by Tara Rose
Dalton’s dark eyes filled with pity. “I can’t blame you, especially after seeing that YouTube video of him and Becca Rawlings. He’s a dickweed, Angela. And he doesn’t deserve you.”
Angela averted her gaze. How long would it take before people in this town stopped bringing it up? “Thanks, Dalton.” She didn’t want to talk about Brett. She was still reeling from her conversation with Nash less than an hour ago over lunch.
“I saw you at Indulgence Friday night with Nash and Ian.”
Angela nodded, picking up Dalton’s chart. Dalton was a regular Dom at Indulgence, but Ian and Nash had told her not to discuss her training. Did that extend to other Doms as well? It would wise to assume it did until she had a chance to ask them.
“Ian and Nash are good guys, Angela. They won’t steer you wrong.”
She snapped her gaze back to his face. Did he know?
“If you’re interested in learning more about this lifestyle, you won’t find two better Doms to show you the ropes.” He lowered his voice even further. “No pun intended, of course.”
When he winked, Angela couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s good to know, Dalton. I’ll walk you up front.”
“Always did wonder what you were doing with Brett. Thought he was a creeper, even when we were kids.”
“I appreciate that.” Where had all this great insight been during the years she’d wasted on Brett? Then again, the signs had always been there. She’d simply chosen to ignore them.
She handed Dalton’s chart to Linda, who proceeded to flirt openly with him. Angela took that as her cue to return to the treatment area. She made a mental note to ask Ian and Nash about speaking to other Doms, even in public settings like this one, and tried to push the image of the YouTube video out of her mind for the remainder of the afternoon.
* * * *
Ian swore under his breath for the third time in less than an hour when the program he was working on crashed yet again. He picked up his desk phone and called Wes Danbury, his contact in the IT department. Technically, he was supposed to send an e-mail or place a call to the department’s generic mailbox or phone number, because they worked out of a queue for the entire country. But that meant he could end up speaking to anyone, and Ian didn’t want that. He wanted his damn computer fixed right now.
“Wes, it crashed again.”
“I’ll be right there.” Wes worked one floor up, on five, along with the dozen IT techs he supervised. He was also a new Dom that Ian was mentoring. Ian and Wes had known each other in high school, and one day about six months ago, Wes had simply walked up to Ian’s desk at work and started asking him questions about Indulgence.
Ian had taken him aside and asked him to stop by the club so they could talk. Wes had been so green he hadn’t even realized that it might not be the best idea to talk about a BDSM club at work. Up until Blaine Peterson had joined the R&D team that Ian was on, Ian hadn’t worked that closely with anyone in the lifestyle. Roughly fifteen hundred people worked in this building, and as far as Ian knew, less than thirty of them had ever set foot inside Nash’s club.
Wes’s face was flushed when he appeared at Ian’s desk. “Hey, sorry it took me so long. I was actually in the lobby when you called.” His dark eyes were filled with what could only be called excitement. What was that about?
“Did you run up the four flights?”
Wes grinned like a kid who’d just been told he was going to Disney World. “No. I was talking to Summer.”
Summer Andrews was the receptionist who reminded Ian of Angela. Both women had long, straight blonde hair, but Summer’s eyes were green, not blue. “Oh? Something I should know about?”
Wes sat down at Ian’s desk and began to type away, bringing up all sorts of hidden screens that Ian never knew existed. “Maybe.”
Ian lowered his voice. “Maybe, as in you’re thinking of playing at the club with her, or just wanting to date her?”
Wes didn’t glance at him, but Ian caught the way his body stiffened. “Why do you ask?”
“Because she’s been to the club a few times, but as far as I know, only to watch.”
“I know.”
“So tread carefully on that subject with her.”
