He withdrew the skillet and sliced the firmed omelet into nearly equal thirds, sliding Maddy’s slightly smaller portion onto her plate. Rafe set two neatly cut pieces of rye toast alongside it—both were experts in the use of knives, if not necessarily in the domestic sense—and silently passed her the ketchup. She gave him a startled look and carefully applied a small dollop on the side of the plate, presumably for dipping. Connor managed not to wince and avoided Rafe’s eyes at all cost. Just another example of compromise and acceptance if three people were to live together in a committed relationship. But ketchup? On eggs? He turned to his own plate.
“This is great. Thanks.” She dug in and he felt his mouth stretch wide in a fatuous smile. Feeding their woman, hell, having her in their home, was fucking A. When Rafe put a full mug of heavily creamed coffee by her plate, she gave him a look of gratitude Connor immediately wanted for himself.
“The dogs approve of our sub, Rafe. Even Anann. Hannibal thought she smelled good.”
“That animal has always had good taste. And Anann probably recognizes a kindred spirit. She’s the one with the say in that duo.”
Maddy audibly swallowed a forkful of eggs, her slender throat working as she stared first and him, then Rafe. Her head shook in a tiny, quick movement at the not-so-subtle message, but she didn’t say anything in response.
They then ate in relative silence, broken only by the sound of the broiler cooling down and the clink of utensils against china. When Maddy finished her food, she sat straight, and Connor braced for an outburst, maybe a lecture. Rafe lounged back on his seat in that deceptively prepared way he had. They weren’t disappointed.
“Now that the prisoner has been fed, let’s get something straight. I know I keep repeating myself, but I need to get going. I have places to be, people to meet.”
Rafe hitched his stool closer and put a hand on her back, right between her shoulder blades, and Connor watched as she stilled and quit talking.
His buddy said, “I have this unrelenting urge to smack your sweet ass until you beg for mercy, Maddy, and that’s exactly what’s gonna happen unless you stop your protesting and fill us in.”
With narrowed eyes, swallowing visibly, she stared at Rafe, then at Connor. “If you’re going to pull the Dom card, I’ll use my safe word and then I’ll go. Don’t push me.”
“I never figured you for a coward,” Connor said mildly, although he thought Rafe’s idea would cut through the bullshit.
Straightening tall in her perch on the stool, she set her mouth tightly. “I’m not a coward!”
After striking such an obvious chord, Connor followed up quickly. “You are if you safe out when you know how reasonable your Doms are being. It’s basic BDSM. We take care of our sub. You allow us in. This isn’t like last night when we fucked up.”
Maddy tensed further. He could now see it in every line of her curvy body, a strange dichotomy, before she answered. “If you were my Doms, that’d hold true.”
Now that stung, and Rafe rubbed his hand on his jeans. Connor knew exactly what his friend was feeling. He too wanted to paddle her ass for that jab. “Semantics. We are Doms. You’re a sub. Afford us the respect. We’ve already apologized for last night, and I’m not sure what else to say to convince you of our sincerity.”
Shoulders slumping, Maddy averted her eyes and shook her head. He gave her a moment, warning Rafe with a look, because the other man was gearing up to command and Connor didn’t think it would work just yet.
She took a sip of coffee, then spoke after carefully setting the cup back down. The action had obviously settled her enough to think things through to some degree, because she shared with them. “My father gambled. He worked for a…really bad guy and ended up owing him more than he could pay, no matter what he did. So I became the payment.”
Connor didn’t dare say a word. Rafe became so tense his big frame vibrated, a fine tremble Connor could see despite his friend’s attempt at composure. Maddy visibly took a breath before continuing.
“I stuck it out until my daddy died, and then I left. The bad guy found me and had me brought back. It wasn’t…pleasant, not the retrieval or what awaited me. It took me some time to get away again, but this time I was smarter. At least until I joined Vantage. BSDM fascinated me and I lived it, online. The club gave me that reality I needed so bad. I didn’t have to be on guard all the time.”
