They meandered to the back of the barn, and David stopped a few times to talk to people. She remained quiet, memorized names, and when he gave permission, she replied to greetings and questions. Whenever she spoke, she tried to work in some kind of positive statement, usually a compliment. If a Dominant was worthwhile, then his sub’s opinion carried a lot of weight. It was her job to make sure they liked David.
Stopping next to the buffet, he said, “Are you hungry or thirsty?”
She’d grabbed an appetizer with Julianne and her date, so she wasn’t starving. “Not yet. I tend to crave a snack around nine.”
“Oh, yeah? What kind?”
“Whatever is around. I’m not picky. Almost all the food here looks scrumptious.”
He laughed. “Almost all? What doesn’t appeal to you?”
“The shrimp. For some reason, I never developed a liking for it.” Her sister had loved it, and when shrimp had been on the dinner menu, Summer had always generously taken Autumn’s portion.
“So if I take you out to dinner, you won’t eat the shrimp off my plate?” The deep brown of his irises lightened when he was happy. Autumn found this tell appealing. It was something he couldn’t control, a tell she could trust.
“I’d never eat off your plate. It’s rude.” Not to mention they wouldn’t be going out to dinner or anywhere else. Autumn didn’t date anymore. She didn’t have time for relationships. Between work and Summer, she barely had time for sleep.
Before he could respond, a megaphone squeaked to life. “Hi, everybody.”
The crowd had grown considerably since they’d arrived. They responded with a resounding, “Hi.” Several whistled, and one petite blonde with a loud mouth shouted, “Darcy, show us your stripes!”
Darcy grinned. “Layla and I have put together some games for your enjoyment. The first one is about to start on the east side of the barn. If you’re interested in playing, you need to get out there now. If you’re just watching, give us about ten minutes. It’ll be fun.”
Autumn looked to David, silently asking if he wanted to play.
He frowned. “She didn’t say what the game was. Maybe we should watch this first one.”
Autumn snorted. “It’s a game. The worst that can happen is we lose.” She tugged on his arm. “Come on. I heard from a reliable source that it’ll be fun.”
“All right, but don’t be surprised if it’s a spanking contest.”
It had been years since she’d been on the receiving end of a spanking. She remembered them fondly. At the time, she’d been going by Alicia Lowe. She and Summer had worked together to net almost sixty thousand in bonds. Good times. She winked at David. “I wore the right kind of underwear.”
Interest sparked behind his eyes, but he didn’t comment. “Shall we?”
The contest turned out to involve balloons and teams. She found herself in line with a string tied around her waist. The balloon was attached in the back. It flopped onto her ass. David stood behind her, similarly attired.
“I feel ridiculous.”
She chuckled. “Wait until the woman behind you has to pop your balloon.”
The woman behind him was a little shorter than Autumn, and she held herself with confidence and grace. The Italian beauty’s grin matched Autumn’s. “Don’t worry. I won’t be gentle.”
The man behind her, a tall, handsome drink of water, laughed. “She’s not kidding. I’m Keith, and this is Kat. I don’t think we’ve met?”
David shook hands with the pair. “David Eastridge. I’m an associate of Frankie and Jesse’s. This is Bree.”
They exchanged pleasantries for a moment, and then the buzzer sounded. The goal was to pop as many balloons as they could in one minute. The first person in line ran to a chair situated about ten yards away. The second person ran after her. He rammed his pelvis into the balloon, but the contest proved deceptive in its simplicity. The balloon stretched and moved, fighting for life. The man pumped his pelvis harder, and eventually the balloon popped.
Autumn was up next. She calculated the height difference as she ran, and by the time she got to him, she’d worked out the physics. “Bend your knees more. Lower. That’s it.” She grabbed his hips and pressed forward. This was about accuracy and pressure, not speed. One determined thrust, and she popped the balloon.
She braced herself on the chair. David was taller, so she didn’t bend her knees except to help with leverage. He grabbed her hips and thrust, but he didn’t use enough force.
