Learning to Drown (18 page)

"I mean, you've seen it all,
haven't you Matty? Did you see it while I was gone, even though I told you not
to?"

Matthew's head shot up and he frowned.
His eyes narrowed and he swallowed hard. Was he just not picking up the anger
radiating off of his sibling in hot invisible waves? "I did what you said,
Luke. I brought her home and I got her set up. That's all."

"That true?" His dark brown
gaze had turned to me and my heart started pounding again.

"Yes, it is. I mean...yes."
I blinked over and over as if that could clear away the tears coming to my
eyes.

"You mean what? He either handed
you the bag and told you to get ready or not. What else is there?"

My brain had gone to the kiss that was
why I’d hesitated. I hadn’t meant to say it aloud. The night before I had been
a human tug of war between them. One fucking my mouth, one fucking my cunt.
What could a kiss possibly mean? I stared at Lucas, watching his mouth pinch
into a tight, thin seam. His pulse jumped at his throat and I could tell he was
angry. Very angry and I simply did not understand. "I--"

"I kissed her. I kissed her. Me.
It was me. And it was no big deal. I've been a shit to her and I thought I owed
her that and I kissed her," Matthew spat. He looked enraged at even having
to explain himself. "So what? Last night I was sinking my cock down her
throat. So what? What the fuck is a kiss?"

"The so what is I told you not
to. And you knew, too, didn't you?"

I nodded, trying desperately to
swallow a bite of lettuce. "Sort of."

"Yes or no, Ember."

"Yes," I said, because it
truly was more yes than no.

"Come here, then." He
pointed to his lap and my stomach bottomed out like I was on a roller coaster ride.

I stood, thankful at least that I
didn't have to try and eat. I couldn't manage it. I walked to Lucas and stood,
his breath slipping over the skin above my panties.

"Kneel, Ember," he said.
“Over my lap.”

I dropped to my knees, draped my belly
over his knees, praying that it would not hurt as bad, knowing it would and
relishing it still.

"It was me," Matthew said.

From fucking with me to sticking up
for me in twenty-four hours. Go figure.

"Okay, how many do you think
you
deserve?" Lucas asked.

Matthew froze. "You are not
spanking me, brother. I will kick your ass."

"I never said I was spanking you.
I asked you how many you thought you deserved for doing what I asked you not to
do."

Matthew shrugged. "Twenty?
Twenty-five? With your fucked up sense of chivalry and loyalty, who knows. What
you gonna have Ember give them to me? Now we're talking."

"Is it twenty or twenty-five,
Matthew?" Lucas asked. As he went back and forth with his brother, he ran
his palm across my bottom. His hand whispered on the plum colored silk. His
touch, not too firm and not too soft was heaven. I shut my eyes, sinking into
the feel of him petting me that way.

"Twenty," I heard Matthew
say.
"Good." And when the first blow landed, my head shot up and my eyes
flew wide. I screamed, being suddenly pulled from the hypnotic feel of his
touch.

"I thought you said me!"
Matthew yelled, his face red with anger. He banged his fists on the coarse
wooden table and started to rise.

By then Lucas was on blow three and I
could feel his handprints rising on my skin, a red remembrance of disobedience.

"These are yours, but I figured
you wouldn't mind having Ember take them in  your stead. I mean, obviously,
she's no big deal. She shouldn't be. I ask you to leave her alone and you kiss
her. You insist I share. You treat her like a shoe. I tried to explain that
she's different. And you don't listen. So what difference does it make if she
takes your punishment? The punishment earned by you taken by the woman you
don't even like." Lucas paused and looked down at me. Hot tears tracked
down my cheeks and I shook a little on his lap. But it had not escaped my
notice that his hands were soothing again and my pussy was so wet I felt
confused. A raging mass of nerve endings and a stark beating need in my groin.
"How many was that, September?"

"Eight," I gasped.

