A Turn of the Screwed (23 page)

Nerves filled Noel as Keith drove them first to a place she’d never been before.

As Keith pulled into a parking space in front of the tattoo shop that also had a sign for a piercer, he glanced into the rearview mirror. “Again, last chance to back out.”

She shook her head. “Not backing out, Sir.” He’d surprised her by this, because he hadn’t mentioned this part of the plan to her or Scott.

Who looked equally startled, but also wasn’t backing out.

They had an appointment, apparently, and were sent right back.

It was the same man who’d done both their nipples, and he greeted Keith with a handshake.

“Is everything ready?” Keith asked.

“Yep. Just like you asked for.”

Inside the room, with the door closed behind them, Keith snapped his fingers at Scott. “Pants down, and up on the table.”

He’d ordered Scott to wear boxers instead of briefs today.

Now, Noel understood why.

She gulped a little when she realized what that meant.

But Scott didn’t hesitate, even when the piercer had him sign the forms and showed him the needle and the captive bead ring that would be his new Prince Albert piercing.

Through the end of his cock.

Keith wore a decidedly evil grin as he grabbed a fistful of Scott’s hair and tipped his head back. “Who’s my good boy and is going to get pierced for me?”

“Me, Sir,” Scott whispered.

Even Noel was getting wet from Keith’s tone of voice.

Keith crushed his lips down on top of Scott’s, swallowing the man’s yelp of pain as the piercer did what he needed to do.

Five minutes later, Scott was shakily getting to his feet and gingerly pulling up his boxers and pants.

Then Keith looked at her. “Panties off, girl.”

Without argument, she did, getting up on the table. After signing the forms, Keith pulled her dress up and had her lay back, his hands pinning hers over her head, staring down at her from where he stood at the head of the table.

“Who’s my good girl and is going to get pierced for me?”

“Me, Sir,” she whispered.

She winced as the piercer swabbed antiseptic over her clit.

Keith grinned. “This is going to hurt. But when it’s over, and once it’s healed, guess what? It’s going to feel fucking amazing.” He leaned in, kissing her, distracting her so much that when the piercer prepared and made the actual pierce, she screamed into Keith’s mouth, not so much from pain but from shock and the locale.

Although yeah, it did fucking hurt. At least the pain started fading almost immediately, unlike her nipples, which had painfully ached for a week before she could tolerate the men even touching them.

Keith chuckled, finally raising his head and grinning down at her. “Oooh, baby. Now you both really match. And I’m so fucking hard, you are both going to get a load in your asses later tonight when we get home.”

* * * *

Their next stop was Venture. And when Keith led them inside, Tilly greeted them with hugs. “You damn sadist,” she chided Keith. You got them pierced where we couldn’t see.”

“Yeah, well, he was too busy to leave the shop, and I didn’t want to reschedule the collaring.”

Her clit still throbbed, but it’d already changed to an
ooh, goody
kind of throbbing.

Or maybe it was just because Keith had trained both of them so well to get aroused by pain, always following it with a reward later.

She wasn’t exactly sure how Scott would get his reward based on the piercing, but maybe she could at least get one.

Their friends were in attendance, and as Loren called for everyone’s attention, Keith led Noel and Scott to the front of the room, where a matching set of pillows had been placed.

He pointed at both of them, and at the pillows.

They immediately sank to their knees on the pillows as Keith moved to stand between them.

Loren started. “Well, folks, this is a new one, even by our standards. I know many of you met Scott and Noel when they first started their journey into the kinky lifestyle, and yes, this is as confusing as it looks. Gilo, what say ye?”

“I got nothing,” he called out from the back of the room. “I thought me and Abbey had the market cornered on confusing you all.”

“Yeah,” Tilly called out from where she stood behind Loren, “well, you’ve lost
that
title, dude.”

“Dammit,” Gilo muttered.

The room erupted into titters of laughter that quickly settled.

Loren continued. “Keith comes before everyone today and wishes to publicly claim his two slaves. To publicly state his feelings in the only quasi-official way he can.”

