by Tara Rose
“Why are you calling him?” asked Denise.
“Because Van and I are going over to Nash’s house later. He told Van that he has something to show us. Something that he found in his basement, and it has to do with what he thinks Trace might be looking for. I think Tommy should be in on this show-and-tell.”
As Summer listened to Rowena leave Tommy a voice mail message, she wondered what could be hidden in the basement at Nash’s house, other than his club. All this talk of buried secrets and fake ghost hunters sounded like something out of a mystery novel. Intrigue and secrets, right here in Passion Peak? It didn’t seem possible. Nothing ever happened here.
Chapter Nine
The first text message of the day came from Dalton, just as Summer was making her way home from downtown. She grinned like a lovesick puppy when she read it.
Can’t wait to see you later, Summer. What have you done with your morning so far?
She started to text him back the details of her trip downtown, but first asked if she was supposed to call him and Wes “Sir” in text messages as well.
Yes, and thank you for asking. I would have had to paddle your lovely ass again if you hadn’t done so.
Summer laughed then glanced around, but no one was paying attention to her.
In that case, Sir, I walked downtown to get some fresh air.
Good girl. Did you buy anything?
No, but I looked at club wear in Sassy Brassy.
Summer was going to tell him about running into Rowena and seeing Trace Coleman, but she decided to wait until later. Some things were easier to talk about in person.
Wes and I will take you shopping for club wear.
Did that mean they intended to pay for it, too? Summer didn’t want to ask, but she knew the subject of her not being able to afford too much right now would have to be discussed eventually. The next text came less than fifteen minutes later from Wes, as Summer was updating her Facebook page.
Good morning, beautiful. Add me and Dalton as Facebook friends, okay?
Why, Sir? Are you two going to keep tabs on me?
As soon as she hit send, Summer wished she could take it back. Would that come across the wrong way? She was in the middle of texting him back to explain when another text came through, and this time Wes had sent it to Dalton as well.
Yes, we are going to keep tabs on you, sub, and for that attitude you pulled, expect a suitable punishment later.
He’d added a winking emoticon, so Summer didn’t believe he was actually upset. She texted both guys, saying she was sorry and hadn’t meant to imply anything.
Both men then texted her back again, saying they knew that and that they weren't upset. Summer spent the rest of the morning watching her phone for new texts. They came about once every half hour, and were filled with silly, sexual jokes and pictures that had her both laughing and wanting to take her vibrator out of her nightstand drawer and give it a serious workout.
Summer had never dated much, but even when she had, it had never been like this. She’d never had so much attention from a man, or experienced that heady sensation of being very special to him. And now she had two men doing that for her. The odd loneliness she’d felt this morning was long gone by the time she warmed up leftover pasta for lunch and called Gran to check on her.
When she told Gran she had another date that night, and asked if she wanted her to stop by beforehand, Gran told her not to be silly, and had made her promise to take a long shower and fix her hair all pretty for her date. Summer promised she would, only because she knew it was what Gran expected to hear.
Summer dressed in cropped pants and a T-shirt for bowling, because the guys hadn’t asked her to wear anything special, and because she hadn’t gone bowling in at least fifteen years and she wanted to be comfortable. She had shoes and a ball somewhere, and it had taken her a ridiculous amount of time to find both, after finally realizing they were in the outside storage shed. At the last minute, she put in earrings as well, only these weren’t quite as large as the ones she’d worn last night.
By the time she heard the doorbell ring, the clothes she had considered but not chosen were still all over her bed. She shot the mess a quick glance and went to answer the door. If they ended up back here, she’d just tell them she’d been cleaning out her closet or something.
The guys were both in khaki shorts and T-shirts, so Summer was glad she’d kept her dress casual. “Come on in.” She’d never seen Wes in anything but the jeans and button-down shirts he normally wore at work, so she couldn’t stop staring at the dusting of light brown hair on his legs and forearms. What would that feel like on her naked skin as she held him close?
Dalton’s left forearm sported a tat that Summer recognized as the logo for The Black Whip, an upscale bar, grill and nightclub on Cheyenne Boulevard. Dalton owned it, and it was just up the street from Indulgence. She pointed toward the tattoo. “I’ve only been there once. Your place, I mean.”
He looked genuinely surprised. “Really? Why not?”
Summer shrugged. The Black Whip wasn’t the kind of place she and her friends had hung out in as soon as they’d been old enough to legally drink. They’d considered the crowd a bit too uppity for their taste, and had preferred The Saloon on Shoshone Road. They’d usually slip into Jet’s Pizza afterwards, where you could get two large pizzas and a pitcher of Coke for the price of one appetizer at The Black Whip.
“No special reason.” She didn’t think her tale of being too poor to buy a pot to piss in was anything Dalton needed to hear right now.
“Well then, after I beat the shit out of Wes in bowling, we’re going.”
Wes rolled his eyes, and Summer laughed at the expression on his face. “We’re not exactly dressed for The Black Whip, Dalton.” His voice was full of disdain that Summer suspected had more to do with what Dalton had said about beating him at bowling than their outfits.
