by Cara Adams
She’d reverted to using Laurie as her last name as soon as she’d filed for divorce. It turned out Laurie had always been her name and she realized how stupid and naïve she’d been not noticing that she didn’t have to change her name on dozens of official documents. At seventeen she’d just assumed Miles had handled that for her. At twenty-two she’d known she would have had to make many changes in person. It was no wonder Miles had never let her drive the car. She’d have seen instantly that there was no “new” license with her “new” name, just the old one she still had in her purse.
She leaned into Asher, letting her aching breasts push against his chest, feeling the points of her nipples rub against his skin, reveling in his strength and power as he thrust up inside her over and over again.
Elijah kneeled behind her and slid his big hands over her breasts. She pulled back from Asher so Elijah could pinch her nipples and cup the mounds of her breasts. His thumbs stroked the little nubs as his palms cupped the soft underside of her globes. Asher held her hips, ramming up high and hard inside her, driving her wild with the need to come. He held her firmly and slammed her down on him with every stroke, making her gasp at the depth of his penetration.
Elijah licked and sucked the back of her neck, never ceasing his torment of her breasts, as Asher pumped harder and faster until her climax burst through her, leaving her limp with release as her cunt gripped Asher’s cock again and again. Heat burst inside her, telling her he’d come.
Asher kissed her sweetly, tenderly and then released her. Most of the ketchup was gone from her skin, but she rubbed the rest off in the water. She didn’t have to stand up herself. Elijah was right there to help her up to her feet and out of the tub.
So kind. So considerate. Such a fucking shame it’s only for tonight. But I won’t forget what they’ve taught me. It’s time to erase Miles’s criticisms from my brain.
* * * *
“You don’t have to go back to your own room. You can stay with us tonight,” said Asher.
But Ryia shook her head, determinedly sliding her feet into her shoes. She’d gotten dressed so fast he’d almost missed it, even to combing her hair in so few quick strokes he could hardly believe it when the neat brown bob sat smooth and sleek around her head.
“We’ll save you a seat with us at the keynote speech tomorrow morning then,” said Elijah.
“Only if you sit well toward the back. I want to take notes and don’t want everyone staring at me.”
“Yes, ma’am. Near the back it is,” said Asher. He wished she wanted to be up the back so they could touch her and told her hand during the boring parts of the program, but at least she’d agreed to sit with them. And besides, he was supposed to be there for work as well. But it was fucking hard to concentrate on the job when what he really wanted to do was hold Ryia in his arms all night and never let her go again.
Elijah had been pulling his pants on as Ryia got dressed, but once again she refused to let them walk her to her room. “I’d rather be alone, but thank you for your concern,” she said, slipping out of the door as Asher watched her with amazement. Before he could even close his mouth she was gone.
“I thought women were supposed to spend hours in front of the bathroom mirror doing their hair and makeup and stuff,” he complained.
“Apparently not our woman.” Elijah still hadn’t even zipped his pants up and was pulling them off again as he spoke.
“She’s ours, Elijah. She’s the one I want. I know there’ll be a few hurdles to overcome with that asshole ex of hers. And I’m sure she hasn’t told us the full story there yet either. But it doesn’t matter She’s ours.”
“I agree. With everything. That she’s our woman and about the ex. If I ever meet him you’d better be ready with bail money.”
“Hell, likely I’ll end up in jail with you. He’s been far too cruel to our loving, beautiful woman. How could he do that to such an amazing person?”
“Because he’s an asshole.”
Asher nodded. “Okay, so tomorrow. Shall we take it in turns to go to whatever sessions Ryia wants to attend, and the other one do whatever we’d planned?”
“Nah. Fuck the plan. We’ll concentrate on her.”
“That sounds doable.” Asher pictured her in the Jacuzzi. Her skin slightly pink from the warm water, her mid-brown hair darker from the humidity, her lips lush and red, matching her nipples, and her cunt so welcoming he could have come the moment he’d entered her.
They were early for the breakfast buffet, but Asher wasn’t at all surprised when Ryia didn’t arrive. And he was damn sure she wasn’t sitting in her room eating a room service meal. Likely she’d decided she’d eaten too many calories the previous night and was off in the gym running on a treadmill or something. Or maybe she was in the exhibition hall again. She was taking those displays really seriously, looking at every one and keeping notes on them. He and Elijah had walked through the exhibition hall and picked up a few brochures, but Ryia was studying them like there was going to be a pop test on them any minute.
They still had almost an hour before the keynote session began, so he said, “Let’s go to the exhibition hall again. Ryia might be there.”
“Good plan. She’s addicted to that room.”
“Yeah, I know. Maybe we ought to look at the displays more carefully ourselves. Likely we’re missing something important.”
First they walked around the hall looking for Ryia, but when they saw she wasn’t there, they went past all the displays again. There was a hell of a lot of them, and some were damn interesting. He couldn’t remember which ones he’d taken brochures from already, and it seemed kind of rude to pull all the brochures out of his conference bag to check, so Asher picked up new ones at the stands he thought might be useful for work.
