by Desiree Holt
“What do we do now?” Dallen asked as the silence drew out between them once more.
“Panic?” she suggested with a slightly forced chuckle. The fact they were both in love with him might make her feel a little better about the world, but it didn’t really help either of them, not if he didn’t feel the same way about them both.
Hoping that two people could fall for each other was risky enough. A third lover feeling the same way…the chance of it happening were almost too slim to hope for.
“Run?” Dallen offered back.
“Lie?”
“Confess?”
“Hide?”
“Submit?”
Automatically about to offer her own suggestion, Caroline hesitated. “Submit…”
“What else can we do?” Dallen asked. “All we can really do is be his for as long as he wants us both. And when he doesn’t want us, we’ll…”
“Cross that bridge when we come to it,” she finished for him.
Dallen nodded.
Caroline rested her hands over his, shrugging her shoulders to work their bodies together into an even more comfortable position. She nodded to the world in general. “We submit…”
Turning around, she leaned up for a kiss. As they rearranged themselves comfortably in their bed a few minutes later, she pressed another kiss to his shoulder before resting her head against it.
“Why do I get the feeling knowing how we both feel about him isn’t going to make things any easier next time we submit to him?” she asked some time later, as they both lay very quietly, each trying not to disturb the other, just in case they were the only one who couldn’t sleep for thinking about their master.
“You know we can’t tell him, Caro,” Dallen said.
She nodded, cuddling in more comfortably against his side. “I know.”
That wasn’t part of the deal. They were his playmates, not his submissives—not in the way they might wish they were anyway.
As she sensed Dallen finally drifting off some time later, Caroline sighed softly to herself. Knowing all of that didn’t make it any easier to accept. And the fact that their next play date was supposed to take place in Horton’s house rather than the club wouldn’t make it any easier to remember either.
Chapter Four
Dallen’s gaze followed Caroline’s movements as she slipped quietly from their master’s living room en route to the bathroom.
“You’re very protective of her.”
Dallen turned his attention back to where Horton sat, in the arm chair opposite him.
Part of him really wished he’d never whispered his return confession to Caroline. Saying the words out loud hadn’t eased his feelings for the dominant—if anything, knowing his lover felt the same way had only encouraged his emotions to give themselves free rein.
Suddenly alone in a room with him, it was hard to believe there wasn’t a flashing neon sign above his head declaring just how far he’d already fallen for the older man.
More nervous than ever in his presence, Dallen rubbed his palms against his jeans and tried to look relaxed. It took him a few seconds to register exactly what the other man said to him, and that Horton seemed to be waiting for a reply.
“It’s nothing personal, sir. I mean…” Dallen shook his head at himself. That was a sure way to impress their master—turn into a tongue-tied little school boy every time he was asked a simple question. “I’m not trying to protect her from you, sir,” he rephrased, as clearly as possible.
Horton smiled as he passed him a re-filled glass of lemonade. “I know what you mean. You’re gentle with her yourself—you’re both very gentle with each other, in fact. It’s quite beautiful.”
A touch of heat rose to Dallen’s cheeks. He kept his attention on his lemonade.
“Except, sometimes you like a rougher touch,” Horton went on.
Dallen nodded. “Yes, sir.” It was pointless to deny it when he’d been hoping the other man might take a whip to him, almost from the very first moment he set eyes on him.
“And, sometimes, so does Caroline.”
The submissive looked up. He met his master’s gaze and held it. “She’s not as into that as I am, sir.”
“Not to the same extent,” Horton agreed.
Dallen hesitated, turning his glass of lemonade around and around, as if it were a cup full of tea leaves that just might unveil all the mysteries of the universe if he stared at it for long enough.
She wasn’t as into pain as he was. He couldn’t have lied to his master about that, any more than he could have lied to him about anything else. It wasn’t as if he was unaware that Caroline had been known to like to feel the kiss of the lash on quite a few occasions. It was much more a case of him simply wishing she didn’t have any interest in it at all. “You want to whip her.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes.”
The other man didn’t need his permission. Caroline’s consent was more than enough.
All three of them knew that.
“Not just her, both of you,” Horton continued.
Dallen nodded his understanding. His throat was dry. He quickly drank down the entire contents of his glass. Picking up Caroline’s empty glass, he took them both across to the little bar on the far side of the room.
Horton rose too. Reaching past him, the older man set his own glass on the bar alongside theirs. He was right behind Dallen, his body seeming to surround him. “Do you trust me, sweetheart?”
Dallen didn’t take his eyes off the empty glasses. “Yes, sir.”
He did. He closed his eyes and repeated that fact to himself several times. He trusted him. And he loved him too. Strangely enough, in some ways, that made it far harder to trust him.
Perhaps he didn’t trust him because he should, perhaps he trusted him simply because it wasn’t in him not to trust someone he loved. The submissive cleared his throat. “You don’t need my permission, sir.”
“I’m not sadistic enough to take the whip to you when the only thing you can think about is your concern for your lover.”
