by Dace Everan
Cal snorted. “Bullshit! No woman who was drugged would have bleeding wrists and ankles. You struggled and struggled hard.” He growled, his grip tightening on the pictures. His only want was to crush them, find the fuckers that did this and crush them into the nothingness they were!
Lania released a shaky breath. “I don’t allow men to dominate me, Cal. I never will. The outcome would be embarrassing for both of us.”
“Bull-fucking-shit, Lania! You didn’t overreact, you held your ground and made sure I knew who was in control that night.”
Lania raised a brow, and Cal knew that one motion told him she was not amused with his assumption. Or that perhaps she didn’t like him raising his voice at her.
He released a calming breath, shoved the pictures back in the envelope, and let the envelope fall to the floor. He plucked up his whiskey and took a swig, enjoying the burn as it trailed down his throat to his empty gut, which, right on cue, growled.
“Oh, silly Cal. Here. I’ll get Jarden to bring some food,” she murmured, rising.
“I don’t need food. I need you to know you are always in control! You of all people should know that, Lania.”
Lania snorted. “I am when I am your Mistress. Any other position I am not,” she replied, picking up a phone. “Yes Jarden, steak, asparagus, and a side of fettuccine. Yes, the thick garlic toast—” She glanced back at him. “A nice wine and cherry pie for dessert, please.”
Cal furrowed his brow. One fucking meal with the woman and she knew his favorite meal on the face of the planet and even remembered the pie he didn’t have room for afterward. He slumped back, catching sight of the write-up. He plucked it up and rubbed his wrist across his forehead. “Who found you? Which precinct?” he asked, looking over the report, already retrieving the answer. She had been four fucking states over when this had happened. “How much time did they get?”
Lania grunted. “Enough,” she murmured, sitting back down.
Cal grunted. “Death is what they should have gotten,” he grumbled, flipping the page over. “Three days you were with these guys!” He growled.
Lania sighed. “I don’t want to discuss the whole episode. I just wanted you to be aware why I am the one who stands above.”
Cal put the papers aside and leaned forward, his elbows coming to rest on his knees. “You don’t need to stand above to be in control, Lania, and you know it. You would be in deep denial or fucked in the head to even think that one for a minute!” He set his drink back down between his feet and folded his hands, bringing them up to his face.
He looked as if he were praying. Lania had never seen this side of Cal. The way his broad, thick shoulders bunched, the way he was hunched over as if ready to pounce and cover her if need be. “I don’t do submissive, Cal. I never will.”
Cal harrumphed. “You haven’t even let me try. That hurts, Lania. That tells me you don’t trust me one bit,” he murmured. His usually bright-blue eyes, now a heady silver, met hers.
Lania shook her head. “I trust you,” she assured, and she did. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, although she didn’t like that heavy feeling she got in her chest at the thought of him standing over her.
Cal furrowed his brow and rubbed his thumbs on the underside of his chin in thought. She had to know he wouldn’t hurt her. He wasn’t here to hurt her but she had a need that he wanted to take care of. He lowered himself to his knees and crawled to her. He rested back on his heels and looked up at her. “On my lap now, Lania,” he ordered.
Lania stared at him. It was that same husky, commanding voice he had used on her at his apartment. The one that had sent shivers up her spine. She bit her lip. She couldn’t do this. He would only push her back and push up her skirt and do what every other man had ever done. She shook her head.
“Lania, you will put down your drink and side-straddle my lap or I will make you,” he ordered once again.
Lania frowned. Side-straddle his lap? Not straddle him, her legs spread, her pussy pressed against his thick cock, which she knew was hard due to the bulge of his jeans. It would only touch her thigh, well, the side of her ass, and she had clothes on, as did he. This wouldn’t be bad. It would be like this afternoon when he had held her in the parking lot. That had felt safe, safer than she had ever felt in a long time.
