Finally she looked up. “Okay, I’ll try it. But we’ll need to set some limits.”
“Of course.” Kane smiled. “That’s what the lifestyle is all about. Negotiations, respect, keeping your partners’ limitations in mind. That’s why we’re doing this—to show you that it’s not about the sex, necessarily. It can be much more than that.”
* * * *
There was a knock at Nikki’s door as she was getting ready for bed. She put down the hairbrush, pulled on her robe and went to answer it.
Dante stood there with a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a friendly smile. When she didn’t immediately say anything, his smile faltered a bit, but he held up the glasses. “I thought you might want to talk.”
“Talk? About what?” She stepped back, a little reluctantly, and he came in.
“About everything that’s been going on.” He poured the wine, handed her a glass, and settled himself cross-legged against her pillow.
Nikki didn’t really want to join him on the bed. That would seem too much like flirting.
Not that she didn’t want to flirt with him. He looked so cute sitting there with his long hair, boyish grin and wine glass. Cute, yes, but young. Much too young. She needed to control the lustful thoughts that were threatening to take over her brain. There had been nothing else since Kane’s suggestion earlier.
She sat down in the desk chair, trying to look as if she’d never had a lustful thought in her life. Business. This was business. Her new career. She could handle it in that context. She had no choice.
“So how do you feel about the idea of doing a scene with the two of us?” Dante leaned forward over his crossed legs. Nikki tried not to grimace at the thought of how painful that move would be if she tried it.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she said, pasting a completely false smile on her face. “Fine” was definitely not her first reaction to the thought of taking off some or—God forbid—all of her clothes in front of these two guys. Even though they would no doubt see it as nothing more than helping a pathetic, love-starved older woman learn how to write better romance.
“I wanted to make sure you were comfortable with it. Because if not—” Dante stopped as if he was embarrassed and took a gulp of his wine. Nikki waited for him to go on, feeling apprehensive. He probably wanted to back out. He was about to make some excuse as to why he couldn’t go through with it. Why would he want to? He’d made the offer in the heat of the moment, when it probably sounded like a good idea. Later, thinking about it, he’d decided that it would be leading her on.
She decided to let him off the hook. If she told him that she would rather do the scene with just Kane, then he could back out gracefully. It was very plausible. She and Kane were supposed to be working together, so why wouldn’t he be the better choice to learn from? Dante had said he didn’t really know anything. He was no doubt regretting his offer to bottom with her.
“Look,” she said gently, toying with some papers on her desk. “Actually, I’m not really sure about it. Maybe we should keep it lower-key for now, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
She hesitated, feeling oddly guilty. No, don’t be stupid, she told herself. You’re doing him a favor. “I can just do the scene with Kane. You don’t have to be involved.”
“Oh.” Nikki didn’t look up, but from the corner of her eye she could see him sit back. She didn’t want him to see the emotion on her face. It had been a much harder thing for her to say than she’d anticipated. That was just silly, though. There were undoubtedly lots of attractive women in the community that he could play with.
There was an awkward silence for a minute. He must be trying to decide how to thank her, Nikki decided. But then he jumped up from the bed and went to the door.
“Okay, then.” His voice was cheerful, but he didn’t turn around. He simply opened the door and left.
Nikki stared at her glass of wine, suddenly miserable. She’d just turned down a chance to do a scene with one of the hottest guys she’d ever met. How stupid was she? Granted, she was still going to have to do a scene with Kane, and he was pretty cute, too. But Kane was—what was he?
Scarier. Yes, definitely scarier, but that whole Dominant thing he had going on was sexy, and his voice when he was doing it made her insides melt. She downed her half-glass of wine and reached for the bottle to pour another. Dante had left it. She might as well drink it. Maybe it would make her forget what an idiot she was.
* * * *
“What is today, anyway? Thursday?” Kane rubbed his eyes as he collapsed into his chair. Somehow he managed to only slop a little coffee onto the table.
“Friday,” came Nikki’s distracted, automatic answer from the far end of the table. She was taking out his writing from the previous night, but from her expression there should have been a black cloud hanging over her head.
Allie came out of the kitchen, slinging her purse over a shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want a bigger breakfast, Kane?”
“Oh, no.” He squinted at his toast. Food never appealed to him at this time of day. “This is great, but I never eat breakfast. Ruins my appetite for the afternoon’s drinking.”
Nikki, sitting at the far end of the table, was silent. Not so much as a derisive snort. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Okay.” Allie sighed. “I’ve got to run into town. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen if you get hungry.”
Kane waited until she left, then looked at Nikki. “What’s chewing on you this morning?”
She shrugged, turning a page. “Nothing.”
“Well, you’re obviously not relishing my inspired scribblings in the manner they deserve,” Kane said, taking a long swig of coffee.
She pushed the stack of papers away from her. “It’s great. As always.”
“Wow. You’re not up to a single insult? Or a jab at my attire?” He leaned back, arms spread so that she had a good view of today’s offering. It was an obnoxious, bright lime green color with the inscription, “I’d rather be drinking.”
She glanced at it and shrugged again.
