“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said, stubbornness settling over her like a warm blanket.
His eyes narrowed to strips of deep brown. “I’ll be on the plane to California with you, and I’ll be waiting when you get out. I know I walked out on you once, but I won’t do that again. I’m here, and I’m going to be here as long as you need me.”
Fine words and ones she’d once prayed she’d hear. But she couldn’t trust him. Not again. “I don’t need you.”
His arms crossed over his ridiculously muscular chest. She couldn’t help but remember how defined that chest had been. “You need me. Lucas needs me. And god knows I need the two of you. This is the way it’s going to be, angel. I’m the Dom, you and Lucas are the subs. We’re going to my ranch, and we’re spending the month there.”
She laughed out loud. “Not going to happen. I have a job, you idiot.”
He was obviously unmoved. “Take a sabbatical. This is too important. Everyone who gives a damn about you has signed off on this plan. Do you really want to let them down?”
“I’m not going to do something simply because you say I should.” How dare he? She found herself getting in his space, puffing herself up. She wished she hadn’t worn flats because she was way too short to do what she wanted to do, which was to spit in his eye. He wanted to put her in a corner? He would find out that she fought her way out. “And don’t you try to guilt me into anything, you motherfucker.”
“No, I can proudly proclaim I never did that,” Aidan said with an oddly soft smile. “Now, I have fucked a guy. It was amazing, and I wouldn’t take it back for the world. He’s the love of my life, along with an incredibly obnoxious raven-haired beauty. They’re my whole fucking world.”
He wasn’t winning her back with praise. “Good for whoever. I don’t care. I’m not leaving Dallas. Call whoever you want. I’m staying here. You can have fun in Deer Run, and if Lucas wants to go with you, good for him.”
The thought of Lucas leaving her tore her heart out. She would be alone. For the last two years, Lucas had been her heart. What the hell would she do if he gave up on her?
“So stubborn. It won’t come to that. I love you enough to piss you off, Lexi. I’m back. I’m sorry I left, but I won’t leave again. I’m in control. You can relax because I won’t let you fall, angel. I’m here for you and Lucas. I’m strong enough for all of us. Lucas can do what he does best. He can make our lives easy. You can be the creative, crazy, talented woman you are because I’ll take care of the big stuff and Lucas will take care of the little stuff. You’re free, Lexi. You’re surrounded by the men who love you.”
But she wasn’t surrounded by all of her men. One of her men wasn’t here, and he never would be. The day of the accident swept across her brain like a wasp itching to sting. She wouldn’t think about it. Damn it, she would not think about him. Tears filled her eyes, and she had to get out of here. She couldn’t stand here with Aidan. She couldn’t stand here when Aidan didn’t even know what they had lost. She pushed past him and ran for the door.
She flung it open as she heard Lucas call her name. It was followed by Aidan barking at her. She didn’t care. It only mattered that she got the hell out of there before she flung herself at Aidan and confessed every secret she had. He didn’t deserve to know what had happened. He’d left, and she’d been alone with only Lucas to count on. Lucas had been there during the worst time of her life. Lucas had been the only person in the world she’d told what had happened to her. Lucas had kept her secret even though he thought she should have told her mother. Her heart picked up double-time at the thought of her mother finding out the secret she’d held so close to her heart. She didn’t want her mother finding out how weak she’d been.
She started toward the parking lot, stumbling as she reached into her pocket for the keys to her car. She had no right to drive, but it didn’t matter. If she went out in a blaze of glory then maybe she could see…
She stopped, a chill going through her. Had she really thought that? Had she really thought about dying?
Then it didn’t matter because a crack split the air, and she fell back as the blood began to flow.
Chapter Eight
Aidan heard the sound, knew exactly what it was, and panicked. His mind immediately went to another place. He could smell the scent of gun oil and feel the street under his boots. Fallujah. Watch your step. Mines everywhere. He could feel the buildings shaking from the bombs dropping. He would hear the sound, and then the dark sky would light up briefly as the world shook. The dark of the night was punctuated with the staccato rhythm of high-powered rifles banging through the air. He could see them going off all around him. At first they looked like the fireflies that lit up the night by the pond on his ranch, but then he remembered.
