DanielsSurrender

by Sierra

  When Friday arrived with no sign of Marcus, Shannon could see the strain and worry in both her men, and decided to do something about it. She took special care with lunch, choosing exotic fruits and cheeses cut down to bite-size chunks, fresh French bread and a bottle of sparkling cider. The sex they shared nightly in Daniel’s playroom was amazing. Beyond anything she ever could have dreamed up. Now, Shannon wanted to create a sensual experience for them. One with no ultimate goal other than for them to experience the pleasure of each flavor exploding on their tongues. Each texture.

  No, she wasn’t after more office sex. As exciting as that had been, Shannon wanted this relationship to be about more. She wanted—no, she needed—to take care of them. She needed to know she could ease their minds.

  So when lunchtime arrived on Friday, Shannon cheerfully left brown bags stuffed with gourmet cheeses, olives and breads at the desks of Trevor, Kelli and Mrs. Alebach, who stood guard outside Marcus’ office like a dragon, and swung into the office.

  Matthew was standing at the window, staring out over the view of the Ambassador Bridge as he spoke intently into the mobile phone connected to the Bluetooth hooked over his ear. Setting the basket of food on the desk, Shannon walked up to Matt, curving her body into his back while slipping her arms around his waist. Resting her cheek against his upper arm, she gazed out the window with him.

  Matt knew the instant Shannon stepped into the outer office. Hell, he knew the instant she stepped into the building. He could feel her like a warm ray of golden sunshine. Like a balm on wounds he’d never known he carried. Keeping his attention on the droning supplier who currently held him hostage on the phone was difficult when she stepped into the room, and damn near impossible when she slid her arms around him.

  Her face, as she gazed out the window, was pensive—unusual for his sunny little love. Wrapping his arms over hers, he smiled at her reflection in the tinted glass before lifting one of her hands to press a warm, gentle kiss in her palm. Her return smile was blinding.

  Damn, their woman glowed.

  Making appropriate sounds of commiseration and agreement to the relentless man on the other end of the phone, Matthew wondered when, exactly, he’d started thinking of Shannon as theirs. He thought he might have staked his claim the first time they’d made love, when she’d seduced him so tenderly. He knew that was the moment he came to belong to her.

  He wondered if Daniel felt it too. This pride of ownership. This thrill of belonging. He somehow couldn’t imagine Daniel willingly surrendering his soul to another the way Matt himself had given over to him and to Shannon. And when, exactly, had Daniel gone from being a pleasurable experiment to being nearly as necessary to him as oxygen?

  Finally managing to end the endless phone call, Matt turned to Shannon, gathering her into his arms to hold and be held with a warmth and tenderness he’d never found anywhere else. In her arms he felt his insecurity over doing Marcus’ job melt away, much as it did when he spoke with Daniel about the business. In her arms, he found his worry for Marcus and for Meredith, who seemed even more like the walking wounded than usual, muted, comforted.

  They were still wrapped around each other when Daniel entered the office. Shannon reached out an arm to him and, after a brief hesitation, Daniel allowed her to draw him into their hug. Eventually, he even brushed a soft kiss over the top of Shannon’s head and ran a gentle hand down Matthew’s bound hair.

  “Have I told you,” she said in a voice that was almost a whisper, as if she didn’t want to shatter the moment, “how happy the two of you make me?” Giving each man a tight squeeze around the waist, one that matched the squeeze she’d given around Matthew’s heart, she stepped back. To Matthew’s surprise, Daniel let him hold him for a moment before slowly extricating himself from the embrace.

  Hands in his pockets, Matt stood with his back to the window, watching Shannon as she spread a butter-soft blanket over the floor and gathered cushions from the couch to create a nest for three. And watching Daniel as he stepped forward to lift the heavy basket to the ground near the blanket, extract champagne flutes and pour the bubbly beverage for each of them.

  He didn’t realize how long he’d been standing, staring, until Shannon approached him to take his hand.

  “Babe.” Her musical voice was soft. “Are you okay?”

  He felt his smile bloom. “When I’m with you.” He flicked Daniel a look. The older man was silently observing their interaction with an odd look on his face. “When I’m with both of you,” he corrected, “I’m better than okay.”

