Writes of Submission (28 page)

“Of course.” Allie took the card and looked at it, considering. “But can we talk for a few minutes?”

“Sure.” Dante ran a hand through his hair and followed her into the kitchen. Allie took a seat at the table and regarded him thoughtfully. It seemed to her that this situation was going to make or break the relationship between him, Nikki, and Kane that had been obviously blossoming.

“How is Nikki doing?” she began.

He shook his head. “Not well. She’s really fretting over Kane. I’m not sure what’s going to happen if he doesn’t contact us soon.”

Allie leaned forward and gave him what she hoped was a friendly but stern look. “Don’t you think you can influence what’s going to happen?”

His head tilted slightly to the side. “Not if I can’t talk to him, no, but for the sake of argument what do you mean?”

“Well, you guys have been experimenting with D/s, right?” Allie began. “Have you been dominant with her?”

“Oh, no.” He shook his head vehemently. “I leave that kind of stuff up to Kane. He’s better at it.”

“He’s had more practice,” Allie corrected him. “It seems to me that Nikki needs some structure. She was starting to rely on Kane to be an authority figure for her. He would tell her when and what to write, give her honest feedback, help her to be more than she was on her own—wouldn’t you say so?”

“Sure. He was her mentor,” Dante said. “But what’s that got to do with me?”

“Well, if you want to be with her, then you need to be willing to at least try to give her what she needs. What happens if Kane doesn’t come back? Or even if he does, what about when he has to be gone for any reason? You’re going to need to step in and become her mentor yourself. Instead of just saying, ‘You’re great, you can do this,’ maybe you should try setting the kinds of boundaries that Kane set. Experiment a little bit with your Dom side.” Allie smiled encouragingly. “Almost everyone has some Dom in them. It’s just a matter of if you’re willing to let it out to help Nikki through this.”

He turned his head to look off to the side, frowning. Allie gave him a minute to think about what she’d said and consider if it was something he could do.

“You don’t think she’d resent me for trying to take Kane’s place?” he asked finally.

“There’s always that possibility,” Allie admitted. “But it might be worth a try. She wants a relationship with you and she’s a submissive. You had already planned to both be dominant with her anyway. This way you’re just testing it out earlier than you might have. What do you have to lose? Even if it goes badly you can always apologize and go back to being fun Surfer Dude. I think she’ll give you another chance.”

His mouth twisted in a grin and he turned back toward her. “Fun Surfer Dude, huh? Okay, I’ll give it a try. What do I need to do?”

* * * *

He found Nikki later napping on her bed. Her eyes were red and she clutched a pillow as if she was dreaming that she was drowning.

He sat down on the bed and brushed the hair away from her face. She really was beautiful, much more than she apparently realized. He was going to have to work on her self-esteem. Buy her some of those really revealing clothes to wear to the club. She would look hot in some slinky little outfit that showed lots of skin. He would have to be careful how he pitched it to her, but was sure it would be good for her in the long run.

Her eyes fluttered open and she gasped and jerked a little when she saw him sitting there.

“It’s okay, baby,” he said soothingly, running a finger over her cheek. “Just me. How are you doing?” He wondered if it wouldn’t be more Dom-like to stand up and order her to pull herself together, but that just wasn’t in his nature. If she wanted an asshole Dom, she’d have to look somewhere else. Supportive he could do, no problem. Maybe even stern when he had to. But mean just wasn’t in him.

She sniffed, rubbing at her face a little. “I’m okay. What time is it?”

“Four thirty.” He stood, allowing her to sit up. “Do you need to use the restroom or anything?”

“Yeah, but that’s okay. I’ll go by myself.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and got to her feet, wobbling a little.

Well, this was certainly one way of asserting himself. Dante bent over and swept her up. “No need. I’ll carry you in. You don’t look terribly steady.”

She looked indignant. “You don’t need to do that. I’m perfectly capable of getting around on my own.”

