Any Given Sunday (7 page)

known for our masculine—”

“Oh God,” Chad interrupted. “Here we go with the Collins creed again. Leave that

speech to your pop. He does it better.”

Chad started rummaging around the room for the remote.

Sean pulled it out from where it was tucked into the cushion next to him and waved

it at Chad, then chuckled. “I’ll tell him you said so tomorrow at work.” He put the

remote behind his back when his friend reached for it.

“My turn,” Chad said, his hand outstretched.

“Nope. Not watching the news. It’s always bad. I prefer the beauty of a mindless

sitcom.”

Chad scowled. “You know, I didn’t have to ask. I could just take it from you.”

Sean beckoned him closer with a
bring it
gesture. Chad took a step toward the couch but Lauren interrupted them before the usual wrestling match could ensue.

“Jesus. Do the words
grow up
mean anything to you two?” Lauren leaned against the arm of the couch, resting her feet in Sean’s lap and wiggling her toes. Chad backed off and Sean reached down to rub Lauren’s feet. “Ah, bliss. A Sean Collins foot rub.”

He rubbed harder, in the way he knew she liked, as she shifted slightly. He

tightened his grip on her feet lest she accidentally brush against his suddenly erect cock.

He couldn’t touch her without rising to the occasion.

36

Any Given Sunday

Lauren sighed. “I can’t think with all that noise anyway. It’s not like you guys ever really watch it unless it’s sports. Give me the remote.”

Sean stopped his ministrations to hand it over and Lauren turned the television off

completely.

Chad started to protest but Lauren ignored him, picking up their previous

conversation. “We can’t poke into your mind, Sean, because I just told you, for this

project, Chad and I have to delve into our own psyches.”

Sean glanced over at Chad and gave him a shit-eating grin. “That should be fun to

watch.”

Lauren smirked at him. “Yeah well, neither one of us is too thrilled about the

subject matter we drew.”

“It’s a stupid fucking project.” Chad plopped down on the recliner across the room

and Sean studied his angry face. Chad rarely lost his cool, never showed much emotion, unlike Sean, who lived his life with his heart on his sleeve—another Collins trait.

Sometimes it amazed him how long their friendship had persevered. Chad was

serious, while Sean preferred to address everything in life with humor. Chad was a

thinker while Sean lived on impulse and yet, despite their opposite natures, it worked.

Sean turned to Lauren. “What topic did you pick out of the hat?”

She blushed. Sean almost did a double take at the sight. While Chad was typically

calm, Lauren was unflappable. Nothing fazed her. Now, in less than five minutes, he’d witnessed Chad’s anger and seen an embarrassed Lauren. What the hell was this project about?

Chad smirked. “Tell him, Lauren. Tell him what mindset you’re gonna have to get

into.”

Lauren shot their friend a dirty look, and then she looked at Sean. “I pulled

submissiveness out of the hat.”

Sean laughed loudly. “No way. That should be good.” Lauren was as submissive as

Attila the Hun.

She narrowed her eyes. “Very funny. You know, despite what you guys think, I’m

perfectly capable of acing this assignment. I’m open-minded, completely able to relate to all different sorts of people, I adapt easily. While this wouldn’t have been my first choice—”

“Or second or third or twelfth,” Sean added with a grin.

Lauren nodded in agreement. “Even so, this will be no problem.”

Sean nodded, but he was sure his face was betraying his true thoughts. She was

independent and strong-willed, firmly in control of her own destiny. He was fairly

certain Lauren wouldn’t have a clue how to follow someone else’s lead, how to allow

someone to call the shots for her, and he wondered how much of her impassioned

speech was more for her sake than theirs.

Sean grinned at her. “Sounds to me like you’re trying to talk yourself into the idea.”

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Mari Carr

Lauren sighed. “Maybe I am. I’ll admit I’m a little worried about pulling it off.”

Sean lifted one of her feet and kissed the sole lightly. “You’ll do fine, Ms. Four-

Point-Oh. You always do.”