The sad yet bitter tone in her voice hurt Connor dead center in his chest. They’d truly fucked things up for her. Years, from the sound of it, of watching her back and being subservient for all the wrong reasons. He couldn’t imagine that life, and Vantage was like a second home to him. He held his tongue. Rafe, aside from shifting a little, didn’t make a sound.
“But it’s only fair to tell you I was getting a feeling again about the hounds closing in, so I’d thought about moving on. So I guess you just moved the date up a tad.”
And that was the submissive in her, wanting to ease her Masters’ angst by taking it onto herself. Connor couldn’t allow it when it was patently false.
“I don’t think you’re right about that, Maddy. Oh, you felt the signs of pursuit, but I imagine it was me and Rafe who were the hounds. There was nothing to indicate the guy had found you. Until I flagged it.”
Wide, startled hazel eyes met his, then were shuttered. He hated that. Hated she’d hide from him. From them.
“I wondered… Well, it’s done,” she murmured. “And it was time I moved on anyhow.”
Flashing a near-Maddy smile, she slid to the floor. “So I should go. Now. Ab—I mean the bad guy won’t leave this alone and you can’t get mixed up in it. He has a long reach and far too much influence. I won’t be responsible for anything happening to you.”
“Who is the bad guy?” Rafe’s voice would have cut through an iceberg, or a diamond, and Maddy backed into her abandoned seat.
“I won’t tell you that. There’s no need for you to know who he is. It’s safer.”
“If we know who’s coming we can defend ourselves better.”
Connor did absolutely nothing to detract from his buddy’s statement. Good old cut-to-the-chase Rafe had nailed it, found the perfect line to unravel Maddy’s defenses, if her body language and the look on her face meant anything.
****
A punch in the stomach wouldn’t have been as effective. The air went stale in her lungs and she was probably gaping like the proverbial fish out of water. She’d been kidnapped, fed—and not bread and water either—then effectively interrogated, again. Playing that D/s card had been a really effective touch, but Rafe’s assertion… They’d punched all her buttons. Except one, a sly voice in her head pointed out. You aren’t naked yet. Maddy floundered, but regrouped. Swimming in a sea of pheromones, spiced with adrenaline and outright fear, had driven her off course but surely it wasn’t too late to retrieve the situation. She thought hard—and fast. Rafe and Connor were too damn close, all hunkalicious and steamy and nearly impossible to resist. But if she’d held them off last night, surely she could do it again today.
“Nobody knows about any connection between us, outside of the club,” she pointed out, trying to build her case. “The people from my past don’t know about my interest in the Lifestyle. And the chances are slim that anyone from back then saw you today. Or saw me.” She gestured at her much changed look. “They would have thought I was my friend if they got that lucky. The neighbors think I’m her. She’s me. Whatever.”
Rafe didn’t seem to move a muscle, but suddenly he was in her space, big hands cupping her face again in a manner that made her feel so special, if weak. He worked his fingers beneath the wig and freed her hair. It felt wonderful, especially when he massaged her scalp and smoothed her tangled mane down around her shoulders. Maddy knew her eyes were drifting shut and that she was leaning into his touch, but her brain felt disconnected from her body.
A light contact on the buttons of her shirt grounded her a trifle and she blinked open. “What are you doi
ng?”
“Don’t much care for the middle-aged executive look, babe. The glasses were sexy, the button down and tailored pants not so much.”
“But…but…” She grasped his wrists as he released the last button, and felt his controlled strength as he spread the material apart, her skin cooling as it was revealed. Maddy was irrationally glad she’d donned the matching underwear set that morning and removed the foundation garment, before she again tried to marshal some resistance against being seduced.
Rafe leaned into her and pressed his lips exactly into the hollow of her throat, easing the pounding of her pulse point. Again, she forgot to breathe. Then Connor was behind her, gently grasping her hands to pull them down to her sides, his heated body a bulwark for her own. She sagged back into him and quit thinking about anything other than having these men master her one last time. It seemed only fair and would merely delay things a little.
“Do you want this, Maddy?” Connor murmured the question, but it in no way mitigated the intensity in his voice.
