Blushing Violet (9 page)

“Really?” Her voice took on a sweet, purring tone. “Because when I talked to Morgan an hour ago he told me that you didn’t have anything ready for me, and probably wouldn’t for a while.”

Carlos glared at Morgan, who tightened his lips and glared right back. Over the past week they’d barely spoken a single word to each other that didn’t end in a yelling match. At the center of their fights were Violet and their increasing jealousy of each other. They had both fallen for her, hard, and resented any time the other spent with her.

Last night Carlos had gotten drunk on good whiskey while he imagined all the things Morgan was doing with her. He’d shared women with Morgan before, but they had always been casual dates more geared toward sex than anything else. It was one thing to watch a submissive give his best friend a blowjob while he fucked her, it was another to imagine Morgan falling asleep with Violet in his arms. To be honest, the thought of watching Morgan work Violet over with a flogger aroused him. It was the shared intimacy that he wasn’t a part of afterward that made him mad.

He had learned that Morgan got to go to Violet’s house last night, the first time either of them had been invited. Hurt and anger had eaten away at him until he barely recognized himself. To his irrational heart it was a clear signal that Violet liked Morgan better, even though she had invited him to her house for dinner this weekend. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would be able to detect signs of Morgan there, if by being in her house first somehow Morgan had marked it as his territory. The thought of doing anything other than beating the shit out of Morgan was impossible. As a result of the tension between them their work had ground to a halt.

Morgan said, “We’ll have something for you by the end of the month.” All the while flipping Carlos off with both hands.

Ms. Hanley’s voice sliced through the air like an ice pick. “Look, I don’t care if you two have PMS, are having a lovers’ quarrel, or want to kill each other. You will pull your shit together and act like responsible fucking adults that conduct themselves in a professional manner or I will take both of your fucking candy asses to court and sue you for breach of contract. Am I clear?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Carlos said and Morgan snickered.

“Glad we’re all on the same page. Don’t fuck this up.”

She hung up and Morgan jabbed the phone with his finger. They sat in silence, staring at each other. As Carlos studied Morgan he felt his anger ease back a bit. “She is such a bitch.”

“Bet she’d make a great Domme.”

They both laughed and some of the stress leaked away. Carlos took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “We can’t go on like this.”

Morgan gave him a wary nod. “I don’t like not being able to talk to my best friend.”

“And I don’t like wanting to kill you.”

“So what are we going to do about it? ’Cause I’ll tell you what, I’m not giving her up.”

Carlos fought back the instinctive surge of territorial anger. “I’m not giving her up either. In fact, I think I’m falling in love with her.”

“We are so fucked.”

“That about sums it up.” Carlos drummed his fingers on the table. “She’s going to find out we know each other, eventually.”

“I thought about that. If-when she chooses one of us, it’s not like we’re gonna stop talking to each other…right?”

“No, but our window of plausible deniability is getting smaller and smaller. We may be able to make her believe we don’t know each other, but a couple of months, heck, even a couple of weeks from now that excuse won’t hold water.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said in a miserable voice. “She’s so smart, and she can see real clearly—if that makes any sense.”

“It does.” Carlos grinned at Morgan. “She can see right through people’s bullshit to their heart. I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not around her—”

“Because she notices and makes you feel like a moron for trying to
be
someone that you’re not.”

Carlos considered Morgan. With his rough good looks and big, football-player body it was often easy to forget that he actually had a very tender heart and shared Violet’s ability to see to the truth of people. Now that he thought about it, Morgan and Violet shared a lot of the same characteristics. No wonder he liked her so much. “I love you like a brother, but I can’t be the bigger man here and back off.”

“I love you too, but there is no way I’m giving your ass a
get out of jail free
card on this one either.”

“So we’re back to square one. Two men in love with the same woman.” Carlos tilted his chair back on two legs and sighed. “I thought about making her break up with you, but I think it would really hurt her. You obviously make her happy. Kinda in the same way a big, dumb golden retriever would make a person happy, but happy nonetheless.”

“Yeah, well you seem to make her happy too. Like the way a neurotic and self-centered cat makes a person happy.”

“Touché—asshole.”

Morgan rested his head into his palms and mumbled, “This would be a lot easier if we were Mormon.”

Carlos shook his head and laughed, “The vast majority of Mormons don’t practice polygamy anymore, it’s more of a fringe element thing. Besides, I think it’s the Mormon men that get lots of wives, not the wives that get lots of men.”

“Maybe she’d be open to the idea of a harem?”

“She doesn’t strike me as the harem type. Before us, her life was disturbingly vanilla and she dated the biggest dickheads.”

