by Cara Adams
“Yeah, well, that’s what we thought, too, but Verity changed our minds. So we need a house.” Noah put his finger on the little wedge of land. “See here? This is your land. We asked Larry if we could build our house inside Carnal Connections, but he was concerned about security issues. But if you let us use this piece of property here, it would be the perfect size for the house we want to build.”
Verity sat back and watched as the men measured and calculated and commented about the land.
Nicholas and Curtis had drawn up really detailed plans of where their scenery sets would go for them to get the best range of photographic shots. Movies were incredibly deceptive, she’d learned. What the viewer thought was endless grass was often just a cleverly painted backdrop, and Raegan, the studio’s scene painter, was extremely good at that kind of work.
“I’ll just go and get the plans. I think that’ll be okay, but I need to be sure,” Curtis said.
“I’m almost positive we didn’t want to start our filming that close to the main road as it’d be too likely a car or something would go past in the middle of a scene and we’d end up having to reshoot all the time,” added Nicholas. “Mostly we have our buildings there. The main studio is here, and the equipment barn is here,” he said, pointing to places on the map between the main road and the access road. Both of them were near the wedge of space, but neither was on that little sticking-out piece of land Verity was beginning to think of as hers.
Verity was interested to look at their maps when Curtis brought them back. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but there was a lot more involved in filming a movie, or even an advertisement, than actors, a screenplay, and pointing and shooting. Every nanosecond of film had to capture just exactly what the moviemaker needed to show the audience and nothing else. Anyone could tell that a car racing past on a road in the middle of cowboy story likely wasn’t going to be good, but it was so much more than that. Nicholas and Curtis must have spent days, even weeks, planning the layout for their buildings to give them the maximum amount of freedom for their filming. Even the parking lot was going to be dirt, not paved, so they could use it if they needed to.
Finally Curtis gave his decision. “All right, I’ll make you a deal. That piece of land wasn’t going to be a whole lot of use to us, but it was ours and it could have been used for an extra parking lot or another storage barn or something. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes we do need to use the inside of a real house for a scene. A regular bathroom or kitchen or something that’s difficult to fake in a studio. You can build your house there, but you’ll let us film in it, at a mutually convenient time of course, whenever we need a private house. How about that for a deal?”
“That sounds fine by me. Ezra? Verity? Do you agree?”
“Absolutely. It’ll be worth it to have our own home,” said Verity.
“I agree. Also, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it yet, but we’re planning to have an internal courtyard. That might be useful for you in a shoot in winter sometimes,” added Ezra.
“An internal courtyard? How do you mean?” asked Larry.
Verity watched as Noah pulled the paper Nicholas’d been drawing on over to himself and sketched their house, the four modules in a hollow square with a space in the middle.
“If the road goes past here and here, I think these rooms fronting the road will be our entertainment areas, and these two at the back will be our private living quarters. We’re going to put a clear roof over the courtyard to keep the snow out and use it for outdoor entertaining,” explained Noah.
“Oh, I like that idea. A garden should grow really well there protected from the extremes of weather but with sunlight through the roof,” added Larry.
Nicholas nodded. “That would be great for filming when the weather is bad. Shall we shake hands on the deal?”
While Nicholas, Curtis, Ezra, and Noah were all shaking hands, Larry phoned Lucy again. “Can you get JB to join us, please, Lucy?”
“No problems. Do you want coffee as well?”
Coffee sounded good to Verity. She nodded wildly at Larry. He grinned back at her. “Yes, please.”
While they waited for JB to arrive, Verity tried to imagine her home. Having the kitchen and dining room on the side road would be best, with the great room running along the main road. It’d be good to have a second bathroom for guests, too. She didn’t want a thousand people traipsing through her bedroom all the time to use her bathroom. A girl needed some privacy after all. Besides, their bedroom may well have sex toys and BDSM gear in it, and that might shock some of the businesspeople Ezra worked with. So the bedroom definitely needed a lock on the door.
“Our main question is where will the driveway be and where will people park. We don’t want them on our land necessarily,” Curtis said to JB almost as soon as he sat down.
“That should be easy enough. The shape of the block makes a semicircular driveway possible.” JB took the pencil from Noah and sketched a driveway in, shading an area where guests could park. “Here we can plant a garden, which should discourage people from trying to get into your land. There’ll be a fence, but we don’t want a high security fence and most people will avoid trampling through a garden bed when it’s so much easier to walk down the road.”
Nicholas and Curtis left then, and JB talked about the modules. Verity made sure he understood what she needed and he nodded. “Commercial-grade kitchen is no problem. We’ll get a blank module and fit it out ourselves. Your great room will only need to be an empty module as well, and we can use the kitchen space of the regular module as your guest powder room. That’s just a matter of making sure the unit is facing the correct way when it’s set onto its concrete pad. Then we can put a locking door across the hallway here to keep people out of your private area.”
Verity sat back and relaxed. All her worries about a home were now settled. She needed to visit Diane, Carnal Connections’ accountant, and check she had enough money for what she wanted in furnishings, but she was certain there was more than enough for her needs. It wasn’t like she wanted gold-plated bathroom fixtures or anything.
