Trained by Three Panthers [Caves of Correction 3] (3 page)

The lake had been booked for lunchtime today, but no one had requested it yet for tomorrow, so Colter signed up for it. The only problem was it was quite a longish walk, he supposed, for someone not used to walking on narrow trails and up hills. They ought not go anywhere else as well or she might be too tired, and they really might need the wheelbarrow.

Well, he could work with that. She seemed to like talking, and there was plenty he’d like to know about her, so they’d talk and rest until she was able to make the trek back. And tomorrow night they would take her into the dungeon and start to teach her about punishment.

He hadn’t wanted to do that too soon. He wanted her thinking about the possibilities, though, which was why he’d mentioned it. However, they only had a week, so tomorrow they really did need to start teaching her some of the delights of punishment.

He wondered how she’d feel about having her glasses taken away from her. Would it terrify her or heighten her anticipation of what was to come? Maybe tomorrow they should take them away from her in fun and see how she reacted. Just because the actual BDSM wasn’t starting yet didn’t mean he couldn’t do some research on her.

* * * *

When their mother’s arthritis gradually worsened, restricting her movements, Declan had taken over cooking the meals. He liked to eat, and cooking was a natural extension of that.

Their cottage was one of the larger ones from the outside. That is, it might not have had as much space inside as some other houses, but it had more than one room aboveground. There was a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a study on the first floor. Underground, the first level down contained four bedrooms and another bathroom. The bedrooms were odd shapes and sizes because most of them had been caves originally as well. The basement was a single large cave, which was their dungeon, their hurricane shelter, and a storeroom all in one.

The number of rooms on the first floor had meant his mom could turn the study into her bedroom, and stay at home longer than might have been the case otherwise, because one of the first joints to prove troublesome was her right knee, making going downstairs painful for her.

Eventually she and their dad had to move into the big house, where they had a couple of rooms on the first floor, and she got around, although slowly, using a walker with wheels and a seat. Their dad still worked on the fishing boat as he’d always done. But living in the big house meant his mom no longer had to do chores, which caused her pain, and she wasn’t lonely when their dad was busy because there was always someone for her to sit with or talk to.

A side benefit was that he and his brothers had the house to themselves and turned their thoughts to finding a mate. Asher was twenty-eight, Declan himself was thirty, and Colter was thirty-one, so it was time for them to settle down.

Declan wondered if Mackenzie would be their woman. It was a bit of a problem that she didn’t like hiking, or rock climbing, or swimming, or kayaking. The weather on the island was comparatively mild, and they lived an outdoor lifestyle for most of the year.

She seemed to be easy to get along with though, and that was important. He couldn’t imagine tying himself to a grumpy witch of a woman, or a bully, or a nag, and the long day out with her teaching her new things had proven that she was definitely none of those things.

Maybe tomorrow they could talk to her some more and find out what other things she enjoyed doing. Getting to know a woman was devilishly hard. They couldn’t say they were panthers, which meant there was no way of knowing if their species would be a deal breaker.

The contracts the women filled in to come to the Caves of Correction did give them some hints, though. Guests had to check boxes with their dislikes and fears, and she hadn’t listed animals as a fear. Even snakes and spiders, she’d said she didn’t like them but that she wasn’t afraid of them, so hopefully panthers wouldn’t upset her.

Declan concentrated on the meal he was preparing, but his mind was filled with images of Kenz. Her brown hair was shiny, soft, and shoulder-length, and her eyes were a light brown, not really hazel but nowhere near as dark as his.

Her body was rounded but not fat, so even if she didn’t like exercise she wasn’t tubby and flabby from it. Maybe she did yoga or something. Dancing, that was a girl thing. Perhaps she liked to dance.

Declan spent a moment imagining the lights in the living room turned down low, the furniture stacked against the walls, and Kenz in his arms as they twirled around the floor. She’d be wearing some soft, slinky outfit that left most of her back bare and exposed the tops of her breasts. He’d be in a white button-down shirt and his dress pants.

