Trust An Even Hand

by Chloe Cox

  Luke growled, just a little bit. And held the reins on himself a little tighter.

  “Well?” Jimmy said, shifting his weight from foot to foot, dancing just a little, like he knew how to fight. “Have something to say?”

  There were two other Doms behind him now, and the bouncer behind them all, looking nervous. Nothing Luke couldn’t handle, but he felt for the young kid who had no idea what he was getting into.

  “I do,” he said. “But you’re not gonna want your friends to hear it, Jimmy.”

  Jimmy looked over his shoulder, his body language changing when he saw he had an audience. He got a little more wired, a little more nervous. A little more aggressive.

  Luke knew the type. Jimmy would need to be the big man in front of his friends. Normally Luke wouldn’t bother himself with something so stupid, but this wasn’t a normal situation.

  This was about Charlene.

  “I thought I told you not to come around here,” Jimmy snarled at him, his voice raised so his friends could hear.

  A lie.

  “This is your last warning, Jimmy,” Luke said.

  “Oh yeah?” Jimmy said, and darted forward to push Luke in the shoulder. “Or what?”

  Luke looked down. He’d barely felt that. He definitely hadn’t moved. When he looked back at Jimmy, the other man’s eyes were wild.

  Luke looked at one of the other Doms standing behind Jimmy, a short, thick man with a short, thick beard who didn’t look all that happy to be where he was.

  “Is he drunk?” he said to the bearded Dom.

  “None of your goddamn business,” Jimmy spat. Then he grinned. “Now what do you want? I want to get back to the beautiful little sub I have tied up back in there.”

  Luke balled his fists and took a deep, deep breath.

  The son of a bitch had left a sub tied up.

  And he was drunk.

  Luke locked eyes with the bearded Dom. “Go in there and check on that sub or I’ll do it for you,” he said. “And I’ll tear this place down to the studs afterwards.”

  Wordlessly, the bearded Dom turned around and went back inside.

  “Hey!” Jimmy shouted, awareness starting to penetrate his whiskey fog. “Fuck you! I’ll deal with my subs as I see fit!”

  Luke turned his attention back to the tall, wiry piece of shit in front of him. They’d attracted a little bit of a crowd now, with Jimmy pacing back and forth while Luke stood motionless. There was no avoiding it. But Luke had been avoiding focusing on Jimmy too much, and now he understood why. It was because if he thought about what this man had done to Charlene for too long, he didn’t know if he could control himself. He didn’t know if he could keep hold of those reins. He didn’t know what, exactly, he would do.

  Had he left Charlene tied up when they were together?

  Luke growled as tension radiated through out his body, the tension of muscles, sinew, soul, all of it pulled tight and ready to snap.

  As long as he didn’t threaten Charlene ever again, Luke could handle it. He had to handle it. She was his goddamn Achilles heel.

  “Jimmy, I came here to warn you,” he finally said, his voice low. Certain. Steady.

  “Oh, big—”

  Luke cut him off, and fixed his eyes on the other man.

  “If you ever threaten her again, Jimmy, if you ever talk to her, if you approach her, if you so much as look at her in a way she doesn’t like, I’m telling you I won’t be able to control myself. I won’t want to. Nothing on this Earth will protect you from me, Jimmy, do you understand? Nothing.”

  Luke hadn’t realized how many people were standing around them until he said that and all those people got suddenly quiet. It was like a blanket had drifted down from above, and the outside world disappeared. All there was was this small circle around him and the man who had hurt Charlene, and the only thing was what was going to happen next. And all Luke could think about was Charlene’s face. How much hurt she held behind her eyes where she didn’t think anyone could see, how long she’d been lonely and frustrated, how much she’d thought it was her fault, and all because of the man standing in front of him.

  Luke just barely held the reins. But he held them.

  Jimmy looked around, seeing how many people were watching now. When he swiveled his head back around to Luke his eyes were wide. He licked his lips and puffed out his chest. And then he spoke.