Cal waited as she weighed her options. He hoped she realized he was serious about making her. He would, even if it meant her putting up a fit. She needed to know she made the calls. His heart slowed when she put her thick glass aside and almost awkwardly settled in his lap stiffly. Her fruity scent filled his nostrils, and his dick jerked. She stiffened further and he released a heavy breath.
“Ignore that. Your smell always turned me on,” he whispered in a husky voice. “I’m going to wrap my arms around you and hold you, Lania,” he murmured, waiting for her to nod her head, to acknowledge he had said something. Her breathing had accelerated, and he was sure she would hyperventilate if she didn’t slow down. “Lania, I need you to respond.”
“Red,” she mumbled.
Cal’s eyes closed with self-defeat, and he lifted her to sit on the couch away from him. Tears streamed down her face and a sob escaped her. A decade and still the terror she had endured haunted her. He pulled out his cuffs and cuffed one wrist and held them out to her so she could cuff his other, and when she did he laid his head in her lap.
“I want to hug you close and not let anything ever touch you again, Lania. I will find a way to offer that to you,” he promised as her hands came to rest on his head and her sobs filled the room.
Chapter Five
Lania sat across the stone table from him and watched him gobble down the food. She smiled. She had loved watching him eat that one night they had shared. It was their first out-of-club meeting. Of course he had been bare-assed naked and his muscles had gleamed from the oil she had smothered over him prior to their little erotic dinner date. It was the first time she had given him head. She remembered the memory fondly.
“Remember to leave room for pie. Gilda is an excellent cook and you won’t want to miss that delicacy,” she replied quietly, watching his eyes as they glanced at the rather large slab of pie. She smiled. “Feel free to dig into it. I indulge in the sweetness at least once a month,” she shared, pushing the pie closer to his plate.
“You make me feel like a frickin’ caveman.”
Lania giggled. “You are a caveman,” she replied, a hint of a smile on her ruby-red lips.
It amazed Cal how she could go from crying, mascara-stained face to clean, prim, and proper in a matter of minutes. She had let herself cry for a mere five minutes, gently pushed him from her, uncuffed him, and left the room to return moments later, not a stain of her previous self on her.
“So big money, hey,” he mumbled as he pushed aside the unfinished plate of food and pulled the pie closer.
“My parents owned a winery. I inherited when they died and have done wonders with the family business,” she replied, her gaze turning to the landscape behind him.
“My pops was a cop and Momma was a secretary. Pops died when I was small and Momma took up schooling and became a nurse.”
“Does your mother know about your extracurricular activities?” she teased.
Cal chuckled, savoring the sweetness of the pie. “Mm, yeah, she actually stumbled into one of the clubs I had been going to before I was invited to Laird’s,” he replied, shovelling another forkful into his mouth.
Lania raised a brow. “Your mother is a part of the community?”
Cal grinned at the silly look on Lania’s face. “I had to have gotten my kink from one of them. Maybe both.” He shrugged his broad shoulders and took another forkful.
Lania smiled. “You miss your father?”
Cal shrugged. “Like I said, I was small. Momma had a few boyfriends over the years, nothing permanent. No one I would ever call father.”
Lania nodded.
“When did your parents pass?” he asked.
“
When I was twenty, I was at college and they were in Paris or somewhere doing whatever it was they did. Jarden is more of a parent to me than they ever were,” she shared, taking a sip of her wine.
Cal poked into a cherry and held out the dripping, succulent berry to her.
Lania smiled, leaning forward and taking his offering. “You know if I was a good girl I would be feeding that to you,” she murmured.
Cal grinned. “If you were a good girl you’d mosey on over, sit in my lap, and help me finish it off,” he replied, waiting to see what she would do.
Lania stared at him. He sure was pushy. She caught herself glancing over Cal’s shoulder, checking for Jarden. He stood at the entrance of the patio doors, waiting for any further orders. She licked her lips, and her gaze met Cal’s. Surprise caught her at the sadness in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, settling back in her seat.
