Safeword: Rainbow (2013 extended edition) (Safeword Series)

by Candace Blevins

  She took a deep breath and used an example to explain. “Let’s say you have a job offer in California body-guarding celebrities,” she paused as she thought of other primo security jobs. “Or maybe in Virginia or Maryland, working for a firm that handles private security needs of senators and other politicians. If you turned one of those jobs down to work for a rent-a-cop place in Maine somewhere, you’d eventually resent me for it. I am thinking of our relationship, Tyler. If we can end up in the same city without compromising our careers, great; but if either of us turns down a dream job so we can be close to each other, it’d eventually hurt any relationship we might have.”

  Tyler closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Let’s pack, get out of here, and stop somewhere on the way home to talk about a few other things. Okay?”

  “Right, we need to discuss a few things before we face my brother and father.”

  * * * *

  Tyler was still annoyed at being chauffeured around, but figured it wise to keep his mouth shut — he’d only come off as a pompous ass if he insisted on driving. She seemed to be a more-than-capable driver, and hadn’t scared him a single time. He preferred to be in control, but something told him life with Viv would require he learn to go with the flow, on occasion.

  Viv said she knew of a place to stop for lunch with plenty of privacy to talk, but they were silent as the miles flew past. He grudgingly admitted she was right, it would cause resentment in the long run if one of them compromised their career for the other. He had no intention of working for — as she’d put it — a rent-a-cop firm, but he had job possibilities in a dozen states. Surely they could find something close to each other. He’d begin flying around the country for interviews in another two days, and the truth was he’d be interviewing them as much as they interviewed him.

  Viv pulled into a restaurant parking lot and led the way inside, but told him to wait a moment as she went through a second door. When she returned she took him into a back room set up with tables and chairs. They literally had a room of their own?

  He gave her a questioning look and she smiled. “I know the owners, they’ll bring our food when it’s ready. I hope you don’t mind, I ordered the couple’s feast — it’s a lot of food, with a variety of menu items. You’re sure to like something.”

  Tyler had a feeling she was testing him, since he’d ordered for her a couple of times. He raised the right side of his mouth in a grin and said, “We’ll see how well you did when it arrives. If I don’t like anything I can order something else, but I’m guessing you figured this was a sure thing, so I doubt I’ll be disappointed.”

  Her face showed a microsecond of surprise; she hadn’t expected him to take it in stride. Of course, she was correct — he wouldn’t have tolerated another submissive ordering for him. However, for Viv? He needed to show he could be a partner, and not her Master, when they weren’t in a scene.

  Viv looked around and said, “I’d banked on the room not being reserved. We got lucky, I guess. It’s reserved in about two hours, but free now.”

  He followed her to a table and sat across from her. It seemed safer to keep the conversation to the short-term and avoid discussion about the future, so he asked, “What are we going to tell your father and brother? And, will we sleep in our own rooms tonight, or bunk together?”

  “Honestly, my dad’s a bit old fashioned and I’m not sure he’ll let us sleep together under his roof.” She smiled and rolled her eyes. “Especially since I’ve been taking care of him and he feels the need to throw his fatherly weight around.”

  “Should I rent a place close by, so you and I can be together at night? We could spend our days at your dad’s house, and leave once he’s in bed in the evenings.”

  She hesitated. “If it comes to it, I guess we can rent a place for a few weeks, but, let’s not go there just yet. When do you start flying around interviewing?”

  “Day after tomorrow. I’ll be gone three days for appointments in four cities. Seven prospective employers will interview me via videoconference, but four want me face to face. What about you?”

  “It looks like you’re farther ahead of the game than me. A colleague emailed me with a great possibility a few days ago, and I’ve sent my resume off with my fingers crossed. I’ve also sent it off to a few other places, but I’m waiting to hear back from everyone at this point.”

  A server brought tea and two glasses, poured their drinks, and told them their food would be up in a few minutes as she settled the tea pitcher back on the table. Tyler was impressed; by leaving the pitcher, they’d be interrupted less, as it wouldn’t be as necessary to check on their drinks.

  When the server left Viv continued. “Since you’ll be away so much, it might make more sense to check into a hotel on the nights we’re both in town.” She rolled her eyes again and said, “Then again, you’re the first guy my father has ever approved of dating me, so maybe he’ll be okay with us sleeping together. My guess is David will prefer we stay close, so he can be sure you aren’t beating on me.” She shrugged. “He may have already convinced dad to let us sleep together.”

  Tyler wanted to be clear. “So, we walk into the house holding hands, as a couple?”

  “Yes, I think so. That is, if you’re comfortable with it around my brother.”

  “I’d rather be up front than sneak around. The only thing is, if you and I don’t work out, will it mean I can’t come for Christmas anymore? Would it be too weird?”

  “We’re both adults. If it doesn’t work out we’ll come to some adult kind of agreement, and I’ll look forward to seeing you when I come home and you’re there, too. The reality, though, is I’m usually invited to join in on research projects that take advantage of the time during winter break when most professors don’t have classroom obligations.” She shrugged, “But whether I’m here or not, I wouldn’t want to chase you off.”

