That was as damn unusual a development as the fact that he had let her bargain her way out of any Dominance and submission tonight. Now here he was, thinking of bucking his pal for full rights to a woman they both desired. That was new and Joel didn’t take kindly to changes in his life. Not since he’d returned from Iraq.
Case ran a hand through his hair, troubled.
Joel had been Case’s best friend in Bravado since they were both in diapers. The two men had fished together, hunted together, even joined the Marines together the day after they graduated high school. Though they had spent their military years apart with Case in Japan and Joel in Iraq, they’d fallen right back into their friendship after each ended their tours and came home to Texas. Now Joel was Case’s attorney. Case served on Joel’s board of directors for his nonprofit. And for the past few years, both of them had even sought out subs together. Their ménages were comfortable, exciting and damn rewarding. For the women too, the men’s hook-ups offered their subs a double dose of good Texas lovin’.
Case saw Joel skim his hand along Sam’s arm now. They laughed easily together, making small talk. Case could do diplomacy just fine, but today Joel’s sweet-talking made his blood boil. He blew out a gust of air. For the first time in his life, Case was jealous of his best friend.
“Let’s get to the point here, Joel,” he said. “This lake serves four counties. A big basin that thousands rely on and it’s running dry.”
Joel glared at him over the top of Sam’s head. But when he spoke, he sounded as sweet as pancake syrup. “This lake was built in 1960 to hold water from the River Authority’s dam upstream,” Joel told her, pointing to the pale western horizon. “To improve the water quality, we stock it with native fish.”
“How well do they survive in the lower water levels?” Sam asked, her eyes obscured from Case by her dark sunglasses.
“Catfish do well anywhere.”
Case sauntered closer, his thumbs in his belt loops. “My mother used to say catfish would survive in our bathtub.”
Sam stuck out her tongue. “Don’t think I want to eat those that do.”
“No commercial fishing is allowed here,” Joel said. “But fishermen have to observe size requirements. And any mature females have to be thrown back.”
Like you need to give me this one back, Joel, old man.
As if Joel heard his thoughts, his friend winced.
So. You’re not happy. Makes two of us.
Conflicted about competing with his best friend for a woman he dearly wanted only to himself, Case told himself to get over it. Grow up. A deal to share was a deal. He’d never welshed, but neither of them had ever declared a woman off-limits to their agreement. No woman they’d approached had ever refused them a ménage either.
Case rolled his shoulders, uneasy, hating the thought of a row with Joel. “We have had fishing contests here up until summer before last when the drought got worse. We’ve called off the contest for this July too.”
Joel shot him another glance.
Checking for implications? Yeah. Well. You should. I want this woman, Winthrop. I want her bad.
“How many people live here?” Sam pointed to the homes along the perimeter of the lake that served as the reservoir.
“Permanently,” Joel told her, “approximately two thousand.”
“But every winter we get anywhere from five to fifteen thousand snowbirds,” Case added. “These folks come south from northern states like Michigan and Illinois, rent RVs and stay until April or May.”
“They draw on our water supply more than we predicted,” Joel said.
“And many of them decide they like it here in Texas. They buy land, build homes and move.”
“I hope you have some deterrents to overdevelopment,” Sam countered.
“Oh we do,” Case said. “We increased the size of land parcels that a home developer can sell from three acres to five. Even though prices have gone up along with the lot size, we still average one thousand more people moving into the county per year than we expected.”
Sam widened her eyes. “That’s a lot of new residents.”
“And less water for our cattle,” Case added.
Sam turned toward both men, scanning both faces. “Is something wrong?”
“Why?” Case asked, his question sounding sharp, testy.
“You are each looking at the other like you’re measuring each other for undertaker suits. What gives?”
Joel pushed his white Stetson back from his brow and gave Sam a nonchalant shrug. “We’ve lived together too long, this old coot and me, not to check out everything the other one says.”
Case narrowed his eyes at his friend, turning his head toward the tree line. Sam was sensitive to their moods. A good sub usually did pick up vibes from her Dom. This tendency of hers offered him further proof she was a natural sub, further evidence she would make a good one for him.
“Case?” she prodded him. “What bothers you?”
A spunky sub, that’s what. Mix that with a bold pal and I got troubles. “Getting hot here already. I need some water from the saddlebags. You each want a bottle?”
He spun away, feeling like a fool for letting Joel get under his skin. He had no claim on Sam. In fact, Joel had met her before Case had ever clamped eyes on her, so being as cranky as a kid in knee pants was…well, childish.
Coming upon the three horses, he patted the mane of his own and fished inside the old leather pouch. He came up with the three water bottles, as warm as toast. Muttering to himself about his lack of control over this situation, he stood there a second and stared at the rump of his stallion. He had to give her the choice of Joel, him or both of them together. Only fair. Wise too. Why invest this much emotion—this much want—in a woman if she didn’t return the feeling?
Trudging back through the scrub to the edge of the overlook, he filled his vision with the two of them. The man who was his friend and the woman who was more appealing to him than any he’d met in years stood together talking as if they were longtime pals. That spiked the flames of his jealousy into a firestorm—but the scene inspired another characteristic he prized more.