There was a sound from the doorway and Dante came in. He pushed open the swinging door and stuck his head in the kitchen.
“She went out,” Kane told him.
Dante nodded. “I need to talk to you, too.” He sat down.
Kane looked closely. “What’s going on? Both of you look like you’ve just been sentenced to a decade of hard labor in Siberia—and not the scenic part.”
Dante smiled, but it looked forced. “No, man. I’m good. In fact, I’ve got some great news for you. I’ve been doing little teaser posts on your Facebook page, like we talked about, and it’s really generating some interest. Lots of your fans want details about what’s going on here, what you’re doing, what the place is like. You really need to do a blog post today.”
“A blog post?” Kane rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I don’t have a blog.”
“You do now. I set it up this morning.” Dante’s face took on a little more animation as he leaned forward. “This is important. You’re a writer. Just give me four or five paragraphs every other day. Talk about how beautiful Clifftop is, how amazing the food is, what kinds of things you’re doing with your new coauthor.” He glanced down the table at Nikki and his face darkened for a second. “Don’t give details about who it is. I’ve already said you have a writing partner and you’re working on some really hot stuff but it’s going to be a secret who it is for now. People are going crazy speculating.”
“Are they now?” Kane considered it. If this guy could generate that kind of interest with a couple of Facebook status updates, then maybe he should consider the blog thing after all. It would take away from his writing time, sure, but it could be worth it if it helped sell more books.
“After our yoga this afternoon, we’ll take a look at the blog I set up for you. If you want to change the background or anything, that’ll be easy enough to do. But I want to get a post up today to introd
uce it, and then at least one more before you write about—your scene.” Dante scowled as he said the last words.
“What do you mean, ‘your scene’? Aren’t we all doing it?”
“No.” Dante stood up. “Nikki thought it’d be better with just the two of you.”
“She what?” Kane stared at Nikki, who seemed to be refusing to meet his eyes. Dante wasn’t looking at either of them. “Why did you say that, Nikki?”
If she shrugged again, he thought, he’d just go over there and spank her. He wasn’t really sure himself why a scene with all three of them had sounded like such a good idea, but it had, and the more he thought about it, the better it sounded.
She stood up and walked toward the door. “It just sounded less intimidating.”
It suddenly became very clear to Kane what was going on. He brought his palm down on the table, hard. It stung, quite a bit, but he ignored that. It had the desired effect, which was to get Nikki and Dante’s full attention. They were both staring at him now.
“Sit down, both of you,” Kane said, intentionally lowering his voice to Dom mode. He didn’t usually go into Dom mode to deal with guys, or even with women that he wasn’t actually involved with, but something was going on between Nikki and Dante that obviously needed to be dealt with, and dealt with now.
The two glanced at each other and slowly took chairs again. Nikki looked half grudging and half interested, and Dante simply looked resigned.
“All right, that’s better.” It felt silly, but Kane knew he needed to maintain the control he’d just established. “Nikki, tell me the real reason you asked Dante not to participate in our scene, when we’d set it up that way on purpose.”
Her eyes darted down to the table and her mouth took on a stubborn set. “He didn’t really want to do it,” she said after a few seconds.
Okay, now they were getting somewhere. “Dante, did you not want to do it?”
Dante looked outraged. “Of course I wanted to do it! I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.”
“You just did that to be nice,” Nikki insisted, staring belligerently at the wall opposite her.
Dante actually spluttered. “To be nice! You don’t offer to let someone tie you up and beat on you to be nice!”
Kane chuckled. “Not usually, no,” he agreed. “But since we’re here and talking about the scene, we might as well segue into an actual negotiation. Nikki, are you still willing to do the scene at all? Because if not, we can still go back and redo your goofy helicopter pilot and rich kid CEO. No problem.”
She mumbled something.
Kane leaned closer. “Excuse me?”
With a sigh, she repeated, “I said yes, I’m still willing to do the scene.”
“Good.” Satisfied, he turned to Dante. “Now then, are you still interested in doing the scene?”
Dante looked like a sullen schoolboy. “Not if I’m not wanted.”
Kane sighed. “Nikki, tell Dante that you want him to do the scene with us.”
She turned her eyes to the ceiling as if exasperated at his stupidity. “He doesn’t want to.”
“I will rephrase for the terminally stubborn. Dante, do you want to do a scene with us?”
“Of course I do! I said so, didn’t I?”
Kane’s lips twitched. “Apparently not clearly enough. Perhaps you should try again, only this time slower, louder and with smaller words.”
Dante’s face slowly broke into a grin. He turned toward Nikki and said in a loud, exaggerated voice, “Yes. I. Want. To. Play. With. You.”
Nikki scowled at them both.
Kane let his voice soften just a bit. “Nikki, was that clear enough? Dante and I would be honored if you would do a scene with us. It’s not a pity scene or anything silly like that.” His voice lowered back to the Dom tone. “So take that long-suffering look off your face.”
“Yes, Sir.” She had a sudden shocked look and Kane would have sworn the sudden grab of her coffee cup was an attempt to hide her aborted movement to cover her mouth with her hands. He guessed her answer had surprised her as much as it had him.
