Hanging On 2: Surreal Neal [Awakenings 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More)

by Michele Zurlo

  The moment I pushed open the door and flipped on the lights to reveal the predominantly cream-and-gold decor, Jonas forgot what he was going to say next.

  I turned to Sabrina while he took it all in. “You’re okay with this?” I had to make sure. I loved and trusted Jonas, but I didn’t play around with issues of consent.

  She looked to him before speaking, seeking his consent. I knew they were experimenting with a Master/slave dynamic, but this was the first time I’d seen them actually do it.

  He smiled in reward and gave a small nod.

  “Sir and I discussed this a lot. He left it up to me whether I wanted him here or not. I couldn’t decide until we pulled up in the driveway. I hope you’re okay with this. Sir said you would be, though I thought it was rude to spring this on you.”

  She fell silent, biting her lip, and I knew she had realized her mistake. While she might discuss the issue with Jonas in private, she’d essentially questioned his manners to another person.

  Without being told, she knelt at his feet and fastened her gaze on the floor.

  Jonas pressed his lips together until they turned white. When he looked at me, I saw how hard he was working to hold back his laughter.

  Once he got himself under control—it must have seemed like an eternity to Sabrina—he pushed her hair back from her face. “You have something to say?”

  “Yes, Sir. I’m sorry about that. I explained very badly.”

  Now I had to turn away to keep from laughing. Sabrina may be in the slave role, but she hadn’t misplaced her forceful personality.

  “You did. Try it again.”

  She rose and came to me. “Sorry. You asked if I was okay with this. The answer is yes. I want Sir to take me farther, and this is how he feels comfortable beginning. If you aren’t okay with it, we’ll understand.”

  I was fine with it.

  “Remove your clothes.”

  And I absolutely loved delivering that command.

  She disrobed with minimal movements, folding her clothes and handing them to Jonas. He looked around, and I pointed him in the direction of the wardrobe.

  I positioned Sabrina a few feet from one wall. This gave me a good amount of workspace.

  From our left, Jonas whistled. “This is where you keep the good stuff. Now I know where Sabrina has been getting her decorating ideas for my dungeon.”

  Drew didn’t like seeing all the floggers, paddles, and canes. He’d commissioned an elegant walnut storage unit to be built into the wall with the soundproofing.

  I smiled to acknowledge Jonas, but I didn’t comment. The button to lower the chains was near Jonas. “Press that blue button for me. Hold it down until I say.”

  He did, and I experienced a moment of satisfaction at the glint of approval in his eyes. “Nice. All the bells and whistles, but still a feminine setup.”

  Oh, I couldn’t help it. I laughed as I chained Sabrina’s wrists. Anchors on the floor gave me a place to chain her ankles.

  Jonas positioned himself out of the way, and I got to work. I spent some time warming her up with a softer flogger before I moved on to something with more bite. With Jonas there, I cut loose in a way I didn’t normally do.

  She whimpered and moaned, not fighting the lash for a second. I didn’t take me long to surmise that she was putting on a show for Jonas.

  I thought it was sweet, though from the expression on his face, I wondered if they would need to borrow one of the spare bedrooms afterward.

  Eventually, her body became one with my flogger, dancing and swaying to the rhythm of the sting and thud. I alternated arms, working both sides of my body, and then I picked up a second flogger. It had been a long time since I’d attempted this. I caught Jonas’s eye to let him see that I wasn’t fully confident.

  My mentor nodded and moved to stand behind me, silently conducting me through a quick refresher. I got my Florentine rhythm going, and then I moved closer to my target. The wind created by the falls whispered and sang. Sabrina’s small body quivered in anticipation of something new, and I could see gooseflesh on the heated skin of her back, ass, and thighs.

  Once the falls made contact, she shuddered and surrendered. I concentrated on her back, and Jonas moved around of her front. I couldn’t see what he was doing—and I wasn’t sure I wanted to—but I was pretty sure it involved rough nipple play. She cried out loudly, but not from what I was doing.

