Steve was on his side, his back to them, snoring softly. Shea lay on her back, her face turned away. The sheet had slipped down and covered only her lower half, leaving her large, lovely breasts bare.
Zach waited for the sensation of being trapped that always clanged down over him like the bars of a cage whenever he broke his own rules and woke up in someone else’s bed, but it didn’t come. Oddly, despite his longstanding promise to himself to always wake up alone, lying here beside his two best friends felt like the most natural thing in the world.
When had that happened? When had Shea moved from trainee to their personal submissive to a true friend? However it had happened, instead of freaking him out, the realization made Zach happy. Smiling, he reached over and drew a circle around Shea’s nipple, which instantly stiffened to his touch.
Shea turned her head, her eyes opening sleepily and then widening as if in shock. A hand came to her mouth, and then understanding seem to dawn as she, too, recalled where she was.
She smiled at Zach and held out her arms.
The gesture was so simple and so compelling that Zach moved at once to take her into his embrace. His morning erection was like an iron bar between them as he lifted himself over her. It occurred to him he could fuck her then and there. Steve slept like the dead, and anyway, the memory foam mattress transferred almost no motion. You could jump up and down on one side of the darn thing and not even feel it on the other. Better yet, they no longer had to use condoms, since Shea had informed them a few weeks back, blushing adorably as she did so, that she’d gone on birth control pills and was now protected.
Shea’s breasts were soft and yielding against his chest. He reached between her legs, his fingers seeking her soft, wet heat. To his surprise, she slid from beneath him. “Please let me serve you, Master Zach,” she whispered.
Without waiting for his reply, she slipped from beneath him and pushed at his shoulder, indicating he should lie on his back. While one could argue that her behavior was decidedly un-submissive, it wasn’t as if they were in a training session, despite her use of his title. And anyway, he was curious what she had in mind and so allowed her to push him onto his back.
She flashed him a smile that was at once shy and knowing as she crouched beside him and took his shaft into her right hand. Zach glanced toward Steve, who hadn’t moved and still continued to snore softly beside them.
Shea opened her pretty lips, her mouth hovering just above Zack’s shaft. “Please, Sir, may I worship your cock?”
“Shit, yeah,” Zach replied with a grin.
Shea closed her lips over his cock and went eagerly to work. Gone was the tentative, uncertain girl they had met at Hardcore. She was both skilled and enthusiastic as she stroked, licked, sucked and massaged his cock and balls.
It wasn’t long before an orgasm gathered itself inside him. He lightly touched the top of her head, an unspoken signal between them that he was about to come. She didn’t miss a beat as he spurted in several spasms of pure pleasure into her willing mouth.
The sound of Steve’s voice startled him. They both looked over to see Steve, who had eyes only for Shea. “Hey there, slave girl,” he said, his eyes glinting with lust. “My turn.”
After they had finished breakfast down in the kitchen, Zach turned to Shea. “I’ll check out your car now. Hopefully it just needs a jump.” He looked to Steve. “Want to give me a hand?”
Steve pushed back from the table and stood. “Sure.” He glanced at Shea. “Where’re the keys?”
“I’ll get them.” Shea stood and moved toward the hook by the back door where she had hung her purse the night before. Bringing the bag to the table, she opened it and reached inside. “Oh, I forgot all about my mail,” she said, taking out several envelopes. “I was so busy yesterday I forgot I even had it in my purse.” She set the envelopes on the table and then resumed rummaging for her key. Finding it, she handed it to Zach.
Shea remained in the kitchen to clean up while Zach and Steve went out to see about the car. Zach had Steve sit in the driver seat to pop the hood. “Go ahead and see if it’ll start this morning,” he said as he locked the hood into an open position.
