STORY EXCERPT

“You’re amazing, do you know that?”

Rachel’s blush was as predictable as was the way she was shaking her head “no.”

“There’s nothing amazing about—”

 She stopped talking the instant Brandon placed his finger over her lips. “There is, and it’s even more so because you really have no idea. Don’t argue this point, please.” He removed his finger then swooped in and laid his lips on hers. He gave her a very light kiss, and because he wanted to drink her down, he lifted his head.

Just that nearly platonic touch was enough to have his cock begin to harden again. “Let’s go sit at the kitchen table. Trace made some sweet tea earlier. Before we move forward, we need to sit and talk.”

“The talking you didn’t want to happen at the restaurant?” The expression on her face told him something significant about her character. He wanted a woman who would be a submissive in the bedroom, yes, and he knew without a doubt that Rachel was one. He didn’t want a doormat. Her question, but, more, her facial expression just then, told him that she was most definitely not the latter.

“For your privacy, baby. People are going to know soon enough that we’re together, the three of us, because there is no way we’re going to hide that we’re developing a relationship. We refuse to sneak around. But they don’t need to know the details of what’s private between us.”

He reached for her hand and then brought it to his lips. He rubbed his kiss into her flesh, but he kept his gaze on her. He saw the easing, reflected by her expression and the way her shoulders lost some of their tension.

“Come and sit, Rachel.” Trace leaned in and gave her a soft kiss.

“All right. I have the sense I should apologize.”

“No.” Brandon led her into the kitchen then seated her. He chose the chair on her left. Trace got out the tea, glasses, and the inevitable plate of Aunt Anna’s pecan cookies. His brother was addicted to those things.

Then Trace was there, on Rachel’s right. He and his best friend—his brother—angled their chairs so they were facing her.

“No?”

“Absolutely no. We haven’t even really begun yet, and you barely know us. You’re being cautious, and a little suspicious, and that’s as it should be. This…” He moved his hand in a way so that she’d know he meant the three of them. “This relationship isn’t just us. Libby is a part of what we’ll be building here.”

She blushed, and the look she’d just donned could only be called rueful. “That was my main stumbling block. Libby is my family, and she’s going to be affected by our actions, whatever they may be.”

“You said ‘was,’” Trace said.

“Does that mean you’ve decided to begin this journey with us?”

She tilted her head to the side and looked from him to Trace. But then she met his gaze. “I think so. It’s a yes, but I have to know, going forward, what exactly you have in mind.”

“What do you know about the Dominant/submissive dynamic?”

He was really hoping that she didn’t say that she’d read the trilogy of books that had been popular a few years back, that had also been made into movies.

The pink in her cheeks revealed her discomfort. She licked her lips and nodded. “Not long after I came to Lusty, I met a couple of women. I’d never made friends easily, but with these two—Iris Kendall and Mercy Carter-Quest—we seemed to have such a connection, right from the first moment. Iris had been a veterinary assistant but is now taking courses to become a full-fledged vet, a career she’ll share with her husband, Donny. Her other husband is a teacher. Mercy’s a journalist and is also married to two men. As I got to know these women, I discovered that they had a strong common bond. They’re both submissives, and they each have what they call a ‘power exchange agreement’ with their husbands, who are Dominants. They belong to a club in Houston.” She licked her lips again. Brandon knew that just talking about the subject was making her aroused. “I became curious and asked, and they pointed me toward some websites that would answer my questions—even ones I didn’t know I had. So…I guess you could say I know a fair bit about it.”

“Baby? While you were reading…how did you feel?”

“Like I’d finally found out why I’d felt and behaved the way I always had in the past.”

“You discovered you were a submissive?”

She looked at him then, again, looked at Trace. But just as she had a couple of times already, she focused on him, and he knew that she’d figured something out. If he hadn’t guessed that based on the expression on her face, her next words confirmed it.

“Yes…Sir.”

Brandon nodded. “I’ve known I was a Dominant since shortly after I joined the Marines.”

“I have some Dominant qualities,” Trace said, “but it’s not a part of me the way it is for Brandon. I am willing to learn, however.”

“Which means it’s going to be a unique relationship for us,” Brandon said. “I’m not interested in living the lifestyle twenty-four- seven. I like to be in control in the bedroom, and I want to be in control when it comes to giving you what you need—when it comes to taking care of you. I think that’s something you haven’t had a lot of in your life, something you’ve had to live without, up until now. So when it comes to that, we’ll be in charge, too.

“So, I guess the real question, Rachel, is this. Are you interested in exploring your submissive side?”

ADULT EXCERPT

The slide of a drawer drew her attention. Trace held a blindfold. “I’m going to put this on you.” He leaned over and did just that. He was careful, tying the knot so that it was at the side of her head and not beneath it.

“Can you see anything, Rachel?”

“No, Trace.”

“I’m going to outfit you with earbuds,” Brandon said.

His touch gentle, he inserted the earbuds. “Okay?”

“Yes, Brandon.”

The buds confused her. She could still hear his voice and, even, though more mutely, the sounds of their movement.

Music, something soft and…Zen-like…floated around her. It wasn’t loud, but the tone of the gentle piano chords was enough so that was all she could hear.

Movement on the bed was the only means she had of knowing where her Doms were. She felt certain they’d gotten off the bed. And then they slipped something around her wrists and slowly raised her arms so that her hands were above her head.

Handcuffed, restrained.

She felt their attention on her ankles, so she discreetly tested the range of motion of her arms. There wasn’t any give at all. Rachel was well and truly caught.

Hands on her legs lifted, and something—a rolled pillow? —was placed beneath each knee. She knew she was more exposed than she had been, laying flat. Then they worked on her ankles. She felt a soft caress on her right thigh once her ankles were restrained. She tested and found there wasn’t any give there, either. Once more, motion told her they’d left the bed.

For a long moment she lay there, no sight to tell her what was happening. She imagined what she must look like, and that image sent a shaft of arousal through her.

Spread out before them, as a sacrifice.

Her thoughts quieted, and the music filled every inch of space. Blindfolded, restrained, hearing only what they had chosen for her to hear, she closed her eyes, relaxed and…submitted. Peaceful and serene, she began to float.

Soft strokes across her chest, a gentle, yet masculine touch. Caressing above her breasts, then below, then above, as another hand stroked her leg, ankle to hip. Left thigh, then right, a soothing touch that calmed and teased and aroused.

Lips brushed hers, a finger directed them, and her lips parted. Wet, hot, a tongue invited hers to dance. His flavor aroused, a sweet taste, a new craving. She drank, and then the lips smiled and eased away.

A mouth covered her slit, a tongue delved inside her, and teeth nipped her clit.

The climax exploded, bowing her body, blowing her mind, thrilling, thrilling spasms of electric pleasure. Shivers and quivers and a sound barely heard, her sound, a keening cry of capitulation to the pleasure, the joy. It held her, vanquished her, then left her trembling.

A wet mouth opened over her nipple, suckling, while fingers plucked, and fingers delved. The sensation of a brush on the side of her face and the scent of her nectar beckoned.

The flavors, two now, saucy and savory and oh, so seductive. She drank again and felt enthralled by the men who tended her. The men who then left her, expectant, waiting, wanting.

Movement, and a touch, this time on her other cheek. She turned her head and felt another kind of brush on her lips, the scent of a lover’s cock. Her taste buds watered, and so she opened and sucked him inside her mouth, drinking this time of the drops of dew she drew from him.