Embracing the Fall

by Lainey Reese

  If she got any more attracted to this guy, she would probably combust.

  For what seemed like the dozenth time, Cami tried to smile and extract herself from his hold and failed. It wasn’t that she felt he was making her stay, because that would scare her and close her down, it was more like he was making her not want to go. She didn’t know how he was doing it, but it was freaking her out. And if she were being honest, turning her on, too. And that was freaking her out as well. If this is what it felt like to be a sub, she was in trouble.

  “You got so much going on in your pretty head, I’m surprised there isn’t steam coming out of your ears.” Oh God. He had a southern drawl. It was light but unmistakable, and Cami felt her knees turn to jelly. She loved a man with an accent. He’d come in even closer to speak directly into her ear and then, with a jolt, Cami realized he was staying there. The hand on her hip slid up and around to press between her shoulder blades, and now she felt every inch of him from breast to knees. Speaking of knees, with the next step he smoothly inserted one of his between hers and rocked their bodies with a pulsing grace that was primal.

  She would have felt trapped and claustrophobic if not for the fact that he left his other hand free at his side. It was like he knew she was ready to bolt if he pushed her too far, so he left an escape hatch open for her in order to help her keep the panic at bay.

  “Sorry,” she finally remembered to respond. “I’m just distracted. It’s busy tonight and I’m worried I don’t have enough people on staff. It’s a lot to think about, running a business.”

  “I bet.” There was something in his eyes that told her he wasn’t buying work as her excuse, but he didn’t comment. “It’s a fantastic place. You should be proud.”

  “I am.” As warmth seeped into her from the large hand holding her so securely in the middle of her back, Cami finally found the presence of mind to move. “And I should get back to check on things now.” Easing through the escape hatch he provided, she half expected him to try and stop her, considering how tight his grip was. But he didn’t. So, of course, as soon as she was free, she wished she could step back in.

  It was a little surprising. This was her standard boyfriend material test, and he had just passed. Whenever she danced with a man she was considering dating, she always broke off before the end of a song. Although she never put it into words, even to herself, she tested them to see who would let her go when she wanted.

  Not too many had passed. And she did not expect a Dom to be one of the few who did. Weren’t they supposed to be first in line in the control department? Also, most of the men who did agree to stop before the end of the song usually tried to follow her, but not this one. He stood in the middle of the floor where she left him and just watched her walk away with a fire in his eyes that made her want to turn around and march right back to him.

  She was in trouble. But it was the kind of trouble she thought she just might finally be ready for.

  An hour later she was helping bus some tables since the two girls on tonight were getting run ragged. Note to self: hire more waitresses. Maybe she’d see if Angie wanted to pick up some extra shifts.

  Evan had spent most of that time at the pool tables with Brice and the other Doms. She had felt the intensity of his regard the whole time, though. It was like his stare had a gravitational pull and she was drawn by it. It was as exciting as it was terrifying.

  “Sing for me.” Ziporah snagged the tray from her hands. “I’ll take over helping if you sing.” Cami bit her lip and looked around. The place was packed and the energy was upbeat with just a touch of sultry to it.

  “Okay,” she told her, “but let’s sing together. What better way to let him know we come as a set and show him exactly what he’s getting himself into? And only if we can sing Black Velvet.” She laughed when Z dropped her head back with a groan.

  “Why do you hate me so much, when all I want is to love you?” Laughing outright, Cami took hold of Z’s hand and led them to the stage.

  “Come on. Let’s play like we used to and see if we can light a fire in him.” Cami’s giggle was full of mischief.

  “Why, Camille! I’m shocked.” Z mocked her in a snooty drawl that only made Cami laugh harder.

  Black Velvet had been their favorite song in college. For Cami it still was, but Z had decided that she was done with it after singing it a million and one times. Z didn’t have the passion for music that Cami did, but she had a fantastic voice and Cami was convinced that Z could have been a rock star if she wasn’t so bent on the law.

  Once they hit the stage, Cami signaled to one of the bartenders and the lights dimmed until the two of them were spotlighted. She grabbed her guitar from its stand and used the control panel at her feet to turn on the mic. She was going to go acoustic, so she angled a second mic to catch the instrument and then handed a third to Z.

  Cami wasn’t big on speeches or rambling on before a song unless she needed to get the crowd’s attention. Since this crowd had already given them their attention as soon as the lights dimmed, she just strummed the strings and started singing. “Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell ...” The lyrics flowed out like warm molasses, sexy and haunting. There were some songs that just hit her vocal abilities in their sweet spot, and this was one of them.

  On stage, she wasn’t shy. She wasn’t a small town girl whose hips were too big. And most importantly, she wasn’t that girl who’d been attacked. On stage, she was a completely different person and everything melted away but the music. Back in college it was what had saved her sanity.

  As she sang, she knew she was killing it. Each note perfect and crystal clear, and the audience knew it, too. She had them eating out of the palm of her hand before she got to the first chorus. When the chorus did come, and Z chimed in with her precision harmony, it was like the stars had aligned and Cami wished she could freeze this one perfect moment in time, because it just didn’t get better than this to her way of thinking.

