by Sophie Oak
Mike’s worry took hold of him like a vise. “I’ve got to find her.”
“Gentlemen.” Tess walked in from the front door.
Relief poured into Mike at the sight of her but then vanished just as quickly as he got a better look at her. Her eyes were puffy and red as if she’d been crying. But now the tears had dried, and there was a placid, almost doll-like quality to her pretty face. She’d fixed her hair into a tightly coiled bun. Mike missed the little wisps of blonde hair that usually framed her face. Now she looked brittle and closed off.
Kevin rushed from the window, his face open with relief. He grabbed her hand. “Tess, thank God, you’re okay. We were getting really worried. You missed some sessions.”
She pulled her hand free. “I apologize if I caused any of you distress.”
“Distress?” Curt stared up at her, his eyes stony. “I don’t think distress covers it, Tess. You will sit down and explain where you’ve been for the last several hours. You worried every single one of us.”
Her eyes slid away from him, refusing to focus on any of them. It made Mike anxious.
“Again, I apologize for my entirely unprofessional behavior, but I had some things to take care of.”
Curt stood and marched toward her. He was inches from her, glaring down. “Like?”
Gone was the softness that Mike had seen earlier in Curt, leaving only a hard edge—and an expression that might as well have shouted that he wanted Tess for his own. Not happening. Mike moved in, ready to get between the two of them.
“Step back, Mr. Goff.” Tess’s tone was flat and lifeless.
Panic rose up in Mike. He couldn’t bear to see Tess this way. What the hell had happened to her? This morning she’d been slightly embarrassed, but she hadn’t pulled away. Now, she’d all but shut down.
“Hey, what’s wrong? Tell me. I can make it right. Come on, let’s go somewhere and talk.” He reached for her hand.
Curt elbowed Mike away and invaded her space. “She isn’t going anywhere with you.”
“She isn’t some toy the two of you can fight over,” Kevin protested.
Tess didn’t acknowledge any of them. Instead, she turned to Randy. “I fixed the car, so you can leave. If anything is wrong with it, send me a bill. I’ve called Mr. Boyle. Your bonuses will be paid as promised. The limo will be here for the rest of you soon. You’re free to go. Thank you for your time.”
No sooner had she pivoted away than Curt grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. “Tess, you tell me what is wrong right now.”
“There’s nothing to say, Mr. Goff, except that you’re free to go.”
Curt’s jaw dropped. He turned to Mike as though looking for some answer Mike knew damn well he didn’t have. He’d been hoping Curt could illuminate him. Curt’s hand merely tightened on Tess’s arm as helpless rage tightened his face.
Kevin grabbed Curt’s hand. “I don’t think pushing her is going to help the situation. Maybe we all need to chill for a minute.”
“As I said, thank you, gentlemen, for your time. Goodbye.” She tugged her arm free from Curt’s grasp then turned on her heels and walked out of the room with slow, measured steps. There was nothing of the sweetly seductive swaying her walk normally had. Her spine was perfectly straight. She didn’t look back.
No one followed. The silence was deafening. Foreboding filled him.
Mike’s pulse pounded like a hammer in his ears. The last session Tess had been in had been with Curt. “What did you do to her, Curt?”
“I didn’t do anything to her that she didn’t want. Not that it’s any of your business, but Tess and I connected.”
“Yeah, I just bet you connected. Did you hit her?” He knew Curt’s story. He’d seen that damn video. Mike didn’t care what two people did to get off, but if Tess had been scared, he was going to have a problem with Curt.
“I would never do anything Tess didn’t agree to. I love her.” Shock spread over Curt’s face as soon as he blurted out the words, but he didn’t take it back.
Hearing them was a kick to Mike’s gut. But the man was telling the truth. They were in love with the same woman.
Kevin nodded. “I love her, too. I thought it was just a crush, but sleeping with her really brought it home. It wasn’t like with other girls. I can’t imagine being with anyone but Tess now.”