A sense of fair play.
“Here you go.” He handed off the bottles to them. “I reckon we’ve had enough of this on-site work for today. It’s nearly noon. What do you say to some lunch?”
Sam stood, her water in her hand, not opening it but examining Case with apprehension. “I can’t do more than a burger at the Flagstone. I have another appointment at two.”
Case zeroed in on Joel. “Sam has a meeting with Carl Brunner so she needs a fast burger and a soda.”
“Let’s do it,” Joel agreed. “Drop me at your place and I’ll follow you back down to the Flagstone.”
“Good. Then tonight I think we both have to help Sam with her birthday plans. What do you say, Joel, to us putting some fun in her life? That is,” he said while his gut churned with apprehension, “if she agrees.”
Joel cocked his head, confusion in his dark eyes. “Did you have something in mind?”
Sam went still, serious, searching Case’s face. Her disappointment was plain in her downturned mouth and sad eyes. “That would be good to know.”
Why hadn’t she refused? Case took her reaction as her statement that she would not hurt Joel’s feelings. Commendable. Kind. So he had been right to change the evening’s activities. “Can’t tell you. That would spoil the fun.”
She stood straighter, stiffer. “I like my fun—”
“Plain vanilla?” he offered, trying like hell to get any traces of anger out of his tone. He had fought from the beginning to get her to trust him. Friday night, he had succeeded to a small degree. Now he needed more. And if she could flower with Joel instead of him, well then he needed to recognize that and stand aside.
She watched him. Her eyes became mellow, shallow pools of clear blue hope that he would not hurt her or betray her. “Yes.”
Joel bristled. As a regular at the Brav
ado, he knew the meaning of vanilla and while he didn’t practice shibari, he did like bondage in his role-play. In their ménages, Joel could go for ropes or not. But the mention of vanilla implied that Case and Sam had talked about sex. To what extent, Joel could only speculate ’cause Case wasn’t repeating the conversation he’d shared with Sam.
Case turned to her. “What do you say then we get you that burger and drop you off for your appointment? Then tonight we’ll pick you up for dinner. Say, seven?”
“Dinner.” Sam’s beautiful lips thinned and she fought a frown.
Oh honey. You are upset. I’ll make this up to you. Honest, I will.
“Where are we going?” She stared at him. “What shall I wear?”
Not your pasties. Or your mask. She tried to smile, only got halfway. She was putting on a front. Poor acting had never looked so good to Case. “All a surprise. Wear something slinky.”
She turned away, gazing out toward the water. “Will do.”
He had to see too how she responded to Joel. And the only way to do it was to offer her the opportunity to have him.
* * * * *
“What the hell was that all about back at the reservoir?” Joel asked him as he slid next to Case in his truck. After their burgers, Sam had wanted to shower and change before her meeting with Brunner. They waved to her as they sped down the driveway in front of her B&B.
“I told you.” Case had predicted Joel would start a discussion on this topic as the three of them ate lunch. “Sam needs some fun. She agreed to come, didn’t she?”
Joel quietly examined him.
Is he jealous? Angry? Or just being diplomatic? Case pressed his point. “I think we need to provide it.”
“You’re hot to have her. I see it. Why pussyfoot around?”
Case glanced at his friend. “Because you want her too.”
Joel stared straight out the windshield. “I do. But I have no idea if there’s a connection there between us. I get mixed signals.”
“Any red lights?” Tell me you get them and I take her as mine alone.
“No. But she is hard to read.”
For you. “I thought we’d help her straighten out her thinking.” And move me along in mine.
“How? Dinner sounds tame.”
“What comes before dinner is not.”
“She doesn’t want the club. Told me so. Told me she went there the other night and ran into you.”
Then ran away. “So…she confides in you?”
“She does.”
“Trusts you.” Case felt that green-eyed monster looming, threatening his peace of mind. Case fought the odd emotion, not wanting to challenge his best friend for a woman whom he had known only a small fraction of the decades he’d known Joel. All that time, all those mutual experiences merited consideration for Joel. “I want her to trust me.”
Joel frowned. “The rope tricks the other night worked.”
“That was only a beginning. She needs more. I need more.”
“Take it then!”
Inside, he recoiled at Joel’s words. His aggressiveness didn’t normally rub Case the wrong way. But Joel had seemed different lately. Erratic, one day mild, the next hot with anger over a small thing. Whatever troubled him, he gave no hints to Case.
“Come on, Case. You don’t usually wait around for a sub to agree. You see one, you claim one.”
“Except when I can’t.” Not with Sam. If she trusts you, I have to know in what way. As a friend? Or as a possible partner? “Like now.”
Joel considered him for a long minute, his face still, unreadable. “You are in a bad way.”
“I think so.”
“I’ve never seen you like this before.”
Case nodded once. “Right on.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Case worried his lower lip. “Aside from her looks?” Something about her calls to me. Maybe it’s the part that’s submissive. Maybe it’s the part that seems lonely. “She’s bright.”
“Hell. You never cared before about a woman’s brains.”
Case snorted. “She’s smart, yes. But I mean she is colorful. A kaleidoscope. Like that mask she wears.”
