Charlie’s wandering gaze came back to Nik and Jay. And that’s when she noticed that both men were naked. Totally, unabashedly naked. “Ummm.” She also realized that she was staring. Totally, unabashedly staring. And thinking that, even soft, their cocks were pretty damned impressive. Big. And gorgeous. And Nik’s was uncircumcised. Oh, my. Charlie had never seen an uncircumcised cock before and couldn’t stop staring at it—catching herself, she lowered her head and bit her lip. Okay, that’s enough of that.
“Look at me, little one.” Forcing her eyes upward, she met Nik’s amused gaze. “Like what you see?”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” She shrugged, hoping it looked as nonchalant and disinterested as she tried to make it. “How did I get here? And, again, where is here? Why can’t I remember anything?”
“You’re in our apartment at the Passion Lake Lodge,” Nik said. “More specifically in my bedroom. We found you passed out in your car by the side of the road. You were holding that rabbit so tightly, we had to pry it out of your arms in order to bathe you.”
“He’s not an ‘it’,” she huffed, annoyed. “He’s a ‘he’. His name is Mr. Floppy, and”—her eyes widened—“Oh, my God, you bathed me?”
“We had to get your temperature down,” Jay explained.
“You mean…naked?” With her free hand she grabbed the blanket, pulling it up and clutching it to her chest.
Jay’s lips twitched. “That’s standard bathing attire, I believe.”
“And this?” she asked, indicating the IV.
“We called Lucas McKay. He said you’re dehydrated and running a fever.” Nik nodded toward the bag hanging from the IV pole. “It’s just glucose and a full-spectrum antibiotic.”
Once again she tried to push herself up, but Nik’s firm hand pushed her right back down. “Please stay in bed, malyutka.” Even though he said please, it was definitely an order and not a request. “You need to rest.”
She gnawed at her lip. “Actually,” she said with a nervous little laugh. “I-I need to pee.”
“Here, darlin’ girl, let us help you,” Jay offered. Before she knew what was happening, Jay had come around to Nik’s side of the bed. While the big Russian pulled back the covers and scooped her up in his arms, Jay unhooked the IV bag.
“Hey, I can walk!” she protested, kicking and squirming in Nik’s arms, pushing against his broad chest, trying to make him put her down.
“Stop, little one. Or you will earn a punishment.”
Holy shit! “You can’t punish me,” she said, her voice laced with defiance. “You’re not my Dom.” But she subsided, realizing that provoking him was probably not the best course of action under the circumstances. It would be like poking a grizzly bear with a sharp, pointy stick. With pretty much the same results.
He just quirked an eyebrow and gave her an amused look.
Holding the bag of glucose up over their heads, Jay followed Nik and Charlie into a spacious bathroom. Built to accommodate Nik’s size, everything was large, the walk-in shower with its decorative stone tiles and overhead skylight, the long vanity with three vessel sinks.
Three sinks? Seriously? Who needs three sinks?
Nik set her down on the toilet seat. Hunching over to hide her nakedness, she made little flapping gestures with her hands. “Well, I can’t…you know…go…if you’re in here,” she protested. “It’s too private!”
“Nothing between a Dom and a sub is private,” Jay informed her. “That’s the beauty of a D/s relationship.”
“Well, I’m not a sub and we don’t have a relationship, D/s or otherwise,” Charlie retorted. “So I would appreciate a little privacy, please.” She firmed her chin and jutted it out to show she meant business. The flapping motions turned into shooing motions. “Out. Out. Out.” They might be big, bad-ass Doms, but they weren’t going to push Charlie Fielding around! No sirree!
The two men just looked at each other lips twitching in amusement. Then, with a shrug, Jay handed the IV bag to Charlie. “Hold it up,” he admonished. “Call us if you need our help. We’ll be right outside.” He and Nik left the bathroom and very quietly closed the door.
Sinking back against the toilet tank, Charlie let out a sigh of relief. Her pulses were racing so fast, she swore she could hear the blood rushing through her veins. It took a few seconds, but she was finally able to empty her bladder and flush the toilet.
