by M. S. Parker
She leaned against me, reaching over to brush her hand over Elise’s hair. “When you grow up in a family like mine, you learn a trick or two.” Her smile was full of love, both for her family back in Ireland, and the family we had here. “I was always havin’ to pop one thing or another out of my nieces’ and nephews’ mouths.”
“So, it comes from your side of the family, then?” I teased. I sobered a moment later. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Sine nodded, her smile fading. “I knew what I had to do, but I was terrified it wouldn’t work. The thought that kept going ‘round in my head was that this would be the one time it wouldn’t work for me. That I’d fail her.” She glanced at me. “That I’d fail you.”
It only hit me then that Sine needed me to comfort her as much as our daughter had. As her Dom and her husband, I’d vowed to protect and cherish her. Now that Elise was sleeping, my responsibility was to my wife.
Four
Sine
I didn’t know what was going on in Alix’s head as he stood, but I didn’t speak. If our past had taught us both anything, it was to not make assumptions about the other’s thoughts and feelings. We talked about everything now. Neither of us ever wanted to chance another misunderstanding like the one that had almost broken us.
After he’d carefully arranged the pillows around Elise to keep her from rolling off the couch, he sat back down next to me, angling his body so that he could put his hand on my cheek. I leaned into his palm, closing my eyes for a moment and simply enjoying the feel of his skin against mine.
Even after more than a year together, I still wondered at the way the fates had brought us together. An Irish-Scotch lass with seven siblings, a whiskey-making Da, and a devoutly Catholic Mam went to America where she fell for a wealthy only child who happened to be her boss. It was like something out of a modern fairytale
“Look at me, Sine.”
It was a command, not a request, and my response was automatic, an instinctual reaction of a sub to her Dom.
I opened my eyes and found him looking at me with those smoky gray eyes of his.
“You have never failed me.”
My hands disappeared between his. Sometimes I still forgot how much larger he was than me.
“I’m the one who failed you,” he continued. His expression was troubled. “I panicked. It’s my job to protect you and our daughter–”
“Alix, love,” I placed a finger on his lips, “I hate to be telling you this, but children do daft things. They eat things they shouldn’t. They fall. They jump off of furniture. They hit their heads.”
If I hadn’t been able to read how much my comments distressed him, I would’ve thought it was amusing. Alix had come from a family that had a name and influence to go along with their money. He’d never been spoiled, but he’d never really met a problem he couldn’t overcome with charm or something else in his arsenal.
And he hadn’t really spent much time around kids, that had been obvious from day one. The first time he’d tried to change a diaper on his own, I thought he was going to cry.
“I don’t like this,” he grumbled. “I don’t like not being able to keep you and Elise safe from everything.”
I smiled and leaned in to brush my lips across his. “I know, my love. You are an amazing husband and father, but we’re going to be needing to work on those control issues before she’s old enough to date.”
One corner of his mouth twitched up into a half smile. “That means I have about thirty years to get it together?”
I rolled my eyes. “I would be saying that you’ll be loosening up if we have more kids, but you know yourself that will probably only be adding to the problem.”
Alix’s smile fully bloomed now. “Overprotective brothers. I can work with that.”
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “Can you now?”
He glanced up at Elise, and when his gaze came back to me, his eyes had darkened in a wonderfully familiar way. “You know, I have been thinking that it might be time to start working on baby number two. You never know how long it’ll take, and I’m not getting any younger.”
I laughed. “Considering how quickly Elise came along, if we start now, there’s a good chance we could have another child by next Christmas.”
“The perfect Christmas present.” He moved closer. “What do you think? Baby number two?”
If I was going to be completely honest, I’d been wondering the best way to approach the same subject. Elise hadn’t been planned, and I knew he loved our daughter, but we’d never really sat down and discussed the size of the family we wanted.
I laid my hand on his cheek, his morning stubble rough against my palm. “I would love to have more kids with you. But only if you’re certain that’s what you want.”
He stood and held out a hand. I took it, letting him pull me to my feet. He wrapped his hands around my wrists and pulled my arms behind my back as he embraced me. I wasn’t wearing any shoes, making the more than a foot difference in our heights more pronounced. I tilted my head back so I could see his face.
“Sine Janet McNiven Wexler, I want to make as many beautiful babies with you as you have a desire to carry them.”
He shifted his grip so that only one hand kept my arms in place. His free fingers traced across my face, collarbone, nose, jaw, lips…I shivered at the contact.
“It kills me to see you in pain while you deliver them, but if you can bear it, so can I.”
He bent his head and took my mouth in a slow, thorough kiss that left my knees weak and my pussy wet. I loved Elise, but I wouldn’t be denying that I missed being able to make love to my husband whenever we wished.
“Shall we get started then?” I asked.
He looked over at Elise, and then back at me, and I could see the conflict on his face. From the moment I’d told him I was pregnant, his own desires had taken a backseat to what our child and I needed.
“You know as well as I do that she sleeps like the dead.” I pressed my body closer to his. “And I can be quiet.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I think that’s a challenge.”
