by Avery Gale
The ShadowDance Club 3
Rissa’s Recovery
Rissa Murphy’s escape from slave traders two years ago was pure luck. She moved back to her hometown, seeking the safety of the small, tight-knit community with its overabundance of former Special Forces operators. But she’s been found again, and her enemies aren’t planning to let her slip away again.
While operating the spa inside The ShadowDance Club, a widely popular BDSM club near Climax, Colorado, Rissa has caught the eye of Doms Mitch Grayson and Bryant Davis. Mitch is a gifted empath who has tried to build her trust while waiting for Bryant to return stateside. Mitch knows Rissa is the woman they’ve been searching for, and as soon as Bryant meets her, he agrees.
But can they keep her safe and convince her that she is one they want to share their lives with? That she is everything they’ve dreamed of? Is Rissa brave enough to let Mitch and Bryant heal her heart?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 67,731 words
RISSA’S RECOVERY
The ShadowDance Club 3
Avery Gale
MENAGE AND MORE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage and More
RISSA’S RECOVERY
Copyright © 2013 by Avery Gale
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-267-8
First E-book Publication: February 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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DEDICATION
To Granny,
I miss you every single day. You were one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me. You taught me the importance of keeping an open mind and a loving heart. Thank you for showing me the importance of traditions and the strength that can be drawn from family.
Until we are together again……
RISSA’S RECOVERY
The ShadowDance Club 3
AVERY GALE
Copyright © 2013
Prologue
“Clarissa Jean Murphy, you get yourself right back in there and fight. What are you thinkin’, girl? It’s not your time yet, you stop bein’ so afraid and get on with your life. There ain’t no good reason for you to keep hidin’ when you have all the help in the world out there if you’ll just ask for it. Now go on…Get yourself back there now, you tell Brit no hurry, I’ll wait for him. You get on back to livin’ like I taught ya…You gotta live out loud, girl, and don’t you be acceptin’ nothin’ less…”
Chapter One
There was a small part of Rissa’s subconscious mind that remembered Granny was gone, but she looked so real and young and she sure sounded like herself, but how could that be? Rissa’s maternal grandmother had been the most stable influence in her life, and there hadn’t been a single day in the three years since she’d passed that Rissa hadn’t felt like a piece of her own soul had died with the woman who had been way ahead of her time. Hell, maybe I died and just got kicked out of heaven before I even got in, wouldn’t that about top off the last two years in fine fashion? God, the place she’d just been while talking with Granny had been so amazing, the colors of the flowers were more brilliant than anything she had ever seen before, and the sky was the most spectacular shade blue there and it had a depth that Rissa was sure there wasn’t even a word that could begin to describe it. Fracking fudge her head was killing her, and why was that? She didn’t remember drinking anything, but her head felt like it was about ready to explode. She decided to just try to let herself sink back into the inky blackness of sleep and hopefully she’d feel better later when she woke up…Damn but she wished the men standing by her bed would take a break and stop their jabbering. But they did have nice voices…and they were rubbing her hand and the side of her face, and that felt so good…Maybe it would be okay if they stayed…
* * * *
Mitch Grayson and Bryant Davis stood on opposite sides of Rissa’s bed staring down at the fragile woman lying too still between them. Bryant was rubbing small circles on the back of the hand he was holding while Mitch softly stroked the side of her face. She looked like an angel, her porcelain complexion so pale it almost looked translucent. “Jesus, could they plug her into anything else?” Mitch’s exasperated question was rhetorical, but it eerily echoed Bryant’s exact thoughts. Bryant had always been awed by Mitch Grayson’s special gift, but he’d understood the inherent challenges that being an empath presented also. They’d spent many nights on the deck at Pomola, their cabin on ShadowDance Mountain, watching the river making its way down to the mountain valley below. Its lazy meandering during the late summer was the perfect backdrop for drinking beer, and talking about anything and everything, from Mitch’s ability to hear the thoughts of people he was near, to their views on long-term ménage relationships. Mitch had maintained that not everyone was comfortable being around someone who could hear their thoughts, hell, most people considered it a gross invasion of privacy at the least, and it just
plain spooked more people than not.