He turned and faced the room. “Some of you, I’ve known a long time, since I first came out and moved to Florida. Some not quite as long, from when I first started my kinky journey, and some of you I’ve only recently met. If you’d told me this was where I’d be today, and what I’d be doing, I’d have told you you were crazy.”

He put his hands on Scott and Noel’s heads. “I’m blessed with not one, but two people who love me, who love each other, and with whom I’ve found peace and happiness that I never dreamed possible. I trust them, I love them, and I’ve sworn to protect and care for them.”

He turned to Scott. “Boy, today I want to publicly collar you as mine. This means even though you are married to her, you are owned by me, and first and foremost you belong to me. Is this what you want?”

“Yes, Sir. I want to be yours.”

Tilly stepped forward and held something out. Noel realized it was a ring box.

Keith reached down and removed the wedding ring from Scott’s left hand and transferred it to his right ring finger. Then he slipped the ring he took from the ring box onto Scott’s left ring finger.

“From this day forward, unless you ask me to uncollar you, you belong to me. Do you accept this of your own free will?”

“Yes, Sir, I do.”

Keith leaned in and kissed him, long and deeply.

Then he turned to Noel.

He stared down at her, sending her nerves fluttering. No matter what,
that
look always made her horny, wet, and feel like she was a feather facing down a hurricane.

And she loved it.

“Girl, today I’m going to publicly collar you as mine. As with him, even though you’re married to him, you are owned by me, and first and foremost you belong to me. Is this what you want?”

She nodded. “Yes, Sir. I want to be yours.”

Her heart pounded as he slid her wedding and engagement rings off her left ring finger and transferred them to her right hand. Then he slipped his band onto her finger.

“From this day forward,” he said, “unless you ask me to uncollar you, you belong to me. Do you accept this of your own free will?”

She nodded, struggling not to cry happy tears. “Yes, Sir, I do.”

He leaned in and kissed her, slowly, sweetly.

Then he held out his hands to them both and helped them to their feet.

Apparently, there was one more thing.

He opened the ring box again. Inside, one more band, one that matched theirs. “If you are certain this is what you want, the two of you take that band and put it on my finger. Because even though I own you both, I also belong to you. My heart, my love, my protection, my trust, my life.”

Okay, now Noel’s eyes teared up. She and Scott, together, reached in and withdrew the band. They each held his hand up while sliding the band onto his ring finger.

Behind them, Loren spoke up. “Okay, I now pronounce you Master and slaves. You may kiss your property.”

Keith grinned, reached out and grabbed a fistful of hair on each of them, and drew them in. “Love you both, my sweet pets.”

He kissed Noel, then Scott.

“Love you, too, Sir,” they echoed.

“You guys have made me the happiest I think I’ve ever been in my life.”

Noel smiled up into his mocha gaze. “That makes two of us.”

“Three,” Scott said. “And if you think we’re letting you get away from us, think again.”

“What he said,” she joked.

Loren hugged all three of them. “Congratulations. You all accomplished something no one’s ever managed to do before.”

“What’s that?” Keith asked.

Tilly snorted. “You put Gilo at a loss for words.”

Two weeks after their collaring, the first test of their new formal dynamic hit.

They were awakened by Noel receiving an early morning call from her mother that Noel’s father was being taken to the hospital via ambulance for what appeared to be a heart attack. Less than an hour later he was in surgery, and Keith was already on the computer, checking flights for the three of them and arranging for a rental car.

Noel asked that Keith go with them.

He couldn’t deny her, especially when he could tell how shaken up she was by this. Considering what she’d told him about her family it likely wasn’t the greatest idea in the world, but his main concern was Noel and her well-being, not a bunch of conservative pricks he couldn’t give a shit about.

It was a blustery early fall day in Indiana, and late in the evening when they arrived at the hospital and found their way to the waiting area at the cardiac ICU where her father was now recovering. Noel’s mother and siblings, as well as some other family members, were gathered there. When they entered, Keith faded back, letting Scott stay close to Noel as she tearfully greeted her family and received the latest update.

Her father’s condition was critical, and the prognosis was uncertain at that time.

