Mellie's Submission [Men of McKenna Downs 4] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever)

by Zoey Marcel

  “You’re welcome,” she said, smiling when she inhaled the cooked chicken and steaks. “These smell yummy.”

  He felt bad when he saw how friendly she was with him. He wanted to pummel her ass for sleeping with Diego, but goddamn her, she was just too sweet to stay mad at. It irritated him that he forgave her.

  “Let’s hope so.”

  To his undying shock he found his attention pinned to her ass when she walked away. God, what a view.

  Herschel sounded pleased. “Coming from you that means a lot, son.”

  Greyson scrambled to remember what the hell they were talking about. Oh yes, his dad’s admirable sacrifice where Lena was concerned. “Well, you do have your good points.”

  “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if she stayed. Some nights I lie awake and wonder how different my life would have been if I’d only agreed to share her with Alan and Hart.” Herschel’s spacey stare dissolved as he slowly returned from his trip down memory lane. “But then I realize that I wouldn’t have most of my kids if I hadn’t have married Elsa McAlister.”

  Greyson flipped the meat. “What do you mean most of your kids?”

  Herschel paused with a look of quiet reflection. “Nothing.”

  Greyson offered him a fleeting smile and then diverted his attention to the cooking steaks and chicken. He thought the look in his father’s eyes was strange and his response had been too quick to be truthful, but he wasn’t sure what else Herschel might have meant.

  The worn cowboy stood. “You know I can’t live without my boys.”

  “You did for years. Ring any bells?”

  Herschel smirked. “I’ve missed you, Greyson.”

  “I missed you, too,” Greyson quietly admitted with his back to him.

  Herschel turned toward the lake and drank in the orange and pale yellow mural of fading light. “I know I rave about Lena from time to time, but you know I loved Elsa, too, don’t you?”

  “I know that you loved Elsa like I loved Tasha.”

  The older fella froze when Greyson glanced over his shoulder at him. He’d meant to be incriminating or perhaps accuse Herschel without him realizing it. In retrospect Greyson realized he’d just given away something personal about himself. The deer in the headlights expression on Herschel’s face said they’d both been exposed.

  Greyson turned quickly back to the juicy slabs of meat on the grill. “Mom was a good woman. I know you loved her.”

  Herschel settled down like grass beneath a sitting dog. “It’s important to me that you know that.” His father walked by, pausing near the barbeque. “It’s also important to me that someday you find a woman to love as deeply as I once loved.”

  “Take your steak.” Greyson scooped the meat onto the platter and handed it to him.

  Herschel offered him a fatherly smile and then went inside with the prepared carcasses. “Meat’s ready!”

  Again Greyson didn’t know if his father’s previous words had been a caring reference to Lena or a way of insinuating that he wanted Greyson to end up with a woman rather than a man.

  * * * *

  Greyson opened an e-mail on the computer in his study later that night. The e-mail address looked familiar. A wall of dread slammed into him and drained the air from his lungs when it hit him who the message was from. It couldn’t be.

  A haze of shock enveloped him as he read.

  Hello Greyson,

  Do you remember me? ’Cause I remember every detail about you. Oh yeah, I remember it well.

  Do you hear voices? When you come inside a woman now, do you see my face and still feel me inside you? Or have you switched to men because of me?

  I told you I’d come back for you someday. You still have fantasies left unfulfilled. Well, don’t you worry, you kinky piece of shit. I’m coming for you. You won’t know when or where.

  I hope for your sake that you haven’t fallen in love, ’cause then I’d have to kill them.

  I’m gonna make you hear the voices until you understand me completely like I understand you.

  Sweet dreams, Greyson.

  The message was unsigned, but Greyson knew who it was from. Just like he’d always feared, the past had come back to haunt him.

  Chapter Four

  Diego went into the barn, knowing Greyson was there. A mad frenzy of worry came over him when he saw Greyson seated on a stool with a gun. He spun the cylinder with careless indecision, but his intentions were clear.