  “You won’t always be around, Logan,” he sneered. “And one day, I’ll be there. And she may not think she wants me, but I’ll show her, just like I always did. Whether she likes it or not.”

  Luke let go of the reins.

  He swung once, but that was all it took. His heavy hand connected with Jimmy’s chin and Jimmy collapsed in on himself like a hollow man, and it all happened in slow motion. Slow enough for Luke to see Jimmy going down, for Luke to think, to reach out and grab the bastard by his dumb mesh shirt before he cracked his skull on the ground and died.

  Luke slowly lowered Jimmy to the ground the rest of the way and let him lie there, blood on his mouth, trying to figure out what had just happened, while the rest of the crowd backed away. He looked down at the lesser man, his heart hammering in his chest, and reminded himself he’d be no good to Charlene in jail.

  “Don’t come near her again,” he said.

  And then he turned around, back towards his truck. There was only one place in the goddamn world he wanted to be, and it wasn’t here.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “You know a rehearsal dinner is supposed to be an actual rehearsal? Like, the night before the wedding? We don’t even have a location yet!” Charlene said into the phone, then realized that was entirely her own fault, and she should maybe not stress Olivia out with it.

  Olivia just laughed.

  “Yeah, I know,” she said. “But it’s not like we’re a totally traditional couple. I just really want to have a nice night with all the people we love before I get too unwieldy, and…”

  “And?”

  “And we really want to have it at your house,” Olivia said. “If you’ll have us.”

  There was a pause while Charlene tried not to tear up too much. It was silly; she knew, intellectually, that her friends loved her. But it had been so long since she’d felt like part of a family that she couldn’t help but get a little worked up.

  “Charlie?” Olivia asked. “Is that ok?”

  “More than ok,” Charlene said. “Definitely more than ok.”

  “You’re sure? Even with all the planning you’re already doing for me? I mean, this is kind of a lot, and we can totally hire a caterer, and—”

  “No caterer is coming into my kitchen,” Charlene said. “Cooking is love. You hush up and eat my love when I cook it for you.”

  Olivia burst out laughing. “We love you too, you weirdo. It’s good to hear you sound so relaxed. Whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”

  She had to smile at that. If you only knew.

  But after that Charlene went to work with a sort of crazed urgency, still flustered by a whole bunch of feelings. But whatever, work was the best way to deal with those feelings, right? So she immediately started planning an outdoor fairytale-garden sort of feast. Obviously that meant she’d need a new, huge, long outdoor table, which she did not have, but which she could pretend she had. She’d already brought out every piece of outdoor furniture she could from storage under the porch and arranged them around the phantom table and was mentally arranging where candles and torches would go when she realized why she was so freaking anxious all of a sudden.

  All of these people were going to see her and Luke together.

  None of them knew he was her Dom now, but they were going to find out. There was no way to see them together and not know. And Charlene was freaking out a little bit.

  She stopped pointlessly rearranging chairs and seat cushions and perched on the arm of a particularly awkward wicker chair that she’d just wrestled all the way across the lawn.

  What was wrong
with her? She’d been wondering where Luke was all day, and that wasn’t helping, because, well, he wasn’t her boyfriend. This wasn’t a relationship. She needed to keep reminding herself of that fact, because when she was with him…

  But Luke could have any sub he wanted. And Charlene hadn’t been in the D/s scene for so long that she was…well, rusty? Maybe? She didn’t feel like she knew was she was doing, ever, like maybe she wasn’t a natural or maybe she was just bad at it, and her brain wouldn’t shut up about it, and she just…

  Wondered if eventually Luke would see that she was a bad sub, and he would leave, the way Jimmy left.

  Oh, that is messed up.

  So messed up she didn’t know whether to laugh or to scream. So she grabbed the seat cushion she was holding, buried her face in it, and did both.

  Only to find, when she was done being a crazy person, that Luke had come home.