But when she tried to stand up, her legs were so wobbly, she sat right back down. Damn! I’m as weak as a newborn kitten! What’s up with that? Taking a deep breath, she tried again, only to cry out as she fell back again, half on and half off the toilet seat, dropping the IV bag on the floor. “Damn!”
Instantly the door opened and Nik and Jay rushed in. She noticed they’d both put on jeans. “What is it, darlin’ girl?” Jay asked, bending over to pick up the bag of glucose and handing it to Nik.
“Can’t stand…”
“Don’t worry, love, we’ll help you.” He picked her up, carried her out of the bathroom, and set her down on the bed. Her eyes met his and the gentleness she saw there was more than she could take. It completely unraveled her.
“I can’t stay here,” she said through a throat suddenly thick with unshed tears. “I have to leave. I have that audition on Saturday morning.” She started to sit up but again Nik’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“You are not going to make it to that audition,” he said firmly.
“But—”
“No buts,” Jay added. “You’re sick. Let us look after you until you’re well enough to leave.”
“Why should you look after me?” she asked indignantly. “I’m not your sub, I’m not your responsibility. You don’t owe me anything. And I sure as hell don’t want to owe you anything!”
“Charlotte!” Nik’s deep bass voice, accompanied by the upward hike of one black eyebrow, put an end to her outburst.
She turned her head, gnawing on her lip. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, losing her battle to hold back her tears. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I-I guess I’m just”—she gulped—“scared.” A sob shuddered through her. “I’ve never been so close to having nothing before. So close to—”Oh, great. Let them know exactly how vulnerable you are, why don’t you? Way to go, Fielding.
Without a word, Nik walked around to the other side of the bed and crawled up onto the mattress. He turned and sat down beside her, rearranging pillows behind him and leaning back against the headboard. “Malchik moy, help Charlotte sit up, please,” he directed his partner.
Jay slid his arm beneath Charlie’s back and raised her to a sitting position. After helping to lift her up onto Nik’s lap, he crawled up onto the bed and sat down beside Nik, lifting Charlie’s legs over his lap. The denim of Nik’s jeans was rough against her abraded backside, making her squirm.
“Relax, little one. I just want to hold you and talk for a while. Is that okay with you? Here.” He reached over and grabbed Mr. Floppy, holding him out to her.
Except for Mr. Floppy, Charlie had never been the touchy-feely type. She’d seldom been hugged in her life, except by Mama Rosa, and being enfolded to her ample bosom those first few times had triggered a panic attack in Charlie instead of the warm fuzzies. Mama Rosa’s hugs had been likely to come at her like a silent ninja attack, without warning and from any direction. Fortunately Mama Rosa had soon realized that she was frightening Charlie instead of comforting her and had started announcing her upcoming hugs like the TV weatherman announces the cold front sweeping in from the north, or the gate clerk at the airport announces that Flight one ninety-two to Detroit is now arriving at the gate. Making a game out of it had reduced Charlie’s anxiety and it hadn’t been long before she’d been the one initiating the hugs.
Her reverie was interrupted by Nik’s deep voice above her head. “Tell us about yourself, Charlotte.”
“Everyone calls me Charlie,” she countered.
“Charlie,” Jay murmured. “It suits you.”
Charlie gave him a shy smile through the shiny black curtain of her hair, finally lowering her guard enough to let her body relax against Nik’s hard chest. She let out a little sigh which Nik seized on with gratitude. He was tempted to tighten his arms around her, but didn’t want to frighten her, so instead, he raised one big hand and lifted her face up toward his, soothing the wayward mass of her hair back off her face.
“Tell us about your parents, devushka?” he said. “Do they live in Virginia?”
“I don’t know,” she confessed. “I never knew them. I was raised in the foster care system.”
“Poor baby,” Jay said sympathetically. “I hear the foster care system can be pretty brutal.”