  The flogging had moved her into a shallow subspace. Jonas kept her on edge, bringing her back with sudden spikes of pain. Trusting me to do my part, he kept his gaze on her, one hundred percent focused on his slave.

  Every now and again, he leaned close and spoke to her, low words I couldn’t hear. I don’t know how much time passed, but she slumped forward, and Jonas motioned for me to stop. I brought the action to a slow close. I was simultaneously drained and full of energy. Neal could wait in the kitchen because I needed Drew in the worst way. I left Jonas to deliver aftercare.

  I poked my head through the opening from the back of the foyer and motioned to Drew. R&B played over the speakers he’d set up because he liked music in the background. I must have not looked normal because he washed his hands and murmured to Neal, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Singing along with an Alicia Keys song, Neal nodded without looking up from the stove.

  I dragged Drew to the front room. It didn’t have a door, but his assurance of only being gone a minute would be accurate. I was ready to burst. That had been one of the quietest, most intense scenes I had witnessed, and I had not truly been part of it. Sharing that experience with two of my best friends had left me all too aware of the hollow, empty space I usually filled with a submissive.

  Right now, I missed all of my submissives. If one had walked through the door, all the reasons I’d broken off those relationships would vanish.

  “Honey? What’s wrong?” The concern in Drew’s wonderful, seductive voice cut through my impending panic attack. I’d forgotten what they felt like. I hadn’t been this close in years.

  “I need you.” I tore at the button on his pants. “Now.”

  He kissed me, crushing his lips against mine savagely. He knew what I needed and what I wanted, and I think he was sorry he couldn’t give it all to me.

  In seconds, my shorts were gone, and his pants were bunched around one ankle. I pushed him toward the sofa, intending to climb on and sail right over that cliff, but Drew had other ideas. He countered my move, proof he’d been working with my brother Danny on defensive moves, twisting me so that my momentum carried us to the floor with me on the bottom.

  We knocked into a table, and something—I didn’t look to see if it was the lamp or the small vase of flowers—banged down on the tabletop. Protesting the move was not on my agenda. I didn’t care how we got where we needed to be as long as we got there.

  One thrust, and he was inside me. “We’ll get you a subbie, honey. Three weeks. At Elysium, they’ll be falling at your feet.”

  I hoped so. “Yours too.” I gasped and wrapped my legs around his waist, holding on as he angled his pelvis exactly the way I liked. “Yes. Oh, Drew, yes!”

  I arched and writhed, arriving at my climax with spectacular speed, light bursting behind my eyes, and a little burn from the rug beneath me.

  He buried his face in my chest and shouted as he came. We trembled in each other’s arms, hugging tightly as we both came down from the unexpected intensity of this quickie. As I lay under him, panting from his weight and our activity, I caught the sight of Neal leaving from the corner of my eye.

  Somehow, having seen him watching us again gave me bittersweet feelings. He was off-limits and I wanted him. I knew Drew did as well. That probably explained why he’d fallen on top of me so readily, no sweet talk or stroking required.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  He lifted his weight from me and peered at my face. “I love you too, Sophie. Are you okay?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. It was intense. I did the floggin
g, but she submitted to Jonas. It was beautiful.”

  Tracing his finger along my hairline, his mouth moved with assurances he didn’t utter. We both knew what he was thinking and why he wouldn’t say it aloud.

  The perfect sub was in our kitchen, having dinner with us for the first time. He was emotionally vulnerable. Making a move on him would destroy more than just the evening.

  Chapter Seven

  Drew

  Ever since Neal had been our dinner guest, he’d been warming up to us. I had invited him to help with my next two shows, and Neal had been shocked when he got his paycheck to find out he hadn’t been doing that for free. I don’t know why he thought I’d screw him over or take advantage of him, but I was glad to see that his opinion of us was changing.

  It was the end of the month, so I was at my desk in the Sensual Secrets office, showing Neal how to place orders. He was interested in one day having a kitchen of his own. He had enough sense and skill to make that happen, but I planned to hold onto him for as long as I could.