  “Okay then, we walk in holding hands, and we act like a normal couple, as it’s probably best to stay out of power exchange around your brother. I guess he falls into the “non-BDSM people” portion of our agreement, even though he’s seen me in Dom mode plenty of times in the past.”

  Viv blushed. “But, if we close the door and have sex...you’ll still take charge and give me some pain, right? Something quiet, that no one will hear? You aren’t thinking we’ll actually have totally vanilla sex?”

  Tyler’s heart soared. “We’re kind of a work in progress and will have to figure it out as we go, but I don’t think we’re a vanilla sex sort of couple.”

  Viv blushed again, and Tyler thought it adorable.

  “You said you’d talked to David about the woman you’d fallen for in New Hampshire. What, exactly, did you tell him?”

  “Over the years, quite a bit. It wasn’t like I was boasting about the things we did, but lamenting there was no one else like you.” Tyler shook his head and tried to figure out how to tell her without making her uncomfortable around her brother. “You said you knew what he was into?”

  “Yeah, lots of guys on one girl.”

  “How much do you know, and where did you get your information?”

  Viv shrugged. “I was curious from an anthropological point of view — both cultural and biological. We came from the same parents, and we both have proclivities our society labels deviant sex. So, I befriended someone he was seeing, and didn’t tell her I was his sister.” She looked down as she finished. “I heard details a sister really shouldn’t know about her brother.”

  Tyler shook his head. “I need details, Viv. I’m trying to find out what you know, so I don’t inadvertently tell you something new. I’m on shaky enough ground with Mac already, without giving his personal secrets to his sister.”

  Viv wrinkled her brow. “I don’t want you to feel as if you’re in the middle of us, walking on eggshells.”

  “I’m not going to tell your brother your personal secrets, and I won’t tell you his. I don’t intend to let the two of you put me in the middle.” She didn’
t look convinced and he said, “I can handle it. I’m a big boy — but you need to tell me what you know, please.”

  “He isn’t into pain as much as he’s into wearing the girl, or girls, out until they can’t possibly take anything else, and then working them back up and giving them more. When there’s more than one guy per girl they can team up and keep her busy for hours. He apparently has some voyeuristic kinks too, so when he’s resting and the other guys are busy, he enjoys watching.”

  Tyler nodded. “That’s good, it’ll help me explain. Thank you.” He took a bite, and seemed to be organizing his thoughts before he continued. “Initially, I just gave him a brief overview of the things I liked about you — a general description of how much you took from me and still got off on, how I fed you, how it felt like our souls or hearts or something connected a few times, and how I left you. There weren’t a whole lot of specific details, at first.”

  He hesitated and Viv prompted, “But then…”

  “We teamed up a few times on cases, and let loose with a few women together more often than I’d like to admit. On more than one occasion, when we left the women, I compared them to you, and how they couldn’t hold a candle to what you could take. So, he knows more details than I think any of us are comfortable with.”

  “I didn’t think he was a Dom? The woman I befriended never mentioned safewords, power exchange, or even light spanking. It seemed he ran the show, but just as a strong personality, not a Dom.”

  Tyler considered his hands a moment and finally said, “She told you right. Let’s just say I hurt them and he soothed them, and leave it there. Okay?”

  Viv raised her eyes. “Good cop, bad cop? Do you have the same dynamics when you question people?”

  Tyler changed the subject. “He gave me a condition when he told me I could take you to Naples. He said not to let him see any marks or bruises on you, and he didn’t care if they were consensual or not. Basically, if he sees a mark and knows I put it there, he’s probably going to try to kick my ass.” Viv looked up and Tyler added, “I really don’t want to have to fight my best friend.”

  “Don’t worry.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I don’t want my brother looking at my ass.”

  “It isn’t just your ass bruised. If you were to wear a bathing suit, the marks on the back of your thighs would show.”

  “I’ve learned how to work around having marks and not letting the vanillas see. I’m not comfortable letting anyone outside the lifestyle see bruises, especially my brother.”

  “Thank you.”

  * * * *

  Viv settled on the porch the next morning with her laptop and coffee, and couldn’t believe how well things had gone. Tyler had followed her into her room the night before, and no one had said a word.

  David apparently intended to at least pretend to be okay with their relationship, and — strangest of all — her dad seemed thrilled she and Tyler were together.

  She watched the guys stretch out on the beach before taking off at a sprint, and wondered if things could possibly keep going this well.

  Sighing, she woke her laptop and dove into her research and prep work. She had a videoconference with the Brookfield Zoo the following morning, but wasn’t thrilled about moving to a city where she couldn’t legally carry a weapon. When only the bad guys have guns, it isn’t safe for the good guys…or, for anyone, really.

  Her friend Deb had let her know about a position at the Chattanooga Aquarium that sounded like her perfect dream job. However, she’d also sent her resume to a number of other smaller aquariums and zoos, and would need to have a phone conversation before ruling them in or out.

