Punishing for Pleasure (8 page)

Laying on her stomach on the damned grass wasn’t on Trish Jantz’s list of most favored ways to spend an evening. She had almost reached the turn off to Ash and Dex’s vacant lot when she’d seen Dex’s truck pull onto the highway and speed past her. Trish had been practically bouncing in her seat when she’d come upon the accident scene back a mile or so. Seeing the small red sports car crinkled like a tin can and the helicopter waiting to whisk the dying driver away had made her heart sing. After all, everybody knew they didn’t airlift out patients unless they were dying, right?

After rigging the slut’s car, she’d slipped into a small corner of the hospital’s courtyard to watch Ash Moore and Dex Raines. God, they were both so gorgeous she could barely breathe. Hell, she hadn’t even wanted to blink for fear they might really be figments of her overactive imagination and vanish before her eyes. Once the program ended, everyone stood and she hadn’t been able to see any further than the people immediately in front of her. By the time she’d made her way out of the courtyard, they’d been gone. She’d reached the parking garage just in time to see the little red sports car speeding up the ramp leading to the street. The car’s tinted windows prevented her from seeing the driver, but from what the good senator had told her, Merilee Dillon Lanham didn’t let anyone else drive her precious automotive gold mine.

Trish had taken her time, stopping at her apartment to shower and change clothes, because she certainly didn’t intend to play the sympathetic friend in the soiled clothes she’d worn to crawl under the low clearance car. The oil stain on her shirt and slacks would have been hard to explain, and neither Ash nor Dex ever missed a detail.

When she first met the two Doms two years ago, she’d been a guest at Prairie Winds when they’d been visiting while on leave. They’d played with her, but had kept it light since she hadn’t been through the training class. But she’d felt the soul-deep connection and despite their insistence that it was just an introductory scene, she’d known it was just a matter of time before they realized the truth. She’d tried to learn everything she could about the two men, but she had quickly discovered information about Navy SEALs was difficult to come by.

When they had retired and returned to Austin, Trish had
known
they’d come back for her. They had played one night right after their return and it had been perfect. And then that last night they’d been negotiating a scene with her when one of the dungeon monitors interrupted their discussion to tell the men they were needed in the Wests’ office upstairs. Before she knew what was happening, Trish found herself cooling her heels in the unattached submissives’ area. A half hour later, the unthinkable happened, she’d watched as
h
er
men stalked through the club’s main room leading another woman toward the dungeon. Trish had scrambled to her feet and joined the crowd following the trio and then been furious at what she’d witnessed. It was obvious the scene had started out as a harsh punishment, but it had been equally clear things had changed before everything was through.

Watching Ash and Dex lash the woman would have been an erotic fantasy come true if she hadn’t seen the transformation in them midway through the scene. The beginning had given her a unique opportunity to study the dominance styles of both men, information she’d known would be useful in the future. They anticipated one another’s moves with an ease born of years of working together. Trish had read a lot about the bonds between SEAL teammates and it had been easy to see that night. She’d gotten so aroused watching them that she’d worried she might climax just standing to the side watching…until she’d seen Dex step up in front of the woman they’d secured to the St. Andrew’s Cross. His fingers had moved over the sub’s cheek until they were hidden in her long dark hair. The touch had been incredibly intimate and Trish had clearly been able to read his lips when he’d said, “You are doing great, sweetheart.”

Trish remembered feeling as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over her. Every bit of arousal she’d been feeling had drained away, replaced swiftly with a wave of jealousy to rival the strongest of tsunamis. She had barely been able to watch the rest of the scene, seeing the two Doms known to favor a slightly darker shade of the lifestyle fall under the witch’s spell had enraged her. Trish had waited in her small car until the men escorted the woman to her car. Jotting down her license plate number, Trish had then followed the speeding sports car until it had disappeared behind a security gate. The information made it easy to identify Ms. Merilee Dillon Lanham. But the most valuable piece of information had been a small blip in a gossip column mentioning the fact Ms. Lanham and Senator John Stevens had recently stopped keeping company.
Keeping company? Who the hell talks like that besides a pretentious southern gossip goddess?

