The Reluctant Dom (5 page)

Leah nodded and turned to the rack of implements. Without hesitation she reached for a coiled whip, one of several laying on a shelf.

Seth's blood ran cold but he remained silent.

She walked over to Kaden and knelt before him, offering it up to him.

“The four-footer?” he said, almost sounding amused. “You don't want to take it easy on poor Seth tonight, do you?”

“Please, Master. I need to feel the bite.” Her voice sounded choked, her eyes looked red, like she was near tears again.

His face softened. He nodded and took the whip from her. “Of course, love,” he said, his voice incongruously gentle. “Set of twenty?”

“Yes, Master. Please.”

“Take your place, love.”

She stood and walked over to the bench and laid across it, her arms and legs falling near the attached cuffs. Kaden walked over to her and stroked her ass. Seth, who felt he was now an outsider in this tableaux, remained silent and still.

“Do you want the cuffs, love?”

Leah's eyes were closed. Seth had seen her tightly peaked nipples.

“Master's choice.”

“Do you mind if we don't use them tonight? I think this will be intense enough for Seth without seeing that right now.”

“I understand, Master.”

Seth looked up as Kaden uncoiled the whip. He realized the ceiling in this room was higher than the other bedrooms. While the living room and dining room had tall, vaulted ceilings, the other bedrooms were standard eight-foot ceilings. During the planning stage, Kaden had asked for this room to have a vaulted ceiling and no ceiling fan.

Now he understood why.

Kaden backed away from the bench and shook out the whip. He stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders, loosening up. His tone changed, firm, authoritative, sounding totally unlike Seth's soft-spoken friend. “Do you need to feel the bite, slave?”

From the bench, it looked like Leah actually wiggled her ass and hips at Kaden. “I need to feel the bite, Master.”

“Set of twenty, love.”

“Twenty, Master.”

“Count.”

Seth flinched, unprepared as Kaden nailed her with the whip, striking her squarely in the middle of her left ass cheek.

“One, Master.”

His face a mask of concentration, Kaden slowly worked through the set, Leah keeping count with each strike. It was obvious Kaden knew what he was doing, making it look effortless and apparently striking his intended spot each time.

It was also equally obvious that Leah was ... enjoying wasn't perhaps the best word but she definitely wasn't upset about it despite the tears running down her face by the time he finished.

Kaden coiled the whip. “Where are we, love?”

“Green, Master.”

“Very good, love.” He walked over to her and knelt beside her, touching his forehead to hers, whispering to her. She nodded and cried. He pulled her into his arms and sat on the floor, holding her in his lap for many long, tender minutes as she sobbed, her agonized screams echoing through the otherwise silent house. Kaden remained silent as she clutched him, his face buried in her hair.

Now Seth felt even more uncomfortable. He wanted to get up and walk out and give them privacy, yet felt that would disturb them more than him just quietly sitting there.

Kaden nuzzled the top of her head and that's when Seth spotted his friend's tears.

Leah eventually composed herself. Kaden whispered something to her, then tenderly kissed her temple. She nodded, stood, and left the room.

From his place on the floor, Kaden wiped his eyes and looked at Seth.

Taking a deep breath and knowing he could not refuse his friend, Seth softly said, “I'll do it.”

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Chapter 3

Kaden stood and turned his back to Seth for a moment, wiped his face. He finally took a deep breath and then turned and nodded. “Thank you,” he quietly said. “I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate this. It takes a huge burden off me.”

Seth felt emotionally drained. Not only from his own feelings, but from what he'd just witnessed.

He also worried he might not be able to step up and take over. Could he deal with that responsibility?

He was the perpetual fuck-up. Could he ever truly be strong and steady Kaden?

“You won't let her down,” Kaden said as if reading his mind. “You'll do fine. I know you will.”

Seth shook his head. “What am I getting myself into?”

“Let's go talk. Give her a few minutes to recover.” He grabbed his shirt and glasses and led Seth back to the living room where they settled on the large sectional sofa. “Do you have early classes tomorrow?”

“No. I have one at eleven.”

