“True story.”
Terrie cocked her head and studied Rachel. “You do realize that most people are happy about getting to do the whole bride experience, right?”
“I am happy. I just…I wish he wanted to do something simple. And we’re not even getting married until December. Why do we have to do this now?”
“You have to plan. It seems like I remember hearing someone telling their Dom that whatever he wanted to do was fine with her.”
“Yeah, but what straight guy goes this batshit planning a wedding?”
Lynn leaned forward. “One who’s really crazy about the woman he’s about to marry and is fighting like hell to make sure he keeps her for life.” She looked away. “Unlike some guys.”
Rachel reached over and squeezed her hand. “His loss.”
“Yeah, well…” Rachel could see normally stoic Lynn struggling not to break down. “Let’s figure out what wedding dress you want before your Dom decides to try his luck taking my sarcastic ass down a peg,” Lynn said. She reached up and wiped at her eyes.
Rachel’s gaze locked with Terrie’s. The other woman gave Rachel a quick shake of her head before speaking. “I’m thinking take a look at some of the colors besides white, and I don’t mean ivory. I’m talking like electric blue or purple or something striking.”
Lynn nodded, even as she suddenly turned and stared at the opposite wall for a moment. “Yeah, that’d be cool. Tilly wore a really pretty corset and skirt for her wedding to Landry.”
Crisis averted.
Rachel felt horrible that Lynn’s attention had drifted down that dark and painful path of her own situation. “Justin’s still trying to decide if he wants to apply to labs down here. He’s going to give it another couple of weeks to see if he hears anything. If he doesn’t hear back, then we’re going to help him move. Let him live at my place until he gets his own place and a job down here.”
The other scenario Andrew had insisted he was serious about, that Justin could live in her condo, and she could move in with him.
Hell, she was practically living with Andrew anyway. They’d spent every night together since their return, usually at his place. He had a house of his own and that meant spanking and moans as loud as they wanted without the neighbors hearing every word.
“We’ll help,” Terrie said. “Mark’s from up around there. His brother still lives in that area. Well, in Omaha. Not that far. He’d love a chance to go up and see him. Ooh! Lynn, if you come with us, it’d be tax deductible! Just write a book with South Dakota in it.”
Rachel studied her friend’s expression. “Maybe,” Lynn said. “We’ll see. I wouldn’t handle an ice storm any better than Andrew did. I’m a native Floridian, too, remember?”
* * * *
When they reached the club, even though it was supposed to be closed tonight, there were several cars parked outside.
But not Andrew’s.
Still, Rachel followed Terrie and Lynn inside, through the empty office and to the playspace. It looked like a large buffet dinner had been set out. Besides a lot of their friends, Terrie’s husband Mark was there, having come right from work.
No Andrew.
Loren sat at one of the tables with Ross. “Well, there’s half of the coup—”
Andrew burst through the office door at a dead run. “Sorry I’m late, I hit traff—” He tripped, falling flat on his face and sliding a couple of feet across the floor.
The women all exclaimed and hurried over to him, except for Tilly, who sat laughing her ass off with most of the men.
“Motherfucker,” Andrew mumbled as he picked himself up off the floor.
“Are you okay, Sir?” Rachel was doing her best not to laugh, but it was hard.
Damned hard.
“Yeah.”
“At least the vibrator didn’t attack you that time.”
“Oh, this I gotta hear,” Tilly snarked.
Andrew playfully jabbed a finger at her. “Shut up, you. Mocking later.” He pointed at the floor. “Serious Domly shit now.”
Tilly stuck her tongue out at him. “You two need a fucking padded room, is what you need. And not for the crazies, either. Because one of you—Andrew—is going to end up as a Darwin Award winner, you keep this up.” Tilly had already heard about the ice incident and the accidental sex sanitizing.
Loren cleared her throat. “Well, if we’re all here and ready?” Rachel noticed Kel and Mal were there, too, ready to take pictures and video.
“Yeah,” Andrew said. He caught Rachel’s hand and led her to the front of the room. “I haven’t found exactly what I want yet for one of the items, but I found something that I do like and know you can wear all the time as a day collar.”
He pointed at the large pillow someone had put out already.
Her legs trembling, Rachel knelt, glad to be on the floor.
She wasn’t sure she could remain standing anyway.
For some reason, this made her even more nervous than the thought of a wedding, despite the smaller crowd.
This was serious. Not that a wedding wasn’t serious, but that Andrew was certain about taking this step with her.
She felt sure, too.
That absolutely terrified her.
It meant no longer being able to run, no longer being able to pretend. The barrier she’d kept around her heart had melted away, unable to keep Andrew out.
And it meant that despite knowing what she’d been through, he still wanted her and loved her.
He pulled a small satin bag out of his pocket. From it, he withdrew a stainless steel chain mail bracelet. “Right hand, pet.”
She held her hand up and watched as he fastened it around her wrist. Yes, she could wear it to work, anywhere, and no one would know its true meaning except the people she wanted to know.
After fastening it around her wrist, he took her hand in his. “I love you, Rache. I know what finally led to this was a crazy week, but it basically capped months of me already knowing, but ignoring, how I felt about you. I didn’t want to admit what I felt for you because it meant making myself vulnerable again.”
He stared down into her eyes. “I know some guys make it a point of pride to pretend they’re invincible and tough and Domly and whatever. That’s not me, and that’s not the kind of guy I am. If I screw up, I own it. If I can’t do something, I own that. But it means I can’t lie about what I feel, either. Not anymore. Feeling stuff means possibly getting hurt. It means opening myself up to someone else.
