She had a point there.
Klaus had hung up the dishcloth and now he went to her, pulling her to her feet with his hand beneath her arm. “Up. We’re all going into the living room where I’m going to tell you both the latest news.”
After tossing the last dried spoon into the drawer, I traipsed after them, checking the clock as I went past. I rarely wore a wristwatch at home. Ten thirty already?
Steph was again on the floor. Odd, to me, was me not being there, on the floor. I was almost more jealous of that than of Klaus fucking her. I didn’t call what he’d done making love.
Despite her almost knifing me, if anyone was connected in an affectionate way, it was Steph and myself. The way she’d kissed my leg, and the look in her eyes after that—I didn’t know why exactly, considering the completely off-the-wall circumstances, but we’d connected. And if I searched inside, I knew I wanted it to last.
I had a yearning to explore where she and I lay—where our psyches touched. Between one human being and another there might be a whole different world from what had come before. Philosophical crap perhaps? Or could this go as deep as what Klaus and I had?
I settled next to Klaus on the sofa, snuggling in when he put his arm around me.
From the way Steph looked at both him and me, if anyone were to be jealous, it would be her. I made a note to keep an eye on that.
“The news. They’ve found the bodies.”
Alarmed, I turned to him.
“It’s okay. So far there’s no hint of anything else. Only that they have homicide detectives investigating.” With his fingers, he smoothed the top of the shoulder strap on my dress. “Kat rang me though. She’s curious, but I think I distracted her. On Saturday night, before I came to get you, I mentioned Leon’s house to her. I didn’t tell her you’d gone to a party there though. I said we’d been thinking of taking a look at the house. So that’s your story if she asks you. Okay?”
“Okay.” It was curious that he’d decided to let Steph know all this. I’d wondered if he would keep her in the dark.
Steph cleared her throat and when no one interrupted, she continued. “What about me. Have they said anything?”
“No. Not yet. Or nothing in the reports I’ve heard. I expect they will though.” He sat forward, putting his palms together between his thighs. “Stephanie, I want to run through what I expect you to do from now on.”
Both Steph and I nodded. She, wide-eyed. Me, wondering where this was going, as he’d not talked to me about this either.
“I don’t want to keep you in the room forever. It’s not healthy for you.”
Bottom lip caught in her teeth, Steph blinked at him.
Oh, good one Klaus—showing you care. It wasn’t pretend. The man would be caring about her. For a sadistic Dom, he had his soft side. I’d experienced it, as had Baxter our cat, and I’m sure others, even if he was sneaky in his kindness. I’d nearly lost Klaus after the accident at the play party because of that softness in his character. He could blame himself for fate and crap like no one else. Thing is, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be my Dom. This was Him, front and center. Taking charge or taking blame, this was Klaus.
I hugged him, briefly, from the side. After patting my arm, he went on.
“So Jodie is going to make sure you both exercise. You—” he looked back at me. “Are going to go jogging some mornings, like you should, but before I go to work.”
“Sure. I can do that.” Jogging around on the island was like a scenic tour. I rarely zoned out and forgot to look at the ocean or at my surroundings. Just a single kookaburra laughing in a gum tree, or the soft washing sound of waves rolling in and crumpling onshore would draw me back to the real.
“Good. And you’re in charge of sorting out all the household work. But the hard part is this: I want you to earn money from home, if at all possible. Have you considered that?”
“Yes.” I’d anticipated. In fact I’d been wracking my brains—I hated being idle and I figured it was best to occupy Steph too. “I’ve done online research for other writers before—for magazine articles, for authors, for producers, and I’m fairly sure I can drum up some work again. Steph can help me. You got that, Steph? I know you can write and research. I remember that, even if you and I spent half our time partying at uni. Okay?”
“You want me to help you earn money?”
“Yes.”
Klaus added in support. “Do you think we can afford to feed you, get you medications, or clothe you without you contributing?”
“Clothe me? What the fuck!”
For some reason that had angered her more than I’d seen for ages. What would Klaus do? I could almost hear his eyes narrowing, but Steph carried on, straight over the cliff.
