Blake, Abby - Emma's Education [Viper's Dungeon 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (14 page)

She giggled, and he was charmed all over again by the amazing woman in his arms. She was everything he’d ever envisioned for a partner—submissive but independent, confident but willing to trust him, caring, funny, beautiful, and of course, curved in all the right places.

“Jace?” she asked, sounding less confident than he’d credited her for a moment ago. “Is it always like this with your submissives?”

He sat up and pulled her to a cross-legged sitting position in front of him. She dropped her gaze, as if preparing herself for bad news. He reached over and lifted her chin.

“No, Emma. I’ve never had this instant connection with anyone else.” She looked so relieved he wanted to spank her ass for doubting his feelings, but then he realized she had no comparison. Many submissives held a special place in their heart for their first Dom, but like any relationship, it took time to find the right person. He hoped Emma was the right one for him.

She looked happy for a moment, but then the sound of a car pulling into the driveway put the frown back on her face. She was easy to read this time.

“Logan is hurting. I’m not sure what happened, but he needs you.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I think the three of us could build something special together. I’m just hoping that Logan can see that, too.”

She nodded, but tears filled her eyes as she rolled over and placed her warm hand against his face. “You’re a special man, Jace. I think it might be very easy to fall in love with you.”

* * * *

Logan made it all the way to the fast-food joint before his stomach rebelled and insisted that he eat a decent meal, so he’d driven to the supermarket and bought the ingredients for omelets. He should’ve spent the last few days training and making certain that when he returned to the SEAL teams that he was in peak physical condition, but just the thought of spending the next three weeks with Emma had all his blood flowing south and his priorities shifting.

And now three weeks didn’t sound long enough.

When he’d first been forced onto medical leave, three weeks had felt like an eternity. The first two days had crawled by, each minute taking at least five, but then he’d met Emma, and time had grown wings.

Juggling the groceries, he managed to unlock the front door to Jace’s home without dropping the eggs. He hesitated at the hallway, wanting something he shouldn’t want, so he forced himself to walk past the bedroom and into the kitchen. He barely had everything unpacked when Jace and Emma joined him. Emma wore her jeans but seemed to be wearing one of Jace’s T-shirts. For an irrational moment, Logan felt jealousy wind through him. He wanted the shirt she wore to be one of his.

Berating himself silently, he turned toward the fridge and almost knocked Emma ass over teakettle. He grabbed for her, managing to pull her into his embrace before she fell or hit anything hard.

“Hell, little one. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not,” she said with an impish grin. “I ended up exactly where I wanted to be.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. It bothered him a little that she was dressed, but he figured it was her way of signaling an end to their D/s play. He just hoped it was only temporary.

He breathed her scent, holding her crushed against him even as he mentally argued with himself to hand her back to Jace. Eventually, though, he lifted her onto a stool on the other side of the bench, gave her a pointed look and a growled order to sit still, and then moved back into the kitchen to get their breakfast made.

“So…you’re a SEAL,” she said, trying to sound casual. He gave her a knowing smile—they’d already had this conversation—and answered with an affirmative grunt. She frowned and tried a more direct question. “What’s it like?”

“To be a SEAL?” he asked just to annoy her. She was so cute when she was annoyed.

She growled and flipped her hand as if to say continue, but he grinned and waited for her to answer his question. She stuck her tongue out at him in mock irritation and finally rolled her eyes and asked, “Yes, what’s it like to be a US Navy SEAL?”

“Good,” he answered and turned back to the stovetop.

“Logan, for heaven’s sake, give me something here. Good how?”

He stopped mixing the egg mixture and turned to see Jace watching them both closely.

“I’m not sure what to tell you,” Logan said honestly. “The training is hard, the work is sometimes dangerous, but there’s nothing quite like the high of completing a successful mission.”
And nothing quite like the low of a failed one
. But he didn’t say it out loud. “And most of what I do is classified, so I’m not allowed to talk about it.”

He’d always wanted to be a SEAL, had worked his ass off to make it happen and served his country well, but he didn’t need to brag about it. He knew what he’d accomplished, and he didn’t need the accolades of others to validate him.

“So…um…you’re on vacation at the moment?” He grunted another affirmative answer, not willing to go into the whole medical leave thing at the moment. Even if he wanted to share, he didn’t want to burden Emma—or Jace—with his problems. He’d slept pretty well last night, so maybe his reason for medical leave was no longer an issue anyway.

And besides, it had been a long time since he’d taken a vacation, so it didn’t hurt to think of it as such. “I’m due back in a little over two weeks.”

“How often do you get time off?”

“Not often.” The truth was that he didn’t often take leave simply because he had nowhere to go. He glanced at the two people watching him closely and realized that was no longer true. He knew exactly where he would go for vacation. The problem was he shouldn’t be thinking like that. Emma and Jace were already close. They probably had a shot at some sort of permanent happiness together, and he was a selfish asshole for not stepping away right now.

Desperate to deflect the conversation away from him, Logan turned the questions on to Jace. “How’s the engineering business, Jace?”

“Good,” he answered and then gave Logan a smile that said
I know what you’re up to
. But he let him off the proverbial hook and described some of the projects he was currently coordinating. Emma kept asking questions and answered a few of her own before Jace asked her if she had any vacation time coming.