He sighed as he stirred the Bolognese sauce. Oh yes. That was a good picture. That would so be good to see.

“That smells good,” Asher said, coming across to the counter and collecting bread, butter, forks, and plates.

“Fast and easy to cook and we all like it. What we need to find out is Kenz’s favorite foods.”

“Weren’t they on the contract?”

“No, just allergies. And before you ask, no she doesn’t have any.” Colter picked up the bubbling coffeepot and took it over to the table. Asher put out mugs and Declan strained the pasta, tipped the sauce into a large bowl, and carried them both across to the table.

“How do you two both know when dinner is ready and arrive just in time?” he teased.

Neither of them answered him. It was an age-old joke. They were brothers and lived together in a small community. They knew pretty much everything there was to know about each other.

Actually, Declan was glad they understood each other. They teased each other and their personalities rubbed against each other’s at times, but underneath the complaints they all knew their brothers would never deliberately hurt them, and, if there was trouble, they’d all always have each other’s backs.

“Right. Now let’s plan tomorrow,” Colter said.

Yes, that was his big brother taking over again. Declan sighed and piled more sauce over his pasta. If he had to listen to Colter, he’d do it on a full stomach.

* * * *

Asher was worried Kenz would refuse to walk up the hill to the lake. They’d deliberately taken a slightly roundabout way to get there, but not as complicated as Colter had wished for. Both Asher and Declan were too worried she’d refuse to walk any farther. In fact, Declan had suggested bringing the wheelbarrow, but Colter had vetoed that idea. Asher wasn’t sure. Their teasing might have made her refuse to give in. On the other hand, she might have decided to ride instead of even trying to walk.

Fortunately she made it up the hill quite easily, although she sat on the grass facing the lake as soon as they arrived.

“I like it here. It’s serene and pretty,” she said, smiling at them.

“I’m sure you’d like life on the island. It’s a lot more peaceful and laid-back than on the mainland,” Asher said, smiling right back at her. She was so pretty. Even after walking up the hill, she looked beautiful. Her face was a little pink from the heat of the walk, but he didn’t think she was sunburned at all. He couldn’t help but wonder if her face would be pink as they fucked her. Would all her skin color when she orgasmed?

“Is there a school here? Where did you go to school?” she asked.

Asher was happy to answer that question. “The little kids are homeschooled all together. Their parents share the teaching. Then the older kids stay on the mainland for high school. The boat takes them over on Monday mornings and brings them back when school lets out on Fridays.”

“That’s good. I guess it means you’d always have friends.”

“Didn’t you have friends at school?” he asked.

She shrugged. “I think I said yesterday my father’s mom was just a teenager when he was born, so he was really keen for me to go to a good school and get a decent education. I sat the exam for entry to a selective entry school and got in, but I hated all the posturing about how intelligent everyone was. At my old school everyone worried about wearing the right clothes. At my new school everyone had to wear the right clothes
and
get As on their tests. I graduated to please him, but I hated it.”

Asher wanted to dig a little deeper, to learn more about her. “But was it the kids or the school you hated? The clothes assessment or the academic assessment?”

She frowned but kept facing the lake. “Neither. It was the people. The parents were so impressed with how smart their kids were, that the kids thought they were amazing as well. But the work wasn’t all that hard. I mean it wasn’t as easy as some middle school classes, where basically as long as I turned up I passed the class, but anyone who tried would pass. It wasn’t necessary to be Einstein.”

Declan said something, but Asher was still thinking about Kenz’s answer. He wondered if she was actually a whole lot smarter than she gave herself credit for. A few of the island kids had sat for selective entry schools as well, and he knew they were intelligent kids. It wasn’t all that easy to get in, although Eliot Wade had won a place. He was likely the smartest kid on the island back then. Asher was the same age as him, but Eliot was two school grades ahead of him by the time he’d gone off to high school. Later Eliot had completed an agriculture degree in three years instead of four online.

