The Men With the Golden Cuffs (37 page)

Jake was a Dom. Adam was invested in the lifestyle. What if she could become their sub? They could come together for play. She could keep them in some small way.

“Yes, Sir. It’s what I always wanted. I went looking for a Dom, if you remember.” Serena kept her voice carefully controlled. “My life has been out of control for some time. I think I need this. I know I would like to try it.”

“And if I say no? If I won’t top you?” Jake practically growled the question.

If he wouldn’t, she would probably just shut down that part of herself or keep it where she should have all along—deep in her books. Words couldn’t hurt her. She simply shrugged. “Then there’s no point in me being here, Sir. You should take me home.”

Adam laughed, a bitter little sound. “Well, I can see I’m not needed here. I thought she was interested in ménage, but she seems to only want a Dom.”

Why did he have to be so fucking sensitive? Most guys would follow her around and wait for a chance to shove his dick in, but no, Adam had to make a scene. Of course, most guys wouldn’t wake up every morning, make her coffee and make sure her schedule was perfectly detailed and ready. He’d actually laid out the right clothes for her activities the last few days. She didn’t have to think about the little things with Adam around. But she did have to deal with his ego.

“I would prefer two Doms.”

“I’m not a Dom, Serena.”

“Really? Because you seem to have control of my day. You control my schedule, my clothes, what I eat and when I eat it.” He’d taken over just about everything, and her life was so much better for it. He’d even started feeding her dog. “I would prefer if you stayed, Sir. I am interested in ménage. From an intellectual viewpoint.”

Adam’s boots came into view. And then she hissed a little as he tugged on her hair, forcing her to face up to him. “Intellectual? You’re full of shit, sweetheart, and if I thought for a second that you weren’t lying to yourself and to both of us, I would walk away. But I happen to have a ton of frustration, and it would help me enormously to take it out on your sweet ass. I might not have Dom rights in this club, but don’t you fucking think for a second that I can’t top you. Now get on your feet.”

Serena rose, Adam’s hand on her arm, supporting her. That was what he’d become, her support, while Jacob was the bulwark against all the bad things that could come her way.

Except for just a minute, he’d been the bad thing.

Fuck all
. She was so damn torn. Still, she couldn’t help herself. They called and she followed.

“Take off your shirt.” Jake crossed his arms over his chest.

She felt the world tilt just a little. “What?”

His eyes narrowed. “I said take off your shirt. I’m your Dom. I want to see your breasts. I want to show them off because in this club, those tits belong to me. I think they’re beautiful, and I want to see them. So take off your shirt or use your safeword and we’ll go home.”

He was pushing her, and she wasn’t going to take it. Well, not that way. She wasn’t going to let him shove her away. She remained mulishly silent, but she pulled at the bottom of her tank top. It was just some skin. Every woman in the place had breasts. It wasn’t anything that hadn’t been seen a million times before.

With shaking hands, she passed Jake her shirt. Her breasts were exposed, the nipples tightening in the cool air of the club.

“Better.” Jake turned her to Adam. “Should we start her punishment now?”

It hadn’t already started? Ian walked by, his eyes trailing toward her. He was looking at her breasts. He was a magnificent specimen of a man who could likely get any woman he wanted, and he was looking right at her breasts. The barest hint of a smile turned those gorgeously sculpted lips up and then he winked at her as he strode by.

Holy crap. She was half naked and it actually felt sexy. An ache started, low in her gut.

Yes, this was a little bit of torture, but she felt more alive than she had in days.

Adam stared down at her, ignoring everything else around him. His hands went to his pockets. He came out with something she knew well, but not from actual experience. Nipple clamps. Two tweezer clamps connected by a little chain. Adam dropped to his knees, handing Jake the clamps. He leaned forward and sucked a nipple into his mouth.

Serena gasped. She started to stumble, but Jake was behind her, his strong arms holding her up.

