by Sophie Oak
If Sam Fleetwood was worried, it didn’t show. “Yeah, that should be an interesting night. Look, discipline is going to have to wait a couple of weeks. Abby’s water broke.”
Jack Barnes had no answer for that. He simply took off running. One minute he was there, and the next his boots were stirring up dust as he sprinted for the doors. Sam’s chest moved with the force of his laughter. “Sorry, man. You have to forgive him. He is the coolest customer in the world until me or Abby gets sick. It’s just a baby, but he’s got to freak out. It’s why we didn’t mention it until now. She’s been having contractions all day. Well, he makes up for it by being a beast in the sack.” Sam slapped his back jovially. “You should get your girl, man. Don’t wait or it’ll be too late.”
“Sam, we’re leaving now!” Jack Barnes’s voice boomed across the parking lot.
“Gotta go have a baby. This one’s number two. Got my fingers crossed for a boy. Otherwise, we’ll be hopelessly outnumbered.” Sam practically glowed as he turned and ran for the big truck, whose engine was gunning furiously. Gravel flew when the black truck sped out of the parking lot.
That truck was speeding toward a future. Finn was stuck hopelessly in the past. His stomach twisted. What was he supposed to do? His first instinct was to march his ass back into that party room and beg Dani to reconsider. He could kiss her and tell her he’d always wanted her. He could explain to her that he’d lied all these years. Yeah, that would go gangbusters.
“There you are!”
Heart skipping a beat, Finn turned, and Danielle Bay walked toward him, a light sparkling in her blue eyes. Her honey blonde hair was pulled back in a loose bun, and the dress she wore showed off her round, glorious breasts. How many times had she complained about those tits when all he wanted to do was get them in his mouth?
“Well, my engagement party is off to a spectacular start. My boss just went into labor. My future mother-in-law is mopping up what she calls the wages of sin. Apparently she doesn’t truck with the ménage lifestyle. She won’t say that to Jack Barnes’s face, though. That man scares the crap out of everyone. I love it.” She wound her arm around his waist, cuddling temptingly close to him.
“He seems pretty intimidating.” He’d been a junior in high school by the time Jack Barnes and Sam Fleetwood had bought their spread. Fourteen years later, they ruled Willow Fork, despite the fact that most of the narrow-minded town considered them sinners. They were sinners with an atrocious amount of money, so the sin was tolerated. Finn knew his wouldn’t be.
“He’s an interesting guy,” Dani said. She ran her free hand across his cheek. It was an affectionate gesture. She couldn’t know what it did to him. “Abby is an amazing woman. I can’t tell you how great it is to work for her. She’s opened a free clinic here in Willow Fork. She’s really making a difference.”
“That’s great,” he managed to say. He forced his hand to curl around her hip in a perfectly nice “we’ve been friends since high school but never managed to have sex because one of us is gay” kind of way. “I’m glad you found a good job.” He was happy that she wasn’t working at the Buys A Lot anymore.
“I have a good job, and now I’m getting married.”
Finn heard the hitch in her breath. “Are you sure about this? The last time we talked you didn’t even mention that you were dating Jim.” He left off the “bo” part. It was simply too surreal to think that his lovely, sweet Dani, who read Jane Austen and watched foreign films with him, could possibly be marrying someone named Jimbo.
He felt her sigh against him. “I didn’t talk about him because I know how you feel about anyone from this town. Look, Finn, I love you. You’re my best friend in the world, but I have a life here.”
“You could have a life in Dallas, too.” He hated the little whine in his voice. Damn it, why couldn’t he be forceful?
“Not anymore. I don’t have a degree. I was damn lucky Abby Barnes hired me as her clinic manager. This is as good as it gets in Willow Fork. I’m not smart like you, Finn.”
“That’s not true.”
There were tears in her wide eyes as she looked up at him. “Please say you’re happy for me. I couldn’t stand it if you were disappointed. I’ve missed you so much, Finn.”
The pleading in her voice was more than he could take. He hugged her close. “If this is what you want, then I’m happy for you.”
