by Tara Rose
And they trusted her. She couldn’t let them down. They might never know if she did this anyway, but she would. And they’d end up getting the truth out of her, and then she’d feel like shit because it would be a betrayal of their trust in her. This was part of her training.
It wasn’t fair, and it was cruel, but in reality Angela understood that it also had a point. They were in control. And it wasn’t only about that. At its core, it was about mutual trust and respect.
Angela crawled out of bed and put the vibrator in a drawer, buried underneath clothes she hadn’t worn in years. Then she climbed back into bed, curled up on her side, and let her imagination run wild with all the things that Ian and Nash would do to her on Friday night.
* * * *
Tuesday after work, Angela changed her clothes when she got home, and then climbed into Ian’s car when he came to pick her up. He seemed more relaxed tonight than he had the previous evening while driving her to House of Chang. When they arrived at Nash’s house, he drove around to the back. Once outside, he escorted Angela to the pool house, where she’d never been before.
“Are we going skinny dipping?”
Ian chuckled. His grin sent erotic thoughts racing through her mind until she thought she’d go out of her fucking mind with desire.
“Not tonight, Angela.”
“You’re a sadist. You both are.”
“No shit. You just figured that out, baby girl?”
At the back of the pool house, on a deck that afforded a clear view of the mountains in the distance and a trail through the woods at the bottom of the gentle slope below, Nash beamed in her direction as Ian led her toward the picnic table. Food had been spread out, and there was even a bottle of wine chilling in an ice bucket.
“Hello, Angela.” Nash gave her a warm hug and a kiss full of promise and passion. She groaned into his open mouth and pressed against his body. There was no doubt that he was as ready for her as she was for him. What was wrong with these two? How could they stand this? They were probably jerking off every night.
When he released the kiss, he gazed into her eyes. “Before we eat, there are a couple of things we need to talk about. I know we told you to kneel inside the house, but that goes for outdoors, too.”
Angela dropped to her knees. “I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t know.”
“We know you didn’t. And I kissed you before you could, at any rate.”
Ian retrieved a cushion from one of the deck chairs and helped her to kneel on it instead of the concrete. “Angela, we have something for you. Close your eyes.”
She sighed and did as he asked, hoping they were going to recant their previous promise and ravish her body after all. When something that felt like leather was slipped around her neck, she instinctively reached up to touch it, but Nash’s voice stopped her.
“Not yet. You may open your eyes, but before you see it, just listen.”
Angela’s pulse raced as she opened her eyes and looked up into the faces of her two Doms.
“Angela, what we placed on you is called a training collar.” Nash’s voice was soft yet commanding, and Angela was mesmerized by it. “It signifies that you are under our protection and training, and that this is a period where we work out what this relationship will be. Training in this stage is traditionally strict, and this collar is presented to a sub with the intention of moving the relationship into a permanent one. We would both be honored if you would accept this collar from us.”
Before she could even try and formulate an answer, Ian addressed her. “I know a lot has happened in a few short days, Angela, but we couldn’t be more sure about this. I echo Nash’s words in saying I would be honored if you chose to wear this training collar from us.”
Angela wiped away a sudden tear. So many emotions competed for attention that she was having trouble focusing on even one of them. This was real. This was serious. They wanted this to be permanent at some point. She’d never expected a gesture of this magnitude. “Thank you, Sir—thank you, both of you. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t what to say.” That was the most honest answer she could give them. Her mind simply wouldn’t form a coherent thought right now.
Ian’s smile was nothing short of brilliant. “Is that a ‘yes’?”
Angela nodded. “Yes. Absolutely. I accept the collar and will proudly wear it. I can wear it all the time, right?”
Nash nodded and held out his hand. “Yes, it’s meant to be worn all the time. Why don’t you come over here and have a look at it?”
She rose and took his hand, then followed him to the bathroom in the pool house where she could look in the mirror. The collar was leather, with delicate red and black beads sewn into the fabric. It reminded her of the necklace she’d worn to the club the first night she’d played with both of them, but this was one far more intricate and delicate. “It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” said Ian quietly.
She glanced into his green eyes, reflected in the mirror behind her, and swore he was blushing, but it had to have been a trick of the light.
“And you must also be hungry by now,” said Nash. “Come on. We have a feast, courtesy of my chef.”
As they ate and drank wine, Angela’s brain finally started working again, and she recalled the question she’d wanted to ask them. “I assisted with a filling yesterday on someone you both know. Dalton Metcalf.”
Nash nodded. “He’s a good friend.”
“He mentioned he’d seen me in the club Friday with both of you, but I didn’t say much because I wasn’t sure what I should or shouldn’t talk about.”
“Now that you have the collar on,” said Ian, “you may acknowledge that we’re training you.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Doing so would make her feel special and proud, as though she were part of something very exclusive and intimate, where only the privileged were allowed.
“What else did you and Dalton talk about?” asked Nash.
Angela wondered at the undertone in his voice, hoping it wasn’t anger directed toward her. “He asked if I was done with Brett and then mentioned the YouTube video.”