“Harder,” she said. “Please, Sir!”
He laughed, so when he failed to pop the balloon a second time, she repeated herself really loudly. While she didn’t mind winning, she kept his orders in mind—she was to have fun. In her head, that translated to making sure he had fun. “If you keep that up,” he said, keeping his voice low, “I might think you’re coming on to me.”
She meant to do it again, but he surged forward and popped the balloon. Now she got to watch as Kat tried to pop David’s balloon. She was laughing too hard and the balloon kept slipping to the side, so after a time, David helped out by pressing backward. Keith ran forward for his turn, and David returned to her at the back of the line. Together, they cheered their team. They came in third place out of eight teams, and she hugged David to celebrate their victory.
He kissed her on the cheek. “That’s one.”
A little later, they watched a man tie his sub into a corselet. If Autumn wasn’t mistaken, it was the same woman who had announced the contest through the megaphone earlier. Up close, she looked a lot like Amy, only without the pigtails. Her Dominant had left her bra on, though he’d removed her shirt. He talked as he wove the ropes, and when he finished, he invited the onlookers to try their hand at it with their subs. “Jordan, Keith, Dustin, and I will be around to coach you through it, and I know a great variation for male subs. With them, you don’t have to go around the boobs. Nothing is sexier than seeing your sub wearing your ropes.”
David regarded Autumn regretfully. “I didn’t bring ropes. Maybe next time.”
“Here.” Jordan appeared out of nowhere. He handed a coil to David. “You can use mine. Amy’s not one for public play. Yet.”
Autumn fingered the rope. The silk caressed her back. “I’m game if you are.” David didn’t respond, so she lifted her arms. “It’s okay if this is your first time. Everybody’s a virgin once.”
“It’s been a while.” David untied the knot holding the coil together. “You’re going to need to be patient.”
She encouraged with a smile. “I’ve got all evening.”
Jordan took a few steps back to give them privacy. David worked quietly and with methodical meticulousness.
Autumn mostly watched his face, but her gaze was repeatedly drawn to the way his shoulders and arms moved. Muscles bunched and elongated, and the deeper he concentrated, the more he sucked the corner of his upper lip. Autumn was tempted to offer to suck it for him. Instead she chose to say something innocuous. “You’re cute when you’re concentrating.”
He glanced up, surprised, and his knot-weaving fingers stuttered.
She raised her eyebrows. “Let me guess—nobody’s ever told you that you were cute before?”
“You’re not at all what I expected.”
“You wanted a leggy blonde with huge fake boobs?”
He exhaled a laugh. “No.”
“Botox lips and cherry red lipstick?”
“Hell, no. I just didn’t think you’d be so forward.”
“Ahh.” She sighed knowingly. “I’m not demure, and that’s a turn off.”
“Not at all. It’s refreshing. I like that you’re lighthearted and that you feel free to tease and flirt. I’m having fun, and I didn’t think I would.” He went back to looping rope.
Autumn knew she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world. Her looks were passable, and most of the time she downplayed them to fly under the radar. She did the same thing with her personality, though she was letting it off the
leash more often tonight than she usually did. She watched him untie the knot and try again. “Maybe you want to ask Jordan for help.” She used her whispering skills so nobody but David would hear. “I don’t know how to tie that one either.”
He looked around, but Jordan was working with another couple, so he signaled the original presenter who was walking around with his sub and giving pointers. David offered his hand. “You’re Malcolm, right? I’m David Eastridge.”
Malcolm nodded. “Jordan told me you were here tonight. Glad you could make it. Frankie speaks highly of you.” His sub, still wearing the corselet her Dom had tied during the presentation, waited patiently as Malcolm talked David through making a double coin knot.
“That’s it. Then do the same thing in the back. It looks good, and it’ll keep the corselet from slipping too much when she moves.” Malcolm and David moved behind her to work. “I hear you’re looking into CalderCo?”