  She winked at Z because she knew that her friend felt the charge in the air too, and then looked out over the crowd to include them in on the magical moment, and that’s when she saw him.

  Almost like he had his own spotlight, Evan stood out from the crowd like a beacon. As soon as her eyes met his, he stood from the table and made his way across the packed room as though it were empty. He moved so fluidly it seemed as though he were floating, but that wasn’t the right word for it. He moved too purposefully, too aggressively to call it floating, she thought. He was like a stalking animal, all muscle and strength, moving like water wrapped in a skin of stunning beauty.

  The audience melted away until it was the three of them, alone in the universe. As the sultry song poured from them like verbal crack, Evan stood at the front of the stage and devoured every note.

  Z and she always danced suggestively when they sang this one, but they had done so tongue-in-cheek and made it playful rather than uber-sexy. This time there was nothing playful about it. With Evan watching, every touch and shimmy and arch was a promise and a tease, and Cami had never been so turned on in her life.

  All the men she’d been with since college had been attractive to her on some level, and she got excited plenty. She was working hard to take back her sexuality and despite what Z and her therapist believed, she was not content with the way things were. She had done her research and she had gotten very close to Zoe and Terryn, who had been a tremendous help in her quest of self-discovery.

  She wanted more than anything to experience passion; she was ready for this. Ready for him. And even though it scared her to be this attracted to a man because it triggered bad memories, she wanted more than anything to take him up on the promises his eyes were making right now. With Z at her side, the fear of what was to come later was fading and in its place was the passion that she dreamed of.

  Z stepped close and the two of them started crooning into the same microphone, cheeks brushing and breaths mingling. Cami knew the image the two of them made, with both th
eir mouths so close to the bulbous head of the mic. And when Z trailed her fingers teasingly along it, she knew that it was a deliberate taunt to the man standing in front of them. She watched as the skin on his face tightened with arousal and his fists opened and closed at his sides like he was fighting to keep from reaching out and grabbing them.

  Alone, that would frighten her, but tonight she wasn’t alone and she felt no fear at all, only intense pleasure and a sense of free-falling adventure. She snuck a peek over to where Cade, Trevor and Riley were dancing. The three of them had been together for years now and looked happier than almost any couple Cami had ever known. They had two adorable children and the men couldn’t keep their hands off of the woman they had taken as wife. If they could make it work so beautifully long term, surely the three of them could make a go of it too, even if it was just for the short term. Looking back at Evan and the look of undisguised desire she plainly saw on his face, yeah, she thought, she was more than ready to take this leap.

  “Another.” Evan was so turned on right now, he felt savage with it. The two women had just finished their song and the crowd around him was going ballistic. Cheers and catcalls and applause so abundant, it sounded like it was coming from an audience three times its size as it thundered around him. But that was all on the peripheral. Right now it was just the three of them, caught up in a force-field of energy that was blocking out the rest of the world and binding them together irrevocably.

  “Again,” he repeated, though he knew they had heard him. They both had their eyes riveted on him as though he was their Master and this was a scene.

  They looked to each other and a silent signal was passed. They took way too long for his liking to bow and thank the others, and then more lights went on over the stage as Cami touched her foot to more controls. They moved the stands out of the way and just held the microphones by hand. Cami put her guitar to the side and brought up the music with some more foot-activated controls.

  Sexy and slow was replaced with holy-fucking-hell-I’m going-to-combust-right-here hotness when the two of them put their amazing voices to Take Me or Leave Me from the Broadway show Rent, and the crowd lost its ever loving mind.

  They taunted and pressed their bodies against each other while they sang with voices that slid into his ears, wrapped around his heart, grabbed him by his cock and refused to let go. It was the most turned on he ever remembered being while still fully clothed. They were pure sexual challenge up there, and the Dom in him was more than ready to accept that challenge. He didn’t know how he was going to make this work but, somehow he was going to make them both his.

  Cami was completely confident on stage. Gone were the shadows that had haunted her eyes while they danced. Instead she was bold and flirtatious; grinding against Ziporah like they were lovers and stirring the audience into a fevered pitch of frenzy as she dropped to her knees and dared the other woman to deny her appeal.

  In contrast, Z was less confident than she was off stage. Gone was her kick-ass and take-no-shit persona, and in its place was a beautiful woman who was soft and approachable. She was saucy instead of defiant, and bubbling with laughter instead of bristling with challenge. She wasn’t a hardened lawyer always on guard up there, but a woman with no barriers and no walls.

  He was supposed to be here for Cami, but looking at them together, he found himself impossibly drawn to both women. Equally. Looking at them and trying to choose felt as though he would have to pick between either is right eye or his left. Impossible.

  He hadn’t a clue on how he was going to resolve that. He only knew if he didn’t get his hands on them both soon, he was going to go insane.

  Two a.m. rolled around and the exodus from the tavern was slow and loud. Nobody was ready to leave yet as the food, drink and entertainment had all been equally top notch. Cami had opened the stage for the remainder of the evening and she cleverly steered away from the drunken or obnoxious and chose people who were actually talented to take a turn at singing. The result had created an atmosphere that was electrified and buoyant. It wasn’t a wonder no one wanted to leave. He was right there with them.

