She knows what she wants now. And she’s decided to be brave.
She grabbed on to his shoulders, her hands digging a little as she tried to get leverage. Her gaze met his. “That’s a good girl,” he said. He let her focus on him for a few minutes, listening to her breathing getting shorter. He hadn’t thought he would get so much from her such a short time after the play in her room. Women have such great recovery time. And she’s starved herself for a long time.
Time to make her aware of everything around her again. “Tell me what they’re doing now.”
Emma looked around, almost frantic with need. She spoke quickly. “The domme is making the man in the cage suck her toes while another man plays with her breasts. The, um, other woman and man—they’re fucking, Sir.”
“Good word.”
“Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
He smiled at how getting excited made her so much more submissive. With time, he could train her to enjoy that state of mind more readily. What am I thinking? I only have a weekend with her.
“And Constance and Aidan are—wait, Alex is interrupting them.”
It took force of will to not turn around and look. Alex would never interrupt someone else’s scene, especially not that of an experienced dom like Aidan. Unless someone called a safe word, or there was clear danger, it was the height of rudeness to interfere with an intimate moment between people playing. “Tell me.” He would let her be his eyes.
“She has the jewels, Diego. I mean, Sir. They found them!” Emma’s excitement took on a different pitch, although her hips kept moving. And then, suddenly her face went blank.
“Talk to me, Emma.”
“And now, Alex just pointed over here,” she whispered softly. Her grip loosened on his shoulders, but the rest of her went rigid.
“Easy, pet,” Diego whispered, keeping his voice level. Why would Alex be pointing? He hadn’t done anything. He pulled Emma from the wall and wrapped his arms around her. She didn’t resist, which gave him comfort. Maybe she trusted him. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she had thought Alex was indicating that he’d stolen the jewels. Maybe he couldn’t even blame her. A lifetime of being looked at as if he were going to rob the place when he went into nice stores had given him a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
He turned slightly, so that he could see what was going on. Aidan was taking Constance off the cross, and the Velcro cuffs he’d been using allowed him to do it very quickly. Alex, Selena, Aidan, and Constance all walked over toward him and Emma. Constance looked upset, but he didn’t think Alex or Aidan were. Selena he didn’t know well enough to read.
“What’s up?” he asked, with a calmness he didn’t feel.
“We found Constance’s clamps,” said Alex.
Constance opened her hand. The rubies and diamonds glittered, although something looked a little off. Maybe it’s just the angle.
Alex said, “They are a bit worse for wear, I’m afraid. A small diamond is missing, and the clamp is bent. James is still looking for the missing stone.”
“Where were they?” asked Diego.
“Well,” said Alex, who looked uncomfortable.
Uh-oh. Alex always seemed confident, except for the rare occasion when Dylan conspired to throw her off guard.
Selena spoke up. “James says he doesn’t think the person whose room we found them in put them there, which is why he thinks he can find the missing diamond. He thinks they were thrown into the room by someone in a hurry, and I agree with him. The door wasn’t locked. One landed on the bed, but the other missed and hit the floor, which probably was what knocked the diamond out and maybe bent the clamp.”
“The clamp will be easy to fix. The diamond can be replaced. It isn’t a big deal,” said Aidan, putting his arm around Constance’s shoulder. “The important thing is that we found them.”
Diego caught sight of Emma. Her usually light skin was almost white, and she was biting her lip. She closed and opened one small fist over and over. My God. It must have been found in Emma’s room. She’d asked them to search it. Someone heard that, and after Alex and I left, decided to ditch the jewels in a hurry. There’s only a few people it could be. But it will look bad. I can’t blame her if she suspects me. Anyone would. It’s the easy answer.
“Of course we need to find who did it before we all stop trusting each other,” said Selena. “Although it may be impossible at this point.”
“Was it my room they were found in?” Emma blurted, her voice in a higher register than normal.