“You, too? She’s everything to me. I love her, too.” Mike realized that was the first time he’d said it aloud, and it felt right. Tess was the one.
Marcus’s eyes were wide as he looked between the three men. “Holy crap. Curt had sex with her. You and Kevin had sex with her. Now you all say you love her. No wonder she’s ready to bail on all of us. She probably can’t breathe. You can’t go caveman on a woman and expect her to remain calm.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” Curt completely ignored Marcus. “She wasn’t scared. I know how to read a sub. She was a little overwhelmed when I was done, a little flustered, but nothing that would make her angry and closed like that. She was just processing what had happened. I gave her a little space.”
“She didn’t seem at all pissed off after her night with us, either,” Mike said. “She worked the morning as usual. Something else happened afterward.”
Kevin shook his head. “I agree with Mike. Our night together with her was amazing. She wasn’t upset at all. We talked a lot that night. She seemed happy if anything. I know she was a little embarrassed the next morning, but she still smiled at me when I passed her in the hall. She told me she’d make some cookies.”
“Then what sucked the life out of her?” Marcus’s fingers drummed along the chair he sat in.
Marcus had hit the nail on the head. Mike thought about Tess’s face. The wind had been taken out of all their sails at the sight of Tess devoid of all emotion.
Mike needed answers. He couldn’t leave the woman he loved like this. There had to be a logical reason why she was in this state. “So, when did you have sex with her, Curt?”
Curt sighed before he answered. For a moment, Mike thought Curt might tell him to mind his own business, but he finally opened up. “During our session this morning. We argued a bit, and it boiled over. It’s been building. Her kinks dovetail nicely with mine. She’s very submissive.”
“Not too much or she’d still be here,” Kevin interjected.
“Yeah.” Curt seemed weary again. “I don’t know why she’s shut down. I was hard on her, but I told her how I felt, too.”
Mike was ready to change the topic. He was beginning to understand that Curt had a claim on her, too. He didn’t like it, but he had to deal with it. “Okay. I haven’t seen her since breakfast. Did anyone see her after that?”
Kevin nodded. “I talked to her after her session with Randy, and then I saw her right around lunch. I was fixing a sandwich and saw her out the window. She was walking around the lake.”
Made sense to Mike. She probably needed time to think. She had two very intense experiences with three different men. It would be a lot for any woman to process. “I bet she went to one of the cottages. According to the map we all got on day one, there are a bunch of cottages on the opposite side of the lake.”
Randy stood up. His dark eyes immediately went to Marcus. “We were at one of the cottages this afternoon.”
Curt’s left eyebrow climbed his forehead. “Did you sneak in a girl, you assholes?”
Marcus shook his head. “No, man. We snuck in an Xbox.”
“Damn it, and you didn’t invite me!” Kevin looked like the last kid picked for the team.
Randy didn’t seem at all ashamed. “Damn straight. You hog the controllers.”
“Dude, I don’t give a fuck,” Curt replied. “None of this explains what happened with Tess. I seriously doubt that she was so hurt by your video game that she quit on us.”
“That cottage you were in, there’s no way Tess was there, too?” Mike asked, logic bringing him to the only conclusion that made sense.
Marcus groane
d. “The wine bottle. Damn it. There was a wine bottle on the countertop. Shit. She must have been upstairs the whole time.”
Kevin placed a hand on Randy’s shoulder. “Did anything happen that could’ve gotten Tess so upset?”
“We talked about how hot she was,” Marcus said.
Randy scowled. “We said way more than that, man. I think she must’ve heard us talking about your plan to seduce her for our get-out-of-jail-free card.”
“Oh fuck!” Curt yelled. “Are you kidding me?”
As dread slid through his gut, Mike plowed a fist into the nearest wall. Of all the things she could have overheard, she had to find out about that? None of them had really meant it. It had just been a way to get close to her. Once they’d touched her, everything had changed.
“No wonder she’s so hollow.” Kevin’s face darkened. “We did this to her. We’re all to blame. After the way her fiancé left her for her sister, she’ll believe the worst. She doesn’t think she’s beautiful.”