God, he was so fucking scared. Why wouldn’t the dog stop barking? He was on the ground dying and the dog kept barking. It would be the last sound he ever heard.
“What was that?” Lucas’s voice yanked Aidan out of his memory. “Are you okay?”
He was sweating and shaking, and for a moment he’d been back in that hellhole looking up at the sky, knowing it was the last time. What had happened? Gunshot. He’d heard a gunshot.
“Did a car backfire?” Lucas asked, looking around. “Where’s Lexi?”
Aidan ran for the front door. That hadn’t been a car backfiring. He knew the difference. Someone was shooting, and Lexi had stubbornly walked outside. He hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. She’d needed a bit of space because he’d pushed her, but then he’d heard that sound.
“Lexi?” Lucas shouted her name. Aidan could feel him following right behind.
Lexi’s body was crumpled on the ground outside of her first-floor apartment. His heart threatened to burst. He went down on his knees and gathered her into his arms.
“It hurts like a motherfucker,” Lexi said, holding her arm. She turned her face up to Aidan. “I think someone shot me. Why do people always try to kill me? I’m a nice person. I give money to starving babies and properly tip my hairdresser. Why am I the one everyone tries to kill?”
“Where are you hit?” Lucas knelt in front of them both.
Aidan could see what he was doing. He was shielding her with his own body.
“It’s my arm. It’s nothing big, just a scratch.”
“Come on,” he said, lifting her up. He needed to get them both inside where he could protect them.
The night cracked around him again, and Aidan ducked, covering Lexi and trying to pull Lucas down, too.
“Son of a bitch,” Lucas yelled, and he took off.
He watched in openmouthed horror as Lucas ran toward the tree line of a nearby park. What the hell was he doing?
“Lucas, get your ass back here!” Aidan moved quickly. He hoisted Lexi up and had her inside the house as quickly as his limbs would move. He settled her on the couch and handed her his phone. “Call an ambulance. And tell the cops your break-in has turned into something worse.”
Lexi tried to get up. She winced as she moved her arm, but her eyes were wide with panic. “Lucas is out there.”
“Yes, and I’m going to get him.” He was painfully aware that he hadn’t heard anything else. There had been no third shot, but that didn’t mean he was going to calm down. He couldn’t calm down until Lucas was safe and over his fucking knee getting the living daylights spanked out of him.
God, he wished he had a gun. During the time he was in the Army, he’d gotten used to the feel of a gun in his hand. On the ranch, he never went without one. It made him feel safer, but Julian didn’t allow them in The Club. He should take stock of the situation, but Lucas was out there and having god only knew what done to him. He didn’t have time if he wanted to save Lucas. He took off running toward the park. He stayed close to the building at first, but then there was no cover to be had. Aidan simply ran. The moonlight illuminated the night, and he saw a shadowy figure standing next to one of the largest of the trees at the edge
of the small park.
Lucas turned his face to Aidan. He was pale in the moonlight. He pointed to the cigarette butts on the ground around him. “At least we know he smokes.”
Aidan reached out and grabbed Lucas’s arm. He started back toward the apartment building. The sound of sirens in the distance let him know the cops were on their way. At least the impending arrival of the police should scare off whoever had shot at Lexi.
“Hey,” Lucas protested and dug his heels in.
He turned, his body humming with adrenaline. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking try me right now, Lucas. I’ve been through enough that I’m seriously thinking about starting your punishment right now, and if you keep on pushing me, we’ll be in the middle of the spanking of a lifetime when the cops get here. Do you really want that?”
Lucas stared at him for a moment, but when Aidan started to walk again, he went along with it.
Two hours later, Aidan was beginning to calm down. Lexi’s left arm had been grazed by the bullet. The paramedic had taken care of her, cleaning and dressing the wound and flirting outrageously with her to the point that Aidan had been forced to stare the man down. She hadn’t needed to go to the hospital, which was a damn good thing since he wasn’t about to let her ride alone with the handsome paramedic.