“Yes, but—” Alex started but didn’t get a chance to finish. Emma pushed between her and Selena, heading for the exit.
Damn.
* * * *
Emma had heard what Alex had said, but she didn’t believe it. She was acutely aware that she wasn’t wearing a top and that her bra was far from opaque, but she wasn’t going back for her blouse now. What must Constance think of her? The woman, who had felt like a newfound friend, must feel betrayed. They couldn’t possibly find the real thief at this point, with the jewelry no longer in the thief’s possession, so suspicion would fall naturally on her, and Diego.
Diego was innocent. He was too smart to demonstrate being able to break into one of the rooms after pulling off a heist. But not everyone would think that way, because Diego was the simplest explanation. People liked simple explanations. She knew the jewels hadn’t been on the floor when she’d left the room, and he had been with her the entire time since. Who would trust her word on that? They’d sooner believe they were both in on it. Alex was very kind, but that’s what everyone would think. It was mortifying.
She walked into her room and was surprised to find a man crawling on the floor. He was a tall, muscular guy, with close-cropped hair. He looked up. “Hey. You must be Emma.”
Emma crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Hi.” Alex had said that someone named James was looking for the missing diamond in the room. “You must be James.”
“Yep. Mind if I keep looking?”
For a moment she thought he meant at her and was about to shake her head and tell him to turn his head. Then she realized what he meant. “No. I’ll look too. They said a diamond is missing?”
“A very tiny diamond, unfortunately.” He shone his flashlight underneath Valerie’s bed. “I keep hoping that it will catch a flicker of light, but it’s small enough it could be stuck in between floorboards, almost anywhere really.”
She nodded. “Let me get a top on.” She got a comfortable wool sweater from her suitcase and pulled it on. She didn’t normally wear it without something beneath it, because even though it was soft for wool, it was still a bit itchy. But right now she just wanted to cover up as fast as possible, and the sweater was perfect. Soft and rumply, a little too big, it disguised her figure better than anything else she brought would.
She wanted to leave. To run out the door and get into her car and never come back. Being half-naked in front of people was bad enough. Okay, maybe it was even a bit of a thrill. Being half-naked in front of people who wondered if she was a thief? Unbearable. But she wanted to find Constance’s diamond. Even though she’d had nothing to do with the theft or the damage, she felt somehow responsible. It had all happened in her room, after all.
She got down on her hands and knees with James and looked, using her cell phone to shed some light that the tiny diamond might possibly refract. She spotted it just as someone knocked on the door. It was, indeed, stuck between two panels of the floor. It took her three tries to pry it out with her fingernail. “I found it,” she said, letting the tiny gem rest in her palm.
“Where?” asked James. She showed him, and he nodded. “That’s consistent with our notion that the jewelry was tossed into the room. It’s so light, it could have gone almost anywhere after impact. Take it to Constance.”
The last thing she wanted to do was face Constance.
Knock, knock. “Emma? It’s me, Diego.”
She didn’t really want to face Diego eithe
r. She just wanted to pack and leave Bondage Ranch entirely.
It must have been easy to read on her face, because James turned and asked, “Do you want me to let him in or not?”
“Not.” Even as she said it, she ached. Was she really not going to experience him again? His directions, his insistence, his lips, his cock? But how could she face him right now? He probably had his doubts about her too.
James walked across the room toward the door. “You’re sure?”
She wasn’t sure at all. “Yes.”
“He’s not going to like the idea of you alone in a room with me. Not that he has anything to worry about.”
That was right. Men were like that.
“Emma?” Diego again. “I’m going to open the door if I don’t hear an answer.”
I just need to be left alone to pack. She sighed. She walked over to James. “Here. Take it to Constance, please.” She put the tiny stone in his hand and turned back to the suitcase. “And take Diego with you.”
James frowned. “Hang on a few minutes, Diego.” He dropped his voice to talk to Emma. “I watched you two play the other night. You had a synchronicity that’s rare. Your first time playing in public?”