“For checking to make sure someone else was here to protect you and not trusting yourself with me, or for not indulging me in a simple guilty pleasure of sharing a slice of pie with a beautiful woman?”
Guilt flooded Lania. “Both.”
* * * *
Lania had never felt so sick in her life. Her stomach churned, and guilt riddled her brain. She stared at the torrents of rain that cleaned the city of the smog and dirtiness. Cal had left shortly after his pie. Jarden escorted him from her home, and she hadn’t heard anything from him since. That had been days ago. Laird had called and wanted an explanation of why Cal had revoked his right to attend the club. She had no answers for him, and for the life of her she could not stop crying. She dabbed at her tears and returned to her desk.
She looked at her laptop and decided maybe it was time she took a little vacay. She couldn’t stay here and mull over this. She needed to get her head back in the game, and getting away tended to help her clear her thoughts. Her fingers flew across her keypad and she was quick on booking a flight north to Canada. She had wanted to get up there and see her sales associates across the border. It wasn’t an elegant place to go, but her friends there seemed to bring her down to earth and remind her of who she was.
* * * *
Cal shook his head in irritation.
Laird cleared his throat. “She needs to be pushed and you know it, Cal. You of all people should understand going beyond your limits.”
Cal snorted, raising his arms in irritation. “Not fucking doing it. I was ready for it in my head. She is nowhere near ready!” he argued. There was no way he was forcing this upon Lania.
Laird reclined back in his expensive leather seat and eyed the man in front of him. “Deep down, she trusts you, Cal.”
“Yeah, and I wanna keep it that way!”
Laird nodded, rubbing the stubble on his chin. He could understand that. “Yes, but she is ready. She’s been watching the others. You said it yourself that you saw her squirming in her seat. It is something she has wanted. Something she yearned for once upon a time.”
Cal shook his head. He would not put Lania through that! He didn’t care if it was something she had craved once upon a time. She sure as hell didn’t now.
Laird sighed, sliding an envelope to him. “She leaves on Wednesday. She’ll be gone for a few weeks. This is where she is staying. I called ahead and arranged dwellings for you. I have already made arrangements with your precinct requesting your services for a job I need assistance with. Either way, whatever you do, you are on a job and it just so happens it’s in the same town as her.”
Cal narrowed his eyes. Who in the fuck was this Laird Roan to pull strings like that and this quick? Drug lord of some sort came to mind, but that would be hypocritical of him to even make the assumption. Shit, he knew Laird Roan was a high-up businessman, ex-marine, or whatever the hell it was he had done decades before. Military ops, that he was sure of.
Laird ignored Cal’s assessment of his character and stood. “I need you to investigate a disappearance. If you could get back to me as soon as you arrive with a quick update that would be great. Your flight leaves tomorrow at three, and any other information will be in the ride I have provided for you on the other end.”
Cal growled. “I’m not your puppet that you can just up and make me do whatever the hell you want,” he argued.
Laird smiled. It wasn’t malicious, just a sentiment of friendship. “No one is my puppet, Cal. I would greatly appreciate if you went north and found one of my men who’s been missing for some time now. It’s not like him to go silent for this long. I can’t give you any major details or I may have to kill you, and Lania would not like that. She knows more skeevy people than I do and would have me disappear in a rather horrid way.”
Cal raised a brow. Lania was associated with baddies?
Laird smirked at the wheels spinning in Cal’s head. “Need not worry any. Lania keeps most of her life clean. She wouldn’t be a part of my club otherwise.”
Cal cleared his throat. “No contact with your man?”
Laird shook his head. “Nope, just need to know he’s still alive out there.” It was a simple enough deal to get Lania and Cal back together. He above all knew Lania was falling apart without Cal in her life. Fuck, Cal had been the only thing keeping her head in the game the last few years. She had to be realizing that at least. He furrowed his brow in thought. Had she realized how much she relied on Cal’s constant companionship in her life?
