“Yeah, because that wouldn’t be humiliating at all,” she muttered under her breath as she shook her head and accepted her fate.
Chapter 9
“That was great!” Dante grinned happily. There was nothing he loved better than a good, long exercise session. Neither Nikki nor Kane seemed to have enjoyed it as much as he had, though. Nikki’s face was red from the exertion of the uphill trek back and Kane was panting a little, gazing longingly at the liquor cabinet as they reentered the dining room.
Allie met them with a tray containing three glasses and a pitcher of iced tea. “You went for a hike without taking water with you?”
“It was a spur of the moment kind of thing.” Kane accepted the glass she poured him and downed the contents in one long swig. He handed it back for a refill. “Thanks. I think I need to make a run into town before this evening. You can’t go.” He gave Nikki a meaningful look. “It’s your turn to write. Remember, you need to tone down the heroes. Wealthy, okay. Billionaire, no. Did our brainstorming session give you enough ideas for this afternoon’s writing?”
She looked annoyed for a minute, but then nodded. “Yeah, I think I know where I’m going.”
“Good. Then I’ll look at it after dinner, we’ll do a quick debrief and I’ll do the next scene tonight, when my brain is a little more lubricated. I’ll leave it here on the table so you can read through it at breakfast and make any corrections you want.”
Allie looked at his “Write Drunk. Edit Sober” T-shirt and seemed to be about to ask if it was his actual philosophy, then she shook her head and put the pitcher on the table. “I’ll just leave this here for now. Let me know if you need anything else before dinner.”
“Do you mind if I take it to my room?” Nikki asked. “I don’t think I’ve sweated that much in years. I need to shower and then get to work.”
“Sure. No problem.” Allie headed back to the kitchen.
“So you’re going to talk to your publisher today?” Dante reminded Kane.
“Yeah, okay.” Kane looked at his watch. “I’ll go do that now.”
“Cool.” Dante slapped Kane on the shoulder. “Tomorrow we’ll try some yoga while we brainstorm. It’ll be easier to talk and take notes.”
Kane stopped in the act of fishing for his car keys. “Yoga? Seriously?”
“Why not?” Nikki said. “It sounds easier than climbing that friggin’ mountain out there.”
“Later this week we can do some rollerskiing,” Dante went on. “Do you have any disc golf courses around here, Allie? Oh—she left, didn’t she? I have some tree-climbing gear in my trunk. That would be a blast!”
They were both staring at him now as if he were suggesting they put on capes and start fighting supervillains at night.
“Look, I wasn’t exactly suggesting a course in extreme sports,” Kane said, holding his hands up. “I usually just get drunk and walk around the house naked.”
Nikki closed her eyes as if trying to picture anything other than what had obviously flashed through her mind. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “The yoga might not be a bad idea. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, but I think I can manage not to kill myself.”
“Are you sure?” Kane asked her, still staring at Dante. “He has a mean look in his eye.”
“You know what they say,” Dante told them cheerfully. “There is no art without suffering.”
Nikki shook her head. “I think I’m already going to suffer enough. Remember, the hiking was your idea. I know nudity is allowed here and all, but I think I prefer yoga to nude alcoholism.”
He sighed and headed for the door. “Fine. Be that way. Go get your writing done before you lose the artistic benefits of our traumatic experience today.”
* * * *
“Okay.” Kane sat down at the dinner table and began opening a bottle of wine. “I talked to the marketing department today and they are officially on board. They will want to look over any major campaigns, of course, but they were thrilled at the chance to boost sales without it costing them anything.”
“You mean we’re allowed to expose you as a man?” Dante asked.
Kane gave him a sideways look. “I don’t think I’d have phrased it like that but we’ll go with it for now.”
“You did say you like to walk around naked and throw wine bottles at children from the window,” Nikki observed as she took a seat across the table. “Sounds like you’re already pretty good at exposing yourself.”
“That was not what the community service was for,” Kane said with as much dignity as he could muster. “For your information, I was fully clothed during the bottle-throwing episode.”
“Be that as it may,” Dante had a distinct wicked gleam in his eye as Kane poured him a glass of wine and handed it over. “We can start plotting our publicity stunts.”
Nikki let out a sigh as she accepted her glass of wine. “I’m not really sure about taking part in publicity stunts.”
Kane had been about to say the same thing but he stopped. Her hesitation made him suddenly interested in the idea. They had been fairly insistent on his anonymity in the beginning of his career, but it didn’t seem quite as important anymore. This could be really good for Nikki. She needed to loosen up if they had any hope of working together.
He discovered, as he thought it, that he was really beginning to want to work with her. She was uptight and way too entrenched in billionaire Dom fantasies, but other than that, he genuinely liked her writing. She had real potential, and when she warmed up a little was actually pretty cool to be around. If he could convince her to let out her adventurous side they might be able to have a lot of fun together.
“We’ll start out small,” Dante promised her. He turned to Kane. “I was thinking about your social media. We need to ramp it up a lot. We’ll start out this week by you announcing that you’re here and you’re learning all kinds of new stuff about BDSM. I’ve seen your website, but not a blog. Do you have one?”
