He’d been plagued all night by the need to find the answer to a question he couldn’t articulate. He knew it was important and he felt stupid because Jeremy had figured it all out. Why couldn’t he? Then it struck him like a thunderbolt. The very walls he had built to protect his emotional health had almost cost him everything. The feeling he had been trying to disregard last night was the clue he had missed. The all-important answer could be summed up in a single word—Ginny.
Looking around the room, he saw Master Karl standing in the social area of the barn. He rushed over, approaching him just as Karl was grabbing one of Allie’s muffin creations. “Karl, do you have a minute?”
“Sure, Liam. What can I do for you?”
“You’ve been in a poly relationship for a while, right?”
“Yes, it must be about three years now I think, why?”
“Is it worth it? I mean, is the loss of freedom, of only having to think of or be responsible for yourself, worth it?”
“I think so. I wouldn’t live any other way. It is a hard road, but Liege and Allie are important enough to make it worth all the effort in the world. The question you should really be asking, I think, is can you handle the risk of being hurt?”
Liam could only stare at him in stunned silence. Finally, in a subdued voice he asked, “How in the hell did you know that was my main concern? Have you ever been a cop? Because you certainly seem to be able to read people.”
“No, but I have been in this lifestyle a long time and work very hard at being the best Master I can for my people. That means knowing them better than they know themselves sometimes. How else would I be able to engineer opportunities for them to grow?”
“Oh, I think I get what you mean. Thank you for talking with me. It’s been very helpful.” He wandered back to the chair where he’d been sitting earlier and continued to mull over what he had seen and what Master Karl had said. Finally, he felt like he was beginning to understand.
What he needed was exactly what he had experienced last night—to share his life and love with the woman of his dreams and the man who had helped him claim her. It was what would finally give his life a purpose. Seeing the relationships between the people here at this party only reinforced how rare that important dynamic was in the outside world. They had begun forging that connection last night, or at least he thought they had. He knew if they let it slip away without a fight they might never have a chance for that kind of happiness again. He rushed from the barn with the sure knowledge that he had to find Jeremy and together they needed to reclaim their woman.
* * * *
Liam opened his eyes and looked around. There was a lot of light streaming in around the edges of the blind. “Fuck. I overslept.”
He rolled over and sat up, shaking his head sadly as the memories of Sunday flooded back into his head. He had woken up expecting to spend the day with his best friend and their new girlfriend, only to have the rug pulled out from under them. Not only was she not their new girlfriend, but Ginny had left town to get away from them. He knew now that they had to get her back somehow.
He groaned. How could he have so misread the situation? He prided himself on being able to read people’s body language. It was an important part of doing his job well and he had been sure that she was as into them as they were into her. Boy, had he been wrong. But they would find a way to fix that. They had to.
I need to get a shower and see if I can’t find a way to cheer up Jeremy.
He slumped into the kitchen thirty minutes later and found Allie mixing a confusing array of ingredients together in a bowl. “Sorry I slept so late. Am I shit out of luck for breakfast?”
“I’m afraid so,” Allie told him, whisking. “But there are a few bran and anchovy muffins left if you want to snack. I’ll have lunch done in about an hour, if that helps.”
He looked dubiously at the plate of stacked muffins. “Thanks. I think I’ll wait. Have you seen Jeremy this morning? He wasn’t in his room when I checked a few minutes ago.”
“He was up early but I haven’t seen him in a couple of hours. We were talking about the bonfire and suspension event later this week. Then he jumped up and said he couldn’t stand to sit around. He seemed nervous.” Allie grabbed a book that had been lying on the table and pursed her lips as she began flipping through the pages.
It was a cookbook, Liam realized, called Stealth Veggies. He glanced at the page she’d stopped at and repressed a shudder. She seemed to be considering something called “kale and liver casserole,” running a distracted finger down the page.
He pulled his eyes from the recipe, trying not to look horrified. “That sounds, interesting. Do you use that book often?”
She pulled her eyes from the page and up to his face with a shy grin. “Yes. In fact, many of the dishes served here come from it. I wrote it last year and like to experiment with food. It’s kind of an obsession of mine.”
Liam gulped a little. “Great. Well, you know what they say about obsessions. They keep you warm at night. Now, you said something about Jeremy being nervous?”
Allie looked up. “Yeah, you know, pacing and unable to sit still. Like he was full of energy and needed something to burn it off. He headed outside. Maybe he’s by the barn or went for a walk or something.”
“I’ll go and check, but even he shouldn’t be able to get himself into trouble out here.” Liam stood and walked to the door before turning back. “Do you think she’ll stay with that couple up in Redding?”
Allie gave him a sympathetic look. “I don’t know, Liam. I’m sorry.”
Shaking his head in frustration, Liam stomped out the back door and onto the porch. He stood for a moment looking at the spacious yard and the barn where they held play parties. Hell, it was where the play party he had watched last night had been held.
