our freshman year in high school, and we were getting our team medical exams. They decided he was missing an immunization, so he had to get it from the nurse. She was really pretty, and he was acting all cocky and macho for her. Then she brought out the needle and started getting ready to stick him with it, you know? Anyway, he was making a joke, looking at me, and when he turned and saw what she was about to do, he passed right out. Now, that might have been okay, but he was standing up, and he was a big boy even then. The nurse tried to catch him, but he was too heavy and down they both went. Knocked over a whole tray of shit and a couple of chairs. Made the most God-awful noise. Everybody on the team was there and saw the whole thing. The next thing we knew, everyone was calling him Crash. He’s been that ever since. Now you know the truth. The fear of something so small is really humiliating for him, and I try to help by not contradicting all the stories he makes up about it. So there you go. But I guess if you don’t like needles either, you’ll kind of understand.”
“Don’t like—” Sami frowned at him, but then her face cleared and she laughed. “Needles don’t bother me. I just said that to let him feel protective and take his mind off what was happening.”
AJ stopped in the act of reaching for more crackers. “I’ll be damned.”
“Sometimes being a girl comes in handy.” She winked at him and turned to head back to the couch, where Crash seemed to be slumping a little.
He followed a few steps behind her. “In that case I’ll say it again, and out loud on purpose this time. You are an amazing and beautiful woman.”
Chapter 8
“I’ve got her!” AJ watched in concern as Crash yanked open the passenger door of the car and ushered Buffy inside. He threw himself into the backseat, looking like a three-hundred-pound schoolboy ditching class.
“Just to avoid possible legal action later, you are coming voluntarily, aren’t you?” AJ turned the car around in the driveway and headed out to the road.
“Yes, I suppose so,” Buffy said, looking confused. “Where are we going?”
“To the diner, then to empty the town of junk food. It’s our own little campaign to make Grandpointe healthier.”
She groaned, holding a hand over her stomach and looking over her shoulder at Crash. “We just ate breakfast. Even you can’t still be hungry!”
“I’m out of snacks.” He gave her a pathetic, hungry smile.
Buffy smiled, shaking her head. “Okay. We can spend our free morning on your treasure hunt. But we need to be back in time for the clothing demo this afternoon.”
He was shocked. “Of course we’ll be back before that. Lunch is in a couple of hours.”
At the diner, Carly pointed them toward a table and followed with three cups of coffee and menus.
“Still not used to healthy food?” she asked Crash.
“Oh, the food’s great,” Crash said, taking the menu and giving it a brief scan. “But I’m a growing boy, you know.”
She looked him up and down, stepping back to take in the whole picture. “How much more are you planning to grow?”
“He’s an overachiever.” AJ handed his menu back. “Just some hash browns for me, please.”
“Yeah, what does Allie have against potatoes, anyway?” Crash said. “They’re healthy, aren’t they? I’ll have some, too, plus a double stack of pancakes and two orders of bacon. You can have some if you want,” he added, giving Buffy a smile.
“If I hang out with you guys much longer, I won’t fit into any of my clothes.” Buffy handed her menu to Carly, who laughed and went to start their orders.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Crash wiggled his eyebrows at her, and Buffy flushed bright scarlet. “Clothes are overrated. Besides, you’ll be able to get some new ones in that class today.”
It didn’t seem to help. Buffy ducked her head and mumbled something like, “I’d never be able to afford that.”
AJ looked from one to the other. It was obvious that Crash had a crush and was encouraged by the kiss in class yesterday. AJ knew he would probably have to have a serious talk with his friend soon about how not to scare women away. Not that he was an expert on that, God knew. He’d scared away his share of women. Crash hadn’t had many girlfriends, though. He was a bit of an acquired taste. Funny, sure, in a smartass kind of way, but his wisecracking exterior hid some deep insecurities.
AJ knew he should be doing everything he could to help this along. Buffy seemed to have a kind of amused affection for Crash, at least when she didn’t look like she was about to run away. The right thing to do was to encourage it. The problem was that AJ found himself interested in her as well.
That was just selfish. He had Tammy—or at least, he might have Tammy. She’d gone out with him a few times but finally told him that she needed more. She wanted a kinky relationship, and she didn’t think he could handle it. He was too much of a gentleman.
Too much of a gentleman? What the fuck was that about? He’d always been taught that women wanted you to be a gentleman. Should he become an asshole? The guys on the team who treated women like shit always seemed to have flocks of them around. Maybe that was the trick.