A thrill ran down my spine as he walked us backwards to my favorite chair. It was large enough to hold both of us, but not so large that we had much space between us when we both sat down. He sat down, then reached into the drawer of the nearby end table. We had strips of ribbon and cloth hidden in various drawers throughout the house, but only others in our world would know that we kept them handy for times such as this.
He turned me around and quickly tied my wrists behind my back. While we occasionally dabbled in some spanking, our true BDSM passion was bondage, and not only traditional restraints. Alix had as much creativity in that aspect of his life as he did with his photography.
With my back still to him, he reached around and undid my jeans, pulling them and my underwear down to mid-thigh with one hard yank. I swallowed a yelp as he bit my ass, not hard enough to really hurt, but enough to send another flood of arousal rushing through me.
He sat down, then grasped my hips and moved me backward until I sat down on his knees and waited for my next instruction.
“Scoot back and pull your legs up so that your feet are on the chair on either side of my legs.”
The movements felt awkward, but that wasn’t anything new. Alix was forever getting me into odd positions that fit the vision he had in his head.
“Are you wet?”
I could hear him moving behind me, then heard the familiar sound of a zipper being lowered.
“Sine, I asked, are you wet?”
The last three words came out with an edge that made things inside me go all gooey.
“Yes,” I breathed the word. When it came to Alix, it didn’t take much to make me wet.
“Good,” he said, trailing a finger down my spine. “Because as much as I’d like to take my time with you, we’re going to have to make this quick.”
I nodded, anticipation making my mouth dry and my skin
tight. I knew what quick meant. Hard. Fast. Skating right across the line of pain and pleasure until everything exploded in a burst of ecstasy.
I couldn’t put into words how much I wanted that.
“Up.”
Gymnastics and soccer had left me both strong and flexible, and Alix knew as well as I did what my body was capable of. It wasn’t easy, but I raised myself as Alix guided me backwards.
“Now, ride me.”
We both groaned as I lowered myself onto his cock. The position made me tighter than normal, and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out as he stretched me a little bit faster than was comfortable. As Alix had said, we didn’t have the luxury of time, so I didn’t wait for my body to adjust to the lack of foreplay.
And if I was going to be honest, I didn’t want to wait either.
Alix wrapped one hand around my wrist restraints and buried the other in my hair, helping me balance as I moved. Up and down, never fully empty, always connected. I closed my eyes as my thigh muscles started to burn. Heat and friction twisted inside me, building the pressure until it was almost too much.
But I didn’t come.
I couldn’t come. Not until he gave me permission.
“Do you want me to come inside you?” His fingers tightened in my hair. “Fill you? Do you want me to create another baby? Give our little girl a brother or sister?”
“Yes.” I was so close. I could feel every muscle in my body tensing, twitching, anticipating the burst of pleasure that would finally bring me release.
“Do you want to come?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes. Please. I want to come.”
“Can you be quiet when you come? Because I don’t think you can. And we can’t have you waking Elise, can we?”
A half-whimper escaped.
“Should I let you come and risk waking her? I don’t know if I should.”
I bit my bottom lip to keep from arguing, from begging. Alix had denied me relief before, kept me hovering for hours without letting me climax, but he wouldn’t do that today. He wouldn’t make me go through the entire wedding with all this pent-up tension, especially not after what happened with Elise. We both needed release, and as my Dom, he would always take care of my needs.
He tugged on my hands, pulling me back against him so that he could put his mouth against my ear and whisper all the dirty, decadent things he wanted to do to me.
“If we had time, I’d keep you on edge like this, tease you with my fingers on your clit, in your ass. I’d wait until you couldn’t keep it inside any longer, until you started yelling for me to let you come, and then I’d tie you down, force you to orgasm over and over until you’re hoarse from screaming.”
A shudder went through me. It’d been too long since we’d had the time to do something like that. Maybe after the wedding, we could get one of our friends to watch Elise for a couple hours.
“But since we don’t have the time for that…come now.”
A split second after his command, he bit my earlobe, giving me exactly what I needed to tip over. I clamped my mouth shut, straining to hold in a shout as I came. Alix pressed his face against my shoulder, muffling his own cry as he emptied himself inside me.
We sat together in silence as we came down, his arms around me, his cock still inside me. We were going to have to move soon. Clean up. Get ready. But for right now, I was content to just lay here.
And then my phone rang. It was Paige’s ringtone, and today, that meant I couldn’t let it go to voicemail and give her the excuse later that Alix and I had been enjoying some intimate time together.
Alix muttered a curse, but helped me off of his lap and went for my phone while I pulled up my pants. I grimaced at the feel but reached for the phone anyway. I’d shower when I finished talking to Paige.
“Hello.”
“Sine, thank goodness.” The relief was clear in her voice. “Reb tried calling Alix, but he’s not answering.”
I glanced at the smashed screen on the floor. “His phone’s broken.” I sighed. “Long story.”
“I’d love to hear it, but it’s going to need to wait. We have a problem.”
Five
Paige
Sine was silent for a few seconds, and then asked, “What happened?”