  Diego stormed toward him and snatched the gun from him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Greyson kept his head down and didn’t flinch.

  “I told you I do not want you playing Russian roulette. If you need a terrifying thrill, I will give it to you. I don’t trust you not to hurt yourself.” Diego checked the chamber and saw that had Greyson pulled the trigger, the one bullet in the gun would have been fired. He tipped his head back and squeezed his eyes shut. “Shit, Greyson. Had you pulled the trigger you would have been killed.”

  Greyson remained silent.

  Diego closed the gun and then set it aside. “You remember I told you what I would do to you if you ever tried to hurt yourself again?”

  Greyson had his hands folded and resting against his bowed head.

  “I warned you, didn’t I?”

  “I remember.”

  Diego uncoiled the whip he had slinging from his belt. He’d known Greyson would need something extreme tonight. He’d seen it in his eyes earlier. Something was wrong, had driven him to act on his dangerous obsession.

  “Strip and then assume the whipping position.”

  Diego waited for the objection he expected, but none came. Greyson hesitated before quietly standing and toeing off his cowboy boots. Diego was speechless. Greyson actually obeyed him…outside the bedroom. The hot rancher stood before him in the buff and then lowered to his knees. Diego watched him, spellbound when the cowboy leaned forward and moved his shaggy sandy-blond hair off his neck. He knelt facedown with outstretched arms and his butt slightly elevated. The position captivated him. Greyson’s naked body bowing in offering sent a surge of electricity and awe through him.

  Diego swung the whip to warm his arm up. Greyson’s usual feral anticipation for whatever Diego had planned for him was absent. He was strangely accepting of his fate, but he wasn’t erect like he normally was in the rare event that the man allowed Diego to do a scene with him. Something was definitely wrong. Either that or Greyson wasn’t getting hard because he knew this was a punishment for not listening.

  Diego cracked the whip against Greyson’s ass, thrilled by the violent way he winced. This was just a single-tail whip and not a very big one at that, but he made the strikes forceful to get his point across. It tore him up inside that Greyson’s life might have ended tonight if he hadn’t walked out here and kept him from pulling the trigger.

  Flicking his wrist, he sent the popper sailing across Greyson’s left shoulder blade and then his right one. The delicate quiver of his developed muscles was a thrill in and of itself. Diego admired the pink flush of the man’s raw skin in a silence that was only disturbed by the subdued stirring of curious horses. The nearest ones got spooked whenever the whip cracked, but Greyson deserved this for being a bad boy and probably needed it, too.

  Diego whipped him into a blushing mass of hot pink. He refrained from drawing blood this time, merely branded penalizing lines on his lover’s flesh. Greyson only grunted and cringed while Diego delivered the stinging blows, but when he sent the fall of the whip hurling between his boss’s ass cheeks, Greyson howled in pain. His strong body shuddered.

  Diego felt a slow smile broaden the faint curve of his lips. He sent the whip back into the hot division again, lashing at the man’s anus. Greyson smothered a rough outcry, but Diego wouldn’t let the rancher hold back with him. With a sudden flick of his wrist he sent a devastating strike against Greyson’s buttocks that had his ass muscles contracting hard in response.

  “Elevate your hips a
nd spread your legs. Expose your balls to me.”

  Greyson choked out a harsh breath as he did what he was told. He had to know what was coming.

  “When you steal from me, lover, it will cost you.”

  “I didn’t steal anything from you.”

  “I beg to differ,” Diego countered in a thin tone. He swung the end of the whip lightly, tapping Greyson’s testes with the pressure of a scant breeze to let him know what was in store for him. The tremor of knowledge that played over Greyson’s tense muscles gave him a sense of power. “Your life is mine, Greyson. All that you are and all that you hold dear is mine. When you put your life on the line, you gamble with my property. You have neither the right nor my permission to steal from me.”

  A sharp bellow fled from Greyson when Diego directed a punishing lash at the man’s scrotum. His sac swung with the impact and blushed over the painful scandal as it swelled with subjugation.