“Like her ex, the douche bag. He pulled a major mind-fuck on her and made her feel worthless. I still can’t believe that he called her fat. What kind of fuckwad would say that to someone as gorgeous as her?”

Carlos said in a bitter voice, “Don’t forget her family, they certainly helped her believe that she deserved nothing better than her ex-fiancé. Her mother actually told her to lose twenty pounds and try to get him back. I know it’s not fair to judge them without ever having met them, but they sure as hell didn’t do much to raise her self-esteem. If I have to hear one more time about how her father wouldn’t approve of her clothing choice—”

“Or how her older sister is so much prettier and smarter than she is—”

“I’m going to puke.”

They sat in silence for a few moments before Carlos said, “Though, now that I think about it, I don’t hear much about her sister anymore. Last week I actually managed to get her to watch herself in a mirror while we had sex without getting nervous or acting ashamed.”

Morgan gave him a small glare, but nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. She argued with our waiter last week when he brought her the wrong meal. When I first started dating her she would have eaten it even if she hated it because she wouldn’t want to cause a fuss.”

Carlos stood and went into the kitchen, grabbing them both a beer out of the fridge. He returned to the dining room and slid one of the amber bottles over to Morgan. “Think we should tell her that we know each other?”

Morgan took a drink from his beer and sighed. “I feel like such a fucking coward, but no, I don’t think we should. I think if she found out she’d be so embarrassed that she’d leave us both high and dry. I’m making progress with getting her to think outside the box in the bedroom.” He ignored Carlos’ growl and continued. “But I think she’s still too afraid of offending someone to be anything but polite and conservative in public.”

“I have a date with her tonight.”

Morgan’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “I know.”

“What if…” Carlos took a long swallow of his beer as Morgan drew patterns with his finger in the condensation on the side of his bottle. “What if we both dated her?”

“Uh—aren’t we already doing that?”

“I mean at the same time.”

“You mean like a ménage?” Morgan gave him a cautious look. “Dude, I like you but I don’t like you, like you.”

Carlos snorted. “Have you talked about her fantasies with her?”

“Of course. What kind of Dom would I be if I didn’t find out what makes her purr?”

Carlos took a deep breath and tried to calm his overactive emotions and nerves. There was one way, highly risky and very unconventional, that this could work out for all of them. He was going to take a huge gamble, but if it paid off they could all have exactly what they wanted. If it didn’t he was going to regret it for the rest of his life, but never give up trying to win her back. “I have an idea.”

Chapter Eight

Violet leaned against the edge of the granite countertop in Carlos’ kitchen. She was barefoot and in a pair of comfortable jeans with a new navy-blue silk shirt that Carlos had bought for her. It wasn’t very tight, but the loose collar slid down over one shoulder and exposed an almost indecent amount of skin. She had kept tugging at it until Carlos told her he would chain her hands if she didn’t stop.

The raw steak sizzled as it hit the oiled cast-iron pan on his stove. A second joined it and she took a deep breath of the spicy scent of roasting herbs. “That smells fantastic.”

He smiled at her and tugged her forward, capturing her lips in a hard and demanding kiss. Her body instantly heated against his as she kissed him back with abandon. There was no worrying about using too much tongue, or not enough with him. He controlled their kiss, directing her in what he wanted and how he wanted it, all the while melting her bones until she became wobbly kneed with desire.

With a last nip at her lower lip he pulled back with his eyes dark with passion. “Thank you. There’s a bottle of Pinot noir in the wine closet, would you grab it and pour us both a glass, please?”

“Sure.” She opened one of the many cabinet doors in the kitchen and marveled at how well she knew his home. She knew how he liked his coffee, and he knew about her morning craving for cinnamon rolls. On the counter next to the sink sat a big white bakery box filled with confections from Eastern Market. After placing two crystal wineglasses on the counter, she uncorked the wine and let it breathe for a moment while watching him cook.

His thick, dark hair was slightly mussed from their first kiss at the door when she had been unable to keep her hands off him. When she was away she found it hard to believe that she could be so instantly attracted to someone, but every time she saw Carlos something switched on in her body and she became almost wanton with need. It was the same with Morgan and she worried that she was turning into a nymphomaniac, or if it was like Bethany said, she’d been deprived of good dick for so long that her body was trying to stock up.

That thought made her snicker as she filled the wineglasses and he arched a brow as he flipped the steaks. “Care to share the source of that giggle?”

Heat rushed to her cheeks and she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Hmmm.” He took the glass and studied her over the rim. “Has anyone ever told you what a beautiful laugh you have?”