Kane shivered. “No. I’ve managed to avoid that kind of silliness so far.”
“No more.” Dante shook his head. “You’ve been successful, I know, but if you want the kind of sales that I know you can have, we need to get you more of a presence. I can handle your Facebook and Twitter accounts for you, but you’ll need to start blogging about what a great place this is, what you’re learning, and of course how much you’re enjoying the food.” He jumped up as Allie came through the door laden with bowls of food. Taking them from her, he gave her a huge grin. “I’ll get pics of the meals and post them. This weekend I’d like you two to go to the club. We’ll get some pics of you leaving—in fetish gear but no faces to start with—and I’ll get them out there as a teaser. We’ll see if we can’t start generating some interest in what you’re doing.”
“Fetish gear?” Nikki repeated. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“Well, nothing so casual as his T-shirts,” Dante said, pointing at what Kane was wearing. It was a dark blue shirt that boasted the saying, “They never sacrifice the sluts.”
“How about a corset?” Allie suggested, taking more food from Brad, who had followed her and was putting it on the table. “It wouldn’t be terribly revealing, but definitely suggests an evening at the club. I’ve got a few you could borrow.”
“I’ve never worn a corset before,” Nikki said, shaking her head at Kane’s shirt and turning toward Allie.
“One more thing you should experience for yourself.” Kane pointed a spoon at her. “How can you write about it if you don’t know how it feels?”
“And how many corsets have you worn?” Nikki turned on him.
He gave her an enigmatic smile. “I’ve done my research.”
“Anyway, you can blog about it later,” Dante interrupted their little skirmish. “We’ll mention Nikki as your new coauthor. Let’s see—Nikki, what name do you write under?”
Nikki looked startled. “I used Nicky Hart on my contest submission.”
�
��Well, I was thinking.” Dante pulled out his cell phone and began snapping pictures of the meal. “Nicky could be a guy’s name. If we have pics of the two of you, people will assume that he’s Nicky and you’re Candee. If we play that up, referring to Nicky as ‘she’ we can get quite a hype built up before we announce the truth.”
Nikki looked confused. “Why would we do all that? Why not just tell the truth from the start?”
“Because we want people talking,” Dante said. “If we just said, ‘Oh, by the way, Candee is really a guy,’ people would talk about it for a day or two and then get bored. This way we create a mystery, possibly a scandal. Who is this guy that Candee’s hanging out with? Is her new coauthor really a man, and if so, what’s their relationship? Are they doing nasty, kinky things at this place they’re staying?”
“If not, why not?” Kane put in, winking at Nikki.
A flush rose in her cheeks, but she kept her eyes fixed on Dante. “Then what?”
“Well, then you finish the book, we announce who you really are, and everybody immediately buys it to see if it’s as steamy as the hype promised.”
“It will be.” Kane finally caught Nikki’s eye. “Don’t tell me you have anything against writing explicit sex. I know from reading your contest entry that you’re capable of it.”
Her face went an even darker shade of red, but she nodded. “I like spice in my romance,” she admitted. “I don’t know how good I am at writing it, though.”
“Trust me.” Kane smiled. “We’ll get you there.”
* * * *
Nikki could barely make herself stay in her chair and eat her dinner. When Kane smiled at her like that she wanted more than anything in the world to prove to him that she could write hot, steamy sex and BDSM scenes. She wanted to prove that she would do almost anything for him. He might drink too much and have a nasty habit of teasing her, but she was undoubtedly falling for him. She’d even stayed up last night writing the scene they’d witnessed in the barn. When Kane had given her his version of it, though, she’d been relieved that she hadn’t printed out hers for him. His was so passionate, so beautifully written that it made her want to cry. Part of her couldn’t believe that she would ever learn to write like that, and it made her wonder why she was even here.
She couldn’t possibly have anything to offer him. She wasn’t talented or beautiful or thin enough for someone like him. He was way out of her league.
She was going to have to learn this BDSM stuff. There was no doubt of that. He was obviously knowledgeable about it. Didn’t he already have someone to play with? Maybe he just went to the club and picked up random submissives. That was how it happened in some of the books, and she certainly didn’t know how it actually went. Maybe she’d be better off taking Dante up on his offer. He was just as gorgeous as Kane, but somehow a little safer. That might have been because he wasn’t critiquing her writing every evening like Kane was going to do. Her stomach churned as she glanced down at the stack of papers next to her plate.
“Are you sure you want people thinking I’m you?” She glanced between them.
Kane looked surprised. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, I’m older than you, and not as pretty as whoever was in the pictures. Maybe we should hire somebody. Or Allie could do it.”
He and Dante both gaped at her. “Do you have an issue with people knowing who you are?” Dante asked finally.
“I can understand, believe me.” Kane sounded completely serious now, not at all like his normal flippant self. “There is still some stigma about being a romance author. If you’d rather stay anonymous, we can think of another angle, or use a pen name further from your real name.”