“Shit, yes I do think that! You want me to contribute? I’m not going to let you do all of this to me and then expect—”
Klaus sprang to his feet, picked her up, and sat back on the sofa with her draped over his lap and her head up my end. “Punishment. No swearing.”
I shifted away to give him more room.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! You can’t…you…let me go!” she sputtered then craned her neck back to plead with me. “Jodie?”
“I’m sorry. You can’t do what you just did and expect nothing to happen.”
“Fuck.”
Without warning, Klaus flipped up the bottom of her dress, anchored the hem at her waist with one hand then swatted her ass with the other.
“Uh!” Steph put her head down, hiding her face in the sofa. “No,” she whispered. “No, you can’t. Don’t. Please?”
“I can. How many swear words was that? Five?”
“No! Was not. Three?”
“Hmm. Our toy is not good at counting, is she?” Though he angled an eyebrow at me, he went back to smoothing his palm in circles on her butt.
I nudged him gently. “Stop admiring your handprint.”
“Finally jealous, Jodie?”
“No. I can understand the attraction. That ass deserves to be spanked. Really it does. May I?” I waved a hand toward her offending rear end.
“Jodie,” she whined. “You wouldn’t?” Then she wriggled on his lap, but not enough to be an escape attempt.
I wondered if this was firing her up. It damn well was me.
“Go for it,” Klaus leaned back, giving me space. “Ten more should do. Especially since I don’t expect you to be able to spank harder than a mouse.”
“Ten! I never said that many. Oh crap,” she muttered. “Shit, shit. Fuck. There. I made my quota.”
“Bad toy!” I chuckled then half-stood, propped one hand on her back, and reached across him. I delivered ten spanks as hard as I could—determined not to be too outdone by my Dom. She yelped on the last few and I sat back smiling at Klaus before checking the results. “See? I did good. Her bottom is going a nice pink.”
“Owie,” Steph muttered. “F—” She sighed and relaxed, giving in.
“Now.” Klaus lightly patted her bottom as he spoke. “You agree you will be helping Jodie earn money?”
Her swallow was small. “What choice do I have?”
“None.”
“Shi…” Her silence still, somehow, seemed full of swearing. “Yes.”
“Good girl,” I murmured then slipped off the sofa onto my knees, turned her face toward me, and studied her features, while she looked back at me with those world-sinking brown eyes of hers. I kissed her.
Those soft lips entranced me, like always, and I shut my eyes to feel them give beneath mine…the warm intrusion of her tongue tip into my mouth then of mine into hers. I moved my head to get better access, pleased at her small noises of pleasure. We dueled like that a while before Klaus interrupted.
“If you two do that much longer I’ll be forced to tie you both up and fuck you again, and I really need to get some sleep tonight. Stop.”
“Aww.” Dubious, I eyed him then gave Steph a last petite kiss. “Are you sure we can’t tempt you?”
; He grabbed my hair until I winced, then he made me knee-walk my way to him. With Steph beneath and between us, squirming a little, he kissed me. The difference between his hard, dominant nature and her softer one was so abrupt I moaned into his mouth, not sure what the hell I was doing except that I wanted someone’s hand, mouth, or whatever, on me. I tried to pull his hand between my legs but got nowhere.
“Klaus,” I protested, pouting. “Please?”
“No.” He nipped the end of my nose. “I’m sorry, but it’s bedtime for us all.”
“Fuck.” I pouted.
“Oh?” Fast and powerful he yanked me forward across Steph and spanked me twice.
The sting made me jump. I struggled upright, reaching back to soothe the hurt.
“Say sorry, girl.”
“Sorry, Sir.” But I smiled, unable to hide my glee at being punished. He knew I liked it and reserved nastier punishments for our real debates when I went way overboard. Which was good, as I, in a way, liked and needed that too.
A hardness came over him then—as happened when the need to hurt me badly struck him—and I froze like a dove pinioned by a hawk, waiting, dreading. “I think I have been too lenient. What do you think?” His eyes had a gray aspect, his mouth was straight as a knife, and he held Steph down on his lap as if she were no more than some inanimate object. A second later, he shook himself and the need passed. His face cleared. “Let’s get to bed. You can both sleep naked.”
