by Sophie Oak
“You were lying to yourself. Do you have a different answer for me today?”
Sally sighed as the whip cracked over her left thigh.
“Yes, Julian,” Jack admitted.
“Why do you share with Samuel?”
Jack turned to his mentor. “I don’t. I don’t share with anyone. They’re both mine.”
“Very good, Jackson. It is very important to understand and accept our own natures. I believe I’ll take my sub up to our rooms. She will need someone to take care of her now.” Julian strode to the stage, released Sally’s bonds, and scooped up his slightly high sub. She had a beatific expression on her pretty face. Her arms floated up around Julian’s neck. “Thank the nice man, Sally.”
Sally smiled at Jack. “Thank you, nice man.”
“Go to bed.” Julian tossed the order over his shoulder. “You’ll be fine tomorrow evening.”
Jack laid the whip down and began to make his way up the stairs and out of the dungeon. Sam really would flourish in here. He smiled to himself as he admitted Sam was a pain slut, too. He’d have to teach Abby how to handle Sam. She’d never handle a whip, he thought with a shudder. But she could paddle him from time to time. Jack remembered Sam and Abby’s playful fight from the other day. They had argued about whether they were a triangle or a straight line. Sam was right about that line, but he was wrong about the order. Abby was definitely in the middle of that straight line.
Jack walked through the playroom thinking about climbing into bed. He had high hopes that he would sleep through the night. He wasn’t even contemplating sleeping in the room he’d taken out. Sam was right. If he woke up in a cold sweat, Abby and Sam would just hold him until he came down. It was selfish to hold back his fears and problems from them. His troubles were theirs. They were a family.
As Jack walked into the bar, he saw Matthew Slater pulling Lucas Cameron out of his chair. Lucas’s eyes were slightly dazed. His body was slack, and Slater seemed to be having trouble with him. A brown-haired sub in a collar pulled on the other side of Lucas, and together they managed to get the young man up.
“He’s heavier than he looks,” the sub said.
“We just need to get him out to the car I have waiting. I’ll take him back to my hotel,” Slater promised.
Jack didn’t like the look in Slater’s eyes. There was something there beyond a desire to help his boss’s son out. Jack sighed. Stupid karma. He realized what Julian had been talking about. He wasn’t discussing the fact that he’d blackmailed his father, and it was karma that Lucas blackmailed Jack. Julian, the sneaky bastard, was referring to how he had mentored Jack at a time when he was lost. Jack had never met a person more lost than Lucas Cameron.
“How much did that boy drink?” Jack heard himself ask.
Slater almost lost his footing when he startled at the sound of Jack’s voice. The sub immediately averted his eyes. Slater stumbled, and Lucas slumped back down. “He’s a terrible drunk.” Slater struggled to keep Lucas upright. “I was just going to get him back to my hotel where I can look after him.”
Slater didn’t seem like the paternal type. Jack doubted Lucas would get any sympathy from the campaign manager. Maybe he didn’t deserve any, but then there were times when Jack hadn’t deserved what he had been blessed with. Perhaps it was time to take his brother in hand.
He walked over to Lucas and looked down. His eyes were glassy, but there seemed to be a plea there. Jack reached down and hauled Lucas up and over his shoulder without breaking a sweat. The boy needed to put some muscle on. “Don’t worry about him. I’ve got an extra room. He can sleep it off there. I’d like to have a talk with him in the morning, anyway.”
“Wait!” Slater practically shouted. He pulled at Lucas’s shirt as though trying to force Jack to put him down. Jack took a step back, placing a small but needed distance between them. “I don’t think he should be alone with you. I am standing in for his father, Mr. Barnes. I doubt his father would want some stranger taking off with his son.”
Jack shook his head. “Face facts, Slater, dear old Dad wouldn’t give a shit. And I’m not a stranger. I’m his brother. He’s going to know what that means in the morning. Buck up, man. Once he realizes what I have in store for him, he just might hightail it back to DC with you. Good night.”
Jack started toward the elevators, ignoring the further protests of Matthew Slater. He strode into the elevator and pushed the button to take him to the seventeenth floor. Lucas pounded slightly on his back.