He didn’t want to be an asshole, though. He wanted a mutually satisfying relationship based on respect and love and fun. When he’d met Buffy, there had been a little jolt of recognition and interest, as if she met some criteria he’d been looking for. He’d found himself fantasizing about her several times over the last two days. The bondage class hadn’t helped, especially when she’d taken off her shirt. It had made him imagine her naked and tied up, ready for sex, looking up at him with vulnerable, adoring eyes. But Crash wanted her, too, and it wouldn’t be right for them both to pursue her, would it? It seemed to work okay for Brad, Allie, and Karl, but that just wasn’t how he was raised. So it was up to him to back off and encourage their budding romance. He needed to concentrate on Tammy anyway. He repeated that to himself several times, but somehow it just didn’t ring as true as it did a few days ago.
That kiss bothered him. Had it just been to relax Crash and take his mind off the needles? Or had it been something more? He couldn’t decide, and, what was worse, he couldn’t decide which one he wanted it to be.
He was startled when Buffy touched his arm and asked, “Why such a serious look?”
He forced himself back into the present, seeing that Crash and Buffy both looked a little uncomfortable now as they stirred creamer into their coffee. Crash emptied about half of the sugar container as well, but Buffy shook her head when he offered it to her.
“So, Buffy, tell us about yourself. What do you do? Yes, I know Allie said we weren’t supposed
to ask that, but this is different. We’re buddies. Besides, you know what we do. It would only be fair.” AJ gave her his most harmless smile, trying to steer the conversation away from Crash’s unfortunate attempt at flirting and his own distracted trip.
It didn’t seem to relax her. She turned red again and looked desperately toward the kitchen as if wondering what was taking Carly so long.
“I’m a massage therapist,” she said finally. “Unemployed at the moment.”
“I’m sorry.” This was going to be as bad as Crash’s fiasco, but he had to get her talking somehow. “How long did you—were you—”
“I worked at a salon in Eugene for a couple of years. It didn’t end well.”
That sounded like a better topic. He hadn’t wanted to ask where she lived in case it seemed stalker-ish. Plus Allie’s warnings about fishing for personal information kept replaying in his head. It would be tough getting to know kinky people if you weren’t allowed to talk about their lives, he thought.
“So do you like Eugene? Is that where you grew up?”
“Yes, I grew up there,” she answered, sounding a little more normal now. “I don’t think I’ll stay, though. That’s one of the reasons I came to visit Carly. I need to take some time to regroup and decide where I want to live.”
“What happened?” Trust Crash to plunge headlong into the topic that she obviously didn’t want to talk about.
“My boss—” She hesitated, as if trying to decide what to tell them. AJ almost patted her hand and assured her that she didn’t need to talk about it, even though he really wanted to hear the story. After a moment she went on. “He started asking me to do things that I wasn’t licensed to do. I refused, of course, but there were—circumstances.”
“Circumstances?”
She gave Crash a look that suggested she wanted badly to tell him to mind his own business. Then she apparently realized he was as clueless as he seemed, not just rude. “I was dating him.”
There was silence. Even Crash got the implications of that.
AJ jumped in to change the conversation before Crash could dig himself an even deeper hole. “You and Carly grew up together?”
She turned to him in evident relief. “Yes, we’ve been friends forever. Carly’s great. I knew she’d be there for me. Unfortunately, I came at a bad time, I guess. She’s got all this stuff to take care of with the diner, and I’m not really in a position to help. It’s kind of frustrating. It seemed like going to the workshop at Clifftop would give Carly some space so she could concentrate on what needs to be done. I should have stayed and waited tables or something, but she insisted that I needed more of a vacation. I’m not sure it’s exactly what I would have chosen, but I didn’t have a lot of options. I couldn’t really afford to go anywhere else.” As she talked, she seemed to get a little depressed. After a moment of silence, she looked up at him with a smile. “So what about you guys? Tell me about your football thing.”
“Our football thing?” Crash bridled, as if she’d asked if he had fun playing ball with his little friends. “I’ll have you know that arena football is serious shit.”
“Yeah. I think we’re up for the Nobel Prize this year,” AJ said, winking at her. “Some people consider football an actual career, you know.”
She turned wide eyes to Crash. “I didn’t mean to imply anything. Really. I actually had a lot of clients that played football—” She stopped again.
AJ sighed. They just couldn’t get this right. Fortunately Carly brought their food, and they all fell silent while Crash attacked his pancakes like a ravenous shark.
* * * *
“I brought a bunch of different items for you to try on.” The corsetiere’s voice was muffled since she was leaning over, digging into a box on the floor. Piles of brightly colored clothing were stacked on the table near her, along with tape measures and a large book.
“She sure seems to have a lot of stock,” Sami commented to Lucy. The guys had been taken to the barn for a leather-care class by Brad, leaving the women to congregate in the living room. Lucy had immediately plopped down next to Sami on the couch and begun chatting. Susan took a seat in the recliner and picked up a magazine.
Allie had come in with a tall, thin woman wearing a business suit, a gray bun, and a small, decorated hat pinned to the top of her head. She’d introduced herself as Madame Theresa, then Allie sat down as Theresa had proceeded to pass around illustrations and talk about what kind of fashions were popular in the leather community.
