by Avery Gale
Fortunately the added distraction was having the desired effect and Sage was able to begin painstaking shallow thrusts, gaining fractions of an inch each time, until he could see the flush of arousal spreading over her chest. Time to ramp things up a bit, sweetness. Using his knees to spread her legs further apart, he tilted his pelvis and pressed his lips against her ear. “You are ours, love. Never doubt that. Your pleasure, your pain, every worry, is ours to share. So your days of facing problems alone are done.”
“Better fast forward, Romeo, because her mouth is either a gift straight from God or the most effective temptation the Devil has ever come up with.” Sam’s words felt as if he’d thrown gas on Sage’s own flame and he started plunging harder and faster, feathering against her cervix with each stroke. And when Sage heard Jen groan around his brother’s shaft, he knew Sam was a goner.
Everything seemed to happen at once and Sage knew he’d still be replaying this particular moment in time when he was eighty years old. Sage managed to bite out, “Come for us, baby,” just as Sam leaned his head back and shouted as he came, groaning at the intensity of his release. One last thrust had Sage buried so deep he could feel the tip of his cock pressing against her cervix and knew the pulses of his release against her deepest point would send her over. She’d managed to swallow every drop of Sam’s essence before she shattered in Sage’s arms. As her vaginal walls grasped him with a grip strong enough to make him catch his breath, Sage was bowled over at the continued rippling of her internal muscles as she trembled through several aftershocks that many women would have claimed as a decent orgasm.
Sage was actually damned impressed that his arms held him up considering his entire world had just been completely blown to bits by the woman beneath him. He’d been having sex for the better part of two decades and he’d never experienced anything remotely like what he’d just felt. His dad had taken him aside once just before he’d left for BUD/S and reminded him that there were a lot of women whose heads would be turned by the fact he was a SEAL. Sage had smiled and nodded even as he silently prayed they weren’t going to rehash the “keep it wrapped at all times son” or the “don’t ever stick it anywhere you’d be ashamed to admit to” speech.
Instead his dad had simply said, “When it’s the right woman, everything about it will feel different.” Sage was sure he’s confusion had shown because his dad had slapped him on the back and said, “You’ll know it when it happens, son. I just want you to remember this day…and that I warned ya.” With that, his dad had hugged him and walked away. He’d often wondered if his dad hadn’t just been in a sappy mood that day since he and Sam were both leaving, but now he understood exactly what his dad had been talking about. Holy fucking hell.
*****
It had only taken them a few minutes to get cleaned up and Jen settled in the center of the bed. Sage had slipped from the room and Sam could hear him speaking quietly and assumed he was checking in with Carl and Peter. He was also betting Sage would be giving a quick status update to Jax and Micah. Hopefully they could get a leg up on finding the asshole who’d been terrorizing her. Sam knew Jax was going to flip a script that she hadn’t called him for help, but Sam also knew enough about working with victims to understand the whole thing had probably gone south slowly enough in the beginning that she kept assuming it was harmless. And by the time it was obvious how far she was in over her head, she was probably embarrassed to have been caught unaware.
Often, when Sam was home on leave, he’d spend time helping in the women’s shelter where his mom volunteered, so he’d heard different versions of the tale many times. But even though he’d always felt compassion toward the women, he’d never felt the overwhelming desire to protect them that he felt with Jen. And now, having her ass pressed against him as he wrapped his arms around her, was as close to heaven as Sam thought he’d ever felt. Usually Sage was the one who cuddled the subs they’d shared, but this time Sam had been more than happy to take Sage up on his offer to make the calls.
Sam had whispered sweet words to her and rubbed his hand absently up and down her arm for fewer than five minutes when he heard her breathing even out and he knew she’d fallen asleep. Knowing she felt safe enough in his care to drift off so quickly had his ego inflating along with his cock, which had suddenly noticed how close it was to her very naked sex. Trying to think about anything but the heat coming from her center was like trying to ignore a brass band in the corner of the room. Grateful when his brother returned, Sam looked up and didn’t miss the tenderness in Sage’s eyes. “God, she is so fucking beautiful.” Sam merely nodded at Sage’s whispered words because he wouldn’t have expected a response to his observation.
