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

by Michele Zurlo

  When he finished, he resumed his spot at her feet.

  Ellen cocked her head to one side. “Ryan has a great idea. He thinks we should have Sabrina develop the new theme, that way she could work it into the advertising.”

  I’d hit on Sabrina once. She’d been the hot senior cheerleader, and I’d been the hot-shot quarterback of the freshmen football team. It hadn’t gone well. She hadn’t noticed, but her boyfriend—the quarterback of the varsity team—had. Stephen hadn’t been a violent person, but he had a lot of friends, and at the time, most of them were bigger than me. Their “talk” had driven home the point that she was off-limits. Then I’d hit on Ginny. That also hadn’t gone well.

  When I’d told Sophie that story, she’d nearly peed herself laughing. Then she’d cupped my cheek and told me that my tenacity and ego were two of my more endearing qualities.

  I added my two cents. “This is something the four of you should do together. Maybe have her throw together ideas for a starting point, but you can’t put this all on her.”

  From the expression on Ryan’s face, I figured he agreed with me.

  So did Sophie. “Yeah. Ellen, be nice when you talk to her. I don’t have time to flog the stress out of her tonight and Jonas has some kind of parent night at his school, so he’s not home to do the honors.”

  “Noted.” Ellen hugged Sophia. Ryan collected everything in his satchel and put the chair Ellen had been using back in front of Heidi’s desk. Ellen came over and kissed my cheek. “See you later.” Then she held her hand out to shake Neal’s hand. “It was nice to finally meet you, Neal.”

  After they had gone, Neal stared at Sophia, not bothering to hide his interest.

  Sophia straightened up her desk. She liked things neat, and Ellen was sometimes chaos in high heels. Glancing up, she found Neal’s gaze zeroed in on her. “Did you need something?”

  “Your friends treat their submissives very well. A couple weeks ago, I watched Jonas carry his sub to the car after you finished with her. The way he talked to her was sweet and patient. Then today, Mistress Ellen was very attentive to her sub. He barely touched her ankle, and she realized right away what he wanted.”

  Sophie rolled a pencil on the desk between her thumb and fingers, but she kept her gaze on Neal. The wood tinkled against the polished surface. “Yeah. They’re good people.”

  “My former Master didn’t mind if his friends…” He broke off, dropping his gaze to his lap and shaking his head. “I didn’t like some of them, and he was into sharing.”

  Moving softly, yet confidently, Sophie rounded her desk and came to sit on my lap, facing Neal. She touched the back of his hand, directly in his line of sight. “Nobody who cares about you would do anything you didn’t want.”

  He looked from her to me and back again. “You truly believe that.”

  I put my hand on her thighs, holding her on me and letting her know I was here for support.

  “Now that you’ve met my friends, have you changed your mind about having me introduce you around?”

  Neal shook his head. “I want you to explain to me how things work with you and Drew. I’ve heard rumors, but I’d rather not go by hearsay.”

  She stiffened when he mentioned the rumors. I knew about them, and I did my best to shield her from the fallout. The vast majority of people knew nothing, but I hadn’t exactly been discrete before I’d met her. I had a reputation for playing with multiple people at the same time. People speculated. Celebrities could be a bitchy group.

  I took this one. “Sophia is a dominatrix. I’m not submissive. When we invite a third party into our bedroom, they’re always submissive.”

  She placed her hands over mine, and I twisted my wrists to twine my fingers with hers. She added more to my explanation. “Drew can top a sub, but he prefers not to.”

  Neal’s gaze landed on me. “You’re bisexual?”

  “We both are,” I said.

  Interest flared in Neal’s eyes. I knew Sophia was rolling hers, and her sharp intake of breath came moments before her exasperated sigh.

  “So am I. My former Master hated it. He used to have female subs rub themselves all over me, and then punish me for becoming aroused.”

  I couldn’t believe he was opening up like this to us. I knew Sophia had to be similarly affected. She huffed her disapproval. “Submissives should only be punished when they misbehave.”