“I got it, Ian. Ah, here’s your problem. The recent update didn’t go through for some reason. This should take about ten minutes.” Wes typed a few more things, then the screen went black for a second, and when it came back up again, the installation bar was showing. Wes leaned back in Ian’s chair and glanced around. No one was paying attention to them. “I’ve had a few dates with Summer, and so now I was thinking of asking her to come to Indulgence with me this weekend. Will you be there?”
He was, but he’d be with Nash and Angela, and Ian wasn’t ready yet to announce to Wes or anyone else that he and Nash were training Angela. They’d all find out soon enough anyway. He hadn’t even told Blaine yet. “Dates?”
Wes looked embarrassed. “Lunch dates, and we went to dinner once. You going to be there on Friday? At the club?”
“I plan to be. Why??”
“I thought you could make sure we weren’t doing anything…you know…wrong.”
“I’ll see if that’s possible, Wes.”
Ian hated the fact that Wes was now looking at him like a wounded puppy, but he and Nash hadn’t discussed how they were going to handle going public with Angela, and Ian couldn’t say anything to Wes until they did. It would be disrespectful. Even if he wasn’t sharing Angela’s training, he wouldn’t have said anything to Wes. Ian had learned the hard way that talking too openly about BDSM in this town was likely to have unpleasant consequences.
“Okay. That’s cool.” Wes turned his attention to the installation bar on Ian’s computer monitor, which of course was now moving at a snail’s pace.
Ian perched on the edge of his desk. “Look, it’s just that Nash and I are involved in training someone, okay? Let me talk to him, and I’ll let you know how much time we’ll have to help you and Summer.”
Wes’s face brightened up a bit. “Okay.”
“And if I can’t work with you two, I’ll find someone whom you can trust just as much. Would that be all right?”
“Sure, sure. That would be great. Thanks, Ian.”
Ian clapped him on the back. “It’s nothing, Wes. Really.” He pointed toward the screen. “Looks like I’m up and running again.”
Wes stood up. “Try the program again. I’ll wait.”
The program opened, and Ian smiled when he realized he hadn’t lost the last part of what he’d been working on when it had crashed. He resumed work while Wes watched, and after a few minutes, they both pronounced it fixed.
“Thanks again, Wes.”
“Not a problem. See you Friday.”
After Wes left, Ian sat back in his chair and thought about everything he and Nash had discussed so far. They’d spent a lot of time on protocol for Angela, and what she wanted out of all this, but they hadn’t touched on issues that Ian felt were just as important. Like what to tell everyone, or what would happen long term.
Ian had worshipped Angela from afar for a long time. He’d have been happy to have even a vanilla relationship with her, but he had never approached her because of Brett. Now, he still found it difficult to comprehend that not only was she his sub, but he was sharing her with Nash. He had nothing against Nash. He had nothing against sharing a sub. He and Nash had talked about that before. But the reality of doing so was vastly different from how Ian had often imagined it would be.
He’d already admitted being jealous of Nash, but this was what Angela wanted. The realization that Ian wasn’t sure he could handle it made him feel weak, although he knew it shouldn’t. Really…how many Doms did he know that could handle something like this in reality?
He glanced at the cubicle across from him, where Blaine sat, iPod ear buds in, working on the same project that Ian was supposed to be tweaking right now. Blaine was very open about his relationship with Carma and Mate
o. He looked blissful when he talked about her. That was the only word for it. How the hell did he do it? Maybe what Ian needed right now was to confide in a friend, other than Nash. Someone who had been there and was making a ménage work. Would Nash consider that a betrayal?
Ian wouldn’t. Nash had other friends, too. And they’d have to discuss this eventually. Ian would feel more comfortable doing so if he had another person’s point of view to help him make sense of his own feelings first.
He slid his chair over and tapped Blaine on the shoulder. Blaine startled a bit, but when he saw it was Ian, he took out his ear buds. “What’s up?”
“Got a minute to take a walk around the building outside? I have a couple of questions.”