  Sophia was across the room helping tally the inventory. We were officially closed. The bakery had opened for several hours in the morning to finish off orders, but the catering side was closed and most employees had the day off.

  Heidi and Ginny were downstairs working together, and the place was eerily silent. Days like this reminded me how much I enjoyed the sounds of a fully staffed kitchen. That cacophony was definitely joyful noise.

  When I heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, a corresponding sigh came from Sophie’s direction. That sound meant more information to enter into the computer. She disliked doing inventory, but she was a trooper. Not once had she complained about the fact that Gin and I relied on her to run our business more than we had a right. I really needed to get them a handheld thingy to haul around. That way, they could do their own data entry.

  I shot her a sympathetic smile. Ginny wasn’t the easiest person to work with when she was doing something she didn’t want to do, and she blamed Sophia for making her do this. I frequently argued that spending a half of a day once a month doing this beat spending a week or more every year beating our heads against the wall because nothing was organized and we had no systems in place. Ginny disagreed with me out of sheer obstinacy. Her wife, Lara, was the only reason Ginny had caved to Sophia’s request. Lara was on our side, thank goodness. Ginny was like a sister to me, so when we fought, we didn’t always follow the path of logical discussion. We were more likely to devolve into calling each other names, sticking out our tongues, and telling each other what to do with our respective tongues.

  In all respects, my wife was a goddess.

  But she wasn’t the reason my pants were too tight in the crotch right this minute. Nope. That honor belonged to the man sitting next to me. He was taller than me, had a lankier build, and he was a little younger than I normally went for. Sophie said the birth date on his application put him at just under twenty-four, yet when I looked into his dark blue eyes, I saw the soul of someone much older than me.

  Perhaps I have lived a charmed life, but I’ve noticed I tend to fall for people who haven’t. Sophia and Neal have both had more than their fair share of heartache and strife.

  Part of what appealed to me about Neal was the fact that he seemed to be enamored with Sophia. Whenever she walked into a room, his attention went to her. Even now when he was supposed to be focusing on what I was showing him, his gaze kept wandering to her. The sigh nearly did him in.

  Sophie once told me—when she was explaining to me why I would never be a submissive—that a sub felt a need deep inside. They were compelled to submit, not forced. They wanted nothing more than to please their Mistress or Master. I still wonder about that last one. I felt a deep need to please Sophia, but I attributed that to love. I wanted to see her happy and fulfilled. The only reason I saw to get on my knees for her was to eat her out.

  And she wasn’t being fulfilled.

  Sure, she loved being with me. The sex was frequent and spectacular, but I couldn’t be the submissive she needed to have in her life. On the other side of that coin, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t fill my need to be with a man.

  We had spent four years together supplementing our needs by adding a third to the mix. The third was always a submissive, though the gender was open for discussion. Sophia liked being with women as much as I liked being with men.

  Right now, we were both trying very hard to ignore the fact that we wanted to sandwich Neal between us and rub our naked bodies against his.

  I touched his knee to get his attention. He glanced down at the place where I’d tapped him and blushed. “Sorry. Can we schedule deliveries for the whole month?”

  Shaking my head, I clicked on another interface. “When you use fresh suppliers with high standards, you don’t know what they’re going to have. We can pre-order shelf items and meat, but the fruits and veggies have to be fresh. I try to use local products whenever I can.”

  The door to the office was opened. I tended to close it only when I wanted to have a quickie with Sophia.

  “Hey, you sexy bitch. Traffic was lighter than expected, so I’m early.”

  Recognizing Ellen’s voice, I turned my face toward the door. She hadn’t been addressing me. While she was one of Sophia’s best friends, she wasn’t in the habit of calling me a bitch.

  “Hi, Elle.”

  Ryan was present, but Sophia didn’t acknowledge him. He wore a thick leather slave collar, and Ellen led him by a leash attached to a metal ring in the collar.

  “Hi, Ellen. Hi, Ryan.” I broke protocol only because I liked to present opportunities for Ryan to misbehave.

  Ryan looked to Ellen, who shook her head, denying permission. He nodded at me, and then he lowered his gaze.