  When I had first met Sophia, I had presented myself as a cocky, knowledgeable submissive. She’d expected certain things of me, and I hadn’t behaved. I knew firsthand that she hated punishing anybody. It was the primary reason we severed ties with Christopher after seriously considered having him move in with us.

  “And what constitutes misbehavior should be agreed upon beforehand.” Neal’s eyes had turned steely, and his lips were set hard. “As should the nature of the punishments allowed.”

  Sophia didn’t seem surprised by this sudden change. “I agree.”

  Neal came to a decision. He knelt at Sophia’s feet. Mine too, since they were right there. “Mistress, I wish to serve you.”

  She put her hand on the top of his head. “You understand that Drew and I are a package deal?”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  “And that Drew most likely won’t top you?”

  Some tension drained from me. I didn’t mind being forceful, confident, or even alpha, but I didn’t like topping a lover. I didn’t mind when she did it. Actually, I found it really hot. Right now, I was getting wood from watching Neal bow his head to my wife.

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  I knew when Sophie would tolerate an interruption and when she wouldn’t. As long as Neal was behaving, she was fine with me chiming in. I cleared my throat. “We need to discuss limits.”

  “Yes. Neal, sit back in the chair and tell me your hard limits.”

  He obeyed. “No blood. I have a light tolerance for pleasurable pain. I’m not much of a masochist. Too much is a punishment. No broken skin. Occasional blisters are okay. No single-tails or anything with metal. Paddles, crops, and floggers are okay. CBT is fine.”

  Sophia perked up at that one, but I had no idea what it meant.

  “Condoms, always,” he continued, ticking off things on his fingers as he went. “Oral and anal are okay. I’m not partial to canes. Bondage is okay, though it doesn’t do anything for me but provide restraint. Blindfolds and gags are okay.”

  Then he shifted to face me. “I like vanilla too. I’m not always in a submissive frame of mind. That tends to only happen around attractive Dommes.”

  Christ, this man was perfect for us. I struggled to suppress a groan. My cock must have been prodding Sophie’s ass because she scooted forward to give me room.

  “Neal, I’m going to make an appointment for you to get some tests tomorrow. Drew and I have results on file, and I’ll get you copies of them.”

  He looked disappointed that Sophia hadn’t told him to drop to his knees. I moved Sophia to one side and touched his hand. “This’ll give you a couple days to think about things, make sure this is what you truly want. If you change your mind, there are no repercussions. Your job here and anything that happens outside this building are disparate activities.”

  Biting his lip, he nodded. I wanted to close the distance and soothe his poor lip with my tongue as Sophie watched.

  “Yeah, okay. So if I don’t change my mind, when do we start?”

  Chapter Eight

  Neal

  I wanted them to say, “Right now,” but I knew that wouldn’t happen. They’d done this before, and they had their procedures in place to make sure everybody and everything was safe. Working with Drew these past few weeks, I couldn’t help but notice how meticulous he was with the details. Sophia was also very specific in the way she went about doing things.

  “Mistress, do you have any instructions for me?”

  Sophia touched her finger to my chin, and I became aware of the fact that I hadn’t shaved. I wasn’t overly prickly, but
I wanted to be perfect for my new Mistress. Perhaps it was a good thing we were going to wait. This way I’d be able to prepare myself the way she liked.

  She peered at me, the overhead light reflecting softly from her dark eyes. One of the things I liked about her was that she didn’t hide her feelings. When she was pleased, her smile was a sight to behold. Anger manifested in the narrowing of her eyes and a quick exhalation. When she was aroused, she licked her lips. I had fantasies about seeing them wrapped around my cock while I struggled not to move my hands from the headboard. I’d never had a Mistress or Master so easy to read.

  “Not yet. I’ll make the appointment now, and I’ll have the results expedited.” Leaning down, she kissed my forehead. Then she was gone, back in her seat halfway across the room.

  Drew studied me, raw desire turning his eyes an even lighter shade of blue. “We’re finished here. Let’s get downstairs and help Gin finish the inventory.”

