Cin's Secret [Club Libertine 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

“Relax, I know what you meant, and I certainly didn’t feel hit on. You have to cut yourself some slack. Look, you’ve been at the desk for three hours without a break. Why don’t you take ten and stretch back in the staff lounge. I can watch the desk for that long.”

“Are you sure?”

“Go. Now. Before I change my mind.”

Cindy went. And almost bumped into Liam as he came out onto the club floor. Panicking, she dodged and ran back through the lounge into the ladies’ room, shutting the door behind her, her heart pounding.

What if she had blown her chance with Liam and his brother? She couldn’t bear it, but she had to. She wanted to run, but she’d made a commitment to her sister, and she would see it through. But she would also hunt for another job so that after Saturday night, she didn’t have to face the twins again and so she wouldn’t have to see them with another woman when they inevitably found someone else. That would be just too much to bear.

Feeling better about her decision, she exited the washroom. She felt a movement beside her. Connor and Liam had been waiting for her, damn them. And they had positioned themselves so she couldn’t dash back into the ladies’ room. Damn them again.

“So, we hear from Jake that you are going to be sticking around town.”

“Yes. Lindy and I made up. More or less.”

“Lindy and Cindy,” mused Connor. “What kind of parents give their kids rhyming names?”

“Actually, it’s Lindsay and Jacintha. But somehow they both got shortened.”

“Jacintha, huh? That’s definitely a mouthful. I can see why they shortened it. But I think we’ll continue to call you Cin. What do you think, Liam?”

“Cin works for me. And out sweet Sinner is going to have a bright-red ass after Saturday night. And if she thinks one spanking will be enough to make things up to us after what she put us through, she is sorely, and I mean that literally, she is sorely mistaken. She’ll be standing during meals for a month. Or”—his gaze narrowed as he looked over at her—“maybe she’ll be kneeling. I wonder if we were too easy on her. We talked about having her fully submit, but we really didn’t enforce it.”

“No, we were totally remiss with her training.” Connor looked at Cindy appraisingly. “I think someone is going to be spending a lot of time on her knees begging for forgiveness after what she put us through.”

“What did I put you through? I barely know you. And I’m not your sub. We agreed it was only for one night.”

“And whose fault is that? You told us you were leaving town, that all you wanted was one night from us. You knew that we had a connection worth exploring, but you decided to just use us for sex, and you wanted us to punish you so you could punish yourself over what happened with your sister.” Liam was angry and his tone showed it.

“Did Lindy tell you that? I didn’t lie exactly. I just wasn’t free to give myself to anyone on a long-term basis until I had things sorted out with Lindy.”

“No, Jake did. He’s her fiancé and, more importantly, her Dom. And by extension, he’s your family, too. And what you just said. That’s what you should have told us. Instead, you chose to fuck and run.” Liam glared at her before continuing. “We don’t like that. And since you’ve decided to stay in Seattle, we’ve decided that the ‘one night only’ clause is now invalid. Don’t you agree, brother?”

“Absolutely,” concurred Connor. “We are going to spend the week working on the perfect way to punish you. After Jake beats your ass, we’re going to have our turn. And it is going to be public. You may not sit for a week.”

“But that’s almost a week away. Until then, your interim punishment is to spend time with us seeing the city and getting to know us, without sex. And the no-sex rule is going to hurt us more than it hurts you, so you are really going to have earned your punishment Saturday.”

They turned to walk away, but paused at the door before going back onto the main floor of the club.

“Wear comfortable shoes. We’ll pick you up at noon, and there’ll be a lot of walking.”

She watched as they walked away from her, not waiting for her to reply. Then she realized. They were Doms discussing punishments and sex. With her. Maybe she did have a chance at happiness with them after all. She wouldn’t blow it this time.

* * * *

The week rushed by. She loved the job, and she was good at it. She loved dealing with the members, and she even loved dealing with the paperwork and administration and ordering. After the clinic, running a BDSM club was a breeze. With Duncan and Andie out of town for a few days, when things blew up because of an order that was delivered incorrectly, she stepped in and got things straightened out with the supplier, and from then on, she was the go-to person for everything from scheduling staff shifts to deciding how many towels they needed for the dungeon area.

And she and Lindy talked every day, even if they didn’t see each other. They didn’t mention Cindy’s upcoming punishment or the reason behind it. They just started talking like sisters. Life was good.

And every day, she spent some time with the twins, sometimes one-on-one and sometimes all three of them together. They took her to Pike’s Place Market to pick out fish and then made her cook it up for them. And they’d gone up to the top of the Space Needle and even taken a ferry to visit a nearby island. But there’d been no sex or talk of sex. The twins had determinedly kept the conversations away from sex. The one time she’d tried to apologize for running away, they’d refused to discuss the matter and threatened to walk away if she didn’t change the topic.

So, instead, they discussed books and music and movies, and she caught up on all the pop culture she’d missed by being out of the country for three years.

“So this Kardashian family. They are famous for being famous? Seriously?”

“Yup. The oldest sister first became famous for being a friend of someone famous and then she became famous for her big butt and a sex tape.”

“And for this, she got her own TV show?”

“The whole family got not just one show but several. And her and her sisters get paid big bucks for showing up at parties and club openings and the like. She’s a really big deal.”

“Now I think you are just playing with me. When I went away, reality TV was big, but it was mostly shows like Survivor and Dancing with the Stars, but now there are all of these real life housewives and celebrity diving? How bizarre is that.”

“Hey, don’t ask me,” laughed Connor. “I work evenings. I don’t watch these shows. I just know what I read in the supermarket checkout line.”