“I do.” Age old term of commitment. It didn’t matter. She so wanted this.
Rafe flicked open the front closure of her bra. The catch made a tiny clicking sound and her breasts fell free into his waiting hands as the cups peeled away. Her nipples stabbed at his palms while he kneaded her tender flesh, and she relished the roughness of his fingers as they stimulated her beaded nubs. His mouth replaced a hand, a cauldron of heat and wetness surrounding her nipple, his tongue swirling around it, and she arched into him. Connor chuckled against her temple and held her tighter.
“You’ll remain still, Maddy, and take only what he offers.”
It was impossible to remain immobile against such a determined, sensual assault. As his teeth nipped at her and he suckled harder, she squirmed and moaned deep in her throat, then gasped as he switched to the other breast.
“Please.” Such a commonly used word by all and sundry, but with many different interpretations. Well, she was using it in the urgent sense. Rafe was driving her insane with need and she was begging. Shamelessly. When he pulled away and abandoned her breasts, she tried to get free from Connor in an effort to drag Rafe back.
“Maddy. We’ll see to you.” Connor spoke firmly but the events unfolding were clearly having an effect on him. His voice was raw with desire.
Big hands worked at her waist and she sensed, rather than heard, the zipper of her tailored pants lowering, the placket widening. Connor tightened his grip on her biceps and drew her upward, with Rafe sliding his hands around her hips. The coolness of the marble countertop through the thin fabric of her shirt caused a shiver, before the slip and slide of her pants being tugged down and off her legs sent a surge of heat to pool in her pussy.
“Now the underwear, I like.”
She opened her eyes to the sight of Rafe looming over her, obsidian eyes glittering with lust and desire, his gaze raking over the scrap of satin covering her sex, before slipping his thumbs beneath the sides and tugging them down her legs. She was sprawled over the counter in the very place they’d shared food, and from the look on Rafe’s face he was thinking about consuming her. Connor leaned in to kiss her and she reached for him, unthinking. He grasped her wrists and set them above her head before renewing his exploration of her mouth, and she kissed him with her heart. If this was to be their last time, then she wouldn’t hold anything back. It didn’t matter if her heart was destroyed in the process. She would live in the moment. She didn’t resist when her hands were secured. The house was probably filled with ways to restrain subs.
The sound of the feet of a stool grating across the tile floor vaguely registered as she met Connor’s tongue with her own and felt him win that minor skirmish. And she surrendered, this once, all her power so that she might lose herself completely. Rafe placed her legs over his shoulders and rubbed his scruff against her inner thigh.
“I’ll finish what I started last night.”
Despite herself, she arched, offering her pussy up to his mouth, asking for it. If Connor wasn’t stealing her breath she’d be begging some more. So aware of them during the impromptu meal, Maddy thought she’d jump out of her skin and didn’t stop to worry about the effect they had on her—not now.
Rafe bit the tender skin his breath had heated, a clear warning, and strike three on her inner thigh. “Our timetable, remember, sub,” he warned, his voice muffled against her. But she heard him, her senses magnified by desperate need.
She subsided and submitted, the reward of his mouth against her sex resulting in a full body shudder. Connor pulled back to let her breathe and she sobbed with arousal as Rafe’s tongue traced along her inner folds, dancing over her clit and zeroing in on her opening. Lancing inside, he cleverly teased the walls of her sheath, his broad shoulders keeping her legs spread wide, big hands gripping her hips. As he lavished oral attention on her receptive pussy, she greedily mourned the loss of Connor—but not for long. He came back, his heated body a beacon, and she opened her eyes with an effort to see him looming over her, face stark with lust as he watched his partner eating her. He’d stripped, and the abundance of honed male flesh she could see warred with Rafe’s ministrations. Catching her gaze, he gave her a feral grin that went straight to her sex. His cock, swathed in a condom, stood proudly against his abdomen and, despite her anticipation, Maddy noticed the color of the prophylactic. Not latex. Lord, they had learned her. She wished she could have seen that hard dick before he covered it all up, though.
