Question now was where were Master and Sir? Were they in on it, whatever it was? Or was this something her cousins had concocted on their own?
“Where the hell is she?” a familiar voice rumbled loud enough to rattle the rafters.
* * * *
When neither Jenna nor Taurus answered his calls, Dane’s worry turned to frustration at not knowing where their woman was. Though Merlin tried to keep him calm, his pet was just as upset as he was.
After sending his slave upstairs with the bags they had packed for the weekend, Dane stormed into the club through the back door, ready to tear the building down. Whatever it took to get Sloan back.
The club had yet to open, so the room was nearly empty. The scent of leather, sex, pain, and desire lingered in the air, and Dane would swear he could hear echoes of crying, both in pain and ecstasy, in the silence as he crossed to the bar. Sloan’s cousins, Jenna and Taurus, were conferring with the new bartender about something.
“Where the hell is she?”
The pair turned slowly and faced him as a united front. Neither looked happy. “She who?” Jenna had the audacity to inquire. “Have you lost someone, Dane?”
Dane blinked and stared at the infuriating woman, the anger in him rising high and fast, much like a spring flood along some of the county’s creeks. “Don’t who me,” he growled. “You know exactly who I’m talking about. Sloan. Where is she?”
Instead of answering, the two turned and walked across the club’s main floor to the lobby where they once again stood shoulder to shoulder as they faced him down.
“Oh, you mean Sloan, the woman you promised me you would never treat badly? The one I found crying from exhaustion, frustration, and neglect the other day when I stopped by the house?” Taurus said, keeping his voice soft and controlled. “We’ve decided since you aren’t taking proper care of her that it’s time to find her a new Master.”
“Someone who will care that she hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep since the twins were born because she’s trying keep all four of her Masters happy without complaint or help,” Jenna said.
“Someone who will notice that she hasn’t written in months because she’s too tired and busy to think,” Taurus added.
“Someone who will actually give a fuck that she is systematically giving up on her dreams because no one around her seems to care enough to support her,” Jenna finished.
Dane took a step back at the white-hot anger radiating from the two. He had always known they were close and protective of Sloan, but he had no idea they would do something this drastic without talking to him first. Then he thought about their accusations. They were right. He and Merlin had not been taking proper care of their angel.
After the twins had been born, he and Merlin had continued on with their work, their fun, their lives with very little change except that they got to play with the boys, once in a while feeding them or changing an occasional diaper. Half the time he had not even heard them when they cried in the middle of the night.
“I know we’ve fucked up,” he said, not wanting to share the meltdown she had had earlier in the week, “but this is between us and Sloan. We don’t need you jumping in the middle of it.”
Jenna took a breath, and fire blazed from her eyes. “Problem is, we’re the only family Sloan has left that truly loves her. Did she tell you that the rest of the family turned their backs on her when they found out she was living with two men? That they won’t even acknowledge the twins? We’re kicking ourselves for not stepping in sooner, but we honestly thought she could stand up to you to and ask for help. But obviously not, so you better just get used to us being in your business because you’re stuck with us for life if Sloan decides she wants to stay with you.”
Dane frowned at her last comment. “What do you mean if? Of course she’s going to stay with us.”
“We’ll see,” Taurus said. “For now she’s back under our command, and you have just as much a chance as any other Dom.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dane said, his temper beginning to heat up again.
“You’ll see. Why don’t you go have a drink? The games will begin an hour after opening,” Jenna answered cryptically.
Though he wanted to stay and argue some more, Dane knew that when these two made up their minds about something nothing would change it, not even the diamond ring in his suitcase upstairs. Huffing his displeasure, he returned to the club’s main room. Looking around past the growing crowd, he saw something he had missed earlier. Around the room, between different pieces of equipment, submissives were chained to the floor. The women all wore purple chemises, and the men wore deep red silk boxers. They all wore black scarves tied to obscure their entire faces.
Walking the perimeter of the main floor without going too close to the evening’s human offerings, Dane deduced Sloan was not among them. A movement on the balcony caught his attention, and he saw three more women were upstairs chained to the railing. One blonde, one raven, and the third, she was the redhead he had been looking for.
Then he remembered that tonight was the club’s third annual sub/slave auction fundraiser for charity.
“Holy fucking hell,” he muttered as he stalked over to the bar where Merlin stood waiting and looking anxious.
After filling his slave boy in, Merlin released a similar yet more PG rated curse before asking, “So what are we going to do?”
“We’re going to get our girl back,” Dane stated firmly before turning to the bar and ordering two beers.
* * * *
“Good evening everyone and welcome to Club Esoteria’s third annual sub/slave fundraiser for charity.” Jenna stood on the empty stage and started the evening’s festivities. “This year we are having a Chinese auction with the proceeds going to the food bank to help our neighbors who are going hungry. We have a dozen sub/slaves, four men and eight women as prizes. We also have twelve keys, one for each of the locks holding our prizes secure.”