“Don’t you believe him,” contradicted Liam. “He spends all day Sunday watching hoarders and collectors and every sort of weird reality show you could imagine.”

Cindy expected Connor to deny it, but he just laughed and grabbed her hand.

“My turn.” He led her toward his truck. “You get her tomorrow.” He waved at his brother. “Liam doesn’t appreciate modern art, so I try to avoid bringing him anywhere near galleries since he has zero appreciation for art. Sometimes I can’t believe we are related.”

Over the next four hours, they walked through six different galleries while Connor tried to explain the nuances of modern art to Cindy. She rapidly came to the conclusion that she definitely sided with Liam in this argument. Modern art still all looked like random splatter to her, but he loved it, so she listened and learned and found she loved that he loved it and if he wanted to take her to galleries she’d happily trail after him because he enjoyed it. She even ended up buying a small picture at the last gallery they visited. She didn’t know it, but it was one that Connor had done and it thrilled him that of all the painting she’d seen, his was the one she wanted.

Connor watched as she paid for the painting. He’d tried to give it for her but she’d refused. He respected that. But he wanted to treat her. He also knew that she didn’t really get modern art and that she’d humored him by coming to these galleries, but he saw how relaxed and happy she looked and knew that she’d enjoyed the day as much as he did.

And when she looked at him while he’d lectured her, he’d wanted to lean down and kiss her hard, but he controlled himself because he knew that he if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to stop there. It was just as well that their outings had all been in very public venues. If they were alone together, either with or without Liam, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her. As it was, he held her hand tightly as they walked and talked.

He’d been amused to find out that her favorite art was “floral.” He tried to explain that floral really wasn’t a type of art, but then he relented and took her to the Ross Gallery because he knew that the show there was art related to nature, which he had figured she’d like and she had. He wondered what she would think when she got it home and saw that artist bio on the back and realized it was his?

After the gallery, he took her back to Serena’s and gave her a quick kiss before leaving. Work didn’t stop just because he was falling in love, and he had to get to the club to get it ready for opening, but he walked away from Cindy with a bounce in his step. When they first met, he’d been attracted to her from the moment he’d laid eyes on her, but he’d never admitted to Liam that he’d also worried if it was just lust and that when he got to know her, he might be disappointed. But the more time they spent together, the more he knew that he’d been right about her. She was the one for him, for them.

* * * *

The next day was Liam’s turn. The three of them had brunch and she had already learned that Liam was a math geek. He was fascinated with numbers and had even been a “mathlete” in high school.

Now she learned he also liked modern design with all angles and steel and glass. He took her on an architectural tour of Seattle. At first she thought it seemed like fun until she realized that he had no interest in the historical buildings and wanted to spend all their time admiring buildings that looked like they’d been designed to look like they’d fit into a
Star Trek
episode. He didn’t just talk about the architect who designed the buildings either. The engineering and math behind the designs is what fascinated him.

So she listened and learned and realized that the brothers weren’t all that different. They both loved modernity and clean lines and interesting materials. They just expressed it differently.

She hadn’t really looked closely at their home that one night she’d spent with them. She’d gotten an impression of warmth and comfort and didn’t remember seeing any modern steel and glass furnishings or paint splatter art. When she hesitantly asked Liam, he laughed and told her that their mother was an interior designer and had insisted on decorating it because she was afraid that they’d come to blows, since Liam hated Connor’s taste in art and Connor hated Liam’s taste in furnishings.

Liam enjoyed Cindy’s bewilderment that two men who loved such modern art and design had such a traditional home. And he also loved that she didn’t think it was weird that they’d asked their mother to decorate their home. They were close to their folks and it would have been a deal breaker if Cindy couldn’t handle that. It wasn’t like they saw their parents frequently. Now that the folks were semiretired, they spent their winters down south, but in the summer, they usually had dinner together every week or two.

When he’d mentioned her joining a family dinner, she’d at first seemed thrilled and then she’d retreated emotionally as she let her fears take over. He and Connor would have to tread carefully and make sure she knew that they believed in her. She may have been thoughtless and selfish when she was younger, but now she was beating herself up over it all too much and he hoped that when she took her punishment, she could let it go and move on.

He wished she could see herself the way he did. She had spent years trying to atone for her mistakes. And now she was here to face them. Sometimes she slipped into old habits, but she sincerely had tried to change and to face her mistakes. How many people ever had the courage to do that? It made him realize just how much he admired her as a person and want her even more.

* * * *

On the last day, they let her choose the venue. She picked a picnic in the park. Rather than a hike and a lecture, she wanted to talk, so she packed up a big basket and the three of them headed back to nature.

They drove to a small conservation area outside the city, near Mac’s place, and ended up sitting by a river watching it run by and just talking. There was so much about them that she wanted to know. She learned that Liam was twenty minutes older than Connor and never let him forget who the older brother was. In return, Connor constantly reminded “big brother” that he was one-eighth of an inch taller.

As they talked, she also found out just how well educated the twins were, with Liam’s MBA and Connor’s art degree. She learned that he’d done all of the paintings that decorated the club and realized that he’d also done the small painting she’d bought. She smacked him hard on the arm when she’d figured out the painting was his and then teased him that he should have given her a “sleeping with the artist” discount.

She was also shocked to find that Liam had been a rising executive in Mac Whelan’s organization before he quit to start Club Libertine with his brother. He was such a great executive, in fact, that Mac Whelan had become one of the Club’s biggest investors and one of the twins’ best friends.