Lord & Master (14 page)

“Look at the washstand!” I exclaimed. “There’s a china basin and everything.”

“There’s a chamber pot,” Jake observed. “Thank God I noticed a real bathroom down the hall.”

I laughed. “That would be a lot of togetherness.”

“Too much,” Jake said firmly. He removed his jacket and waistcoat, tossing them across the nearer bed’s foot rail. Though his shirt wasn’t as starched as Damien’s, he loosened his collar. More comfortable then, he dropped to the mattress and tested it.

“Okay?” I asked.

“Squeaky. But I think there’s a featherbed.”

Suddenly lying down sounded like heaven.

“Could you help me out of this?” I asked, indicating my maid’s outfit. “And my corset too?”

Jake wagged his dark eyebrows. “Your corset too.”

“It’s digging into me, and the hooks take strength to undo.”

“A man’s job then.”

“I’m not propositioning you!”

“I’m teasing.” He gestured me to him and turned me around. I exhaled with relief as he untied the apron and parted the bodice.

“Don’t touch the corset laces,” I cautioned. “Regina tightened them to fit just right underneath my clothes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jake said like a good soldier.

The dress fell. I turned to him so he could grip the front halves of the corset and free the hooks. Figuring how to undo them had his attention, but even averted his sharp features conveyed fondness. How much I loved him ached inside me.

“You
could
proposition me,” he said. “I know that scene at the dining table got you humming.”

He got me humming, just by being who he was.

I combed my fingers back through his silky hair. “I’m tempted, but I think we ought to wait for Damien.”

“He could be a while once he gets Internet access.” He studied my face, which wasn’t as good at poker as his was. “I realize Damien is a little insecure about his place in our threesome, but I don’t think he’d mind.”

“I’d still rather wait. This vacation is about strengthening all our bonds.”

“You just want to torment me.”

“Maybe,” I said slyly.

He smiled and ordered me to suck in. Two tugs later, he’d freed the corset’s hooks.

“Phew,” I said. “I’ve never been this happy to breathe before.”

Through the chemise, I rubbed the spots that had gotten squeezed. Jake put his hands on my waist to help. His eyes lifted to my own. Their sudden sincerity surprised me.

“I love you,” he said. “The day you came to work for Curtis was the luckiest of my life.”

I covered his hands. “Mine too.”

He couldn’t miss that he’d choked me up. He tugged me to him and we kissed for a long sweet time.

“I love you,” I said when he released me.

He grinned. “You’re not tired of saying that, are you?”

He knew me well. “Not even a little.”

I stood between his sprawled knees, my hands balanced on his broad shoulders. He chafed my hips affectionately. “You’re good at this, you know.”

“This?”

“Slipping into character. Making us believe you are who you’re role-playing. It’s a little eerie.”

“I’m not freaking you out, am I? To me, you’re just as good at it.”

His lips quirked up on one side. “I’m not freaked out. I am glad my spook bosses never met you. They’d have found
lots
of jobs for you.”

I rubbed the balls of his shoulders. I knew he believed the things he’d done for his old spymasters darkened him. To me, his past made his light shine brighter. Bad boy he might be, but he was decent to his core—the soundest of all of us, I thought. Maybe that was thanks to his parents or—my mouth twitched with my own grin—the horses I hadn’t known he’d grown up with. Caring for animals did bring out the best in some people. Damien saw Jake’s virtues too, or he couldn’t have looked at him so adoringly in his Edwardian persona.

Maybe I wasn’t crazy to think this game would break the men out of their boxes.

Jake tracked the different thoughts playing across my face. Hopefully, he didn’t guess I was patting my own back.

“You notice Damian’s still not here,” he said.

“Do you think he’s okay?” I asked impulsively. “I don’t mean because he’s gone. I mean because we pushed him out of his comfort zone. He’s used to watching scenes, to directing them from arm’s length. I know he said he enjoyed spanking me, but it seemed to throw him at the end.”

“I’d be worried if it hadn’t. You can’t just whale on people indiscriminately. That’s not what makes a good dominant. Damien was concerned you enjoyed it, just like he ought to be. I think you can trust him to know his limits. To be honest, he got your number better than I expected.”

“
My
number?”

The corners of Jake’s eyes crinkled. “Do you think you don’t have one?”