“No work talk.” Malcolm’s sub broke her silence with that hissed reminder.
“Sweetheart, you just lost one stroke of the cane.”
Though Autumn couldn’t see the sub’s face, she could feel the palpable disappointment. Only a Painslut would be upset about one less hit with a cane. However, that wasn’t what made her flinch. How, exactly, was David “looking into” CalderCo? That was where she worked as an accountant. It was her one anchor to the normal world, the cover for her extracurricular activities, and it paid for the majority of her sister’s care. Did he know she worked there?
Oh, the questions she had and couldn’t ask. Wait—yes she could. “CalderCo? That’s a shipping company. I thought you were in analytics?”
“I am.” David came around to her side. Malcolm showed him how to tie off the corselet and adjust the placement of the final knot. When he looked at her, his expression was shuttered. “How does that feel?”
She ran her palms over the ropes. “Great. And it looks fantastic.” Turning around, she found Malcolm assessing the attempt with a critical eye. His sub was still pouting over her punishment. Autumn felt sorry for her.
“Malcolm, meet Bree. Bree, this is Malcolm.”
“Nice to meet you, Bree.” He turned to his sub. “This is my wife, Darcy. She and a few friends arranged this whole party.”
“It’s a lovely party. I very much enjoyed the first game. It revealed so much about technique and finesse.”
Darcy laughed. “It did, didn’t it? Amy said I’d like you.”
“Amy is your sister? There’s definitely a family resemblance. You’re both so beautiful.”
Malcolm put his arm around his wife and pulled her against his side, pinching her ass hard as he did so. “It’s almost time for the next game.”
Bliss parted Darcy’s lips, a reaction to the pinch. “Layla’s announcing this one, but thank you anyway, Master.” Her eyes opened, and she focused on Autumn. “If you liked the first game, you’ll love the second one. And later, there’s one where your Sir will have to guide you, blindfolded, through an obstacle course, using only a crop and his voice. Then there’s the gauntlet, if you’re brave enough to walk down an aisle lined with sadists armed with paddles.”
Malcolm rolled his eyes at his wife’s near-orgasmic listing of the festivities. “Which you won’t be doing in your condition.”
“Congratulations.” David caught on a few seconds before Autumn did. “When are you due?”
“In seven months. This is baby number two for us. Our son is eight months old. Yep, barefoot and pregnant, that’s me since the day we met.” From the sarcasm in Darcy’s reply, Autumn couldn’t tell whether the woman was happy or upset.
Malcolm grinned as he kissed Darcy’s temple. “What can I say? My boys are powerful swimmers. They laugh in the face of both condoms and birth control pills.”
“Let’s see how amused they are when you get a vasectomy.”
Autumn couldn’t help but laugh at Darcy’s dry tone. She clamped a hand over her mouth and buried her face in David’s shirt to hide her laughter. He hugged her to him, and his chest shook with silent amusement as well.
“I’m going to get her something to eat. Pregnancy has made Darcy start hallucinating when she’s hungry.” With that, he dragged her off toward the barn.
Autumn looked up at David. With her body pressed to his and the way he held her, it was an intimate pose. “I bet she’s a handful.”
A slow grin lightened his eyes. “I bet you are as well.”
She shrugged. “It’s been known to happen.”
The light in his eyes dimmed, and his mood grew sober. “I have really big hands.”
This wasn’t supposed to get serious. She dropped her gaze, severing the spell he was weaving. When she lifted it, she attempted to make his eyes turn lighter again. She was beginning to really like that cinnamon brown color. “All men think they have big hands.”
It worked. He laughed.
Chapter Three
Never before in an op had David felt less like conducting that operation. As Darcy tied his arm to Bree’s, he couldn’t seem to peel his gaze from the mysterious woman who might or might not be stealing from his father’s company.
“How’s that?” Darcy asked. “Tell me if it’s too tight or too loose or needs adjusting. I’m not all that good with rope.”