“Okay, then. If you are to be believable with your characters’ emotions and reactions, you need to learn more about BDSM and ménages. The BDSM we could do on our own, but the ménage takes three. That’s kind of the definition, after all. I don’t make the rules, but I do have to work with them. Dante is interested in learning as well and willing to join us, so we will now have the requisite number. Is that good enough?”
Nikki nodded. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Kane looked around for some paper, finally taking his own stack of writing and turning it over to make notes on. “Then let’s start discussing what we are and are not willing to do during this scene. Nikki, I’m guessing that you’re going to have the most restrictions. That is not a slam, so relax. It is an educated guess. So, shall we start with you?”
She looked startled. “What do you mean?”
“Well, for starters, how much clothing are you willing to remove for this scene?”
A hand went automatically up to her chest, as if Nikki were afraid he was going to try to rip her shirt off right then and there. “I–I’m not sure,” she said.
“Fair enough, but we can’t decide what we’re going to do unless we know how much skin we have to work with.” He smiled at her shocked expression and turned to Dante. “How squeamish are you about removing clothing?”
“You can have it all, dude.” Dante seemed to be almost back to his old, cheerful self. He grinned broadly. “I spend most of my free weekends at a nudist camp anyway. I have no problem with going au naturel.”
“Wonderful. That would explain the tan.” It was a start, anyway, Kane thought. Although how he’d gone from insisting that Nikki do a scene to apparently him agreeing to play with Dante while she watched, he wasn’t sure. There had to be a way to turn this into what they needed. “Nikki, are you more interested in rope, sensation play or body art?”
“What do you mean by sensation play?”
“I mean scratching, flogging, clothespins, needles, biting, electricity—” He stopped at the look on her face. Even Dante’s eyes were wide. “Sorry. Let’s stick to the basics. If you want to try sensation play, I’d recommend flogging or knives—scratching, not cutting. If you’re more into body art we could do markers or wax. Wax is kind of a crossover, because it can be very sensation-oriented. Same for needles. You can do some great body art with needles but it also entails sensation and endorphins. If you’re more interested in restraints, we can do some basic bondage, or mummification, or sensory deprivation.”
“Mummification?” Dante asked.
“Yes. You can use plastic wrap, special bags, or even blankets if you want. Some people really like the sensation of being wrapped up really tightly.”
“Sounds pretty intense,” Dante said, turning a little white. He ran a finger around his T-shirt collar as if even the idea made him nervous.
“Are you claustrophobic?” Kane regarded him with amusement.
“Claustrophobic? Me? No, of course not, dude.” Dante jumped up and headed for the stairs. “I’ve got to get to work. You guys decide what you want for the scene. Anything’s okay with me.”
Chapter 11
“Are we ready for yoga?”
It was an hour after lunch and Dante had finally cornered the other two. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Nikki and her insistence that he hadn’t really wanted to do the scene with them. Was that her way of asking him to bow out? Kane certainly seemed set on him being part of it, but he wasn’t sure what was behind that. He had decided that until either it became apparent that Nikki and Kane were getting together or that Nikki absolutely didn’t want him around, he was going to stick with them as much as possible. It was all so fascinating, and he was beginning to get some real interest from Candee’s fans about what was happening.
He couldn’t help but feel disappointed, though. He’d gone to Nikki’s room the night
before with the intention of finding out where her interests lay. If there was any chance she would go out with him, he meant to get that established. Kane might be interested, too, but that relationship seemed to be on a rocky path at the moment. Besides, there was this poly thing. Why couldn’t she go out with both of them? Allie had two guys and it seemed to work pretty well for her. It seemed like a brilliant solution, one that he couldn’t believe he’d never tried before. Dante didn’t mind sharing. If she wanted to hook up with Kane, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t see each other, too.
At least, that was how he saw it. Of course, if she wasn’t interested, that was another story. She certainly didn’t show many signs of being interested. But he understood that she had a lot to deal with right now. He could be patient.
“I really think you might want to change into sweats.” Dante looked dubiously at the jeans Kane was wearing. Nikki had at least had the sense to have put on yoga pants and a tank top. “Allie said there were some yoga mats out here so don’t worry about the shoes.”
“What’s wrong with my shoes?” Kane held out a foot clad in an old, ragged loafer.
“Nothing at all, as long as you take them off,” Dante said.
“I’ll be wearing Birkenstocks with wool socks by the end of this ordeal,” Kane muttered, heading up the stairs to change.
A few minutes later he reappeared, wearing what seemed to be an old pair of pajama bottoms. He had changed T-shirts, too. The new one read, “Does running late count as exercise?”
At Dante’s expression, Kane scowled. “It was the only thing I had that wasn’t denim. At least they’re comfortable.”
“That’s all that matters,” Dante told him. “And the answer is no. Come on, let’s go. That book’s not going to brainstorm itself.”
He ignored the growl that followed him as he led the group out to the barn.
* * * *
“This yoga stuff might not be too bad. Remind me of the rules. What word do we all take a shot on?”
Writes of Submission Page 9