"Good. Only twelve more to go.
You can thank my brother later." Then he continued the blows, alternating
cheeks and pressure as I squirmed and kicked. On blow thirteen he pushed his
fingers under the crotch of my panties and sank his fingers deep. Three fingers
flexed and pushed in the wet pool of my pussy until I had to bite my lip to
keep from coming. Coming would be bad, I thought. Coming just now would make
him angry.

"Don't do it. Good girl. I can feel
you right on the edge there. Do not give in." He accented the last few
words with the hardest blows yet. The force rocked up my spine. I felt it in my
teeth and I felt the empty place where his fingers had been almost like my body
was grieving.

"Oh, Lucas. I..." I had to
think of other things. I had to focus. He moved to the bottoms of my cheeks,
right at the upper thigh. The last three blows were different then. Shorter and
sharper and they resonated like flesh and blood tuning forks. The force going
down to the backs of my knees so that my breath died in my lungs and my throat
seemed to shrink.

"Now. That's out of the way. You
can thank Matthew."

I raised my head, licking salty tears
off my face. I said, "Thank you, Matthew" as my heartbeat pounded in
my ass cheeks and my thighs.

Matthew looked angry, stricken,
utterly confused.

"Now, then, boys and girls. Let's
talk about Matthew," Lucas said and smiled.

Chapter 21

Lucas rose, pulling me with him.
"I think the way that my brother can understand his bad manners is if he
walks a mile in your shoes."

I stared at Matthew and blinked. He
gave no indication that he understood where Lucas was going with this.

Lucas pulled my wrists behind my back,
looping his long strong fingers around my wrists he  bound me loosely in his
grasp and hustled me forward. "Come on, brother," he said casually,
propelling me through the door and into the living room.

I didn't turn my head but I heard
Matthew's loping gait as Lucas pushed me ahead of him. Not too rough, but hard
enough to make it clear that he was in charge. I felt the warm pool of fluid in
the gusset of my plum colored silk. My cheeks flushed at the thought of my
arousal. I was still confused when I tried to analyze it. The spanking had left
me warm and plump with want. My brain raced with what would happen when we got
upstairs. Or possibly, with what would not happen. With Lucas, I never could
tell.

He pushed me to the bed and I landed
with a dirty kind of grace, I turned to see brother face brother, Matthew's
eyes darting from Lucas to me and back again.

"I think maybe you need to cool
off. I realize she's not the average
¾
"

Lucas cut his brother off. "She's
not the average anything. To me or to you, it seems. If you're racing ahead
when I tell you not to, apologizing and kissing. Well, hell, little brother,
that says a lot right there. So  you should have no problem taking her
submission for a bit. For her. The special, special girl." Lucas's smile
was intense. At a glance it looked average enough, but on second look the anger
that simmered just below the surface was visible. A gorgeous kind of rage that
accented his handsome features in an almost frightening manner.
I opened my mouth to argue, or ask, I wasn't sure which but a quick shake of
Matthew's head had me snapping my mouth shut again. He was warning me off, and
since he had been with Lucas for a lifetime, I trusted his instinct.

"I don't do submission,"
Matthew said, his voice dark.

"Not even for her?" Lucas
asked.

"Not for anyone."

"Here are the options. We send
her home for good or you take a quick tour of bottoming. That's the
choice."

My heart bottomed out. Send me home
for good? Set me loose and abandon me. I mean, I was a grown woman. I ran a
business. I had recently been bossing around the man I was with, telling him
what he needed to do to get me off. But now, when Lucas said those words, an
invisible, hollow kind of wound opened in my gut and my body ached right along
with my heart. I silently prayed that Matthew would just this one time submit.
Just this once, so I could stay.

Matthew gritted his teeth and the
muscles in his jaw jumped and bucked under his tan stubbled skin. I held my
breath, awaiting my fate. While he waited, Lucas ran his hands along the back
of my thighs, down my calves. He stroked me the same way I had seen men stroke
vintage cars or motorcycles. My heart pounded so hard that I could hear my
blood in my ears, the rush of my pulse and I bit the inside of my lip, waiting.

