by Tara Rose
Loreen grinned. It was impossible not to, even if she was a bit embarrassed by his comments. Luke was tall, gorgeous, and he had a smile that lit up the entire bar. Alexa was a lucky woman.
Adam scowled but Travis laughed, shaking Luke’s hand. “Yeah. It must be the end of the world. Turns out Adam, Loreen, and I all have the same week off.”
She’d met Luke once but wasn’t sure he remembered her, until recognition dawned in his big, dark eyes at the mention of her name. “What do you think of the new look? We’re sprucing it up a bit. Three of my sisters have conspired to force to me to make this place more inviting.”
Adam pointed toward the raised platform. “What’s going on over there?”
“Live music. Teresa’s idea. Or, I should say, Ava Harmony’s idea planted in Teresa’s brain, and then fanned into flames by Carson and Garrett.”
“Teresa’s idea? What brought that on?”
Luke shrugged. “She went to a country bar with Carson and Garrett one night and apparently she can sing. Quite well. Who knew? I don’t remember her ever singing at home.”
“It’ll be fun to have live music here,” said Loreen. “We don’t have a place like that in Racy.”
“And we’ve done just fine without it all these years,” said Adam.
Loreen curled her hand around his arm, feeling bold. That must be the effects of her dreams. “Oh come on. Give it a chance.”
He shot her a molten look that left her unbalanced. Was that lust or anger? Those hazel eyes held so much emotion, but most of the time she couldn’t interpret it. “Let’s grab a table.”
They chose one near the raised platform, and now that they were closer, Loreen saw the patched holes in the wall where they’d run new electrical lines. They sat, capped, curled up on the floor in one corner. Luke took their orders, then once he was behind the bar again, Loreen leaned close to the center of the table and lowered her voice. “Teresa is the sister that was gone for so long, right?”
Adam nodded. “She’s been back about six months.”
“And she’s home for good now?”
“She is,” said Travis. “I’m quite sure Carson and Garrett would move heaven and earth not to let her leave again.” As soon as he said it, Adam shot him a warning look, and Travis’s eyes widened. “I mean—”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, cutting him off. “I know they’re a triad. Everyone does.”
Adam narrowed his eyes. “Really? What else do you know about them?”
She took a deep breath. “I know they’re in the BDSM lifestyle. Everyone knows that, too. I know there are many triads in Racy.” She nodded toward Luke, who stood behind the bar, pouring beer into a pitcher, while Alexa stacked glasses at the opposite end. “I know Alexa is Luke’s sub, and she has another Dom as well. And I know Maddox McCree runs the BDSM club from his house, and he and one of the detectives in Racy are Doms to Julie Carruthers, who is a psychologist. And I know that one of our own paramedics, Trent Rohan, shares Luke’s sister, Ria, as a sub with his twin, Wyatt, who is one of Racy’s public defenders.”
“How do you know all this?” Adam’s voice was more curious than angry, and for that Loreen was grateful.
“You’re kidding, right? I’m an ER nurse. We see it all. We hear it all. The gossip in that place is ridiculous. Surely you haven’t missed any of it. You’re both there as much as I am, if not more.”
They exchanged a glance she couldn’t interpret, and then Travis leaned close. She caught a whiff of soap and shampoo, and it was sexier than the most expensive cologne would have been. Her nipples tingled as those dark eyes bored into hers. “And what have you heard about the two of us?”
She took a deep breath. As long as all the cards were on the table tonight, she might as well be blunt and honest. No point in being coy any longer. “The same as everyone else has. You both served in Iraq with Doctors Without Borders. You’ve been back for two years, and you never date. Adam had a fiancée in Iraq who was killed, and he never dates now either.”
Travis nodded slowly. He looked about to speak, but Luke came over and placed their pitcher of beer and three glasses on the table. “You three feel like eating tonight? I have a new cook.”
“Did you finally fire Ria?” asked Adam.