  “But perhaps I did not make that clear to you before,” Diego quipped. “Say it, Greyson. Say your life is mine.”

  Greyson’s body quaked in shock, but his gradually lifting penis said that arousal was also to blame. “My life is yours.”

  “I’m glad we understand each other. For a minute there I was worried that I would have to whip your balls again.”

  Diego struck the whip again, slapping the fall against Greyson’s nut-sac.

  “Jesus!” Greyson sat up suddenly, panting hard—almost as hard as his engorged cock.

  Diego set the whip aside and then knelt on his haunches next to him. He fisted Greyson’s hair and forced his head up, loving the way his breath caught. “You are mine.”

  He was about to lean in to kiss his comrade, but Greyson spoke before he could. “Are you done?”

  Diego drew back slowly. “Yes, I’m done.”

  He stood after the other man did and watched him dress, wondering what was the matter.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” When Greyson had his clothes, socks, and boots back on he followed up with more. “We can’t sleep together anymore.”

  Oh dear god, not this again.

  Diego exhaled the annoyance from his body. At least that was his intent. “Why not?”

  Greyson seemed bothered yet distracted like he was only half here and the rest of him was trapped somewhere else. “It’s messed up.”

  Diego rolled his eyes. “I have told you before there’s nothing wrong with it.”

  “This isn’t me. I’m straight.”

  “You’re not straight, Greyson. Enough with the denial and the tiresome exits from our relationship. We’ve been at this on-again off-again bullshit for years. You always say you want out or you feel guilty and then you come crawling back to me with all your needs. What makes you think this time will be any different?”

  Greyson stood with his left side to Diego and his eyes lowered. “It has to be.”

  Diego shrugged, trying to fend off aggravation. “Why?”

  “It just does.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  Greyson snapped his eyes shut like he was in pain. When they flew open and he turned to face Diego, his eyes flashed with fury. “You want an answer? How about because we don’t have a relationship? If we did, we would be exclusive, wouldn’t we?”

  Diego stifled the smug smile that threatened to steal dominion over his face. “Is that what’s bothering you—that I fucked Melanie earlier in my bed?”

  Greyson’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t give a damn what you do in bed or who you do it with.”

  Diego turned offensive when he saw his friend turn his back on him to leave. He wasn’t letting Greyson get away that easily. “So that means you don’t mind if I double penetrate Melanie with one of your brothers? Me buried up to my balls in her tight ass while one of them fills her wet cunt. Maybe I will double-team her with Emmett. I know he’s your favorite sibling.”

  He knew it was a low blow, but the way Greyson froze in his tracks was incredibly telling. He watched his soul mate pivot slowly to face him again. The look on Greyson’s face was one of disgust and barely concealed anguish.

  “You son of a bitch.” He breathed in anger.

  Diego knew he had him. “You can say you don’t care for me, lover, but your eyes tell me a different story.”

  “I’m not your lover.” Greyson glared at him and spun around to leave.

  “Give me a reason, Greyson. Give me a reason not to fuck her or rub against another man’s groin while sharing a woman with him.”

  Greyson whirled back around. “You want to fuck her with them? Be my guest.”

  He gave a sardonic bow and then stormed out of the barn.

  Diego shook his head and let out a deep sigh. It was always like this. Someday it wouldn’t be. He would find a way to get through to Greyson even if it killed him.

  * * * *

  Melanie had nervous jitters when she walked into Leather & Lace with Diego and Emmett. She’d wanted to go to the BDSM club ever since she first arrived in McKenna Downs, but Emmett had said she wasn’t ready. Evidently he felt she was ready now.

  The inside of the club was a feast for the senses with its catchy music controlled by a punk-looking DJ, the blue-and-green lighting that cast a shimmery effect on the bottles of spirits and liqueurs behind the bar, the red and purple lights that added a provocative ambiance, and the exciting crowd of people. Some of them sat and talked on couches that looked like chic furniture one might find in an upscale coffeehouse. Others danced and shook their moneymakers with their partners.