  I followed him to the door. A glance back showed that Sophia was enjoying watching both of us walk away. She had the same gleam in her eye when she had lifted Drew’s shirt out of the way when I’d walked in on them at the network party. She’d wanted me from the start.

  Inventory didn’t take an extraordinarily long time, though Ginny seemed to think it had. When we closed up, she stumbled dramatically out the front door. Because there was no parking nearby, she and Heidi joined Drew and Sophia as they headed down the street toward the garage. My aunt’s house was in the opposite direction. In all likelihood, I would make it home before they got to their cars.

  Before I turned the corner, I looked to find Sophia and Drew holding hands. As I watched, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. I wished I was with them.

  Aunt Danielle was home alone when I arrived, which was unusual. She was one of those people who always had some kind of event planned. Since her divorce three years earlier, she’d filled every evening with friends or one of those parties where women bought purses, crystal, kitchen implements, or lipstick.

  She was significantly younger than my father, having come from my grandfather’s third marriage. Though she was only ten years older than me, she treated me like I was her kid. The second I walked in the door, she greeted me with a hug and a peck on the cheek. Then she wiped her lipstick from my skin.

  “Neal, what a pleasant surprise. I thought you’d be home later.”

  I shrugged. “We finished early.” A visual sweep of her house showed that it was cleaned up. Fresh bowls of potpourri were in strategic locations, and she looked nice. “Do you have a date? I could get lost for a few hours.”

  There was a club downtown that played music on nights they didn’t have live music. I hoped they didn’t have a band booked. I wasn’t in the mood for a concert.

  “Date cancelled.” She gave a sad smile. “So I cleaned. I thought you and I could spend some time together. To that end, I did not clean your man cave.”

  My man cave was a room in the basement. I had a bed, dresser, closet, and a television. I wasn’t into gaming, but I could claim an addiction to cooking shows. Drew’s was not my favorite, though I’d never tell him that. I liked the competition ones better, and his was all about simple, sexy dishes and flirting with his audience.

  A thrill ran through me as I realized that I would soon have his coy smile directed at me without the interference of a screen.

  “My God, I would have stopped cleaning it out weeks ago if I knew it would make you that happy.”

  Heat crept up my neck. “Sorry. I was thinking of something else.”

  Her grin turned mischievous. I should mention that Aunt Danielle is a slip of a woman. She weighs maybe ninety pounds soaking wet. My dad affectionately refers to her as “midget,” which she doesn’t like. She says it’s a demeaning term for little people. Anyway, she’s one of those people who are too cute for words, and she has a sweet personality to go with it. She was also a forceful storm, blowing through life like a mini-tornado.

  My dad says that her marriage didn’t last because she married a weak man. He maintains that she needs someone who will stand up to her on a daily basis. I wholeheartedly agree, but I also thought she had an undiscovered Dominatrix streak.

  So far, I had barred her from knowing too much about my personal life. She loved me, and I needed her acceptance if I was going to make something of myself. If I told her about the mistakes I’d made, I didn’t know how she would react. I couldn’t take it if she rejected me.

  No, that wasn’t fair. Since Master Geordie had left me in Brazil, I hadn’t confided in anybody. Of course, I’d never told her what really happened. It was best to keep that to myself. She knew I’d been hurt, but she didn’t know to what extent.

  Aunt Danielle deserved a chance. She’d always been there for me when I needed someone. My parents were good people, but Aunt Danielle had always been the person I’d confided in when I didn’t feel I could talk to them.

  “I have a date. Sort of.”

  Her expression morphed. “Sort of?”

  I shrugged. It was a date for sex, but I wasn’t ready for anything more. Dipping my feet back into the pond with Drew and Sophie was the safest way to begin again. They were open and honest about what they wanted from me. With those parameters in place, perhaps the healing could begin. I hoped to come out of this ready to date for real. I was twenty-four. I didn’t want to give up on love yet.

  She tugged on my arm, her eyes round with concern. “Neal, what does that mean?”

