Afterlife (26 page)

are. He wanted me to come here,

spend the day with you, if

you’d like that. He hates that he has

to be away from you

right now.”

“Wel , that’s just sil y. I mean, we…

It’s not that we’re

strangers, but we have just started…

whatever this is.

Right?”

“Hmm.” Dana set aside the cane.

When she reached up

toward Rachel’s face with both

hands, Rachel stil ed, not

sure what she was about. The woman

laid her palms on

Rachel’s cheeks, slim fingers

stroking to her jaw, then down

farther. Rachel drew in a breath, her

heart thudding as

Dana investigated the col ar, stepping

closer to feel the

lock on the back of it. Her breasts,

clad in the soft T-shirt,

brushed Rachel’s. Even through

terrycloth, the contact

made her pulse thud. What made it

worse or better,

depending on her perspective, was

that as Dana

investigated, Rachel felt the black

woman’s nipples tighten.

It aroused Dana, knowing Rachel

was col ared. Then she

cupped Rachel’s skul , lifted onto her

toes and put her

mouth on Rachel’s parted lips.

Blessed God
and
Goddess. Again—

not into women
—

but it didn’t matter. It was sexual

contact, and her body was

ravenous for any kind of touch that

wasn’t her own. In some

way too primeval to explain in

civilized company, it gave

them a provocative bond, that this

woman also cal ed her

man Master, submitted to his

ownership. Rachel had

imagined Peter carrying out his

threats, Dana bent over his

knee, that large hand smacking her

bare buttocks, giving

them a deep rose tinge under the

brown pigment. And of

course from there it wasn’t much of a

leap to remember

Jon’s use of that ruler on her own stil

-sore ass. Dana’s kiss

was like an initiation, a welcome. A

reassurance that

Rachel wasn’t alone on this path.

Rachel dove hard and deep into that

kiss, making a

whimper in her throat as she gripped

Dana’s waist. Dana

brushed her hands aside, though, and

slipped the robe tie.

Rachel breathed a sigh of relief as

the garment was

pushed off her shoulders, freeing her

body once more.

Then Dana explored, fol owing the

chain down from

Rachel’s throat, between her breasts

and over her

abdomen. She stopped short of her

clit, fol owing the chain

around to the back and then

smoothing her graceful hands

over Rachel’s buttocks, her knuckles

trailing across skin.

Interestingly, though Rachel quivered

and jerked from the

near misses around cunt and nipples,

Dana was obviously

careful to offer no direct touches

there. Eventual y, her

hands came back to claim Rachel’s,

fingers tangled and

holding together.

When the other woman at last broke

the kiss, stepped

back, Rachel stared at her in

amazement. Dana’s mouth

was wet with hers, her brown eyes

considering, a secretive

but rueful smile playing around her

lips. “That
bastard
. No

wonder he wanted me to come spend

time with you. You’d

jump a teenage Boy Scout sel ing

popcorn tins right now. It

would serve Jon right if I let you do

it. Or cal ed Max back up

here and let him take ful advantage of

it, though he

probably values his job
and
his life

more than that.”

Rachel imagined the slimmer, less

physical y imposing

Jon against Max, but then she

remembered that look he’d

had when his gaze fel on the bruise

on her cheek. No, it

was probably best not to make any

assumptions about the

unpredictable, fascinating man who’d

invaded her life over

the past couple days.

“I was thinking I could have checked

out his ass more

without that coat he was wearing,”

she managed weakly. “It

covers a lot.”

“Trust me, you could bounce a

quarter off Max’s ass. The

advantage of being blind.” Dana

affected an exaggerated

Southern bel e accent. “Sometimes I

can’t help stumblin’,

now can I? I just
have
t’grab onto the person next to me

before I fal . And I can’t see where

I’m grabbin’, darlin’, now

can I?” She gave Rachel a broad

wink and a grin. “Peter

gave me a real wal oping for that

one, because Max was

such a tattletale. But I wasn’t sorry.”

Something unexpected came behind

Rachel’s laugh. A

tiny sob. Ever intuitive, Dana made a

reassuring sound in

her throat, her hands squeezing

Rachel’s hard. “C’mon, girl.

Let’s sit down and have that tea. You

keep the robe off. I

can’t see you anyhow, and I know

you’re more comfortable

without it.”

* * * * *

“Not just more comfortable,” Rachel

admitted as they sat

at her cheerful bistro set by the

window, mid-morning sun

streaming in. “It felt…like what he’d

want. You were the one

who told him I wasn’t married,

weren’t you?”

Dana had her now bare feet drawn up

and curled on the

chair edge, one arm linked loosely

over her shins, the other

hand holding her coffee mug, since

she preferred that to

tea. When they sat down, Rachel had

noticed Dana also

wore a set of dog tags, embel ished

with a solid silver

frame. They were strung on a chain

along with a handful of

jasper beads that picked up the mixed

rusts and earth

tones of the T-shirt. It was a short

chain, the tags fal ing

below her col arbone, making them

easy to read.
Winston,

Peter R
. It might as wel say

“Property of”, Rachel thought

with a longing pang beneath her

breast. She noticed Dana

toyed with them often as she spoke,

as she was doing now.

“Yes, it was me. I hope that’s okay.

