Frisco went with him, and Cassie relaxed against Isaac with his arm around her.
The dancer who played Giselle saw them leaning against the wall trying to stay out of everyone’s way, and made a point of walking to them to talk. “I’m going to miss him. Apparently, he loves ya’ll more than dance, which is saying something. We tried pretty hard to get him to join the company full time.” She shrugged, “He said he may consider coming back for a show here and there, if the role was something he really wanted.”
“We’ll be happy to have him home. I’m glad he’s had this opportunity, but we’ve missed him.” Cassie told her.
The group made their way to the after-party at the same restaurant as before. It didn’t end at one in the morning this time, though the group left shortly after. Unlike the first party, this one had a lot of alcohol flowing.
Cam’s parents hadn’t stayed long, but Cassie had invited them up to their suite, so she texted them as the group arrived at the hotel.
His parents and little sister came up, though the stepsiblings decided to stay in their rooms, as they’d already put their children to bed.
“I’m so glad you all came down to watch him,” Cassie said once everyone was in and seated. “It meant a lot to Cam.”
Cam’s stepfather looked to Sam and Ethan. “It appears Cameron has famous friends, how do you know him?”
“Frisco and Cassie work out at the same dojo,” Sam answered, “and we have a class together twice a week.”
“So,” he asked Cassie, “the two of you are fighters? As good as the two of them?”
Frisco laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, we have skills, but I wouldn’t want to go up against either of them in a real fight.”
“And yet, Cameron brought down and apprehended a titled fighter.” Cam’s stepfather looked at him and said, “I owe you an apology, Cameron. I didn’t do right by you because I didn’t understand you. You’re every bit a real man, and we’re all proud of you.”
Isaac stepped behind Cam and put his hand on his shoulder. “He isn’t a man because he brought down Clemente, though you have no idea the balls it took. He’s a man because of who he is. He isn’t afraid to go after what he wants, whether society approves or not.”
Cam’s stepfather looked at Isaac’s hand and said, “So, the two of you are…”
He looked at his wife as if he needed help, and Cam’s mom said, “Cassie seems to be close to you, Cameron, but so do your other friends. We want to know more about your life. Are you seeing someone special?”
Cam took a breath and said, “I’m in a relationship with Isaac, Frisco, and Cassie. We’re building a house for the four of us, and Cassie has a dog named Jake who we all love and adore.”
Cassie was proud of him for speaking with such clarity. She knew he had to be shaking on the inside, but he didn’t show it. She smiled at him and said, “I think it’s safe to say Jake is our dog, now.” She looked to his mom. “Frisco is considering a get together, where we invite all of our families. My mother and father can’t be in the same room together, so I’ll just invite my dad, but…if we put it together, would you be interested in coming to our home?”
“Wait,” Cam’s little sister said, looking at her big brother. “You’re bumping uglies with all three of them? Man, did you hit the sexy lottery or what?”
Cassie held her breath until Cam’s mom laughed and tousled her daughter’s hair. “Yeah, I guess he did, at that.” She looked at Cassie. “We’d love to come, just give us a time and date.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
“Apparently,” Cam said on their drive home the next day, “my stepdad decided I was man enough for him when he read about me taking out Clemente. Mom tried to contact me afterwards, but too much was going on and I just couldn’t deal with whatever drama I figured she’d cooked up, so I ignored her calls and messages.”
“So,” Cassie asked, “are you going to accept them back, or decide their reasoning for accepting you is bullshit and you don’t need them?” He’d pretty much told them he was leaning towards the latter, but she needed to remind him he had other options.
“I think I’m going to accept it enough I can see my baby sister more often, but otherwise? I don’t really need their approval.”
Maybe he hadn’t needed it, but he’d wanted it, and Cassie hoped his letting them in a little now would eventually open the door for Cam and his mom to grow close again. Cassie adored his little sister and hoped Cam would have a chance to see more of her. Cassie knew how bad it hurt when a sibling you were close to was taken away, and could see the happiness in Cam’s eyes when his sister was around.
