by Claire Marta
“I’ll be in touch,” Ivan murmured in her ear as they left the room.
At the foot of the stairs, they went their separate ways. Leaving him to his own devices, she headed back into the main hall to observe the public scenes. The two new floor monitors watched her enter, one pair of brown eyes and one set of hazel orbs marking her return. She had no idea what they looked like behind their executioner hoods, but they were tall, dark and sculpted, one with chest hair, the other without.
Her fingers itched to discover the difference.
She could feel the weight of their gazes on her as she moved around the space. Stopping near the stocks where a sub was being tormented by her Dom, she paused to watch the scene, feeling the burn on her behind and confused over her reaction to Ivan. She shouldn’t want him. She dared not want him. He represented everything that she fought against.
Precious Pet came to stand beside her. “I’m certain that you noticed our new floor monitors, Sir Moses and Sir Aaron. Such potential,” she sighed theatrically. “Master Gardeners in the making. Mark my word.”
Casey rolled her eyes. She really didn’t want to talk about men when she was trying to forget one.
“Cat got your tongue? How about we adjourn to my office?” Precious Pet suggested. “We can speak freely there, or just kick back with a glass of wine and bask in the silence.”
The wine sounded good. Really, really good.
“I can use a drink,” she told her. “Lead the way.”
Precious Pet waited until she was seated on the antique daybed that graced her office to speak. “So what’s up, Dora?”
Although they knew each other in real life, they were careful to use their play names in the club. It was too easy to let one slip if you didn’t. The masks helped to keep their perspectives.
Pouring two glasses of wine, she handed Casey one of them and sat on the other end of the daybed. “I don’t see you for months at a time and you’re here two weeks in a row. Is it because of Thanksgiving? Do you have any plans?”
Casey had wondered herself why she’d come—the first time, anyway. Tonight, she’d come to meet Ivan and finalize his deal with the ATF. “I don’t have plans,” she said. “I don’t have a family. And Thanksgiving this year falls on the anniversary of my brother’s murder. Sorry. I don’t mean to pull you down with me. It’s just…, you know…, holidays are hard.”
Precious Pet reached across and rubbed her shoulder. “I know, sweetie. I know. My Master Gardener’s been gone five years now. Every holiday, I have to remind myself that it’s just me. Unless you want to make it a duo. You know, you’re always welcome.” She sipped her wine and sighed. “God, I miss him.”
Feeling her loss, Casey’s throat grew tight with tears. “Thank you, but no. My roommate’s flying home and I’ll have the whole place to myself. I can drink myself under the table, wallow in my misery, and spend the rest of the weekend sobering up for work on Monday. I need to be legal to pick her up at the airport. Other than that, from Wednesday night on, the weekend is mine.”
“If you change your mind, you have my number. I don’t care if it’s last-minute,” Precious Pet assured her.
Casey’s heart was heavy and her head was confused. Maybe she had been seeking Ivan out because of the day that was looming. Every year hurt as much as the first. Ben’s absence was made worse now that she had the name of his killer. A tiny dark whisper urged her to take matters into her own hands. Seek the Russian out and put a bullet in his head. Casey wanted vengeance but she had lived by the rules all her life. If she crossed the line, she would be forever changed. She couldn’t do that. Some days, her inner code was the only thing that kept her going.
When her parents had died in a plane crash, Ben had consoled her while dealing with his own grief. Casey had never been able to grieve properly. It was as if she were stuck, unable to move on from their loss. On the outside, she was confident and strong. What people didn’t see were the broken pieces that she kept hidden inside. Shards that only seemed to fragment further, caught in a downward spiral.
Feeling the familiar depression that November brought, Casey poured herself another glass of wine.
Precious Pet arched an eloquent brow but let her drink. She seemed to sense how much she needed this. They might have enjoyed their session longer, but about a half-hour into it, knuckles rapped on the door.
“Precious Pet? We have a problem.”