Dallen kept his gaze lowered, kept his back to Horton. “It’s not a problem, sir.”
Horton’s hands settled on his shoulders, turning him around to face his master. “This is what you want?”
Dallen glanced up at him. “Yes, sir.” In that moment, it was the truth. He wanted to please the other man, he wanted to let Caroline have whatever she wished for. In that moment, those facts made it what he wanted.
A click from the door handle on the other side of the room heralded Caroline’s return.
Almost before he knew it, Dallen found himself upstairs, standing in Horton’s play room.
He was vaguely aware that the other man must have put a lot of time and money into furnishing the space with such a complete collection of toys. It was a shame then, that almost all of it was wasted on him for his first visit. All he was really aware of was the fact they weren’t in a public play room.
They were in their master’s house, in the home of the man they had both fallen in love with. Dallen looked across at Caroline. It was hard to believe her thoughts weren’t much the same as his.
Horton ran his fingers along the edge of one of four leather cuffs that hung from the ceiling near the centre of the room. Four cuffs—enough for two pairs of wrists, if two submissives stood very close together.
Back to back or face to face? Dallen swallowed, wondering just how their master intended to arrange them that night.
Clothes quickly discarded into neat little piles near the door, they soon stood beneath the cuffs, awaiting his decision.
“Dallen.”
No order needed to be added to the name. Dallen lifted his hands and offered them to the cuffs. They were buckled in place in moments. Caroline stood just a step away from him, patiently waiting her turn.
Horton disappeared from of Dallen’s line of sight. When he came back, he was carrying a foot stool. He set it down on the floor between them and nod
ded to it.
Caroline stepped up onto the leather covered surface. The added height brought her eyes level with Dallen’s. It took all his control not to lean forward and bring their lips together. Horton had never called them on kissing each other without permission in the middle of a scene, but Dallen still held back. The first scene in their master’s home was too important to take even the mildest risk.
Looking over Caroline’s shoulder, Dallen saw Horton pick up a crop from the collection of toys laid out on a marble topped table. As he approached them, he tapped the edge of it against his palm, as if unwilling to let it touch either of them until he’d already tested it on his own skin.
Dallen closed his eyes. A second passed. The crop traced gently over his back, sending a shiver down as spine. He opened his eyes as Horton began to circle them very slowly. As he passed behind Caroline, Dallen held his breath. Her naked body brushed against him as she swayed towards the leather when it traced a line across her skin too.
The crop came back to Dallen. It flicked lightly against his back, not even enough to sting, let alone hurt. From him to Caroline, as the older man circled them again. She made a pleased little noise in the back of her throat. The sound caressed Dallen’s lips, making him all the more desperate for a kiss he wasn’t brave enough to steal.
The next touch of the crop against his back was still gentle. There was just a little more bite to it—something to tease the masochist in him with the possibilities the toy might present in the future. In spite of his nerves, he felt himself start to harden.
Suddenly, Caroline swayed towards him. Dallen’s hands tugged at his cuffs as he automatically tried to lower his arms and support her.
Looking over the other submissive’s shoulder, he saw Horton standing behind her.
Some of his panic faded away. Horton wouldn’t let her fall. The thought was just there inside his head, without him needing to reach and scramble for it. Horton wouldn’t let her fall.
Dallen dropped his gaze, just in time to see his master’s boot leave the back of the footstool Caroline balanced upon.
He’d pushed the little platform nearer to him, nudged Caroline closer to his other submissive. There was no longer any need for either of them to sway for their bodies to touch. Bare skin met bare skin almost from top to toe. Dallen’s burgeoning erection brushed against Caroline as Horton started to circle them again.
Her touch as much as that of the crop quickly had him completely hard, curving back to his stomach, rubbing teasingly against Caroline’s body with every movement either of them made in response to the touch of the crop.
Each time Horton increased the intensity of the contact he was willing to offer them, the implement came to Dallen first. The submissive looked up and met Horton’s eyes. Their master was letting him know exactly what sort of touch the crop would apply to Caroline’s skin next, letting him know he didn’t have to worry that the strikes would be too severe for her.
Dallen swallowed, but made no comment. If their master wanted to offer him that sort of reassurance, all he could do was love him a little bit more for it.
Again and again, the other man circled them, caressing their skin with the crop, flicking the tip against them. It was impossible to know where those sharp little touches would fall. From his shoulders to the backs of his legs, Dallen felt the crop land again and again, not yet harsh, but building its way up to something stronger with each revolution.
Caroline’s body rubbed against his every time the crop moved on to her. As close as they were, it was impossible for him to doubt the fact she loved every kiss the toy offered her. Her only hesitation came when she looked up to him and their eyes met. Concern flashed into her eyes—for him, not for herself.
He looked away, not wanting her to see the same thing reflected back to her. Not wanting her to worry that he was worrying.