  “Hi, Drew. And this must be Neal? I didn’t know you were going to be here. Am I interrupting?”

  Neal smiled shyly and bowed his head. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “You’re fine,” Sophia said. She stretched, treating us all to the enticing sight of her breasts pressing against her sandstone-colored shirt. “I’m ready to shift gears for a little while. Pull up a chair.”

  Ryan scooted the chair from Heidi’s desk so that it was near Sophia. Then he extracted folders from a satchel he carried and put them down in front of the ladies.

  Ellen smiled at him. “Thanks, gorgeous.” She pointed at the floor next to her, and he knelt there. I knew from experience that he wouldn’t move until Ellen told him to. I did not understand why he felt the need to do these things. If Sophia was busy and I needed to wait for her to finish, I’d find something else to do with my time.

  I did not judge Ryan. This worked for them. They’d been married for around twenty years, and they were both blissfully happy.

  I think the part that bothered me was the fact that I knew Sophia wanted a man at her feet. That was the one thing I couldn’t give her. I’d tried, and it hadn’t worked for either of us.

  Sophia and Ellen got to work, discussing contracts and plans for revamping Elysium. From the sounds of things, our vacation there next week would be a working one. Well, it looked like it was up to me to make sure Sophia relaxed and enjoyed herself.

  When my thoughts came back to the task at hand, I realized Neal had been patiently waiting for me. I regarded him thoughtfully. “Does that bother you? We can take a break from this and go help the girls.” If Ginny heard me referring to her as a “girl,” she’d skewer me.

  He shook his head. “Not at all.”

  Ellen treated Neal to a wicked grin. The tips of Neal’s ears turned pink. I wanted to put my arm around him, guide his head to my shoulder, kiss his lips, strip him naked… For Christ’s sake, I needed to stop thinking along those lines.

  As we continued, I noticed that Neal sneaking a lot of long looks at Sophia.

  “What if we opened up the theme to include other mythologies? We could have a coliseum where submissives have to compete in different kinds o
f games. We could have pony races.” Ellen practically shouted that last part.

  I hadn’t known she was so interested in that genre. I looked at Ryan to see his reaction, but other than the serene smile he’d been sporting since he’d arrived, his expression divulged nothing.

  Sophia frowned. “Then we have to change the name.”

  “‘Caelum’ means ‘heaven’ in Latin.” Neal cleared his throat and appeared amazed at having added his unsolicited opinion. “Or maybe you want to go with something like ‘Sanctum’ because it’s a safe haven for people with unconventional lifestyles.”

  The frown on Sophie’s face changed to a thoughtful one. Ellen peered at Neal with renewed interest. Even Ryan hazarded a glance.

  Finally, Sophie nodded. “I like ‘Sanctum,’ but we’ll have to run it by Sabrina and Samantha.”

  “Sammy’s going to love it,” I said. “She said she wanted to create an area just for people in triad relationships.”

  Samantha was involved with two men I’d known since high school, Alexei and Stefano Morozov. They’d been players back then, but since meeting her, they’d settled into a polyamorous relationship with the love of their lives.

  “I like that,” Sophia said. “My brother needs somewhere he can go with Evan and Alaina, and they’re not into BDSM.”

  Ellen packed her papers back into the folders scattered across Sophia’s desk. “I like it. I’ll call Sabrina and Sam. When you go down there next week, your job is to try to figure out how we can implement the new theme.”

  Sophia got to her feet. “We’ll see. I have to take a thorough look at the financials and how the island is currently being run. I may not have time.”

  Ellen threw a grin in my direction. “Ryan and I have booked a flight for the day after you get back. Samantha, Lex, and Stef are scheduled to be there at the end of this month. They’ll all have opinions. Yes?”

  I wondered at her sudden question, which had been directed at Ryan. He was still kneeling next to her, and I hadn’t seen him move. At her directive, he got to his feet and leaned down to whisper in her ear. His light, red hair stood in stark contrast to Ellen’s midnight tresses. He was at least half a foot taller than her. Though he was on the skinny side, he had a lithe, strong build.