“Jax?” Sam asked softly.
Sage shook his head as he dropped his boxers and crawled in bed. “Micah Drake.” Sam knew by the grin on his brother’s face there was more to hear. “He had the pictures before we even got off the phone. Evidently he already had one of sweet cheeks on-line backups tagged so it was a snap for him to pull it up. To say he was pissed would be a huge understatement. I’d say our little subbie is going to get it with both barrels when he and Jax get a hold of her.”
Sam didn’t even want to think about the content of the pictures. Hell, just that fleeting thought sent his blood pressure up. Sighing to himself, he decided if he had any hope of enjoying his “retirement” he needed to learn to live in the moment, and that meant spending quality time with the people in his life. He leaned down so his nose was pressed against Jen’s hair and just breathed her in before kissing the top of her head. Opening his arms, Sam let Sage pull the sleeping and pliant women into his arms. He smiled at her sleep grumbling, and watched Sage move his hands up and down the full length of her spine in a soothing gesture that was so typical of his younger brother.
The McCall brothers were sought after Masters in various clubs they’d visited all over the world because of the skills they brought to any scene they participated in. Subs bragged about the fact their methods never failed to send them into the sweet abyss of sub-space, but almost without fail they also commented on the tenderness and intimacy of Sage’s after-care. Sam had never participated in that part of their interactions with submissives, and had never considered that he’d missed anything of significance until now. Holding Jen Keating after a sexual release that had probably pinged local Richter scales, Sam had felt their souls connect most during those quiet moments when she was nestled safely in his embrace. Amazing!
Chapter Eight
Jen had been on a slow simmer, which was fast approaching a rolling boil, for the past half hour. Jax had been avoiding her for several days and now that she’d finally managed to get he, Micah, and the Wests all in one place they were dancing on her last nerve by lecturing her. As fucking if. This whole Jen is a naughty girl speech might have worked out a lot better if they hadn’t let her get her bearings over the past few days. Asshats. By the time they’d made their way back from Bolivia she’d endured hours of travel time in a variety of vehicles, several of which had been of questionable origin, and she’d been completely spent.
By the time Sam and Sage McCall had let her off at the West’s front door she’d barely been able to hold herself in the seat of the cart Tobi had used to drive her down to the guest cottage. She’d stumbled inside, barely managing to make it to the bedroom, before she’d collapsed on to it and fallen into the sleep of the dead. She’d slept for sixteen hours straight, and when she’d finally managed to stagger back to Prairie Winds main building, tornado Tobi had swept her up and hadn’t let up until Jen had finally begged for mercy. How the woman could spend so much time shopping for absolutely nothing was a mystery to Jen. Each day Jax and Micah managed to avoid her had eroded her patience and sent her frustration with the entire situation so high that she’d almost been able to feel it vibrating through her. She was getting fewer hours of sleep now than she’d gotten in months and the four hours of tossing and turning she’d endured last night hadn’t been even close
to enough for her to get her through this meeting.
Sitting in Kent and Kyle West’s office listening to four former SEALs berate her as if she were a learning challenged third grader was just fucking annoying, there wasn’t any other way to view it. Well at least Sam and Sage McCall aren’t here to add their two cents. The fact they’d all but left her at the front gate of the Masters of the Prairie Winds Club that first night still chafed her ass. They’d blathered on about having to return to the Seal Cave—or wherever SEALs go after their missions—but it still frosted her cookies. Talk about feeling like a stray kitten. Yep…I could almost hear them telling Jax, “Here’s your bratty little sister. Rots a ruck, buddy.” They hadn’t even called her and that stung more that it should have. Geez, pathetic much? The only people who hadn’t raked her over the coals today were Gracie and Tobi. They’d both been wonderful and had even tried to interrupt the inquisition several times to no avail. Gotta give the Doms credit, they’re a focused lot that’s for sure. But in all her erotic romance novels the Doms were focused on the reactions of the submissive almost to the point where they seemed to read their minds. Well, that was obviously not the case here, because if these four could read her mind they’d be none too pleased with her.