Casey’s head snapped, and vertigo nearly laid her low. She didn’t think she’d had that much to drink but she’d eaten lightly today.
“Master S,” the voice in the hallway said softly. “And his play partner.”
Casey cursed the Russian. He’d teased the hell out of her, gotten both of them torqued up, and had likely gotten too rough with his second choice of partner.
Precious cast a look over her shoulder.
“It’s late,” Casey told her. “I should get going.” Her last time here, Morgan had beaten her home. Thank God, she always changed to street clothes before leaving The Garden. She had told Morgan she’d been working, which was partially true after dealing with Ivan. Her best friend had accepted her story without question.
Tonight, though, Morgan was meeting her clients at the Whaler’s Catch seafood restaurant. Knowing how long that could take, chances were, she’d beat her home.
“Stay,” Precious told her. “There’s something I want to talk to you about. Help yourself to the wine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
More wine sounded good to Casey. The more, the merrier.
Too bad she was a grumpy drunk. Morgan was the happy one. Christ on a cracker. If that girl wasn’t already fucking Zac or Aiden or both of them, she’d be back as soon as the release form was filed and she was legally free to pursue them. There was no mistaking the electricity that hummed between those three.
Her thoughts turned to their friends Iosefa and Malik. The Cowled Crusader and his Sidepiece. She’d ranted about them to Precious Pet, wishing they’d leave her the hell alone. Now that they were, she found herself missing them. How fucked up was that?
Looking over the liquor selection, Casey decided she needed something stronger than wine and reached for the vodka—an appropriate choice to self-medicate after dealing with Ivan and the Bratva.
She poured a goblet full and took it back to the daybed. If she didn’t have someone to hold her and snuggle with and have sex with, she could damn well numb herself with alcohol.
Precious never came back. Casey kept drinking, drowning her sorrows in eighty-proof liquor.
She was experiencing a deliciously warm buzz through her veins when a knock at the door drew her attention.
“Precious isn’t here!” she yelled, wishing whoever was there would just go away.
The door opened. The two new floor monitors, Sir Moses and Sir Aaron, peeked inside. “We know.” Sir Moses’s voice was deliciously low and gravelly. “She asked us to check on you and see if there was anything else that you needed.”
Cock, thought Casey, and here were two of them. Nice ones, judging by what she’d seen in the main hall.
Casey smiled broadly. “Come on in, good Sirs.”
The men stepped inside, closing the door behind them. Their eyes shimmered oddly through the holes in their executioner hoods.
Grabbing the bottle of Vodka, she offered it to them. “Drink?”
“We’re not allowed to while on duty,” Sir Aaron declined, his voice just as guttural.
Why did the sound do strange things to her lady parts? They might be floor monitors now, but Precious had them pegged as Master Gardener material and her subbie senses were never wrong.
Maybe she could talk them into practicing with her. Her session with Ivan had left her miserably needy.
They stayed where they stood, watching her intently. Casey frowned. She wanted them closer, not with the expanse of the room between them.
She patted the places beside her. “Come here. Come on. Please? I promise I won’t b
ite… unless that’s what you want….”
CHAPTER NINE
Malik looked at Iosefa and wondered wildly what they should do. The rules forbade excess alcohol use, and Casey was clearly sloshed. She’d never let two virtual strangers get near her if she was anywhere near sober.
But drinking had lowered her defenses and left her vulnerable. They had to stay with her for her own good until Precious Pet could return.
Yet who knew how long she would be? The Russian Dom had refused to leave. She and some of the other directors were with him now. The situation was not good. Not good at all.
And to think, it could have been Casey.
She pouted, sticking out her lower lip like a petulant school girl. “Please,” she begged. “My friend’s gone tonight, and I’ll be alone at Thanksgiving and I haven’t had much to eat and I needed something to ease this ache inside. It hurts to be alone, you know?”