Curt nodded. “You’re right. Given the crap that’s happened to her, she’s going to think we used her. We fucked everything up. Now, we have to fix it. I’ve got a plan, but you guys might not like the play I want to run.”
Mike was ready to try anything. “What’s the idea?”
They huddled around Curt. It was natural, Mike realized. Almost comforting.
The quarterback looked each of them in the eye. “Since we all contributed to the problem, we’ll work together to fix it. She doesn’t think she’s hot enough to get one guy, much less five? To convince her otherwise, we’ve got to strip her and share her.”
“Wait a second.” Marcus held a hand up. “I care about her. Hell, I even love her in a way. But not like you, Mike, and Kevin do. I haven’t been as close to her yet. She might not want me.”
“I think she will. I think she’s wanted all of us at one time or another. I know Tess. She’s interested in this. It will be a fantasy for her. You care about her. We have to do this as a team, or it won’t work.”
“He’s right, Marcus. We owe her this for knowing the plan and not coming clean.” Randy turned to Curt. “I’m in.”
Marcus nodded. “Me, too.”
“I think it might work. It has to.” Kevin shook Curt’s hand.
Mike wasn’t sure about following his quarterback on this one. “How can I trust you not to have a plan that nudges me and Kevin out of the way so you can have Tess all to yourself?”
“That’s not my plan. I have no idea where any of this is going, but none of us is going to get the girl if she quits the game and walks off the field. I know Tess. If we go to her one on one and try to explain that we love her and didn’t mean anything with that fucked-up plan, she’ll be polite, but she won’t believe. Only a complete blitz on her senses is going to do the job. Tonight has to be about Tess. It has to be about her fantasy, not our egos. We have to show her who her Masters are. And that we’ve learned something about playing as a team.”
For the first time ever, Curt sounded like the leader Mike had always wanted him to be.
“I’m in, Curt. Tell us the play.”
Chapter Seven
Tess stared at herself in the mirror. She looked the way she felt, older, harder. There were lines around her mouth that she didn’t remember seeing before and a coldness to her eyes. She tried to get the look on Curt’s face out of her head. He’d done a damn fine job of playing the wounded male. But she wouldn’t buy his attempt to placate her any more than she bought Mike’s protestations of love or Kevin’s sad puppy eyes.
Why had they even tried? They were getting what they wanted. She’d expected them to start slapping high fives. It looked like they had some sense of shame, for all the good it did her. Her career was in utter shambles. She could count on Mr. Boyle to be discreet. He wouldn’t mention the reason for her resignation, though she’d been brutally honest. She’d explained exactly how she’d compromised herself and her program. She’d held nothing back. Frank Boyle had listened and then tried to apologize for his players. He was a gentleman, but Tess couldn’t see how he could recommend her in good conscience. She’d compromised her principles for sex.
Her sister’s wedding was three weeks away. She’d intended to go in as a successful writer-therapist, and now she would have to attend as an unemployed twenty-eight-year-old with very little future.
With a long sigh, Tess forced herself to get up. It was getting late, and she needed to hit the road. Her bags were packed. By now, the men would all be gone. Despite their shame, they would have left in the limo or Randy’s Audi. They would be well on their way back to their former lives with their choices of women. Despite their protestation, Tess was pretty damn sure none of them would sleep with a plump, intellectual blonde anytime soon.
With that realization, resentment started to bubble up. How dare they treat her so badly and use her just to gain their freedom. They’d thought nothing about her feelings. Maybe she’d been stupid, but she hadn’t been cruel. Everything she’d done had been for pleasure and because she’d been so attracted to them. She’d let herself care. She’d fallen for them. Her heart had been fully engaged, while they had just been playing games to avoid addressing their problems.
She picked up her suitcase. There was nothing to do except go home to her lonely apartment in Fort Worth, where she’d try to put her life back together.
