“Very well, then.” Tess laughed. “Lovely to meet you. Therese Lesange. But please call me Tess.”
“As they say where I come from, whatever the lady wants.”
Her grin widened, emphasizing the rosy hue spreading across her cheeks. Dan was damn near mesmerized by it. That same color filled her breasts when she was aroused in all the right ways, on the brink of begging for more. Dan wondered if they were flushing like that even now, even subconsciously, as a result of Levi’s effortless charm.
Fuck.
The crackers turned in his stomach. He locked his teeth in time to prevent the acid from brimming into a snarl at his friend, before coming up with a better reprisal. “I believe what the lady really wants is a glass of good Merlot.”
“Ooooo.” Tess grabbed his forearm. “Yes, please.”
Damn.
Damn.
One touch. A tiny one, at that. Like his bloodstream knew the goddamn difference. Now that every platelet felt like a rocket, it was agony to fight off the craving to kiss her senseless. He settled for lifting her hand and playfully bussing the back. “As they say where
I
come from, whatever the lady
really
wants.”
Levi tossed a wry glance. “Well played, asshat.”
“Thanks, cock waffle.”
Bella giggled. “Touché once more…asshat.”
He answered that with narrowed eyes. “You know, I was just going to ask what
you’d
like from the bar, too.”
“Handled,” Levi cut in. “
I
know what the lady likes in her deliveries.”
“Oh, hell.” Bella rolled her eyes. “Down, boys. There are enough trees in the park for everyone to pee on, okay?”
Dan cocked his head. “Your girl is begging for a very bright ass, Cowell.”
“A matter upon which we finally agree,” Levi replied.
Bella snorted at them both while linking arms with Tess. “Okay, honey.
Your
story has to be infinitely more interesting than this.”
Dan could read a fireball set-up when he heard it but already forgave Bella, able to light up mirth in Tess that he’d sorely been missing. Still, she echoed, “Story? I don’t understand.”
Bella jerked her head toward Dan. “We called
yesterday
to tell this bozo we’d decided to extend the holiday weekend into a Vegas vay-cay. Even if he dialed your digits next, and I assume he did, that only gave you twenty-four hours to pull all this together. Sooooo…” Her eyes glowed like dark honey. “I’m thinking magic elves, a few shirtless slave boys, or a fairy godmother.”
“
No
shirtless slaves.” Levi’s gaze changed, as well—to the shade of ink.
“Magic elves might be just as dangerous,” Dan rejoined.
“Fairy godmother it is,” Tess quipped. “No complaints here. I’ll sure as hell put her sparkly ass to work on a few miracles.”
Levi and Bella burst with laughs. Dan didn’t join them. Couldn’t, not even in feigned form—not when Tess’s breezy tone was already the lie here. Didn’t his friends see it? The shadows of sadness in her eyes. The taut crimps at the corners of her smile. The yearning that gripped her whole posture with every stare she directed at the two of them…the girl who’d been taken to the party but abandoned by her date.
Dammit
.
He’d been so thankful when Levi called about their impromptu visit, hoping that calling Tess for her help would keep her too busy for sub drop. It worked, at least for a little while. Tess had taken the afternoon off work, arriving just after lunch to take over the kitchen, chopping and boiling and cooking things she refused to let him see “until the perfect time.” Now, he wondered if
she’d
make it to that moment.
Party. Girl in the corner. Still looking for her date.
Searching for
his
damn alter-ego.
Dickwad. Dickwad. Dickwad.
“Well, shit,” Bella muttered. She also wasn’t fooled by Tess’s façade. The woman pulled her into one of those “side hugs” only a girlfriend or a gay bestie could get away with. “Does that Merlot needs a chaser of girl talk, sweetie?”
Tess’s pause gave Dan ample opportunity to envy Bella for where she stood and he didn’t. He’d steered clear of anything remotely physical with Tess today, acknowledging the tightrope his own composure already treaded. Hands on Lesange? It’d be only the beginning of his ready and willing fall from that height. The woman’s fingertips on his forearm were the impulse for half a hard-on; God only knew what a whole hug would tempt him toward. And if his lips touched hers again, even as Dan, there’d be no holding back the words that would spill from him along with the passion.
My sweet rose. My hot, sweet subbie. My dear one…
Right. And
that
would go over so well with her now.