She whispered her confession, subconsciously reaching out to them for help to ease her pain. They were still on duty, but Precious had ordered them to take care of Casey, to get her whatever she wanted and see that she got home safely. If they’d said no, she would have asked someone else to do it and that was not acceptable.
The female before them seemed so fragile, not the strong Casey they knew. The air was rife with the intoxicating scent of her arousal. To their relief, it was not mixed with the smell of sexual congress. Whatever had happened in the private room with Master S, she had not given him her body.
“Please,” she begged when they didn’t move.
Malik looked at Iosefa and nodded. They couldn’t say no to her. Not when she needed them.
Joining her on the daybed, they sat on either side of her. She was still wearing the schoolgirl outfit with her cat mask and her blonde hair in pigtails. Malik’s fingers twitched with the urge to run them through the silky strands but he refrained.
Curling her fingers around one of Iosefa’s hands, she tugged him to her and pulled him with her when she snuggled into Malik’s side.
“Hold me.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he cradled Casey, while Iosefa nestled against her other side. Alcohol laced her breath, and her blue eyes were slightly unfocused. Her fingers trembling, she lifted her hand and stroked the hair on Malik’s chest, exploring its texture and humming like it was the most fascinating thing that she’d felt all night.
She traced his areola with the pad of her thumb and watched his nipple furl. “So hard,” she whispered. “I like it hard. I guess you know that, right?”
Leaning, she caught the knotted tip between her teeth and sucked it into her mouth. She slid her hand south to discover his erection.
“Dora…,” he warned, careful to use her play name. “This isn’t a good idea.”
She looked up at him from where she was and stopped sucking long enough to answer. “But it is,” she swore. “It’s the best damn idea I’ve had all night.”
Iosefa’s eyes widened when she took hold of his erection, too.
“I want you to fuck me,” she said. “Fuck me ‘til I can’t walk straight. I don’t want to go home right now. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Condoms?” his partner croaked.
“Don’t need them,” she laughed. “You’re clean. He’s clean. I’m clean. We’re all clean.”
“But… birth control…”
Tobias would kill them if they got her pregnant without permission.
“Shot,” she slurred. “Ping! Ever’ three months without fail."
But was it enough? Any form of contraceptive carried a percentage of failure. Casey didn’t seem to care. Her movements edged with desperation, she moved her hands to the front of Malik’s pants, worked his button free, and slid down his zipper. His erection surged free of the opening. When she tried to wrap her fingers around his girth, all rational thought disappeared. There were only her and the need that drove them.
From Iosefa’s gaze, he was just as gone.
Sliding to her knees on the carpet between them, Casey caressed Malik’s cock and reached for Iosefa again. He was already unzipping the front of his pants. When her hand made contact with his phallus, he groaned.
She seemed impressed with both their sizes. Wetting her lips, she eyed the precum pearled in their slits, looking like she’d love to feast on it. Leaning over Malik’s thigh, she lapped it with her tongue and spread it over his tip. He’d had a woman give him oral pleasure but it paled in comparison to this, with her, wrapping her lips around him and taking him deep in her throat.
Casey was their fated mate, he was certain.
She saw to Iosefa’s needs, too, taking turns, offering them the use of her mouth. Catching her ponytails, Malik pulled her more forcefully down onto him and jacked his hips, fucking her face. She moaned around his length. Her scent in the air grew thicker.
He looked over at Iosefa and nodded, communicating without words. Their woman ached, she was so empty. Iosefa was more than happy to fill her needy void.
Kneeling behind her, he pushed his hand between her legs. She whimpered, her body language begging him to take her. Which hole would he choose?
Malik couldn’t see her ass from where he was sitting, but he knew it was marked from the cane and had to be sore. When Iosefa ripped off her panties and shoved his length in her opening, she grabbed Malik’s thighs to brace herself from the force of his invasion.
The Samoan claimed her like the spoils of war, fully, deeply, driving into her again and again, his mouth twisted with unspeakable pleasure. They had wanted her so long, after seeing her with Master S tonight, it did not take long for them to achieve the pinnacle of pleasure. Malik fisted her hair and fucked her face with the roughness that she wanted. Iosefa pounded into her, building in strength and speed.
