by Lila Munro
“Well, shit!” Slapping her palms against the desk, she frowned at the name lighting up in the missed calls box. “It wasn’t Brinkley, it was Joel. I missed the first video chat since he’s been gone.” Nina pushed back and crossed her arms over her chest, huffing. If she’d not been so pissed, she’d have cried. She missed Joel and here it was… “Thursday night,” she said flatly. “Play night.”
“Yes, it is.” Shooting her that unnerving smile she was getting used to all too quickly, Tammer sat forward. “Is two and two making four yet? Joel really did hire me.”
Nina put her elbows on the edge of the desk and put her head in her palms, thinking back over the past few weeks, recalling their conversation before he walked out, conjuring the emails he’d sent since landing. Had she really forgotten he’d told her a surprise was coming? She lifted her head then opened her Joel only calendar, flipping furiously through the pages. Her jaw dropped. Right there it was…a note he’d handwritten at some point and she’d failed to find.
Thursday, February 19
Look for a surprise to arrive this evening, kitten. Love, Your Liege
Before she could shut her gaping mouth, Joel was ringing again on video chat. She clicked connect and waited. What would he have to say when he found out she’d not only broken every safety rule he’d ever instilled in her, she’d accused his gift of being an assassin and failed to read her daily Joel calendar since he’d left.
“Hey, kitten. How are you?” Joel asked, his image pixelated and grainy, his voice tired.
“Quite frankly, My Liege, I’m a bit perplexed,” Nina answered, glancing at Tammer who seemed to be enjoying her discomfort way too much.
“So I take it your surprise arrived?” The edges of his lips curled before his words caught up with his mouth.
“Yes, he did.” Nina crossed her arms and twisted her nose up.
“Are you not happy with him?”
“I’m not exactly unhappy with him, I’m unhappy with the…situation. I mean really, My Liege…a service?” Hoping Tammer didn’t tattle on her for not knowing he was coming in the first place, Nina pouted. Pouting always worked, at least to an extent. Now would be a good time for it to work. “You didn’t even discuss this with me. This is absolutely not like you at all.”
“No, I didn’t discuss it with you,” Joel admitted. “I have my reasons, kitten. However, I’ve had several meetings with Tammer since I made my decision and I wouldn’t have allowed him near you if I didn’t think he was trustworthy or that he would be to your liking. He’s definitely to my liking. Where is he by the way? You didn’t try to make him leave, did you?”
“I’m right here,” Tammer answered, standing and coming to hover over Nina’s left shoulder. “And yes, she did. By way of the MPs. She mistook me for a, what was it you said, sweetheart? A not very smart gun for hire? And oh, yes, that was after she opened the door to me without so much as a moment’s hesitation thinking I might be a Thin Mint toting Girl Scout.” Tammer chuckled, snatching the Joel calendar from beneath Nina’s elbow and holding it up where Joel could plainly see it. “She apparently hasn’t checked this since you’ve been gone.”
After Joel composed himself following a good hearty laugh at Nina’s expense, his expression became completely serious. “It’s certainly unfortunate your first meeting with Tammer has to be a punishment rather than a pleasure,” he growled, although Nina doubted his sincerity in his dissatisfaction with her. He seemed to be entirely too thrilled with the situation.
“Yeah, right,” she snapped.
“Kitten, I’m entirely serious,” Joel said, his voice unwavering and his eyes steady. “Tammer, make that two punishments.”
“My Liege,” Nina gasped as realization struck. “You have never allowed another to punish me. For that matter, you’ve never allowed me to play with another while you’re away. Are there any rules at all? Or is that out the window along with everything else I’ve become accustomed to?”
“No, I’ve never allowed another to punish you or shared you outside my presence, but I am now. Beginning tonight, Tammer’s in charge while I’m away. What he says goes. There are only three restrictions. No kissing on the mouth, he can’t come inside you, and he has to be out of our bed before the sun comes up. Anything else is to be decided between the two of you.”
