MenageaDare (3 page)

Honestly, certain aspects of BDSM were an absolute turn-off.
She had no wish to be beaten or whipped or turned into a Dominant’s slave. But
she knew the lifestyle was more complicated than that and was intrigued by
bondage and surrendering control to a lover.

Maybe when the time was right, Remy would help her
understand the cravings within herself. The few times he showed dominance
today, her body responded, her mind had been engaged, interested.

And yet, she couldn’t forget what her friend Morgan Maddox,
a gifted psychic, told her before she left Massachusetts. She’d claimed Eve and
Remy would become lovers during an unscheduled stop in their itinerary…and soon
after their lives would be changed by a man who was the polar opposite in
physical features and coloring to Remy, but would in fact be the yin to Remy’s
yang.

Curious to find out what would happen when she and Remy
reached Dare, Eve refocused on the here and now. Tonight was their night, their
first time. She only hoped Remy didn’t come to regret it.

Remy took five minutes to shower, turning the water cold
toward the end to douse his erection for the time being. After drying off with
his towel, he knotted it at his waist and went over to a sink with a mirror to
shave and brush his teeth.

He didn’t want to linger as he didn’t want to leave Eve
alone for too long in a strange place. He didn’t get a sense that anything was
amiss at the bathhouse, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

He’d meant it when he said it’d kill him if something
happened to her. His reality TV show had become a success faster than he’d
anticipated and Eve was a welcome addition to his small team a year ago and
they’d become friends. But she meant more to him than that.

In private, he’d imagined all the ways he wanted to fuck
her. In reality, he’d kept his hands off her until today. Now that they’d
kissed, all bets were off. He couldn’t very well tuck her back into a neat
little box and pretend he didn’t want her.

But she had to understand the kind of man he was first. As
much as he intended to be the man she deserved, there was a very real part of
him that reared its head whenever he’d thought he’d found love with a woman—the
desire to fuck men.

The same desire that broke his ex-fiancée’s heart.

It was true he’d dated Beth all through high school,
proposing to her before she went to Holy Cross. But when he’d gone to Yale, he’d
experienced his first man-crush on the RA in his dorm.

He’d tried to keep his distance, then his little brother
Blair disappeared and Stefan opened his arms. After tears and tequila-induced
confessions, Remy woke up the following morning in a tangle of a man’s arms and
legs, his ass still smarting from the fucking his new lover had given him.

One night with Stefan turned into much more, with his lover
introducing him to bisexual orgies that had no rhyme or reason, only pleasure.
There was never any commitment from Stefan, simply the promise to not ask any
questions as Remy sought to understand why Blair haunted him and why his family
didn’t believe in him.

By the end of his senior year in college, his engagement to
Beth ended when he confessed that he had a male lover, sending her into a
tailspin that led to her accident. To this day, he regretted that he hadn’t
broken things off after high school.

Back then he’d been scared of many things, primarily
upsetting his parents who’d looked to his and Beth’s wedding day as a means of
healing after his brother disappeared. Dresses had been ordered for the
bridesmaids, tuxes were fitted, a church and reception hall reserved,
invitations were to be mailed.

That was when he knew he couldn’t live a lie anymore. To that
end, maybe it was time to let go of what happened to Beth and trust that he’d
never repeat his mistakes with Eve. Once they became friends, he could honestly
look back and say there’d not been a single man or woman he’d wanted to fuck
more than Eve.

There’d been a brief time when he’d pretended to have an
attraction to Morgan Everhart, who was now married to Ethan Maddox. Once he
realized she wasn’t available, he’d flirted with Alex Grant and Dr. Ryan
Hathaway in order to hide his feelings for Eve.

Now he adored Morgan as he did a little sister and the men
were more like brothers than potential lovers. A lot had changed since then,
within himself and with Eve.

Turning away from the mirror, Remy went back to the row of
benches where he’d left his things and got dressed in a pair of old jeans, a
black tee shirt with
NEPI
—
New England Paranormal Investigators
—initials
in red, and a pair of Crocs.