“I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. More importantly, I trust you, and I hope you trust me. I want to spend the rest of my life upholding your trust in me, protecting you, walking by your side and helping you fight the battles I can, or at least backing you up in the battles I can’t fight for you. I want you to know that by giving you this, it means I don’t see you just as someone to own. I see you as the person I was meant to be with who will challenge me, who will force me to be the best person I can be, so that I can walk beside you and help you to be the best person you can be.”
He leaned over so he could kiss her hand, which he still kept cupped between his. “Will you please accept this collar and be my slave?”
She struggled and failed to hold back her tears. “Yes, Sir.”
He helped her to her feet and then pulled her in for a kiss. “Just one more thing,” he said.
He drew something else from his pocket and dropped down onto one knee.
Now she was really crying.
He opened the ring box. “Will you please marry me?”
Unable to talk, she nodded, hard, still crying as he slipped the ring onto her left ring finger and then stood to pull her in for another hug. This she hadn’t expected. She didn’t even realize he’d bought her an engagement ring yet.
Their friends burst into cheers and applause before crowding around to congratulate them.
Tilly walked up and smacked Andrew on the shoulder. “Asshole. You made me cry.” She hugged both of them
. “Congratulations, you two. It’s about damn time.”
Someone had handed Rachel tissues, and as she looked around, she realized Lynn wasn’t there. She caught Terrie’s grim gaze and the other woman pointed toward the doorway leading to the far side of the dungeon and shook her head.
After a couple of minutes, and as everyone started moving toward the food, Rachel leaned in to whisper to Andrew.
“I’ll be right back.”
He grabbed a kiss from her first before she headed to the bathroom over on the “new” side.
Lynn stood at one of the sinks, her hands braced on it, staring down into it, her tears falling.
Rachel walked over to her and hugged her.
“I’m sorry,” Lynn whispered. “I’m really happy for you guys. I am. I just…needed a minute.”
“It’s okay,” Rachel gently told her. “We’re worried about you.”
“And you know what? If he walked through the door right now and pointed at the floor, I’d drop to my knees just like that, as if we hadn’t been apart for a single day.”
“I know.”
It was a complicated situation that Rachel knew Terrie was upset over on behalf of her friend, but Rachel got it.
Sometimes, you just couldn’t control how you felt. You couldn’t turn it off. Especially love, and especially when neither of them had wanted to break up in the first place.
It made her own issues pale in comparison, and made Rachel glad Andrew had come into her life when he had.
“God, I want you two to be happy,” Lynn said. “Please, I need to see a happy ending for someone so damn bad right now, you have no idea.”
Rachel didn’t mention what Terrie had told her before, the night of the munch, about the divorce filing.
No reason to go there.
“Just know that we love you and we’re here for you.”
“Thanks.” Lynn stepped back, grabbing a paper towel to blow her nose. “I’ll be out in a few. I just need to clean up.”
“Okay.”
She finally headed back to the group. Andrew arched an eyebrow at her, but she shook her head, earning her a nod in reply.
Even that, how they could say whole sentences to each other without a word.
Her heart broke for her friend, but there wasn’t anything she could do to help her.
Hell, I can’t even fix her up with my brother.
Justin had already asked if he could come to the club while he was visiting with them, another reason they’d wanted to do this tonight and not tomorrow.
While she didn’t mind her brother going to the club, she didn’t want him watching them play. And if he did turn out to be a subby—or even a Top—she didn’t want to watch him play.
That was straying too far into creepy territory for her personally.
She suspected he would feel the same way.
But take him out, introduce him around, and let him meet their friends? Oh, absolutely. Without hesitation.
After dinner, a couple of people left, and a few started playing. Andrew crooked a finger at Rachel, coaxing her over to one of the spanking benches.
“Naked, pet.”
She smiled as she focused on him and started stripping. At some point, he’d gone out to his car and brought in his implement bag. Just climbing onto the bench already started her down the rabbit trail into subspace. By the time he had her securely tied to the bench, she was there.
He leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“You’ll get your orgasms at home, pet. But right now, I want to stripe that beautiful ass of yours.”
“Yes, Sir.”
He kissed her forehead. “Good girl.”
He started hard and fast, taking her right to the edge of safewording almost immediately and keeping her there, but also driving her deeper into subspace than she ever remembered going before. Paddles, canes, crops—she knew that she would enjoy the car ride tomorrow to pick up Justin, feeling every bruise the entire way.
When he finished, he bundled her in a blanket on the couch, cleaned up the bench and put his implements away, then joined her.
“We can’t stay long, pet,” he said. “It’s almost time to leave.”
“Yes, Sir.”
She didn’t care.
She’d be going home with him.
Every night, for the rest of her life, she’d be going home with him.
And that was just fine with her.
THE END
WWW.TYMBERDALTON.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tymber Dalton lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her husband (aka “The World’s Best Husband™”) and too many pets. Active in the BDSM lifestyle, the two-time EPIC winner is also the bestselling author of over one hundred books, including The Reluctant Dom, The Denim Dom, Cardinal’s Rule, the Suncoast Society series, the Love Slave for Two series, the Triple Trouble series, the Coffeeshop Coven series, the Good Will Ghost Hunting series, the Drunk Monkeys series, and many more.
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Beware Falling Ice Page 17