I breathed and let a shiver run through me. “Naked?”
He smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
“Me too.”
Some nights I wore PJs, some a t-shirt and panties, but tonight was skin to skin as Klaus was naked also. To my delight, he brought Steph to our bed, and made her lie between us.
I wanted her untied so that, perhaps, I could coax her to touch me of her own volition, but I guess he didn’t trust her yet. At least her hands were to her front. Like that, they almost framed her breasts, cupping them when she was on her side.
“Are you tired?” I asked her quietly, and drew a finger down her jaw. Since her eyelids were drifting half-shut it seemed likely.
“Yes.”
“Poor baby.”
Her lips twitched and she frowned but barely opened her eyes more.
“Don’t like getting called baby?” I smiled.
She grunted so quietly I almost missed it. Cute.
“Do you, Jodie? Do you like being called baby?” Klaus wrapped his arms about her and pulled her to him, taking a breath with his nose against her neck. “Women smell wonderful.”
“Sometimes I like it.” Funny—seeing him cuddle with another woman. She’d tensed for a moment but soon relaxed.
Again I searched, but there was no jealousy in me. Why? I couldn’t figure myself out. I liked seeing them together.
I guess we’d tired her out. Sex and pain did that to me too. She’d had a lot happen in one day. I wondered what she thought of this all, but here and now was a bad time to ask. How much did she hate him…me? I didn’t see her as a threat. I didn’t see what we were doing as wrong, or not any more. Perhaps when Klaus wasn’t around I could get her to talk honestly? Tomorrow then.
I watched as he stroked her hair and simply held her. When she fell asleep and breathed in the slow, steady way of the dreaming, Klaus got up, took her into his arms, and placed her carefully at the end of the bed then covered her with a light blanket. Though she stirred, she went back to sleep, mostly curled up below my feet. It was a king-size bed, but his feet reached the bottom. We had a carved timber frame and it would stop her rolling from the bed in the night.
“Won’t she be cramped, sleeping cuffed?” I whispered.
“Maybe. Can’t be helped. I can’t set her loose, but I want her sleeping with us.” He took my hand and kissed it.
I focused on his face, searching for clues. “Are you happy, Klaus?”
“Happy?” He frowned slightly, the crease on his forehead joining the few permanent ones that marked his almost forty years of life. “I’m happy whenever I have you near me.” A smile curved one corner of his lips. “Don’t you know that yet? You’re my everything, Jodie. If you are happy, I am. Whatever hurts you hurts me also. And you are happy, aren’t you?” Cupping my face, he rubbed his thumb across my cheek. “This woman makes you happy, despite the reasons she is here.”
A statement, not a question. True. I nodded. Wonderful, strange, yet true. “I don’t really…” I thought. “I don’t want to really hurt her. If you understand?”
“As in spanking not being included in that hurt space?”
I waggled my head against the pillow, flummoxed by my own reasoning. “I guess.”
“I understand completely. Jodie, there’s a few things I want to say between us.”
“Yes?” Oh boy, what was this?
“One.” He toyed with my lip. “I am a little worried about Kat, but I will handle that.”
“She is very persistent. I’ve always felt flattered by her attention but, wow, persistent.”
“I know. As I said, I can handle her. She’s a friend and that makes it simpler. Two. Just in case, I’m getting us fake passports and working out a way out via Papua New Guinea.”
Gulp. I nodded. “Okay.” I recalled something. “All the gear you took—the camera, the vacuum cleaner and all. Disposed of?”
“Mostly. Not the camera.” His frown returned. “I should check that. It’s just…”
Ah, my Klaus’s soft side returneth. “You don’t want to see what was done to me?”
“No. I don’t.”
I shrugged. “I trust her.”
“I know. I’m still not sure I do.”
“Mmm. You’ll learn to. Give her a chance.”
I fell asleep wondering which of us was correct. Me, I hoped. Klaus wouldn’t be happy if Steph ever proved him wrong, but then neither would I.
