“It’s okay,” Ginny said softly, stroking Cindy’s hair gently, as if she were a frightened child. “I understand. It’s not an easy situation. I was jealous of the relationship you two had. You had all that history together and so much love between you. I didn’t think I could ever be that intimate with anybody else, and seeing you two laughing about some inside joke or sharing a story about your past made me kind of crazy, too. I may have hid it better, but I wasn’t exactly a saint either.”
After a moment, Cindy let out a breath and wiped at her eyes. “Thank you. That helps a lot. I’ve been trying not to talk to people about it because I knew it made me sound like a raving psycho bitch, but you’ve really helped me today. I just wish I hadn’t had to almost lose Rick to see what an idiot I was.”
“At least you haven’t lost him,” Ginny said, trying not to sound condescending. “He’ll be fine in a few days and you can go back to the happy life you had before I came along.”
Cindy stiffened. “That’s part of why I called you, Ginny,” she said in a small voice. “If—I mean when—Rick is feeling better, I’m going to suggest we get some couples therapy. There are counselors around who accept and understand polyamory, and I want us to work through our issues. I really do see the value in it and believe it can be a good thing, and I would still love to have a sister wife. Would you ever consider coming back so we could try it again? I promise I’ll try to stay sane this time.”
Ginny’s whole body went cold. She’d spent many nights lying awake wondering what she would do if Rick or Cindy called her one day with this very question. Wasn’t this the reason she’d practically forced Jeremy and Liam to have sex with her, to see if she could handle a threesome? Although, to be fair, they’d been pretty willing. She smiled to herself despite the situation, then reality intruded and she remembered it had only been a one-night stand. Maybe she should wait until Rick recovered from the accident and give him and Cindy a second chance. She liked them both well enough, and she’d thought once it might work. Maybe she could fall in love with Rick. They hadn’t had time to find that out before it had fallen apart. How could she possibly know for sure?
He wasn’t Jeremy and Liam, that’s how she could be sure. She wanted Jeremy and Liam more than anything, but they couldn’t possibly want her. They were cops, for God’s sake. Cops weren’t allowed to live alternative lifestyles. No doubt they were glad she’d conveniently left Clifftop before they’d had to explain that to her. Rick and Cindy were here, ready and willing to take her back and give it another try—or at least Cindy claimed she was. Surely she owed it to them. Who knew? Maybe in time she would love Rick like she did Jeremy and Liam. But the ache in her heart told a different story.
“Have you discussed it with Rick?” she asked finally.
“Not really,” Cindy admitted. “See, we were fighting about it when we had the accident. We were so focused on the argument, neither of us saw the curve in the road until it was too late.”
“Ah. I see.” Ginny did see. Cindy was feeling guilty about the accident. She may or may not have asked anyway, but this was no time to be making that kind of life decision. “Let’s see what Rick has to say when he’s coherent again.”
After Rick was transferred back to his room, Ginny and Cindy sat by his bed for an hour while he drifted in and out of consciousness, then Ginny went out to get dinner for herself and Cindy. They ate in the waiting room, staying until the nurse gently but firmly told them to go home. Rick was so sedated, she said, that he was not going to be in any shape to talk to anyone until the next day at least. Ginny went home with Cindy and they sat up until midnight discussing life and polyamory and whether or not it would be worth trying again.
Monday morning they went back to the hospital, where they found Rick awake but in pain. He blinked in surprise when he saw Ginny enter the room after Cindy and take her crutches, helping her get settled after she’d kissed her husband through a barrage of self-recriminating tears.
“I’m so sorry, babe,” Cindy said a hundred times, ignoring Rick’s protests that she had nothing to apologize for. “I was such an asshole to you. I feel completely responsible for this. I don’t know what I’d do if you’d—if you’d—” She broke down again, sobbing violently into the tissue that Ginny handed her.
“Cindy, calm down.” His voice took on a sharp tone when his wife seemed to be losing control. “I’ll be fine. There’s no reason to be so upset.”
“Yes, there is,” Cindy sobbed. “I’ve been such an asshole. How can either of you ever forgive me?”
Rick winced as he reached weakly for her hand. “Listen, sweetie. Your reaction was bad, but it was natural, to some degree. I think the fact that Ginny is here and still talking to us proves that she understands that, too. Is that right, Ginny?”
“Of course.” Ginny put an arm around Cindy’s shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Nobody really knows how they’re going to react to a situation like that until it happens, then it’s too late to decide not to try.”
“The most important thing is that you’re willing to work on your reactions.” Rick pulled Cindy’s hand to his face and kissed it before he lay back on the bed, apparently exhausted. “I’m sorry but I need to rest. Why don’t you girls spend the day together and talk things through?”
Chapter 5
Liam sat on his bed watching the hunched shoulders of his friend and partner. They had been holed up in his room at Clifftop Fantasies since they returned from their visit to the diner. Jeremy’s room was across the hall but it just felt better somehow to spend their time here. They could almost still feel her presence. Everywhere either of them looked it reminded them of something from the night before. It was a cruel double-edged sword, letting them relive the most important experience of their lives while at the same time reminding them of what they had just lost.