Every submissive did, I supposed, but the idea jostled my balance. It implied Damien—and Jake—had figured something out about me I didn’t know myself. Did I have a box that needed ripping down?

Jake shook his head at my expression. “Don’t think too hard about it. You said yourself we’re here to strengthen all our bonds, not just do . . . whatever you hope the experience will accomplish for Damien.”

The sound of footsteps in the hall kept me from responding. The doorknob turned and Damien came in.

“Everything’s good,” he announced as if we’d been waiting with baited breath. Admittedly, Jake and I cared about his company and admired the way he ran it. Unlike him, however, our faith in his go-getter underlings didn’t require upkeep. His news delivered, he looked around with interest. “Wow. Management did a good job here. I guess I’m not the only one with competent employees.”

He meant because of my ownership stake in Diogenes.

“I didn’t have much to do with it. A suggestion or two is all. Mostly, I let them boss themselves.”

Damien hummed. “I see your touch here and there. Curtis says the office isn’t the same without you two, by the way.”

This made me plant my hands on my hips. “Talking to our boss isn’t the same as checking on your company.”

“He messaged me!” Damien grimaced. “Evidently, he figured I’d be the first to crack. Are those beds real? I don’t know why, but suddenly I’m beat.”

He was stressed, I immediately thought. Because we’d pressured him to do unfamiliar things. Maybe we should have let him be him. We loved him as he was, after all.

“Stop worrying,” Jake murmured, giving my hand a squeeze.

“Stop worrying about what?” Damien was removing his shirt studs.

Jake hesitated but decided to answer. “Mia is afraid this experiment of ours is too much for you. Because you’re not used to playing sexual dominant. Not this actively, anyway.”

“I thought you gave me the lord of the manor role so I could try it out.”

“I did,” I said. “I like it when you’re involved, but—in a way—you’re involved when you’re watching too.” My hands escaped my control to wring together before my breast. “I just want you to be happy.”

Damien stopped setting shirt studs on the bureau. “You think I’m unhappy?” He sounded genuinely shocked. “That’s why you wanted us to take this vacation?”

“Well, you have withdrawn some since we moved in.”

“That’s simply—” He paused to clear his throat. “I’ve been on my own a long time. It’s a change for me to share my space. I wanted you two with me. I wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise.”

“I know you suggested it. The question is are you glad you did?”

His mouth fell open. He sat on the bed next to Jake as if I’d stunned him. “Of course I’m glad. I can’t believe you doubt it. I’m—” He rubbed his chest where his boiled shirtfront gaped. “I’m unaccustomed to happiness. Probably because of what happened to me with my father’s current wife. I find trusting in good fortune uncomfortable. Sometimes the idea that I might lose it, lose you, preys on me.”

“You’d prefer it if your happiness were nailed down.”

“Yes. Glued as well, if that were possible. I’m aware it’s not an attractive trait. If I could hide it completely, I wouldn’t expose anyone to that part of me.”

Guilt pricked me. “Should I not have said what I did about you wanting me to be your belonging?”

He took my hands. “Mia, one of the things I treasure most about you is your habit of saying what you think. I don’t deny I like pretending you’re my Edwardian wife—my belonging, as you put it. Isn’t that what role-play is for? So we can pretend dangerous things in a safe environment?”

I guessed it was. He didn’t seem to think I needed more convincing. He stood to finish taking off his shirt.

“No closet?” he asked.

“Maids get pegs,” I said, pointing to the wall.

He retrieved my dress from the floor and hung it neatly next to his own clothing.

“Hang mine too,” Jake wheedled jokingly.

Damien rolled his eyes but took Jake garments from the foot rail. Of the three of us, WorldWide’s CEO was the tidiest.

“There,” he said, sounding pleased that order had been restored. “Now help me push these beds together. And maybe turn the mattresses sideways. We wouldn’t want any of us accidently dropping between the frames.”

I watched while the men handled this very important task. It was a simple thing, but I was struck by how smoothly they worked together.
Esprit de corps
, the Edwardian me had thought.

If they could tell each other
I love you
as easily as they did this, I’d be totally satisfied.

“Do you want the middle?” Damien asked me politely.

“Window, please. There’s a pretty view out the dormer.”