  “It means that I’ve found fun and friendship, which is all that I want right now.”

  “Fun and friendship? What the hell does that mean?”

  I should have known she wouldn’t let it go so easily. “I’ll be seeing a couple, a man and a woman.”

  Aunt Danielle bit her lower lip, probably in an effort to warn me away. Finally, she shook her head. “Fun and friendship means sex. You know that, right? Oh, you didn’t answer a personal ad, did you? That’s like asking to be murdered.”

  Putting my arm around her, I steered her toward the back of the house where the kitchen was located. When my head was running at a hundred miles per hour, cooking calmed things down. “I didn’t answer a personal ad. It’s a couple I’ve been getting to know for weeks. She’s incredible. Beautiful, smart, sexy—everything a Domme should be. He’s also gorgeous, intelligent, and attractive.”

  “But not dominant?” She leapt on that. I’d told her that much about Geordie.

  “Not dominant. He’s rather vanilla.”

  “Bisexual?”

  I nodded as I toed off my shoes and kicked them so that they landed near the back door. “She wants a sub and he wants a man, so they’re interested in me. They want to do testing before we commit to anything specific.”

  Aunt Danielle seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “Just be careful. You’re asking for a heap of trouble when you become involved with your boss.”

  Since I hadn’t revealed names, I started at her warning.

  She snorted. “Oh come on. I’ve listened to you talk about the wonderful Drew and Sophia for weeks. I’m neither stupid nor blind.”

  I thought I’d mentioned them only once or twice. “What do you want for dinner?” I opened the freezer to see what she had on hand. I preferred to work with fresher foods, but Aunt Danielle threw everything meat into the freezer.

  “Don’t change the subject on me.” Pointing to the refrigerator half of the unit, she continued. “I bought shrimp today.”

  “Fresh shrimp? I can do something with that.”

  “I know. Now tell me why you think getting involved with a married couple is a good idea.”

  I set the shrimp in a bowl on the counter, set out another couple bowls, and grabbed for the flour. “I’ll make linguine.”

  Aunt Danielle grabbed eggs, milk, and butter from the fridge. “Neal Purcell, answer my question. You know this is a bad idea.”

  “It’s not a bad idea. I’m not ready to get back on the relationship horse. This
association comes with very specific rules and boundaries, and I need that right now. You see—it’s a very good idea. Perfect, actually. They’re not looking for permanence and neither am I. Fun and friendship.” I beat the eggs, milk, and butter together. “Maybe not friendship. I’m not all that interested in that part.”

  Aunt Danielle sighed. “Neal, I worry about you. It’s not healthy to close yourself off to friends and to people who might want more from you than casual sex.”

  I mixed flour and salt in a larger bowl, and then I added my wet goods. “You ignored the part where I said this is all I want.” And the unspoken part where I revealed my determination to never be dependent on anybody again.

  Part of my time in Brazil had been pure nightmare. Months of my life were buried in the dankest reaches of my memory. Living with Aunt Danielle was a temporary thing. I made enough working at Sensual Secrets to support myself, but staying here offered me a chance to save my money. I wanted to open my own place. It was important for me to own my own restaurant.

  One of the main reasons Mistress Sophia attracted me is that I sensed some of the same resistance in her. She rejected her husband’s money and connections. The accounting firm she owned belonged to her. She’d built it from the ground up, resisting Drew’s efforts to install her as the manager of Sensual Secrets. Kitchen staffs were notoriously gossipy, and the one at work was no different. Several marveled at her tenacity. Some thought she was insane to pass up the opportunities Drew offered. One of them hinted that Sophia had resisted buying Elysium because she had needed Drew’s money to do it.

  She’d eventually given in and accepted his help, and that was something I would never do. I would learn the business from Drew, but if he ever offered financial help, I would reject it.

  The bedroom was the only place I would ever submit again.

  I punched the dough, kneading it and my frustrations until they were manageable. Then I rolled it out and cut it into fine strips. Aunt Danielle backed off on her questions, changing the topic to safer things.