Steve turned the key. The engine made a loud clunking noise and then went silent. “I don’t think it’s the battery,” Steve called from the car. “The electronics and lights are working inside the car. “
Zach scowled as he pulled the dipstick from the oil tank. “Shit. There’s no oil in this thing! I don’t know how she’s been driving this car at all. It’s my educated guess that the engine has seized. She’s going to need a new engine, which would cost more than this old junk heap is worth.”
They went back inside to tell Shea the bad news, but stopped short when they looked at her face. She was holding a piece of paper in her hands, which were shaking as she stared down at it with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Zach was instantly at her side. “Shea, what is it? What’s happened?”
Shea held up the piece of paper. “Thirty days,” she said. “It says I have thirty days to vacate. The complex is being turned into condos.”
Zach took the paper and scanned it, and then handed it off to Steve. Sitting down next to Shea, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Man, that really stinks, Shea. I know exactly how you’re feeling, too, because the same thing happened to me. Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’re here for you.”
Shea managed a wan smile. “Thanks,” she said, and then, “What about my car? Were you able to get it started?”
Zach glanced at Steve, who looked up from the letter and shook his head. “Zach says the engine has seized. Apparently you were driving the thing without any oil in it. He doesn’t think it’s worth fixing.”
“I knew about the oil leak,” she said in a small, miserable voice. “I’ve been adding oil every week but…” Her mouth worked as if she was going to say something more, but instead she burst into tears and then hid her face in her hands.
Zach pulled her closer, undone by her tears. “Shh, don’t cry, baby. We’ll figure this out together.”
Steve came to sit on her other side, his face a mask of concern. “The answer’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, Zach?” he said quietly over the weeping girl’s head. “We’ve been heading this way a while now. This just makes it that much simpler.”
All at once, Zach knew he was right. The old tape tried to start up in his head, warning him about the dangers of getting too entangled in the emotional mess relationships always entailed, but he silenced the running loop and nodded his agreement. “I barely use my car. And we have an extra bedroom. She’s here all the time anyway.”
Steve lifted his eyebrows, as if surprised at Zach’s easy agreement, but then nodded vigorously. “The solution’s staring us in the face.”
Steve reached out to touch Shea’s shoulder, and Zach let his arms fall away from her. “Shea, listen to me,” Steve said.
Shea lifted her tear-streaked face. “I’m sorry,” she said, sniffing. “This is so stupid. I didn’t mean to cry.”
“It’s okay. But you don’t need to worry anymore. Zach and I have an idea that will solve your problems. It makes total sense, given that you’re always here anyway. This is just the natural next step.”
Zach jumped up and grabbed the box of tissues from the counter. Returning to the table, he handed Shea a tissue and slid back into his seat. “Steve and I work and play in the same places. My car mostly sits unused in the garage. There’s no reason you couldn’t use it to get to work.”
“Yeah,” Steve said eagerly. “We have a spare bedroom, and I own this place free and clear, so rent isn’t an issue.”
Shea looked from Steve to Zach and then back to Steve, her brows knitting with apparent confusion, and then her expression changed suddenly, hope lighting her face like a burst of sunlight. “Wait a minute. Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Why, yes,” Steve said with a laugh. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
> Zach was suddenly unable to speak, the realization of what they’d just set in motion smacking him like a sucker punch to the gut. What had he just agreed to?
Chapter 10
Steve had been uncertain how things might shake out between the three of them once Shea moved in, given both Zach's and Shea’s lack of experience with live-in lovers. Zach had seemed a little dazed at first, but when Steve had tried to feel him out on the subject, he’d been evasive, assuring Steve everything was fine and dandy. Overall, things seemed to be going pretty smoothly.
In the two weeks since she’d been fully ensconced with them, they continued to train in the dungeon as they had been, and to take her upstairs afterward for lovemaking.
Shea mostly slept in her own bedroom, but occasionally she crawled into either Zach’s or Steve’s bed at night, usually just to snuggle. While Steve was developing rather strong feelings for Shea, he was surprised at his own complete lack of jealousy when it came to the relationship between Zach and Shea. Maybe it was because he felt so close to Zach already, given their unique training relationship, and the fact they’d shared Shea in every respect up to this point.