I almost couldn’t answer. It was too much. Too horrible. Everything was ruined.
Jace and Savannah could’ve had a huge wedding with thousands of guests and ice sculptures and all that, but they’d wanted something simple. Friends and family only. So, they’d gone with a brand-new, out-of-the-way venue. During the rehearsal last night, it’d been gorgeous. White swaths of cloth draped across the ceiling with identical bundles of roses and baby’s breath everywhere. The wedding planner had gotten every detail right.
And now it was completely destroyed.
“Paige? Are you there?”
“I’m here.” Even though I wish I wasn’t. “Reb and I came to the venue early to do a run through of the song he’s doing, and it’s…a water main broke. The place is flooded. Everything’s ruined.”
Sine let loose a string of expletives that would’ve made me smile if the situation hadn’t been so upsetting.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the same reaction Reb and I had,” I said.
“Do Jace and Savannah know?”
“No.” I could barely get the word out.
I couldn’t imagine how devastated they were going to be. Just thinking about it made my stomach hurt. Jace and Savannah were amazing people, and they deserved to have a beautiful wedding.
“That’s one of the things Reb wanted to talk to Alix about. I think he figures one of the guys should tell Jace, and then let him decide how to tell Savannah.”
“This is so unfair,” Sine said, sounding as close to tears as I was. “I had two beautiful weddings. After all Savannah’s done…this just isn’t fair.”
She was right. This wasn’t fair. And I knew all the shit about life not being fair, but I wasn’t going to accept that. Not for this. Savannah was the most selfless person I knew, and I was going to do whatever I could to fix this.
“Okay,” I said, pushing aside my emotions. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to fix this. I’m going to find us another venue. Reb will call Erik and Tanya, and have them get flowers and decorations. Once I have a new place for the ceremony, the four of us will decorate.”
“What do you need Alix and me to do?”
“Tell Jace and Savannah what happened. Or, maybe not all of what happened. Then get their guest list, and we’ll give you the new address so you guys can make sure everyone knows where to go.”
“I really wish I didn’t have to be the bearer of bad news,” Sine said, “but that sounds like a good plan. Everett was going to watch Patrick and Elise while we all got ready so he can help us out too.”
“Good. Either Reb or I will be in touch soon.”
I ended the call and turned around to see my husband talking to the frazzled wedding planner.
“How did you not check to make sure the place had passed inspection?”
Reb hadn’t changed into his tux yet, and despite the fact that it was freezing outside, he was in short sleeves. Which meant instead of a tall, lean guy in a tux, he looked a lot more like rock star bad boy Reb Union with his tattoos and muscles. Not surprisingly, that guy was a hell of a lot more intimidating than pretty boy Reb.
“I took them at their word.” The wedding planner looked like she was going to break down in tears, which meant it was time for me to intervene.
“That doesn’t matter right now,” I said. “We’ll come back to it later, but right now, we need to make sure this doesn’t ruin Savannah and Jace’s wedding.”
Reb still looked pissed, so I stepped up and wrapped both of my arms around his, leaning into him. Some of his tension bled away, and his features softened as he looked down at me.
“We have a plan,” I said to him before turning back to the wedding planner. “We�
��ve got it from here. Jace and Savannah will contact you in a week or so to go over what happened. I’d make sure you have all of your paperwork in order.”
She looked from me to Reb, and then back again, before nodding once and scurrying away.
“We have a plan?” Reb asked.
I nodded and quickly filled him in on what I’d told Sine. “What do you think?”
He smiled at me and tucked a lock of escaping hair behind my ear. “I think that you’re a beautiful, amazing woman who can accomplish anything she puts her mind to.”
I flushed, as I did every time Reb complimented me. I’d always considered myself a confident person, but there were times, if I hadn’t been able to hear the sincerity in his voice, I would have doubted how genuine his words were.
“I have to make some calls,” I said. “While I do that, can you look around and see if there’s anything at all we can salvage? I know there wasn’t really anything personal here, but if we can bring anything over from here, I know Jace and Savannah will appreciate it.”
He bent down and brushed a kiss across my lips before answering, “Let’s get this thing done.”
I allowed myself a moment to admire the view as he walked away from me because it was impossible for me to see that strong, lean body, and not want to ogle it. Hell, most of the time, it was all I could do to keep my hands to myself. I didn’t foresee our honeymoon stage ending anytime in the near future.
As he disappeared behind a pillar, I turned my attention to the problem at hand. For a lot of people, finding a wedding venue on Valentine’s Day would have been impossible, but after my promotion at the PR firm where I worked, my contact list had grown to include dozens of the richest, most influential people in New York City – if not the country – as well as people with the sort of abstract resources I used on an almost daily basis.
Plus, my boss and I got along well enough that I had no problem calling him first to clear what I wanted to do. Once Mr. Dwight learned that my prior supervisor, Sybil Feldt, had been passing off the majority of her work to me while taking all the credit, he not only fired her and gave me her job, he’d also taken it upon himself to personally mentor me. Over the past year, Reb and I had spent more than one night having dinner with Mr. Dwight and his partner, Franklin.