The crop landed hard against Dallen’s back. The sound as it whipped through the air altered. The crack as it met his skin was different too. A line of heat snapped through his body, sending sparks shooting through his veins. He gasped, head dropping back, as the dominant finally allowed him just a brief moment of the kind of pain he really enjoyed, and pleasure rushed through him in response, too wild to be understood let alone controlled.
By the time he remembered a real world existed outside that moment of pure bliss, Horton had already moved away from him to stand behind Caroline.
“Look at me, Dallen.”
It wasn’t in the submissive to disobey that order. He met Horton’s eyes. The crop turned its attention to Caroline’s skin. The sound it made as it landed echoed a previous blow, but it wasn’t the one that had graced Dallen’s skin just a moment before. It was no harsher than the previous time the crop had been applied to Caroline.
Their dominant had taken her as far as he intended to, as far as they both knew she’d enjoy going with the crop. He had no interest in giving the same whipping to both his submissives.
Dallen swallowed as what the other man wanted him to understand slowly seeped into his mind. He didn’t say anything, but when Horton’s lips twisted into an approving little smile, he knew the other man had seen the knowledge in his eyes.
He was always careful with them both. Physically more so with Caroline, mentally, perhaps more so with him.
The submissive swallowed again, his eyes losing focus for a moment. Part of him knew he should be embarrassed to realise that. Another part couldn’t help but love the fact the other man had no interest in playing the same sort of cruel mind games as the last dominant they’d shared their scenes with.
The whip fell again, pulling Dallen back into the here and now. Horton had made his decisions, and they were good decisions. He didn’t need one of his submissives watching over him, checking up on him. Very slowly, Dallen felt all the concerns in the world drain away through each lash the other man had applied to both their bodies.
The crop came down again, across Dallen’s buttocks, pulling a pleasure filled groan out of him, making it impossible not to thrust against Caroline. Again, the crop fell, painting a flash of pain and pleasure across his shoulders.
Dallen stopped counting, he stopped keeping track. His mind fell into the moment, and it was impossible to believe a past or a future existed while the crop continued to dance against him and caress Caroline in turn.
When Horton stopped behind him, close enough for his clothes to tease his whip marks, Dallen had his apology on his lips. He’d come so close to ruining the scene for everyone and…
Before he could utter a single word, Horton guided his lips to Caroline’s. Permission to kiss granted, Dallen moaned against his girlfriend’s mouth as he took full advantage of it.
The kiss turned into another, then another as he gloried in the way their mouths moulded together. The crop flew over their skin once again, as their bodies pushed against each other. Caroline gasped and moaned against his lips, her body began to writhe as the implement forced more and more pleasure into her and no release was offered.
An extra sheen of sweat broke out on their skin as Horton took them to the very edge, and held them there, together on the verge of both insanity and ecstasy.
Dallen groaned as he desperately rocked his hips, pre-cum smearing onto Caroline’s body with each helpless thrust.
The crop fell against Caroline once more, just a fraction harder than all the other touches she’d received from it. She bucked against him, tossing back her head as she came from nothing more than the joy of their master’s lash.
The movements of her body against Dallen as the crop landed—harsh and glorious—
on his backside one more time, tipped him over the edge. He came, just a moment after her, a scream tearing from his lungs as his cum spilled against Caroline’s skin and the rest of the universe ceased to exist.
Pleasure shot through Dallen, so intense it was hard to distinguish it from pain, and with it came a pain so beautiful, it somehow became pleasure. His head spun. His breath
stalled in his chest. His eyes dropped closed—but even before his lids fell, darkness crept around the edges of his vision.
For what felt like a very long time, there was nothing. Even pleasure and pain, ceased to exist, there was just wave after wave of perfection that crashed through him, drowning out everything else.
When he finally made his lungs work, he pulled a deep breath of air into his body and held it for several long seconds before finally letting it out. It did nothing to clear his mind.
He blinked his eyes open. Caroline’s eyes were still closed. He rested his forehead against her temple. She murmured very softly. The vibration of the tiny little sound seemed to shoot through his whole body. He moaned in response, but when she tilted her head back, he found the coordination to bring their lips together, very gently.
As the kiss broke, Caroline blinked up at him. He saw all the emotions in her eyes.
Raw after the scene, it was impossible for her to hide anything from him. He had no doubt it would be equally impossible for her to hide anything from their master.
“Just submit,” he reminded her. That was all they could do. No confessions. No demands. That wasn’t the deal.
Caroline swallowed rapidly before she nodded, just once and whispered the words back against his lips. “Just submit.”
On the other side of the room, Horton set the crop carefully on the white marble surface, wary that any sudden move might break the spell his lovers were caught in.
Turning his complete attention back to them, he watched their lips come together one last time before he stepped forward.
Dallen glanced towards him as he seemed to sense his master’s approach.
He stepped behind the younger man, lining his body up against him. Dallen immediately pressed his arse back against his crotch in offering. The submissive was exhausted from the scene. Pure weariness hung from his every limb, and it was far too soon for him to enjoy receiving his master right then, but he still made the offer.