Getting a job in Senator Stevens’ Austin office had been a piece of cake. Changing her hair color and dressing like Miss Richer-than-God before accidently bumping into him one night at his favorite restaurant had been all it had taken. Getting the asshat to rant about his ex-girlfriend had been easy enough as well, all she’d had to do was endure a few nights of sex so boring she’d worried her mind had actually gone numb.

And tonight, Trish had hoped the men would seek the solitude of their vacant property after losing their beloved piece of ass. She had her story all in place as to why she was there…her poor lost puppy was last seen in this area and she just couldn’t bear the thought of him being lost and alone. They’d be able to comfort one another, in her opinion a lost puppy was probably the bigger loss. But looking over and seeing Dex’s truck wind its way up the Lanham’s drive had surprised her so she’d grabbed her field glasses and cursed when she saw the two men leading the poacher into the house.
Fuck! Who the hell was driving that
damned sports car
?
T
hat
nitwit
Stevens
said she never lets anybody else drive her car
. What a
dumb bastard.

*****

Merilee hadn’t been sure she was going to be able to get through the punishment. It didn’t matter how badly she’d needed the physical release, it had been the emotional part that she’d worried might elude her. But she should have known better than to worry, because both Doms seemed to sense what she needed—just as they had every time she’d played with them. With something close to frightening accuracy, Ash and Dex could hone in on her feelings, sense her limits, and then proceed to steamroll right over every single boundary she thought she had and every wall she’d erected in her mind and around her heart.

Her reaction when she’d heard the other men had joined them had been purely reflex, because she simply wasn’t accustomed to being bent over her mother’s teak dining room table with her ass bared to the world. The wall of windows in front of her had been a continual reminder that they weren’t at Prairie Winds but their nearest neighbors hadn’t yet built on the hill overlooking the mansion, so she felt confident her stalker hadn’t been privy to her punishment. As she knelt in the corner, she let her mind drift over the different things that had happened since her problems started. She was typically a detail person—rarely missing even the slightest variance in things, but she knew she was missing something in this situation and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it was.

It was times like these that she missed her dad the most. They often brainstormed together. He was one of the most open-minded people she knew, and their late night sessions tossing ideas back and forth had refined more than one major project. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until Dex lifted her in to his arms and started up the stairs. “I don’t know where you drifted off to, sweetness, but that wasn’t where we needed you to be. Let’s get you cleaned up before you eat.”

*****

Dex had seen Meri weaving as she knelt in the kitchen and had been watching her closely. When he’d looked up to see Peter frowning in her direction, he’d moved closer. Peter had given him a quick signal for “too far” and even though it was cryptic, he’d known exactly what his friend had been trying to say. She’d had a busy and stressful day and they’d pushed her to the edge in their efforts to get her out of her head for a bit, but in the end he wasn’t sure it had worked out as well as they’d planned, and he wasn’t sure why.

As he settled Meri in the deep bath and added lavender Epson salts, he’d warned her to stay put until he returned for her and then gone back downstairs. Stepping into the large kitchen, Dex heard Peter explain, “You didn’t do anything wrong, Ash. She had a hell of a day, so you have to understand why she didn’t fully connect. And for what it’s worth, I think she is wondering the same thing and when she has a chance to process it, she is going to feel like she’s failed you. That woman is brilliant and driven, but she is submissive to the core. I doubt there is another sub at the club whose submission is as hard-wired into their personality as it is in Meri’s.”

Dex had grabbed a couple of beers from the bar as he’d walked by he drained the first bottle and quickly opened the second. “Suggestions? I know you were listening, any insight you’re willing to share?” All the SEALs that had worked with Peter Weston knew he had very rigid ideas about what was appropriate use of his gift. Dex was hoping Peter would see the information as helping Meri rather than spying on her, but he knew it was likely a matter of perspective.

Ash continued working at the opposite side of the large kitchen, but Dex knew his friend was keeping very close tabs on the conversation. His eyes continually moved to Peter as if he could will their friend to spill the beans. Peter finally sighed and took a deep breath before speaking, “Listen, this is dicey because technically what you asked isn’t something I’d usually answer, but if you are going to keep her safe you need to know where her head is…
damn
I hate this
.
I think she’ll tell you exactly what you want to know if you ask her in a way that assures her you aren’t disappointed with her. She will shut down on you if you make that mistake. Remember, she has impossibly high expectations for herself, and that is in addition to the fact she will make her Master the absolute center of her universe. Those two things are going to be at odds a lot and any Dom topping Meri needs to be aware that she’ll give until there is nothing left if he lets her.”