Malik groaned, breath hissing between his teeth when he felt his testicles draw up tight against his body. “I’m going to come,” he warned her in his true voice. “Take it, wildcat. Take it all and lick me clean.”
He came with the force that shot ropes of cum across her tongue and against her palate. Keeping her lips tight around him, she hollowed her cheeks and sucked him dry. Iosefa watched him finish in her mouth. His partner’s rhythm broke and he drove in deep, bathing her womb with his seed.
It was done.
If Casey was their fated mate, the transformation process would begin.
Iosefa shuddered and pulled free. Rising, he caught Casey’s waist and guided her onto the sofa to sit beside them. Malik tucked himself away, re-buttoning his pants. Casey curled up between them, her head resting on his thigh like a pillow. A smile curved her lips as her eyelids fluttered shut. She looked sated and content.
Iosefa stuffed her panties into his pocket and zipped up his fly. “We can’t stay here. Precious Pet will return.”
“We need to clean her up.” Malik looked down at the sleeping woman. “Find some tissues or wet wipes.”
Iosefa disappeared into the private bathroom and returned with a warm, wet washcloth and a clean, dry towel. He gently wiped her face and washed her genitals, taking care of his seed that had leaked down her thighs. Her skirt rode up, revealing rod-shaped welts and bruises. Malik pulled it down to cover her, afraid if Precious Pet walked in right now, she might never let them come back.
When she did manage to return, there was no mistaking the scene that she walked into. Her office smelled like sex, and Casey was out like a light.
Precious Pet glanced at their female and smiled.
“Looks like you fellas have the situation well in hand.”
“I don’t think that she should drive,” Iosefa said. “We don’t know how much she had to drink tonight. I know what the rules say about excessive alcohol consumption, but she was talking and coherent when we came in. I think she must be very tired.”
“Talking and coherent and horny,” Precious Pet muttered. “Girl, girl. What am I going to do with you?”
“Let us take her home,” Malik suggested. “Between
the two of us, we can see that she gets safely into her apartment.”
Precious Pet frowned. “Not unless you know the door code.”
They looked at each other. “Well, actually, we do.”
She cackled with glee. “I knew it! Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ. The lady doth protest too much. All right, men. Let me fetch her things from the changing room and I’ll have the valet get her car. Bring her downstairs in ten minutes. We’ll have it warming and waiting for you.”
After Precious had left, Iosefa frowned. “She is trusting us with Casey. I thought for certain we were going to be in trouble. With Casey drunk, I feared she would be expelled from the club.”
Malik stroked their female’s blonde head, her cheek still nestled on his thigh. “She would have been upset to awaken to that. Perhaps Precious sees how much Casey needs this place. We must talk Tobias into building a dungeon. I don’t want her playing here without us. And I don’t want her playing here with us—not if we have to pose as Aaron and Moses. She needs to want us for who we are, but I don’t know how we’ll manage it. We are fucked,” he grumbled.
Iosefa grinned. “Yes, we are.”
Ten minutes passed and they began to move. Iosefa carried Casey cradled in his arms while Malik opened the door. Tucked into his chest, she didn’t stir but continued to slumber peacefully. As promised, her things—and theirs—were waiting at the reception desk and her car was ready. Precious Pet had also brought a blanket to wrap her in, which was much easier than putting on her coat.
Malik donned his outerwear and took Casey from him. Iosefa slipped on his coat, grabbed their things, and led the way to the car. He put everything in the front passenger seat and climbed into the back. Malik handed him their precious cargo, the two of them working to drape the sleeping woman over the seat beside him.
Malik took the wheel and drove. Looking in the rearview mirror, he saw Iosefa playing with her ponytail. “How do you think she will react tomorrow?”
His partner sighed. “She is… unpredictable. We can only guess.”