The display right by the doorway was presented by the convention itself, advertising where and when next year’s convention would be held and what was planned for it. Asher was just about to suggest they pick up information there in case someone else wanted to go, when he saw Ryia. She was sitting at a table inside the booth, talking to a man in the convention uniform. He was sitting close to her, although not touching her, but his body language told Asher the man wanted to get to know her better. Not my woman. Not happening.
He hurried into the booth and stood behind Ryia, staring at the convention employee. The man looked up at him and the smile on his face disappeared. “Can I help you, sir? I’ll be free in a few moments.”
“That’s all right. I’m just waiting for…Ryia.”
He’d had to stop himself saying “my woman.” But she was his woman. His and Elijah’s, not this jumped-up peacock’s.
Ryia twisted around in her chair to stare at him. “I’m sorry. I thought we were meeting in the other room. I’m considering renting a stand at the convention next year. I won’t be a moment. I just have two more questions to ask.”
He nodded, and she looked down at the notebook she had on the table. As always, she was taking notes. She took everything so seriously. It was a lesson to him really. Maybe he ought to work harder himself.
She asked her questions, wrote down the answers, and checked she had a passel of paperwork the convention employee pointed out to her.
The man shook her hand and Asher ground his teeth at the thought of someone else touching her, but she wasn’t his yet. How had be become so very possessive so fast? He wasn’t the fucking wolf. That was Elijah.
Asher looked over at his friend and noted the crossed arms, spread legs, and frowning face. Yes. Elijah was finding this as hard as he was. This was day two of the convention. Was it too soon to ask Ryia to mate them? Yeah, probably. Fuck!
* * * *
Elijah hated it that some stranger was sitting companionably with his woman and enjoying talking to her. Not that he expected Ryia not to talk to people, but the convention employee seemed to be far too happy to be with her than he should be. The wolf was starting to see that she might need more looking after than
he’d appreciated until they could get her safely committed to them and wearing their ring. Or better yet a collar. She’d obeyed them by closing her eyes last night. Would she play a BDSM game with them? Might she turn out to be their sub as well as their mate?
He also noticed how Ryia had apologized by saying she had misunderstood where they were to meet, when actually she was perfectly correct. They were the ones in the wrong. They were early and not waiting where they’d said they’d be. She had much nicer manners than him. He needed to get his act together really fast or some polished man would snatch her out of his hands if he didn’t watch out. She wasn’t theirs yet, and if they wanted her they needed to be caring and considerate, not rough and abrupt with her. Damn. His mama had reared him right. He’d had good manners instilled in him. It was about time he dusted them off and started using them.
Perfume? Didn’t all women like perfume? There was sure to be a store downstairs that sold that kind of thing. He’d go and pick something out for her today. No, wait. He ought to ask her what kind of fragrances she preferred first. This was a gift for her and he had to focus on what she liked. So, first he needed a conversation about her favorite things, and then he could go buy her some perfume to give her tonight. Right. He could do that.
When she stood up and left the tiny booth, Elijah gently held her arm, and Asher said, “Have you finished in here yet? We’ve still got maybe seven or eight minutes before we have to be in the other room.”
“I’m all done, thank you. I have a lot of sorting out to so, lists to make and so on, but I have all the information I require, thank you.”
“Shall we go into the other room, then, and you can choose where you want to sit?” asked Asher.
She said at the back, Elijah reminded himself, but he stood behind her, letting her choose. Sure enough, she walked to the side of the room, much as she’d done the previous night, and sat by the wall. At least she was between them in the row of seats, thanks to Asher moving quickly. No other man was going to be able to touch her.
“What do you mean lists to make out?” he asked curiously once they were settled in their seats, Ryia with her notepad on her knee and her pen in her hand.
“Well, you know I own a store,” she said softly looking around them. Elijah nodded. He noticed Asher looking all around them, too, but couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation. They weren’t exactly selling illicit drugs or planning to rob a bank here.
“I came here primarily to learn from the speakers and workshops. But I’m also looking for extra ideas for stock for my store, or things I could do to make my store more interesting. There’s only me to look after me, so I have to make a success of this business.”
He wanted to contradict her to say he and Asher would look after her forever, but now wasn’t the time or place for that conversation.
“Have you found some ideas already? I noticed you collecting brochures and business cards,” said Asher.
“Oh yes. One of the suppliers has scented nail polish. That’s one thing I intend to add to my inventory immediately. That’s a really clever and sexy idea. A lot of other things have potential but I’ll need to weigh up one against the other and then try things out. I can’t afford to fill my store with new ideas all at once and risk none of them selling.”
“That’s logical.”
She looked down at her lap as the rows in front of them began to fill up and Elijah knew she didn’t want to talk about her store anymore right now. However, there was one question he could ask her that should be all right.
“You mentioned scented nail polish. Do you have some favorite scents?”
“I don’t really know. I like shampoo and body products with fruit scents. Peach and coconut and apple blossom. I’m not sure they’d work for nail polish, though. I guess they might have strawberry or something. I’d need to check the catalogue.”
That wasn’t what he wanted to know. “How about fragrances for perfumes?”
