A Perfect Trifecta: Delta Heat, Book 3 (5 page)

Last night had left Aiden uneasy inside himself. He wasn’t ready to let anything or anyone get too deep. Passion was one thing. Longing and love were another. His disappointing past still felt like a raw, open wound.

Fuck, what was he doing?

If he had half a lick of sense, he’d end this now and walk. But he hadn’t been able to resist Jenn from the first time she’d submitted to the lash. He was already deeply fond of her, lusted after her, but had tried hard not to let it be more.

The little things she did for him without asking, the small kindnesses and the abandon with which she endured his every touch, pulled him closer and closer.

Now this. He’d been lax somehow, let her see inside him, and despite the not-so-pretty aspects of his personality, she hadn’t run screaming.

No, she’d brought him a boy. Well, a man really, but a
boy
willing to submit. Someone he could rough up and find sweet relief for some of the darker pleasures that sated the feral animal inside him.

When he’d dried his hands, he turned slowly. Jenn was still on her knees, her hands on her thighs, head bent. But her nipples were distended and dark. She knew it was her turn now.

“Craig, I want you to help me with Jenn.”

Craig lowered his arm from his face and stretched his neck to glance at Aiden. His expression was less tense, a little resigned to the fact he was going to wear an aching hard-on for a while longer.

“She needs punishment. We’re going to give it to her. She needs dominating, restraint. Don’t show her any gentleness. Strap her to the bench.”

Jenn remained still except for a little, fidgeting squirm. Likely she’d gushed at the word
punishment
.

Aiden almost smiled, but then she’d know she’d pleased him. He didn’t mind that she defied him and teased him to the point where he had to be a little heavy-handed. Brattiness was just one of her many charms.

While he gave her everything she’d earned, he’d watch Craig and find out if the other man really was the one who might complete them.

Chapter Four

Jenn could hardly stand it. The moment had arrived. Aiden’s voice was crisp, carefully neutral, which meant he was in his zone. Something that thrilled her to her toes. She’d never experienced a Dom like him before. So powerful and controlled. So determined to earn her full, unhesitating submission.

Mondo was the closest to Aiden she’d found, but she hadn’t formed any unbreakable bond with him. He’d been careful to keep their relationship friendly, teasing her, using her, but never allowing her too close. The handsome Latin had drawn her glance and every other hetero woman’s interest from the first time he’d stridden confidently into La Forge. It was hard to look away, because he was so dangerously beautiful with his naturally dark complexion, lean body, crow’s-wing black hair and sultry eyes.

Aiden’s arrival had been less noteworthy. Under the radar. But he wasn’t flashy like Mondo. Built like a bodybuilder, the sexy fireman wasn’t nearly as good-looking. His features were too strong. His jaw was wide, hard-edged. The slightly overlarge nose, with the bump in the center where it had been broken, made him more of a man’s man than someone a woman automatically branded as handsome. His gaze was too direct and watchful—intimidating to a woman who might want nothing more than a casual fling.

And Aiden wasn’t here simply to play. His needs were much more intense. Scary for someone not committed to the lifestyle.

She’d sensed the intensity the first time she’d offered to sub for him. He’d hesitated, his hard glance roaming her body, his eyes betraying suspicion. He’d wanted to be the one to control every meeting, every play. He’d read her in an instant.

But Jenn had been the manager at La Forge for three years, and her job was rather like a cruise director’s job, matching people together, finding the right partners, watching to ensure everyone played nice. She’d never seen anyone who was strong enough, substantive enough to play with Aiden—other than herself.

When he’d agreed, and they’d at last found the privacy to play, she’d been disappointed. Not that he wasn’t very, very good and hadn’t gotten her off in record time, but because he’d held so much back.

She’d intuited the reason very quickly. Aiden hadn’t the heart to hurt a woman. Even if she wanted it. And Jenn wanted it badly.

She’d known from a very early age that she had a high tolerance for pain. When she’d crashed her bike and broken her arm as a child, she’d cried—not howled or moaned.

The first time she realized that certain kinds of pain could actually get her off, she’d been with a boy who had more enthusiasm than skill. He’d smacked her bottom, bent her over and reamed her pussy, ending much too quickly, but the smack had been reward enough, and she’d been determined she’d get more.

There was something about the sound of it, the breathless fear of what was to come, that made her body hot. When she’d found a place, another club like La Forge, she’d felt as though she’d found heaven, and she’d dived headlong into the scene, learning the joys of a precise beating, the gushworthy pleasure of clothes pegs tightening her nipples.

Over time, she’d refined her interests, learning to love hot wax and fire play. When her nipples and clit were abused, rosy and swollen, her orgasms went through the roof. For a while, the physical pleasure had been enough.

Accepting the position of manager at La Forge had afforded her the luxury of picking and choosing her Doms. She’d played switch, taking instruction to learn how to deliver a lash so that she could understand better the psychology of the person who wanted to dominate. She’d wanted to know so that she could recognize the perfect partner when she found him.

Mondo had further refined her skills and desires, but his tender brand of aftercare left her with a deep-down desire to belong to someone. To have one person who knew her inside and out, who would cherish her and treat her gently in the in-between times.

Aiden was it for her. One look at his large, brawny body and sharp-edged jaw, and she’d been wet. Around him, she felt feminine, beautiful…small.

She’d moved in to his apartment just a month ago, and had hoped they’d learn to relax after they got adjusted to being in each other’s space. That he’d see how ready she was to take the next steps toward a more meaningful relationship. But Aiden still held himself apart from her.

Almost desperate to figure out a way to breach his hard shell, she’d looked outside herself. To the other members of the club, trying to find someone who would strike a spark.

She’d liked Craig from the start. Liked his lazy charm, his sexy smile. That he also loved pain got her thinking. On a whim, she’d invited Aiden to watch last night’s scene.