Asher liked that she was clever. She’d make the scenes in the dungeon far more interesting if she was able to outthink Colter. He also liked that she was modest and not big-noting herself. Likely she was a much nicer person than those kids she’d gone to school with. And he was glad she’d stuck it out and graduated to please her father. That showed her love and respect for him. The more he thought about it, the more Asher was convinced she was a good person through and through, the right kind of woman to be their mate and an asset to the community.

Of course, that did kind of mean that she had to like them and want to be with them as well.

Simple. They’d just have to convince her. How hard could that be? After all, there were three of them and only one of her.

Kenz had enjoyed her second day out with the men, but she was starting to question their plans. This was the second night she’d been returned to her room in time for a shower before dinner, yet the meal had been brought to her room and she’d eaten alone. Last night she’d spent the night alone, and seen no one and done nothing until her breakfast had been brought to her room at seven, and then the men had come for her at eight.

She’d loved seeing the island. It was a truly beautiful place. It’d even been fun to learn to paddle a kayak, not that she expected to ever need that skill again in her life. But it was something new and something she could tell people about when she returned to work.

However, she’d come here for the BDSM. She wanted to learn all about bondage and submission. She thought she might be a true submissive—that once a Dom wrestled the control away from her, she’d relax and be truly content at last. Kenz was sure that a real Dom would inspire her trust and that she’d be perfectly happy to leave him to plan their bedroom lives forever more. She longed to feel the punishment that would excite her into release. A dildo did the job, but it wasn’t anything special, and it wasn’t as though handsome men were lining up at her bedroom door. Hell, they didn’t even appear at her office door.

People in call centers tended to be kids fresh out of school, immigrants who might be very smart but whose skills weren’t recognized yet and who were doing the job until they could break into their chosen field, or older people who were no longer interested in hard physical labor and who liked a job where they were sitting down all day. Not to mention that 80 percent of the staff were women.

Colter, Declan, and Asher were damn fine-looking men, made her pulses pound and her body sit up and take notice. Not that the feeling seemed to be mutual. It was almost as if they couldn’t wait to dump her in her cottage and go off and enjoy their real lives, whatever that might be.

Kenz stared at the door. It locked behind them when they left and couldn’t be opened from her side without a key. She moved right up close to it, checking the hinges and the lock, and then she opened the closet and took out her purse. She located a couple of long hairpins and a credit card and then said, “I hope I can remember how to do this.”

Very gently she inserted the hairpins in the lock, noticing where they caught against the notches and bending them slightly to move more freely. The credit card she inserted between the door and the wall, trying to push the catch open.

She closed her eyes, and in her head, her father’s voice was as clear as if he were standing beside her.
“Feel it, Mac. Don’t force it. Feel it. Work with it. The lock will tell you what to do. All you need to do is listen.”

Her dad had been the only person to call her Mac. Everyone else had called her Kenzie when she was little and Kenz as she grew older. But her dad had called her Mac until the day he’d died.

When the lock clicked open she could imagine his smile. As well as how to pick locks, he’d taught her how to fight dirty and how to defeat an attacker much bigger and stronger than she was. The very first time she’d thrown him over her shoulder she’d been terrified she’d hurt him, but as soon as he’d stopped coughing and gasping, he’d been as pleased as the day she’d been accepted into the school she’d hated.

Kenz kicked off her shoe and put it between the door and the door jamb to keep the door ajar, and then grabbed her purse again, riffling through it until she found her duct tape. Carefully she taped the lock open, making sure the duct tape didn’t show from the outside, and checked it twice. Even so, she tucked the hairpins into her hair and slid the credit card into her jeans pocket in case she needed to pick the lock to get back in again, before she put her shoe back on, stepped outside, and carefully closed the door behind her.

It was dark and a little bit windy. She wondered if it was often windy at night or maybe only at this time of year. She hadn’t really talked about the weather to the men. Each time when they’d left her cottage the men had led her to the right where the tiny track from her cottage joined another track, so she turned left to see where the trail led.