* * * *
Nash was surprised when Ian showed up at three in the afternoon, and without calling first. That wasn’t like him. He opened the back door and led Ian into the media room, where Nash had been watching a baseball game. “Is everything okay at Notus?”
“Yeah. I took off early.”
“Want a beer?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Nash handed Ian a beer and sat down again. “What’s going on?”
“I had a long talk with Blaine today.”
Nash nodded, his mind on the Arizona Diamondbacks’ game.
“We talked about sharing a sub.”
Nash lowered the volume on the TV and faced Ian. “Oh?”
“Nash, I know you and I talked about this, but we didn’t really touch on the important things. The long-term things.”
Nash took a long sip of beer. “I’m not ready to talk about long term.” He couldn’t tell Ian he’d been thinking about that very subject ever since his lunch with Angela three hours earlier. Doing so would require admitting to Ian that he was falling like a stone for Angela, and Nash wasn’t ready to admit that to himself, let alone to Ian.
Ian drained half his beer. “Okay. Then let’s talk about whether or not we’re going to make this official. Are we going to tell anyone, or are we just going to train her in secret?”
“What do you mean by ‘official’?”
“As in giving her a training collar so that everyone knows she’s our sub.”
Nash nodded. He’d been thinking about that, too. “I agree. We need to do that.”
“Great. When do you want to? We shouldn’t wait until she comes here again on Friday.”
“No, we shouldn’t wait that long. Let’s do it tomorrow evening, after she gets off work. We’ll invite her here and have a picnic outside, or something like that. She’d enjoy that.” Nash smiled as he imagined the look on Angela’s face if they surprised her with an impromptu outdoor meal at the end of her workday. Then he and Ian could present her with the training collar.
“Dude, you look like a fucking Disney cartoon prince right now.”
“What? No I don’t.” Nash picked up his beer and drained it, then rose to get another one out of the mini fridge under the bar.
Ian laughed. “I’m serious, Nash. You were smiling like a lovesick idiot just now. What the hell was going through your mind?”
“Nothing. So, okay. I’ll take care of the details for tomorrow night. Aren’t you taking Angela out to eat dinner tonight?”
Ian was still grinning, but Nash ignored it. “Yeah, I am. I'll let her know about our plans for tomorrow. Do you want the collar to be a surprise?”
“I think it should be, don’t you? Oh, before I forget, one thing did come up at lunch. I told her that when we’re out in public, she should call us by our names.”
Ian raised his eyebrows. “Did she call you something else at Doli’s?”
“Not very loudly, but yes. She called me ‘Sir.’”
“She’s trying so hard, Nash.”
“I know she is. That’s one of the things I love about her. We also talked about her letting us take the lead with ordering in restaurants. You okay with that?” He cursed himself ten times over for using the word “love,” hoping Ian would interpret it as nothing more than an expression and not read anything else into it.
“I’m fine with that. Is there anything special you want me to discuss with her tonight?”
“I can’t think of anything right now. If something comes up and you don’t want to make a decision without asking me, just shoot me a text.”
“Will do.”
Ian was watching him too closely, and Nash mentally searched for something to say. “You said you talked to Blaine. What did he say?”
Ian shrugged. “Nothing earth-shattering. Just that he and Mateo were jealous of each other at first but that they made it work because it’s what Carma wanted. I think you and I have already figured that out, no?”
Nash nodded. “Yeah, we have. Why did you talk to him?”
“I started thinking about long term, and thought perspective from a Dom who is making this work would help.”
Nash didn’t say anything. He knew that what Blaine had told Ian was right. If this made Angela happy, he’d have to make it work. It was good to know right now that he and Ian were on the same page.
Ian finished his beer and left to go pick up Angela from work, but Nash missed the rest of the baseball game because his mind kept wandering to Angela, and everything he’d told her at lunch. It wasn’t usual for him to open up like that to a sub, but there was something about her that made him want to bare his soul and tell her every dark secret lurking in the shadows.
He was in deep shit here.