“You let him get you ready. Don’t fight him. Don’t you fucking fight your Dom.” Jake’s breath was hot on her ear.

And Adam’s tongue tortured her nipple. He sucked and bit and laved it with affection, the sensation going straight to her pussy. She fought to stay still. It was so hard, but she loved this. She was surrounded by them, their heat sinking into her skin.

Adam didn’t let up. He ravished her nipples, one after another. People walked by, and Serena didn’t care. Adam’s arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close while Jake balanced her. She could feel Jake’s erection nestled against the cheeks of her ass. She let her head fall back against his chest as Adam switched nipples. He teased one with his tongue while rolling the other with his thumb and forefinger.

And then he pulled back, looking at his handiwork. Her nipples strained toward him, standing straight up at attention. He held his hand out, and Jake passed him the clamps.

She whimpered a little as Adam attached them, carefully turning the screw.

“They’re barely tight enough to stay on.” Adam touched the chain that hung between her breasts. “You’ll be wearing these for a while, so I can’t get them too tight. Yet. But I’ll work you up to a real burn. Jake, we’re going to need a plug and a little privacy. I’m not done decorating this sub.”

“I have just what we need.” Jake kissed the nape of her neck. “I ordered a privacy room and had it stocked.”

She was utterly out of breath. “I thought we were going to watch Ian.”

Jake growled a little. “I think we’ve seen enough from our team tonight. You can become acquainted with the whip at a later date. Tonight, you’re going to get the crop.”

She had to force herself to breath. The idea of Jacob’s crop hitting the flesh of her ass made her heart pound.

“You’re being punished for more than just kissing Liam.” Adam’s hands were on the chain that ran between her nipples. The pressure was very light, barely there. She wondered when they would turn the screw again. When Adam turned the screws on her clamps, would her nipples pool with blood and become deeply sensitive?

She’d written the scene so many times, but now it was real. Now it was visceral. They owned her body. It was a deep exchange that went beyond sex. It was about far more than a mere orgasm. It was about bonding. It was about being able to trust and depend on another.

She wanted that so badly. She couldn’t have it in the real world, couldn’t trust it, but she could pretend it was real here. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could keep the relationship where it should have been all along. A D/s relationship. A mentorship of sorts. No promises beyond the ones they made in a contract.

Jake pulled a collar out of his pocket. He must have had it on his person or kept it in his locker. It was a leather collar, thin and feminine, with a delicate silver ring on the front. He held it out, showing it off before he nodded to Adam.

Adam crowded her from behind, his thick erection rubbing against her backside. She shivered a little as he gathered her hair and held it up. With a solemn formality, he clasped the collar around her neck.

“It’s just a training collar. You can relax. It’s not a commitment. You don’t seem to want that.”

She wanted it more than anything. She just knew how much it meant. Doyle had committed. Her father had committed. Both had walked away when it became easier to do so than to stay. She knew she could be difficult. She lived in her head most of the time. It had been that way since she was a child. She could stop writing, but she couldn’t stop those voices in her head. Doyle had never understood that her inner life didn’t take away from her care for the outside world. It was just a part of her.

Jake and Adam would get tired of her remoteness in the end.

“I don’t want it. I just want the training.” The words sounded flat to her own ears, but he seemed to require an answer.

“If all you want is some real-life experience for those books of yours, then you shall have it.” He turned, every muscle rigid. “Follow. Don’t look the other Doms in the eye. It’s rude. Keep your head down and don’t speak unless you’re directed to. Any infraction will cost your ass five swats. I’ll pull your skirt up and spank you publically. If you aren’t ready for that, I would behave.”

Adam’s face was a careful blank as he took her elbow and started to walk her into the dungeon. The privacy rooms were to the side, but Jake walked past them, his long legs eating the distance between the entryway and the raised stage where a pretty sub with long, black hair was being strapped to a St. Andrew’s cross. Her naked flesh was on full display, her shoulders relaxed as she allowed Ian to tighten the cinches at her wrists and ankles.