They had spent the last few hours rehashing everything that had happened yesterday, from the initial negotiations, the hunt, and the after-party to the mind-blowing sex with the most beautiful woman either of them had ever been lucky enough to share a night with. Even after going over everything they could think of, he couldn’t figure out where they had gone wrong.
She had seemed to enjoy them as much as they had her. How could she say that the night meant nothing and was only an experiment? Jeremy had made some good points before he’d shut down and taken to just staring sorrowfully out the window. He was right that they had all blended very well together and that even though they had never shared a woman before—or even considered it—it had felt right. He was surprised by just how hard his normally flippant friend had fallen for her and how quickly. He had felt the instant connection just as much as Jeremy had but like he had told Carly, they didn’t have any kind of hold on her. She was a free spirit and if she just wanted to fuck them and run, that was her business.
He had a tough time selling himself on that thought, but it was all he had to keep from moping around like Jeremy, and he would be damned if he would do that. He was a cop, damn it, and he knew he could wall off his emotions when he had to. Otherwise he wouldn’t have survived the first year in the job. This time was harder, though. There was just something so special about Ginny that it made her very hard to put out of his mind. He noticed that Jeremy seemed to be focused on something outside.
“What’s up, bro?”
Jeremy made a noncommittal noise and raised one shoulder briefly before letting it fall back into place. When he spoke it was flat and low. “Just watching everyone heading toward the barn for the play party. I had really been looking forward to us playing with Ginny there tonight.”
“Me, too. You’re going to have to snap out of this though, man. It’s like you’re a love-struck fourteen-year-old instead of a street-hardened cop. Yeah, she was amazing in bed but obviously we’re going to have to move on.”
Jeremy spun around to face him. “You don’t get it, do you? I’ve never wanted to share a woman with another man before in my life. The thought
had never even crossed my mind. Now it’s all I can think of. She was the perfect woman. Not just for me but for us, damn it.”
Liam forced himself to remain calm. “I know, but she left. Obviously she didn’t feel the same way. So we have a choice. We can move on or curl up and die. I for one have no intention of dying just yet. Last night was the most incredible experience of my life but the world isn’t going to end just because she left us. Hell, man, we’re leaving at the end of the week anyway. What did you think was going to happen?”
Jeremy slumped again. “I don’t know, but it sure as hell wasn’t this.”
Liam could only look at his friend, feeling inadequate. He’d never had to deal with Jeremy like this. Then a thought struck him. “Did you think we would be able to sweep her off her feet and make it work full-time? Do you think our conservative-ass chief would have accepted us living in some kind of threesome? You know how careful we’ve had to be even doing the BDSM stuff to keep it away from the others in the department. They would never understand.”
“I know, but that local cop Chuck and his group do it. The chief here must be more open-minded. Maybe we could have looked into moving here or something.”
“Really? Just how likely do you think it is to make a threesome work full-time?”
“It must be possible. Allie and her two guys make it work. Chuck and Dave and Tony make it work and now even that Goth kid and those two hot ladies are doing it. At least they did at the after-party and I just saw the three of them going into the barn together. So why couldn’t we make it work, huh?”
Liam snorted. “Is that what you’ve been watching for down there? All the threesomes we’ve met here this weekend?”
Jeremy looked a little sheepish. “Not at first, but then I saw Allie and it reminded me of how many we have met. I’m telling you, life puts opportunities in your path. It’s up to us to act on them. This is one of those opportunities and if you don’t see that then we’re in worse trouble than I thought.”
Liam didn’t know what to say. Did Jeremy really think she was that important? He sure seemed to. Liam knew he needed some time to think it all through, so he got up and headed to the door. “I think I’m going to go for a short walk and then check out the play party. I’ll see you in a bit.”
* * * *
An hour later, Liam slipped into the barn and looked around for Jeremy. He wasn’t particularly surprised not to see him, but it was surprising how disappointed he was to be here alone. He’d been sure when he woke up this morning that he and Jeremy would get the chance to show Ginny how much fun it could be to play with them. Then reality had smacked him upside the head. He didn’t even know why he was here at the party. He certainly didn’t feel like being social. But something was nagging at the back of his mind. He thought he might find the answer here if he could just figure out the question.
As he took in the action in the dungeon, he saw that Jeremy had been right. Many of the groups playing were threesomes. He saw Alice, Steph, and Brody doing some kind of leather-care scene in one corner and Allie, Brad, and Karl at one of the St. Andrew’s crosses in the middle of the far wall. Daddy Dave and his boys were on some mats off to one side of the room. He decided to take a few minutes to watch each of those scenes and see if they really were better than the normal one-on-one kind of scenes he had always done in the past.
He knew better than to get to close to anyone’s play space. It was just bad manners to be intrusive into someone else’s scene. Voyeurism was expected, but to be so close that your presence took the participants out of their headspace was strictly frowned upon. He found a spot against the wall where he could see the action without being too close and settled in to watch.