Just a few moments ago, Gracie had turned a lovely shade of lime green and run from the room with her hand plastered over her mouth. Nope, doesn’t take a medical degree to figure that one out. Tobi had been on Gracie’s heels so now Jen sat listening to the third verse of “why you should have called us as soon as this all started” without any moral support. She fought against the urge to roll her eyes, the only thing missing was a nice hallelujah chorus after every stanza. And the part that frustrated her the most was that she’d actually tried to call Jax from the airport before she’d left Washington but hadn’t gotten an answer. When she’d pointed that fact out to him, he’d reminded her that she hadn’t left a message either. I can just imagine how that would have gone over. He’d have pulled strings all the way to the top and had her yanked back from an important job assignment without ever batting an eye.
Jen knew her control was beginning to fade. She hated feeling out of control because she either became a raving lunatic or she cried, and she really hated to cry. So…raving lunatic it is. Standing quickly, Jen spread her feet apart, fisted her hands on her hips, and began tapping her foot. “Listen to me you four overbearing asshats. I’m done with this. Got it? You have played the same tune for an hour and a half, hell, Helen Keller would have heard the damned message by now. When someone is interested in discussing solutions rather than scolding me about something I can’t change, feel free to look me up. In the meantime…I’m heading back to Washington. I have a job and I need to report to my superiors. You have stalled me for days. You even sent me to a doctor I didn’t need to see. Having a shrink meet us for lunch to assess me.” She rolled her eyes at their surprised looks. “Seriously? You didn’t think I’d know? You guys suck at this super spy shit, no wonder you need to blow up stuff.”
By this point she was on a roll and had started pacing the length of the room. If she didn’t work through the energy quickly, she’d wear a path in front of the floor to ceiling windows looking out over the small lake along their fence-lined driveway. Oh the club was a stunning piece of real estate there was no question about that. But Jen wasn’t dim enough to miss the fact she was basically a prisoner and she was tired of playing defense. “I need to get back to Washington. I have a career and even though I’m sure you’ve let the department know where I am, that doesn’t mean I don’t need to get back to work.” She had already scheduled a long break before she’d left for La Paz, but she wasn’t going to tell them that. Jerks. The truth was she would prefer to be in Texas because returning to Washington where her stalker was no doubt awaiting her return didn’t hold any real appeal. However, they’d pushed her into a corner and she’d come out fighting, even when winning wasn’t what she really wanted.
“It’s easy for you to sit here and pick apart my decisions, because hindsight is twenty-twenty. But my life has always been filled with nonsense and chaos, so subtle changes aren’t always that easy to discern. And then by the time it was obvious things were FUBAR—and yes I know that’s SEAL-speak for fucked up beyond all recognition—anyway, things were already such a disaster and I didn’t think they were likely to get worse while I wasn’t available for Stanley Stalker. And I had to prepare quickly for a trip that seemed to crop up out of nowhere.” Taking a couple of deep breaths and muttering to herself about the manifestation of the God complex in the Y-chromosome, before she finally turned and asked, “Does it occur to you that this,” sweeping her hand between the four of them, “overreaction might have been part of my hesitance to involve you?”
She returned to pacing because if she didn’t expend some of the energy the top of her head was going to blow off. “I love Tobi, but I know a capture, distract, and detain ploy when I see one. And by the way, once I figured out you were using shopping as a way to keep me busy, I encouraged my shop ‘til you drop pal to buy every single thing in sight.” She gave them an evil smile before adding, “It cost you…plenty.” Both Kent and Kyle groaned, which even Jen knew was for show because the men were loaded. The money Tobi had spent would have been like Jen buying a pack of gum.