There was still the issue of whether she should mate with the men before the house was ready or whether it would be better to wait until they could move into their own home. Could she be happy living in one room for months on end? Did the men truly understand her needs? They’d responded really fast so far, but were there other gaps that could break them apart later on in their relationship?
But the overwhelming unanswered question, and one which had only just struck her since she’d come into Larry’s office today, was would she ever be safe in this house knowing Sam Brooks hated the panther women and that Drew and Charlie and two other rogue panthers were still out there somewhere? Could she ever enjoy her house knowing a knock on the door or a rock through the window could bring a man determined to spoil her happiness, or something even worse?
Chapter Three
It was time for him to leave work, but Noah was still sitting at his office desk. Just this once Noah wished he was a panther or a wolf so he could go for a long run while he thought about what he needed to do next. His heart wanted him to push on with the mating, which was all organized to take place in less than two weeks. But his head was telling him this wasn’t a good plan. Verity had completely derailed all his assumptions when she’d said she wanted to host their business parties.
He sighed. For well over a year now he’d called them “their” parties, but in fact, they’d only ever been Ezra’s parties. He’d gone along to help chat to the guests, maybe do a little networking of his own, and he always helped Ezra host the parties and make everyone feel welcome, but the hard truth was that they were Ezra’s business associates and it was Ezra who needed to hold such gatherings. Yet it’d never occurred to him to add Verity to the mix. Did that make him selfish? Did it show he lacked empathy? It certainly indicated that as a Dom he didn’t understand her nearly as well as he should have. If he’d been a better
Dom, a more perceptive Dom, he’d have known she wanted to be involved, that he wasn’t protecting her, he was cramping her, preventing her from exercising her abilities.
Ah, fuck!
Go ahead with the party or postpone it? Now or later?
Noah rolled a pen between his fingers, twisting it and threading it in and out, in and out. Now? Later? Wait? Go boldly ahead?
The only really time-sensitive part of the ceremony he’d planned was the snow. And if he was realistic about it, there’d be snow for months yet. So yes, postpone it. JB had said about two months until the house was up enough to live in. Finishing touches like painting the walls would take another couple weeks, but the sooner the better as far as he was concerned. Walls, a roof, and heating. The rest could wait. They could always eat in the main building and shower in the barn if they had to, if the plumbing and tiling wasn’t complete, after all.
Sighing, Noah phoned Lucy to change the bookings for the barn and the dungeon. There were other people who needed to be informed once he’d set the new date. Well, he only had himself to blame for all the extra work. Verity was a person, and he’d better get himself organized to know her better.
That was when he had a truly brilliant idea. A quick search of the Internet told him it took six to eight weeks. Perfect!
* * * *
Noah may have thought he was acting perfectly normally, but Ezra knew him so very, very well he could sense the undercurrent of excitement and anticipation. He and Verity were waiting for their Dom’s first instruction as they always did, standing in the middle of the dungeon, naked, hands behind their backs, eyes down, and feet shoulder-width apart. The dungeon was heated, but that didn’t make it particularly warm. The temperature was set low, anticipating people down here would be actively participating in activities, so standing still, naked like this, was fucking cold.
“Verity, come over to the chains.”
Ezra watched out of the corner of his eye as she walked across to where several long chains hung from the ceiling. First, Noah locked the cuffs around her wrists, then he spread her legs as far apart as they could stretch and locked her ankles into the floor manacles.
He’d left her standing with her feet flat on the stone floor, which was unusual. Ezra felt his cock grow harder as he wondered what Noah would do next.
“Come here, Ezra. See how much you can arouse her just with kissing.”
Oh God. How was he supposed to do that, for fuck’s sake? Ezra approached her as close as he could without touching her body then began by kissing her forehead, her nose, her right earlobe. He would have liked to suck it into his mouth and bite it a tiny bit, but those were not his instructions, unfortunately.
Next he kissed his way along her jawline to the other ear and gently kissed the rim of her ear.
Verity made tiny movements with her head as if to nudge him toward her mouth. Good. That meant she was wanting more, so this was a great start.
Taking a deep breath, Ezra kissed his way over her cheekbones and up to her eyelids, pressing soft, sweet kisses all the way.
The chains clanked a little, so Verity must have moved. Ezra could only hope that was a good sign.
Now he traced slightly damp kisses down the midline of her face, nose and chin, skipping over her mouth. This time she definitely tilted her head to try to catch his lips.
Success.
Without warning he locked his lips to hers and thrust his tongue deep into her mouth, fucking her there with every ounce of fire he could summon. She sighed into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his, returning his kiss with all the passion of her vibrant nature. By the time he pulled away from her his lungs were begging for air.
“Step to the side.”
As he did so Ezra saw that Noah was standing in front of Verity with a Q-tip in one hand and his phone in the other. What the fuck?
“Hold her labia wide apart.”
Ezra squatted down in front of Verity, slightly to the side of Noah, and did as instructed. God, her skin was hot. Her cream was glistening on her inner lips and her clit was deep pink with arousal. He hoped Noah was going to tell him to suck her. She always tasted so good and she was so passionate and loving as well.