Charlie just shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad, I guess. I mean, I wasn’t molested or abused or anything. Just, basically, ignored. Except for the Anthonys. Mama Rosa and Papa Vito and their five children. I was with them from the time I was seventeen until I aged out of the system a year later. Mama taught me how to cook all her family’s favorite Italian dishes, and Papa taught me how to build a house. He was a contractor.” She smiled impishly. “Okay, it was a dog house, but still, a house is a house, right? So if you’ve got any work that needs to be done around here, you know, new tile in the bathroom, drywall, leaky faucet”—she jabbed her thumb against her chest—“I’m your man.”
Nik chuckled as his hand stroked down her bare back and came to rest on the enticing curve of her right hip. “One thing you definitely are not, Charlotte, is a man. You were Bradford’s prisoner for three weeks. Did no one report you missing?”
“No. I-I don’t have any close friends. And my boss just assumed I had quit.”
“That must have been very lonely for you. How long have you been singing?”
“Since first grade. I always got the singing parts in the school pageants. Plus I was in the choir all through high school, and tried out for all the musicals the drama club staged. I sang in a few bars with my foster brother’s rock band The Malignant Narcissists. The bars were awful. We were more awful. I was glad when they broke up. Tried singing with a country band, mostly in bars—better bars. But they kept breaking up, too and I finally just got tired of looking for bands to sing with.”
Conversation lapsed and she seemed content to just lie quietly against Nik’s broad chest. But inwardly she was at war with herself. All she wanted to do was curl up in this man’s lap and let him and Jay take care of her. Nobody had ever taken care of her, not really. Not her parents, not any of the foster families who had tolerated her because she was a source of income for them. She’d been looking after herself pretty much all her life. And she’d always longed to be looked after. Maybe two big, sexy Daddy Doms were just what the doctor ordered.
Jesus Christ! Are you outta your fuckin’ mind? You’ve got to get outta here! Sure, they offered you a job and a place to stay until you get back on your feet. But at what price? What are they going to ask for in return? No, not ask. Demand. Doms never ask. Would they want obedience? Submission? Sex? Memories of her ordeal with Perry Bradford sprang into her mind. Without realizing it, her body stiffened and she shook her head slightly against Nik’s chest. No. I can’t do it. Whatever the price is, it’s too high.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, Charlotte.” Nik’s voice rumbled in her ear, “But I do know that it is not pleasant. Do you think you could stop thinking about it long enough to hear what Jay and I propose?”
After a brief hesitation, Charlie relaxed against him with a sigh and nodded her head.
“Good girl. We know you’re in trouble right now and we’d like to help.”
“Why?” she interrupted. “You don’t know me. You know nothing about me. I could be some kind of twisted, perverted psycho for all you know. I did, after all, enter a BDSM club using a stolen invitation for the sole purpose of stealing food.” She crossed her eyes, let one eyelid droop and made her face twitch and jerk. “Seems pretty psycho to me.”
Jay laughed. “Not psycho. Desperate.” His hand stroked the outside of her thigh. “You were basically held captive for three weeks by a man who beat you, raped you, tortured you, and humiliated you. As a result, you lost your home and your only source of income. And judging from everything we’ve seen and heard, you didn’t have any money in reserve either. On top of that, you’re ill and in no physical condition to remedy any of those circumstances.”
“Which is where we come in,” Nik chimed in. “We think it is fate that brought you to us, because we can provide solutions to all your problems. We can care for you until you are well again, give you a job that will provide you with income, and a place to stay until you feel you have enough of a financial cushion to be able to go anywhere you want to. Although,” he added, “we would hope you would choose to stay with us.”
“Again, why?”
“To be honest, we’re not sure why,” Jay said, once again taking up the narrative. “All we know is, the instant we saw you something just…clicked for us.” He turned his head to look up at Nik. “A lot of things clicked for us tonight.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Charlie confessed. “I-I overheard the two of you talking.”
“Then you know that we’re both Doms?”
“Yes.”
“But that I will sometimes submit to Nik because I need something only his Daddy Dom can give me?” Jay persisted.
“Yes.”