Her head sagged into the crook of his neck. “I’m glad because you’re my maid of honor. Don’t tell me no. I had to fight Jimbo’s whole family to make this happen. They don’t think it’s proper to have a male bridesmaid.”
Finn felt every muscle tense. He was sure that conversation had been worse than Dani was saying. They wouldn’t want a gay to tarnish their special day. Fuck. He couldn’t hurt her this way. He loved her. He had to be strong. “Of course I’ll be beside you.” He would stand there, wanting her, loving her.
Her smile was as brilliant as the sun. “I’m so happy. I couldn’t do this without you, Finn.”
She started talking a mile a minute about everything from her dress to the wedding cake she wanted to order. Finn nodded and tried to figure out how to face the future without her.
Chapter Two
Six Months Later
Julian turned his Audi R8 Spyder down what appeared to be Main Street. The June air was warm on his skin, but he still felt the strange restlessness that had been plaguing him for the last few years. Being alone had only seemed to focus it. His recent string of bad luck incidents had convinced him that he needed a more radical change. There had been a fire in his building. Then his car had been vandalized. He’d had a nosy reporter on his case about the possibility of an underground sex club in the Dallas area.
Of course, there was an underground sex club. He ran it, but he certainly didn’t want publicity. The car had been a mere nuisance. He simply bought another one, and the fire was apparently an accident. Still, it all added up to serious stress, so Julian was doing something he hadn’t done in years. He was taking a vacation.
He glanced around the small town. It looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It was three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, and Julian seriously expected to be assaulted by visions of boys and their faithful dogs, perhaps playing stickball and trading baseball cards. Willow Fork, Texas, was a sleepy little town.
His car purred as he moved down the street. He had the top down. It was a stunning day outside, but he was rapidly discovering that, with no one to share it with, the days seemed to blend together. Each was as empty as the next. Julian stopped at a stoplight. He drummed his fingers along the steering wheel. It wasn’t that he missed any one person in particular, but rather that he didn’t like to be alone. Perhaps he’d spent too much of his childhood in that state that now he simply couldn’t stand the silence. He’d been on edge for six months, but he wasn’t sure how to get off. The last thing he wanted was another pretty-faced sub in his bed who didn’t challenge him at all.
But he was tempted. So tempted. It had become a bit of a game at The Club to see which sub could find his or her way into the Master’s bed. It wasn’t that he didn’t want sex. He was horny as hell. He just wasn’t interested in anyone.
He blamed Jackson. His former protégé had found something magical. He was living happily with his two subs, Samuel and Abigail. He’d started a family. He had a life past work. Julian couldn’t get Jackson’s words out of his head. A few years back, Jackson had given Julian a bit of advice. He’d warned Julian not to let his rules run his life. He’d warned him that rules might keep him from something wonderful. So far, Julian hadn’t found anything wonderful. He’d just found sexual frustration and loneliness.
Julian hit the gas and drove past some sort of church. He intended to use this week to reconnect with old friends. When he got back to Dallas, he would get on with his life. He would spend this vacation deciding on who to take as his new subs. He would stop his waiting and select based on logic. He would pick one man and
one woman, and then begin training them to suit his needs. He was done waiting for some mysterious thing to happen to him.
The light in front of him turned red. It looked like he was going to hit every single one. He thought about the stack of files he had in his luggage. He was sure Jackson would be horrified by the way he intended to choose his new lovers. He had a system. He would weigh the pros and cons of each, input the numbers into a spreadsheet, and presto, he would have two lovely bodies in his bed. The one time he’d followed his heart and offered a permanent contract to a sub, the man had declined and run off…with Jackson Barnes. Julian wished Samuel Fleetwood well, but he had learned his lesson. He just wasn’t a man who would have something as elusive as love.
His cell phone trilled. Julian looked down and saw a picture of his longtime personal assistant. Candice was almost sixty, her stern face was a comfort to him. Nothing got by her. Julian moved his thumb across the slide bar to answer the call. “This is Lodge.”