A second woman was already secured. She was a brunette with a curvy backside. Her head was thrown back as though simply waiting for her punishment to begin. There was a hushed air of expectancy that ran through the dungeon. A small crowd stood, almost all in some sort of fet wear. Serena took it all in. There was enough leather to start a mega store. Most of the women had on skirts and bustiers, but several wore nothing at all. There were Doms and Dommes with their submissives, both male and female.

What were they like in their everyday lives? Her mind raced with the possibilities. Were they powerful in their own ways, each seeking a bit of peace that came with submission? Did they crave it because the stresses of responsibility ate away at their souls? Or were they like her? Did they need permission to let go, to trust in any circumstance?

“She’s gone again.” Adam looked down at her, a ghost of a smile on his face.

Yes, she’d done it again. “I apologize.”

“I wasn’t mad,” Adam said, his hand coming out to sweep against her cheek. “I just wish I knew where you went. I envy you.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a whole other world in your head. I’ve been reading your books. I’m not a huge romance fan, but I know a good story when I read it. I know that you sink into every book. In that head of yours you’ve already lived a hundred lives, seen things, felt them in a way the rest of us can’t. I wish you would understand that I know how precious a gift that is. I want to protect it, to nurture it. I want to take care of the little things so that beautiful brain of yours can have the adventures it was built for.”

He really knew what to say to her. “You would get tired of it after a while. You would think I was ignoring you.”

He shook his head. “I would know I was in there somewhere. I would read what you wrote at the end of the day to find out about the stories you weave about me. You would be writing about me. I would make sure of it. I would love you so long and so well that you would have to write about me.”

Jake didn’t look her way. He kept his eyes on the stage, but there was an intimacy to his voice that gave away the fact that he wasn’t entirely unemotional. “And I would force you to come out of it from time to time. I would keep you with us. We could keep you grounded, Serena. You don’t have to hide all the time. I get that you love your work. I want you to. But you can love your reality, too.”

Her reality was horrible right now. Her reality was someone trying to kill her and the men she loved being far away from her. She knew it was her choice. She knew she was being stubborn, but she couldn’t quite reach out and grab them. “You’ll pardon me if I don’t enjoy real life right now.”

Jake looked down at her. “I didn’t mean enjoy, Serena. Enjoy is a lazy word. I know your life sucks right now. But your reality is you have a family around you. It might not be the one you wanted when you were six years old and had a child’s dreams that everything would be perfect, but it’s a family all the same. Bridget and Chris have been calling for days, and you’re ignoring them.”

She wasn’t ignoring them. She just didn’t know what to say. And she didn’t want them hurt. “I think they should stay away from me for a while.”

“Adam.” The name came out of Jake’s mouth like a sharp command, and Adam seemed to know just what to do.

“First turn of the screw, sweetheart,” Adam said, his hands going to the clamps on her breasts. He turned the screw, her nipples peaking as they were tweaked.

She whimpered a little. Yeah, she felt that. “What was that for?”

Jake leaned over and whispered in her ear. “First off, I didn’t ask you a direct question, so that’s five, though we’ll count this as a warning and leave it for the privacy room. The next time, it will be right here in public. Secondly, I’m attempting to do exactly what you just hired me for. You don’t want me as a lover. You want a Dom. Well, a Dom’s job is to correct the behaviors in his sub that cause her trouble and heartache. To instill discipline. You’re pushing away your friends. It’s going to cost you a couple of people you can’t afford to lose. You will call them in the morning. You will reach out to them. Permission to speak, but keep a civil tongue.”

Oh, that permission to speak shit was bugging her, but Jake had that superior look on his face. The one that told her this was what she got from the pure Dom. Not a boyfriend. A hired Dom. Damn it, she hadn’t meant it that way, but she wasn’t sure how to fix it. “Jake, what if this guy decides to hurt me through my friends?”