Chapter Nineteen
Angela had never wished away time, but Friday couldn’t come fast enough for her this week. On a whim, she’d sent a picture of her boobs to Ian and Nash right after lunch on Monday, and they’d both texted back with detailed descriptions of what they planned to do to her on Friday. Descriptions that included wax play, taking pictures of her in bondage, and anal sex.
By the time her work day was over and she sprinted out to the parking lot to climb into Ian’s car, she was so horny she would have straddled the gearshift, right there in front of her coworkers leaving the building. He leaned over and gave her a tight hug and a quick kiss, then pulled out onto the road as she was left wanting more.
“How was work?” she asked.
“I left early.” He cut his glance to her for a quick second. “Nash and I had things to talk about. By the way, you’ll be having dinner at his house with us tomorrow night.”
“That sounds great. Thank you.”
“Are you all right with Chinese tonight?”
“Sure, Ian. That’s fine. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
The drive to House of Chang on Apache Street took about fifteen minutes, and that was only because it was all the way across town. It was crowded inside, but Angela didn’t mind. She was proud to be seen with Ian.
As they ate and made small talk, Angela thought he seemed a bit distracted, and she asked if anything was bothering him. He gave her a molten look full of lust and leaned in close. She took a whiff of his cologne, mixed now with the smell of his sweet and sour pork. The temptation to throw him on the table right there in front of their neighbors was overwhelming.
“You sent me a picture of your naked breasts and you ask me what’s bothering me?”
She gave him her sexiest smile. “You can do something about that, you know.”
“Not tonight I can’t. We talked about this in our text messages all day, remember? You have to wait until Friday night.”
“You and Nash are trying to kill me.” They texts they’d sent her all day with promises of punishment and hot sex on Friday had also included assurances that there would be no sexual contact or play until then.
“Only with lust.”
Angela shivered. This was more erotic and fun that she’d ever imagined it would be. But it was killing her to know they were actually going to make her wait until Friday night to play with them and have sex again. How could they stand it?
When Ian dropped her off at her condo, he gave her a kiss tha
t would melt the snow off Sleepy Cat Peak in the middle of February, and then he waited until she’d unlocked her door and stepped inside before he turned and walked toward his car. “You’re a robot,” she called after him. “There’s no other explanation for it.”
He turned around and gave her a grin. “Goodnight, Angela.”
“I hate you.”
When he chuckled, she wanted to run after him and tackle him to the ground. “I know you do. Sleep well.”
When they’d first told her via text messages that they didn’t plan on having sex with her until Friday, she’d told them that in that case, she planned to wear out her vibrator by then. They’d both texted back to inform her that she was forbidden to use her vibrator all week. But how would they know if she did? It’s not like they had cameras installed inside her condo.
Later that night, it was next to her on the bed, still turned off, and she was trying to fall asleep, but she kept thinking about everything they’d done to her Saturday and Sunday. Her entire body ached for them. She could still taste them on her lips. Her ass cheeks still had healing bruises on them, and her pussy was still a bit sore. But despite all that, Angela wanted them both right now.
She wanted their mouths on her lips, her nipples, and her clit. She wanted to feel their dicks grazing her skin as she lay underneath them, gazing up into their eyes. She longed to feel the pain of their flogging and spankings, and she needed their cocks inside her pussy and her mouth.
They’d promised her that they’d both take turns fucking her in the ass on Friday, among other things. She’d had to cover up a moan when she’d read that text, because her coworkers had been standing around her at the time. Now, as she imagined what that would be like, she rolled over in bed and picked up her vibrator. Seriously…how would the guys ever know?
“Fuck it all,” she yelled in frustration. They had made her promise in the text messages that she would wait until Friday to have an orgasm. The “no vibrator” rule had gone on to include no masturbation at all on her part. It was her own fault. They hadn’t been that strict until she’d told them she was going to wear out her vibrator. They were pure sadists.