“Why don't you spend the night? I'm taking off the rest of the week for Leah. I need to finish up some things at work over the next few weeks, and then I'm going to stay home for her. I still have some projects going on that I need to wrap up or hand off. I can mostly work from here until they're taken care of.”

Here he was, dying, and still talking about doing things for Leah.

Seth's eyes flicked to the hallway. “I don't know if I should spend the night tonight, dude. I mean...” He didn't know how to finish, so he didn't.

“Get used to seeing her naked. It's how she usually dresses. Unless it's chilly or she's not feeling well, she's usually wearing only her collar. I mean, how many times have you dropped by unexpectedly and caught her ‘just out of the shower’ and wearing only her robe?” Kaden used finger quotes around the phrase.

Seth mentally reeled. He'd joked with her that his timing always sucked and that she needed a new bathrobe. He caught her wearing it fairly frequently, always pulled high around her neck...

He closed his eyes. “Shit.”

“Yep. Makes sense now, doesn't it?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on, I mean, really. Did you honestly think she manages to take showers just when you show up?” Kaden laughed, amused. “That's why it's usually hanging behind the front door.”

Seth flushed. He had noticed that on more than one occasion but hadn't thought anything about it, assumed she left it there to put on in the morning when she walked down the drive to get the paper.

Kaden continued. “There's plenty of times when she thought you might be stopping by, or if she suspects anyone might be coming by, she'll keep a pair of shorts and a T-shirt by the door so she can slip them on quickly. Then she's usually wearing her day collar, not the one she's wearing now.” He worked his wedding band around his finger. “Call your brother and tell him you're spending the night. You've stayed here before. That way he won't worry. We can talk, have breakfast in the morning.”

“How am I supposed to get used to seeing your wife walking around here naked?” Seth didn't want to voice the last part of his statement.

Kaden smirked. “Buddy, you have to. Kind of hard to make love to her with her clothes on.”

Horrified, Seth recoiled from his friend's words. “Dude! She's your wife! I can't ... I can't ask her to have sex with me!”

“Why not? You're going to be her Master, her husband. She'll want it. I damn sure know you'll want it.”

Seth tried to reconcile what Kaden had told him earlier. He dropped his voice to a hoarse whisper. “Dude, after what you told me—”

Kaden shook his head. “This isn't the same. You won't be forcing her, trust me. She likes you, she's attracted to you.”

Seth fell silent, trying to process this information. He didn't know which shocked him more, the matter-of-fact tone Kaden used, or his friend's obviously well thought out plans. Just when Seth thought he'd hit the high water weird mark, Kaden raised the bar yet again.

Kaden's dying.

Kaden stretched back, an amused smile on his face. “We're married, not dead. No, we don't sleep with other people.” His smile faded. “Before now. This will be a first for us.”

“I'm
so
not doing you, buddy.” How much more did Seth not know about Kaden?

And how much did he not want to know?

Kaden laughed. “Don't worry. I don't swing that way either.” His voice softened. “Remember that girl that one time?”

Seth finally laughed. “Yeah. Jillian.” He shook his head. “Man, she turned us every which way but loose that night. Well worth the two-day hangover that rotgut tequila gave me.”

The men fell quiet again for a moment until Kaden broke the silence. “We talk, Leah and me. We use fantasy. You've played a starring role in hers more than a few times.”

Seth reddened, simultaneously embarrassed and oddly pleased. “Yeah?”

Kaden nodded. “That's another reason I thought of you first. I know she can love you. She will be as good for you as you will for her.”

Seth studied his hands. “I cannot believe you are telling me it's okay to fuck your wife.”

“My life has changed a lot in the past few days, buddy. My whole way of thinking has changed.” Kaden removed his glasses and closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbed it. “I know her,” he softly said. “If I don't hook the two of you up before ... If something doesn't happen between you two, it won't. She won't let it, she'll feel too guilty and that will leave her open to something horrible happening.” He opened his eyes and looked at Seth again. “And let's face it. After, you'd normally not ask her out, right?”