“Can I just trade the Merlot for the godmother and the miracle?” she finally mumbled to Bella. The wobble in her voice drove a fist to Dan’s middle. He cleared his throat to conceal the reaction.
Bella wasn’t so subtle about hers.
“Yikes on a stick, Li’l T. What happ—” She stopped short after brushing Tess’s hair off her face. Then gasped, pulling back the hair more—to expose the bite marks on Tess’s neck to them all.
“Whoa,” Levi uttered.
“Hell,” Tess rasped.
Dan coughed again. No way to avoid the memories now—all the images that replayed exactly how she’d come by those bruises. With his teeth and tongue against her neck, one finger had wielded that wicked vibe on her clit. His cock, pressed against her ass, had been screaming for freedom. His mind and muscles and skin and nerves had been clamoring for the completion of fucking her…
No. Not just fucking her.
More than that.
So much more.
A “more” he couldn’t acknowledge. Couldn’t dare even think about.
Levi cocked his head, staring at the bruises with something nearing admiration. “What an interesting ice breaker.”
Bella rolled her eyes but gazed at the passion marks with equal longing. “I hope to hell you got those the fun way, girlfriend.”
To his relief, Tess smiled—sort of. Her lips tilted enough to be convincing now, as she offered, “If ‘fun’ is part of describing the best night of one’s life, then I guess it was fun.”
Bella hauled her into another hug. “Ohhhh sweetie, that’s awesome! Errr, that’s…awesome? Tess?”
She asked it as Tess returned the embrace with fierce force, turning the air into a soup of I’m-about-to-bawl tension. Bella pushed her purse off onto Levi before yanking her friend in tighter.
Shit. Hell. Fuck
.
With the words a cloud bank on his chest, Dan stared toward Levi, who was clearly thinking the same thing—with the I-have-no-idea-what’s-happening-but-now-I’m-holding-a-purse modification.
“Sweetie,” Bella crooned. “Oh,
sweetie
; what is it? What’s wrong? If it was the best night of your life—” Tess’s first sob cut her short. “Ohhhh, dear. Well gosh, did he feel the same way? Surely he did, right?”
“I—I don’t know.” Her face stole his heart—then broke it. With lips twisted, nose pink, and gaze filled with agony, she was still every one of his dreams come to life, followed by every nightmare he dreaded inducing. His hand lifted toward her, drawn by a force beyond his control, needing to comfort her. At the last second he ripped it back, fingers curling into a fist.
Outstanding
. The woman of his dreams was falling apart before his eyes, and he was brushing up for a melodrama audition. Trouble was, he had the wrong script. The unredeemable villain was the mustache twirler, not the fist-in-the-air Dudley Do-Right. He’d given up all privileges to Dudley the second he walked up to her in that mask last Friday.
“You don’t know?” Bella echoed. “Why? Didn’t he tell you?”
Tess blushed. Yeah, right there, staring at her friend with the collar around her neck and the Master at her back—and it was fucking adorable. Dan had to fist his other hand.
“I guess he did,” she finally replied. “In his own way, I suppose.” She grabbed a strand of hair, which she was wearing straight and half-up tonight, and nervously twirled it. “I met him…at a club.”
“A club.” Bella crunched a frown, almost making it a question.
“A
club
?”
Somehow, Levi’s emphasis clarified it. “Oh!” Bella exclaimed. “A
club
. Holy shit, Tess. Really?”
“Really.” She wobbled out a laugh. “I’ve been…curious…about something more intense, for a while now. And Dan’s been awesome about answering my questions, helping me learn. I also read a lot of books.”
Levi’s jaw tightened. “Which ones?”
Dan snorted and filled in, “All of them.”
“Dammit.”
“No kidding.”
Bella rolled her eyes again. “Can you two chill? She’s not taking the LSAT of BDSM. Be
happy
. Our li’l T met a Dom—and likes him!”
Tess shook her head, eyes pooling with heavier tears. “And doesn’t even know him, sweetie.”
“Huh?”
“Shit,” she muttered, lips trembling. She looked over at Dan, face pleading with him for strength. Talk about a new definition of conflict. While his spirit was a skyscraper of joy at being her go-to for the fortitude, his soul was a tenement of shame.
“I’m right here, ruby. It’s okay.” His nod of encouragement was easy but adding an assuring smile—well, attempting to—logged him back into stupidity mode. Not the biggest commercial for credibility, if he correctly read the quirks at the edges of Levi’s stare.
Dammit.