“And that my occasional submission is something his Daddy Dom also needs from me?”
Charlie nodded.
“And that we have been looking for a submissive who will agree to let both of us dominate her?”
She practically snorted. Right. What woman in her right mind would agree to anything like that? Yet, despite her scorn, her belly did a slow roll, spilling cream out between her legs.
“Yeah, I got that part, too. And if you think for one minute that I’ll give you sex in exchange for a job and a place to stay, then you’ve got another think coming. I’ve already been at the complete mercy of one Dom, I would be a psycho to put myself at the mercy of two more Doms. Besides, I’m not a submissive.”
Jay just smiled, lifting his hand from her thigh to cup her cheek. “You can tell yourself that, darlin’ girl. But sayin’ it don’t make it so.” He chuckled. “Your problem is you’re a submissive who’s afraid to trust. We’d like the chance to prove that you can trust us. Not just with your body, but with your heart and mind as well. We would give you a safe word. You’re familiar with the D/s dynamic. If we do anything that frightens you or makes you uncomfortable, all you have to do is say your safe word and everything stops. Understood? You are the one in control here, not us. And if you still decide to leave, then that is your choice and we won’t stop you. So will you at least think about our offer? We don’t need an answer right away, so take your time and let us know in a day or so, okay?”
Charlie just waited, breath held. The generosity of their offer was stunning, and even though all her instincts were screaming at her to get the hell out of there, she ignored them. She had only one reason to leave. An audition with an unknown band who might or might not like her voice well enough to take a chance on her. And she had two reasons to stay. Nik Rostov and Jay Gillespie. It was just too tempting to turn down.
“Charlotte?”
“I—okay. I’ll stay for a while at least.”
Both men sighed as if they, too, had been holding their breath.
“Thank you, Charlotte,” Nik said. “You won’t regret it. Now, we need to get you into bed so your body can work on getting better.”
“Can’t we just…stay like this for a little bit longer?” she asked. “Unless you’re wanting to go to bed yourselves,” she added hastily, pushing against Nik’s chest in an effort to sit up but being prevented by his arms tightening around her.
“We would love to stay just like this,” Nik reassured her, stroking his big hand up and down her back. “For as long as you need us to. Just relax and let go of all you
r cares, malyutka. Go ahead and sleep. You’re safe with us. And we will be here when you wake.”
Holy fuck! Did I just ask them to sleep with me? The thought should have disturbed her. Instead it gave her a sense of comfort so profound, it threw her for a loop. She’d never experienced anything like this before. And she wanted more. Much more.
“Why did you run away from us, baby?” Jay asked. “Back there at the club?”
One shoulder twitched in a tiny shrug. “I don’t know. Scared, I guess.”
“Of us?”
“Well, you are awfully big,” she pointed out. “And intimidating. And when you focus your attention on me, it’s…very intense. And not a little scary.”
“Have we hurt you, lapochka?” Nik asked.
“No, of course not. You’ve been very kind and respectful.”
“Because we respect women,” Nik said. “Especially submissive women, because we know how much courage it takes to place all your trust in another human being.”
“Well, that’ll never happen again,” Charlotte snorted.
“You just placed your trust in the wrong human being, lapochka,” Nik said. “Jay and I would consider it an honor if you would allow us to show you what it’s like when you trust the right human beings. We would like to show you what a D/s relationship can really be like when there is trust and mutual respect and—”Holy fuck! Did I nearly say ‘love’? No, no, no, it’s way too soon for anything like that!
She frowned. “But how would that work? Aren’t you two already…um…you know…together?”
Both Nik and Jay laughed. “No, baby, why would you think that?” Jay asked.
“That scene you did at the club. The connection between you two was so intense. Electric, even. Everyone in the room felt it. How can you connect like that and not be together? It was so...” she groped for the right word “…powerful. So compelling.” So primal .It’s also what draws me to this particular lifestyle and what I’ve been looking for all my life. But they don’t need to know that, now, do they?
Passion's Hope (The Doms of Passion Lake Book 3) Page 11