“Go to sleep, Lucas,” Jack commanded. “You’ll be fine in the morning.”
His brother grunted. “Thank you,” he slurred.
Jack sighed. He wondered if his brother would be thanking him in the morning.
Chapter Twelve
Lucas Cameron came out of his daze to the sound of two people talking. It was all hazy at first, but they seemed to be arguing about something. The whole world seemed thick and heavy, but their voices were light and filled with warmth.
“What’s wrong, Sam?” the feminine voice asked. “You seem to be struggling with something.”
Lucas felt the bed shift as though someone was wiggling.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Abigail.” Sam’s voice was deep. “I love it. It’s very comfortable.”
“Is it? I’m glad to hear that.” There was a wealth of amused satisfaction in the female’s voice.
“It’s the best day of my life,” Sam said with a little bite in his tone. “I don’t know why you complained about it all this time. You must be a wimp, Abby.”
Abby giggled. “Or maybe I’m just better at insertion than you are.”
Sam snorted. Lucas tried to open his eyes. If there was something being inserted somewhere between those two, he wanted to see it.
“I’m a master at insertion, baby. Just tell me one thing, Abby. Why pink?”
Abigail’s laughter seemed slightly maniacal to Lucas. “You love pink, Sam. Turnabout is fair play. Remember all those times you told me how cute I looked with a little pink plug?”
“You just could have picked something more masculine, baby,” Sam complained.
“Next time I’ll see if NASCAR has a line of licensed butt plugs.”
Lucas forced his eyes open. He definitely wanted in on this conversation.
“Oh, look he’s awake.” The lovely redhead peered down at him. Her hazel eyes were full of mirth, and she was wearing pajama bottoms and a tank top that showed off her breasts. Even with a massive hangover, Lucas could appreciate them. “Hello, Jack’s brother.”
“Hello, Jack’s wife,” he managed to mumble. Sam helped him sit up. The sheet slipped down. Someone had stripped him down to his boxers. He held his head. “What happened?”
“Apparently you can’t hold your liquor.” Sam pressed a cup of something warm into his hands. “Coffee. It should help.”
Lucas brought it to his lips. He didn’t really like coffee, but he didn’t want to disappoint Sam. He was surprised to find it smooth and rich. It wasn’t horribly sweet like the lattes he’d had before. He took another sip. Maybe it would clear his head. “Where am I?” The last thing he remembered was talking to the guy named Jeremy. He’d been planning on spending the night with him. How had he ended up in the middle of his brother’s ménage?
“Jack brought you up,” Sam explained. He shifted as though he was slightly uncomfortable. “He said you passed out in the bar downstairs. You’re in a room in the hotel over the club. We’re in the suite next to you. Abby wanted to come in and stare at you while you slept.”
Abby slapped at Sam, looking horrified. “I did not. I wanted to come in and take care of him. Besides, Jack won’t let us leave until he comes back from whatever it is he’s doing. Now, I ordered breakfast. I hope you like bacon and eggs.”
He nodded. He did like them. He hadn’t had them in months since he’d been playing the vegan for his Hollywood friends. His stomach rumbled. He couldn’t remember anything about last night.
How much had he had to drink?
Abby put a tray in front of him, and the heavenly aroma hit him. He was suddenly starving. He shook slightly as he held the fork.
“So, you’re going to blackmail Jack?” Sam asked.
Just like that, his appetite took a nose dive. He stared at the two people sitting on his bed. His eyes slid down, unable to meet the faces of the people he’d inadvertently threatened. They would have been hurt, too. Now that he thought about it, he’d threatened them just as much as he had Jack. “Sorry about that. You’re safe. I’m not going to say anything.”
“Really?” Abby sounded upset. Lucas looked at the redhead. She was pouting slightly. It was really sexy on her. “That is very disappointing, Lucas.”
“You want me to blackmail Jack?”
“No.” Sam rolled his blue eyes. “She thinks if you sell our story to the tabloids, she’ll get to be on all kinds of talk shows. She wants to be on Ellen.”
“Don’t forget Regis and Kelly,” Abby added.