Seth swallowed hard. “Right,” he softly agreed.

Kaden sadly smiled. “I have to do this. I don't like that I have to make arrangements like this.” His smile faded. “We should have had fifty or more years together.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I want her to be happy, Seth. I want her to love and live and not spend her years in a black hole. Worse, I don't want her to kill herself.”

“You think she'd do that?” One more worry on Seth's plate.

“Not if she has you. She'll have you to serve and take care of her. She'll hurt, she'll grieve, but if she has you she'll keep putting one foot in front of the other. She won't have a choice.” He opened his eyes again. Seth saw he was near tears. “I'm not saying you've got to do anything with her tonight. I'm saying you need to let things happen between the two of you. And it will happen. It can't not happen.”

Kaden glanced at the cable box, where the time was displayed. “You need to call Ben and Helen and tell them you won't be home tonight so they don't worry.”

Seth numbly nodded and pulled out his cell phone to make the call. While he did, Kaden walked to the kitchen. He returned a moment later with two fingers of bourbon over ice and retook to his place on the sofa.

“Let's get you moved in by this weekend, okay? I want you settled as soon as possible so I can get the two of you into a routine. She needs structure.”

Seth had spent several nights at their house over the years, usually after a late running card game or after having too much to drink after a cook out, but this felt different.

Weird.

The voice didn't sound like his own, Seth thought. “Okay.”

“When does this semester end?”

Seth tried to force his brain to work. “A couple of weeks.”

“Did you already register for the next one?”

“Not yet.”

“You need to stop by the registrar's office and talk to them, find out the procedure for taking time off. If you still need to take one class at a time or something that's okay. You don't want a heavy class load for a semester or two at least.” He looked away. “I doubt you'll miss many.”

Seth stiffly nodded.

Kaden continued, his voice sounding hoarse. “I'll get the paperwork drawn up for you next week.”

Seth shook his head. “I don't need paperwork. I trust you.”

“I trust you, too. The problem is, Leah won't be able to function. I need someone with legal authority to make decisions and get shit done. I need you to have a power of attorney, medical proxy, DNR order, my living will has to be changed, bank accounts, all of that. I need you on all that paperwork for her, too. Might as well do it all and make it official. It'll make our lives easier later on. One less thing for me to worry about. Get it done and over with.”

Seth numbly nodded. That even control freak Kaden could think of all of this at a time like this ... must be the attorney training.

Kaden took a deep breath. “I don't want to die in a hospital. I want to be here. We'll have to get hooked up with Hospice when the time comes. At least you'll be able to practice your nurse training,” Kaden attempted to joke.

Seth snorted but Kaden knew it wasn't total amusement.

“Sorry, buddy.” He paused a moment before he softly continued. “I want to be cremated. Whatever Leah wants to do with the remains is okay with me. You may have to help her make that decision. I'll have a few things prepared. I'll give them to my partner, Ed, so when it ... happens, you can just call him and he'll set the other balls in motion for you. You can focus on her for the immediate time and Ed will take over and handle that stuff for you both. Okay?”

Seth nodded. Surreal. Nightmare. Wormhole still looked like a viable option.

Kaden leveled his gaze at Seth. “I don't like talking like this. I don't like planning like this. I want it fucking done and out of my way. Out of our way. I want it handled now, so I don't have to think about it anymore. I want it done now, while I can think about it, so I don't forget anything and we can spend the rest of my time doing what needs to be done for Leah.” He took a sip of his drink. “I don't want her reverting in her stress.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know at first some of what I'll ask you to do to and for her might run contrary to what you think and feel is right. Remember, I know her and I know what she needs. You have to trust me. You cannot let her put up a wall. If she does, she'll hide behind it and then we'll lose her. She'll sink back into her old behaviors and you won't ever be able to get her back once I'm gone.”

“I thought you said you didn't have to worry about that anymore?”

“I also told you she's had three—well, now four—sessions in twenty-four hours. Usually she only gets them twice, maybe three times a week, if that, and sometimes I barely touch her. What you saw just now was mild compared to what she's already had today.”