  Willingly he allowed her to lead him to the picnic area she’d made on the floor. With an impatient little tug, she drew Daniel down beside them, and then sat facing the two men.

  Daniel watched Shannon put together their intimate little lunch with an odd, tight feeling in his chest. Her tender treatment of Matthew, and to some extent of himself, touched him more deeply than he ever could have imagined. He knew both he and Matt had become increasingly distracted by their worry for Marcus, who still wasn’t answering his phone and who hadn’t been home in almost a week. It amazed him, the way Shannon seemed to sense their worry.

  She constantly found little ways to break their tension, to make them smile. He’d never been taken care of like this, and wouldn’t have expected to like it. In the dark hours of the morning, when Matt bundled her into his car to take her home for a couple more hours of sleep, Daniel found himself missing the weight of Matthew’s head on his shoulder, the slow stroke of Shannon’s hand over any bit of him she could reach.

  Now, he found himself almost mesmerized as she sat before them. Her skirt belled around her like an exotic red, orange and yellow bloom, and the orange of her camisole top made her tan glow. Her eyes, when they met his, were like melted chocolate. So sweet and warm they made his heart ache for things he knew he could never have. Things his parents had taught him were beyond his reach.

  This, he realized, was why he rarely allowed himself to meet Shannon’s eyes, hers or Matthew’s. When he looked into their eyes he didn’t see demands or pleas, he saw pure, generous giving. And it scared the shit out of him, because he wanted them to demand. To force him to give them everything—all that he was. And he wanted to make demands of his own.

  Definitely not safe.

  Fuck, he was petrified one day he would see a different look in their eyes. One he’d put there when he inevitably fucked up.

  Faithful. It wasn’t a word in his lexicon. Mommy Dearest had taught him at a very tender age that grownups, even those who claimed to love each other, were still unfaithful to one another.

  Her betrayal of his father had led to the kind of emotional prison no child should ever have to bear. The dangerous yearnings stirred up by Daniel’s lovers brought back vivid memories of his mother’s desertion.

  A six-year-old Daniel, clinging to her leg and begging her not to leave him. His father, pulling him roughly away from his mother, forcing the young boy back into the house. The neighbors who had gathered outside, shaking their heads in pity at the scene of a family being torn in two. Why hadn’t his mother been able to love him enough to stay with him and out of the bars?

  Dan hated feeling this way, this helpless, this vulnerable. It sucked, and the pain gnawed at him. Why now, when he was as happy as he’d ever been in his life, did the memories of his mom and pop creep in and cast doubt on who he was as a man?

  He knew why. Because as much as he wanted to believe otherwise, the reality was he carried their DNA, and in the end he would hurt Matt and Shannon because of it.

  Once again Shannon seemed to sense his tension and broke the moment by rising and gliding to a console hidden along one corner of Marcus’ desk. After fiddling with several buttons and switches, she managed to dim the lights, and after a moment soft, adult contemporary music filled the room.

  Dropping a kiss on the top of Matthew’s head, she gracefully lowered herself to straddle Daniel’s lap. Her skirt flowed around them, and he found himself
absently stroking the soft fabric, the same way she stroked his hair.

  “You look tired.” She drew one gentle fingertip over his eyebrows as she made the observation. “Have we been wearing you out?” Her smile was impish, and he was reminded of his first impression of her. She was like a naughty little fairy.

  “Angel, the two of you are probably the only thing that’s kept me going all week.” The words slipped out without his permission, and he was dimly horrified at the admission. But the obvious pleasure on her face—and on Matt’s when he snuck a glance in his direction—helped him to get his emotions under control. After all, a Dom’s job was to fulfill his subs’ every need. Matthew and Shannon needed to know they pleased him. It didn’t have to mean anything more.

  Yeah, right.