  To keep himself from dragging the women out of the tavern caveman-style, Evan chose to help with the after-hours clean up.

  As he stacked chairs, his focus never wavered from where the two women were. It had been like that all night and had only grown in intensity after their time on stage.

  When he had hit the pool tables for a round of doubles with Brice, Cade and Trevor, he knew their exact location the whole time. It was as if they were already his and they were seared on his consciousness irrevocably.

  Now, as he took his time aligning the tables while the others were finishing up and saying their goodbyes, he tried to rein himself in. These ladies were not part of the BDSM world yet, and the last thing he wanted to do was scare them off before he’d even gotten started.

  “You got yourself a long road ahead of you there, friend.” Gage’s soft drawl brought Evan’s head around and he met the others man’s stare straight on.

  “Yes, it appears that way. So I take it Zoe talked to you about our visit this morning?” Evan asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the table.

  “Yeah, she did.” Gage crossed his own arms over his massive chest and spread his stance like he was on the deck of a ship, and Evan had to fight from rolling his eyes. Gage was in lecture mode. “Have you spoken with Zoe or either of them tonight? I mean about the fact that it’s gonna be both of them now, not just Cami?”

  Evan almost fell over from shock. “So, that was what that duet was all about? How come Zoe didn’t mention that this morning?”

  “Seems Cami is so scared of movin’ things forward that she was refusing to even meet with you. Then Ziporah stepped up and offered to try it out with her.” Evan was torn. It was exactly what he wanted, however … “This isn’t something to be taken lightly. I’m not a dabbler and I won’t scene with someone who is.”

  “No. I know you wouldn’t.” Gage looked him in the eye for a moment then said, “I have gotten to know Ziporah over these last couple years. When Zoe told me what the two had planned, she expected me to blow my top and put a stop to the whole thing. I didn’t though. You know why? Because I think that girl is a sub under all her prickly bravado.” Gage smiled softly and watched as the lady in question was currently having a heated debate with her cousin. “She likes to think she’s invincible, but there are times I look at her and I swear a good wind would break her into a million little pieces. That’s why, when Zoe told me that she wanted to sub with Cami as a favor, I was all for it. I think that woman is every bit a sub just like her friend. But, there is something else troubling me.” Gage seemed to be choosing his words carefully, so Evan stayed quiet and let him continue without interruption. “You’re a good man and an even better Dom, Evan. You wouldn’t push those girls where they can’t go, so I know they’re in good hands. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  Nothing could have shocked Evan more, and if he hadn’t already been half sitting on the table, he would’ve been knocked to the floor by that.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked, truly baffled.

  “I know the kind of Dom you are.” Gage leaned forward, like he needed to make sure Evan was hearing him. “I’ve never met a Dom more adept at bringing the dark to the light for a sub. You have a gift for opening them up during a session so nothing is hidden. But, these two are special. I don’t know details; still, I know enough. And it’s both of them. They got some serious trauma buried between them. What happens if you play this wrong and trip on a land mine?” They both looked to where the women in question burst into laughter with Zoe and a couple of the others. “Evan, you strip yourself emotionally bare when you go into a scene like no Dom I’ve ever known; it’s like you’re walking onto a battle field naked. And these two? They could damn well blow you up.”

  For a moment Evan was quiet as he let what Gage said sink in. Then he shook hims
elf out of it and shoved him out of the way as he got back to picking up the chairs. “You damn mother hen. I know you mean well, but it’s out of my hands at this point.” With a shrug, he lifted his palms up in a gesture of helplessness. “They’re already mine, Gage. I had already decided that I was going to have Ziporah before you mentioned anything, so you see? They are already mine. Now, go cluck over your sub and leave me alone.” He knew Gage meant well. But seriously? Worried about him? He was a Dom and it was his job to look after the women who agreed to be his subs. That was a level of trust every Dom had the fucking responsibility to nurture.

  Yeah, he maybe sometimes went a little too deep. And perhaps he took on their pain more often than not. For him, that was a price he was willing and, if he really looked at it, honored to pay.

  BDSM done right was just as much–if not more–in the head as it was in the flesh. A sub had to open up their very soul in order to let a Dom find who they really were inside and bring their true nature and desires into the open. By god, if they were going to put that much faith in him, he wasn’t going to come into this with anything less than all that he was.

  The others were saying their goodbyes and filing out, and he was just putting the last of the chairs up on the last table when Cami surprised him by walking straight up to him. He would have guessed it would be Ziporah who would be the one to make the bold move, not Cami. But there she stood, shoulders back and a brave smile on her lovely face.

  Most of her make-up had melted away, leaving her skin pale and dewy. Those luscious lips had just the faintest trace of red paint still on them and her eyeliner was smudged. As he waited to hear what she had to say, he wondered if this was how she would look after sex. Damp and a little wilted; it was sexy as hell.

  “So, umm, Zoe said her and Gage would stay and Terryn said the same about her and Brice. But, umm, see my friend Z?” She fidgeted where she stood and her feet pointed toward each other as she waived one hand in the general direction of her friend.