Cash snarled. Slowly, he turned to face her. Underneath his shag-style crimped brown hair were handsome features. Pretty hazel eyes stared back at her.
The eyes were the deal breaker. Anyone could look into those hollow circles and see the instability, the quiet madness.
“Did I harm you, Trixie?”
“No,” she replied. “You didn’t.”
“Did I frighten you?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, you did scare me.”
“How?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “How did I make you feel unsafe?”
Trixie swallowed. Was he playing with her or was he sincere? Taking a chance on the latter, she said, “You can’t enter someone’s home uninvited, Mr. Whitehead.”
“And I entered your home?”
“No, but—”
“I entered a public building.” He studied her with a more fixated gaze. “One would think a man wouldn’t be arrested for entering a friend’s place of business.”
“It was what you said, Mr. Whitehead,” Trixie explained. “Your words implied you had perversion in mind.”
“You have heard of sarcastic wit. Have you not?”
“You expect me to believe when you said, ‘I see you’re dressed and ready for our first date’ that you were joking?”
“He’s toying with you,” Brock said, glaring at Cash.
“I may be, Mr. Sheldon,” he said, turning his head the other way. When he faced them again, he added, “I guess we’ll never know.”
“Brock, you need to let me have a minute,” Trixie said, pointing to Mitch and Rory, who were standing with several officers a few feet from the car.
Brock thinned his lips.
“I rarely ask for much,” she said, willing him to give her a minute but realizing if he granted even one, he’d start the clock at sixty seconds and refuse her any leeway.
Brock stalked away and Trixie turned back to Cash. “I’d like to help you.”
“Help me?” He laughed. “Do you know what I am, Mrs. Trixie Cartwell Sheldon?”
She took a moment to gather her thoughts. Then, she said, “Mitch saw some good in you. If you were friends with Mitch, I have a feeling you and I could’ve been friends as well.”
“Do you?” he asked, chuckling. “Do you think we could’ve been close friends?”
“I…well, I don’t know.”
“Let me ask you something, Mrs. Trixie Cartwell Sheldon.” He slid across the seat and leaned to the window, turning his face up to the parted glass. “If we had been friends, for the sake of conversation, how would we have cultivated that friendship?”
“I don’t understand what you’re asking me.”
“Would you have invited me to your home?”
“Probably.”
“Would you have gone on outings with me and Mitch?”
“Why sure. Like I said, Mitch’s friends would’ve been my friends, too.”
A pure evil smile tilted his lips in a lopsided smile. “Yes, you said that indeed.” He glanced at the men behind her and then leaned closer. “Would you fear me then, Trixie?”
“Why would you want me to fear you?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said, facing forward once more.
“I’m trying,” she said. “Don’t you see? I’m trying to help you here. I’m handing you a rope and hoping you take hold of it and help me save you.”
He laughed aloud. “Ah, but, sweet baby mama, you haven’t a clue. The rope you’re handing me is the very one I would use to tie and confine you. Then I would gag you. Bind you. Then, my sweet Trixie Cartwell Sheldon, I would fuck you. I would come all over you and fuck you again. I would make our loving so brutal, so painful, that you would never want a man to touch you again.”
Stunned, Trixie slowly backed away from the car. “I don’t understand.”
He snickered. “You really are a stupid girl.”
Mitch approached then. “Trixie, is everything all right?”
“Fine,” she replied, unable to stop the violent tremors rocking through her body.
“What’d you say to her?” Mitch demanded, stalking the car.
Cash focused on the seat in front of him. “I simply explained why that proverbial rope of hers wouldn’t save me.”
Mitch glanced at Trixie. “What’d he say?”
“It’s unimportant,” she replied, refusing to grant Cash what he apparently wanted most.
If he had hoped to instill fear in her men, he would need to find another way. She wouldn’t assume the role of messenger.
“Good-bye, Mr. Whitehead,” she said, tapping the top of the car.
“Farewell, Trixie,” he said, flashing a wide smile and plenty of teeth. “We will meet again.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Brock said, joining them.
Cash looked at him as if he were viewing him with true pity. “Mr. Sheldon, you won’t see me coming. You won’t hear me when I sneak up on you in the middle of the night. When I’m free again, I will come back for her.” He addressed Mitch directly then. “There isn’t a thing any of you can do to stop me. Remember, I expect my friends to share.” He released a dramatic sigh. “And how many times do I have to tell you? Mitch and I are friends.”
Trixie went down by the lake to make a few phone calls while Brock, Rory, and Mitch stayed behind to answer a few questions. Before she took a seat on the bank, she couldn’t help but notice her fellows.
Each man took a defensive stance. A stranger could’ve taken one glance at them and known by their rigid bodies—they weren’t a force to be challenged.
She took a seat where they could see her and called home. After the first ring, her mother answered. “Trixie, is that you?”
“It’s me, Momma.”
“Oh my God, hang on.” Static filled the line. “Kane! Braden! Evan! Everybody! It’s Trixie! I have her on the phone right now!” A second later, she returned to the phone. “Trixie, I have you on speaker. We’re all here.”
“I’m fine, everyone.”
“You had us worried,” Dad Evan said.
Daddy Kane said, “I don’t know what is wrong with that damned Mitch. Can’t he find any normal friends?”
“Daddy Kane…”
“Every single time I hear that boy’s name, it’s associated with some kind of threat on your life,” Daddy Kane continued.
“That’s not true.”
“Baby girl”—her mother took control of the conversation once more—“how are you really? Are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”
“He didn’t lay a hand on me.” She shivered as she thought of Cash’s parting words.
“The McKays are here,” her mother said. “Vicky, Joshua, Patrick, and Aspen are right here.”