“Perfume?” She seemed quite surprised. He supposed she was focused on her store, not on her personal preferences, but he really needed to buy her a gift. Perfume could be sexy but it probably wasn’t standard adult store stock. Not that he’d even thought about it like that. Aromas could be powerful aphrodisiacs if done well in the dungeon. He knew that for a fact.
“I haven’t had any perfume for a very long time. I don’t even know what the current trends in it are. When I was a little girl I can remember my mom giving me a tiny vial of 4711 Eau de Cologne. I know I thought that made me the most beautiful girl on Earth when I wore it.” Once again her gaze dropped to her hands.
The room suddenly went silent as a man wearing the convention center uniform walked to the podium. The session was about to start. But that was all good. He’d buy her some 4711 Eau de Cologne and tell her that with or without it she was still the most beautiful woman in the world in his eyes.
* * * *
Ryia had felt embarrassed when the men had sought her out in the exhibition hall and stood beside her like guard dogs as she finished talking about renting a display booth at next year’s convention. And then the question about perfume had brought all the memories of her mother abandoning her back to the forefront of her mind. I don’t have time to deal with any of this. I need to work.
Ryia forced herself to listen to every word of the introduction and then to take copious notes as the speaker talked about what he termed “incredible opportunities for growth” now that sex had become, at least to some extent, mainstream.
Ryia made a note to locate Phoenix and talk about adding more erotic romance novels to her store. She had a small bookshelf with novels and DVDs and a few games, but erotic romance was a huge and growing genre of reading, especially for women, and she needed to include that in her thinking. Maybe she could find some erotic covers for Kindles and Nooks. Hmm. Maybe not. Readers might prefer to remain incognito. Screen savers maybe? Ryia scribbled more notes to herself. She could think about all that later. She had enough things in her conference satchel to think about from now until the end of the year, but that was good. Adding one or two new items at a time to her store was likely the best way to go. That way there would always be something fresh and new to welcome in repeat visitors, but not so much new she might get left with a lot of unwanted stock.
At the end of the session they were reminded there was a ten-minute coffee break before the next session began, but Ryia jumped to her feet and slung her satchel over her shoulder.
Elijah, who was sitting on the end of the row of chairs, hemming her in, didn’t move. “Where are you going? There’s no rush. We’ve got ten minutes.”
That was fine for him but she had things to do. “Excuse me, please. I need to go.”
He stood and let her past and she wiggled her way into the exiting crowd and moved into the hallway looking for Phoenix. She couldn’t see her anywhere but a lot of people were heading for the bathrooms, so she followed the crowd in there, but Phoenix wasn’t in line. She came out again and slowly walked past the long tables with water, tea, and coffee, looking for Phoenix. When Ryia found Phoenix, she was surrounded by a crowd of people all talking so Ryia pulled out her notebook again and found the room she needed to head to for the next session. Maybe I’ll see her at lunch.
Once again she sat in the back row by the wall, her favorite place to sit. Somehow she felt safe there. Not like everyone was staring at the fat, ugly woman, and wondering what she was doing there. No. I promised Asher and Elijah I wouldn’t think like that. I’m a businesswoman. A person in my own right even if I am overweight. I will be fat and successful and be known as the successful owner of Paddle My Ass, not just a fat lazy cow.
The workshop she’d chosen to attend wasn’t one of the most popular ones, and most people sat in the front few rows, so she was a little surprised when someone sat on the chair next to her, instead of leaving a space between them. She didn’t look up, because the moderator of the workshop was already giving her in
troduction. However, the shoes next to hers looked familiar. She looked up and into Asher’s face. He was leaning back in the chair beside her, his gaze fixed on the front of the room, but his hands were in his pockets. Clearly he wasn’t here to take notes like her. Although he was listening so maybe she was being self-centered, assuming he’d come just to be with her, or was there to guard her. She’d gotten a real sense of possession from their attitude to her in the exhibition hall this morning. All right. She’d had sex with them. Very good sex with them. The best sex in her entire life. But it was a one-night stand, surely. Not a statement that they now had some kind of hold over her.
Oh hell. Had she given them reason to think she was their fuck-buddy now? Had she fallen into some sort of trap whereby they now could blackmail her into fucking them whenever they liked? But they hadn’t been like that. They’d been very careful to ensure she climaxed first and more often than them.
But was that just the hook to catch her? Had she effectively agreed to be their partner by going to their room last night? Oh hell, what had she done? Had she merely replaced one abuser for two?
Chapter Five
Asher and Elijah had lost track of Ryia when she’d disappeared into the bathroom. Asher had almost blushed at his bad manners. Fancy getting in her way, trying to detain her when she needed to visit the restroom. He was an idiot of the most stupid kind ever. How could he ever have been so rude and crass?
The workshops were being held on two different levels of the hotel so Elijah had taken one level and he the other. “If we don’t find her we’ll go to the workshop we originally planned to go to and we’ll definitely meet up at the ballroom for the buffet lunch,” said Asher.
“Agreed. I also want to buy a couple of things downstairs. If I don’t find her I’ll do that before I meet you both for lunch,” said Elijah.