“I appreciate your confidence. Now I just have to figure out why someone would

choose to give another person so much power over them. To be quite honest, I can’t

relate to the idea. Not even a little.”

“When you say submissiveness, do you mean in a general sense or a sexual sense?”

Sean asked, as a naughty idea invaded his mind.

“It’s a human sexuality course,” Lauren said, as if that should explain it all. “I’m

looking at it from a bedroom perspective, of course.”

“So what you’re really researching is the idea of a Dom/sub relationship. I mean,

you can’t focus on one without understanding the other, right?”

Lauren considered his words then nodded. “I guess you’re right. I hadn’t thought

that far yet.”

“You know, I think I may have spoken too soon. I’d be more than happy to help

you with this project.”

Sean heard Chad’s chuckle and muttered “I bet you would” from across the room.

He glanced over and for a moment, Sean was struck by the look on Chad’s face—a look

that let him know his friend wouldn’t mind helping Lauren do her homework either.

Lauren heard Chad’s comment too but she didn’t acknowledge it. “Very funny,

Sean. I was kidding about the leather and whip thing.”

Sean had caught glimpses through the years of Keira’s relationship with her

husband, Will. Though nothing was ever said, or even overtly seen, Sean suspected

their sexual relationship was built on the sort of premise Lauren now had to explore.

The same idea that had Sean’s cock twitching in his jeans.

He tried to let the subject go, knew he should let it drop, but thinking before he

spoke had never been his strong suit. “If you have to get into the mindset, wouldn’t it be easier if you were experiencing some of the feelings, rather than just reading about them?”

Lauren sat up, her face portraying interest. “Are you saying I should pretend to

submit to you in the bedroom?”

Sean shook his head. “I don’t think you can pretend, Lauren. If you’re serious about

getting into the mind of a submissive, you would have to genuinely submit.”

She frowned. “To you?”

Sean wished he could understand the mixture of emotions filling her green eyes.

“Why not? It’s not like we’re not sexually active.”

“You would want to do that?” she asked.

He nodded and just barely kept himself from saying “fuck yeah”. He didn’t want to

scare her off, but if she knew how badly he wanted to command her sexually, she’d

freak out. He’d hidden most of his more extreme desires. Now that their relationship

38

Any Given Sunday

had crossed the boundary from new and exciting to comfortable and predictable, he’d

found it harder, rather than easier, to bring up the subject of doing a little

experimenting in the bedroom.

“There are years of trust between us, Lauren. You know I wouldn’t hurt you.” Sean

was intensely aware of the fact Chad was in the room, listening to every word. What

was his friend thinking?

Lauren swallowed. “I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking.”

“What would be holding you back?” Sean didn’t realize until he’d heard her topic

how much he wanted to explore this aspect of his personality. Maybe this would be the trick to putting a spark back into their relationship. They’d only had sex once since her kiss with Chad on Sunday, and it had felt…off.

“You really can’t think of a few thousand things that might be holding me back?”

Lauren put her hands up, waving them as if looking for the words. It was a habit of

hers, talking with her hands, moving them a mile a minute. Sean and Chad had

threatened to tie her hands several times just to see if she could talk without them.

Suddenly the image of Lauren standing between him and Chad, her hands bound

behind her, sent his cock into red alert.

“I don’t know. Let’s see if I can list them for you. Number one, I don’t take orders

well. I never have. It wouldn’t be easy to just hand myself over to you in the bedroom and say ‘have at it’. Isn’t this Dom/sub stuff all about whips and cuffs and shit like that? I’m not a fan of pain, you know. I cry over paper cuts.”

Chad laughed, entering the conversation. “Jesus, Lauren. I hardly think that’s how

a Dom/sub relationship works. It’s more about an exchange of power. I mean, being

submissive doesn’t mean being helpless.”

Sean leaned forward. “Chad’s right. It’s built on compatible needs and desires, and

trust plays a major role.”

“But you’d also be letting someone test your limits. That’s part of it too. You’d be

allowing someone to push you further than you ever thought you could go,” Chad

added.

