by Avery Gale
Jace knew that neither he nor Gage had been surprised by a woman during aftercare very often, but Holly’s words left him feeling as if someone had unceremoniously yanked the rug out from under him. “I don’t really know. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. The intensity of it…the shear knock you to your knees wave of emotion…well, I wasn’t prepared for it. Um…well, I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable by being so blunt. I’ll just…” Jace finally realized she had moved off him and was struggling to stand up between his legs and Gage, who had been standing behind her. He and Gage had been so floored by her honesty and insightful answer that neither of them had done a thing to stop her.
Finally, years of training as a Dominant seemed to kick in and he wrapped his hand around her wrist to keep her from stepping around Gage. “Hold on, pet. Where’s the fire?” She looked up and blinked at him and this time there was no question that her tears were from a gut-wrenching sadness. Instinct kicked in and Jace found himself flailing in a blinding sea of emotion that centered on protecting the beauty he held in his firm grasp. And even though it startled him, he couldn’t seem to fight back the wave of need he felt when it came to Holly.
Turning her so she was facing Gage, he let his friend hold her in his arms while he quickly disposed of the condom and set his clothing right. And then pulling her carefully from Gage’s arms, he settled her on his lap, making sure that she was once again covered. Gage sat once again so that he was facing her. Jace knew his quick actions had surprised her, but she had only let out a quick gasp of surprise and that earned her points for poise and grace, as his sweet mama would say. “Pet, tell me why you thought it was necessary to skedaddle off my lap as if it was on fire all of the sudden.” He paused for a few seconds because the look on her startled face told him she had every intention of editing her response. “And I’m going to remind you that we’ll always expect your answers to be completely honest and forthright, so don’t hold back pieces of the truth because that will be a quick ticket to a paddling.”
He saw the war her mind was waging because each and every emotion played itself out in brilliant Technicolor in her expression. Studying her closely he could almost see her pulling strength up from the depths of her soul as she struggled to put her feelings into words she thought they would find acceptable. One of the first skills every Special Forces soldier learns is patience, whether it’s patience with themselves or someone else. It was a skill you either learned quickly or you didn’t make the cut or you died quickly in the field. He could feel Gage go still beside him and knew his friend had slipped into the wait-mode that was as much a part of them as breathing.
Silence was his and Gage’s friend, they’d been trained to not let it intimidate them. That wasn’t to say that the skill wasn’t a hard-earned one, because it was—particularly for Dominants who, by their very nature, were accustomed to demanding and getting answers and compliance quickly. But this was one of those moments that Jace was very grateful for all of Uncle Sam’s best and brightest drilling skills into him that he wouldn’t have acquired otherwise. Jace noticed that he had unconsciously lowered his respiration and heart rates like he was settling in for a long reconnaissance, and he knew without even looking that Gage had done the same thing. He had to give Holly credit, she held his gaze a long time—almost as if she was trying to find the door to his soul so she could waltz in and set it free. Mentally shaking his head he wondered where that thought had come from because he’d never been overly introspective. He understood enough about himself in his opinion so he’d never really seen any need to pry open doors that should remain nailed tightly closed.
Chapter 7
Holly had been only a couple of heartbeats from escaping when these two men had reminded her why opening her big mouth always seemed to get her in trouble. Damn it, if her mind hadn’t been so flooded with those pesky endorphins, she might have been able to put a muzzle on her rambling. But oh no, she had to go and blab every single thing she’d been thinking like some freshman at a frat party. And the look on Jace’s and Gage’s faces had said it all…they hadn’t been able to believe she’d read so much into what had happened. Well, Mother Theresa wasn’t going to have a thing on her after tonight, because she wasn’t ever having sex again…well, not for a couple of decades at least.
She felt like a balloon that somebody had just untied because she just slowly deflated. I don’t know how I manage it, but it seems to be a gift. Things are sailing along all sunshine and roses…and then I have to open my mouth and fuck everything up. Hell, I should write a play about my life. Who am I kidding? No one would ever believe it and when they called it a fantasy piece it would just piss me off. Might as well finish this off and answer their question because there isn’t anything left to lose. Crap on a cracker, I’ll be lucky if Aunt Daph lets me back in the office after these two get finished telling her what a loose cannon she has working for her.
When she lifted her eyes to theirs she immediately realized two things. First, she had obviously been speaking out loud…again. And second, they were both about to stroke out. Time for damage control and fast. “I’m sorry. I can tell by your expressions that I was speaking out loud again…damn, I really have to get a handle on that before I hand over the keys to the kingdom.” Realizing she’d just done it yet again, she slapped her hand against her forehead and sighed. “See, this is what I get for working alone for so many months on end. I start thinking and then to fill the silence surrounding me, I start talking.” Giving herself a mental shake, she continued, “I was trying to get away because I could tell I’d said too much and I know guys don’t really care about all that touchy-feely stuff and it was painfully obvious I’d made you uncomfortable…so it seemed prudent to leave.” She knew she’d sagged against Jace when she’d finished, but she’d said it all without taking a breath because she had known if she ever stopped that she probably wouldn’t have the courage to finish it.