Nash’s expression grew sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Angela. You know how this town is. It will settle down eventually. In the meantime, if anyone gives you shit about that, and I do mean anyone, you tell us immediately and we’ll take care of them for you.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “So you’re also my knights in shining armor then?”
“Yes.” Nash was dead serious. “You’re under our protection, and that most definitely includes anyone trying to give you crap about your asshole ex.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I have to tell you both something. Last night, I almost caved and used my vibrator. I was thinking about both of you, and everything we’ve done, and well…I’m just so…so hot for both of you, and I almost gave in.”
“What stopped you?” asked Ian.
“The realization that I’d betray your trust in me. I don’t want to do that. I promised I wouldn’t, and I intend to keep that promise.”
Ian beamed at her as if she’d just told him he’d won the lottery. He scooted his chair closer and took her into his arms, holding her so tightly that she found it difficult to take a full breath. “I’m so proud of you, baby girl.”
Angela moaned softly at both his words and the silky tone of his voice. How the fuck was she going to last until Friday? When he released her, Nash moved his chair closer to hers and did the same thing, stroking her hair gently. “Angela, I have never been more proud of a sub than I am of you right now. Thank you.”
The rest of dinner was relaxed and fun, and by the time Ian dropped her off at her condo, once again kissing her but leaving it at that, Angela knew two things. She would be more ready by Friday to have sex than she’d ever been in her entire life, and she was falling head-over-heels in love with Ian and Nash. As impossible as that seemed, she knew it was true. And she knew there wasn’t one thing she could do to stop it.
&nbs
p; Chapter Twenty
Nash didn’t sleep Tuesday night after Angela left. Instead, he went into the basement and pulled out boxes of letters and old ledgers that went back several generations, searching for clues to business dealings involving his paternal grandfather, Colson Stonecraft. He’d seen the usual documents. The birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death certificates were in another box upstairs, carefully preserved along with other documents that anyone could search via court records.
But Nash wasn’t looking for anything that a person could find while searching through the courthouse in Meeker, the Rio Blanco County seat. He was searching for something that would appease the niggling voices that had started when Angela mentioned having spoken to Dalton Metcalf today.
Was it only a coincidence that Nash had run into Leland, Dalton’s father, this same day? He had no idea. He only knew that something had clicked when Angela mentioned Dalton. Nash had suddenly remembered Tommy’s words from the day of the rescheduled Founder’s Day parade, just over a week ago.
“It seems this physician in Philadelphia had inherited the home from some rather shady family members, and there were rumors they’d hidden stolen jewelry in the walls during the fifties. The doc alleged that Trace had taken things from behind the walls in the home, but since the doc had no proof of what had been back there, if anything, the case was dropped.”
Nash had thought that Tommy was suggesting Trace Coleman had been trying to rob him, but Tommy had quickly cleared that up by also telling them that Van Whitney was upset to hear that Trace had started bugging Nash about investigating his house shortly after Van’s company had done a remodeling did job for Nash. Nash intended to talk to Van on his own, but first he wanted to see if he could find anything further that would help them sort this mess out.
His family had never thrown away anything, it seemed. It would take days to sift through this mess, but Nash had nothing better to do right now, and it would keep his mind off Angela and her big, trusting blue eyes. He shook away the image of her, kneeling on the patio, with tears in her eyes after they’d placed the training collar around her neck and explained what it signified. He couldn’t go there right now. He just couldn’t. It would bring him nothing but heartache and pain.
* * * *
Angela always had Friday afternoons off because the dental office was closed, but this week she’d taken the entire day off. She decided to wear the purple corset with matching shorts and crotchless panties, because they’d already seen her in the blue corset. She hoped they liked it. Had it really only been a week since that first night at the club? It didn’t seem possible. So much had happened since then.
After she finished dressing, she read back over some of the text messages the guys had sent her all week. She was now glad that she’d shelled out the money for the extended data plan from her cell phone carrier, because she’d never texted this much in her life. She’d have gone over her data limit for sure otherwise.
Wednesday and Thursday had been a repeat of Monday and Tuesday, with both men texting her throughout the day, not only with details of what this night would bring, but also just to say hello or answer her many questions. Angela normally preferred in-person communication, but this was working out pretty well.
Each time her phone pinged with an incoming message, her pulse raced and a smile sprang to her lips. She’d never received this much attention from Brett in all the years they’d been together. As the week wore on, it became easier each day to push away thoughts of Brett, Becca Rawlings, and every other woman in Passion Peak that he’d cheated with. It was as if none of them existed now in her real world. Her days were filled with thoughts and texts from Ian and Nash, and her lunch hours and evenings had been spent with them. At night, she dreamed about them, and they were the first things on her mind in the mornings.
Ian picked her up at five, and they entered Nash’s house from the backyard and went straight up to his rooms. They were having dinner in private before going down to the main floor to play. This time, Angela dropped to her knees as soon as she entered the sitting room, and she didn’t look up at Nash or Ian again until she was told that she could.