  Not ‘home,’ she thought. This is not ‘our’ home. He’s just back.

  But all of a sudden, it didn’t really seem like the distinction mattered much.

  Luke was standing maybe twenty feet in front of her, having walked up from the drive. She hadn’t even heard his truck on the gravel, she’d been so wrapped up in her own head. But she was aware of him now. She was aware of nothing else, really. Because he was breathing heavy, his massive chest rising in a slow rhythm, his shoulders so broad and muscular they looked like they were going to burst out of that shirt. His hands were flexing, a sheen of sweat on his forehead, the first button of his shirt undone.

  And his eyes…

  Locked on her.

  Locked on her like sexy laser beams.

  For a second, Charlene forgot to breathe. He was the most brutally beautiful man she’d ever seen, and the way he looked at her made her instantly wet. Instantly. It was embarrassing. Like she was trained, like…

  Something’s wrong.

  The intensity in his face. It wasn’t just lust, though there was a whole lot of that. There was something else there. Something had happened.

  “Are you ok?” she said quietly.

  His eyes met hers, and she shuddered with a little thrill down to her core. His expression changed. There was still something there, something behind the eyes, but now he was most definitely, most immediately, her Dom. Her powerful, mysterious, concerned Dom.

  He said, “Why were you screaming into a pillow?”

  Just the sound of his voice gave her the shivers. And the look in his eyes as he said it…

  I can’t be enough for a Dom like that.

  Like he’d heard her speak, Luke’s eyes flashed. He inhaled deeply, and let his eyes trail slowly down her body. She could feel every inch of his gaze.

  Every. Damn. Inch.

  She dropped the pillow she’d been holding. Her hands found the arm of the chair she was perched on, just to have something to hold on to. She squeezed hard as her nipples peaked beneath the sundress she was wearing, the one she knew he liked it.

  “On all fours,” he said. “Now.”

  Charlene’s beautiful mouth fell right open as his words sank in.

  He’d make use of that later.

  Not half a second more until she sprang up, breasts bouncing in that amazing goddamn dress, and dropped to her knees in front of him. She almost seem surprised she moved that fast, but he wasn’t.

  He hadn’t expected to find her alone, or freaking out. But he should have. With her history, he knew she’d be unsure of herself. And then he’d driven here like a bat out of hell, needing to be near her, and when he arrived he’d found her screaming into a pillow with insecurity written all over her face.

  Unacceptable.

  Charlene was a sub, through and through. A perfect fit for him. The immediate way she obeyed an unexpected order, the look of surprise on her face as she did it, already had him rock hard. And she was going to know it.

  Now she was on all fours on the grass in front of him, her dress just barely covering her round ass, her legs slightly spread.

  Her bare thighs slightly shaking.

  Luke walked forward, his cock rubbing against his jeans. His hand hurt from hitting her ex, but he barely felt it. He was about to see if another order had been obeyed.

  He’d been waiting for this all damn day.

  As he got closer he saw more. The way her ribcage betrayed her ragged breathing. The way her fingers dug into the grass. The way her whole body looked charged, ready. Just from this.

  She was fucking amazing.

  “Good girl,” he said as he knelt behind her.

  Her body tensed as she gripped the ground even harder, her head dipped. Without looking he knew she was biting her lip.

  His cock throbbed angrily, and he ignored it. Instead he slowly slid his hand up her bare inner thigh, watching her muscles contract as he got closer. Watching her arch her back as he teased her.

  This fucking woman.

  Enough. He wrapped his big hands around her thighs, his palms on the outer part of her legs, his thumbs wrapping around to her inner thighs, and then, just as slowly, he started to slide them up her legs and under the hem of her dress. Up to her hips, over the globes of her luscious ass, until he’d pushed her dress up to her waist, leaving her exposed.

  Bare.

  Naked.

  And wet.

  So fucking beautiful, so fucking obedient. So fucking his. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, off the evidence of how much she needed him at that moment. As much as he needed her.