  She smiled, giving her enchanting little nose wrinkle, and then leaned over to the side and spread soft, pungent cheese over a chunk of bread. He valiantly ignored the press of her warm cunt over the growing bulge in his pants. He could tell today wasn’t about sex. More, he knew how worried Matthew was about Marcus, who’d been missing all week. Hell, he was worried too. They both needed a distraction, and Shannon was certainly a perfect one. And Matt needed to be comforted. While Daniel himself didn’t have that to offer, Shannon did, and he would allow her to coddle them both for a little while.

  She took a slow bite of the gourmet treat she held, and then offered it to him. Carefully, almost meeting her eyes, he flicked his tongue over the place her lips had been before snapping the morsel from her grasp.

  She yelped, pulling her fingers to safety, and then laughed up at him.

  “So, you want to play, do you?”

  Sliding off his lap, she plucked up another delicacy to offer to Matthew, who’d been watching them with laughter in his eyes. Matt engulfed her fingers between full lips, sucking the fruit from her fingertips. Shannon giggled, a low musical sound, and then accepted the bite he offered her.

  Soon they were feeding each other. All three offering choice bites, only to pull them teasingly away and gobble them down at the last minute. Daniel and Matthew were the worst at this, teasing Shannon unmercifully until she collapsed back on the floor, laughing breathlessly.

  As she lay there panting, Matt turned to Daniel and offered him a bite for the first time. Daniel paused, and when Matt made as if to draw the strawberry away, he very deliberately ate it from his hand, allowing his lips to brush the younger man’s fingers in a stolen caress. Matthew brushed those fingers over Daniel’s lips, stroking them with the tip of his tongue as if to savor Daniel’s flavor, and the room temperature seemed to rise by about twenty degrees.

  Shannon, who’d been watching them with laughing, sleepy eyes, wagged a finger at the men and said, “Oh, no. That’s not what we’re here for.” When they sent her identical looks of irritated arousal, she laughed and pulled herself to her feet. A bouncy song had come on the radio, and she extended her hand to Matthew and commanded, “Dance with me, you big instigator.”

  Matt grinned back and allowed her to drag him to his feet. Pulling her into his arms with a flourish, he spun her around the room until they were both dizzy and laughing. Daniel lounged on the floor, idly sipping his wine, and enjoyed the spectacle. They were both young and tanned and so beautiful it almost hurt him to watch them. Matthew was perfect in an underwear model sort of way. Matthew was as lithe and as graceful as a jungle cat, his naughty smile and infectious joy kept his beauty from seeming untouchable.

  Shannon, on the other hand, had a different kind of beauty. If Matthew belonged in fashion magazines, Shannon belonged in a field of wildflowers. She wasn’t traditionally beautiful. Her wide brown eyes were warm, but not exotic. Her full lips were red and moist, and utterly natural without a hint of dye or collagen. Her figure was full and lush, and closer to a size twelve than a size two. And the light that shone from those ordinary brown eyes, and the warmth that beamed from her smile, and the comfort and fire he felt pressed up against her lush body made Shannon the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  His. The thought stole into his mind, and before it could steal into his heart he amended it.

  His, for now.

  Shannon saw Daniel glance at the clock and begin cleaning up their makeshift picnic. She wasn’t about to let Daniel close himself off from them. Not when they’d all been so close. So she waited until Daniel’s hands were empty and then neatly spun away from Matthew and into his startled arms.

  Daniel caught her with a small puff of surprise and automatically pulled her in against his chest. Matt smiled when she sent them each a coy look before purring into Daniel’s ear.

  “I’m not done dancing. Will you dance with me, Danny-boy?” Matthew choked on his laughter at her use of the nickname, and probably at Daniel’s raised eyebrow, too. Shannon waited with bated breath to see how he’d react, regarding Daniel’s arrogant expression with a wicked, evil little smile.

  Finally, Daniel put them out of their suspense, sweeping Shannon into a low dip, startling a squeal of laughter from her. Laughing himself, he began to waltz her around the room with exaggerated formality.

  “You have absolutely no respect, do you?” His voice was stern, but his lips quirked and his eyes were sparkling with laughter.

  “Nope.” She was utterly unrepentant. “Respect is no fun.”