“Then I’ll drive you both back home so you can change clothes, and I’ll do the same.”
“All right,” said Summer. “That sounds like fun.”
Dalton narrowed his eyes at her. “Why aren’t you on your knees?”
“Oops…” Summer dropped to her knees and gave them a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry, Sir. I forgot.”
“You forgot quite a bit today,” said Wes, giving her a grin that sent a hot jolt of desire straight to her nipples and clit.
“I know, Sir. I’m sorry.”
“And I see you still have a proclivity for wearing ridiculously big earrings.”
“Do you want me take them off, Sir?”
“No, it’s okay. They’re kind of cute,” said Dalton, “But we still owe you a punishment for the attitude earlier in that text message.”
His voice…it drove her to distraction. How did he do that? In the space of less than twenty words, he had the power to reduce her to a mess of wanton desire. “I understand, Sir.”
“We’ll decide later what it’s to be. Get up, Summer. Let’s go bowling.”
Wes got into the backseat of Dalton’s car, and as Summer slid into the front she took a deep breath. They each wore the same cologne they’d had on last night, but this time the leather smell came from inside the car.
“Did you enjoy your walk downtown this morning?” asked Dalton, pulling out onto the road.
“Yes, I did. It’s so pretty today. I love this time of year, when the nights are cool but the days are still warm. The sky always seems bluer this time of year than at any other.”
“Yeah,” said Wes, glancing out the window at the clouds scuttling by. “Except right now. I think it’s supposed to storm tonight.”
Summer frowned as she glanced up at the sky. “Oh, I hope if it does it stops by Monday.” The annual Labor Day Parade was scheduled for that day. “They’ve already had to postpone one parade this year.” The Founder’s Day Parade, normally held the second Saturday in August, had been rescheduled for the following Saturday due to rain.
“Do you have to work
Monday?” asked Wes.
She shook her head. “Nope. When the offices are closed, I’m off as well.”
“Who takes care of dispatching the techs when you aren’t there?”
“The administrative assistants take turns. I only have to take the cell phone home to dispatch on the rare occasion when all three of them are on vacation at the same time.”
“How long have you worked at Notus?” asked Dalton.
“Since I graduated from high school.”
“No college?”
She shook her head. “My gran took a bad fall when I was a junior in high school. She’s the person I was visiting the other day when I ran into you.”
“I see. My mother is there, too.”
His mother? She studied Dalton’s profile. He’d been two grades ahead of her in school so he couldn’t be more than thirty-six or thirty-seven, which meant his mother was probably in her seventies at most, and her fifties at the very least. Why was she in an assisted living facility? Had something happened to her?
“She has a traumatic brain injury,” he said. A muscle twitched in his jaw, and the tone of his voice had gone flat and cold. “She had a bad accident when I was in high school.” He cut his gaze toward her for a second. “You said your grandmother fell. Is that why she’s there?”
Summer shook her head. “Not directly. She broke her femur in the fall, but she already had complications in both legs from diabetes and peripheral vascular disease. She’s since had to have both legs amputated, not from the fracture, but from her medical conditions. They’ve been having a difficult time fitting her with prostheses. There was no one else to help take care of her at home, and she had to sell the house we lived in to pay the bills, so now she lives at Shady Pines. I’ve been on my own since I graduated from high school.”
Dalton flashed a quick look in the rearview mirror and Summer didn’t have to turn around to know that he and Wes had just made eye contact. Her face was flushed. She didn’t talk about her personal life any more than was necessary, and she really hadn’t wanted to discuss it this afternoon, but she also didn’t want to appear rude and not answer his questions.
“Don’t you have other family?” asked Wes.
“Yes, but I’m the only one other than Gran on this side of the Rockies.”
“What happened to your parents?” asked Dalton quietly.
She swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat, wishing like hell the conversation had not gone down this road. Only her closest friends knew the truth about her background. “They’re not around. Gran raised me.”
Once again, Dalton and Wes exchanged a look in the mirror. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories.”
“You didn’t, Dalton. I just don’t talk about it. There’s the bowling alley. It doesn’t look too crowded yet. We should try and get lane one or ten because they’re against the walls, and that way we’ll only have other bowlers on one side. I hate it when people crowd your lane from both sides.”
She bit her lip as she waited for one of them to ask about her parents again, but neither man did. They pulled into the parking lot of Pine Cone Bowling, which Summer had always thought was a silly name, even while she got a kick out of the giant resin pine cones that flanked the flickering green and white neon sign. The place had been built in the nineteen fifties and still looked it from the outside, but Summer didn’t mind. It was as much a part of the Passion Peak she’d grown up in as the view of the mountains and the sound of coyotes howling in the distance at night were.
Once inside, she dug her wallet out of her purse, ready to pay her part, but Wes shook his head so she tucked it back inside. He leaned close and whispered, sending a shiver down Summer’s spine. “It’s a date. You aren't paying for anything tonight. Just so you know that up front, okay?”