Lucas shook his head. “Aren’t you worried about the public finding out?”
Abby winked Sam’s way before answering. “Am I worried that the public will find out that, at the age of thirty-seven, I managed to get not one, but two superhot multi-millionaire cowboys to marry me?”
Lucas couldn’t help the laugh that shot out of him. Put like that, it didn’t seem so bad. He felt the need to point out some facts to her, however. Someone had to be realistic. Lucas was surprised it was him. He wasn’t known for his practicality. Something about Abby Barnes brought out his protective side. His brother’s wife was a sweetheart. He used some of the intelligence he’d dug up on her. “Abigail, what about your family? Your mother is still alive. Won’t she be upset?”
Sam waved that question off. “She lives in our guest house. She knows some weird shit goes on, and she’s fine with it. We love her daughter.”
“Often,” Abby agreed. “And usually with toys involved. Besides, I got kicked out of my hometown at the age of seventeen. I was pregnant and had a flaming affair with a boy from the other side of the tracks. She’s used to me causing gossip. And don’t think it will upset my baby girl, either. I have it on the highest authority that she’s dating a musician. Her bohemian friends thinks it’s cool she has two step-dads.”
“Musician?” Sam’s voice rose signaling his outrage. “When the hell did that happen?”
Abby wrinkled her nose. “Well, I didn’t want you to scare him off. She seems crazy about him. His name is Aidan. She’s bringing him to Sunday dinner in a few weeks. I’m sure Jack will threaten to horribly murder the boy if he so much as touches a hair on Lexi’s head.” She shook her head at Lucas in a manner that made him think she knew that more than Lexi’s head had likely been touched already.
She wasn’t getting it. Lucas tried a different approach. “Okay. How about the business? Have you thought about how a scandal could affect Barnes-Fleetwood? Who wants to buy beef from pervert cowboys?”
Abby laughed long and loud. “They’re organic cattle ranchers. Have you walked through a Whole Foods lately?”
“Well,” Lucas said, defeated, “it’s just as well I decided to not go through with it, then.” There was a moment of silence as they regarded him expectantly. “I’m sorry. I really…I don’t know. I’m just sorry. I’ll be out of your way as soon as I can get a shower.”
Sam exchanged glances with Abby before turning back to Lucas. “Where are you going to go?”
Lucas shrugged. That was the question he needed to answer. Where did you go when you didn’t have a home? “Back to California, I guess.” He needed to sell everything he owned so he could pay off his debt. After that, he had no idea what he would do. He knew he couldn’t crawl back to his father.
“Are you going to do more crazy drugs and wild sex stuff?” Abby asked. “I loved that cover of you, by the way. It was the one where you were covered in cocaine, and the headline read ‘Is he killing his father?’ I thought that one was really funny.”
Lucas felt himself flush. “It was baby powder. A friend of mine took it. I’ve never actually tried it. I don’t do drugs. I don’t really drink that much, either. I’m really kind of boring.”
Abby sighed. Her mouth turned down in a disappointed little frown. “See, I knew those things were fake. It’s like pro wrestling, except with famous people.”
“Abigail, pro wrestling is real,” Sam insisted, but Lucas didn’t miss the twinkle in his eye. “And I don’t think Jack is going to let you hightail it back to California.”
“What do you mean?” Lucas sat up straight and wondered if his brother had decided to kill him anyway.
“He means I’ve decided to take you in hand, Lucas,” Jack said, walking into the bedroom. His brother was a huge presence in the room. He was tall and broad, and everything about him screamed authority, though strangely not in the way their father did. Lucas had always seen his father as a suffocating presence, even when he was ignoring him. Jack was the kind of man whom you knew would take care of things. Now his brother was rolling a luggage cart containing a strange cube of metal. It was about the size of an ottoman. He rolled it up to Sam.
“There you go, buddy.” Jack was cheerful as he patted the cube.
“What?” Sam glanced down at the gift.
“Damn it, Jack Barnes,” Abby cursed. “You have got to stop doing that.”
Sam’s face fell. “You cubed my motorcycle.” His hands went out to pat the cube. He stroked it sadly.