“Of course you are, but why should you when I’m here?” He gave her a playful grin, hoping she wasn’t angry in earnest. He didn’t want to start out this experiment with a fight. “Dinner is at six, I think you should write for a while before then.”

She moaned. “I’ve tried that. It just doesn’t come when Kane’s not around. I’m not sure—”

“I am.” He put her down in the bathroom and stepped outside the door, closing it behind him.

When she came out, he took her elbow and helped her hobble back to sit on the bed. She gave him a puzzled look. “Why did you say that?”

“Because I think it’s important that you carry on with the book.” He pulled out the desk chair and sat, facing her. Their knees were almost touching, and he reached out and took her hands, not caring if it wasn’t what a real Dom would have done. “I expect you to write even when Kane’s not here. It’s good discipline. You’re just as good a writer as he is. He just has more practice. Even if he doesn’t come back to finish the book with you, I want it done at the end of this month. I’ll help you all I can, but I’m afraid it’s going to be mostly up to you.”

She stared at him. He waited for her to ask who he thought he was, what right he had to order her around, what he thought he knew about writing a book, or maybe to order him out of the room. He was prepared for all of those things. What he was not prepared for was for her to nod, looking past him at her desk.

“Hand me my laptop, then, and turn on the radio, please. Unfortunately I seem to have picked up Kane’s habit of needing music to write to.”

It seemed to Dante that the room went several shades brighter. He spun around to get her computer and helped her get settled with it. He couldn’t find any belly dance music stations, but he finally managed to locate one that was acceptable to her.

“I’ll go get you a drink,” he offered, as she stared at the screen, waiting for her document to come up. “What would you like?”

When he had carried her down to dinner two hours later, she had produced four pages for him to critique. It wasn’t a lot, but she had done it by herself, without any direction from Kane. He, of course, was no literary critic, but he thought it was good stuff. He’d even made a suggestion or two, although a little hesitantly. She hadn’t been offended. She’d nodded seriously and made a note on the page to correct later.

“Would it be okay if we ate in the kitchen with you?” Dante caught Allie just as she was coming out of the kitchen with a plate of something that looked like fat, crumbly hot dogs. “Ooh, what’s that?”

“Fish sausages,” Allie said, beaming at him. “With a kale and potato hash. And of course you’re welcome to eat with us.”

“Sounds fantastic.” Dante put Nikki down and collected the dishes from the dining room table. They followed her into the kitchen and settled themselves at the table where Karl and Brad were already waiting.

“I got distracted with the Kane stuff and forgot to talk to you about my meeting with the publisher,” Dante said as he happily scooped hash onto his plate.

Karl’s eyebrows went up, although Dante wasn’t sure if it was interest in what he was saying or curiosity about the knobbly logs on the plate that he was holding. “Oh?” He took three without further comment and passed the plate to Nikki.

“Yeah. They really liked the story about the food party,” Dante went on, waiting for his chance at the fish. “They were wondering if we could do a few more things like that. Dungeon party kinds of things. People are really curious about it.”

“You mean pictures of people playing?” Brad asked, his eyebrows drawing together. “We can’t ask the community to let us take photos of them. Most people are pretty private about what they do.”

“Maybe we can work around that,” Karl said thoughtfully. “I’ll make some phone calls. We can’t really have Nikki standing against crosses and things while her foot is messed up, but we could certainly do a photo shoot in the barn on Friday.”

They discussed more ideas throughout dinner, then Dante settled Nikki in the living room with Brad and Karl and went to help with the dishes. When they were done and had brought out coffee to join the others, it was almost time for the television show.

Dante sat next to Nikki on the couch, drawing her into himself as the show’s music began. She gave him a tense smile, her anxiety pulsing out from her like a perfume. Everyone seemed to be infected with it. Allie sat on the floor in front of Karl, all three of them leaning forward slightly as if they had as much riding on this interview as Dante and Nikki did.