“A butterfly? She told me you called her that.”
Did she? That she confided in Joel about so much gored him. “There you go.”
“I see it in her too. She has this part to her that sparkles—”
But do you see the black fragments among the colored bits? Has she told you about those? The childhood she doesn’t want to discuss? The Dom who hurt her? Case cast aside his concerns and went for some humor to cover his tracks. “Well, damn. Now you’re getting poetic on me?”
“Yeah. I learned it from you.”
Case scrubbed his jaw and squinted out the window into the sun. “Fucked, aren’t I?”
“You said it, man, not me.” Joel laughed then pointed to the jail. “Let me out here. I need to go talk with Wade about a problem I have with more illegals traipsing north over my ranch.”
Joel’s spread had a particularly hilly patch where Mexican immigrants hid out on their way through Texas. “But your truck is at my house.”
“After I see Wade, I’ll walk to my office and get my assistant to drive me out to the Double Bar T to get it.”
Case idled his truck while Joel climbed out. A hand on the windowsill, Joel leaned inside and took a long look at him. “What about tonight and Sam? You sure you want to do whatever you’re cooking up in that brain of yours?”
“Bring a colorful attitude to match hers and a change of clothes.”
Wincing, Joel plunked his Stetson on his head. “A change of clothes implies that we’re giving her more than a birthday cake.”
“I thought we’d go out to my hunting cabin near Rocksprings.”
Joel whistled. “Sixty miles is a long way to go to find out what she likes. And know too, that for all the times she and I have talked, I haven’t told her about your and my agreement to share women. Have you?”
Okay, so there is that mountain to climb. Could be fun. Could be disaster. “No. So tonight, we’ll play it by ear. The lodge is still close enough for us all to come back into town tomorrow morning.”
“Good. Because she is dogged about finishing her research and her report. If she gets a gold star on this, there’s a promotion in it for her.”
“Is that so?” Something else she had told Joel and not him. All right, he knew what he lacked here. He needed to spend more time with her. Why he even considered letting Joel in on tonight’s plan was becoming more of a mystery to him. Except for the loyalty he owed his buddy.
“It is. But if the lady is not laughing at your surprise, we’ve got a long drive home to smooth over the rough spots.”
“Exactly.”
Joel rubbed his chin with a knuckle, then gazed off into the sun. “Think I’ll drive there myself. Just in case one of us needs to leave.”
In case the lady is not interested in both of us? Joel was not ready to leave the playing field where Sam was concerned. But his words indicated he was going to honor Sam’s choices in men. “Whatever you say.”
“You bringing your ropes?”
Case pondered that one. Say yes and he’d be committed in Joel’s eyes to some bondage. Say no and he’d seem like a stranger to his best friend. “Not sure.”
Chapter Five
Walking down Main Street after her meeting with the county official, Sam headed for her B&B. Talking to herself about tonight, she got a few looks from passersby.
Swell. Sam could just hear them chatting tonight around their dinner tables. “There goes that water authority lady. Think she’s okay, muttering to herself?”
Well, I might be. I’m not certain! And there are only few ways to find out.
She stopped dead in her tracks, pivoted and put a hand up to her brow to shield her eyes from the sun.
What to wear tonight was a big question. Case had told her to wear something slinky. Sexy, yes. But not her pas
ties. Not her club outfit. Not the original plan for them to dine alone. She was certain he had noted her disappointment that their date at his house was cancelled.
Why did he do that?
She couldn’t ask anyone. Except she had met one woman. One who was pretty much her own age.
As Sam opened the front door to Knickers, the bell on the door tinkled. The air smelled of verbena and roses. Someone in the back must have been eating lunch, because the aromas of fajitas and salsa met Sam’s nostrils. Happy country music played softly in the background. Some fire-and-brimstone bass singer was going on about how he had to leave his buddies quickly because he had left his wife turned-on at home.
“Hi there, Miss Marlowe,” Cara MacRae greeted her as she emerged from the back office of her store. “How nice to see you again.”
Sam worked her way past the blush and cocoa satin display of French lingerie. Her gaze zeroed in on the transparent black lace she’d admired last week. “I remembered all your stock from when I was last here and thought maybe it was time to pay another visit.”
“Terrific! What can I show you?”
“Oh that line really caught my eye.” She waved a hand in the direction of a set of bra, panties, peignoir and wedge-heeled slippers to match. “I wonder if you have any of that in a size I can wear?”
“I pride myself on my selection, Samantha. Can I call you that?”
“Sam, please.”
“Sam it is.” Cara came right up to her and grinned. Shorter than Sam by a few inches, she was a stunning platinum blonde with the biggest brown eyes Sam had ever seen. Cara also had a few other things that were unique. Three men, brothers, who were her lovers. Most said the oldest, Jed, was her husband, but Sam had a feeling that the two younger men were as much her mates as he. She had seen all of them together Wednesday night at the Bravado Club up on the platform, making love to her, she to them. And the way they all looked at her and touched her, as if she belonged equally to each of them, made Sam’s blood sing in her veins.
Tie Me Down: 2 (Knights in Black Leather) Page 5