Holly had always considered herself a direct person and she’d never tried to be anything but honest with anyone she was dealing with. It had never occurred to her that performing as multiple people was in essence lying until she’d found herself in the thick of it. The producers on Broadway were getting great plays, so they’d been happy. The directors she’d reluctantly worked on stage with had been thrilled with her acting, so it had been a wash as well. The only problem had been her parents, because they’d felt as if they’d been shortchanged when she had bowed out of their society functions at an early age. As soon as she’d “blossomed,” as her mother liked to refer to her curvy figure, her parents had been on a single-minded campaign to get her whipped into what they considered “acceptable shape,” translate to twig-thin, to accompany them to the many charity events and public functions their careers demanded they attend.
It had been Holly’s great joy to move away from home at seventeen. She’d graduated from high school a year early and moved to college that same weekend. Since that first summer, she’d never lived under her parents’ roof again. Oh, she’d been home to visit briefly during summer and semester breaks, but she’d always made sure those visits were brief.
Coming back to the moment, Holly realized they were studying her like they would an interesting exhibit at the zoo. Moaning she asked, “Did I say any of that out loud? Please tell me I didn’t.” The sheer humiliation of everything that had happened was finally taking a toll and she struggled to get to her feet once again. “Please, just let me go. I really have maxed out my humiliation quota and I’d appreciate it if you would let me just leave quietly.” She knew her words had gotten so quiet that they had likely not heard everything she’d said, but at this point it didn’t matter. All she cared about was making her way to the front door and then running as fast as she could in the hellacious heels she was wearing to the club’s dock so she could take one of the small passenger boats back to Washington D.C.
* * * *
Gage had planned to let Jace finish this conversation with
Holly because he knew the man had been battling a major hard-on for the woman for several months, but it was becoming all too clear that it was going to take both of them to keep up with her. He wasn’t sure he’d ever met anyone whose mind functioned on so many different planes at the same time. How the girl kept her head above water was a mystery he wasn’t sure he and Jace together would be able to unravel.
When he reached for her hand he felt her stiffen for just a second before she seemed to relax. “You’ve had the opportunity to say quite a lot, sweetness, and I have to tell you, that is not always going to be the case. Usually submissives aren’t the ones doing the majority of the talking. But we don’t know you that well yet, so we’re taking this opportunity to remedy that some tonight. But—that being said, I want to make a couple of things very clear to you, so listen carefully.” Gage had deliberately dropped the volume of his voice so that she would have to make a concentrated effort to hear his words and he’d also switched to what he’d heard the subs at Club Isola referred to as his sex-as-sound voice because he wanted her attention as well as her arousal.
“I’m sure that I speak for Master Jace as well as myself when I say, I didn’t respond immediately to your answer because I was completely stunned by your insight and honesty. Your ability to use language to express your thoughts is remarkable and we were both surprised and pleased. But considering your various occupations, I don’t suppose we should be surprised at all. Now, I’m going to tell you this, but I’ll never cop to it if you tell anyone else, but I think we were both a bit speechless for a moment—something that doesn’t happen to either of us very often, I assure you.”
He’d seen a bit of light in her eyes and a faint whisper of a smile, so he knew his words had done exactly what he’d intended them to. He watched as Jace turned her face toward his own. “Pet, you are a remarkable woman and we’re looking forward to spending time with you. We have a lot of questions about some of the things you said—hell, I need to find out some of those answers to figure out how the hell the fact that Daphne Craig is your aunt slipped through your background check.” Gage was sure someone’s ass was going to be on the hot-seat when Jace got wind of who had doctored Holly’s file. He was guessing it had been Daphne herself, which meant any frustration the security team felt would evaporate into thin air. The older woman was a force to reckon with and had been with Ian since he’d taken over McGregor Holdings. If she’d considered hiring Holly important enough to go to those extremes, there was probably a lot to the story.
Jace stood up, keeping Holly cradled in his arms, and held her for just a few seconds before setting her gently on her feet. “Master Gage and I are going to escort you to the ladies locker room. There is always an attendant on duty who will be happy to help you with anything you might need.” They’d started walking with her between them—making their way toward the main lounge. The music and voices coming from the party were getting louder with each step they took, so he knew the party was now in full-swing. At the door of the Ladies Lounge, as it was known, Jace turned her so that she faced them both. “Pet, when you come back out, one of us will be standing right here waiting for you. At that point, for tonight only, you’ll be allowed to address us both by our first names while you are inside the club. We plan to teach you about the Lifestyle you are so obviously drawn to—but we’ll do it as we go along. But tonight is a celebration for our friends and we want you to enjoy the party. Do not leave without speaking with one or both of us, are we clear on that point?”
“Um, yes, I guess so. But if it’s like any other party and I didn’t come here with either of you, why do I need your permission to leave?”