Finished, he packed up his dirty stuff, grabbed his leather
jacket and headed out of the bathhouse to wait for Eve. She came out a few
minutes later, her almost-straight brunette hair worn down. Whenever she read
or used the computer, she tended to wear reading glasses, but right now the
glasses were gone.

Seeing her hair hanging loose and falling to her elbows, he
realized it was the same color as the milk chocolate he’d bought for s’mores.
Fighting off the urge to run his fingers through her hair, he dropped all he
was carrying except his jacket.

“Everything okay in the bathhouse?” he asked, draping his
jacket over her shoulders.

“It was awesome and heated,” she answered, huddling under
his coat. “I met a nice woman and her daughter. They warned me that it’d get
pretty cold tonight. Sorry if it took too long.”

“No problem,” he assured, taking the backpack she’d carried
and stuffed his things inside. Belatedly thinking he should have checked with
her first, he looked up to catch her staring at him. “What’s wrong? Sorry if I
should’ve asked.”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s kind of cool to see my boss loosening
up,” she admitted.

“Makes sense to pack together,” he said, shrugging.

“Remy, if you’re having second thoughts, I won’t push this
between us,” Eve said.

Zipping the backpack, he stood and hung it from his right
shoulder, facing her.

“Sugar, the cold shower I took means it’s a little too late
to have second thoughts. Let’s get back to camp and make dinner.”

“Okay,” she agreed, going up on her toes to kiss him on the
cheek. “I adore you, Remy Sinclair.”

“I feel the same way about you. I may have tried to fight
it, but now that the cat’s out of the bag I’m not going to retreat.”

She made a cute little kitty-like hiss. “Careful, these
claws can leave marks.”

He hoped so. He’d relish scratch marks from her French
manicured nails as badges of honor.

Eve was a pretty woman with hazel eyes, wholesome features,
a heart-shaped face and a mouth with a slightly fuller upper lip. Once she’d
compared herself to a duck. He didn’t see the resemblance, he thought she was
beautiful.

Focusing on Eve, Remy ran his hand down her spine to the
small of her back and noticed she wasn’t wearing a bra even through the
thickness of his coat. He was a good deal taller than her. He liked that.

He also liked how easily he could tuck her in nice and
close. Just the slightest contact with the small of her back turned him on.

Man, he really wanted to get her naked and explore her at
length. She had a slender build, nice hips and legs. It’d be great to pick her
up, wrap those legs around him and drive himself into her deep.

“Remy, what made you decide to be a ghost hunter?” Eve asked
out of the blue. “I’ve known you for a year and never thought to ask. I should
have.”

“Blair’s the reason,” he answered.

“Blair?”

Leading Eve away from the bathhouse, he thought about what
to say. “He was my younger brother. He was ten when he died.”

Eve breathed a sad sigh, drawing to a halt. “Ten? What
happened, Remy?”

“Let’s talk while we walk,” Remy said, keeping Eve close to
him. “Blair went missing during my freshman year of college. His remains
weren’t found until five years later.”

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” Eve shifted a little, moving
his hand off the small of her back. A half-second later, her fingers wrapped
around his and held on tight. “If it’s difficult to talk about, don’t feel
pressured.”

“Talking is good. Blair passed away. His soul didn’t and he
visited me often that first year, then intermittently until his killer was
caught.”

“What did he say or do when he came to you?”

“The first time it happened, I’d gone home to help my
parents and sisters search for him. He came to me in my room, warning me about
Mr. Sisco, the ice cream man and youth soccer coach who lived a couple miles
from our house.”

“You told the police about this man?”

“Absolutely, but Abe Sisco had a wife who’d given him an
alibi the day Blair disappeared. He had children, all adopted, some were my
sisters ages and they played soccer together.”

“Oh my god, I can’t imagine what it was like for you and
your family.”

“It was terrible. Each time Blair appeared to me, he
insisted he’d gone into Abe’s garage to get an ice cream cone out of the
freezer and never came out.”

Eve squeezed his hand again. “Poor Blair, I wish I could
hold him right now. Did the police apprehend Abe Sisco?”

“Yes, my brother was found in an old cellar under Sisco’s
garage.”

“Your family must have been devastated.”