“No, it’s not that.” She’d never really given that aspect much thought before. If she could actually write and publish a book, why should she be ashamed of it? “It’s just that—” This was so hard. “Wouldn’t you rather have somebody younger and prettier? If this is about romance, you don’t want people thinking you’re having an affair with an old—”
“Stop right there.” Kane’s hand came down on the table, making her jump violently. His tone was more than serious now. It was deep, stern, almost severe, and the look on his face matched it. She stared at him in surprise. “I won’t have you saying any of that. You’re a very beautiful woman. If you don’t want publicity, that’s one thing. But there’s no reason not to do it because you don’t think you’re pretty enough. That is a load of crap. Am I making myself clear?”
Nikki dropped her eyes to the table, afraid that he would be able to see how turned-on she was. That was the kind of Dom she liked to read about. Firm, saying exactly what he wanted and not allowing any silliness. She had to stop herself from saying, “Yes, Sir” again. It would give away how she felt about him. Instead she bit her tongue and nodded.
“Okay.” His voice softened a little. “Are you unwilling to do the pictures for any other reason?”
“No.”
“Then we won’t say anything more about it.” He finished his food and pushed his plate away. “Is that today’s writing?”
“Yes.” Her stomach did a flop as he pulled it toward him and took a pen from his pocket. He poured them all more wine before he began reading.
Nikki picked up her glass and sipped nervously, watching his expression. He frowned as he read, making occasional notes.
He hated it. There was no doubt in Nikki’s mind that any second now he would throw down the pages with a disgusted glare and tell her she was a horrible writer. How could she have had the nerve to come here and pretend to be good enough to work with him?
Then suddenly he laughed. He still didn’t look up, but he chuckled as he turned the last page. He made a few more notes and straightened the pages, giving her a serious look. Nikki’s stomach plummeted again. Maybe he’d been laughing at her pitiful attempt.
“Not bad.” He nodded. “I loved the part about the company picnic. Very nicely done. However, your hero still feels very billionaire-ish to me, even though I appreciate that you’ve taken away his Porsche and given him a Mustang instead.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “So I’m going to propose a compromise.”
Nikki gulped a little. “I tried to tone him down,” she said, “but he just felt rich. It didn’t seem right to make him any other way.”
Kane nodded. “I can understand that. Sometimes they just have a mind of their own. What I’m going to suggest is that in exchange for allowing him to keep his trust fund or whatever, you are going to do a scene and write about it.”
Chapter 10
“Do a scene?” Nikki’s voice faltered. Dante looked between her and Kane. He wouldn’t have expected that from Kane, at least not this early in their relationship.
“Yes. With us.”
Not that he could blame the man. Nikki was a really beautiful woman and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from fantasizing about her, especially after they’d watched that hot scene between Allie and her guys the previous night.
“Wait, what? Did you just say us?” Dante stared at him, shocked.
“What kind of scene?” Nikki spoke at the same time.
Kane shrugged. “Yes, I said, ‘us,’ and that’s up to you. We could do a spanking scene, or flogging, or bondage, or whatever you feel like. Were you intrigued by anything you saw last night?”
Nikki seemed to be trying to avoid looking at either of them. Somehow Dante knew she was thinking about Allie getting fucked by both of her guys. Maybe she was uncomfortable accepting Kane’s suggestion, thinking that he would expect the same from her. That would be awesome, of course. He’d fantasized about it since last night, but he didn’t think she would go for it. Suddenly there was a new tension in the air.
“Dude, you’re going to force her to do a scene?”
Kane frowned at him. “No, I’m not forcing anyone to do anything. The first thing you both should know is that BDSM is all about consent. But if she wants to learn about this lifestyle, then she’s going to have t
o do a little experimentation for herself. It’ll give her more credibility as a writer. You’re not going to tell me you’re not interested, because I will call bullshit.”
When no one said anything, Kane went on in exasperation. “Look, I’m not demanding sex. There are plenty of ways to play that don’t end in double penetration. You’re going to have to lighten up a little, Nikki, and trust that I’m not out to steer you wrong if you’re going to make a career out of this. You didn’t seem to mind watching last night.”
“Well, no, but—” Nikki’s face was bright red.
Kane tilted his head. “But what?”
Nikki cast a quick, desperate look in Dante’s direction.
“I have a suggestion.” Dante waited until he had both Nikki’s and Kane’s attention before he went on. “Why don’t you do a scene with Nikki and me both as bottoms?”
Nikki made a small, strangled noise.
Kane folded his arms. “How would that help?”
“It might help a lot,” Dante told them. “A one-on-one scene might be too intimate and you did say you wanted all of us to do this, right? So if we’re all there, it’ll take the emphasis off the twosome thing and might make Nikki feel safer. If one of us tries something, the other one will be there for protection, right? Safety in numbers, that kind of thing. Besides, I don’t know the first thing about all of this, but I want to learn. What better way than starting the same way as Nikki? Then I can try switching to the top later.”
Kane stared at him for a minute, then slowly turned to Nikki. “Oddly enough, that kind of makes sense. What do you think?”
She stared at her hands, which were clutched so tightly together that her knuckles were white. Neither of the guys said anything for a minute while she seemed to be on the brink of either passing out or running away.
Writes of Submission Page 8