“No.” She ran her toe over the grout lines in the slate floor as his compliment burned through her blood like good brandy. “Though I did laugh so hard I choked on a piece of blueberry pie at our family picnic one year. A blueberry shot out of my nose and hit my Aunt Penelope on the chin. My dad still teases me to this day, wishing he had video of it because we would have for sure won ten thousand dollars on that funny video show.”

She winced and looked up to find Carlos biting his lip in an effort not to laugh. “It’s not funny! I was traumatized. Blueberries hurt when they come out of your nose.” When she glared at him he made little choking noises until she couldn’t help but giggle. He took that as permission and laughed until he had to grasp the side of the counter to hold himself up.

After giving him a poke in the ribs, she rescued their steaks before they burned. He certainly wasn’t up for doing much more than sitting on the floor and clutching his sides. He tugged her down into his lap and nuzzled his face into her hair. “I’ve never met anyone that can make me laugh like you do.”

She grumped but relaxed into his arms and traced the line of his jaw with her fingertip. “What about your best friend? The one that lives in California. You’ve told me lots of stories about the crazy things you guys did when you were in college together.”

The humor fled from his face and he captured her lips in a hard kiss that left her soft and needy. It was amazing how she could sense the change in him when he went from what she thought of as everyday Carlos, and became Master Carlos. Something in the way he held himself, in the way his essence shifted and became more intense.

She loved it.

“We need to hurry up and eat dinner. I-I have a special surprise for you tonight.”

The spit in her mouth dried up and at the same time her heart raced. The last time he had given her a special surprise she had ended up suspended from the ceiling in some kind of sex swing in his dungeon, almost mindless after a series of orgasms that reduced her to some weird floaty state that had been amazing. Not knowing what was in store for her, but certain she would enjoy it immensely made her damp with need even as she worried about what the surprise was. She said the only thing that she could to try to express her pleasure. “Thank you, Master.”

“Ah, Violet.” He gave her a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. “If only you knew what that look in your eyes does to a Dom. Trust, need and a hint of fear. Up you go. I want you to be ready when it’s time for your surprise.”

* * * * *

With her arms chained over her head and a blindfold covering her eyes, Violet panted as Carlos stroked his hand over her bottom. She was trembling on the edge of orgasm, and had been for what seemed like an eternity. There was enough slack in the chain for her to lower her arms a bit to relieve the pressure, but not enough that she could block his clever fingers.

“Violet, can you hear me?”

“Yes, Master.” The words came out in a deeper voice than usual and she groaned as his hand brushed over the little decorative clamps on her nipples.

“I would like to indulge one of your fantasies tonight. A scene depicted in a photograph in one of our favorite books. One of the images that made your pussy clench when I was fingering you and we were looking at the pictures.”

The memory of that night spent draped over his lap as he pulled a long and intense orgasm out of her with just his hands made her breath catch. He had asked her to show him the pictures that she liked, then touched her while they looked together. He had said that while her mind might lie, her pussy wouldn’t. She tried to remember all the things they had talked about, all the secret desires she had revealed to him. “Master?”

“I would like to invite another Master to play with us.” The chains over her head clanged as she startled. “I have known him for years and we will use protection. I trust him implicitly.”

Her body tightened at the thought of two men touching her, using her and giving her pleasure like she had never imagined. She wet her lips and hesitated. What if Carlos got jealous? What if he thought she was a slut and wouldn’t want anything to do with her after this? Her stomach clenched into a hard ball. If he really liked her, why would he willingly share her with another man?

“Violet. Tell me what you are thinking.” He removed her blindfold and gave her a moment to adjust to the light. Clad only in a pair of leather pants, his body was a lean and muscled wet dream come to life. A dusting of crisp hair led down to the edge of his leathers where his noticeable erection caught her eye. “Honesty is very important and I promise you that I will always be honest in how I feel. Is this a fantasy you want to explore with me?”

“I…” She looked away and swallowed before returning her gaze to his. Telling him she was afraid he would call her a whore and run screaming from the room seemed to make sense in her mind, but when she thought of saying it out loud it sounded ridiculous. After all, he was the one who suggested it and Carlos wasn’t the kind of guy to play mind games…at least she didn’t think he was. “I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

He smiled and the hard look left his eyes. “Violet, the only time I would be disappointed with you is if you let fear rule your life. Nothing that happens in this room will ever change the way I feel about you.” His dark eyes became so intense that her heart skipped a beat before he said, “You are the most precious thing in my world and I want to help you explore every pleasure that interests you.”

She searched his gaze and it felt as if the floor was caving in beneath her feet. “Yes, please, Master.”