No one said anything for a few minutes and Cam asked, “When do I get to see the house?”
“We’re driving there now,” Frisco said. “Your things are in your closet and your bedroom is mostly finished, though we’ll keep sleeping in Isaac’s old room for the next couple of weeks, until our big bedroom’s ready.”
“I think I’ve made a decision about my next job,” Cam said.
“Someone make an offer?” asked Isaac.
“Well, yeah, but I turned them down. I mean, it was a great offer, but I realized if I can keep up with the freelance stuff and get a better following, I should make at least what they offered by working only four hours a day from home.”
“You’re going to stay freelance?” Frisco asked.
“Yes. Between book covers for self-published authors, and the companies wanting to hire me to come up with their literature and ads? I’ve only been doing it a few months, and I get new people contacting me every couple of days from just a little bit of word of mouth.”
“You sure you aren’t making this decision so you’ll be able to fulfill your slave duties easier?” Frisco asked.
“I can’t lie and say it doesn’t factor into the decision, but it isn’t the main reason. More of a fringe benefit.”
* * * *
The house looked truly impressive when they reached the end of the driveway, and the mountain stone matched so well you couldn’t tell which parts were old and which were new.
Frisco let Jake in from somewhere and the large dog bounded to them and rubbed all over Cam before saying hi to Cassie.
The two Doms started the tour in the shared bedroom, which was built at an angle so the line of sight to the river wasn’t broken from the great room.
Cassie walked through the cavernous space, stopping at the large windows overlooking the river, and turned to look at Isaac, wondering how he’d manage to sleep. He walked to the door and pushed a button, and shutters came up from the windowsill, completely covering the windows and blocking the light. “They’ll be programmed to react when I say lights out.”
The bathroom was beyond decadent, with a shower big enough for four, and a bathtub big enough for five.
They checked out Cassie’s room next, with wall joists showing and no sheet rock. However, her closet was completely finished with extravagant, richly stained wood cabinets and shelves, and all of her things beautifully organized.
They returned to the great room, and Frisco walked them out the backdoor to show them an enclosed outdoor room leading to a large fenced-in yard. Jake bounded out, circled the screened room and then shot through a doggie door into the yard.
Cassie followed using the human door, saying, “You gave my dog a screened in porch with a doggie door into his yard?”
“Jake’s part of the family,” Frisco said, “of course we figured him into the plans.”
Isaac’s room looked much like Cassie’s, except where she had a tub and shower in her bathroom, Isaac had a huge shower with plumbing for a dozen showerheads all over the walls and ceiling of the enclosed space.
The next door wasn’t far from Isaac’s, and he opened it and ushered them in with a huge smile.
It was huge, and sunny, and had tons of workout equipment — both state-of-the-art machinery and old-school weights. They stopped and looked, taking it all in, and Cassie
commented on how nice it would be to work out in here with the great view of the outdoors.
“It’s an L shaped room,” Isaac said. “Walk around the corner.”
Cassie was speechless, but Cam gasped and started doing fouettés when he realized they’d built him a ballet studio.
One wall was full of floor to ceiling mirrors with a ballet bar the full length. The wall behind was all glass, with a beautiful view of the forest.
Cassie looked around and realized it was also a dojo, with a wooden dummy, a heavy bag, and a few other assorted pieces of martial arts equipment.
She turned to Isaac and bounced as she neared him, landing on him with her arms and legs wrapped around his neck and waist.
“Thank you!” she said with her head buried in his neck.
“You’re very welcome,” he said, without even needed to take a step back as he caught her. “I take this to mean you like it?”
“It’s beautiful! The hardwood floors, huge windows, mirrored walls, and all of the equipment? I may spend all of my time in here, even when I’m not working out!”
They turned to look at Cam and saw tears running down his face.