“Mr. Lodge, that reporter called again.” The normally unflappable Candice sounded distinctly flapped.
“Have security block her number.” The nosy Morning News reporter would undoubtedly try again. If she gave him too much trouble, he would simply change his number. It would cause a headache, but it would be worth it if it got rid of her. The last thing Julian needed was an exposé run on his underground activities. There was a reason he kept a very low profile.
“She called your private line, Mr. Lodge.”
The light turned green, but Julian didn’t care. He jealously guarded his private line. It wasn’t a number he gave out to his business associates or people from The Club. Only close friends and his submissives had that line. “Did you ask her how she got that number?”
“Yes, sir. She said she has an inside source.” Candice’s voice softened. “Mr. Lodge, I don’t think it’s anything you should worry about. She’s just asking questions. It’s not the first time this has happened. There are always rumors. I just wanted you to know.”
He took a deep breath. The light changed back to red. He was lucky there was no one on the road. “Are you sure? I should come home.” Maybe it was for the best.
“No, no, you promised me you would take a vacation.”
Now she was stern and unmoving. Julian felt his lips tug up into a small smile. When she talked to him like that, he could almost see her the way she was thirty years before. Candice Holloway had been the tenth nanny his uncle had hired. He’d run through nine in the years after his parents died in a car accident. He’d intended to run her off as well. She’d flatly refused to be dismissed. She’d told him she wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how hard he tried to push her away. Candice Holloway promised that she would never leave him, and she never had. When he no longer needed a nanny, he’d convinced her he needed an assistant. Along the way he’d managed to convince her to let him pay for her children’s college education and set up a retirement plan for her. He believed in gratitude. “It isn’t much of a vacation spot, Candice.”
“That will be good for you, sir.” She sounded more relaxed now. “A little peace and quiet is just what the doctor ordered.”
Something caught Julian’s attention. On the hill behind him it looked like a wedding party was breaking up. He would need to move soon. He just didn’t like to talk and drive. He believed in concentration. “The doctor didn’t order anything. You did. I’m almost to the ranch if my GPS is to be believed. Is there anything else I should know?”
Julian watched as a ball of white appeared on the sidewalk several blocks down from him.
“Lucas Cameron was in the dungeon last night.”
Nothing odd there. Jackson Barnes’s younger brother had become a regular at The Club ever since he finished law school and began working at a prestigious firm in Dallas. It hadn’t hurt the young man’s chances that he came with a small, but lucrative client list made up of Barnes-Fleetwood and Julian, himself. Julian sighed as he realized why Candice would mention it. “He brought Lexi with him?”
“Yes, sir. I thought you would like to know. They performed a scene and left. Ms. Moore was reportedly very upset.”
Julian’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. Lexi Moore was rapidly becoming a problem. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about those two. He’d thought about calling her mother, but Lexi was twenty-four. Though she didn’t have a membership at The Club, Lucas did, and he acted as her Dom. Unless he was willing to seriously argue with Lucas, he had to allow it to continue. He’d offered to talk to Lucas. Lucas had declined. That boy was wading into dangerous waters. Lexi Moore was on an emotional ledge, and she and Lucas seemed to think they could solve her problems with public spankings. Julian sighed and felt tired at the very thought of trying to deal with it. If he revoked Lucas’s membership, he and Lexi would more than likely find another club. Julian didn’t like the thought of that. At least this way, he and Leo could keep an eye on the situation.
“Thank you for telling me, Candice. Please call me if the situations, either of them, worsen. I’ll see you in a week. Until then, I will enjoy my vacation. You needn’t worry. It appears absolutely nothing interesting ever happens in this town.”
He hung up the phone just as he looked in the rearview mirror. He felt his eyes widen. It appeared as though a large marshmallow was barreling down Main Street. The frothy confection had a blonde head sticking out of it. Julian stared in the rearview, unable to look away. A man raced after the white puff ball. He was wearing a tuxedo and screaming something that sounded like “Annie.” A large crowd was pouring out of the church. Very interesting. He wondered if the marshmallow intended to run all the way to Mexico to get out of her wedding. Julian didn’t blame her. He probably would do the very same thing if he had been foolish enough to agree to something like a wedding.