Jake had to have the door side of course. His experience as an operative, or maybe his inborn protective nature, compelled him to lie between danger and us. I doubted we needed to worry. Diogenes House had security out the wazoo. Jake was Jake, though. Knowing this, Damien took the middle spot.

We hadn’t all slept together since starting this drama. I sighed with pleasure as we settled. The quilts must have hung outdoors to dry. They smelled wonderfully of fresh air and fallen leaves.

“This is nice,” Damien said, on his back beside me. “I’m glad we decided to do this.”

I didn’t know whether he meant the nap or the role-playing. Right then, it didn’t matter. My men were with me and all was well. I wriggled onto my side, plumped the pillow, and relaxed.

I suppose I dropped off. The room was warm and the attic quiet. I dreamed I was a maid in truth, on my knees with a soapy scrub brush and a pail. Swishing the bristles around was peaceful, like being a nun at prayer.

“Is she out?” Jake asked from somewhere in the distance.

“Like a light,” Damien confirmed. He shifted, sheets rustling with his slight movement. “I want to run something by you. I have an idea how to get Mia through her wall, but I’d like your opinion before I implement anything.”

My wall?
I wondered. Was that the same thing as a number?

“Sure thing,” Jake said. “But let’s slip out to talk. If your plan is good, you wouldn’t want to spoil it for her.”

That isn’t right
, I thought.

Shh
, said the Edwardian me, one finger to her lips.
This floor is still dirty
.

~

Returning to 1912 in my imagination was like riding a bicycle. The shift happened when I heard the men’s low voices out in the hall. They’d re-assumed their British accents, which they were surprisingly good at.

“Are you sure we ought to visit her?” Jake asked. “How will Mia know she’s being punished if you don’t let her stew?”

“I can’t help it,” my spouse returned. “Ever since we met, she’s driven me mad with lust. My prick will explode if I wait much longer.”

“She still hasn’t accepted the idea of us sharing her.”

“She will. It’s obvious you attract her. You saw how she was at lunch. Her nature is too fiery to hold out against your charms forever.”

“I don’t know. I could wait outside, let you play with her on your own.”

“Don’t be daft. Why shouldn’t we all have everything we want?”

“You mean why shouldn’t you?” Jake muttered.

Damien ignored him. As if he knew I was awake, he scratched lightly on the door. “Let me in, wife. I’ve come to see if you’ve learned humility.”

If
I’d l
earned humility! I flung myself from the bed. “You’re the egotist,” I hissed through the door.

“It isn’t egotism if my high opinion of myself is accurate.”

Not as quick with my tongue as him, I let out a growling noise.

“Let me in,” he warned, “or I’ll make you scrub floors tomorrow.”

“I’d rather scrub floors than give in to your perversions!”

“Now that,” he declared, “is most certainly a lie.” The doorknob turned despite my tight grip on it. “Step back, Mia. I wouldn’t want to stub those pretty toes of yours.”

I stepped back with my heart racing. Would he give me another spanking? Would I like it as much as before?

“Leave him out of it!” I cried as Jake followed Damien in.

“I want him here,” Damien said stubbornly. “I cannot fully please you without his involvement.”

“You can,” I insisted.

He clasped my arms, which my chemise left bare. His thumb and fingers rubbed the tender skin above my elbows. The gentle touch had moisture gathering inside my sex. I didn’t like to think it but, apparently, my nature was as fiery as he asserted.

“I wish to overwhelm you with pleasure,” he said gruffly. “I wish you to love what we do together so much you’ll never want to leave.”

He startled me. He was afraid I’d leave? The thought hadn’t entered my head. Wanting to reassure him, I put my hands on his waist.

“I don’t want to leave. I simply don’t wish to be a strumpet.”

The angle of the sun had lowered, the light that shone through the dormer now tinged with gold. The rays illuminated Damien’s handsome face, including the gemlike shards in his irises.

“I need you,” he said. “And I need you to accept Jake. In all my life, I’ve never met anyone I could trust but him. Would you deny me a second friend?”

He meant me. I was to be the second friend. My eyes stung with sentiment. The closest thing I had to a friend was Regina—and she was a servant. The idea that Damien might value me in that fashion touched me so deeply it took a moment to recognize what he’d done.