“It gets quite crowded on the weekends. Don’t thank me just yet.”
She halted again in the quiet walkway leading to the restaurant entry and looked up at him. “No, this is wonderful, Joseph, and I do thank you.” She came close and put her arms around him and whispered, “For everything, Beastly.” She tilted up on tiptoe and kissed him. “I think that makes four.”
Then she licked her lips and continued on. Watching the hypnotic sway of her ass and the lovely fall of her brilliant red hair, he realized he was the one following her.
* * * *
“You did what to his statue?” Camilla Parks asked, her eyes widening and her jaw dropping.
Bunny giggled at the shocked look on Camilla’s face. “I gloved that big marble rascal’s pride and joy. The condom was pink, too.”
“Hurry, before he gets back. Tell me what he did to you.”
“He looked as if he wanted to spank me, but he didn’t. Mr. Hughes was standing there, and…well, I wasn’t his sub then.”
“Have you had time to explore the club?”
“Yes, and talk about an eye-opener.”
Camilla studied her and smiled. “I don’t even have to ask if it was a good experience.”
“Well…” she said, squirming at the memory of that spanking.
Camilla’s brows popped up. “Oh? Do tell?”
“Well, first tell me why you would think it was a good experience.”
“Because you’re here with him now. In all the time I’ve known him, he’s never dated a sub, but I’ve also never seen him look at a woman like that.”
“Like what?”
Camilla peeped over Bunny’s shoulder and smiled. “Like the way he’s looking at you right now.”
Bunny turned toward the bar, and her cheeks warmed up when she found Joseph was indeed staring at her. He gave her a half-smile and went back to talking to Ben.
“He smiles, too,” Camilla added softly. “As Doms go, Joseph is in a class by himself. He learned from the best, and he only wants the best for the members of his club, especially the subs. I enjoy seeing him have one all his own. Now, tell me about your first visit to Hazelle House.”
Bunny and Camilla shared laughter as she told her about the encounter with Samson Cutter.
“You braided Master Samson’s hair? You have a death wish.”
“He’s a sweetheart.”
“I’d never cross—or sass—that Dom.”
“I evidently did both. I guess I do have a death wish.”
“So, has Joseph showed you his dungeon yet?”
“The chamber of horrors? No. Not yet.”
Camilla burst into giggles, and Bunny joined in, her new friend’s laughter contagious. “I’m betting he’ll show you soon. He has a fantastic collection of floggers. He’s an artist with a flogger, and a whip.”
“Well,” Bunny hedged, “spanking and paddling are on the green-light list, but I’m not sure about the whips, yet.”
“Do you trust him?”
“Yes.”
“If he offers, take him up on it. The sensation is indescribable.”
“But…”
Camilla patted her shoulder. “There will come a point where you’ll trust him enough for that. Is Jade still there? I heard she’d moved in.”
Bunny nodded and looked down as she sipped from her Manhattan.
Camilla chortled. “Let me guess. She doesn’t approve of you.”
With a snort, Bunny said, “Not at all. But I understand why she feels that way. I learned a long time ago not to take what other people think of me personally. I’m either good enough, or I’m not.”
“Everything okay here, ladies?” a deep voice said, and Bunny gaped as she looked up at another of the bouncers, the three biggest men in the room.
“Hey, Spencer, this is my new friend, Bunny Carrigan.”
The dark-haired giant smiled at her and gently shook her hand, holding it as if it was made of glass. “Hello, ma’am. Spencer Ketchum. Just wanted to make sure you ladies had everything you needed.”
Bunny responded to his greeting while Camilla looked around the club, which was currently vibrating to a recent rock hit, and said, “Besides lacking our dance partners, we’re great.”
Spencer grinned. “I’ll see what I can do, boss.”
As he moved away, Bunny chuckled. “Your bouncers are enormous.”
“They are. We have very few problems in the club, and the ones we do are handled quickly. I’ve known the bears a long time. They’re all sweethearts. You should meet their wife, Maizy.”
“Wife? Singular?”
“Yep,” Camilla said with a giggle. “And she has all three of them wrapped around her little finger.”
Bunny wished she could sit down with Camilla and pick her brain about…everything. It was a lot to take in with the loud music and other distractions. She asked her if they could meet for coffee sometime, and Camilla was more than willing.
She was laughing over Camilla’s impersonation of Joseph during one of her evenings spent at the club when Camilla’s eyes suddenly widened as she looked over Bunny’s shoulder and said, “Hi there, Sir. How ya doin’?”
“Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to bring my impressionable sub here,” Joseph said as he placed a fresh Manhattan in front of Bunny.
She glanced up in time to see his warm smile directed at her.
Bunny shook her head, adopting what she hoped was an innocent look. “Oh, no, Sir. She was just telling me about how much she enjoyed being a sub at Hazelle House. She wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
He smirked when Camilla nodded, zipped her lip, and threw the imaginary key over her shoulder, and he asked, “Are you sure the two of you aren’t related?”
“We would make an awesome team in your club, Sir!”
“A team of troublemakers, perhaps,” Joseph said with a smile and then held his hand out to Bunny as the music changed to a slow tune. “I requested a song for you, fiammetta. You said you wanted to dance.”