The puff ball had stamina. Though he couldn’t see her legs through the sea of taffeta surrounding them, he knew they had to be pumping overtime. As she came into sharp view, Julian could see that her mascara was running in dark rivers down her face. Her ridiculously long train trailed behind her. The man, who seemed to be the groom, tried to chase down his frothy prize. He would probably make it. All he had to do was get within twenty feet of the fleeing bride, and he could put a foot down on the satin trail behind her. If he had any sense at all, he had a length of rope on him. Julian always had a length of rope. The groom could tie up the fleeing bride and drag her back to the church. If he was really serious about this whole marriage thing, he would spank her first to start the marriage on the right foot.
Julian sighed. It wasn’t his concern. Still, he enjoyed a train wreck as much as the next person.
The marshmallow steamrolled down the sidewalk. Her arms pumped, her legs strained. Her eyes widened and locked on…him. Before Julian could think to gun the engine, he was assaulted by a sea of satin and lace.
“Drive!” The woman practically screamed the words as she threw herself into the front seat.
Julian struggled to find his way through the cloud he found himself caught in. “Excuse me?”
“I said drive.”
“Yes, I speak English. I wasn’t asking what you said. I was rather shocked that you had said it. Were you raised in a barn?” He shoved down the mountain of fabric that covered his face. He looked at the woman now in the seat beside him. He really should have kept the top up.
“Please drive,” she beseeched him. Her tearstained face went straight to his gut. “I am begging you to please drive.” She hiccupped through her tears and managed one last word. “Sir.”
Julian practically growled. She’d said the one thing that he couldn’t ignore. She’d called him Sir in that oh so sweet way that let him know she would be soft and submissive if he played her properly. She would submit and lie beneath him with no demands of her own except to please him. Perversely, it made him damned determined to meet her needs. She’d done the one thing guaranteed to manipulate him each and every time.
He thought
about it. He thought briefly about simply waiting. The tuxedoed groom was so close. Another few steps and he would haul this sugary piece of trouble right out of his convertible. He would drive on to Jack’s ranch and spend the next week catching up with friends. He wouldn’t get involved. He wouldn’t get in trouble.
“Please, Sir. I am begging you.” Her breath hitched, and blue eyes pleaded with him.
The groom closed in just as Julian gunned the engine. Trouble, it seemed, just followed him.
* * * *
The man beside her finally gunned the engine and took off down Main Street. Dani took a deep breath and tried to get her hands to stop shaking. What the hell had she just done? She’d panicked and fled, leaving 122 wedding guests sitting in the pews at the Willow Fork Methodist Church. Only they hadn’t been in pews at the end. She’d looked back long enough to see the wave of people coming out of the large doors to gawk at the idiot running out of her own wedding.
She tried to shove down the ridiculous amount of satin and lace currently assaulting her. God, she couldn’t breathe. She glanced out the rearview mirror of her handy getaway vehicle. Finn had stopped running. He stood at the stoplight, his face contorted in concern. She turned to look back at him.
“Dani!”
She shook her head as best she could with Jimbo Smart’s great-grandmother’s monstrosity of a veil. It had been bedazzled within an inch of its sad little life. Of course, the whole damn dress was that way. She had rhinestones everywhere. She weighed an extra fifty pounds. Finn was running a hand through his dark hair and pulling out his cell. She knew who he was calling, but she couldn’t answer. Her phone, along with her purse and everything else she had brought, was in the bride’s room at the church.
She’d run out on her wedding. She’d run out on her whole freaking future.
“Breathe.”
Dani turned to look at the man driving the car. She hadn’t thought that through, either. She’d just known that Finn was going to catch her, and she couldn’t face him. She was with a complete stranger. Her hands shook, and her breath hitched again.
