She frowned. “And I turned into a bridezilla who wouldn’t even listen when my best friend tried to save me.”
“She’s going to get spanked for that,” Dominic said.
“Annabelle? Why on earth would you spank her?” Kinley asked. “She meant well. Besides, I don’t think Eric, Kellan, and Tate would like that.”
“It’s not Annabelle I’m planning to spank. But to your point, we went to visit her on the job because we thought her help would be valuable. Having lawyers on our side was a perk, too. You wouldn’t believe what those three put us through before we were even allowed to sit down and talk to Annabelle.” Dominic shook his head.
“Why didn’t you just go straight to her?”
Law scowled. “Because we honor the rights of other Doms, and it was obvious they’re planning to stake their claim on her.”
“Doms?”
Riley finally looked up. “Dominants. BDSM. You know.”
“BS what?” Kinley asked, wearing a look of pure confusion on her face.
Dominic raised a dark brow, almost amused. “I thought you read romances. Doesn’t every female walking the face of the earth have a deeply romantic vision of BDSM by now? It’s a catch-all term for bondage, dominance, submission, and masochism. It’s what we started teaching you yesterday.”
“I’m the submissive. And you three are the Dominants. And Annabelle is a submissive, too? Does she know that? Because I think she would have told me. I know she would have told me if she had three Doms. She tells me everything. She called the other day to let me know she was out of sugar. I was three states over so there was nothing I could do, but she told me anyway. She would have mentioned if there was some backside slapping going on.”
“Oh, something’s going on there,” Law swore. “They haven’t claimed her yet, but they’re definitely watching over her. In our world, that means they have certain rights. One of those is the right to protect her. After we took you, they completely forbade her from doing or saying anything that might give the appearance that she was an accomplice. Annabelle was allowed to talk to us shortly after we arrived here only because she was beyond worried about you and about to lose her mind. Other than that, the lawyers made sure to leave everything to us. Her men don’t know you well enough to trust that you wouldn’t want a little revenge and throw Annabelle to the wolves if everything went bad.”
“She’s my best friend. God, she’s just about the only person in my life I can trust now.” She sniffled. “After everything that’s happened, she’s my only family. I would never hurt her. And if those three lawyers think they can take all kinds of rights and stuff without giving her anything back, then they should know that I have a shotgun. I don’t know how to use it, but I can take a class. In fact, I just might shoot my sister first. I’ll need a little practice.”
“Whoa, there, warrior princess,” Law said with a laugh. “If we do this right, your sister is going to jail. You’re going to have to be satisfied with seeing her in an orange jumpsuit. Is your sister bisexual by any chance?”
Kinley threw up her hands. “I have no idea. I wouldn’t put anything past her at this point.”
“Well, she should think about shifting her orientation if she’s not because I suspect she won’t be lonely in prison.”
Dominic watched Kinley, studying her. She looked so young and innocent without a hint of makeup on her face. She was wearing a light sweater and a pair of those blinged out jeans she’d brought with her. She’d obviously foregone the bra, and since Law had been supervising her all morning, Dominic assumed she’d followed the no-underwear rule. Otherwise, they were going to spank her and hard because he had no notion how else to defuse the tension clogging the room.
The anxiety blended with the light hum of sexuality and hung over all of them. The hard truth was they would soon have to leave this place and reenter the real world—where Kinley had a completely different life and they worked all over the globe. Dominic had no idea how—or if—their relationship could work, and he was pretty sure that neither Kinley nor Riley did, either. Law, he suspected, would tender his resignation before leaving her, but he wasn’t thinking of the long term. Kinley was actually about to be out of money. Her charity’s funds would be tied up in court for years most likely, and she would be involved in a whole lot of legalities. Law couldn’t take care of her and all those expenses if he was working as a mall cop.
They had to convince her to come with them.
Starting now.
“The other day, you asked me for an exchange, pet. Are you still interested?”
Kinley turned to him, frowning. “What?”
“An exchange. You offered information for sexual knowledge. I want to teach you about our lifestyle and what it can offer you.”
“I don’t think this is the time, Dominic.”
“We don’t have anything else to do while we wait on the feds, unless you want to watch Riley play with his keyboard all day.”
Riley’s middle finger shot up. “I’m doing more than playing with my keyboard.”
“All right,” Dominic conceded. “Tell me, what can you really accomplish by examining all these files now?”
Riley groaned. “Not as much as I’d like. I need to get into Jansen’s systems, but he’s protected himself. They’re shut down right now. I hope to fuck he’s not destroying them as we speak.”
“We can’t do anything about that until the feds get back to us. So we need some way to occupy our time,” Law drawled. “Any ideas?”
He thrust his hands in Kinley’s hair and lowered his lips to her, kissing her hard. He winked at her as he came back up for air.
“I’m not sure I can figure out what he was transporting with the information in front of me.” Riley sounded really disappointed about that.
Dominic understood. “But we’re not leaving here until we’ve pieced everything together with the feds and we think the case is pretty tight. Until then, we’re holed up, pet, and I can’t think of anything I would rather do than take you up on your offer.”
Law rubbed her arm, his whole body relaxing. “You gave us the information we need.”
“Not exactly. Riley found it,” she pointed out.
“On your tablet. So now it’s our turn.” Dominic had some very specific things he wanted to teach her. “Unless you’re still sore. If that’s the case, we can simply talk for a while.”