How much of this shit could he realistically keep holding back? It was torture not to touch her…not to rip her from Bella’s embrace, clutch her tight to his chest, and whisper
his
words of tenderness to her. To hear her sighs of surrender as she took them in, absorbing his comfort…
Comfort she needs because of
you
, asswipe. Remember that part
?
Tess turned back to Bella. Closed her eyes through a deep breath. “It just happened, I guess,” she confessed. “Okay, maybe it didn’t just ‘happen.’ I mean, I
wanted
it to, but just never thought it would be so—” She sighed in a way Dan hadn’t seen in months, since the night she’d forced him to watch some animated “masterpiece” with a princess swooning over some Dudley on a horse as big as a house. “It was so perfect,” she finally whispered. “And intense. And magical. And wonderful.”
“Ohhhh.” Bella sighed, too. “Yes!”
“And safe?” Levi made the demand work despite the bright blue handbag dangling off his elbow. “Sane? Consensual?”
Of course it was.
Before he knew it, the thought manifested into a snarl off Dan’s lips, too.
Fuck
. He rushed to amend, “You think I’d advise her otherwise?”
“He followed all the essentials,” Tess assured them—before a wistful smile snuck across her lips. “Went by the books—all of them. As for everything beyond that…”
Bella grabbed both her hands. “Yeah? Don’t leave a girlfriend hanging, sweetie.”
Tess cocked her head. “Maybe it was just the allure of the mask.”
“The
mask
? You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Not even my imagination is that good.” She let her head fall fully back. “And ohhh God, Bel…it was
good
. No. Better than that. There were times…when I couldn’t see the color in his eyes at all, just these glittering lights from behind the mask…then just knew exactly how wicked he was going to be with me…” She glanced at Dan and Levi like a teen busted for breaking curfew. “Errr…TMI?”
“A little,” Levi growled.
“Just,” Dan concurred—or at least appeared to. Truth? Her moments of “TMI” were the few respites of heaven in this hell of living with the greatest lie he’d ever told. It became bearable when he watched the memories take over her face, saw the bliss wind through her body, heard the joy of submissiveness in her voice. Another Dom would now be the one taking care of her—he had no doubt she’d be quickly collared as the treasure she was—but he’d find solace in knowing he’d set her off in the right direction. It was his only choice.
“Sorry,” Tess offered to all of them. “But it
was
incredible.” She slipped her hands from Bella’s grip. “No matter what you must be thinking right now.”
The little fireball shot a dark frown. “What I must be thinking? Hmmm. You know the score that well, do you?”
“Come
on
,” Tess countered. “Bella, I didn’t even know his name. Granted, he came with high credentials, but I took to calling him ‘Sir Sexy.’ And he wore a damn
mask.
”
Her friend’s lips played into a smirk. “All sounds pretty hot to me. ‘Sir Sexy,’ huh? Did he fully earn it?”
“Are you listening to me?” Tess leaned over, furiously whispering, “I let him get kinky with me, Bel. I mean,
really
kinky.
Twice.
”
“And were you safe about it? Condoms? Lube where necessary?”
Tess’s new blush was her most gorgeous of all. “Of course.”
“So what’s the issue?”
“I—well—”
Bella wiggled her shoulders and flashed an impish grin. “Just tell me when you’re scheduled for a three-peat so I can vid-call your ass afterward.”
“We’re not.”
“What? Why?”
“Not meant to be, I guess.”
Every syllable of it was soaked in how deeply she disbelieved it—and how it crushed her to say it. Dan braced himself for the impact to his own gut. Plummeting from heaven to hell in less than ten seconds;
there
was something he could cross off the bucket list. Now he just had to add the burning fires of his own stupid mistakes. The new weight in Tess’s eyes told him the ordeal wasn’t far off.
“The mask,” she went on; “I think there was a distinct reason for it. He has secrets, and they aren’t easy ones. I saw that much in him.” She swallowed hard, kicked at the floor, and waved a dismissive hand. “Whatever, right? It was amazing, and I’m thankful my first experience was so awesome, but it’s time to move on.” Her lips flattened to white lines, betraying how she fought like hell against more tears. “But maybe that’s easier said than done,” she rasped.
Bella moaned in commiseration. Twisted their fingers together again. “Oh, Li’l T. I’m sorry. This sucks.”
Tess dipped her head, trying to snuffle discreetly. “Now you understand why I’m such a huge mess.”