“I really don’t think it’s any of your business.” She didn’t turn to look at him. She opened a drawer and pulled clothes out, stuffing them in her suitcase. She didn’t have much, thankfully. It would only take moments, and then she’d be gone.
“And now you’re just leaving?”
“Everyone’s going to think I had something to do with it.”
“You’d have to be incredibly bold to toss the jewelry in plain sight into your room and then dare us to search it. Alex said you volunteered to have your room searched. Who was there to listen to you?”
“I don’t know anyone here. I wasn’t really noticing. Sue, but I don’t think she—”
“Ginger,” said Diego from the doorway. “John—I don’t know his last name. The tall thin one, not the short, er, broader one. Laurie. A couple of other people I don’t know by name, but there was the blonde girl, curvy, who likes to play with dominant women but sometimes tops guys. And the blue-haired dom that’s about five-six.”
Emma turned to look at him and so did James. James said slowly, “I think I know who you mean. I don’t know Laurie, though.”
But Diego was crossing the room. “I had nothing to do with this, Emma. Someone planted those things in your room.”
“I believe you,” Emma said. She turned away. “It’s just all too much.”
“If you believe me, then don’t leave.” He put his hand around Emma’s wrist. “You’re not going anywhere, Emma. Don’t run from this.”
“I can’t stay,” Emma said.
“Yes, you can.” Diego picked up her suitcase and tipped it over, spilling the contents on the bed. She blinked, shocked. How dare he?
“I think I know who did it,” Diego said, turning to James. “I don’t know how you’ll prove it. Any of them could like shiny baubles, but only one had any kind of motive to throw them into Emma’s room. Unless they were tossed just to get the heat off, but opening Emma’s door in that circumstance would have been risky itself. There had to be better ways.”
“So there had to be a reason why the thief chose this one. I agree. Who has a grudge against you, Emma?”
What he said made no sense. “No one.” She looked back at her clothes and toiletries, now all over the bed.
“It’s not Emma’s fault. I was about to play with another woman, Laurie, when she told me something about herself that made me decide not to play with her. When I took Emma to the cross, Emma said she saw Laurie glaring at her. John and Ginger were pretty fast to assume I had stolen the jewels, so maybe they don’t like me much, but Laurie’s the only one who doesn’t like Emma. If John or Ginger had raised the issue for the purpose of planting the jewelry on anyone, they probably would have put it in my truck before accusing me.”
“You know, it’s really a bit rash to tell people to search your stuff.” James grinned. “But speaking as a cop, we always appreciate it when people do. Lesson for next time, Emma. Tell them to get a warrant.”
“Even closed doors don’t seem to stop some people.” She glared at Diego.
“I’m not performing a search,” retorted Diego. “I’m stopping you from running the moment times get tough. You’re stronger than that.”
“Strong! Ha. The whole point is for you to be the strong one, isn’t it? And me to be the weak submissive?”
“There is nothing weak about submission. It requires courage. Honesty, to know what you want. Trust. None of that is weakness. And submitting doesn’t make you stronger either. It makes you brave, if you and your dom are doing it right. You’re staying here tonight.”
James stood back, but Emma was aware of him listening. If he hadn’t been there, she thought she would have used her safe word right then and there. Once Diego was out of her room, it would be easy for her to pack up and go. Back to the world where no one took her clothes off in public and no one thought she might have stolen anything. Back to being boring, dependable Emma. But Diego had raised the stakes, and with James there, it was worse. Diego knew that she dreaded humiliation. She couldn’t admit she was scared, not in front of an audience. Running would just make her look more guilty, and by extension, Diego as well. She couldn’t do that to him. “I’ll stay.”
“I’ll stay with you here. Valerie won’t mind,” said Diego. “I’ll have to call Consuela, but given the circumstances, I need to stay here with you.”