Tess was just about to open the door when it flew back. Her vision was filled with Curt, Mike, and Kevin. Not one of them wore a shirt. Curt and Mike were in low-slung jeans that showed off their cut torsos and ridiculously ripped abs. Kevin wore a pair of cutoff sweats. There was such magnificent strength to each of them.
Tess didn’t need a mirror to know what they were seeing when they looked at her. She was wearing a prim, dowdy khaki skirt and a black blouse that was a size too big but hid her breasts well. She’d picked the clothes she thought made her look the least like an idiot. Now she realized no set of clothes, no matter how concealing, was going to make her feel like anything but an out-of-shape, graceless mortal among gods.
Tess forced her chin up. She didn’t have to let them know how self-conscious they made her feel. It would just feed their egos. She was just about to push a flippant remark past her lips when she looked past the gorgeous bodies and into their eyes. They stood in the doorway, staring down at her like they were hungry predators, and she was a particularly juicy little rabbit. Tess was just about to take a step back when she remembered she was the one in the right.
“Was there something I could help you with, gentlemen?” Tess snarled. She wasn’t going to take their crap. She’d given them plenty of time to leave. She’d hidden out so she wouldn’t have to deal with this little scene. What more did they want from her?
“Yes, princess, there is something you can help us with. You can come with us peaceably, or we can force you.” Curt’s deep voice still warmed her up even though he’d ripped out her heart. She was never going to learn.
“Get out of my way, Goff. I’m going home. You three have all had your fun with me. I’m done playing your little games.”
An unholy grin tugged Curt’s lips up, and Tess finally took that step back.
“Oh, princess, we’re not playing with you anymore.”
He was on her before she could run. His big hands grabbed her arm and hauled her up to his chest.
“Scream all you like. There’s no one left to hear you. We sent the staff away.”
A strange thrill of fear coursed through her. Curt’s hands tightened on her arms almost to the point of pain.
“Let me go.” Tess refused to be fooled by him. He’d played her like a fiddle once he’d realized her kink. She wouldn’t give him the same opportunity again.
“No.” Curt twisted her around to face Mike and Kevin. Neither looked like he had any intention of helping her get away.
“We can’t do that, querida.” Mike had a length of rope in his hands. He looked at Kevin, and they nodded to eac
h other before Mike came toward her.
Tess’s eyes widened, her heart pounded. She began to struggle in Curt’s grip, but he was about as immovable as a mountain. Mike wound the rope around her wrists.
“Not too tight,” Curt muttered.
“I did it like you taught me. She won’t lose circulation. She’s fine,” Mike replied, testing his knot.
“She is not fine,” Tess practically shouted. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Curt whirled her around. “We’re doing exactly what you taught us, what you wanted all along, you manipulative little sub. We’re playing as a team.”
She felt her cheeks go up in flames. She pulled against the ropes Mike had tied her with. “Manipulative? How dare you call me manipulative! You’re the liar, asshole.”
The Dom was back. Curt’s eyes hardened, and his shoulders seemed broader than before. He towered over her. “Watch that mouth with me, sub. I never once lied to you. Now, let’s get a few things straight. Your safe word is bandit. I want you to think very hard before using that word, Tess. If you use that word, you never find out if we mean what we say. If you use that word, everything stops, and you go on the same way you were before. Is that really what you want?”
“It’s not what you want. I know it isn’t, Tess. You’re brave and strong. You’re brave enough to take a chance. I just know it.” Kevin practically pleaded with her.
The word was right there on the tip of her tongue. All she had to do was say bandit, and she could be done. She pushed at Curt, but that word didn’t come out of her mouth. How stupid did that make her? He’d lied when he’d claimed to care about her. Everything they’d done together had been a steaming pile of BS.
She watched the faces all around her. Curt practically snarled at her defiance. Kevin’s eyes were steady on her face. His jaw was clenched, and everything about him seemed resolute.
“Tess, please give us another chance.” Mike’s words were soft. He was behind her, his hands cupping her shoulders.