“And what if I say no?” Nina demanded, her heart thundering her body’s protest of this insane plan.
“I’m Your Liege, kitten. Say no. What was the first rule I established before I collared you?” Joel said, twisting his wedding band around his finger then steepling his fingers under his chin.
“I would never say no. I would always at least try what you asked of me before asking for reprieve or further negotiation.” Recollecting her acquiescence, she wished now she’d have asked reprieve then. “My Liege,” she gritted out as an afterthought.
“Do you really want to risk the consequences?
Nina didn’t answer, just sat with her eyes averted and her nostrils flaring with every frustrated breath.
“Nina? Answer me now,” Joel bellowed.
“No, My Liege. I don’t wish to risk…” Her voice hitched over the lump swelling in her throat. “I don’t wish to risk it.”
“I don’t wish you to either.” His expressions softened. After a nod toward Tammer, he smiled at Nina. “I love you. This is for the best. You might not believe that now, but before I come home, you’ll know I was right. My time’s up, I’ve got to go for now, kitten.”
“I understand,” Nina said, her heart aching over the time restriction. “Same time next week?”
“We’ll see,” Joel said.
“But, Thursday…” Nina started, not understanding what had happened to her husband at all.
“Now belongs to Tammer,” Joel explained. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered, running her fingertips over the screen as Joel’s image disappeared.
“You’re going to need to put on something warmer,” Tammer said, squeezing her shoulders and turning her chair away from the monitor.
“I have work to do,” Nina argued, setting her lips in a firm line.
“It will wait.”
“For what?” Nina answered, flatly.
“Your punishment.” He ran his hands under her arms and pushed her up. “Something warmer. Go. Now. Meet me at the door in ten minutes.”
Rolling her eyes, she stood and barely moved one foot in front of the other before Tammer started hammering her. “Hurry up, Nina. When I tell you to do something, I expect immediate results.”
Nina’s middle finger itched to fly up and defy him, but her instincts told that finger to shut the hell up and urged her to move faster.
Chapter Three
“A total stranger in charge? For the best?” Nina grumbled as she thumbed through hangars. She’d been told to dress for her punishment yet she had no idea what that was going to entail, so just how the hell was she supposed to decide what to wear for this event? Warmer wasn’t exactly sufficient description. “Some Dom.” She pursed her lips, twisted her nose up, and bobbed her head from shoulder to shoulder. “I expect immediate results,” she mocked. “A full run down of what results you want would be most helpful…” She hesitated and scrunched her eyebrows together as she pulled a pair of jeans from a shelf. “Try and flog me through these, Sir Ass.”
“We’re at minute eleven.” Tammer’s voice reverberated through her as he spoke directly into her left ear. “And my name is not Sir Ass.”
“Sniper,” Nina said firmly, turning and glaring at him as her heart pounded her ribs. “I’m still not certain which branch, but definitely a sniper.”
Tammer’s gaze never wavered from hers as he reached out and grabbed a sweater from another shelf then poked it out at her. “I like this one. Now get dressed. I think my pet name for you is going to be defiance. Are you this difficult for Joel?”
“Absolutely not,” Nina insisted. “I’m perfectly obedient to M
y Liege.”
“If that were true, you’d be perfectly obedient to me since that’s what he instructed.”
“He did no such thing.” Tugging the jeans up, Nina bounced on her toes a couple of times as the fabric eased over her hips and she slid her feet into a pair of clogs. “He said you were in charge, but the word obedient was never mentioned and everything but his three rules is negotiable between us. Thus far there have been no such negotiations.” She pulled the sweater over her head and glared at him again. “Therefore I don’t recognize your authority.”
The look on Tammer’s face said Nina was toeing a fine line and being as she had no idea what this punishment was, she thought maybe could bend to him just a bit until she found out what kind of Dom he was. Past that there were no guarantees and being a brat was still optional.