Luke laughed. “No. She quit. Trent and Wyatt wanted her to have time to go back to school, and she’s due in six months, so they don’t want her any more stressed than she needs to be.”
Loreen had heard that Ria was pregnant, but that rumor had never been confirmed until now.
“I thought Sandy Sullivan cooked part time for you?” asked Travis.
“She quit and moved out of state last month.”
“Who’s cooking for you now?” she asked.
Luke pointed toward a tall, skinny man who didn’t look much older than a high school senior. “That’s Brad Begley. His brother, Charlie, works for Emma.” Emma Falcon was the current owner of Nan’s Place, a popular greasy diner on Market Street. “Brad graduated from high school last year and hasn’t been able to keep a job since then. But it turns out he can cook burgers and onion rings a heck of a lot better than my sister can.”
“In that case,” said Travis, “I’ll take a nice greasy cheeseburger and onion rings.”
“Me, too,” said Loreen. What the heck. One day off her never-ending diet wouldn’t hurt.
“All right,” said Adam. “Make it three. But if I’m up all night with heartburn, I’m calling you every fifteen minutes.”
Luke laughed. “Go ahead. I won’t have my phone on. You can leave me voice mail messages.”
“Smart ass.”
Luke left the table, and Loreen glanced at Travis, waiting for him to continue where he’d left off. “What else have you heard about the two of us?” he asked.
“Can you be more specific?”
They exchanged a glance again, and Adam shrugged slightly. Travis turned his gaze back toward her. “Specifically, have you heard anything about us being in the lifestyle?”
She had, but only rumors now and then. “A bit, but nothing concrete. You two keep your private lives more secret than most people in this town.” Her pulse raced, and she had to place the glass of beer Adam had just poured her back on the table because it started to slip from her fingers. This bar had seen its share of spilled beer, but she didn’t want to contribute to that right now. “Mostly I’ve heard things that were never confirmed. Third-hand stuff.” Just shut up now and let him talk.
“And how did you feel hearing that stuff?” Adam asked the question in a voice so devoid of emotion that she nearly laughed. He sounded just like a shrink on TV.
“Well, I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other. I know almost nothing about the BDSM lifestyle. So if you two are in it, that’s fine. If you’re not, that’s cool, too.” Liar. She knew enough about it to know it fascinated her, and she would love to learn more.
“We’re both Doms,” said Adam.
She held his gaze, barely conscious of the noise in the bar. Images of being bent over his knee while he spanked her flitted through her mind. Her pussy grew wet, and the roaring noise in her ears had nothing to do with an airplane flying overhead or the sound of a diesel engine train blowing its horn on the outskirts of town. Her breathing came quicker now, and she couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from his face. When Travis said something, she had to ask him to repeat it.
“I asked if you have any experience with it yourself.”
Oh holy shit. She shook her head, cleared her throat, and finally found her voice. “No. None.” Speak, dammit! Say something! “But I’m more than a bit curious.”
“What precisely are you curious about?” asked Adam.
She finally exhaled. “Where do I even start? What do you do in that club? What’s the difference between spanking someone for fun, and abuse? Exactly how much say-so do you have over a submissive’s everyday life? How many rules are there? Do you all know each other on sight, or is there s
ome sort of secret sign, like the ancient Christians used to use? How do you know if you’re dominant or submissive? Are you born that way? And where did you learn all this?”
She let out another exhale, louder this time, then picked up her glass and drained it. Adam refilled it, watching her carefully. The corners of his mouth turned up, but his eyes held no scorn or ridicule. Thank goodness for that. She’d die right now if either of them laughed at her.
“How long have you been holding all that in?” he asked quietly, gently, as if he were trying to coax a secret from her.
In her mind, she melted against the table at the soft, sexy look on his face. She’d never have believed that possible from him. “Oh, I don’t know. Pretty much my entire adult life. I asked Pete once to take me to Maddox’s club. He said Maddox didn’t allow just anyone inside it. He’d have to ask someone who was a regular. But he never did. I don’t think he had any real interest in going, or in learning anything about the lifestyle.”