“You know, when Rissa found out about my gifts, she freaked. She was going to try to stay just as far away from me as possible. I don’t know yet what she’s afraid I’ll find out, but I know she thinks someone is after her, and I know she’s scared spitless about what will happen if she’s found.” Letting out a deep sigh, he continued. “We’ve talked about it a thousand times…Hell, we have always known it would take a very special woman, one who ignited electricity in both of us to make a long-term ménage work. Christ, I’d almost given up ever finding that woman until…” And without even finishing that thought, they both knew that woman was lying in the bed right between them.
“Letting her walk out that back door of The Club alone will haunt me until my last breath, brother.” The sadness in Bryant’s voice had Mitch looking up at his friend. When Bryant looked up, Mitch’s eyes held nothing but compassion. Bryant Davis had been a geeky college freshman trying to find his way around a campus larger than his entire hometown when Mitch Grayson had seemed to materialize out of nowhere with answers to questions Bryant hadn’t even had the courage to ask. Bryant had laughed to himself many times about how he’d wondered that day if the other man could read his mind, and as it turned out, that wasn’t all that far off from the truth. “Her beautiful green eyes sucked me right in. God, what a bonehead mistake! Christ, Mitch, I fucking know the rules, I knew what all was going down, all the extra security that was in place for the night.” Sighing in frustration and running a hand through his hair he studied the battered woman lying too still between them. His deep voice mirrored his attraction to her. “I nearly fell into her gaze, all I could think about was how much I wanted her and that she obviously belonged to someone else. Fuck.” Mitch understood how Rissa could scramble a man’s thinking. Hell, she’d been wreaking havoc with his for nearly eighteen months.
Rissa had been shot in the shoulder when she’d stumbled upon a clusterfuck unfolding behind the ShadowDance Club a few nights before. While the mess hadn’t directly involved her, in her haste to leave the BDSM club owned by her friends, Alex and Zach Lamont, and that housed her spa, she had wandered in to another operation that involved a woman she had obviously recognized and tried to assist.
The undercover DEA agent who had saved Rissa’s life had been shot also, but it was the head injuries they had both suffered, from their fall to a concrete surface several feet below, that had really been the larger issue. Damn it all the hell, she needed to wake up soon because the longer she was unconscious, the more grim the outlook.
Mitch didn’t want Bryant to know how truly worried he was. Keeping his tone light, he said, “Hang on…She’s going to be fine. Even though the bullet is out, she’ll have to do some rehab on her shoulder, but we’ll have fun helping with that and the massages afterward.” Smiling down at Rissa, he was struck by how small she really looked lying there. Her personality was always so large that it was easy to forget how truly tiny she was. He knew some of the staff referred to her as Tink, short for Tinkerbell, it was an appropriate nickname.
“I have to tell you though, when she is all healed up, we’ll be having a serious session with her ass nicely peaked over a spanking bench, she’s racked up some rather significant punishments.” His soft expression and warm voice were a contrast to his words. Oh, he’d make her pay all right, but it wasn’t going to be as much about punishment as it was about getting his hands on her sweet body.
Leaning down right near Rissa’s ear, Mitch’s voice was pitched low and full of authority. “Clarissa, you need to wake up and face the music, baby. You have some serious explaining to do. Master Bryant and I are waiting to hear what you have to say. Alex and Zach are also waiting for your explanation. If you don’t come back soon, I’m going to let Katarina in here, and you don’t want that do you?” Smiling up at Bryant, he said, “You haven’t met Alex and Zach’s pregnant tornado yet have you? She’s their wife and sub, well, at least she lets them think she’s a sub.” He chuckled to himself, and then his eyes widened and his grin spread clear across his face as he watched Rissa’s grass green eyes flutter open and her mouth twitch into a smile.
Her mouth felt like she’d eaten all the stuffing out of a good-sized sofa, blah! She blinked at the bright rays of the setting sun that were streaming in through the window of her room. Bryant immediately closed the shades and dimmed the room lights so the bright light wouldn’t aggravate the headache he was sure she’d have after that nasty fall. The goose egg on the back of her head had been so bad old Doc Woods had brought in a donut pillow for her.