Bree grinned. “No need to be when your husband is so skilled. Is that what brought you together?”
Darcy laughed. “Not at all. When we met, I had an intense fear of being bound, and I hated cops. Malcolm, of course, loved bondage, and he was an undercover FBI agent investigating me for a bunch of crimes I didn’t commit. We eventually resolved our differences.”
David saw his opening. “Is that why he’s no longer with the FBI?”
Her expression fell the smallest amount. “No. I’d never ask him to give up doing something he loved. Mal is very much his own man, and he doesn’t always like to follow orders when they don’t work with his objectives.” She fixed David with a firm look that said she knew more about his situation than she would say out loud. “If you want details, you’re going to have to ask him.”
“The ropes are fine,” Bree interrupted, and David was once again grateful for her presence. She seemed to have a way of charming people, setting them at ease, and defusing tense situations before they got out of control. “Is Layla going to go over the rules for the game?”
“Yes.” Darcy looked past them. She raised her voice so Layla could hear over the din. “I think everybody’s ready.”
The object of the game was to get as many striped peppermint candies as possible from the plate near Bree to the fishbowl on his other side. He and Bree were positioned on the opposite side of a line, and her right wrist was bound to his left. The location of the peppermints was slightly out of reach for each of them.
“You lose a point every time you go over the line, and each peppermint is a point. Grab one at a time, pass it to your partner, and they have to get it in the fishbowl. Oh, and you can’t use your hands except to touch your partner. You have two minutes. Go!”
David looked across Bree to where she needed to pick up a peppermint. “Lean over as far as you need. I’ll hold you for balance.” He held her hand. This was a trust game. “I won’t drop you.”
She flipped her braid behind her shoulder, revealing a shocking configuration of scars. They marred her shoulder a little, but most of the damage had occurred along her collarbone and neck. No details about this had been in her file. She distracted him with a confident half-smile. “Let’s do this.”
Bracing her foot against his—without crossing the line—she leaned over and picked up a mint with her teeth. Before he could pull her, she was back. He bent his knees to line up his mouth with hers. “This doesn’t count as kissing.”
With the peppermint effectively gagging her, she couldn’t respond.
He used his tongue to take the candy, dipping into her mouth to snake it around the treat. His bowl was closer, and he was taller, so he didn’t
need her leverage to make the deposit.
She didn’t dawdle. As soon as he was upright, she grabbed the next one. They worked quickly and efficiently, though each time his lips came into contact with hers, he had to force himself not to take his time and explore the sparks that kept igniting. Later he’d dazzle her with his tongue wrestling skills.
“Time!”
The verbal buzzer sounded as Bree was on her way to get another peppermint. David pulled her back to him, wrapped his free arm around her bare waist, and reined in the passion simmering in his veins. Her gaze fixated on his lips, and he wondered if she truly was a switch and, if so, was she in submissive headspace right now? Pushing aside the reasons his mission sanctioned his actions, he traced his thumb along her lower lip before cupping the side of her head with the hand still bound to hers. “This counts.”
He closed his mouth over hers, taking what he wanted. She tasted of mint and a sweetness that had nothing to do with sugar. Her body softened against his, and she tilted her head a little more to give him better access. Chemical reactions burst through his senses in a series of tiny detonations that drove him to deepen his foray. She grasped his sleeve, her nails digging the slightest bit into his arm, and a soft, kittenish moan sounded in the back of her throat.
Though he wanted to cup her ass and thrust his thigh between hers, he ended the kiss. If he went against her limits now, it would sour her toward him, and he needed her close in order to conduct his investigation. Besides, he couldn’t stomach Doms who didn’t honor the agreements they made with their subs.
He released her slowly, making sure she had firm control of her faculties before letting go. When she smiled at him this time, it had a softer, subdued element that had been missing before now. “Yeah. That definitely counts.”
Re/Leased (Doms of the FBI Book 5) Page 4