Travis shook his head. “He didn’t. He and I actually talked about it once, for a brief time.”
Travis’s eyes held a mixture of trepidation and sadness, and Loreen knew she had to address the elephant in the room. “It’s okay to talk about him. I’m all right now. It was a long time ago and I’m sure he’d want me to move on and be happy.”
She’d never actually said that out loud to anyone before, and that realization shocked her. It was the first time she’d acknowledged it outside her own thoughts. The fact that she’d shared it with these two had to mean something, didn’t it?
“What else did you talk about when you had that conversation with Pete?” asked Adam.
“I told him I was curious about the all things I just asked you two, but he didn’t really say much in response.”
“Those are a lot of questions to have held inside this long.”
She stared into Adam’s eyes. They were a mixture of green and gold in this light, and she found them so sexy she wanted to dive and never resurface. This was the first time she’d spoken to either man in a social setting, and it was the longest conversation she’d had with them. And instead of that feeling odd right now, or throwing her off balance, it seemed normal. Like she’d been doing it for years. How could that be? What magic was inside this bar that had brought all this out into the open?
She swallowed hard, determined to keep this conversation honest and real. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that all three of us have walls around us. Don’t you?”
Travis chuckled, and then he high-fived her. It took a few extra seconds for Adam to react, but when he did, he gave her the most brilliant smile she’d ever seen on his face, and hope began to grow. She let it wash over her consciousness like fresh rain after a long, hot summer week, refreshing and renewing everything it touched.
“All right. I admit that’s true. So…what do we do now? Do we answer your questions as we have dinner and then go our separate ways? Or do you want to learn this for real?”
Luke brought their food, then insisted on waiting until all three had taken a bite of their burgers and pronounced them better than anything Ria had ever cooked before he finally left the table. Loreen placed hers back on the plate and glanced from Adam to Travis. “What exactly are you suggesting we do, Doctor Eastman?”
Her entire body felt like someone had let fire ants loose inside her veins. It burned and tingled, but the sensation wasn’t unpleasant. Instead, it made her want to dance naked in the rain, jump in the river, or stand under a waterfall until the coolness invaded her soul. Was this really going to happen?
It couldn’t have been this easy, all this time. Such a thing surely wasn’t possible. And yet, watching them both right now, she knew it was. How many years had she wasted waiting, watching, hoping, trapped in her own fantasies instead of acting on them?
They each put down their burgers as well, and then Adam leaned close enough for her to count his rather long eyelashes. Why was it men had longer lashes than women? It wasn’t fair.
“I’m suggesting, Nurse Newhouse, that we teach you about BDSM play ourselves. And also that we attempt to answer all your questions about the lifestyle. We’re both experienced Doms without a sub. But if you trust us to do this right, we can help you learn about this firsthand.”
“We’ve all known each other for years,” said Travis, his voice shaking slightly. “So it’s not like we’d be topping a stranger, or you’d be submitting to one, either. We’d be happy to teach you, Loreen.”
Holy shit. This was it. All she had to do was say “yes.” One little word.
“And of course you’d have safewords and limits,” said Adam. “The whole nine yards. Everything by the book, so to speak.”
“We’d never hurt you,” said Travis.
How would she be able to finish her dinner? And for that matter, how would she be able to walk back to whoever’s condo they’d head for once they left this bar? Right now, she could hardly breathe. But she knew what she wanted. She’d fantasized about this for years. They were waiting, watching her with a mixture of uncertainty and unbridled lust. It was all she could do to keep from crawling on the table and offering her body to them, right there in the bar.
“Okay. Yes. I want that. Absolutely. With both of you.”
Loreen knew that her life would never be the same again. No matter what happened from this moment on, everything had just changed.