The instant hardening of his body as he’d watched Craig’s performance had solidified her determination to make this work.

Just now, listening to the men’s interaction, watching from the corner of her eye as Aiden lubed Craig, using his Dom prowess to challenge the other man into willing submission, she’d known theirs could be a very special bond. She only hoped there’d be room left for her once they navigated the sex and learned to trust each other with their hearts.

Craig crossed to her and then held out his hand, palm up. Without a word, she placed hers inside and let him help her stand. He wrapped his fingers around hers, warming them as he pulled her around the back of the spanking bench.

“Get into position,” he said, his voice a sensual rumble.

Jenn knelt on a padded bench and lowered her torso over the molded platform that ended just beneath her breasts. She stayed silent, hanging her head as Craig leaned down to wrap Velcro bonds around one wrist, then walked around to do the same to the other wrist. She pulled at the bonds, just a slight show of insurrection, but one she knew Aiden’s keen glance wouldn’t miss.

When Craig came behind her, she drew a deep breath as he nudged her knees wider apart, exposing her feminine parts and opening the halves of her bottom.

“So pretty,” he murmured. “I’ve always liked your pussy.” He trailed a finger along one side of her outer labia. “Always moist. Lickable.”

The sound of him popping his finger into his mouth and sucking made her smile. Already he was teasing her. She could imagine the small, masculine smile he wore. It had to be driving Aiden crazy.

The sounds of booted heels striding toward the cabinet quickened her heartbeats. Aiden would select the first implement. What would it be?

“Warm her ass.”

Her eyelids dipped, endorphins already kicking in. Just the promise of a luscious beating was all it took to get her there.

A broad palm rubbed one buttock then drew away. The sound of air passing through the flanges of a flogger clued her the moment before the soft suede strands landed on her cheek. Not that she was disappointed they’d started with a gentle spanking. The ramping up toward something harsher was a seduction all by itself.

The strands struck then drew slowly off her skin—a spank and a caress in one movement. The strokes grew longer, more rhythmic. She imagined Craig standing behind her, his arm moving in a side-to-side motion, shifting his feet rather than interrupting the strokes to deliver slaps to different parts of her bottom and thighs.

For several long minutes, Craig continued, warming her skin, lulling her into a relaxed, hypnotic state. She rubbed her belly on the platform, lifted her bottom and gave a happy moan. This was bliss. But only the beginning. She could be patient, knowing more was to come.

At last the gentle, swishing strokes ended. Craig roamed his hand over her bottom. “Such a pretty pink.”

“But flogging’s not a punishment. Not for her.”

Aiden’s neutral tone sent a thrill through her body. A trickle of excitement oozed down the inside of her right thigh, where a fingertip skimmed it, sucked it.

“She’s a beautiful woman,” Craig said softly.

“She’s mine.”

She wondered at the exchange and what their expressions would have revealed.

Aiden’s heavier tread approached her from behind. Fingers parted her folds and thrust inside to give a swirl. “Warm, but a long way from being ready.”

The words, so clinical and dry, and their terse delivery annoyed her this time. She arched her neck to look behind her and found Aiden staring right back.

“Is there something you wanted to say, little sub?”

She shook her head but gave him a slight glare.

One corner of his mouth edged upward. He reached behind him, drawing something from his back pocket. The tube of lubricant.

She jerked her head forward again, her thighs and pussy tensing.

When cool gel was rubbed around her asshole, she couldn’t help but betray her excitement with a shiver. When his thick digit pushed gently inside, she resisted, purposely tightening around him because she knew he’d take it as disrespectful.

The finger dug more deeply, twisting, smoothing lube around her entrance, the tunneling digit touching the wall separating it from her feminine channel. The nerves there shot darts of electric pulses. And her pussy clasped, making a nasty, wet sound.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Aiden murmured. “Me taking your tight little hole while Craig watches. But this isn’t about giving you pleasure, sweetness.”

Jenn groaned and lowered her head. He worked her with his finger, easing her into compliance. Then he pulled free and something else pushed against her entrance. Something without give…and cold. A plug.

The deeper it came, the more she had to concentrate to keep from clamping around it. From the tip, the circumference widened more and more. God, he hadn’t chosen something small. Her breaths grew ragged and noisy, but the moment the widest part passed her sphincter and the plug abruptly narrowed, she breathed deeply, relieved.

A hard palm smoothed over her bottom. Aiden’s. “Now use this.”

So deeply aroused her mind was getting sluggish, she couldn’t concentrate on the sounds. Didn’t know what they were doing. Couldn’t anticipate.

A dull thud rocked her bottom.
A paddle.
“Yes!” she blurted, then bit her lip to keep from giving the Dom more evidence she loved his choice. He might decide it wasn’t
punishment
. Although the steady trickle of fluid from her body was proof enough, they had a game to play right now.

Smack. Smack.
The strokes were delivered again at even intervals, but so quickly she couldn’t prepare her mind. Her body jolted, her breasts jiggled, the tips tightening—she wanted to beg for a clamp or a clothespin.

When her bottom was hot, the smacks landed on her thighs. She widened her stance as far as she could, hoping a blow would land on her pussy, but Craig was careful, teasing her with slaps that drew nearer and nearer but never touched her swollen lips.

Black leather entered her vision. Aiden crouched in front of her. Another blow made her wince, and he studied her face. She fought to keep pleasure from slackening her jaw.

“Count,” he said, his tone even.

“One. Two. Three.” Her voice was strained and high. The strikes grew harder, sharper. She drew a hissing breath between her clenched jaws, her gaze now pleading.
Please, please,
she begged silently between counts. The punishment had gone on too long. She was too aroused. Ready to scream.