As he stood there he became aware that something didn’t feel right, and a few seconds later it became clear what the problem was. He could see that something large and heavy had been dragged from the door of the barn and around the back corner toward the woods. His cop instincts kicked in and he started scanning the surrounding area. Who the hell would have the balls to break in here, let alone steal something that big?
Then it dawned on him who would have done something that stupid. It had to be his idiot partner.
“What the fuck is that asshole up to now?” Liam muttered as he loped across the yard to follow the imprint. From past experience he guessed Jeremy was up to some hair-brained scheme that would probably not end well.
He followed the trail for several hundred yards into the thickening forest when he heard Jeremy’s unmistakable grumble. “Get up there, you fucking thing.”
Liam rounded the bend in the path to see Jeremy on the edge of a clearing, balancing precariously on the top step of a ten-foot ladder. He was pulling on a rope that looped over a branch just out of his reach above him. Its other end was attached to the eyebolt mounted in the top of a very heavy-looking wooden cross. It was obvious that his partner was trying to suspend the cross from the branch and just as obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to do it without some help.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Hey,” Jeremy greeted him, panting from the exertion. “I’m hanging a flying cross. What does it look like?”
“From here it looks like an idiot about to break his fool neck.”
“Naw, I got this.” Jeremy puffed. “Allie was telling me that they needed this hung out here for that suspension demonstration tomorrow night at the bonfire. I think they’re doing the submissive drum circle here after the demo. Allie said that Karl and Brad are working on something for that photo shoot. It sounds like they’re stretched pretty thin and might not have time to do it. I couldn’t stand to just sit around wondering where she is or what she’s doing, so I decided to do it for them. Now quit standing there and help me with this damn thing. It weighs a ton.”
Liam sighed. The “she” that Jeremy was talking about could only be Gin
ny. He understood the other man’s attempt to take his mind off their loss, but Jeremy was likely to do something crazy and kill himself in the process. The large wooden cross must have weighed at least two hundred pounds. He marveled at the tenacious nature of his friend. It had to have been a bitch for him to have drug that monstrosity all that way out here by himself. No wonder he was too tired to hoist it into place.
“All right,” he said, reaching out to steady the piece as it swung just off the ground. “Hang on and get off that ladder, you idiot. We’ll do this together and do it right this time.”
A sudden “crack” reverberated through the woods, followed almost immediately by Jeremy’s “Oh, fuck.”
Liam’s head snapped up. The branch supporting the weight of the cross had cracked. It hadn’t broken all the way through yet but as he watched it completed the act. The bottom of the huge cross slammed onto the ground just inches from Liam’s feet and then the whole thing fell on top of him. He tried to grab for it, but it was too late. He couldn’t stop its momentum or even get out of its way.
He hit the ground hard and could feel a knot growing on his forehead where it had smacked him. His right hand seemed to be stuck under the huge cross and it hurt like hell. “Fuck,” he groaned. “My gun hand.”
“Shit!” Jeremy’s voice roared out and Liam looked around the cross just in time to see Jeremy topple off of the ladder and plunge straight down onto him as well. The last thing Liam saw was the crossbeam heading for his face before the light blinked out and darkness fell on him with a crash.
* * * *
“I’m so happy you might come back.” Cindy smiled broadly at Ginny as the waitress handed them menus and went to get their drinks. “I can’t tell you how guilty I’ve been feeling over the whole thing. It’ll be so much better next time, I just know it. I’ve really enjoyed spending the day with you, and I know Rick is glad you’re here, too. He wouldn’t want me to be going through this alone.”
“I’m glad Rick’s going to be okay—and that neither of you were hurt badly,” Ginny said, feeling oddly uncomfortable with Cindy’s words. While it was true she’d spent the last twenty-four hours considering coming back and giving it a try with Rick and Cindy again, it gave her an uneasy feeling to hear Cindy talk as if it had already been decided.
Their day had been spent in setting up their house to make it easier for Cindy to get around on crutches. Ginny had dreamt about their house dozens of times over the last six months, regretting the things that had happened there and wondering what she’d done wrong. Now, being in it was almost physically painful. There was a confusing sense of loss that overshadowed her happiness to be back in Redding.
She pretended to study her menu to give her more time to think. She’d always liked both of them, and she’d been attracted to Rick. They seemed like a happy, stable couple who were just looking for someone else to share their home and their love with, and that was perfectly understandable from Ginny’s viewpoint. Living with another woman would mean less housework for them both, more free time, another female perspective on issues that came up, someone to go out and do girl stuff with… The possibilities were endless. The two of them had been close for years. They’d had a great friendship before Cindy freaked out, accusing Ginny of trying to steal her husband. Granted, she had apologized for that about fifty times this afternoon, and as Rick had said, it wasn’t a completely abnormal response, when one woman watched another one getting close to her husband. But Cindy had sworn she was ready for the experiment, that she could deal with the emotions. Would it be any different if they tried again?
