Carly grimaced. “I was kind of hoping we wouldn’t win, to tell you the truth. I swear I saw Dennis’s head swell when he collected that stupid trophy. Ginny says she’s okay, but she keeps hiding in the back, supposedly to do dishes. I’m not sure whether she’s trying to avoid the guys if they come in or if she just needs space, but I’m trying to respect it. At least I’ll have the cleanest kitchen in Grandpointe by the end of the day.”
Steph laughed, then turned at the sound of the door opening. A couple came in, moving slowly. The woman had a cast on her leg and was walking with a cane. The man had on a neck brace and numerous head bandages, was sporting two black eyes, and had surgical tape across the bridge of his nose. They both looked as if they’d recently been through a war.
Carly ran over to help them settle themselves into chairs. The woman smiled at her gratefully.
“Thanks,” she sighed. “We could really use some coffee. Then can you tell us the way to Clifftop Fantasies?”
Carly stared at her. “Clifftop? Really?”
“Yes.” The woman nodded. “We’re going to stay there for a couple of days. I hear it’s a nice place.”
“It is.” Carly frowned as she went to get their coffee and a couple of menus. When she came back she stood by their table, dithering. “You do know…”
The man glanced up at her. “Do we know it’s a BDSM resort? Yes, we do. Could I have a bowl of chili, please?”
Carly regarded them in surprise, trying to imagine what they could possibly be planning to do at Clifftop in their condition. But she couldn’t think of a tactful way to ask, so she simply took their orders and went to get their food.
“Customers? Do you need me?” Ginny asked, peering up at her from the floor, where she seemed to be degreasing the fryer—and everything else in sight.
“No, it’s just two people,” Carly told her, ladling chili. “I can handle it. What are you doing?”
“Just keeping busy,” Ginny said. “It takes my mind off things to be working.”
“I was going to send you home,” Carly offered. “You don’t really need to be here.”
Ginny shrugged, going back to her scrubbing. “No, thanks. I don’t have anything else going on tonight. I’ll just hang out here and work. You don’t have to pay me. I just need something to focus on, and television wouldn’t be enough.”
“Suit yourself.” Carly went back out to finish her conversation with Steph.
To her surprise, Jeremy and Liam were standing at the counter. Their faces were hard and their arms folded across their chests.
Carly blinked at them, feeling relief that she wasn’t the one they were looking for. She tried not to glance nervously toward the kitchen. “Would you believe she went home?”
Neither one cracked a smile.
“Nice try.” Jeremy stalked past her and into the kitchen. Liam shrugged and followed him.
Chapter 12
Ginny looked up from where she was scrubbing the grease-soaked floor by the fryer to see Jeremy and Liam planted by the sink. They looked stern and disapproving and a despairing feeling washed over her as if she were a high-school kid caught smoking a joint behind the school.
Then she firmly pushed it away and stood up. She had no reason to be ashamed of herself. Jeremy had been the one who’d acted like an asshole—although from the expression on Liam’s face, they were both now in agreement.
“So Liam here tells me I overreacted last night,” Jeremy stated, his voice expressionless and his eyes glazed over with what looked like pure disgust. “He’s insisting that we try to talk this through. Although I’m personally not completely sure what we need to talk about.”
“Really?” Ginny raised her eyebrows at him and allowed her lip to curl into a sneer. Two could play this self-righteous little game. “So you don’t think you owe me an apology?”
Liam let out a little huffed sigh that might have been disappointment. She didn’t allow herself to think about that. If Jeremy wanted to be an asshole, he needed to know that she could be just as unreasonable as he could.
Part of her brain screamed at her that two wrongs don’t make a right. Besides, nothing was going to get resolved if they just got into a pissing match. But she ignored it. They were leaving anyway. Why put off the inevitable? He needed to see what a jerk he’d been.
Jeremy scoffed. “I need to apologize to you for what? You using us as an experiment?”
“Why shouldn’t I experiment?” Ginny folded her arms and glared. “Isn’t that what you were doing?”
“We had real feelings for you.”
It was Ginny’s turn to snort. “I suppose you were showing me your ‘real feelings’ last night.”
“Well, yeah.” He finally looked a little unsure of himself. “For a while, anyway.”
They stared at each other for a moment, then Liam spoke up. “What happened then?”
Jeremy shrugged. “She didn’t seem into it. Everything else was more interesting than what we were doing. I just started wondering if she was wishing it was Rick and Cindy there with her.”
The unfairness of it made Ginny see red. “You were working on your stupid balloon things,” she began. “I just wanted to see—”
“That doesn’t matter.” Jeremy cut her off. “Were you just using us to make them jealous?”
“Was I—?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Liam stepped forward, reaching a hand toward her as if to calm her down. “We heard you say that you loved them, that you shouldn’t have left. Is that what you meant?”
“I do love them.” Ginny was so angry she wasn’t quite aware of what she was saying. The words just seemed to flow out of her. “I shouldn’t have run out of the restaurant like I did. I only did it because I heard you were hurt.”