Jace watched as the independent career woman emerged right before his eyes and he smiled to himself, because this was the part he loved so much. Earning a submissive’s respect wasn’t that difficult when she understood that your own pleasure and satisfaction were a direct reflection of her own. But this thing with Holly was something altogether different, so he answered her accordingly, “Because the bottom line is, pet, we’re both born and bred Texas boys, and our mamas would be after us with their wooden spoons if they knew we’d let the lady we were interested in take off in the night from a party all alone.” He was pleased to see her relax a bit and the softness of her lush little body pressed against his chest as he pulled her into a hug that sent the last of the blood in his brain racing south. He needed a drink and he needed it quickly. As he turned her into Gage’s waiting arms he nodded toward the bar and quickly walked away before he succumbed to the urge building inside him to take her right here against the wall. He knew that he needed to put a little distance between them or he was going to be balls deep in her soaking pussy again without any consideration to who was watching.
Chapter 8
Gage wanted to laugh out loud as he watched his friend stalk stiffly away. He was grateful he’d been left to see to Holly so he didn’t have to suffer the same fate. His usual leathers helped keep a raging hard-on corralled, but the damned black jeans he was wearing for tonight’s party wouldn’t do anything to keep the oxygen-rich blood he needed to think straight from pooling around the head that didn’t always make the best decisions.
Wrapping his arms around Holly, he leaned down and buried his face against the side of her neck and just inhaled her sweet scent. She smelled like an exotic flower—citrus-sweet and tropical—and a woman who’d just had a couple of off-the-charts orgasms. When he considered how responsive she’d been, he couldn’t help but wonder what she was going to be like when he and Jace focused their considerable Dominant skills on her. Her submission was probably a bone-deep desire that someone had tried very hard to drive out of her by pushing her into a career she excelled at but that didn’t fulfill that hole inside her that she didn’t tell anyone about.
Gage’s mom had explained it to him late one night several years ago when they’d been sitting on the back patio long after all the other members of their family had gone to bed. His mom had recognized him as a Dominant even before he’d known it himself. He’d always known that his mom took great joy in doing things for her family, but he’d also known that there had always been something deeper between them—and even though he’d known it was there, he hadn’t been able to pinpoint exactly what it meant. Beth Hughes was no one’s fool and it was her candid questions that night that had led to a discussion that had changed Gage’s path.
He’d moved back to the ranch after leaving his SEAL team and despite working around the house, he hadn’t ventured out much. The small town they lived near was gossip central and full of well-meaning mothers with marriage-minded daughters—all of those were complications he did not need. When his mom stated that she knew he was a Dom when he’d been in high school, he’d been shocked. He smiled at the memory of her bark of laughter at his surprise that night so long ago. But it had been more recently that Gage’s mom had explained the difficult line career-minded submissives have to walk because their lives are usually starkly divided between their careers and their Master. Her detailed explanation of a sub’s mindset and how difficult it was to fulfill both roles without a caring and compassionate Master who understood and listened, had been eye-opening. He’d benefitted from her insight several times, helping some of the extremely bright subs he’d scened with get to a place where they could step away from the armor they were forced to don each and every day just to survive in their workplaces.
Truthfully he’d probably used the information for many of the wrong reasons in the past, but in this moment—holding Holly in his arms, he knew exactly what his mom had been trying to tell him. He made a mental note to send her a big bouquet of her favorite wildflowers to let her know how much he appreciated her foresight. Pulling back, Gage brushed the silky dark waves of Holly’s hair back from her face, and spoke, “Go on inside, sweetheart. I’ll be right here for you when you’re finished. But don’t take too long. I’ve seen more than one Dom storm in there to retrieve his sub when he thought she was stalling.�
� He smiled at her startled expression as he kissed the tip of her nose and turned her to the door.
Leaning back against the wall after she’d gone, he looked out over the party and smiled when he saw Callie. She was standing in front of Ian, his arms wrapped around her and resting over her lower abdomen in a protective gesture that Gage had seen many times back home. He and Jace had already started a pool on when they were going to make the announcement that she was pregnant, and from the look of the ever so slight pooch of her tummy, Gage didn’t think they could keep it a secret much longer. Those close to the couple had noticed the subtle changes several weeks earlier. The fact that Ian was even more fiercely protective than ever had been the clincher. For just a split second his mind flashed to him holding Holly in a similar pose, they were in one of the local cantinas near their homes in Texas. In that second, he understood the joy of keeping that news to yourself, if even for just a short while. The intimacy of that shared joy binding the three of them together as nothing else ever could.
Jace’s gruff voice roused him from his musings. “What has you smiling like the cat that snagged the canary?”
“Nothing much, just watching Ian and Callie. His body language gives away their secret to anyone who is paying attention, but at this point I think the joy on his face speaks even louder.” Jace handed him a bottle of beer and he nodded his thanks while they both enjoyed the silence between themselves as they continued watching the celebration unfold in front of them. Gage finally decided it was time to get a couple of things cleared up before things went any further. “Listen, I don’t know if she is the one we’d hoped to find someday, but I’d really like to find out. What is your plan?” When Jace didn’t answer him right away, he added, “Are you planning to share her forever or will this be a deal like Ian’s? Because I have to tell you, if I’m going to get cut out later, I need to know that up front.”