Dex, Ash, and Carl all waited because they all knew Peter’s tells and he wasn’t finished yet, he was simply rolling his next words around in his mind until he felt they were just right. It was one of the things that had earned Peter the respect of every teammate he’d ever worked with—he didn’t speak unless he had something to worthwhile to contribute. And he didn’t say anything unless it was “ready to be said,” Dex held back his smile at the words he’d heard more than once. Peter rolled the glass of ice water he was holding around on the countertop for several seconds, making connecting circles that were starting to remind Dex of a tightly coiled spring, before finally looking up again.

“One of the ways Meri processes information is brainstorming. She does that with her dad and it works for her because he
listens
. Well, more accurately he actively listens.”

“Explain.” Ash’s one word comment showed how out of his element he felt and the fact he cared enough about Meri to even ask gave Dex hope that his friend was falling for her too.
Her too?
The sudden realization that he really had fallen in love with Meri startled Dex enough that he nearly missed Peter’s answer.

“I mean that he doesn’t try to solve things for her unless she asks him too. I’m not surprised she and Tobi West are close friends because this is one of Tobi’s favorite tools as well. These women willingly throw every idea they have out on the table during a discussion. What’s more, they don’t take it personally when an idea is rejected, because it’s all about the process for them. They need to bounce the ideas around and they do that verbally. Think of it as a stone being polished by fine sand. The rock is the basic plan and the sand is all the details, each grain of sand holds an idea, and whether or not it ends up being instrumental in the end isn’t important. The real reason it works is because they don’t outright reject anything, they see each grain as a piece of the whole.” He took a long breath before blowing it out and sighing, “The key to dealing with them is to let them talk through it, ask intelligent, probing questions, and above all, listen to the answers.”

Peter paused for a minute and then smiled, “Listen, you guys have been doing this exact same thing for years with your teammates. It’s the same concept, but it won’t usually involve helos, fast roping, or C4. That last part is kind of a shame, really, but there you have it.”

They heard a snort of laughter from behind them and all turned to see a beautiful and completely naked woman standing in the doorway. She was holding a silk robe in her hand but she had known better than to put it on and that pleased Dex way more than it probably should have. “I know I was supposed to wait, but the water got cold and I…well, I could smell the food and I’m really hungry.” All four of them were staring at her with their mouths hanging open. Dex knew she had misinterpreted their lack of verbal response when embarrassment and hurt flashed in her eyes for just a second before she looked down and took a half step back. “I’ll just go back up and—”

“Stop!” Ash’s command had been stern but hadn’t sounded threatening, and Dex watched as Meri’s nipples immediately puckered into beautiful tight peaks. “I’m glad you came down, and I’m even more pleased that you knew you shouldn’t put on anything one of us hadn’t given you. And as pleased as I am to see your beautiful curves, I think you’ll be more comfortable eating with the four of us if you can wear that pretty robe.”

“That doesn’t mean you’ll get to keep it all evening, because we’d like to start getting you past the body image issue we’ve sensed on several occasions, but while we eat and work through a few things, we want your entire focus on what we’re talking about.” Dex’s words seemed to settle her, and she looked up and nodded. Since Carl was the closet to her, he took the short midnight blue garment from her hand, holding it open for her. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear that Dex didn’t hear, and Ash’s growl told him everything he needed to know.

“Lighten up, Ash, for Christ’s sake, I just told her that she is beautiful.”

“And?” Ash was still glaring at Carl who was obviously enjoying himself.

“Well, yeah. I might have mentioned something about my mild curiosity about what she sees in you to boneheads, but mostly it was about the fact she is gorgeous and
usually
really smart.” Meri giggled and Dex suspected Carl’s antics had been intended to break the ice. Carl Phillips had a happy-go-lucky attitude that he used like a shield. All of his teammates had wondered over the years what it was the man was working so hard to hold back.
Not sure I want to be around when that volcano
blow
s, likely to be some mighty powerful stuff
.