Isaac walked to him quickly, and Cassie unwound herself from Isaac’s body and dropped to the floor so they could both draw Cam into a dual hug.
Frisco had been standing back watching, and he came forward now, too.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me,” Cam said through his tears. “I don’t deserve it, but I don’t care. Thank you.”
Cassie’s heart broke. How could he possibly think he wasn’t worth this? He meant everything to them.
“You’re worth this and more, Cameron,” Isaac said, his voice gruff. “Don’t ever let me hear you say you aren’t worth it, because you mean the world to me.”
Frisco echoed Isaac. “You mean the world to all of us. We weren’t complete while you were gone. We need you. We want you.”
“We were like a puzzle with a fourth of the pieces missing. It was awful. We’re so glad you got to dance your dream part, but it was hard,” Cassie told him as she tried not to start crying again. God, she was so happy to have him back.
They talked to Cam a bit, and then Frisco and Cassie did a kata side-by-side as Isaac and Cam watched. Cam asked Cassie to show him what she did with the wooden dummy, but she was ready for the rest of the tour. “Can we do that later? I want to see the rest of the house.”
Frisco led them out of the magical room and into the kitchen. He turned to Cam and said, “Slave quarters are off the kitchen. Do you still want to be our slave?”
“More than anything, Master.”
Frisco stood to the side and let Cam walk in.
The bedroom was maybe ten by twelve foot, with a simple steel twin-sized bed in one corner, a sink and toilet in another. The walls were sheet rocked with no decorations or molding at the top, as Cassie had seen in the other rooms with sheetrock already.
Cassie thought Cam looked a little shell-shocked, and wasn’t sure how he was taking his tiny room.
Frisco kept talking. “You’ll have a small standing shower, it just isn’t in yet. Isaac had them install a valve so we can shut the hot water off to your shower if we wish. Hot water is a luxury for slaves.”
Frisco turned Cam towards him and said, “You belong to us, but we expect you to carry on normally in the outside world. This means you need some of the trappings of our society, which means you need a closet. Nothing in the closet will belong to you. It belongs to us, and we give you the right to use it. There’ll be a lock on the closet that Isaac and I can trigger remotely, for when we don’t want you to have access.”
He turned his boy towards the door and said, “Go on. Open it. The lock isn’t on yet.”
Cam gasped when he saw his huge closet. It was at least twenty feet long, and perhaps fifteen feet wide. Instead of fancy wooden drawers and shelves, they were stainless steel, but Cassie had a feeling the stainless may have cost more than the wood in her closet.
She followed him in for a better look. His clothes and other things had been brought from Cassie’s house, and it appeared the organizer fairy had been busy in here, as well.
He looked through the drawers and cabinets and flew to Frisco before dropping to his knees and bending forward in obeisance.
“Thank you, Master. The slave in me would’ve been happy with a tiny closet and the knowledge I wouldn’t be allowed worldly things, but you knew I’d need more long term.” He rose to his knees and went into his beautiful, graceful, kneeling posture. “The bedroom and closet are perfect, but I don’t want to cry again.”
“Cry or don’t cry, boy. I love you either way. You’re exactly who I want in my life.” Frisco pulled him up and drew him into a hug, and the others joined for another group embrace.
As they pulled away from the hug, Frisco sighed and said, “I have a surprise as well. We’ll need to go outside and behind the garage to see it, though.”
* * * *
Frisco had been worse than useless when Clemente had come in on them. As much as he’d been against guns before, he had to admit he felt better when Cam, Cassie, or Isaac was around with one.
Cassie had gotten her concealed carry license a while back, though she rarely carried. However, Cam and Isaac both carried more often than not.
Frisco had decided he needed to learn to shoot and handle a gun since so many were going to be in his house. Also, he worried about his loved ones at the range, as he may trust them with guns, but still didn’t trust strangers. So he’d built them a firing range behind the garage.