Relief flooded Mitch as he spoke softly to her. “Ahh, sweetheart, welcome back. We’ve been mighty worried about you.” He was speaking to her so sweetly, and his knuckles softly caressing her cheek were the most soothing thing she thought she’d ever felt.
“C–can I have a d–drink? My mouth is so dry, and my throat hurts.” She felt tears stinging her eyes, damn her throat was so sore, and her head was throbbing. “What happened? Where am I?” She turned her head just slightly, and when she made eye contact with Bryant, she gasped in surprise. Bryant just stood perfectly still and watched as her mouth formed an O, and then her face flushed bright red. Oh yeah, babe, you know exactly who I am and that you are in big trouble. Oh, little one, this is gonna be a mighty fine ride, indeed.
Bryant answered her questions while Mitch filled her cup and moved the straw to her lips. “You are in the hospital in Climax. You were shot in the shoulder and then fell off the retaining wall in to the parking area.” Bryant watched her eyes dilate at his words and then spark with understanding. “Sweetness, had you stayed close to The Club like you promised me you were going to do, you would not be here now.” He sighed softly before he continued, “We’ll be talking about that at great length later, I assure you.” Bryant paused while she sipped the water, smiling when her attention returned to his face. “You have given us all a very bad scare you know. We’re going to be spending some time making sure you are recovered and then…”
Mitch Grayson’s soft voice brushed her ear, completing Bryant’s sentence. “And then, we’re going to be talking about all the punishments you’ve been racking up, Tinkerbell…” He smiled at her gasp. Just as he was getting ready to speak again, a commotion in the hall had them all turning to the door as it was flung open by a pregnant dynamo whose squeal had Rissa cringing at the pain lancing through her brain.
“Oh my God, you’re awake…Finally! How are you feeling? Did they get you something to drink? Are you hungry? How’s your head? Does your shoulder hurt? Do you need another pillow?” Rissa was certain the only reason Katarina Lamont had stopped her barrage of questions was because her husband placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Pet, you are overwhelming her. That squeal alone has probably set her head pounding. Please, give Clarissa a little space.” Alex Lamont and his twin brother, Zach, were both Kat’s husbands, and even though she was legally married to Alex because he was a whole two minutes older, no one would dare intimate Zach wasn’t equal in her eyes. Even though she was only a few months along, she was already almost as round as she was tall, but considering she was just over five feet tall, there wasn’t much room for a baby to grow any direction but straight out. From the back she didn’t even look pregnant, but oh my, from the front…suffice to say the ShadowDance staff was already placing bets of multiples.
“What? Well, okay, but I think you are being overly dramatic…again.” Turning from Alex back to Rissa, she took her friend’s hand in hers and just stood looking at her for the longest time before tears started rolling down her cheeks. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, girlfriend! I was so worried about you. My heart dropped clear to my toes when they finally told me what had happened.” Turning to glare at the men in the room before returning her gaze to Rissa, she said, “You know how they are. They don’t want to tell me a damn thing.”
“Katarina…language.” Alex’s growled words were negated by his soft look at h
is wife. She knew her cursing always set him off, and it was one of her favorite ways to get his attention. Kat’s wink at Rissa let her know it had been done deliberately to lighten the mood.
Kat rolled her eyes, but they were brimming with mischief. “I’m so glad you’re awake. Now, we just have to find that ornery ole Doc Woods and get you sprung out of here so we can take you home and pamper you properly.”
Doc Woods was just walking through the door and turned to Alex. “Do you always let your woman roll her eyes at you? You are a disgrace to Dominants everywhere. Pathetic, I tell ya. And you, Mrs. Lamont, are supposed to be taking it easy. I’m going to have Mitch here make a blood pressure cuff that you have to wear all the damned time, and it’s going to send me constant readings, and I’m going to be calling your husbands each time it’s too high.” Chuckling to himself, he added, “Yeah, missy, we’ll see how much spare time you have for stirring up trouble then. And that reminds me, why didn’t you come to my office this morning for that sonogram?”
Zach quickly stepped forward. “Sonogram? What sonogram? Kitten, did you forget to mention an appointment?” Even though Zach was the more laid-back of the two brothers, he had a protective streak a mile wide when it concerned his wife, and his body language was almost pulsing with barely leashed frustration.