  She hadn’t responded to the three colleges practically begging her to join their research staff and teach on the side. They were even offering a tenure track, but she was really done with the whole college thing. Politics in the real world would probably be a pain as well, but she was sick of the backstabbing, one-upping, brown-nosing, and power plays at the larger universities. She’d learned to navigate through it in order to get what she wanted, but hoped she could put it behind her. Still, she needed to figure out how to let them know she wasn’t interested without burning any bridges.

  The way things were shaping up, it was possible she’d just have two candidate cities when it came time to give Tyler her list. Part of her was relieved, as the prospect of life with him was a little terrifying. She’d fallen head-over-heels for him, but was afraid she’d lose herself after a few months.

  She would just enjoy whatever time they had together, and prepare to get on with the rest of her life when they went their separate ways.

  * * * *

  Tyler and Mac often ran a little over three miles before stopping at a usually empty section of beach to spar, and then jogging back. Tyler worried a little about their sparring session, but was determined to stick to their regular program and deal with whatever came up.

  They ran in perfect synch — same stride, same rhythm — and Tyler’s worries slipped away as he fell into the cadence, and the salt air soothed his lungs.

  When they stopped in their usual spot, Mac turned and punched with no warning. Tyler’s instincts kicked in and he evaded the fist and delivered a strike, only to have it blocked a millisecond before he was scrambling to block a strike and kick combination from Mac.

  It wasn’t unheard of for one of them to begin the spar right away, but they usually caught their breath a moment. Still, it was clearly a spar and not an all-out fight, and Tyler resolved to keep it from escalating, even if he had to go down on purpose and give Mac the victory.

  However, before anyone had a chance to prevail, Mac pulled back and stepped away as he exclaimed, “Bastard! I thought for sure it’d be over once she saw you outside of a scene. There’s no way my sister will tolerate your heavy-handedness on a daily basis. She can’t stand control freaks.”

  Tyler leaned over to catch his breath and admitted, “I know. You’re right.”

  “I am?”

  “If I have any hope of keeping her, I’ll have to prove I can be her Master during scenes, but an equal partner for everything else.” He stood and paced before stopping just out of Mac’s reach to continue. “Viv’s a strong woman who’s used to taking care of herself. Speaking of which, when you send someone on a body-guarding job it’s a good idea to warn them the person they’re protecting is carrying.”

  Mac’s face showed surprise, then sheepishness. “Sorry. She’s carried so long it seems like it should be common knowledge, but I guess you had no way of knowing.”

  “No harm done, but she didn’t get around to telling me for a while, so I didn’t have her in the defense plans most of the time.” This was good, moving them away from the touchiest subject. “How much training does she have?”

  “She’s a good shot, and dad drilled her until he was sure her instincts would take over in a crisis. He taught her no one should see her gun until they’ve heard it go off, because his theory is if a woman threatens someone with a gun, the danger is too big it’ll either get taken from her, or someone will shoot her before she can use it. To my knowledge she’s never pulled it on anyone, but I have no doubt she’d use it if her life was threatened.”

  Tyler raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t taken her to the range and given her some lessons of your own?”

  “Of course I have. She has the muscle memory to shoot to either side as well as behind her now. Dad only pushed the drills for shots to the front. I also made sure she can hit a moving target, identify the danger in a crowd of people, find qualified cover, and reload quickly under pressure.”

  Tyler sat on the sand and leaned back on his arms, making himself a vulnerable target on purpose as he said, “I love your sister.”

  Mac nodded and turned away before facing him to say, “I know.” He sighed and practically growled, “I only said you could go away with her because…” He seemed to realize he was covering the same ground, so he jumped to the end of his thought. “Now that you’ve figure
d out she won’t put up with your overbearing Master act fulltime…” Tyler wasn’t sure if Mac stopped talking because he couldn’t bear the thoughts of them working out, or because he was too angry to complete the thought. He

  wasn’t comfortable looking up at his friend, but Mac was less likely to throw a punch or a kick in anger if the person was sitting on the ground.

  Tyler softened his voice, barely above a whisper. “I told her I loved her, and she told me she loved me, too, but then added a string of reasons it can’t work.” He met Mac’s gaze, imploring him. “Both of our hearts will be broken in a big way if it doesn’t work. I know you want her to be happy, and I’m sorry you know details a brother really shouldn’t know…but anyone she dates will be in the lifestyle, and you know I won’t push her farther than she can enjoy just to satisfy my own sadistic urges. You’ve seen me back off when someone couldn’t take much, and barge full steam ahead when they could. You know I’m responsible with it. You won’t have the same luxury with another Dom.”

  Mac’s hands drew into fists as he glared down at his friend for several long, tense, seconds. He finally looked away, sighed, and shook his hands out before dropping to the sand in front of Tyler as if defeated. “I won’t actively try to break the two of you up, but I still can’t give you my blessing. I have to admit, seeing how happy she was holding your hand made me want to hug her and punch you in the face.” His eyes grew harsh as he added, “Ballsy, going into her room last night as if it were nothing. I was sure Dad would say something, but...” He shook his head, incredulous. “He’s never approved of any man she’s brought home, but thinks the two of you are a good idea.”

  “Maybe we are.”

  “Dad says he thinks of you like a son, and having you as a son-in-law would be the icing on the cake.”