Alice was wearing a pair of skin-tight black leather pants and a bikini top and a pair of shiny black, six-inch stiletto heels. She was reclining in an office chair with Brody kneeling between her spread legs and Steph kneeling behind her. Brody was still dressed in baggy pants and an oversized concert T-shirt. It was apparently the kid’s Goth costume. He was pleased to see that Steph, on the other hand, was only wearing a pair of bright pink bootie shorts and a huge smile. That girl did seem to like being naked.
As he watched, Brody began smearing an ointment onto the inner thighs of Alice’s pants. He knew from his own boot-blacking experience that the cream was a leather conditioner called Hubbard’s. It was often used in scenes like this, because it was non-toxic and could even be licked or eaten with no ill effects. The young man was rubbing the conditioner into the leather of Alice’s pants with slow, sure passes. His hands traveled from her ankles over her knees and up the length of her inner thigh to her crotch and then back down the outside of her legs until they were back where he had started. The process would then be repeated.
As Brody worked, Liam could see his pleasure mirrored on Alice’s face. She let one of her hands find their way to his head to stroke his hair as he bent forward to rub his cheek against her knee. Her eyes closed and Liam saw that Steph took that moment to let her own hands snake around the sides of the chair to claim Alice’s breasts. She seemed to be rubbing the same ointment into the leather of the bikini top while simultaneously stimulating her partner. As if that wasn’t enough she began placing small kisses up the side of the older woman’s neck.
Even from his distance he could watch the intense pleasure the two submissives were giving to their Mistress. He was surprised to notice, however, that Brody’s and Steph’s eyes seldom broke their hold on one another. The connection between them, even though they weren’t even touching, was almost palpable. It was like the three of them had merged into a single unit and were all deriving pleasure from the experience.
Watching the joy they obviously felt made him pause and think. The two younger people didn’t seem to have any problem sharing their partner. In fact, they appeared to take confidence from each other’s actions and were able to feed off one another to bring Alice more pleasure than either would have been able to on their own. For her part, Alice never opened her eyes but seemed to know exactly where her playmates were and always kept at least her fingertips brushing across their skin or hair. She smiled and even gasped occasionally in appreciation of their efforts and to convey that feeling of enjoyment to them.
He decided he’d seen enough of their scene for the moment and moved across the dungeon to watch Karl, Brad, and Allie—or Master Karl, Liege, and Allie cat, as he recalled their scene names to be. He knew from talking with Brad earlier that the three of them had been together for a couple of years now. The man had explained when he had asked that yes, they’d had their fair share of problems in the early days of the relationship but they had stuck it out and despite his early reservations about sharing Allie he couldn’t imagine a life without all three of them. He had gone on to say that poly was a difficult lifestyle to live but for those suited to it, nothing could ever compare to the joys that having multiple committed partners could bring.
Seeing them interacting now, he believed it. Master Karl had Allie firmly secured to the rings on the top half of the cross. Each wrist was held firmly by a wide leather fur-lined cuff that was clipped to the eyebolts. Similar cuffs secured each of her ankles to the lower arms of the cross. She was completely naked and spread-eagled on the cross with her backside facing the room.
Master Karl was using a medium-weight flogger. His strokes were evenly paced to strike her back with a predictable pattern. Liam knew that that the pacing could be used to help the bottom process more sensations than they would normally be able to take, or to make each stroke more intense than it would be on its own. Watching the way Karl was using the flogger he guessed the man was building her up to take more and to increase her enjoyment of the stimulation.
He saw Liege standing to one side of his Master holding a slightly heavier flogger. When Karl paused, they exchanged implements without a word. It was obvious they had done this many times in the past. Each time Karl paused to allow Allie time to process the stimulation, Liege wo
uld step forward and caress her back with a rabbit-fur mitt. Liam knew from experience that a well-administered flogging could cause the submissive’s skin to take on a velvety feeling. The glove being wielded by Liege would enhance that. It was interesting to watch how his caresses caused Allie to push back into the touch, trying to get more. He could practically hear her purring even from ten feet away. Again, the connection between the three people was almost a physical thing. It pulsed around them and bound them together.
At the conclusion of their scene Liam turned to the mats on the side of the room where Daddy Dave, Chuck, and Tony were. The two younger men were once more dressed in their puppy gear and were playing tug-o-war with a rope chew toy. There was a contented smile on Dave’s face as he watched his partners frolic and play good-naturedly. He called out instructions to them, occasionally taking the toy himself and joining in the game.
Comprehension suddenly flooded Liam’s brain and he finally saw what Jeremy had been trying to get through to him. He knew he needed to sit down and process it—immediately. He took a lone chair along one shadowed wall. Replaying the scenes he had watched, he reflected on the obvious love and devotion between the members of each of the triads. Each of the groups he’d watched had deep, loving feelings for each another. They had a connection that he’d never allowed himself to have, and that thought tugged at something in his chest. On the surface their dynamic seemed strange. Like many cops, he had built very strong walls within himself as a survival tactic to protect him from the horrors he saw every day on the job. His walls made it hard to form attachments, but until now he’d considered those safeguards absolutely necessary.
Arresting Dominance Page 8