The police had taken statements and promised all sorts of investigation, but he’d overheard them talking about the fact that gang violence was on the rise. It sounded like a way to get out of work to him. First, Lexi’s apartment had been broken into and then someone had taken a shot at her. He didn’t see how those two things weren’t connected and could possibly both be random.
There was only one thing to do. He paced as he considered how to deliver this particular news to his wayward subs. They sat on the couch, Lexi slumped against Lucas’s shoulder. Lucas had fussed over her the whole time the cops were around, obviously preferring to leave the police business to Aidan. He stroked Lexi’s hair as Aidan paced, but Lucas’s eyes followed him every step he took.
“So, now that we’re calm again, would you like to explain to me why I’m being punished?” There was no real heat in Lucas’s words, merely curiosity.
Aidan felt the heat, though. Now that all the paperwork crap was over, he could finally get back to being mad. “You ran toward the maniac with the gun, Lucas.”
His brows went up. “Well, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound like a smart thing to do.”
“Asshole.” Lexi gently punched at him. “You scared the crap out of me. Don’t ever do that again.”
Lucas sighed. “I wasn’t trying to get shot. I was trying to catch the guy.”
“The guy with the gun.” He felt like that should be pointed out over and over again until Lucas truly got the point. He would never forget the terror that had overtaken him when Lucas had run off. “You made yourself an enormous target when you should have been in this apartment, protecting Lexi.”
Now Lucas’s face flushed, and his eyes lowered slightly in apology. “I am sorry about that. I thought you would protect Lexi.”
He hadn’t been thinking at all. “It is my job to protect both of you.”
“No, it’s not. Not anymore.” Lexi’s pretty face was scrunched up in a stubborn pout.
“And you,” he began, because she wasn’t off the hook either. “You’re due some punishment, too. Your stubbornness caused this.”
Her lips formed a mulish line before she spoke. “Did not. My stubbornness doesn’t even own a gun. My stubbornness is a pacifist.”
He would have smiled, if he wasn’t still coming down from the wretched adrenaline high of almost seeing the two loves of his life get cut down by gunfire. “If you had stayed in the apartment, you wouldn’t have been a target. You would have been safe and surrounded by me and Lucas when we left.”
“Great. Then you and Lucas could have been shot.”
Finally she got it. “Yes, a much more acceptable conclusion.”
Lexi sat up, wincing a bit as she did. “That is not a good conclusion. That is a sucky conclusion.”
“Lexi, stop,” Lucas ordered, his voice going hard. She sat back. “Aidan is right. We would much prefer to get shot than watch it happen to you. For the time being, you don’t go anywhere alone.”
“Says the boy who chased after the guy with the gun,” she muttered under her breath.
Lucas reached out and stroked her hand with his. “Well, last year you got in trouble because of me. I can’t let that happen again.”
“You’re talking about what happened with Jeremy?” Aidan asked. He’d heard the story from Taggart when he’d been briefed on what had happened to Lucas and Lexi in the time he’d been gone. A former submissive of Julian’s had tried to drug Lucas, though Taggart had used the term dumbass douchebag. When he’d been found out, Julian had tossed him out. Jeremy Walker had blamed both Julian and Lucas for his misfortunes, and he’d gone after their women. Only Julian’s partner, Finn, had been able to save them. Aidan had nightmares about what could have happened to Lexi. Like he needed another nightmare.
“Yeah,” Lucas said, his face falling. “He wanted to hurt me. He kidnapped Lexi and pumped a bunch of drugs through her system. He was going to kill her. I thought he had when I found her.”
Lexi’s hand curled over Lucas’s.
“It wasn’t your fault.” He believed that. If anything, it had been his because he had been in Iraq getting his ass blown off. It was honorable to serve his country but not when he hadn’t made any arrangements to keep his loves safe. They had been all alone. They had been without a Dom. Now that he truly understood what they needed, he felt the heavy weight of guilt. He should never have left them. He’d allowed his own need to be accepted by society in general to outweigh the love in his heart. “Lucas, you did the best you could. I’m very proud of you.”