“They were, we all were, but we got vindication. A forensics
team and the police were able to trace Abe Sisco’s alias to a serial killer
from Chicago who’d gone dormant and moved to Massachusetts when the FBI nearly
caught him.”

“Tell me this sucker is in prison or I’m having Phalen,
Ethan and Taran Maddox hunt him down and take him out,” Eve demanded, her fight
for his baby brother touching his heart.

Tugging on her hand, he brought her around to face him,
shrugging to ease the backpack off his shoulder and set it on the graveled
path.

“Sisco is gone, sugar,” he assured her.

“Gone as in dead or gone as in prison?”

“Dead,” Remy revealed. “Authorities believe he committed
suicide in his cell soon after being sentenced to life in prison without
parole.”

“Then Blair was given justice,” Eve commented.

“Blair stopped visiting once Sisco was arrested.”

“Do you miss your brother coming to visit you?”

Remy inclined his head. “Every day, but I’m glad he’s at
peace.”

“But you’re not?” Eve locked eyes with him, elevating her
chin, her stance telling him she was ready to take on his demons.

“During those first five years my brother was gone, I made a
lot of mistakes, hurt people I loved, all to cover the pain going on inside.”

“You must have felt so alone,” she said, lifting her hand to
place it against his cheek.

“Yes, and I’d fooled myself into thinking fucking anyone I
could find would fulfill that part of me that’d been missing since Blair died.”

“For what it’s worth, Remy, I’d have stood by you.”

“You’ve stood by me even after I kept pushing you away.
Why?”

“Because you are the part of me that beats,” she claimed,
resting her free hand over her heart.

“I’m your heart, sugar?” he asked, liking that, liking that
a lot. He’d never been someone’s heart before, much less believed himself
worthy of a woman such as Evelyn.

“Haven’t you figured that out yet?” Her fingers curled
inward slightly, cupping his cheek and making him feel wanted, loved.

“You’re going to let me make love to you tonight, aren’t
you?” he asked, wanting to kick himself in the ass for getting nervous all of a
sudden.

“For as long as you want me, no matter what you ask of me in
bed, I’m yours,” she answered. Bending his head toward her, he caught her mouth
in a gentle kiss, remaining aware of the chill in the Colorado air and the
approaching sunset.

“Be careful, Eve, my kinks go beyond the norm,” he declared
as he drew back, nipping on her cute fuller lip before moving to her side.

“I hope so,” she replied. “You’ve no idea the fantasies I’ve
had about you.”

“Let’s take it slow this weekend, Eve. We’ll talk, make
love, play, maybe go hiking and make love some more,” he insisted, taking her
hand and leading her on. “But if at any point, you want out afterward that’s
all you have to say. Okay?”

Shortly, they arrived at their horseshoe-shaped camping
spot, which was secluded from neighboring campsites by thick bushes and trees.
Better yet, the campground had all the amenities needed for a camper, including
hookups for water and electricity.

Taking the backpack to his truck, he opened up the canvas
cover, put the pack inside and then set about stacking dried kindling and logs
provided by the campground in the small fire pit. Couple of minutes later, a
fire came to life, warding off the early evening chill.

“Have a seat, sugar,” he said, guiding Eve to a camp chair
he’d set near the fire pit earlier.

He had a couple of battery-powered lanterns stowed in the
camper and walked to the kitchen side to retrieve them. Turning them on, he
moved to hung one from a hook in the side of the camper, the other he kept in
his hand.

“I’ll find some sticks for the hotdogs. I have buns and
condiments if you need them,” he said after the campsite was well lit.

“Hotdogs over an open fire sound perfect tonight. I’m fine
eating right off the stick.” Her eagerness to eat hotdogs set off a chain
reaction. One second he was thinking about food, the next his cock was
thickening in his jeans.

“In that case, eat well, sugar. We’ll both need to if we
plan to have sex more than once tonight.”

“More than once?” she said, looking upward at the darkening
sky. “God, please let that happen.”

“Don’t ask God. Ask me.”

Eve stayed in her chair, lowering her eyes from the sky to
his face. “Do I need to call you Sir?”