His shoulders lowered and he let out a soft breath. “Thank you for trusting me.”

She fidgeted and glanced down at her body. In the subdued lighting of the dungeon she could still see all the softness that he seemed to adore, but she wasn’t sure how another man would react to her less-than-runway-perfect frame. “Master, could you please lower the lights before he comes in?”

He lifted her breasts so their heavy weight filled his palms. “No, I won’t deprive him of your beauty. Of these fantastic breasts, of the way your chest flushes pink when you orgasm. When you’re in your sub-space you reflect everything you feel in your expression and it’s amazing.” He placed one of his hands between her legs and stroked the wet heat there. “Besides, I want to watch his cock sliding in and out of that pretty mouth. I wish we had done some more ass play,” she made a squeaking sound as his other hand squeezed her bottom, “but I’m afraid it would be more than you’re ready for.”

The doorbell sounded and her fear skyrocketed. He must have sensed it because he took her face between his hands and searched her expression. “Violet, if it becomes too much for you at any point, use your safe word. I won’t think you’re a coward, or judge you. We’ll stop and then we’ll talk about it when you’re ready. I will be here and I won’t let anything happen to you that won’t end in a screaming orgasm.”

A sense of security blanketed her and she nodded. He would take care of her, he would make sure nothing bad happened to her. The thought sent liquid heat through her veins and heart, at once arousing her and soothing. It was so nice to just be able to let go and trust him.

“To make this easier for you, I’m going to put your blindfold back on.” She started to protest and he gave her a stern look that had her shutting her mouth so quickly she almost bit her tongue. “I’m doing this so you won’t be worrying about who he is and what he thinks about you. You will only be able to judge his reactions by his body and his touch. And trust me, when he sees you chained up like this he is going to think he’s died and gone to heaven.”

After giving him one last searching look, she nodded and closed her eyes. The blindfold slid into place and she tried to peek out from beneath the bottom. She could see a faint hint of light and his legs. He laughed and a scarf of some type was tied over the blindfold. “No peeking.”

She tightened her lips against the sassy comeback that would earn her a red bottom. The doorbell rang again and he stroked her cheek. “You’re perfect.”

The door opened and closed, leaving her alone in the dungeon with her body slowly cooling down from the heated state Carlos had worked her into. The ball of fear in her stomach grew larger and she began to tremble. It was hard enough for her to accept the idea that her desires weren’t perverted and wrong with just Carlos or Morgan, but adding another man—a stranger—filled her with shame. She was never one for casual sex and could count the number of partners she’d had on one hand. Now here she was, naked and chained to the ceiling, waiting to be touched by a man she couldn’t even see.

A flicker of heat flared between her legs as she realized how helpless she was. The men could do anything they wanted to her and she couldn’t stop them. Oh, she could use her safe word and had no doubt that Carlos would honor it, but she didn’t want to disappoint him. She wanted him to be proud of her, to praise her and tell her she was beautiful and amazing. Just the thought of his voice whispering those words in her ear made the blood rush to her pussy.

On the heels of that rush of desire came another memory of looking at the picture book with him as he traced circles around her clit with the tip of his finger. They had been looking at an image of a woman tied to a spanking bench, sucking one man into her mouth while the man behind gripped her hips. At the time she had deeply envied that woman and wondered what it would be like to be at the center of all that dominant attention. To be pressed between Morgan and Carlos like that.

Her nipples drew tight and her body flushed with heat. Oh God, to be pressed between Carlos and Morgan at the same time, surrounded by their power. Maybe if she imagined the mystery man was Morgan this would be easier. She felt guilty for thinking about Morgan while she was with Carlos, but the thought of being with a complete stranger really scared her. Besides, Carlos said that she was allowed to think of any fantasy she wanted to while they were together, as long as it still involved him.

Two male voices came from outside the room and she struggled to make out what they were saying. She couldn’t understand any of the whispered words, only the tone of their conversation. Then Carlos laughed and opened the door. “There she is, my Blushing Violet. Isn’t she beautiful?”

A low, rumbling voice said, “Yes.”

She instinctively tried to cover herself but the chains holding her arms restricted her movements. Her heart raced as she struggled and twisted, vainly trying to see beyond the tightly secured blindfold. In an instant Carlos was at her side, his voice soft and soothing. “I’m here. Relax, nothing and no one is going to do anything you don’t want. Do you understand?”

She nodded and flinched when his hand brushed the clamps on her nipples. They weren’t as tight as the nipple clamps they normally played with, enabling her to wear them for longer periods of time. Still, the sensation of him brushing them stung and she arched her back.

“I want to hear you say it.”