"Fine. I'll play your game,
Lucas. But at  some point, I'll get you.  You know I will. Whether it's a
sucker punch after too many beers or..."

"Yeah. Got it," Lucas
laughed. He looked at me. "Tell him what to do."

I shook my head, real fear filling the
pit of my stomach. Tell him what to do? How did I know what to tell him to do?

"I um..."

"Nothing happens if you don't
play, Ember. We're role reversing. He's going to be the sub and you're going to
be him. Maybe you won't be such an asshole in your role of Dom."

I turned to Matthew, my heart racing.

"Sit in the chair," I said,
putting as much steel in my voice as I could. Which wasn't much. It almost
sounded like a question.

Matthew smirked at me, but I thought
the hostility in his look was more for his brother. But he sat. Dropped his ass
in the small black chair by the bed like his legs had come unhinged. "Yes,
Ma'am." The words were clipped and begrudging.

Lucas grunted. Pushed his hands under
the silken covering of my panties. He gripped my ass and rubbed, his strong
fingers biting and kneading into my skin so that I groaned without thinking.
Liquid heat flooded my muscles and I realized how good it felt when he touched
me, even when my flesh was sore. Not necessarily sexually, just a touch. A
normal touch was enough to shift my body's perception of its surroundings. He
laid me down on my belly. Tension bled into release. Tightness morphed into a
hot lazy feeling. I shivered, holding my breath as the tips of his fingers
kissed the moist entrance of my body. He pushed just a fingertip in and I
didn't breathe, letting the slowing pound of my heart echo in my ears.

"Take these off," he said,
his mouth coming down on the back of my thigh. My heartbeat was so strong I
felt it in my belly, where my skin pressed to the white sheets. Each heart beat
jumped my stomach muscles against the flat of the mattress. I shimmied out of
my panties, having to work my hips more because I rested on my front. I wiggled
and kicked until they were gone and all I could feel was each hot breath that
escaped Lucas wafting over my skin. Matthew made a soft sound that was half
grunt, half sigh. His eyes drifted shut and his hands moved.

"Don't you dare touch
yourself," I said without thinking.

Matthew narrowed his eyes at me, his
face clouded with annoyance, but he obeyed. Lucas gave a soft laugh behind me,
leaning in close he said “What shall we do Ember? I’ll take suggestions. Might
not happen, but I’m happy to listen.”

I turned my head to him feeling
overwhelmed and a bit wobbly, but oddly powerful too. I whispered but it was
loud enough for Matthew to hear. “I think you should fuck me the way he would.
The way he described. I think you should fuck me from behind and so hard that I
can’t tell up from down.” My voice was a bit watery but I meant what I said and
my body responded to my suggestion by opening and flexing for Lucas to take me.
I felt the warm rush of my own fluids and I bit my lip, waiting. Eyes darting
from one brother to the other.

“Not like we did last night, then?”
HIs voice was dark, almost gloating. His words a reminder to me, a warning to
his brother. I was Lucas’s. Until he said otherwise.

Lucas’s eyes glittered with malicious
joy. Matthew looked pale and cross. Lucas gave me one hard nod and without
preamble stuck his fingers into my pussy. They slipped inside easily and he sighed.
“You are so ready. Let’s leave this pretty bra on since Matty picked it out.
We’ll just make an adjustment…” Lucas reached around and pulled the cups so
they rested under my breasts, thrusting them higher than they were already
trussed. “There we go.” Then he circled my wet pussy with the tip of his cock
so I squirmed. “What about brother?” he asked me, his partner in crime.

“No touching,” I said again and then
pushed my ass back toward Lucas, eyes pinned to truculent Matthew in the
corner. Watching but with no relief.

He was deep in me, thrusting hard when
he asked, “Who overwhelmed you? Who heaped too much upon you?”

I shook my head as best I could with
my head pressed to the mattress.
Not now, not now…

The spank landed with the sting of a
thousand wasps and I flipped my head back sobbing. The endorphins kicked in a
blissful thumping heat replaced the painful sting. “No,” I said. Something I
had never said to him thus far.