Of the three of them, Zach seemed to have the most difficulty adjusting. Training sessions continued to go fabulously well, but the intimacy aspects of the relationship were still scary for his friend. When Steve tried to broach the topic, Zach continued to insist the triad was a Master/sub/Master connection, rather than two guys falling in love with the same girl.
“I don’t do love,” Zach had announced at one point during the first week as they were driving home from work.
“What does that even mean, Zach?” Steve had countered. “It’s not something you do. It’s something that happens between people with a particularly intense connection like the three of us share.” More gently, he’d added, “Look, I know this relationship stuff is scary for you and Shea, but you’re both doing really well with it. It’s happening naturally. The only thing you have to do is stop fighting it. Accept that we three have something special—something amazing—and stop trying to pigeonhole it into some relationship thing.”
“You’re right, Steve,” Zach had admitted in a moment of candor. “I don’t want to fuck this up. I just get scared sometimes, you know? I’m not used to this stuff. I’m still feeling my way, I guess.”
“We all are,” Steve had agreed. “As long as we keep doing it together, we’ll be okay. I promise.”
Shea had fit in well with their friends, none of whom had batted an eye at the concept of the two of them sharing a sub. A week after the bonfire, they had gone with Tag and Rylee to dinner and then to Hardcore. Matt Wilson had invited them to his private club, Paradise Found, of which Liam and Allie Byrne were also members, giving Shea a chance to get to know their friends better, as well as get more comfortable with group scenes.
The dinner out with Shea’s friend, Katie, and her boyfriend, a likable but rather dull guy named Stan, had been a little strange, as the vanilla couple clearly tried to pretend they were totally fine with what Stan kept calling “your wild and crazy threesome.” The get-together had been Shea’s idea, however, and Steve and Zach had both agreed they didn’t want to cut her off from her previous life, if she wanted to remain connected.
Shea had warned them in advance that, while Katie knew they were a triad, and was vaguely aware of their BDSM involvement, she and Stan were fairly conservative. Zach and he had been on their best behavior, despite joking with Shea in advance that they might require her to suck their cocks under the table and to address them as Master and Sir in her vanilla friends’ presence.
Shea’s birthday was coming up, and Zach and he had begun discussing how they might celebrate. They’d come up with an idea they ran by Shea that evening after work.
“We’re going to have a small birthday celebration, a dinner party,” Zach said, introducing the topic.
Shea immediately shook her head, as Steve had thought she might. “I don’t really like birthday parties,” she said. “At least not where I’m the center of attention.”
“It’s not about what you like, S,” Steve said, slipping easily into his dominant persona. “It’s about what pleases your Masters. You belong to us and it pleases us to honor you in this way. If it’s uncomfortable for you to be the center of attention, then that’s precisely where our focus should be. You’ll learn to harness your discomfort and your fear, the same way you did with the cane.”
Steve’s cock hardened at the memory of Shea’s initial cane training. Though she could now handle a pretty intense caning, that first time had been a struggle. She had resisted out of fear—she had seen videos online, she told them, of women brutally marked with vicious, bloody welts.
Zach, in that soothing way he had, had reminded her she was safe in their experienced hands. Though she’d remained afraid, she’d agreed to submit without further protest.
They’d had her stand upright for her first caning, since bending over tightened the muscles, making the experience more painful. To keep her centered and in position, they’d suspended her wrists from the ceiling chains. Zach had stood in front of her, stroking her breasts, tweaking her nipples and rubbing her cunt to keep her relaxed. Steve had started slowly, warming her skin with a steady, light tap to get her used to the feel and sound of the cane.