“Not really,” she answered, looking a little disappointed. “With my recent promotion, I need to make sure everything is working smoothly before I ask someone to fill in for me.”

In other words, no. From what she’d told them yesterday, taking time off now would likely give the rumor mill more fuel and threaten her position in the firm. If she was unpopular for getting the job, things would be ten times worse if she took an unplanned vacation.

“Okay, we’ll just have to work around it. Lucky for you, we have an experienced Navy SEAL who can be your bodyguard for the next two weeks.”

“What?” She asked, sounding very surprised. “Surely you don’t think Greg would try anything else.” But even as she said it, all the color drained from her face.

“We don’t know anything for sure,” Jace said evenly. “But we’d rather know you were safe than take an unnecessary risk.”

* * * *

Emma felt faint. She’d managed to forget all about what had happened with her ex, so somehow the idea of Logan acting as a bodyguard was way more shocking than it should’ve been. A part of her wanted to refuse their assistance, but she’d read enough newspapers to know that the world wasn’t the safe place she tried to believe.

If Greg wasn’t finished after destroying her bedroom, then she welcomed all the help she could get. But at the same time, she didn’t want to ruin Logan’s vacation. The man got very little time off. He should be doing something more fun than following her to work.

“No,” Logan said even before she opened her mouth. She frowned, but went to speak again. It wasn’t like he could read her mind.

“No,” he said again, completely dissolving the words she’d planned to say. He flipped the delicious-smelling omelet in the pan and then pointed the spatula at her. “I plan to protect you whether you want it or not. So you can either bitch and moan and be unhappy, or accept that I’ll be close no matter what you want and enjoy our time together.”

“Oh.” She glanced at Jace, hoping for a more reasonable opinion, but the man was grinning widely.

Annoyed that they seemed to be teaming up on her—despite the silent admission that she really wanted their protection—Emma tried to list her more practical concerns.

“I need to go home sometime. I can’t go to the office dressed like this.”

“Already organized,” Jace said casually. “I took most of your clothes to the dry cleaner’s yesterday morning.”

“Yeah, well…um…what about shoes and…and…underwear.”

“Unfortunately, darlin’, you don’t want to know what he did to your shoes, but suffice it to say, none of them were salvageable. We’ll take you shopping after you eat your breakfast.”

“Shopping?” she asked, feeling a little overwhelmed. She’d already been worrying how to pay for a new bed, but having to replace all of her shoes wasn’t an expense she’d been expecting.

“As for underwear,” Logan said with a big grin, “we decided against it.”

“You decided?” she asked with a stubborn tilt of her chin. “Well, I decided that I am not going anywhere commando, and there is no way in hell I’m going to work without a bra and panties.”

“Stubborn little sub,” Logan said as he came around the bench and pulled her into his arms. “How about a compromise?”

“Okay,” she said warily. Logan had spent the last two days and nights giving her orders. She wasn’t sure he even knew what a compromise was.

“You can go without underwear, and I won’t have to spank you.”

She snorted. “That is
not
a compromise.”

“How about this for a compromise?” Jace said, stepping into the conversation. It seemed obvious that he was trying not to laugh. “Emma wears a thong to work, and Logan gets to spank her for it. Would that make you both happy?”

Emma bit her lips to stop from laughing. She could manage a thong, and the spanking would be fun. As compromises went, it was a good one. She grinned up at Logan, and he swatted her backside. She rubbed the sting and managed an exaggerated pout. He sighed.

“Okay, little sub, but I get to choose the thong.”

“Um…okay.”

“Excellent,” Jace said as Logan moved back into the kitchen and served the omelets onto plates. “Eat up. We have some shopping to do.”

* * * *

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but your card has been declined.”

Declined? Emma shook her head. “There must be some mistake.” That card was nowhere near its limit. She’d actually been planning to put her new bed on it. “Can you try it again, please?” The sales clerk looked annoyed but went back to the register and tried again. She shook her head, and Emma colored with embarrassment. At least the store wasn’t full of people.

She hurriedly grabbed her other credit card. It didn’t have a heap of credit available, but it would cover the two pairs of shoes she’d picked out. When that one declined as well, Logan was there handing over his card. The sales girl gave him a beatific smile and ignored Emma’s protest as she went to process Logan’s credit card.

“It’s okay, little one,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her middle. It felt wrong to let him pay for them, but until she could contact the bank and find out what was going on, she had very little choice. She needed shoes so she could go to work tomorrow, but unfortunately, even that thought didn’t make her feel any better.

But Logan showed his uncanny skill for seeing into her head, pressed a kiss to her ear, and whispered, “When we get your bank problem sorted out, you can pay me back.”

She practically melted into his embrace. Logan had said the only thing that could make this situation better. If he’d insisted she keep the shoes as a gift, or even worse suggested she could repay him in other ways, she would’ve felt completely and utterly humiliated. At least this way she had a measure of control. She had absolutely no intention of making the word that Greg had scrawled on her front door become appropriate.

“Thank you,” she said sincerely.

“You’re very welcome."

* * * *

Jace smiled as he watched the interaction between Emma and Logan. Both Jace and Logan had hesitated when her card had been declined, and Jace breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Logan’s reassurance to Emma. Obviously, his friend had realized the same thing that had occurred to Jace—that Emma would never be comfortable accepting gifts, especially at the beginning of their relationship.