On the other hand, she shouldn’t write Cindy off for one bad episode. If it had been her, and she was ready to admit her mistake and work on it, she would want to be given a second chance.
The whole thing came down to whether she actually wanted to be with Rick and Cindy. Unfortunately, whenever she tried to picture it, Jeremy’s and Liam’s faces kept butting in instead. She could almost hear Jeremy making some smart-ass comment and Liam correcting him. No matter how many times she reminded herself that they had just wanted a one-night stand—the same as she had—she couldn’t stop the pain and sense of loss that almost overwhelmed her when she thought about their night together. She had no idea how long they’d been planning to spend at Clifftop. They could have already left, for all she knew.
“Are you ready to order?” The waitress’s words jerked Ginny out of her thoughts. She brushed the building tears from her eyes as Cindy ordered and quickly scanned the menu, picking something at random. After the waitress went away, she couldn’t even remember what she’d asked for.
“So.” Cindy took a sip from her water glass and looked searchingly into Ginny’s face. “What are you thinking? Have you made a decision yet?”
“I—” Ginny took a drink herself, stalling for time. She’d wanted this desperately before. How could that have changed so quickly? It must simply be that she’d latched onto Jeremy and Liam as a rebound and one night hadn’t been enough to get them out of her system. Surely a few days would allow her to forget. Rick was sweet and handsome, and Redding was where she’d always thought she wanted to live. They’d made a start at creating a poly household before. She shouldn’t throw that away because of a one-night stand. That would be stupid. Wouldn’t it?
She opened her mouth to say that she would come back and try again, but hadn’t gotten out any more than “I think—” when her phone buzzed. She glanced down to turn off the sound so that it wouldn’t disrupt the serious conversation she and Cindy were about to have, but saw that it was from Carly.
“I’d better get that,” she said apologetically. “My boss. I’ll need to let her know I won’t be there tomorrow.”
But Carly’s first words changed everything. “Ginny, are you there?” she asked before Ginny had even had a chance to say hello. “You’ve got to get back here.”
“Why?”
“Because Liam’s in the hospital.”
Chapter 6
“Brody, nice to see you. Come on in.”
Brody hesitated in the doorway of the salon, looking between the two women who were waiting inside. Steph looked gorgeous, as always. They’d gone to high school together, and he’d often fantasized about dating her, but she had been obviously way out of his league.
It was tempting to think of her as waiflike, but he knew that would be a bad mistake. She was slender, definitely, and she dressed like a teenager who was trying to piss off her parents—hobo couture, his mother would call it. But when you looked in her eyes you could see this was a girl with a strong will who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it. He always had the feeling that she was laughing at him, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He actually kind of liked it.
Alice was a different story. She was older, probably in her forties, but still gorgeous. Taller and sturdier than Steph, she had the air of a sexy drill sergeant. Meeting her eyes made him want to stand at attention or drop and start doing pushups. He’d never met anyone that gave him that feeling before and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. All he knew was that the two of them had been haunting his thoughts and his fantasies ever since he’d gone to the club on a dare and seen them playing. He’d stood off to one side as Alice had stuck a bunch of needles in Steph’s back. When she’d finished, Brody had crept closer, wondering about the purpose of what she’d been doing, only to see that the needles had formed a really interesting flower pattern. It had been terrifying and erotic at the same time, and he’d dreamt about it for weeks afterward.
But what had really been amazing was what happened after their scene. Alice had taken the needles out, cleaned Steph and their play station, and then wrapped Steph up in a blanket. They’d gone to sit on a couch for half an hour or so, while Steph seemed to zone out and Alice chatted with some other people. Brody hadn’t dared approach them, so he’d stood in the corner watching as Alice stroked and petted Steph until she came out of whatever trance the needles had put he
r in. Then Steph had slipped down to the floor and sat at Alice’s feet, smiling dreamily. He’d wanted to know what would turn such an independent and assertive girl into the purring pussy cat who was rubbing her face against Alice’s knees—and part of him wanted to know how it felt to have someone like Alice stick needles into him.
Right now, seeing their mischievous smiles as they welcomed him into the beauty salon—really? It couldn’t be a barber shop or the basement of someone’s house? It had to be a beauty shop?—he was beginning to regret his obsession. What if they dyed his hair pink or something? He wouldn’t be able to show his face in town for a month if they made him look like some kind of goofball. Hesitating, he debated turning and going back to his apartment. It would be safer just to play video games until he had to go to work. That’s what all his friends did. He didn’t need to get involved with these two, intriguing and sexy as they were. If he told anyone he was going to become the submissive of an older woman who owned a beauty parlor, they’d have him committed.
Except for the people from the club, and from Clifftop. They all seemed pretty happy with their lifestyles, and he was pretty sure none of them sat around playing video games all day. They did things, had friends and parties—and not just the kind where you woke up wrapped around somebody’s toilet, either. He was a little sick of that. Even if Alice and Steph turned out to be some kind of freaks, at least things would be interesting for a while. He took a deep breath and went forward to greet them.
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