  He’d only meant to check that she’d obeyed, that she’d gone bare. To give her some reassurance, to tease her for later. But right now he had an exposed, ready, needy sub in front of him, and the rest of the world just fucking disappeared.

  Charlene felt her fingers dig into the soft dirt, wrapped in grass, and bit her lip again while her legs shook in anticipation. He had her suspended a mile high in the air while she was still on the ground. On all fours, in fact. With her dress around her waist, and nothing between her and the Dom behind her.

  He smoothed his hand over her ass, and she closed her eyes. Every touch, every word, every damn moment brought her even higher. How did he even do this to her.

  “Good girl,” he said again, his voice hoarse, and his praise washed over her like a warm rain, like his words could cover her entirely, could wash away all her doubts. They did wash away all her doubts. And then they somehow broke the laws of physics and made her burn even hotter.

  “I was only going to check your obedience,” he said behind her, and a single finger caressed her inner lips, where she was wettest, and she moaned. “But you tempt me.”

  Charlene bowed her head, her fingers tearing up her lawn, and couldn’t help herself. She arched into him, just needing to feel something, something, anything…

  With a loud smack, he spanked her bare ass, and then left his hand where it landed to grab her flesh and spread her more.

  “Stay,” he growled, and she heard the quick sound of a zipper and then the big, round tip of his cock pressed just against her entrance, and she almost cried out it was so close, so achingly close to filling her and she didn’t think she could take it one more second, except that of course she would. If he told her to wait forever, she would do it. She would wait in this delicious hell for however long he wanted her there, and she’d enjoy every second of torture, and that was how she knew she was fully, fully his.

  Then his hands were on her hips pulling her back while he thrust forward and drove into her, filling her with his pulsing heat all the way to the hilt, tearing a scream from her throat and grass from the ground. He fucked her to multiple orgasms like that, ass up and head down by the ground, until she was nothing but a naked pile of jelly on her own lawn and he had to carry her, again, into her own damn house.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Charlene came back to reality slowly, easily, blissfully, like rising through a delicious ocean to find herself on a perfect white-sand beach and somehow magically held by a beautiful man.
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  No, it didn’t make a lick of sense. But neither did Luke. Charlene didn’t know it was possible to feel like this, but Luke could make her feel anything he wanted, apparently. Including utter bliss.

  After he’d fucked her on her own front lawn—she’d never thought about it before, but holy crap was that hot—he’d gathered her up, because of course she couldn’t walk, and taken her inside. He’d brought her to that same recliner on the sun porch again, with the same blanket, and then he’d removed her dress almost as an after thought. Now he was just holding her in his arms, naked, snuggled up against his chest, listening to his heart beat while he delicately stroked her naked body with his rough fingers.

  Bliss.

  But with something at the edges.

  As Charlene’s brain came back online, she kept thinking about that image of Luke, standing in front of her, just before he’d ordered her on all fours. That memory got her hot all over again, but that wasn’t what she was after. He’d looked at her and seen she was freaking out, but before that, he’d been…

  Upset?

  He’d been something. She’d seen it. And she’d wanted to see more, even if it was ugly. Even if it wasn’t his Dommiest moment. She liked the human he was, too, not just the Dom.

  But the Dom made it a whole lot more intimidating to ask.

  Carefully, she looked up from her vantage point nuzzled against his shoulder. Luke held her with his head back against the recliner and his eyes closed, his breathing even. And somehow he was still intimidating. Charlene gathered up all her courage, and it still wasn’t enough.

  “What?” Luke said suddenly. His eyes were still closed, but now he was smiling very slightly.

  “How do you even do that?” she said. “Dom powers?”

  He laughed, and looked down at her. Then his face went completely serious.

  “Yes,” he said gravely.

  “Don’t tease me,” she said. Screw it. He would ask about me. He did ask about me. That’s how I got into this mess…