“Winning bidders get a key to claim a prize. The trick is that all the locks are different, so it may take some time to find your prize. You are also not bidding on a specific person, but on either a man or a woman. But once the first winner has claimed their sub, the second winner has the choice of either using the key or taking the sub from the first winner. And so on and so on until all the prizes have been awarded. So, open your pockets and be generous as the bidding on this first pink key starts at a hundred dollars.”
Sloan listened from the balcony in shock. What was Jenna thinking to involve her in something like this? She had heard Dane come in raging, but after a few minutes, nothing. Had he decided he did not want to keep her? Was this his way of getting rid of her for the weekend?
She waited anxiously with a dry mouth and sweating palms as the first few keys were won. One man had tried his key, but when it did not fit the lock, he moved on and claimed the person on her left. With each winner announced, her anxiety grew. Surely her men would stop this before someone claimed her.
“Show me your lock, girl,” a gravelly voice demanded, jerking the chain and pulling on her wrists.
She gasped and froze in shock, unable to help him. He pinched her arm then pulled the chain around until he found the lock. She wanted to cry when he successfully opened the lock.
“Ha, you’re mine,” he whispered into her ear. “Don’t know what Dane’s thinking putting you up like this, but it’s his loss. I’m going to have a good time turning that beautiful skin rosy red.”
The voice frightened her because it was one she did not recognize. His breath smelled strongly of alcohol, old and new, though his cologne reminded her of Master’s.
When he pulled the scarf from her face, she found herself face to chest with Master Dennis, a newer club member who had moved to the area about six months earlier. Sloan did not know much about him, except that Master and Sir did not like him and kept her far away from him. He was tall and thin and wore jeans and a U.S. Marines T-shirt over his large beer bell
y.
Wrapping his hand around her arm, he gripped it tight as he pulled her behind him. They descended the stairs and crossed the main floor to join the other winners on the stage. When she tried to turn around and look for her men, Master Dennis jerked her arm.
“You keep your face to me, girl,” he ordered sharply as he pointed to the floor and snapped his fingers.
Glancing out of the corner of her eye at Jenna, she knelt and began to pray that Master and Sir were in the crowd and would rescue her. With each key that was won the bids went higher and higher as the club members got into the spirit of the game.
The seventh key winner handed his key to Master Dennis who blustered as he took it and moved away. Her new Master took his place and smiled down at her. It was Jackson, the bartender who was not really into the BDSM lifestyle and was engaged. What was he doing buying a key and claiming her?
He leaned down and whispered, “Don’t worry, little one. We’d never let you go to a sadist like Master Dennis.”
The eleventh key winner took her away from Jackson who then began a round-robin of exchanges. She changed hands three times before Jenna could auction the twelfth key. This was an older man she had never met before but who had kind eyes. Her back remained to the audience, so she could not see her men.
Would they win the twelfth key and claim her?
Chapter 6
Dane watched as his angel, his woman was traded several times. Merlin had to stop him twice when he took a step forward to demand her return. Finally the last key was up for auction. This was it. He waited as several bids were offered, before he called out, “Fifty thousand.”
As expected a murmur went through the crowd. As soon as Jenna brought the gavel down, he headed to the stage. He knew Merlin was a step behind, but his entire focus was on the woman in the purple chemise kneeling on the stage.
Snatching the key from Taurus with a snarl, he went to the man standing in front of his woman. “Here,” he ground out thrusting the key into the man’s hand. “She’s mine.”
The man looked like he wanted to argue, until he looked into Dane’s face. He blanched and walked away, trading the key for another woman on the stage, which led to another volley of trades. When Jackson approached holding the key and grinning, Dane narrowed his eyes. “Don’t even think about it.”
Before anyone else could approach, he pulled Sloan to her feet, bent and placed his shoulder in her middle. When he straightened again, she squealed, but did not fight as she hung from his shoulder. Without acknowledging anyone else, he stalked from the stage.
The crowd parted as he approached, giving him wide passage to the back of the room where a conversation area was shielded from the rest of the room by the stairs leading to the balcony as well as several well placed plants. Once they were in the semiprivate area, he set Sloan on her feet again.
She immediately knelt and laid her forehead on his boots. “Thank you, Master. Oh, thank you,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his calves.
“Look at me, angel,” he ordered, his dominant side still large and in charge.
She sat up and looked up at him, her expression one of relief and joy.
That was enough to assure Dane that she was not in on whatever insanity her cousins had tried, but he had to be sure. “Do you want another Master? Is that why you were up there?”
As soon as he said the words, he saw panic enter her eyes. “No, Master. I love you. I love Sir. I would never offer myself up like that without talking to you first. I thought maybe you were trying to get rid of me.” Tears filled her eyes, and her voice grew smaller with each word.
* * * *
Sloan dropped her head forward, afraid to see whether her words had struck truth or not. She felt Master move away, walk around her. She had no idea where Sir was, but knew he had to be closer as well.
“Come here, angel,” Dane finally said from behind her. “Pet, get a chair.”