Consuela? Emma’s heart sank. I should have left after all. “Who the hell is Consuela, and why haven’t you told me about her?” No wonder Diego didn’t stay at the ranch. He had someone in town.
Diego stared at her, then laughed.
“I don’t think it’s funny.” Emma could feel her cheeks getting red.
“Sorry, you’re right. Consuela is my daughter.”
“You have a little girl? Is she with her mom?”
“Her mom died when she was very small. And she’s not so little. She’s taller than you, actually. She works here with Alex, when they are doing dances. She’s an adult, but she would rather not know much about the BDSM parties. She knows where I am, though.”
His explanation was fine, but it brought home how little she really knew about him. They were strangers, really. It was tempting to think there was more to it than that, but he hadn’t offered any sort of commitment. He had been playing with this Laurie person a few moments before he met her, and he hadn’t promised not to be playing with someone else tomorrow.
And neither have I.
Now James the audience served another purpose. She wasn’t going to back down from any stand she took in front of him. She guessed Diego would know that. “You had no business flipping my suitcase over. I’ll go or stay as I please and do as I please. You should stay with your daughter. We’re just ships passing in the night, you and I. Nothing more.” She turned to James. “Are you done here?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, because I don’t feel like having any men in my room at the moment.”
Instead of leaving, Diego walked across the room and reached into the mass of clothes on the bed. He pulled out a gauzy scarf. She knew instantly what he intended to do with it.
“Danger,” she said softly. She wanted Diego to hear, but she didn’t want to embarrass him in front of James.
He stared into her eyes, holding her gaze. For a moment she thought he wouldn’t honor the safe word. He let go of the scarf, and it drifted downward to join the other clothing.
Then he walked out her door, which James held open for him. Maybe he was leaving Bondage Ranch entirely, although it was still just early afternoon. Out of my life.
When both men were gone, Emma sat back down on her bed. The clothes were a mess, but she felt like throwing them and making even more of a disaster. That would be childish. No one ever accused her of being childish or even very playful. Wi
th Diego she’d been able to play. Odd that such adult activities would bring back a childlike sense of joy.
It still pissed her off that he had dumped her suitcase. Who did he think he was, anyway? If he’d just wanted to stop her from going, he could have tried something else, but no, he had to make the big dramatic gesture. But maybe it had brought her to the right place. If people don’t think we’re together, that we just played a little, they won’t think we’re in cahoots, either. And given where the jewels were found, that’s probably good for Diego.
Wanting to do something with her hands, she set about folding and putting the clothes away again, some in her suitcase, some in the drawer.
* * * *
Diego closed the door behind him. James clapped him on the back. “I think she loves you,” he said.
Diego looked at him oddly. “I think she hates me.”
“Close to the same thing sometimes.” James walked toward the dungeon, and Diego walked with him, curious as to what more James might say. But he didn’t add anything.
He remembered Maria and the fights they’d had. He wasn’t sure she ever really loved him—certainly the emotions had been powerful, and they often flipped at a moment’s notice. He’d hated that but had put up with it because Maria was the mother of his child. Maybe if he’d been less passive, he could have saved Maria. But now, by being so direct with Emma, he’d pissed her off and seen the same kind of flip. Almost. Emma might have volatile emotions, but she wasn’t violent, and she wasn’t crazy. And in her defense, she’d been through a lot in the previous twenty-four hours. She deserved a little slack.
Hell, the foundation of BDSM was trust, and she didn’t trust him. He couldn’t be entirely sure he blamed her. And then he’d gone and overplayed his hand.
He liked to think of himself as a patient dom. On the other hand, he wasn’t at Bondage Ranch to sit around. He was there to play, and if Emma didn’t want anything to do with him, he should feel free to look for someone else to play with. But he didn’t. Correction—he didn’t want to. He wasn’t entirely sure why that was. I just have unfinished business with her. Business that now may never be finished.
Bondage Ranch 5: His Little Treasure Page 8