“So you regret coming back?” Jeremy’s voice was like ice. Liam flashed him a warning look but didn’t speak.
“I’m certainly starting to. I thought maybe we could make this work, but if you’re going to accuse me of wanting other people every time I talk to friends on the phone maybe it’s not meant to be.”
“Maybe it’s not. Maybe you should go back to that other couple and try again. You seemed to be considering that yesterday.” He didn’t move, just standing in place staring at her, leaning forward slightly in what felt to Ginny like an aggressive stance.
“I don’t know what I want.” Ginny’s mind was whirling. She didn’t want Rick and Cindy. She wanted Liam and Jeremy. They felt right. They were her Masters. But right now she was completely ready to tell them both to go to hell. Jeremy had one idea in his head, and it seemed like nothing she could say was going to get through to him.
Maybe they weren’t right for her after all. If they could be so stubborn, so unwilling to listen, then maybe she’d be better off going back to Redding. At least Cindy was willing to work on her overreaction. Jeremy was obviously married to his and not about to give it up for anything.
“Yes, I do know what I want. I want you to go away and give me some space to think.” There were still two days before they left town. If Jeremy calmed down enough to discuss this rationally then maybe they could come to a resolution before then. Right now she needed them to go away before one of them said something that couldn’t be fixed later. She turned her back on them and dropped to the floor to go back to her scrubbing, hoping they would take the hint.
There was a moment of silence and then she heard footsteps and the back door of the café closed. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. What they all needed was time to think things through.
* * * *
Rick finished his chili and paid the pretty blonde waitress, then he helped his wife to her feet and back out to the rental car.
After he put her crutches in the back and settled himself in the driver’s seat, Cindy turned to him. Her face was white and her voice shook.
“Rick, what do you think she’ll do?”
He reached over to pat her hand. “I think she’ll do what’
s right for her. If it’s not what we’re hoping for, we’ll just have to live with that, honey. It’s her choice, not ours.”
“But—”
“Shh.” He looked appreciatively around as they drove through town. “She came to Redding when you called her, didn’t she? I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t willing to give it another chance. Are you really sure you’re willing to try again?”
Cindy twisted her hands together in her lap. “I—I want to, Rick. I want to be a good wife and a good partner. I’ll try harder next time. I promise.”
He pulled the car over to the side of the road and reached for her hand. “Sweetie, you are a good wife. I want you to think about this very carefully before we see Ginny. If it’s not something you really want, it’s not going to work, no matter how hard you try. We’ve seen too many people try to force their partners into accepting poly and having it backfire. That’s already happened once. Are you sure we should try again?”
Cindy’s face reddened and Rick mentally kicked himself. She was so fragile. What was he doing, putting her through this kind of pressure? Still, she was the one who’d asked Ginny to join them in the first place. She’d sworn to him that she could handle it, she wanted it, and it was going to make her life easier and more enjoyable. He’d been willing enough—what guy wouldn’t have been? Ginny was gorgeous and very sweet and he was intrigued by the idea of having two women. But then Cindy had freaked out. She’d felt bad afterward, but that hadn’t stopped her from asking Ginny to leave them alone. Now she was convinced that they needed Ginny back. He wasn’t sure whether that was because Cindy was feeling guilty or whether she’d gotten over her jealousy and really believed in the benefits of polyamory.
Part of him was excited about the prospect of trying it again with Ginny. Polyamory wasn’t an easy thing to do, or very socially acceptable, but she would be a great addition to their family. Another part of him was hesitant. He didn’t want to put Ginny in a situation like the last time. Cindy was unpredictable and emotional and he couldn’t guess how it would go if they tried it again.
But that was between the two women. He’d talked to lots of poly people over the last six months and they’d all told him basically the same thing. Everyone in the relationship was responsible for their own reactions. He couldn’t make either one of them feel the way he wanted them to feel. He could only give them support and help them with their issues to the extent that they allowed him to. It was ultimately up to all of them to make it work, and if one of them wasn’t into it there was no point in trying to force it.
Cindy seemed to be reflecting on the same things he was. She took a deep, shuddering breath and looked into his eyes. “I do want it, Rick. I want Ginny with us. We have to make her see how good this could be.”
“We can try, Cindy,” he said, making his voice just a touch firmer than it had been before. “But if it’s not right for her, then it’s not right. We can’t make her come back. You’ve got to be willing to accept that.”
Cindy wiped at her eyes. “I don’t know if I can. I need this, Rick.”
He sighed and pulled back onto the road. “I know you do, Cindy. Just try to remember that it’s her decision, not yours.”
* * * *
“Come on, dude. I can’t go to the play party tonight.” Jeremy flopped down onto Liam’s bed. “Let’s just grab our shit and go.”
Liam turned and looked at his friend, a scowl pulling at his features. “Go? Just where do you think we should be going?”
“Home, where else?”