“What if I’m pushed too far?” Lauren asked.

Sean grasped her hand. “That’s where the trust comes in.”

Chad was leaning forward in his chair and Sean could sense his friend’s genuine

interest. “Think of it, Lauren. Imagine giving up control and letting someone test your limits, letting someone push you into an entirely different realm. Bondage, pain,

sensory deprivation, sex in public, a ménage.” The last word was spoken more softly

than the others, but it seemed to resonate louder than a cannon shot.

The room fell silent, the air charged with something Sean couldn’t define. Though

the conversation had been hypothetical, it felt like something much more and there was no denying Chad wanted to master Lauren as badly as he did.

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Mari Carr

Lauren broke the uneasy silence, her voice tense despite her efforts to appear

nonchalant. “Jeez. How many nights have the three of us sat together getting swept

away in conversations like this? I have to say this one might take the cake.”

Sean shrugged. “Curse of living with two psych majors. All you two ever want to

do is talk, talk, talk.” Psychology majors tended to confront things a bit too head-on for him sometimes, but the idea of acting on this particular conversation settled in his

thoughts and wouldn’t let go.

Ménage.

What if they stopped talking and started doing?

They were skirting around the issue, saying too much while saying nothing at all. It

seemed to be a talent they’d all perfected over the years.

Chad, clearly uncomfortable, rose. “I’m heading out, doing a late dinner with Lily

tonight. It was her birthday last Friday, but I didn’t get to celebrate with her because Justin and K took her away for a romantic weekend.”

Sean smiled. “Talked to Justin Monday. Sounds like they had a good time.”

Chad gave a fake shiver. “Guess I’ll have to listen to all the gory, sickly sweet

details tonight. You guys want to come with me?”

Sean shook his head. “Hockey’s on tonight.”

“I’m going to start outlining some ideas for my project,” Lauren said.

“Sounds like I’m on my own. I’ll see you all later.”

They listened as Chad grabbed a coat and his car keys, the front door closing

behind him.

Lauren handed Sean the remote. “I’ll take my laptop up to my room and work

there.”

Sean gave her a guilty grin. “I’ll keep the volume down if you wanna work in here.”

Lauren laughed. “You couldn’t watch a hockey game without yelling obscenities if

someone was holding a gun to your head. I’ll come down in a little while and throw in a frozen pizza or something.”

“Sounds good.” Sean watched her head upstairs and he leaned back, not bothering

to turn on the TV.

He closed his eyes, picturing Lauren sitting on her bed, her laptop open as she

looked at pictures of women submitting to their men. He imagined her on her knees

before him, taking his cock into her sweet mouth as he directed her movements, his

fingers gripping her hair tightly. Then suddenly Chad was there. Lauren moved

between them as she took turns sucking each, first his cock and then Chad’s.

He wasn’t sure how long he let the fantasy wrap itself around him, but it was full

night outside when he pulled himself to the surface. He shifted uncomfortably on the

couch, his cock pulsating against the constraining denim of his jeans. He was tempted to free the rock-hard flesh and administer a bit of relief with his own hand.

40

Any Given Sunday

The idea of dominating Lauren in the bedroom was simply too powerful an

aphrodisiac to resist. He’d always felt a vein of strength at his core. Always fought to restrain this uber-masculinity that society didn’t seem to embrace anymore. His sisters jokingly called him and his brothers cavemen, but he couldn’t fail to notice they’d all married men just like the Collins males. Take-charge men who would give anything, do

anything, to protect their wives. It was an old-fashioned notion and though Sean fought to hide it, it didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

Fuck. For years he’d let Lauren call the shots in their relationship, let her determine their limits because he’d always known what he’d want from her and suspected his

desires would scare her.

Now she needed to learn about submission and his restraint was in tatters. Maybe

he could restate the offer to master her. He could tie it up in an “in the interest of research” bow to make her feel safe. He wanted Lauren, wanted her for the long haul,

and was terrified of losing her. That kiss with Chad had changed something. He could