The next morning was the first time I’d ever awoken and found a woman curled at my feet at the bottom of my bed. Having glimpsed a hint of her black, tousled hair, I sat up and blinked away the bleariness of sleep.
“Oh my,” I breathed. The window light from above my head filtered through the drifting lace curtains, dappling the skin of her face and breasts with moving gleams—pretty as sunlight shining through the leaves of a forest canopy.
Quietly, I folded back the sheet and crawled to her. Careful not to wake either her or Klaus, I sat on my heels just looking. She’d discovered a way to sleep with her hands folded together under her head. The mildness of the day was to my advantage as she’d thrown off the covering. Though, I supposed, unwrapping her would be almost as wonderful a present as finding her like this. With little more sound than the slide of knees across quilt, I went closer and leaned over her, aware of the rounded plumpness of my breasts only an inch from hers.
Her eyes opened and a heartbeat of time later, she smiled tentatively. A gift of immeasurable value. A smile.
“Good morning,” I smiled also, letting it show in my eyes. Then I pushed on her shoulder until she shifted onto her back. I swallowed as I surveyed the voluptuous length of her body, all mounds and curves that fairly begged me to touch, to kiss, to devour.
“Stay there.” I assessed her quietness and the way she seemed content to merely wait. My smile spread. “Stay, little toy. I want to taste you.”
Though for a moment challenge reared in her eyes, she said nothing. Her breathing grew uncertain. Under my hand, her bare skin shivered. Without taking my gaze from hers, I pressed my mouth to her mouth, light as a teardrop, sliding my lips along hers, inhaling her essence, slowly becoming more eager as she stirred and kissed me back.
The journey down her body beckoned. I paused, speaking into her mouth and kissing her between words. “I want to taste you. I want. You.”
Steph shuddered, straining upward and opening her mouth wide to encompass mine.
I sat back and pushed her down then put my fingers around her jaw. “No. You’re not to move. I’
m going to kiss my way down to your thighs. Be good and I’ll kiss you there too.”
“Jodie? I can’t—”
“Shh. You’ll wake Klaus.”
The plea in my spoken name had made me grin evilly, as did the little writhe of her hips. But I bent and kissed her jaw then the hollow of her neck. I left tiny nips and licks there and on the upper curves of her breasts, plus at least one mark from my teeth on her nipple that made her whimper and try to grab my hair with her tied hands.
I pressed her back again and resumed my gentle torture. I tasted her a hundred times on my way down, circled her navel with my tongue and spiraled around and around that tiny dip in her belly. By then her breathing was jagged and punctuated with gasps. By teasing her endlessly, by nipping her thighs and licking closer and closer to where she truly wanted me to go—two inches, an inch, a half-inch from her very visibly erect clitoris—I had her moaning and attempting to shove her pussy at my mouth.
“Bad girl,” I whispered, and I repositioned my body atop hers, straddling her face with my legs. She couldn’t pull me down to her, but I slowly lowered myself until her tongue flicked on me. “Oh fuck.” I shut my eyes.
Her giggle brought me back despite the mounting pressure in my groin as she studiously sucked on my clitoris. I looked down at her mons and had my tongue out, about to tap upon her nub when Klaus sat up, leaning on his elbow.
The sheet slid from his body. “Up early and being naughty, are we?”
“No.” I gasped and wriggled. “Yes.” Damn, Steph was still licking at me. My hips undulated of their own accord.
“Wait.” He slipped out of bed, retrieved a condom from the bedside drawer, and came over to me to where I was poised above our girl’s pussy. He was already unrolling the condom down his cock. “Keep teasing Jodie, little miss toy.”
She grunted and, I swear, sucked my clit entirely into her mouth.
“Uh.” I ducked my head at the swell of pleasure. The little bitch was obeying him. But she lifted her hips from the bed in a silent call to me to do the same.
“Jodie, make her come while I fuck her.” While Klaus lifted her bottom up with his palms beneath, offering her to my mouth, he probed with his cock for her entrance.
Bind and Keep Me, Book 2 Page 13