“Yep,” Jack agreed. “The good news is now it’s safe for our wife to sit on. And you’ve both got a cube.” He shot Lucas a look. “I cubed Abby’s car about six months ago. I’ve found that crushing a vehicle into a tiny square makes it less offensive to me.” He took his wife’s hand. “Now that I’ve dealt with Sam, will you follow me, please? You’ve had a little delivery I’d like to discuss with you, Abigail.”
He started to pull his wife along. Abby hustled to keep up. “Now, Jack, let’s talk about this.”
Sam was grinning as he got up. He winced a little as he straightened his spine. “Come on, Luke. This is going to be good.” He tossed Lucas a pair of jeans and sighed at his cube. He patted it fondly before he walked out.
Lucas pulled on the jeans and wished they were a little looser. He struggled to get the jeans on and then hurried to follow Sam into the suite next door. Lucas let his eyes go wide as he took in the crazy amount of boxes in the living area. They were all from Neiman Marcus.
“How much, Abigail?” Jack was asking.
Abby chewed on her bottom lip. “I was a little upset, Jack. I guess I was trying to get your attention. I can take it all back. Well, everything except the stuff I already wore.”
“Consider my attention completely focused on you, sweetheart. How much?”
Her face bunched up sweetly. “Fifty.”
Lucas was pretty sure she wasn’t talking about fifty dollars. His brother’s face flushed, and Lucas prepared for a screaming session to start. He hoped Jack didn’t get rough with her. Lucas would have to do something about that. She seemed like a really sweet lady. Instead, Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“All right,” he managed evenly. “I can handle it. You haven’t exactly been a spendthrift since we got married. We have plenty of money. Let me make another rule, Abigail. Purchases of over twenty thousand dollars need to get cleared by me. I think that’s reasonable.”
Abby nodded eagerly. “Absolutely.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “I can let the money go, but there is one thing I won’t stand for, Abby. You know the rules.” He picked up a handful of delicately colored fabric. Lucas stared at it for a moment before he realized it was a big mass of panties.
“Jack, what are you doing with my brand new undies?” Abby asked the question, but it sounded to Lucas like she knew what was about to happen.
Sam snorted and elbowed Lucas. “He’s going to do something crazy now.”
Jack
opened the door to the big balcony.
“Jackson Barnes, don’t you dare!” Abby shouted.
Jack walked straight to the railing and opened his hands. Designer panties rained down from seventeen floors up.
Abby stomped her bare foot. “Damn it, Jack! Those were La Perla.”
“I don’t give a damn whose they were,” Jack replied with a smirk. “You’re not allowed to wear underwear.”
“They matched my new bras.”
Jack shrugged. “Do you know what matches every bra you own? Your lovely, naked pussy. It better because that’s all you get.” He pulled a long box out of his pocket. “Maybe this will make up for the loss of your precious panties, darlin’.”
Abby took the box, a stubborn look on her face. She looked like she would reject anything he gave her. That look slid off as she opened the box. She gasped as she stared down at the diamond necklace. Even from his place, Lucas could tell it was stunning.
“Oh, Jack.” There were tears in her eyes as she held it up. “Put it on.”
Lucas felt so jealous as he watched his brother fasten the diamond choker around his wife’s throat. Jack belonged somewhere. Jack had people who loved him enough to fight with him.
Abby fingered the diamonds that marked her as Jack’s. “I love it. It’s the best collar ever. I promise to be fairly submissive when I wear it.”
“Good to know,” Jack said sarcastically as he leaned down and kissed his wife. It was a simple, sweet kiss that made Lucas wish he had someone to buy jewelry for.
“As for you,” Jack started, turning to Sam.
Sam crossed his arms over his chest defensively. “I already got my dream bike made into a foot rest, and the other thing. It’s pink, Jack. She picked the pink one. Isn’t that enough punishment?”
Jack laughed and kissed the blond man swiftly. It was just as sweet as the one he gave his wife. “No punishment, Sam. You need a collar. You’ll lose anything I give you, so I’ve arranged for something else. There’s a car waiting. You do everything they tell you to do.”