“I don’t have a phone, my purse is gone so I’ve got to call my bank and all my credit card companies. I have to get another laptop and replace all my IDs. Crap, I have to get my passport replaced, too. I’m going to wring Ambassador Weasel’s skinny neck if this was a set-up. The whole thing stinks to high heaven if you ask me.” She’d finally run out of steam and just stood staring out the window for several seconds. “Hell, I don’t even know for sure why you are keeping me. The night the McCall brothers brought me here I felt like a stray cat that someone wanted to drown in the river, but didn’t even care enough about to make the trip to the bridge…so they just drop kicked me out at the curb instead.” She sighed and shook her head, “Damn, you’d think I’d be used to that sort of thing, but as it turns out—not so much.” She hadn’t actually intended to say the last words out loud, but it was too late…no way to pull them back now. Turning away from the windows to face the room, she froze. Everything and everyone faded into the background as her attention focused solely on Sam and Sage McCall leaning against the doorframe in mirrored poses that looked deceptively casual. Instinctively Jen knew better. She recognized a predator’s stance when she saw it.
Her mind was reeling with what she’d just revealed and she wanted to curse her loose tongue. Way to sound needy, Jen. Not intending to let them get the upper hand, Jen looked at them and then did her best to pretend their sudden presence in the room hadn’t stolen the wind from her sails. Turning to Jax she asked, “Will you help me get a phone and arrange transportation back to D.C.? I’ll pay you back as soon as I get access to my bank account. I’d like to leave as soon as possible.” Then she turned to Kyle and Kent West who were obviously trying to hold back their responses. “I want to thank you for your hospitality. I appreciate you pinch hitting for Jax and Micah. I know they have their hands full with Gracie not feeling well and that is exactly as it should be. But it is time for me to return to reality and for me…that is in Washington.”
Jen wanted to scream because now there were six men staring at her as if she’d sprouted horns and was speaking in tongues. What is it with Doms, anyway? If you don’t say what they want to hear, they just pretend like they don’t understand you. It’s lame. Well guess what, fellas, that intimidate-with-silence routine of yours isn’t going to work on me. One of her foster fathers had used the same trick, although Jen would have considered his bullying because he recruited others in the house to “ice-out” the victim as well, so she’d become immune to that particular manipulation a long time ago.
Fortunately, Jen had watched when Gracie had left earlier and knew there was another exit from the room even though it wasn’t obvious. Exuding a sense of confidenc
e she wasn’t really feeling, Jen turned and headed for the door. Just as her hand settled on the handle, she heard Jax’s growl of frustration at the same time Sam McCall barked, “Stop.” Seriously? He thinks he can drop me off like a bag of dry cleaning and then waltz back in barking commands and I’ll just obey like a trained hound? Well think again mister.
Chapter Nine
Sam McCall was seeing red and the chuckles from his friends and former teammates weren’t helping ease the situation at all. The problem was, he wasn’t entirely sure who he was more frustrated with, the sprite with the battered heart who’d just stalked from the room wearing her warrior’s heart on her sleeve, or himself. He and Sage had stepped into the room just as Jen had started her tirade, and had watched it play out in amusement. Sam had been keeping track of all the punishment swats she was racking up, and enjoying the hell out of her quick wit and keen intelligence since it hadn’t been directed toward him. But when she’d spoken about them “dumping her off” on the Wests and how she should be used to that by now, his heart had been torn in two by the unmistakable pain in her voice.
It hadn’t occurred to him she would view their quick exit as abandonment, but now that he considered it—her response was probably reasonable for someone without any real experience dealing with the end of mission protocols the military values so highly. They’d needed to get back to the airport quickly to make the turnaround flight to Coronado. Their debriefing had taken longer than they’d anticipated but the pay-off had been that they were now officially on leave until their separation date in three weeks.
He and Sage hadn’t wasted any time packing up what little personal belongings they kept in their apartment, loaded their trucks, and had driven straight through. He’d been wired since they’d hit the state line and each mile closer to Jen had added fuel to the fire burning in his gut. The bottom line was he’d been so focused on tasks that he’d forgotten the feelings of the woman they were racing to rejoin. Hell, she hadn’t been out of his thoughts for more than a few hours at a time since they’d met her. The woman was fast becoming an addiction.