A little dazed, Bunny looked up at him, warmed by the heat in his eyes as her current Eric Church favorite, “Like a Wrecking Ball,” began to play.
“Beastly,” Bunny murmured into his ear when he pulled her close in the center of the dance floor. “Does this mean we have a song of our own?”
He smiled down at her and stroked her cheekbone. “That would make you happy?”
“Well, yeah—I mean, yes, Sir.”
“That was five, by the way,” he said, gently squeezing her ass cheek and pressing her against him.
“Good of you to keep count, Beastly.”
“You keep me on my toes. Right now I’m imagining showing you my dungeon, just so I can tie you up and try out my own paddles on your beautiful ass. Are you enjoying yourself?”
Bunny nodded. “All teasing aside, yes, I am. I’ve done more reading and research like you asked me to, but getting to talk to an experienced submissive outside the club has been educational. I like Mona, too, but she was tied up. I mean—er, you know what I mean—so much at the club, and I was just getting warmed up, talking to her and Robert and Shae when…Well, when all that mess with Mr. Hunter happened.”
“It makes me happy that you’re doing your homework, fiammetta. How do you feel?”
“Languid. My legs are still a little rubbery from earlier,” she said as her cheeks grew warmer, remembering the way he’d pushed her to orgasm faster than she’d ever experienced before.
“I’m glad.”
“I wish I could do something for you, to make it up to you, Sir.” She felt the thickening bulge of his erection pressed against her.
He shook his head as he took her through a turn on the dance floor. “I’m not keeping score, fiammetta. Will you stay with me tomorrow night?”
“Yes. But don’t be surprised if the next time Grinnie sees you she asks you what your intentions are.”
Joseph chuckled. “We already covered that ground tonight. And before you ask, it was
fine. Why do you call her Grinnie, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“It’s what our grandfather called her when we were little. He said she was always a happy person, but when we were around, she grinned even more, so he called her Grinnie, and that’s what we grew up calling her.”
“Your grandmother is a delight. I can see where you get your sense of humor from,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ll bet she gave your grandfather a run for his money when they were younger.”
“And more limber. I imagine she did.”
Joseph laughed and then hugged her to him. She enjoyed the easy way he was with her. She’d miss this if things didn’t work out between them.
“Does she manage all right with your brother? She seemed a little disgruntled with him earlier tonight. Teenagers, regardless of circumstances, can be a handful.”
She bit her lip. “There have been a few times when I’ve come home to find out he’s been hanging around with our neighbor’s grandkids. That’s why I was outside with him when you arrived earlier. He just wanted to be outside for a while but he doesn’t really understand the difference between playing in his front yard…and hanging around on the porch of probable gang members. Grinnie is still on edge after the drive-by shooting. She was a guidance counselor for the school district for years and she had personal experience dealing with kids who either were involved in gangs or dealing drugs, or raised by parents who were.”
He didn’t immediately say anything, but the concern was in his eyes, even though he gave her a slight, sideways smile. “I can see her being a counselor.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think they’d hurt him. They know he has a head injury. But if there was another incident like last week’s…”
“He could be caught in the crossfire?”
Bunny nodded. “I just need to work harder and start looking for another place to live.” Before she discovered the neighbors were telling him he could help by earning an “income,” too.
“Let me know if I can help, Bunny.” He lifted her chin and raised his eyebrows when she looked up at him. “I mean it, fiammetta.”
Giving a tiny nod, she said, “I will not be a burden.”
Shaking his head, he muttered, “Stubborn woman.”
“You already have your hands full, Sir.”
He studied her with piercing gray eyes. “Yes, they are, and they can handle whatever comes my way. Promise me that, if you find yourself in a situation, you will call me first.”
Biting her lip, she smiled at him and nodded. “Sorry to ruin our romantic dance with my nonsense.”
“I’m the one who brought up the subject so it’s my fault. I suppose we’ll just have to stay out here until a better mood strikes, won’t we?”
“Camilla told me you have an extensive flogger collection. When are you going to show it to me?”
“Soon. I thought I’d give you more time in the club before playing privately. I could show you my personal dungeon if there is time tomorrow night.”
She nodded. “If you’re busy with your special guests, I thought I might also visit the club’s dungeon.”
He shook his head. “Not without me.”
“Why not?”
“You have a way of getting into mischief, little flame, and I’d just as soon you not get yourself in any situation you couldn’t get out of easily.”
“But I could use the club safeword if I had to.”
He caressed the back of her head, and the warmth from his hand seeped through her hair to her scalp. “Not without me, Bunny.”
“What if I wore that collar you put on my wrist? Wore it around my neck?”
He paused and looked down at her and then smiled. “We’ll see. Possibly.”
She didn’t know why it was so important to her, but he chuckled when she bounced on her toes happily. Now all she had to do was make sure she could follow through on putting that thing around her neck. Just the thought made it hard to swallow.