“Thank you,” she mouthed. He gave her a quick wink, and then he and Dalton led her to lane ten. Summer smiled at each of them then took a seat to change her shoes. “Thank you for requesting this lane.”
“We’ll let you roll first, Summer,” said Dalton.
“Is that so you can size up your competition?”
Wes laughed at her question and then he high-fived her. “All right, Summer. I think I’ve just decided she doesn’t need to be punished for her text message this morning.”
Dalton shook his head. “No. That’s not a good idea. Subs need consistency when they’re being trained. If you let it go, all she’ll learn is that if she makes a comment one of us thinks is clever, she can get away with anything.”
He smiled as he said it, but something about the look in his eyes told her that he was dead serious. She had so many questions about this lifestyle, but she didn’t want to ask them right now. She wanted to enjoy this time and let the questions come about naturally as they spent time together. Summer stepped up and rolled a practice shot. She knocked down five pins and pumped her fist in the air, shouting a victory yell.
As soon as she did so, she glanced to her right, but the closest bowlers were three lanes over. “Sorry,” she said, walking to the ball return. “It’s been a while since I did this and I’m excited.”
“Don’t be sorry,” said Wes. “It’s good to see you having fun.”
She only knocked down three of the remaining pins, but Summer was happy with that. It had been a long time, and she hadn’t expected to bowl that well today. Wes and Dalton did rock, paper, scissors to see who went next, and Wes won. He bowled a strike, and Dalton’s jaw dropped open.
“Looks like you have serious competition, Dalton.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Watch it, Summer, or I’ll add to your punishment just for fun.”
She squirmed on the plastic bench. “You know, when you two say things like that to me, it only makes me want to misbehave.”
Dalton grinned as he rose. “In that case, Wes and I will have to think of something intense because it’s supposed to be a punishment, not foreplay.”
She giggled and admired Dalton’s ass as he stepped up to roll. When he ended up with goal posts, Summer couldn't help but laugh as Wes jumped up from his seat and raised both hands in the air. “Victory! Victory is mine!”
“Sit down, you moron,” said Dalton. “It’s only a practice shot.”
“Uh-oh…Maybe he’s just setting you up, Wes?”
“I doubt it.” He winked at her again, and Summer bit her lip as her pulse raced. Was this real? Was she really out for the afternoon with these two gorgeous, fun, sexy men? Had last night in the club really happened? This was the stuff of erotic fantasies, not real life for Summer Fae Andrews. Either her karma ship had finally come in, or she was going to lose her heart to these two and then have it stomped on.
No. She shook away the negative thoughts. Everything was perfect. She was going to relax and enjoy this.
Chapter Ten
Dalton didn’t complete the 7/10 split, and Wes smiled when he missed it, but he didn’t say anything further to Dalton. Dalton then asked if anyone wanted a second practice shot. Both Summer and Wes declined, so they set the automatic scoring system to begin their game. By the third frame, both Dalton and Wes had thrown a strike, and their scores were separated by only two points. Summer was woefully behind both men, but she didn’t care. She was having way too much fun watching the two compete and trade smart-ass comments.
“So you two were on the bowling team together in high school, right?”
“That’s right,” said Dalton, watching Wes’s next roll, which was another strike. “We were. But I had to quit all my extracurricular activities after my mother had her accident.”
“I’m sorry.”
Dalton shrugged, but Summer caught the flash of pain in his eyes. “Don’t be. High school was a long time ago.”
She wanted to ask more about what happened to his mom, but wasn’t sure if she should. Dalton’s family was well known around Passion Peak, but Summer couldn't remember hearing anything about Eileen Dalton having had an accident twenty
years earlier. It was a small town. Something like that would have made the gossip rounds. Perhaps it was something they’d kept hidden from everyone on purpose?
Wes sat next to Summer and placed an arm across her shoulder. “Let’s see him top that.”
Dalton bowled another strike as well, and Summer clapped while Wes shook his head.
“He’s good,” said Summer, rising to take her turn. “You both are.”
“Thank you, Summer,” said Dalton, giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head as she walked past him. “Now let’s see you do the same thing. Bowl a strike.”
“I have like once, I think. Maybe twice.”
“That means you can do it again. I’ll help you. Walk up to the line.”
She did, and Dalton stood behind her and placed his hands on her forearms. His touch burned like fire against her skin. Would they have a repeat of last night? Could she handle it if they did? Her ass was still sore this morning, but at the same time she craved the touch of their hands and more on it, and on the rest of her body. Was it normal to feel this way? There were so many questions she was desperate to ask.
“You have a fairly straight roll, but it curves just slightly to the left toward the end, so hold the ball up and aim just right of the head pin, like this.” He adjusted her body slightly, and then he took a step back. “Don’t move your body right or left as you walk up to roll, and keep your focus on the pins just to the right.”
Summer concentrated as hard as she could on doing what he’d said, forcing images of fucking him and Wes at the same time out of her head as she stepped up and rolled. When all ten pins fell down, she pumped her fists in the air, jumped up and down, and yelled so loudly that Wes and Dalton both led her back to her seat, clearly happy for her but embarrassed at the same time.