“Yet. I don’t recognize you as my…well, what are you going to be exactly, Sir Ass? Since you’ve already dubbed me defiance, what do I call you?”
“Not Sir Ass, I can assure you,” Tammer said over a smirk.
Well, he had a sense of humor and the fact he could joke about her out of line nickname spoke of a man who could go with the flow. Most likely he wouldn’t be an overly harsh Dom. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes.
“Tammer. I’m just Tammer.”
“Somehow I hardly think you’re just Tammer,” Nina said, warmth crawling along her skin when she glanced up at him and couldn’t manage to look away again before he pierced her very core.
The man’s eyes could change quicker than she could keep up. And right now they spoke of something which made her heart flip and guilt wash over abraded nerves. Then as if to emphasize the very thing she shouldn’t entertain, he reached out and curled one palm under her jaw, stroked her cheek with his thumb, and that look went even deeper. He stared past her doubts, her fears, her carefully constructed defenses and bore straight into her soul. Only one other man in the world had ever torn her down to her very foundation in a matter of seconds and she was fairly certain that man had established his three rules with the sole intent of keeping her from becoming too emotionally attached to Tammer. But honest to God, if he looked at her very often with that look of heartfelt possession he’d just conjured, she might just have to defy what her head told her and listen to her heart.
“You’re fifteen minutes past due for nourishment,” he said, breaking the spell and reminding Nina she wasn’t just behind on the speech she’d been working on, she’d now missed dinner. He blinked and when his eyes opened again, the look which had heated Nina from the inside out had disappeared to be replaced by a completely non-descript one she couldn’t place. “Come on, defiance. Time to eat.”
Not twenty minutes later, Tammer was handing her into a booth in a shadowy corner of a local diner known for their soul food. Nina slid to the center of the bench seat, twisted a couple of times and bounced to get comfortable before taking a cleansing breath. In all honesty, she was grateful for the escape from the house. She’d only been out a few times since Joel had left, mostly to check the mail and get a gallon of ice cream here and there when it struck her at random times he was gone, again, and she felt like crying until there were no more tears. For the past five years he’d spent more time overseas fighting everyone else’s wars than he’d spent at home. In fact, out of those five years, Nina had only seen her husband a handful of weeks between assignments.
“Was this in my mysterious file?” Nina asked, plucking a menu from between the salt and pepper shakers and flipping it open so she’d have something to look at besides Tammer.
He was just the consolation prize sent to, well, console she guessed. He was a playmate, not a lover, at least not by her definition. While Joel had given her the freedom to have sex with Tammer, he’d also revoked the acts of intimacy associated with crossing the line from casual fucking to making love. In her mind the love portion of that equation was what defined lover. When Joel decided to stoop to hiring someone to tend to her needs in his absence, had he really assessed what those needs were? Didn’t he realize that while she missed playtime and fucking, she missed making love? Nina missed quiet whispers and kissing. She longed for soft touches and gentle thrusting.
No, she decided, he’d not thoroughly assessed her needs. Not at all.
Another trickle of guilt made its way across her heart. When had she begun to resent Joel’s career and his commitment to the Corps?
“If you mean your love of soul food, yes,” Tammer said, laying his menu to the side. “This place in particular, no. Is this acceptable?”
“You’re in charge, you tell me,” she snapped before realizing it was entirely possible she was taking her frustrations with her relationship with Joel out on the person he’d sent to try to repair things. At least that’s what she was beginning to believe. This was Joel’s peace offering. With her eyes closed, Nina took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know you. Although you have to admit, had you been in my shoes you might have reacted the same way. You know with the attempted call for help, hiding in the bathroom. The calling you names.” She looked at him and thrummed her fingers along the table’s edge. “But now that I know you’re safe, I should have a little more respect. I made a promise to Joel a long time ago to try anything he asked of me at least once. I’m not really giving you that chance, am I?”
“Why don’t we start again,” Tammer offered, sticking out his right hand. “I’m Tammer Weston from the service. Are you Nina?”