“Why the fuck would we do that?” Liam shook his head. “There’s nothing there for us now. Chief Roberts has been working very diligently on our transfer, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Oh, yeah? Is that all you can say?” Liam began pacing, feeling himself beginning to shake with anger. “We had the greatest thing to ever happen to us all lined up and you killed it because you couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut long enough to listen or think. We had the girl of our dreams and the chance to start and run a SWAT team. We would’ve had a chief that understood and accepted alternative lifestyles and a beautiful community to police. But no. You couldn’t grow up long enough to learn to keep your goddamn mouth shut.”
Jeremy’s face turned red and he started to come up off the bed. Before Liam had time to think, he had shoved Jeremy back down and was standing before him, his hands balling into fists. They stared silently at each other for a long moment, and Liam waited for Jeremy to lunge. He almost wanted a fight. He’d never been so angry in his life. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d found the one woman he wanted in the whole world. They could all have been incredibly good together, if Jeremy could have controlled his fucking emotions.
Liam’s arm tensed, trying to pull back in readiness for a punch. Something inside him refused to allow the motion, though, much as he screamed inside his head that Jeremy deserved the kind of major ass-kicking that only Liam could and would give him. He waited to see if Jeremy was going to swing first, but his partner only stared at him in a kind of challenging invitation.
After a tense moment, Liam forced himself to turn away. Jeremy might utterly deserve that ass-kicking, but he had the feeling he would regret having started it. He paced toward the window, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“I’m sorry.”
The voice behind him stopped Liam short. That was the last thing he would have expected Jeremy to say after being shoved like that. Hell, Liam should be apologizing for laying hands on his partner. He wasn’t sorry for what he had said, but he should have had better self-control than to start getting physical with people. That was a rookie move and one he had thought he’d outgrown years ago. He shrugged but didn’t turn around. “Forget it.”
There was a heavy sigh from the bed. “I can’t. You’re right. I fucked up again.”
“Yes, yes you did, buddy.” He turned and leaned against the window frame, crossing his arms and fixing Jeremy with a serious expression. “The question now is what do we do about it? We’re moving here. I for one do not want to do that without knowing that we’ve done everything in our power to show that amazing woman that she’s better off with us than without us. You’ve made that extremely difficult now, but we aren’t quitters.”
“No, we aren’t.” Jeremy stood back up, straightening his clothes and obviously being careful not to set Liam off again. “Stubborn, sure. But not quitters. So what’s the plan? How do we fix this?”
Liam tried to let go of his frustration in order to brainstorm ideas, but the sight of Jeremy’s face made his hackles start to rise again. He strode past his partner, who jumped back out of his way. “I just don’t know. I’m going to go for a walk and clear my head. Hopefully something will come to me.” He allowed the door to close only a little harder than was strictly necessary on his way out, feeling relieved to get out of the room. He didn’t trust himself not to let his frustrations out by beating Jeremy to a pulp. He really needed some time to think.
Liam knew it wasn’t just Jeremy that had made mistakes. They had been partners for four years. He knew how Jeremy reacted when he was hurt. Why hadn’t he kept him from opening his mouth? The party had been going well. Ginny had shown that she was willing to let their earlier fight go. If only Jeremy had as well. Then none of this would even be an issue.
Liam pounded down the stairs two at a time. He needed to get out of the house and walk off some of this angry energy. It annoyed him that his normally even temperament had been shaken so badly. He never overreacted or yelled at people, and he certainly never got physical with someone just because he was pissed. What was happening to him? He knew the answer, though. Ginny.
She had happened to him—and to Jeremy as well. She had fallen into their laps quite unexpectedly and now consumed their every thought. She blew past their protective walls without hesitation. He had never believed in love at first sight before, but it was impossible to deny that it had happened to them. He felt happy and
complete when she was in the room and empty when she wasn’t. He thought of her constantly and found himself wanting to share things with her that he never shared with anyone. She had a magnetic pull on his soul and he knew from listening to Jeremy that he felt the same way.
He stepped into the entryway at the bottom of the stairs and pulled up short. Allie was standing at the little desk that sat just inside of the front door talking with a man and a woman. The man was almost as tall as he was but thinner. He looked like hell. Bandages were wrapped around his head and his neck was encased in a brace. When he turned stiffly Liam could see the matching black eyes. The woman next to him wasn’t in much better shape, with a cast on one leg and a cane in the opposite hand. Both looked as bad as he felt. He knew from years of police work that these two had most likely been in a nasty car accident recently.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Liam said, slowing down to maneuver around them to get to the front door.
“No problem.” The man turned to face him, sticking out his hand. “I’m Rick and this is my wife Cindy. Nice to meet you.”
Rick and Cindy. Stunned recognition slammed into Liam’s mind, stopping him short. He quickly threw a glance at Allie and saw her embarrassment at the awkward situation. Retreating instinctively into cop mode, he smoothed his face into a blank mask and gripped Rick’s hand. “The pleasure is mine. I’m Liam. I’m sorry but I am in a bit of a hurry.” He released his grip and quickly escaped out the door.
Once off the front porch, he turned to the right and continued on around the house toward the back. When he knew that he was out of sight of any windows the couple might be able to see him through, he stopped and sank down until he was sitting against the side wall.
Arresting Dominance Page 17