  When Daniel spun her away from him and then pulled her back in, she cupped one hand behind his neck and tucked one leg over his hip in classic tango fashion. “Rattling your cage is fun.” She allowed him to guide her across the room. “Seeing your eyes get all hot and sleepy is fun.” He rested his hands on her hips, ready to pounce, but she took over and kept them dancing. “Watching you get all flustered and confused,” she gave him an impish smile, “that is so hot.” She kept dancing but let him pull her closer, so her belly rubbed over his engorged cock. “And it’s fun!”

  Skipping away from Daniel, she spun Matthew in a circle before hiding behind him. Daniel was advancing slowly, stalking her, and she was determined not to be caught. Yes, the sex was amazing, but that was for tonight. Today was for fun.

  Darting over to the desk, she grabbed a handful of olives and held them up threateningly. “I’m armed and dangerous.”

  Daniel’s incredulous look only spurred her on. She was determined to make him laugh again. He didn’t laugh enough, and she loved the sound of it. As he continued to move in her direction, she gurgled out a laugh of her own and added, “I have olives.” She heard Matthew choking in the corner and shot him a grin. “And I’m not afraid to use them.”

  Daniel was apparently less than impressed with her choice of weapon, and continued his advance. Cringing back in mock terror, she launched several olives in his direction. He probably hadn’t believed she’d really attack, because he didn’t immediately duck, and the first edible missile hit him square in the forehead.

  He neatly avoided the rest, and his shocked, disbelieving look convulsed her with laughter. Hadn’t this man ever had a food fight? They’d been regular occurrences at her house, and were some of the fondest memories she had of her father and brother.

  Daniel was moving in for the kill now, and she ducked around the desk, grabbing a branch of grapes along the way. She sent Matt an appealing look, but his expression was a little too intent to suit her. Like Daniel, he looked like a man with quick and dirty sex on his mind.

  “There’s no time,” she protested, pelting Daniel with grapes. “It’s almost two! Don’t you guys have meetings or something?” Daniel sent Matthew a speaking glance, and he promptly began closing in on her from the opposite direction. She was peppering them both with flying food, ducking the pellets Matthew sent back in her direction, and looking for a way to escape when a deep voice sounded from the outer office, and her men froze in place.

  Chapter Twelve

  “It’s my damn office, and I don’t care what my baby brother is doing in there. We’re going in.” Marcus faced the gray-haired dragon who’d all but thrown herself
between him and the office door. Carrie stood behind him, unsuccessfully smothering her laughter. He sent her a smoldering look and a murmured, “I’ll deal with you later,” and her laughter promptly turned into something else.

  When he finally pushed his way into his office, he found a tableau right out of a comic movie. Matthew and a pretty toffee-haired woman were scurrying around the office picking up grapes, olives and other assorted food items from the floor. Daniel leaned negligently against his desk, observing with an amused and indulgent expression on his face. There was also a pink smudge, one that looked suspiciously like strawberry juice, on his pearl-gray lapel.

  Well, fuck. He’d been gone a week and Daniel was sharing with Matthew? While it was true he had no intention of sharing with his friend again himself, he wasn’t sure how he felt about his little brother stepping in to fill the role.

  And what was up with the food on the floor? Studying his brother’s woman, he caught her looking at one of the olives in her hand and sending Matthew a speculative glance. Matt’s exaggerated look of horror brought a smile to Marcus’ face. One he quickly erased as he faced his wayward friend and sibling.

  Finally he addressed Daniel. “Well, hell. I can’t believe you let Matty draw you into his foolishness.” He shook his head regretfully. “You make a shitty babysitter, Dan.”

  Daniel raised his eyebrows, and Matt, who was used to Marcus’ cutting sense of humor, just grinned. The little brunette, on the other hand, leapt into the fray, defending her man.

  “I’ll assume you’re Marcus.” Those chocolaty eyes narrowed on his face and her hands fisted on her hips. “You have a lot of nerve lecturing Matthew and Daniel about foolishness. They didn’t take off with hardly a word and leave you to wonder if they were alive or dead.”

  Marcus felt an unwilling twinge of guilt at her observation. Of course Matt had worried. And he’d had the added stress of trying to learn Marcus’ job in less than a week. And, God, Meredith must be a basket case.