“Do you ever get the feeling that you know an author just from reading their work?” the host, David Williams, said with mischievous and knowing smirk. “You might think you know bestselling author Candee Appelbaum, but you’d have another think coming. We’re going to be talking to Candee about her books, and her life. Be prepared for a surprise—she’s not the woman you might assume she is.”

The audience clapped and Kane walked out from behind the curtain.

The applause stopped suddenly, and the host winked at his apparently confused audience. “Yes, folks, this
is
Candee Appelbaum. How are you doing?” He shook Kane’s hand and they took their places in leather chairs.

“Great, David. Very happy to be here.” Kane grinned at him as they began to exchange pleasantries, smiling at the audience as if he had no qualms at all about exposing himself as their favorite female author.

Dante squeezed Nikki’s shoulders. She had started to shake a little, as if she was either very angry or afraid of what Kane might say.

“So, Candee.” David looked him up and down suggestively, still smirking as if he was letting the audience in on a private joke—which he was. “I can’t help but notice something. You’re not quite what I would imagine when I hear the name ‘Candee.’ Should I assume that your parents had a sense of humor?”

Kane laughed. “Well, they certainly did, but in this case, it was my publisher’s idea. They thought readers would accept a female author more readily.”

“Now, you write romance novels, isn’t that correct?”

A little growl went through Nikki’s frame. Dante kissed the top of her head. “You know they have to banter some, babe.”

“I know.” Her voice was hard.

“I do write romance,” Kane was saying. The audience had apparently decided to accept him. They hooted and clapped when he said that, and several of his recent book covers were suddenly displayed on screens behind them. Dante could see Kane’s shoulders relax a little, as if he had been half expecting to be lynched after the show. “It’s very spicy romance, with BDSM and ménage elements.”

“But you’re a man. Men don’t usually write romance, do they?”

Kane shrugged. “How do we know? My publisher didn’t really want me to go public before this, so for all we know there could be male romance authors all over the place, maybe even here in the audience. We just don’t know.”

The audience gasped a little, then laughed uncertainly.

David looked shocked at Kane’s words, then laughed himself. “I suppose that’s true,” he admitted. “Tell me about your experiences as a man writing romance.”

Kane shifted in his chair. “I wouldn’t say my experiences are much different than any other author, except that I haven’t been able to do book signings and conventions. On Facebook nobody knows or really cares what you look like. Now, though, I will be doing lots of conventions because—”

“Of course, because you’ve been ‘outed,’” David finished for him, nodding energetically.

Kane frowned. “No, what I was going to say was because—”

“Hold that thought.” The host held up a finger to silence Kane, ignoring the indignant frown he got in return. “We’re going to cut to a commercial now. After that we’ll be talking about what’s ahead for Candee Appelbaum.”

Nikki took a deep breath. “He’s not mentioning me.”

“He hasn’t really had a chance,” Dante pointed out.

“No. I think he was about to,” Allie said, although there was a frown line between her eyebrows. She twisted around to look at Karl as if for confirmation.

“It’s hard to tell what he was going to say. That host won’t let him get a word in edgewise,” Karl mused, making Dante want to throw something at him. Couldn’t he see how upset Nikki was?

“Of course he was,” Dante said quickly, nodding at Allie. “They’re going to talk next about his upcoming projects. You’ll see. He’ll be singing the praises of his new writing partner. I’d bet on it.”

They waited nervously through the commercials until the show came back on. The host started talking about Kane’s past books, showing covers and reading portions of reviews that talked about how “in tune” Candee was with her audience and how well she understood women and their emotions.

“Isn’t that kind of like fraud?”

Kane’s jaw tightened, but his smile didn’t fade. He chuckled as if the accusation of fraud was an amusing little joke. “Not at all, David. Men and women aren’t really as different as we like to think. I just accessed the part of myself that could relate to women. It’s in there. You just have to find it.”