“Yes, I’m Nina.” Playing along with his attempt to right their bumpy beginning, she took his hand only to have him grasp it, turn it over, and plant a tender kiss right in the middle of her palm. “Nina Prescott,” she breathed at the heated contact which burned clear to her shoulder.
“That’s a beautiful name, Nina,” he said, turning her hand palm down again but not letting go, holding it across the table instead.
Nina shot a glance around the restaurant in hopes no one could see them.
“I chose this booth intentionally,” he said, running his thumb over knuckles. “No one can see us. And I doubt many, if any, of your peers share your affliction with food only to be found in this part of town.”
He had a point.
Nina relaxed a bit and let the nearly unfamiliar feeling of human touch soothe her. He was right. The last time she’d tried to get one of her girlfriends to accompany her out for grits and greens past the great divide, Florence had turned her nose up, declined the invitation, and hadn’t called her for three weeks. Come to think of it, they hadn’t shared lunch since then either.
Nina didn’t know what the big deal was. She was raised on this food and didn’t give a damn where she had to go to get the best in town. If people were afraid of an invisible barrier, they weren’t worth her time anyway. Fuck them.
With all the smells lingering on the air reminding her of home, Nina had a hard time deciding on just one protein and three sides. But by the time the waitress arrived with a pitcher of sweet tea and two glasses, Nina knew exactly what she needed to feed her inner soul sister.
“I want the chicken wings, the hotter the better, greens, black eyed peas, and fried corn, please. And can I have a side of corn bread?”
“Yes, indeed. For you?” The waitress turned to Tammer who ordered catfish and okra, one side apparently all he needed to round out his meal. Not Nina. Since she had the chance, she was tanking up on the full Monty.
“We’ve got pecan pie for dessert today. Be sure to save some room,” the woman said then trotted off to the kitchen.
“I could eat my weight in pecan pie,” Nina said, taking a drink of the tea Tammer poured for her. “I might have to order a whole one to take home with me.”
“As long as you share and let me stop for whipped cream on the way. I like mine with plenty,” Tammer confessed. “I know what Joel told me, but being as you two haven’t really lived together for so long, I suspect his take on things might differ from yours. Living apart for long is rou
gh. People change. So do their desires.”
“Well, nothing like cutting to the chase. Are you hourly?” Nina said, tugging her hand away, disgusted with herself for mistaking his gesture for more than it was, one of the required motions.
“Not hardly. If you’re not ready to talk about that, we won’t. What would you like to talk about? What do you do besides sit in your office and write speeches and talk to invisible people all day?” Tammer didn’t try to retake her hand, but didn’t remove his from the top of the table either as if giving her a choice to reach back out.
Nina didn’t quite know what to say. As she curled her fingers in and out of a fist under the scrubbed, spotless Formica slab, she chewed her bottom lip. The truth was she’d turned into quite a recluse the past year or so particularly. She felt like a single woman who’d had her social privileges suspended for life. None of her so-called friends had the same issues she did with a husband gone so much. Sure, they’d all been through deployments, but none to the extent she had. More than half the people she used to know had received orders and moved away. The rest, she guessed, grew tired of having a third wheel at their family functions and stopped inviting her after a while. And as luck would have it, Joel’s unit was filled with guys who were either single, divorced, or whose wives had opted to go home to Mommy at the first sign of being alone, the big ass sissies. When her walking partner bailed on her, Nina gave up and ordered a few pieces of exercise equipment figuring if she was going to be alone anyway, why bother going to the sidewalk. She had a standing date with her mini-gym every morning.
Now that she was forced to think on it, Nina had no idea the last time she went shopping for pleasure or had a massage or went to a movie. She loved antique shops and used to take weekend trips to the Appalachians looking for the next great find. Had she even put a thousand miles on her car this year?
“Nina,” Tammer said gently, reaching over the table and tilting her now bowed head. “When’s the last time you went out to do anything fun?”