“You can spend a lot of money putting together costumes like steampunk, military, schoolgirl, things like that,” Theresa said. “I don’t have any of those with me, but there are pictures of them in your packets. I can certainly advise you on where to get them and which styles would be most flattering for you. Now I’m going to talk about the differences between latex, rubber, and PVC.”
After that section, she moved on to corsets and offered to pass around the big book, which she said showed the most common styles. Susan reached for it first and sat browsing as Theresa began pulling out stacks of samples. Allie went up to help her sort the stacks.
Lucy turned to Sami, since everyone else in the group was occupied. “Your guys are really cute.” It took a minute for her words to sink in, but then Sami turned to her in surprise. “Do you ever swing?”
“Swing?” An image of a playground flashed into Sami’s mind, with her on a child’s swing set, being pushed higher and higher by an exuberant Crash. Maybe it would become another story for him to tell to explain his name.
“Yes. Swing. Swap. Exchange partners.” Lucy nudged her with a shoulder, grinning and winking.
Sami stared at her, speechless. “They’re not my—”
Lucy interrupted her with a giggle. “I guess not. You should try it. Trust me, it’s a lot of fun. We’re going to a nudist resort for swingers next month. I can’t wait! I’ve got the credit card to buy a bunch of new things to wear.”
Sami was distracted from trying to explain that the guys weren’t her “partners.” “You’re buying clothes to wear to a nudist resort?”
“Oh, yes.” Lucy was all business now. “During the day everyone just goes nude, of course. That’s the whole point. But in the evenings people dress up for dinner and dancing. They wear lingerie, lace dresses, body jewelry, stuff like that. I’ve heard that there’s a company near here that makes lightweight, see-though chain-mail tops and skirts. I think Allie said they were coming today. I’m dying to see some!”
Susan shushed her as Theresa finished her sorting and stood back up, casting a professional eye over the group. “I want you to know there’s no pressure to buy anything, although I have lots of pieces for sale and you’re welcome to order a custom piece if you like. There shouldn’t be any problem with trying on samples. Allie said you were all pretty average in size. Now, you’re welcome to come up and look through styles, or if you’d like a personal consultation about what will look best, I’ll be happy to do that as well. Who’d like to start?”
“Oh, me, me!” Lucy jumped up and ran to the table. All of Madame Theresa’s carefully stacked piles went crashing over as she began digging furiously. Susan went back to thumbing through the book, frowning.
Sami hesitantly followed Lucy to the table. She didn’t want to start grabbing things and holding them up to herself, the way Lucy was doing, but there didn’t seem to be anything else to do.
Allie came and stood next to her. “Are you familiar with the different styles?”
“No, not at all,” Sami said. Allie looked around at the mess on the table and finally picked one up, holding it for Sami to see. “This style would be very flattering on you. It would accentuate your very nice breasts and shoulders and show off the wonderful curve of your hips, right here. The dark green would go beautifully with your red hair, too. Do you like this color?”
Sami gazed down at it. It was gorgeous, but not a color she would ever have picked out. Still, she wasn’t going to buy anything, s
o there was no harm in trying it.
“If there’s one big enough for me.” Sami felt her face go hot. There was no reason to be embarrassed. She and Allie were roughly the same size, although both were a little chunkier than Lucy or Susan.
Theresa joined them. “My dear, this one was positively made for you. It’ll be perfect.”
“But it’s so small.” Sami held it up and tried to imagine herself stuffed into it. She’d be popping out in all directions, she thought, like a bratwurst in a hot-dog casing. The image made her think of Crash, and she smiled.
Just then Lucy held up a bright-red underbust and exclaimed, “This one! I must have this one! Come put me into it!”
“Go ahead and get her,” Sami said. “I can’t buy a corset today anyway.”
“Okay, but I’ll be back. I have a couple of styles I’d like to try on you.” Theresa gave her a surprisingly friendly smile and went over to the bouncing Lucy.
“I’ll help you put it on,” Allie offered. “I’ve just learned recently how to do it.”
The doorbell rang then, and Allie’s smile became apologetic. “Sorry. I’d better go get that.”
She went out and in a minute brought in another woman carrying a large duffel bag. Allie cleared her throat and introduced the woman to the group as Cassie, the chain-mailer that Lucy had been so anxious to try. She pulled out a couple of styles, and Sami went over to look, since Lucy was in the middle of being cinched into a corset and Susan didn’t even look up from the book.
“These are kind of different,” said Cassie, holding one up. It was about the size of a halter top, made of small rings in rainbow colors.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sami said, reaching out a finger to touch it. “It’s so light!”
Cassie smiled. “Yes. It’s made of anodized aluminum and rubber. See how stretchy it is? It’s really comfortable to wear, too. Would you like to try it on?”
“But it’s see-through!”
Double Dom Fantasies Page 10