How he loved the power rush evoked by that first whimper of pain, the startled yelps of fear that segued into moans of raw lust. He craved the control aspect of BDSM, exulting in his ability as a Dom to reduce an independent, strong woman to a quivering, gasping sub girl who begged him for more. It fed his soul to guide her to that sacred, mysterious place where pleasure and pain melded together into something so much more powerful. Knowing that he was able to give her that, to give her something she could not give herself, satisfied something deep in his dominant core.
By the end of the session, Shea had taken a serious caning, her ass and the backs of her thighs beautifully welted. Zach had been masterful in keeping her centered and reasonably calm as the caning had intensified. As soon as they released her wrists, the girl fell spontaneously to her knees and begged them to allow her to worship their cocks in thanks.
Talk about a win-win situation, Steve now mused with a smile.
“Remember that video you made for us when we first met you?” Zach said. “Remember how in your fantasy you were passed from man to man, forced to take whatever they gave you?”
Color had seeped into Shea’s cheeks, but at the same time her eyes softened, her features relaxing with what Steve thought of as submissive serenity. “Yes, Master Zach. I remember,” she breathed.
“We plan to make your fantasies come true as our birthday gift to you,” Sir Stephen said. “Does that suit you, S?”
Shea’s color remained high, but her eyes were shining, her lips softly parted. “Yes, Sir. It suits me to a T.”
~*~
Shea slipped the short gown over her head, careful not to mess up her hair or makeup. She was both nervous and excited as she dressed for that night’s party. While she was thrilled at the thought of having one of her darkest, sexiest fantasies brought to life, she was reminded of the old maxim about being careful what you wished for.
She was glad her new girlfriends would be there with her. While she hadn’t consciously separated herself from her old friends, they had naturally drifted apart. Going out to movies and happy hours and giggling over potential mates, movie stars and the latest office gossip no longer held much appeal.
She’d experienced an immediate connection with Rylee, Bonnie and Allie. It had been a kind of homecoming to a place she’d never been but had always missed. She felt like Ayla in that book The Clan of the Cave Bear, having spent her entire life with the wrong species. Now, welcomed with open arms by not only Steve and Zach, but by all their friends in the scene, it was as if she had finally found her own people.
She was especially close with Rylee, who, they had discovered in their conversations, had shared a sim
ilar out-of-place feeling in the world for much of her life. Rylee shared Shea’s early love of Story of O, and Shea had been thrilled to discover that the Leather Master, as Taggart was sometimes called, used Rylee’s first initial, too, when they were in a scene.
When Shea had confided her anxiety about the upcoming party, Rylee had shared in delicious detail the amazing scene that had taken place at her first birthday with Taggart and his friends the year before. “Trust me,” Rylee had assured her. “These guys of ours are the best Doms in the scene, not just in Portland, but anywhere on the planet. Whatever they have planned for you, it’ll be amazing.”
Calmed by the memory of their conversation, Shea opened her eyes and regarded herself in the bathroom mirror. The guys had presented her with a beautiful white sleeveless gown, the shoulder straps held closed by gold clips. It draped prettily over her breasts like a Greek toga and was gathered at the waist with a gold sash, the skirt falling to just above her knees.
On her feet were flat, gold leather sandals, and in her hair, which she had swept up in a chignon for the occasion, she wore the beautiful gold barrette Allie had given her as an early birthday present. Allie, a jewelry designer by profession, had fashioned what, at first glance, appeared to be an abstract circular design, but on closer inspection was actually a single tail whip coiled in on itself.
A few tendrils of Shea’s unruly, red hair had escaped from the barrette, but she didn’t bother with them, aware they would only spring free again. She had put on more makeup than usual in honor of the party—red lipstick, gold sparkly eye shadow, mascara and even eyeliner.
As directed by her Masters, she wore nothing beneath her gown, and her nipples were clearly visible. She was no longer self-conscious about her body, and not just because, for the first time in her life, she was at her desired weight. It was more that she had truly surrendered her modesty to her Masters. It pleased them to see her naked and, by extension, this pleased her.
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