Keith had instructed them to introduce him as a friend from there in Indiana, who’d picked them up at the airport and was letting them stay with him. That whatever lies they needed to tell to keep the peace were fine. He didn’t want their relationship to cause a distraction from the main issue or create drama. He’d tried to remain downstairs in the main waiting area, but Noel had tearfully begged him to come upstairs with them and he found he couldn’t refuse her.

Unfortunately, his two headstrong pets didn’t follow instructions very well. He’d quietly taken a seat near the doorway after giving silent head nods to everyone without him having actually been introduced. He’d hoped his presence would go mostly unnoticed.

It didn’t take Noel’s mother longer than thirty seconds to start taking thinly veiled potshots at her for not living closer, despite the fact that two of her siblings had also flown in from out-of-state. Her siblings, of course, piled on.

He listened quietly, the magazine he’d picked up going unread even though he slowly flipped through the pages as if he was. Instead, his attention was on Noel, on Scott, on fighting the urge to tell the self-righteous prigs to quit picking on them.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he watched Noel as she looked around, her focus falling squarely on him. He didn’t look up to meet her gaze. He knew if he did he would likely insert himself into the situation and make a mess of things. These were the two people he loved being poorly treated, and he knew he couldn’t just take care of it without leaving a lot of emotional carnage behind.

“How long are you going to be able to stay?” her mother asked. “Did the school give you time off paid or unpaid?”

“I’m not teaching anymore.”

Oh, shit.
Keith winced. One of their rules was no lying. But that was between the three of them. He’d specifically told Noel and Scott to say whatever was necessary to keep the peace, including lying about her job, if necessary.

“What do you mean you’re not teaching?” her mother demanded. “Since when? What are you doing now?”

“Keith got me a job working at the marina. I love it there.”

He hoped his groan was silent, not out loud. Yes, Noel loved working at the marina. She was also loved by the owner, who had given her free rein to redo all their office procedures. As a result, the place ran like a well-oiled vibrator, far better than it had since Maria was there.

“Keith? Who’s he?” He felt every eye swivel onto him and he risked glancing around.

So much for me being a friend from Indiana.

“He’s our partner,” Scott said.

Keith softly sighed in resignation, closed the magazine, and set it aside before standing up as her mother made a noise.

“Your
partner
?” she asked.

Obviously, staying out of it was no longer an option. “Hi,” he said. “Keith Knepp.”

“Who the hell are you?” one of the brothers asked.

Keith stared him down, the guy taking a step back after a moment. “Like Scott said, I’m their partner.”

He’d drawn close enough that Noel was able to snag his arm. She pulled him up against her. “He’s with us. We’re a family.”

Every voice in the waiting room fell silent, both Noel’s clan and others who were now more interested in watching this drama play out than focusing on their own loved ones’ troubles.

“This isn’t some twisted
sex
thing, is it?” the youngest sister asked.

“How would you know?” Noel shot back, an uncharacteristic steel edge to her tone. “Your metrosexual hubby’s probably got a few kinks in his own closet he hasn’t fessed up to, and everyone in this family knows it.”

Oh, holy shit.

Scott tried to rein her in, bless his heart. “Honey, this isn’t the time to discuss—”

“No, fuck this shit, it totally is.” She took in all her family. “You all have picked on me for as long as I can remember. I was never good enough for any of you. I spent a lot of years worrying about how to make all of you happy, to make you like me, and I’m done. I’m happy, I’m in love, I’m loving my life for the first time in I don’t know how long,
so back the fuck off
!”

If it’d been quiet in the waiting room before, it was tomb-dead silent now. A nurse sitting at a desk behind a sliding window to the side of the ICU door looked up from her computer.

Noel wasn’t finished venting her pent-up emotions. “I’m only here for my father. I love him, but he wasn’t any better than the rest of you have been to me. So here’s the truth—I’m married to Scott and I’m in love with him, and we both are in love with Keith, and he’s in love with us. Deal with it. We’re adults and we’ll do what we want. My relationship isn’t up for discussion. Now I’m going to go in there and see my father. When I come back out, if you want me to leave, I will. But I’ll be damned if I’ll sneak out of here like I’ve done anything wrong.”