Chapter Thirteen
Joseph sighed heavily as he paused in his descent on the second-floor landing, with Jade following closely behind him, in tears. No matter how many times he’d reminded her that he didn’t expect it, she still chose to walk a pace and a half behind him. As distraught as she was, he didn’t feel it was worth reminding her again, especially since she was already upset at the changes he was proposing to her.
“Sir, Blake’s just not right for me.”
The mantle of a Dom presiding over a private club, with all the complicated human intricacies of Doms and subs interacting in possibly combustible ways, had always weighed on him, if not heavily then at least as something he’d never take lightly. Many subs came to Hazelle House actively looking for Doms, partly because he had a reputation as a protective Dom who placed a high priority on the safety and happiness of his subs. Lately, he’d felt more like a mother hen than a Dom in command of his part of the universe.
Jade’s face was pale and drenched with tears, and he didn’t bother to fuss when she collapsed to her knees by his side. He’d received Bunny’s text a few minutes before letting him know she was on her way so he could take her to visit the dungeon before the club got busy, but this situation needed to be addressed.
Blake was waiting in his office, and he deserved an answer.
Sighing, Joseph turned to her and gently said, “Look at me, Jade.”
Batting away her tears and sniffling, she looked up at him with miserable, bloodshot eyes, and the pain he saw in them made even him choke up a bit, and he was more than accustomed to teary-eyed subs. “Yes, sir?”
A member of the house staff turned down the corridor, walking toward the stairs, before pausing discreetly upon seeing them. This was no place to have a private discussion with her. “Come with me, please.”
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he walked down the hall with her following on bare feet behind him, silent every step of the way. She trailed him out of the French doors in the lounge leading out to the back veranda, currently deserted, except for groundkeepers who were finishing up for the day. They nodded when he gestured for privacy and made themselves scarce.
The sun had set moments before, and the lingering rays shone with a surreal pink light on the limestone blocks covering the mansion. It had been a hot day, but an errant and most welcome cold front had made its way far enough south that they were expecting unseasonably mild temperatures. Nothing cold, not in Texas this time of the year, but cool enough to bring a crisp, fall-like tinge to the air.
She followed him to a comfortable seating area, and he halted her when she tried to kneel on the stone underfoot. Instead, he pointed at the ultra-soft ottoman positioned in front of the chair he sat in.
“Please, make yourself comfortable.”
She paused and frowned then carefully perched on the cushion, wrapping her arms around herself.
Joseph opened his hands and held them palm up, in invitation for her to place her hands in his. Her brows knit together, and more tears fell as she placed her cool, slender hands in his.
Clasping her hands, he said, “Jade, tell me, if you could be anywhere at this moment, where would it be?”
Her face flushed, and she sniffled, more tears flowing down her cheeks. “If there were no rules for Heaven or Earth, I would be with Master, in Heaven. I would go there.”
His throat ached, and he was glad she was looking down so she wouldn’t see him shaking his head, not because he thought she was wrong but because he couldn’t fix this for her. He drew a breath. “What would Donald say if he was listening to us right now?”
“Master would say…” She trailed off as a soft sob left her lips. “Master would tell me I can’t give up the fight. And…he would be sad for me, I think.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t moved on, yet.”
“If you were in his shoes, and he was finding it as hard to go on without his sweet sub as you are without him, what would you tell him?”
She sniffled and
angled her head to brush her wet cheeks against her bare shoulders because she wouldn’t withdraw her hands before he released them. Jade needed a level of control and submission in order to feel at peace that many subs would find stifling. What she needed was what he’d been charged by his deceased friend to help her find. And he believed they’d found the solution, which was why she was running scared.
“Jade, look at me.”
She raised her gaze to him. “Yes, Sir?”
“Would you want him to go on with his life, find happiness, if you were gone?”
She hesitated and looked around the garden and then looked at him again. “But…but I am happy…here. I am.”
“That’s not the answer, Jade.”
“I love serving you, sir. I love you.”
Joseph nodded. “And I think I have never known a more dedicated submissive in my entire life. You have a gift, Jade, and a sweet, submissive nature, but you need a special Dom. That Dom is not me.”
“No?” she asked, looking up at him, such loss in her eyes, and then shook her head. “No. I know that, Sir. And I want only for you to be happy.”
“If Donald were in your shoes right now, and he was going through the struggle you are going through, would you send him someone to ease the pain?”
She grew still, sniffled, and a frown furrowed her brows. He smiled at her, knowing this was the crux of her problem. She didn’t want to move forward because she felt disloyal doing so. Joseph was safe. Loving him was safe because he’d been Donald’s friend and wouldn’t make undue demands on her.
She couldn’t say no because that would be selfish, and for Jade, that would be the ultimate insult toward her deceased Master. Self didn’t matter to Jade in a Dom-sub relationship, and only a dedicated Dom could understand and not take advantage of that facet of her personality. She might be broken in some ways, but the right Dom could heal her brokenness.
Sniffling, she nodded. “I would. I would send him the best.” She gulped, and another huffing sob escaped from her. “I would want to send him a sub who was as perfect as an angel because he would deserve it.” She sniffled again and nodded as she released a long sigh.
Bunny and the Beast [Divine Creek Ranch 22] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Page 15