Isaac knew he was up to something, but Frisco had managed to keep it from him, too.
He led them down the steps and to the door, opened it, and ushered them in.
“I had a professional put it in; someone Tyler recommended.”
“Oh, my… damn, Frisco,” Isaac said as he realized what it was.
“A shooting range?” Cam asked, amazement reflected in his voice.
“Yes, and there’s more. Tyler came out with someone and they wrote plans up for the contractors. There’ll be small biometric gun safes hidden around the house, including one on either side of the bed in the shared bedroom, one hidden in the floor of the great room near the sofa, and one beside everyone’s bed.” He looked at Isaac. “And a huge walk-in safe downstairs for all of your big stuff.”
“So, the anti-gun guy is going to basically have an armory in his house? And a gun range out back?” Isaac asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Yes, motherfucker, and you’re going to teach me how to shoot every gun in the house.”
Isaac leaned down until his lips met Frisco’s, his hand on the back of his head, his lips spreading, tongue invading. Frisco let the larger man dominate the kiss for a dozen heartbeats before he kissed back, and Isaac pulled away with a grin.
“So, what you’re saying is you were wrong about guns and weapons?”
“Yeah asshole, and I had a gun range built for you, so don’t push it.”
“There are five lanes, and four of us?” Cassie asked.
“There were kits,” Frisco said, “and five cost about the same as four. Plus, if we want to invite Sam to come shoot with us, she’ll have a spot.”
Isaac walked to the stack of target papers, went to a station, clipped the paper in, and pushed the button to send the shuttle to the end of the lane.
He pulled his gun from the holster, shot thirteen rounds, holstered his weapon, and pulled the target back.
Frisco whistled as he saw what amounted to a huge hole in the center of the paper, with no other bullet holes. All thirteen rounds had gone in the center. He looked at Cam. “You want to try?”
Cam shook his head. “I’ll need to bring target ammo out. Don’t want to shoot my hollow points.”
“I have a box of hollow point nine’s I’ll give you, boy,” Isaac told him as he clipped a fresh target in. “Shoot away.”
Cam sent the paper back down
the lane, shot seven times with his smaller gun, brought it back.
His shots weren’t quite as close, but they were all still in an area as big as a man’s fist.
“I can shoot as well as Isaac with a bigger gun, but shorter barrels aren’t quite as accurate.”
“No need to make excuses, boy. Damned fine shooting,” Isaac told him before looking to Frisco and saying, “Thanks. I’m touched, as I’m sure Cam and Cassie are. Any chance we can set up a reloading room in the basement?”
Frisco rolled his eyes and threw his arms in the air. “Of course. Why not? You can turn your old bedroom into one, will that work?” He wasn’t really ticked off. He hadn’t wanted guns around because he’d been afraid of them. He still had a healthy respect for them, but he now understood why it might be a good idea to have armed friends. And to know how to shoot one of their guns should he be home alone. He’d let Cassie down once and Cam had been forced to rescue them both. He wouldn’t let it happen again.
Isaac grinned and wrapped his arms around Frisco, and then leaned out to pull Cam and Cassie into the hug.
“Group hug, and then we need to have a talk with Cam.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Cam had wondered when they’d have the talk, and his pulse sped at the proposition it would be now.
He followed them to his old apartment over the garage, where they all sat in the living room.
“You’ll keep this apartment clean and ready for guests at any time,” Frisco told him. “If any of us have out of town visitors, they’ll be welcome to stay in either our personal bedroom, or in this apartment. We’ll need to have a serious discussion about someone moving in or being here longer than a week or so, but for less than a week? Are we all in agreement that as long as we don’t have big plans, it’s okay to invite someone without checking with the group, should we need to on the spur of the moment?”
“Fine with me,” Isaac said, “though if it doesn’t need to be spur of the moment it’d be nice to discuss it before the invitation’s made.”
Safeword: Arabesque (Safewords Book 9) Page 43