They sat around a circular table and had dinner, making small talk, but Angela did more listening than talking. She wasn’t nervous, only very excited, and aroused to the point of pain. It wouldn’t take much to make her come tonight. Surely they knew that.
“I love that color on you, Angela,” said Nash.
“Thank you, Sir. I brought along street clothes this time, too, like you both asked me to.”
“Good girl,” said Ian. “Although, we probably won’t be leaving the house until morning.”
When he winked at her, Angela took several deep breaths. Would it be considered bratty if she simply begged them to fuck her right now and save the play for later? “It’s been a long week,” she said, mostly to test the waters.
“In what way?” asked Nash.
She studied his face for a few seconds, hoping she wasn’t about to say the wrong thing. “I’ve been aroused constantly, around the clock. If you both told me to lie on this table right now so that you could fuck me silly, I wouldn’t protest.”
Nash chuckled softly, as did Ian. “It’s been a long week for me, too, Angela.”
“And me,” said Ian.
She stared at each of them in turn, convinced she was misinterpreting their words. “You don’t mean…surely you two have…”
“Taken care of ourselves?” asked Ian. “I haven’t.” He glanced at Nash.
“Me either. Ian and I agreed on Monday that if we were going to make you wait, we would as well.”
“But why? I mean, I thought this was to punish me? Why would you put the same restrictions on yourself? I don’t understand.”
Ian took her hand and gazed into her eyes. “Angela, it was never meant to be a punishment. It was to teach you that we’re in control, but that’s not the only lesson we wanted you to learn. The reason we agreed to abstain as well is because we wanted you to understand that this is about mutual trust. You have to be able to trust us as your Doms as much as we need to know that we can trust you as our sub.”
“I guess I didn’t realize that. It works both ways, doesn’t it?”
He brushed his finger along the back of her hand, and she sighed again. “Yes. That’s it exactly. We won’t make you do this every week. But I’m quite certain now that you will never forget this lesson, right?”
She shook her head. “No, Sir. I sure won’t.”
“What’s going through your mind right now, Angela?” asked Nash.
“I’m continually surprised by the things I learn about this lifestyle. It’s not like I imagined. And I also now understand that coming here to watch people play taught me next to nothing. This isn’t only about impact play, or bondage, or any of the edgier stuff that I saw. It’s not only kinky sex and doing what I’m told. It goes much deeper than that.”
Nash smiled and nodded as she spoke. “And I’m also willing to guess that you didn’t gossip once this week. Am I right?”
Angela thought about it and had to laugh softly as his words sank in. “You’re absolutely right. I haven’t even thought about it until just now. I was too busy waiting for the next text from one of you, and thinking about tonight, and trying to fall asleep without hearing my vibrator call to me.”
Ian laughed loudly. “I love that. Does it actually call your name?”
“Well, there were times I could have sworn it had. But seriously, I’m just blown away right now to realize how different this past week was for me. Different in a good way. Thank you. That seems inadequate, but I don’t know what else to say.”
“You’re the one who did the real work,” said Ian. “And we’re both so proud of you.” He pointed toward her collar. “Did you get a lot of comments about that?”
Angela touched it. “A few, but not like I thought I would. No one seemed to think it meant anything special.”
“That’
s all right. We know what it means. It’s special to us. You’re special to us, Angela.”
She had to avert her gaze at the intense look in his eyes. She couldn’t let her emotions go there. “Thank you, Sir. You both are special to me, too.”
The sound of a chair moving snapped her gaze to Nash’s face in time to see a look she couldn't interpret pass between him and Ian as Nash stood. “Are you ready to go downstairs?” he asked.
She nodded as her pulse began to race. “Yes, Sir. I am.”
The music was already on as they descended the stairs into the club, but this time the atmosphere was different than she’d experienced last week. The air was still charged, as though she were one with everybody in the room, but gone was her self-assured attitude and belief that simply because she’d already been here to watch, she had a clue what was going on.
Angela recognized Tommy Farley because of his build and the scent of his aftershave, even though he was masked. She’d never noticed that smell before. It was as if her senses were heightened tonight. Nash left her side to speak with Tommy while Ian led her around the perimeter of the room. She clung to his arm, trying to take in everything while also trying to make sense of how different the club felt tonight.
Carma, Mateo, and Blaine were here tonight. She watched as both men fastened cuffs to Carma’s ankles and wrists. She was backed up against a leather pad, and chains hung next to her, ready to be threaded through the cuffs. She was still dressed in her club wear, and Angela was grateful for that. Carma had a gorgeous body, but Angela wasn’t sure she was quite ready to see her one of best friends naked.
“Have you spoken to her this week?”
She remembered to keep her eyes downcast as she answered Ian. “A bit, Sir, but only the day I asked you both if I could show her my collar.” She’d shown her collar to Carma on Wednesday afternoon when Carma had come into the dental office to make a payment on her account, after asking for permission from Ian and Nash via text message to do so.