She smiled. “I’m glad my godparents were on the ball.”
“Always,” Joshua said.
“Thank you. Thank you all.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie,” Vicky said. “We love you.”
“I love each of you, too,” she said. “Where are my babies?”
“Where do you think they are?” her mother asked. “Your sister hasn’t shared the babysitting duties.”
“I’m sure Ansley has had plenty of help.”
Kane laughed. “Oh yeah, but Caz has given Tristan quite a complex.”
“Everything is still his fault, huh?”
“Right down to Winter’s dirty diapers,” her mother said.
“Oh no,” Trixie said, snickering. “What am I going to do with him?”
“A spanking every now and then wouldn’t hurt him,” Daddy Kane suggested.
“You’ll have to take that up with Brock,” Trixie said.
“Humph,” Daddy Kane muttered. “He doesn’t have a problem spanking your ass. He shouldn’t have a problem keeping his children in line.”
“Dad!”
Everyone laughed. When the line quieted, Trixie said, “Speaking of Brock, he’s walking this way. I’ll talk to the guys, but we’ll probably be home tomorrow.”
“Sounds great,” Daddy Kane said. “I never have liked it when my family is so far away.”
“Me either,” Trixie admitted softly. “Love you all. Talk to you soon.”
Brock pulled her to her feet as soon as she disconnected the line. Bracketing his arms around her middle, he nuzzled her ear and said, “I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too,
Sir
.”
His body went rigid. He drew her closer to his chest and peered around her head. “Trixie, if you want to save the Domination and submission for behind closed doors
and
tone it down a bit, I’d understand.”
“You didn’t enjoy me earlier?”
He gave her a spin and turned her to face him. Framing her cheeks, he said, “Are you kidding me? I’ve never enjoyed you more.”
“Then don’t question my feelings because I’m fine.”
“Even after everything you’ve been through today?”
“Especially then,” she whispered, resting her head on his chest. “I’ve never felt more loved, more cherished, or more valued as a woman.”
He froze.
“You’re reading between the lines that aren’t there.”
He chuckled. “You’re right.”
“I usually am,” she said, standing on her tiptoes and leaving a peck upon his lips. “Don’t forget it.”
“That’s a given,” he said, a grin lifting his lips. “You tell me enough to make sure it’s embedded in my head.”
“I’m starving,” Mitch said, flinging open the refrigerator and rubbernecking beyond the beer and sodas to see what Bertie might have left for them.
“I saw a casserole in the freezer,” Trixie said. “Assuming it hasn’t been on ice since the last time we were here, I could warm it up for us.”
“Bertie said she left a hamburger casserole. Bake on three-fifty for an hour.” He opened the freezer and retrieved the large baking pan. “If I remember correctly, it’s better than sex.”
“Hey now,” Trixie said, squeezing by him to start the oven. “You need to add a sidebar to that comment. Maybe something like, ‘I would’ve agreed before I met you’ or any ole compliment might do.”
Mitch bracketed his arms around her waist and lifted her to him. “What kind of praise would you like to hear?”
He set her on the breakfast bar and took a step back. A heated look of desire washed across her expression. God, he loved that.
“Tell me, sub. Tell me what you like to hear.” He eyed those pretty nipples hardening under her shirt and his cock twitched in his slacks.
She glanced down at his pants. “I saw that.”
“Look at my eyes, Trixie,” he said carefully.
Brock and Rory took their respective seats on barstools behind her. Brock pinched her ass and she flinched but she didn’t turn. Instead, that hazy gaze became desire filled, her eyes drooping, lowering almost instinctively once again.
“Lift your head, sub,” Mitch said, moistening his lips. “Tell me about those compliments.”
“I like it when you tell me I’m tight,” she admitted.
“And you are,” Mitch assured her. “Go on.”
“I love it when you tell me my nipples look like diamonds.”
“Hmm,” he said, reaching beyond his waistband and tugging at his cock. “Damn right they do.”
She placed her palms on either side of her hips and scooted further back on the counter. “I enjoy fingering myself for you.”
“Why is that?” he asked, jerking his cock with a firm hand.
“It’s the way you watch me. It’s the way each of you watch me,” she said, glancing over her shoulder and shooting Rory a wink.
“Hmm hmm,” he muttered, leaving his cock to twitch and stretch without further manual stimulation.
“What else, sub?” Brock encouraged her this time. “What other praise do you like to receive?”
She turned halfway and said, “I love it when you tell me I’m beautiful.”
“And sexy?” Mitch suggested, deliberately drawing her focus back to him.
“Yes, definitely.”
Mitch stepped forward. “If I gave you one reward right now, what would it be?”
Trixie visibly trembled. Chill bumps peppered her arms. “I’d like to pleasure myself in front of you.”
“You can,” he said, watching as she wasted no time in spreading her legs.
He stepped between them and brushed his knuckles against the underside of her jaw. “But first I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” she whispered, gaping at his mouth.
“I need you to tell me what Cash said to you that upset you so. We need to know, Trixie.”
She bowed her head. “It’s not important.”
“Sub, you will tell us.” Mitch pushed her hair over her shoulders. “We have to know.”
“He’s right, Trix,” Rory said. “We’re willing to wait you out on this one. Considering the day we’ve had, wouldn’t it be more enjoyable if we shared rewards rather than dished out punishments?”
When she didn’t respond, Mitch pushed her legs together and held her knees firmly in place. “This isn’t open for negotiation.”
Then he turned to the stove area and opened the oven. Placing the casserole inside, he set the timer and returned to stand in front of her. “Trust is important in every Domination-submission relationship. Cash recognizes what I am. He knows how much I value trust, Trixie. If he said something to you that he thinks you will keep buried inside, he wins. Don’t you see that?”