He could see the way Lucas relaxed. Praise meant a lot to him. Lucas wanted to please. He needed it. He needed this whole D/s thing. It completed him in a way Aidan couldn’t have imagined before he’d gotten involved in the lifestyle. Lexi needed it, too. She would fight him, but she needed it.
“Lucas,” Aidan began, “we need to get your punishment out of the way. Present yourself to me. Count of twenty.”
He heard Lucas’s intake of breath. It was sharp and shocked, and yet his skin flushed with arousal. There was a lot Lucas needed that he had never gotten. It was the true beauty of the power exchange.
“You don’t have to,” Lexi said.
He felt every muscle in his body still. Lexi had an enormous amount of influence over Lucas. She could guilt him into almost anything. Would she? She’d always been incredibly sweet, a thoughtful, caring woman. Had she changed in the years they had been apart?
A seductive smile curled her mouth up. “You don’t have to take any punishment from him, but I kind of think it would be hot. Not that I like Aidan. He’s still a dick and a half, but you might like it, babe. And I would love to watch you.”
Aidan’s heart swelled. She was a bitch to the end, but god, she was a loving one. His Lexi would never judge or hold another human being to some meaningless standard. She’d given Lucas permission to be who he was.
“Well, I did sign a contract.” Lucas stood, and his hands were on his pants. He pushed his leathers down to his knees. He turned and presented his ass to his Dom.
It was all Aidan could do not to drool. Lucas Cameron was masculine perfection. His cheeks were muscled. He had a tan line that spoke of his modesty. Aidan liked it because he didn’t want anyone else looking at what he considered his. Lucas was his. Lexi was his. He could handle people looking at their bodies in a club where everyone knew the rules, but the private thing had its glories, too.
“Count it out, sub.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Aidan began. His hand rained down on the cheeks of Lucas’s ass. Lucas’s voice rang out. There was no small amount of pride in his count. Aidan pulled his hand back, loving the feel of the crack on Lucas’
s flesh. His ass took a pounding with grace and glory. His flesh pinkened up beautifully.
Lexi leaned forward, watching as he struck Lucas’s cheeks over and over.
“Fifteen.” Lucas’s ass actually wiggled a bit as though he was trying to tempt him in.
God, he would love that. He could still remember the tight clench of that gorgeous asshole on his dick. Lucas’s ass had been the tightest hole he’d ever sunk his cock into. But he had a point to make. He slapped that ass again and again until Lucas finally called out, “Twenty.”
He stopped and realized his breath was choppy. His cock was at full-mast, straining against his pants.
Lexi’s eyes had glazed over. She was watching Lucas’s exposed flesh with a diligence that made Aidan’s breath catch. She was so submissive. Maybe not all the time, but she liked it when it came to sex. Why hadn’t he listened to her in the first damn place?
“Is that all, Sir?” Lucas asked with perfect politeness, as though he was asking about the weather, not as if his Dom wanted to further torture him.
Oh, Aidan wanted more. He wanted to lube up his cock and sink it into that hot hole while Lucas fucked the hell out of Lexi’s pussy. He wanted to fuck his subs until they couldn’t move anymore, and then he would sink into the bed with them and sleep with his limbs tangled in theirs. But he hadn’t earned it yet.
“That is all, Lucas. You did well. Now, get dressed. It’s a long way to Deer Run, and we have to stop by The Club to pick up my things.”
Lucas straightened up. He buttoned his pants and then held his hand out for Lexi to take. Lexi stared at him for a moment.
“You really want me to do this?” she asked.
Lucas’s hand tightened on hers. “I do, baby. Please. I want to try this.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and it struck Aidan that the only reason he was getting a second chance was because Lexi loved Lucas. It didn’t matter why. His heart ached, but it truly didn’t matter. It only mattered that he had the chance. He would make it right.
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