Turning her head she saw him seated in the big, oversized chair against the wall. Too big to be a chair, not quite big enough to be a loveseat, it was Dane’s favorite chair in the building, and the three of them often sat together and cuddled in it after playing in one of the rooms upstairs.
Standing, she crossed to him, and he pulled her down to sit next to him. Merlin pulled the other chair around so he faced them and their knees touched.
“We have some serious problems here,” Dane said as his hand settled high on her thigh. “Miscues, secrets, and lies have caused a communication breakdown and forced others to intervene in the affairs of our family.”
Sloan’s heart clenched, and she bit her lip, fighting the urge to deny the truth. It was difficult, especially when she met Merlin’s gaze and saw his sadness. She wanted her life back like it was before, but after nearly two years of this growing distance between them, would it be possible to find their way back to one another?
Looking at Dane, she saw he now wore his Dom-in-control expression. There was no anger, no disappointment, no expression at all.
“Now there are several things we can do,” he continued after the silence grew heavy with tension. “We can end things and walk a—”
“No, Master, please no,” Sloan cried out, her heart clenching.
“…away as if nothing had happened between us,” he continued as if she had not interrupted. “We can try to find a counselor who would be able to understand our unique situation. Or we could use tonight as a start-over point.”
Once again silence wrapped around them. Sloan could not fight back the panic that she was about to lose the best thing that had ever happened to her. And what of the twins? Would her men want full custody? Or would she end up raising them alone?
“Master, if I may, I’d like to vote for option three, start over from here,” Merlin said softly.
Dane nodded, his expression remaining blank and unreadable. “Angel? What do you say?”
She was so lost in her panic that it took her a moment to realize the men were expecting an answer. She could not remember the choices, so she simply said, “I don’t want to lose either of you, but I also cannot go back to the way things have been the last few months.”
Dane looked thoughtful as his fingers continued to stroke her upper thigh, barely two inches from her pussy. “So if we could start over from here, from tonight, would you be willing to try it?”
She nodded quickly. “Yes, Master.”
“And I also vote for option three. There is no way I want to see anything happen to our little family. If we need to find a counselor, we will, but I think, if we can, we should work things out ourselves.”
Sloan took a deep breath and sighed as her heartbeat slowed from a racing panic to a more normal rhythm. They would not be kicking her and the babies to the curb. They still wanted her.
“I’d like that, Master,” she said softly as Merlin nodded his agreement.
“Very well. The first thing we’re going to do is go upstairs and get to know one another again. Then we’ll come back down and rejoin the party.”
“Yes, Master,” Sloan and Merlin said in hearty agreement.
“And at some point tonight, angel will be receiving a spanking,” Dane said as Merlin stood and, taking her hand, pulled her to her feet.
“Master?”
Dane stood and cupped one cheek in his palm. The love in his eyes filled her with hope that they would be able to work things out. “While pet and I are at fault for being men and not realizing what was going on in our own house, you should never have let us get away with it. We have neglected you and our babies, and because of that I was told that you have given up on your dream. That information should not have come from your cousins. I cannot believe that you’re not writing.”
“You’ve stopped writing?” Merlin asked, sounding shocked.
Sloan’s shoulders drooped as she softly admitted, “I had to. I’ve lost the spark.”
“Well, if you don’t find something to write about by the end of the weekend, you’
ll just have to make something up. Monday we’re hiring a nanny so you can get back to writing, and each night after the babies are in bed you will read us whatever you wrote that day,” Dane said. He took Sloan’s still-joined hands and pressed them over the front of his leathers. She sucked a breath when she felt the erection pushing back against her palm. “I’m in the mood for some dirty carnality, and there’s an empty room waiting for us.”
“Lead the way, Master,” Merlin said.
When Dane cupped her tit then tweaked the erect nipple that topped it Sloan could only moan and nod her agreement. He then wrapped his arm around her and began to follow their third.
Instead of going the staircase they sat behind to one of the theme rooms, Merlin led the way down the hall and past the restrooms. After punching a code on a security panel, he pushed through a door marked “Private.”
As soon as they entered, Sloan knew where they were. They had entered what she thought of as the back lobby. The door to their right led to the back parking lot where Jenna and her men parked. On the wall opposite, the elevator doors stood open as if waiting for them.
As soon as they were on the elevator, Dane pulled her around to face him. Wrapping one arm around her shoulders, he dropped the other to her ass and pressed her tight against his body. Dropping his head, he began to kiss her in the dominant, masterful way that told her he was completely in charge and she should just relax and go with the flow. The pressure of his hard, thick cock against her lower belly, even through his leathers, sent her simmering need on a climb to boiling.
The fingers stroking over the cleft of her ass dropped then and pulled the silky chemise up, up, up her back. He released her only long enough to pull it over her head before smashing her against his chest, belly, and erection once more. In the next instant, she felt the head of Merlin’s naked and hard-as-iron cock press into the cleft of her ass.
Juggling Masters [Club Esoteria 12] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 4