Connor traced a finger down her sternum, then took one breast in hand, pinching and rolling the nipple. He plucked at the other bud, and the aching need transferred equally between the two.
“You’ve got the best tits, honey. Rafe worked them over nicely. We’ll clamp these naughty nubs another time, add a few weights to up the ante.” The visual drove her arousal higher and when he mouthed the abused buds she got caught up in the begging thing again. More—and more. Because there wouldn’t be another time.
Rafe lapped busily, and at last turned his attention to her needy clit, closing his lips around the tender knot of nerves in a surprisingly gentle suckle. It was like the previous evening, yet it wasn’t.
The release was equally temperate, and she found herself floating on a plateau of contentment, relaxed, yet still wanting, and understood the best was yet to come. Her hands came free, Connor rubbing at her skin, pressing a kiss on the inside of both wrists, and her heart melted at the gesture. But her sentiment was short-lived as Rafe laid an equally sweet kiss on her pussy lips before pulling back, drawing her up as he did so, big hands sliding up over her waist to snag her shirt and pull it down over her arms, and off.
He turned her, urging her body to bend over the stool, and she hung on to the metal legs, her hands sliding down the cool steel until she could grasp them comfortably. Her ass was up in the air in this position, and the stroke of a thorny palm made her clench as a finger slipped into the cleft.
“Easy, honey. This pretty little bottom hole hasn’t seen enough preparation for either of us to fuck you there. Yet.” Connor stroked her again, then slid his hand between her thighs to cup her pussy, which had responded to his sensuous promise. “Take a wider stance, Maddy.”
She obediently shuffled her legs apart, the residual throbbing from her orgasm taking on a new life when he worked a finger inside her sheath, then added another. A tiny whimper escaped her, and Connor slowed his movements.
“You’re tight. Damn it, Rafe. You shouldn’t have let her come. It’ll take me forever to get inside of her.” More sexy talk, and she tightened around him, suggestively. It won her a smack on the ass and he withdrew his fingers on an embarrassingly slippery slide, painting over the heated mark with her own cream.
“We’ll see to your pleasure, tell you what to do, what we want, and when, subbie. You’re just along for the ride. Trust us.”
Could she do that? She could, at least in the here and now. Maddy stuttered her acquiescence as Rafe came to kneel in front of h
er. He didn’t touch her but watched intently as Connor pushed against her, his body warming her buttocks and thighs.
“Tuck that sweet little puss where it’ll do the most good, Maddy,” Rafe ordered.
She obliged, squirming to capture the prize, the men chuckling at her efforts. When the wide head of Connor’s dick snugged up against her opening, she sighed, needing something to fill her after that sweet orgasm. He entered her in tiny increments, the broad glans stretching her wide with agonizing slowness as his shaft packed her. Maddy bit back the urge to tell him to get on with it, knowing who was in charge. Rafe absorbed her every reaction, dark gaze incredibly intense.
“She’s feeling every inch, Con. Nothing like an expressive sub.”
She couldn’t hide and didn’t want to, although in that moment, Maddy mourned her lack of experience, wishing she could bring more. All she could do was follow their lead and cherish every moment.
When at last she was fully penetrated, Connor’s cock at the mouth of her womb, she sobbed out a breath. Rafe stole it with a quick press of his lips, and his face glowed with satisfaction.
Connor wrapped her up, keeping her close. It elicited such a safe, warm feeling, at odds with the throbbing between her legs around the rigid length of flesh impaling her. And damn her eyes, she wanted them both.
“Con’s gonna fuck you now, Maddy. And I’m gonna watch. You keep those eyes on me, and you don’t come until you’re given permission.”
She understood the control aspect. A sub’s orgasms belonged to her Dom—or Doms—and the idea of Rafe watching was hot. She’d never leaned toward exhibitionism, but if Rafe wanted to observe, she was good with it. She nodded and he frowned.
“Yes, Sir.” An approving smile made her heart race.
“If you two are finished?” Connor sounded strained, and she tightened around his pulsing shaft in response.
“Damn it, Maddy. You’d better hold on.”
The Death of You Page 8