“I’m fine.” Her voice was a soft, breathy tone. Instinctively, her gaze dropped to the floor. “Are you a Dominant, Sir?”
“Yes.” A smile played at his lips. Hearing her call him that would never get old.
“And I’m a submissive?”
“Absolutely,” Law whispered in her ear. “You’re the sweetest little sub I’ve ever seen.”
A grin curled her mouth up. “So I call you my Doms?”
“Yes, pet.”
Her smile widened until she looked as if she was trying to keep a straight face. “You’re Dominic, the Dom.”
He sighed. “Yes, pet. I think I was aptly named.”
“You’re Dom Dominic.”
“While true, that’s not exactly how you should phrase it.” He frowned.
“You’re Dom Dom.” The smile zipped across her face. “I get to call you Dom Dom.”
Kinley burst out laughing. Law and Riley joined in.
Dominic was not about to spend the rest of his life being called Dom Dom. “Pet, every time you call me that, I’ll give you twenty swats. They will not be for pleasure. You may call me Sir for now. If you accepted a collar from me, you would call me Master. I am your Dom. It’s a status, not a title.”
She pouted. “But Dom Dom is so much fun.”
The girl was begging for it. “So is reddening your ass. Off with the clothes, pet. That’s twenty over my knee.”
She turned to Law, and Dominic couldn’t miss the high-pitched squeaking sound as she wiggled that fabulous backside on the glass top of the desk. Everyone in the room winced at the noise.
“He has no sense of humor,” Kinley complained.
Law shook his head. “Not a lot, but I think this time he really just wants to smack your ass. Have I told you how good those jeans look on you?”
“I have a great sense of humor,” Dominic insisted. “But I will not allow my submissive to call me Dom Dom, even if she does look like sex on two legs in those jeans. I confess, the fuzzy pink socks distract a bit from the vision.”
She wrinkled her nose adorably, obviously happy with the compliments. “If you want bare feet, don’t take me to Alaska.”
Law moved between her legs, dragging those pink clad feet up around his waist as Kinley laughed. “I don’t know. I think the socks are easier on my back than a pair of stilettos.”
“I’m not leaving my socks on when we’re in bed.” Kinley held on to Law for balance, looking breathless, flushed, and excited.
“We’re not going to bed, pet,” Dominic explained.
“But I kind of thought by ‘explaining,’ you meant you were going to teach me some naughty bedroom things.” She was blushing again and obviously hoping she was right.
“This relationship will not be relegated solely to the bedroom. Your first rule is that we will take you anywhere, anytime, and in any way we wish. I want to see you in the sunshine.”
“But—”
“Ah, ah, ah. Don’t protest. There’s no one out here, except perhaps the moose. And we’ll protect you from him.”
Riley chuckled. “I can think of so many places to play with you, sweetheart. We’re going to have fun walking you through a dungeon.”
“A dungeon? Like a medieval torture chamber?”
Law sent his brother a dirty look. “No, baby. It’s not scary like that. A dungeon is just what we call a play space. We have a nice big one back home. It’s got all kinds of toys. We have plenty here, too. The James brothers are…well, we know them from a private club.”
“So they’re all Dommy, too?”
Law groaned. “Oh, baby, we’re going to have to teach you a little respect. Hand over the sweater. I think Dominic’s just about at the end of his rope after the Dom Dom crack. If he doesn’t get you over his knee soon, he’ll pull out the big guns. Delayed gratification.”
“That sounds horrible,” she grumbled as she pulled the sweater over her head. “We have to work on his sense of humor. I hope Annabelle’s men aren’t so stuffy.”
“You might not think I have a sense of humor, but I assure you, I possess a fine sense of decorum, pet. I expect that what happens between us stays between us. There is a very big difference between Annabelle running out of sugar and you treating our relationship like fodder for the gossip rags.”
Kinley stood naked from the waist up. Now, she didn’t try to hide, but merely placed her hands on her hips and stared him down. She seemed more comfortable with her own body now than she had last night, and that pleased him immensely.
“If you think I am not going to talk to my very dearest friend in the world about the fact that I finally made love, you really don’t understand women,” she insisted.
Dominic had to school his expression to something properly masterful because all he wanted to do was grin. She was utterly adorable. And fuckable. Though he would probably have to correct her sassy tone, he loved the fact that she felt safe enough to try using it with him. She wouldn’t have two days ago. “I would think women, especially a woman raised the way you were, would be a bit circumspect.”
She shook her head and looked to Law. “Does he watch TV? He has to know that if Annabelle was actually sleeping with those men—which she isn’t because I would know—but if by some miracle she is, then we will be comparing notes, if you know what I mean. So if that’s one of the rules, then you should just start spanking me now. This is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me. All of my life, all I’ve had to contribute to the conversation was things like, ‘Hey, I got a great deal on a ton of used clothes and after I finish washing them, I’m going to hand them out.’ Once I get home, it’s possible that everyone will just want to talk about how pathetic I am because my family and fiancé wanted to kill me. So I will totally be switching topics to talk about my suddenly crazy sex life with three hot guys.”
“I think she has a point,” Riley commented. He suddenly wasn’t so interested in his computer. In fact, Dominic didn’t think he could get his friend’s stare off Kinley’s breasts even with a crowbar. “Though she’s crazy if she thinks no one will talk about her sex life.”