Chapter Four
Adam unlocked the door of his condo and nearly dropped his keys. He’d never been so excited, and so afraid, in his entire life. Did either of them know what a huge step this was for him? And yet, he hadn’t even hesitated when Loreen had rattled off all those questions. Something had snapped inside and he knew, right then and there, that it was time to stop dicking around and make this happen. The fact that Travis was now part of it was irrelevant. He’d deal with that because he had to have Loreen, no matter what.
He’d spent too many years worshipping her from afar. One look into those big blue eyes as she’d finally confessed her secret longings had tilted the earth on its axis, and there was no gong back. He wouldn’t choose to go back even if that option were presented to him right now.
When she’d said it was okay to talk about Pete, and had told them that he’d want her to be happy and move on, Adam had nearly stopped breathing. That’s exactly how he felt about Lissa. That she’d want the same thing for him. To know Loreen felt the same way toward her fiancé who had been killed made him realize she was a kindred spirit. She’d been there, all this time, right in front of him. No way was he going to blow this.
They’d eaten their dinners, straining to make small talk about the weather and things that happened in the ER, but it was obvious none of them had their minds on those things. Once the question had been asked and Loreen had agreed, the three of them were focused on nothing else.
When Travis asked whose home they’d go to after eating, Adam had volunteered his condo because he had an extensive toy collection. He had no idea what Loreen might or might not like, but if she asked about something, he wanted to be sure he had it, or at least owned a reasonable substitute. And since he wasn’t sure what toys Travis had, it had been easier to go with the sure thing.
He handed them each a bottle of water from the fridge, then pointed out the guest bathroom to Loreen. “Of course, you’re also welcome to use the one upstairs.”
“Thank you.” She headed for the guest bathroom. “I’ll be right out.”
He took advantage of the few moments alone with Travis. “Are you okay with this? I didn’t even think back there in the bar. I merely reacted. But you and I never talked about topping a sub together.”
“I’m fine with it. Really. With anything that happens.”
Adam raised his brows. “Including sex? I mean if it goes that far, are you okay with both of us making love to her?”
“Yeah. Definitely.” Travis shook his head. “Man. If you had asked me two days ago whether I’d ever consider anything li
ke this, I’d have thought you were drunk.”
Adam snorted. “Yeah. No shit. I thought I was going to die for a few seconds there in the bar when I thought I’d crossed a line.”
Travis glanced toward the closed bathroom door. “How did you know? I mean, how did you know she’d agree?”
“I didn’t. But there was something in her eyes tonight that I never noticed before.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Hell. I don’t know. Maybe it was there all along. The conversation is different at work. We can’t talk freely with her or anyone like we did tonight.”
Travis nodded. “Too true, my friend. We should have done this a long time ago.”
“Yeah, I guess so. But that’s all right. We’re here now. Let’s not blow it.”
They bumped fists just as Loreen came out of the bathroom with a look of uncertainty in her eyes. Adam forced a smile to his face. He wanted to see her as much at ease as she’d been in Luke’s Bar. He held out his hand. “Come on over and have a seat for a second. Let’s get the clinical stuff out of the way first.”
Her smile told him all was well. She took a seat between them on the sofa, and Adam took a deep breath before speaking. “I have no STDs.”
“Neither do I,” said Travis.
“Same here,” she said. “But I’m not on the pill.”
“Then we’ll use condoms, of course. I mean if sex is involved.” It occurred to him that they hadn’t asked her to have sex with them, and he watched her face carefully, hoping he hadn’t fucked this up already. But she didn’t looked surprised or off balance. So far, so good.
“Is that a possibility?” she asked. “That sex will be involved?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to it.”
Travis made a sound that was dangerously close to a laugh. “Ah, neither would I.”
She blushed—actually blushed. Adam couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen that happen to a woman over twenty-one, and his heart gave a strange little lurch at the sight of it.
“Okay. Stupid question.”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t. There are no stupid questions tonight. Please don’t feel as if you can’t ask us something. Ask us anything you want to. We aren’t going to assume something. Okay?”