  What caught her attention most were the people disappearing down the halls. There was a designated play area off to the side for public action that a number of people were taking advantage of. Some of them wore leathers, latex, or lingerie while others just wore regular clothes like she, Diego, and Emmett were. Then there were the nude members just letting it all hang out with only a collar around their necks or some kind of jewelry to identify them as the submissive to their Dominants.

  Leather & Lace had the feel of a happening club in a big city combined with a private BDSM hangout vibe going on.

  “Do some people actually just come here to dance?” Mellie asked.

  Emmett gave her a naughty twist of his lips. “That’s what they claim, but you might have noticed some of them casually glancing over at the play area. Closet voyeurs.”

  She grinned. “Does anyone ever get carried away because there’s a bar in here?”

  “No.” Emmett dragged the word out. “There’s a two-drink limit and that’s only if they came here to dance and socialize. If a person wants to participate in BDSM, it’s a one-drink limit.”

  Diego snorted. “If it were my club there would be no drinking, except on nights without BDSM.”

  “Well, the owners are a little edgier than you,” Emmett replied.

  “Who are the owners?” she asked.

  Emmett looked around and then pointed them out. “That’s Shane Huntington, one of Charlie’s brothers. The other owner is Shane’s best friend, Aiden Friel. They seem like asses until you get to know them.”

  Diego looked amused. “Shane isn’t so bad once you get to know him.”

  Emmett laughed. “I see your point. Aiden is still an ass even when you get to know him.”

  The two men Emmett had pointed out were tall, dark, and badass looking. Shane was bulky with tattoos. Aiden was muscular with dark brown hair and a dangerous edge to him. Neither man looked like the type one should mess with.

  “Hey, it’s Justin.” Mellie waved at him.

  Justin Huntington looked up and waved at her from behind the bar before coming over. He looked like the quintessential pop star that teenage girls screamed and said “oh my god” over with his brown spiky hair that was frosted on top and clearly acquainted with styling gel. He was about five foot eight, like her, with hazel eyes. While toned, he had a leaner build and features that were male but still possessed effeminate traces.

  He gri
nned when he was close enough to talk to her. “Hey, Melanie. What’s up?”

  “They’re giving me a tour.”

  “Hey, cool. I work here now.” Justin frowned when a young man with blond hair who looked to be in his twenties like Justin came over to them. “Brighton dude, you’re supposed to lay low. Shane’s right over there.”

  The young man, Brighton, wore a sheepish grin. “Chill out, man. Everything’s cool.” His smile vanished when he saw Emmett. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “You be nice to my cousin,” Justin told Brighton.

  “No worries. It’s not like he can fuck the woman of my dreams when she ran off to Chicago and out of my life. He already did that.”

  Emmett heaved an annoyed sigh. “Brighton, that was years ago. Danielle was single or I wouldn’t have touched her.”

  “But you did touch her, you little—”

  “Dude, shut up.” Justin glanced over his shoulder nervously. “Shane’s gonna come over if you make a scene. No McAlister is allowed in here.”

  “Well, that’s just a discrimination against hotness,” Brighton complained.

  Mellie smiled. “Why aren’t the McAlisters allowed in this club?”

  “Our families have this stupid feud because of a woman our dads both loved,” Brighton explained. “She left them both. The Huntingtons suck by the way.”

  “Hey.” Justin’s eyes narrowed on him.

  Brighton patted his back. “Except for you, my good man.”

  “That’s better.”

  “So who is this pretty lady?”

  Diego introduced her to Brighton and they shook hands.

  “So, is this your forever woman…Emmett?” Brighton turned to glower at him.

  Emmett smirked. “Yes, she’s our forever woman.”

  “That’s good you tamed him.” Brighton smiled at her before throwing Emmett a dirty look. “Danielle’s mine.”

  “Good for you,” Emmett threw at him.

  “Dude, she’s in Chicago,” Justin pointed out. “Last I heard she was in a relationship. How exactly is she yours?”