Cal sighed, settling back in his seat. He rolled his eyes. How easy was it for Laird to have pulled strings and this quick? Maybe he should be doing a quick look up on Mr. Roan himself.
“Don’t bother, you won’t find anything on me,” Laird voiced, recognising the familiar “I will hunt you down and figure out all your secrets” look, that Cal was eyeing him with. “I do want you to attend a couple of classes this afternoon and evening. You need to have a handle on what it is you’re going to do with Lania. We both know cuffs are out of order. I was thinking silk ties.”
Cal shook his head. “I didn’t say I would see her, did I?”
Laird’s smile grew. “You will, it’s a small town, and she’ll see you and the both of you, I am not sure which one at this point in the game, will give in. Lania needs you just as much as you need her. You are aware of that, Lania is too stubborn to come to terms as quickly as you.” He sorted the files on his desk. “Either way you will attend and have the appropriate materials for our Lania. If you want to hurt her don’t take the classes. Of course I know you better than that and you will attend the classes and learn some last-minute tricks to succeed in your endeavours.”
Cal released a long breath, rolling his eyes. “You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
Laird chuckled. “Have to be. My wife would run me into the ground if I didn’t have some sort of control.”
Cal had to smile. He had met Laird’s little wife Layle. Layle would indeed run him into the ground. He looked down at the plane ticket in his hand and slumped. “When is the first class?”
Laird glanced at the clock, his mind already on next week’s activities being planned for the club. “Ten minutes in dungeon three.”
Cal frowned. Where in the hell was he supposed to access a spanking bench in this one-horse town Laird was sending him to? “You will pay attention, and pay special attention to knots. If you hadn’t noticed, Lania likes the intricate knots.”
Cal nodded, standing. He’d noticed, had seen how she herself had learned and tied him in a neat style all her own. He had liked that as well, the way she dragged the coarse rope over his skin. She had bought a coarser brand of rope for him, telling him he was a man whose skin was tougher than the next. She had licked every rope burn she had inflicted on him and kissed his boo-boos better. He’d loved every minute of it. Rope play was definitely something she enjoyed. He was always guaranteed a little head afterward. She liked to finish him off by sucking him off. He grinned. He would so eat her pretty little pussy after he had her tied and open to him.
A frown marred his forehead. Would she be s
cared? How would he get her to understand he had no intention of fucking her? That would be her move. She would be the one to make that final step. She had come close numerous times over the years. Of course, two of those times had been after she had gulped back a glass of wine and she had an audience to perform for. He groaned inwardly. How hard had that been for her? To get up there in front of everyone and straddle him, rub her pussy against him with the intention of fucking him? He clenched his teeth. He’d not even noticed the fear. Had she felt it with him? If she had, she had hidden it amazingly.
“Lania is an amazing woman, Cal. She’s conquered many of her demons and continues to do so every day. You have been a knight in shining armour for her.”
Cal grunted. He sure as hell didn’t feel like a knight in shining armour. More like a beast about to take down the delicate flower who wanted nothing more than to take him down and keep him down.
Chapter Six
Cal surveyed the local bar, sipping at the stout draft the well-endowed woman with the flaming red hair had served him. The special, she had told him. He cringed as it trundled down his throat, leaving a bad aftertaste. Yes, this stout beer was not to his liking. He set the beer down and looked at the woman. Jenna, he was sure was what she had said her name was. “Jenna, could I get a whiskey on the rocks, please?” he asked, gracing her with a sweet smile.
Jenna blushed and nodded. “Not liking the local beer?”
It was Cal’s turn to blush. “Sorry, I’m more apt to whiskey than beer.”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah I get that. I prefer tequila to anything,” she shared, her eyebrows lifting in a flirty way.
Cal wanted to laugh. The woman wanted to get shit-faced and fuck him. Normally, well, years ago, he would have hopped all over it, but after meeting Lania, those days had long since ended. He didn’t hop into any strange woman’s bed, something she had taught him. Respect yourself and you’ll find your sexual experiences more fulfilling.