Ezra watched as Noah inserted the Q-tip into Verity’s clitoral hood then took a photo and sent it to someone. Surely Noah wasn’t going to risk Verity becoming an Internet sensation without her consent?
After he’d sent the picture Noah removed the Q-tip, stepped backward, and nodded to Ezra. “Suck her. Give her an orgasm.”
Ezra kneeled directly in front of her and licked the length of her slit. Yum. Rich and creamy. Then he inserted his tongue inside and scooped up more cream. Still holding her lips wide apart Ezra began to tongue-fuck her in earnest, pushing his tongue in as far as it would go. Then he nibbled along her labia, harsh little bites to add a dash of pain to her pleasure, before sucking her clit itself, flicking over it again and again with his tongue. As she started to gasp and wiggle he moved faster and faster before biting down on her clit, hard but not too hard, then thrusting his tongue inside her. Verity shattered around him, moaning and murmuring as he drank down her juices.
“Well done. Move back to the center of the room. You may face Verity and watch,” said Noah.
As Ezra stood he noticed Noah texting something on his phone. What the fuck? Noah was usually a most devoted Dom, watching them intently and framing every aspect of a scene to perfection. What the fuck was going on tonight?
“Verity, look at me.”
Ezra stared at her as her head came up and she focused her lust-ridden, heavy-lidded gaze on Noah.
“Do you trust me, Verity? Completely trust me?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Are you willing to do what I want, knowing I only desire to increase your pleasure?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Noah nodded and walked to the door of the dungeon, opening it just enough for a person to enter.
Ezra was confused. The woman who entered was carrying a briefcase but was wearing an ordinary pair of jeans and a sweater. This scene was getting weirder and weirder. The three of them were committed and exclusive to each other, going to be mated, so what the fuck was Noah doing inviting another person into their private dungeon in the middle of the scene?
Noah led the woman to the center of the room. “Verity, this is May. May specializes in piercing women’s genitals. I want you to permit her to give you a vertical genital hood piercing. It’s what’s commonly called a clit piercing, but the skin that’s actually pierced is your genital hood.”
Ezra watched Verity blink a few times and blush slightly. He thought she was feeling positive toward the idea, but since she didn’t say anything he couldn’t be sure.
May said, “Noah just sent me a picture of the Q-tip in your hood. Your hood is perfect for such a piercing. It’s the right size and the tissue is thin so the needle will go through easily. Every woman is different of course, but in my experience generally the piercing will be fully healed in about six weeks, and it will hurt less than an ear piercing because the skin is thinner.”
“You can ask May any questions you want,” said Noah.
“What effect will the jewelry have on me?” asked Verity.
Ezra couldn’t see May’s face, but he heard the smile in her voice. “It will increase your sexual desire and enhance your pleasure. The barbell touches your clit, giving it direct stimulation, so any activity in that area will be more potent than previously.”
“You said it takes about six weeks to heal. Does that mean no sex—no vaginal sex—for that time?”
“No, you can have sex straightaway. Indeed many women find that sex while the wound is healing is even better than ever. But you must use latex even for oral sex until the wound is fully healed.”
“And it hurts no more than an ear piercing?”
“It hurts less than an ear piercing,” corrected May.
“All right. I agree.”
“You agree of you
r own free will?” clarified May.
“Yes.”
May bent down and opened her briefcase, taking out an antiseptic swab, a tube, and latex gloves. She put the gloves on then cleaned Verity’s genitals before rolling the tube between her gloved hands. “I’m warming it,” she said.
Noah went over to his backpack and took out a tiny box, which he carried over to Verity.
Then Ezra watched closely as May pinched the skin of Verity’s clitoral hood between her fingers and pierced it using the implement inside the tube she’d warmed between her hands. Verity blinked once and that was all. Noah flipped the jewelry box open and proffered it to May. She took a fresh antiseptic swab and cleaned the little double-headed barbell carefully, took one ball off the end, then inserted the jewelry through Verity’s hood and screwed the second ball back on. May stood up, rolled up her gloves, and closed her briefcase.
“That’s it?” asked Verity, surprise in her tone.
“Yes. Enjoy yourself, my dear,” said May, leaving the dungeon.
Noah undid the manacles holding Verity’s arms and massaged her shoulders. Then he kneeled and uncuffed her feet. He picked up his backpack and said to Ezra and Verity, “Follow me.”
Surprised, Ezra grabbed up his clothing and waited for Verity to collect her things then walked after the other two down the hallway to the end room. The hot tub? Why the fuck are we going into the hot tub room when Verity’s just had a piercing? We can’t possibly use the tub until she’s fully healed.
* * * *
Verity couldn’t believe she’d just gotten a hood piercing and was walking around naked. Surely she should be sitting quietly with a cup of coffee and some Tylenol? But no, the delicious feeling in her cunt told her the hood piercing was real. Very real. And it definitely worked. Already she was aroused and wanting someone to touch her there. Actually, she’d like to touch it herself to feel the little barbells, maybe touch her clit some and see if she would come. But the woman, May, had said no touching without latex, so she’d need to get some gloves before she could do that. Well, hell.