Jon has an

unbreakable code, they al do. But he

kept coming back to

your classes. He’s thought about you

a long time, Rachel.”

“I’m older than he is.”

“You’re older than two thousand

years? Real y? Because

I’m pretty sure Jon’s soul dates back

to the Druids. I see

him standing on top of some temple

platform, gazing into a

forest, and when he turns his head, he

has this mystic

charisma that tel s you he’s some

kind of conduit for the

gods.”

“Wow. You get al that without

sight?” Because it was al

too accurate.

Dana grinned. “Some things you see

better when you

don’t look with your eyes.”

Rachel sighed. “Thirteen years

between us, Dana. And

it’s not only the years. He did al this

to keep my mind

spinning with lust, and believe me,

it’s working, but at some

point I have to come down from that.

From his standpoint, I

know that wil be okay. He’s

probably had plenty of

relationships like this, and I guess I

should be glad that for

the first time in my life I get to

experience a Master’s touch.

It’s better than I ever imagined,

because of him. I should just

let that happen, enjoy it while it lasts,

but I don’t know if I

can. I don’t know if…”

Dana put a hand over hers on the

table, traced the

fingers with the same sensual touch

she’d used when she’d

explored the chains on Rachel’s

body. “No ring. You took it

off.”

“Jon did. I couldn’t…couldn’t bring

myself to put it back

on.”

“Hmm.” Peter’s fiancée cocked her

head. “People make

their own decisions. It’s obvious you

have a lot of hurt

stored up in you, a lot of

disappointments. Now you’re

figuring out how to deal with those

against a force of nature

like Jon, and I think that’s good. He

needs to see that, know

what obstacles he faces. You’re right

—pretty much up until

two days ago, Jon could walk into a

BDSM club, or hook up

with someone in his business or

social set, and thoroughly

enjoy a short-term relationship. He’s

very good at seeing

them to their natural end and making

that end go down

smooth as silk.”

She was supposed to be glad to be

hearing this, instead

of wanting Dana to stop putting

images in her head of Jon

with other women. Dana’s fingers

flexed on hers, as if

sensing the direction of her thoughts.

“I think you need to know a little bit

more about the K&A

men. Would you like to?”

A sensible person would say no,

would resist being

drawn deeper into a world where she

couldn’t stay. Instead

she already had her mouth open to

give her answer. “After

yesterday, I’m overflowing with

curiosity.”

“What happened yesterday?”

Rachel hesitated. What if what Peter

had done wasn’t

acceptable to Dana? How would she

handle that?

“I expect my fiancé was somehow

part of whatever

happened.” Dana reached out with a

foot, nudged her with

a toe. “That’s part of what those five

are about. Don’t worry,

just spil it.”

She did, briefly, aware now that

Dana picked up a lot

from what wasn’t said. The woman

kept her head in that

listening tilt, her eyes thoughtful.

When she pressed her lips

together, her fingers curling around

her knees, Rachel

reached out, touched her.

“Please tel me that was al okay, or

expected. I couldn’t

forgive myself if somehow I let

something happen that

would hurt you in any way.”

“Oh hon, nothing to forgive.” Dana

closed her hand over

Rachel’s fingers on her knee. “I’m

here to tel you, when the

K&A men decide on something, a

woman’s got a

snowbal ’s chance in hel of having

any say in it at al . She’s

just got to hang on for the ride of her

life.” Now her smile

was back. “The reason I reacted the

way I did was because

of how much I like you. And how

glad I am that Jon chose

you this way. It’s happy sadness, like

at a wedding.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You won’t, not until it comes from

inside, so I’m not going

to say a lot about it, but whatever

Jon’s relationships with

women have been in the past, trust

me when I say you’re

different. You want to know about the

K&A men? They’re a

pack, a pack that’s connected on

some visceral male level

that’s scary as hel to experience,

while at the same time

you never want that experience to

end. You belong to one of

them, but in a peripheral way, you

belong to al of them.

Like a family, only you have a lot of

feelings and

experiences with this family that

would be highly frowned

upon if you truly were blood-

related.”

She flashed a grin. “They each have a

specialty, if you

can believe it. If there was a Cordon

Bleu for pussy-eating,

Lucas would be their valedictorian.”

At Rachel’s startled

reaction, a choked laugh, Dana

nodded, a sage look on her

pixie face. “Peter… My man is tit-

obsessed. He can do

things to your breasts with a touch, a

flick of the tongue, the

removal of a nipple clamp at the right

moment, that can

make you come in a heartbeat,

without touching any other

part of your body.” A little shiver ran

over her skin and

echoed in a reaction over Rachel’s.

“Al of them have… They’re al …?”

“Yes, and it does make the tongue

trip up and the heart

ricochet with the thought of it. Al five

of them are sexual

Dominants. They’re so different, and

yet there’s this

incredibly similar core to them.

Ben…” Dana snorted. “I

can’t wait to see the woman who wil

final y catch his

attention. Poor girl. You don’t see it

at first, because of the

slick, charming lawyer thing, but he’s

probably the toughest,

most hardcore Master of al of them.

And his thing is…wel ,

no way to put it delicately. He’s a

master at ass-fucking.

Cass and Savannah haven’t

experienced it directly,

because, as I said, each of the guys

are somewhat different

in how their Dominance works.”