Chained (When Bondage Meets Innocence) (29 page)

“
Uh-uh,” Tyler said. “You made us get up and come here. We’re committed now.”

“
He’s right,” Damien said. “If you had suggested that when the alarm went off the first time, I’d be right there with you. But it’s too late now.”

“
I didn’t realize I would be this sore or tired,” Krista said.

Damien leaned close to her so the whole place wouldn’t be able to hear. “You enjoyed an evening of debauchery with three guys filling up your hot little holes, not to mention the two women, one of which you single-handedly turned out and you didn’t think you would be sore?”

Tyler laughed as he overheard the conversation. “I tried to tell you yesterday,” he reminded her.

“
What can I get for you miss?” the barista said when the man in front of her moved out of the way.

“
I need a venti, hazelnut, cappuccino with two raw sugars, one hundred thirty degrees, wet,” Krista said, leaning back into Damien’s arms. “Oh and add an extra shot for me would you?”

“
Holy christ woman,” Damien said, kissing her on the top of the head. “Your coffee has more options than my car. What’s wrong with regular coffee?”

“
Can I also have a grande chai tea latte,” Krista said to the barista as she turned toward Damien. “If I’m going to pay five dollars for a cup of coffee, it’s going to be absolutely, totally, completely perfect.”

“
Sorry man,” Tyler said. “I forgot to warn you about the coffee thing. It’s borderline obsessive.”

“
I can see that,” Damien said, laughing as he and Tyler gave their much simpler order to the barista.

“
You have no idea,” Tyler said. “So I got up yesterday morning, made her a nice breakfast, all these sweet things a guy would do to impress a girl, you know bacon, omelettes, orange juice, coffee, the works, and I totally could have just made the coffee. She damn near had an orgasm from one sip.”

“
It wasn’t that bad,” Krista said as the barista called out her order to let her know it was ready for pick up. She went to grab the coffee and took a second to put the cardboard sleeve on it so it wouldn’t burn her hands.

“
Watch,” Tyler whispered as he walked up to Damien. “It’s the first sip that gets her.”

Krista turned back to the guys, lifted the cup to her mouth and took a sip of her absolutely, totally, completely perfect coffee. As the taste exploded on her tongue, Krista’s eyes closed and she moaned appreciatively, rolling the sip around in her mouth savoring it before she swallowed.

“
What?” Krista asked as she opened her eyes to find the two guys staring at her.

“
Ummm, I think you’re right,” Damien said with a laugh. “We’re going to have to keep an eye on this. Now don’t worry, Krista. There are all kinds of support groups out there for people suffering from addictions.”

“
Ha ha,” Krista pretended to laugh, even though she was smiling.

The trio laughed as they enjoyed their coffee. Just then, Tiffini walked in and the two girls lit up when they saw each other. Krista walked over and gave Tiffini a hug, handing her the latte at the same time.

“
Did you get my message?” Krista asked.

“
No, what message,” Tiffini said.

“
It’s no big deal,” Krista said. “I just brought some people with me to go to the gym with us this morning.”

Tiffini looked around the room and noticed that everyone else in the coffee shop was a guy.

“
They didn’t want coffee?” Tiffini asked. “What’d you do leave them in the car?”

Damien and Tyler figured that was their cue and stepped forward, introducing themselves.

Tiffini looked over at Krista and pursed her lips, trying to figure out what was going on.

“
That’s Damien?” Tiffini asked. “THE Damien? The guy you have been moping over for months?”

“
Yeah,” Krista said, looking over at the guys with a delightedly content look on her face.

“
So who’s the other guy?” Tiffini asked.

“
Tyler,” Krista said. “I met him, gosh, a week ago. Seems like a lot longer. Anyway, I met him when Hannah took me out last Friday night.”

“
So, which one are you with,” she said.

“
Both,” the men say in unison, clearly having been able to hear the conversation.

Krista felt herself blushing.

“
Come again?” Tiffini said.

“
Kind of both,” Krista said. She hadn’t talked it over with Damien and Tyler, but apparently they had. Plus, last night with the two of them had been amazing. Tiffini grabbed Krista by the arm and pulled her across the coffee shop to a quiet corner.

“
Okay,” Tiffini said. “I know I’ve been really busy with my new job, but these are the kinds of things it would be nice to know about. I mean, you couldn’t call me or text me or just show up at my house for some girl talk? A little over a week ago, you had no men in your life and now you have two. I mean that’s the kind of thing I would think you would have told me.”

“
Damien only happened last night,” Krista said. “And I didn’t know that Tyler wanted to be in a relationship until yesterday.”

“
Well,” Tiffini said, still pouting a little. “I guess that’s not as bad. But you are lucky I have a missed call from you or I would still be mad. Anyway, explain how they know about each other and are cool with each other, but I need the cliff notes version because our class starts in fifteen minutes.”

Krista opened her mouth to explain.

“
Actually,” Tiffini interrupted. “Why don’t you just ride to the gym with me and you can tell me on the way.”

“
All right,” Krista said. She walked over to the guys. “Tiffini needs a minute or two for us to talk. Can you guys follow us to the gym and I’ll ride with her?”

The guys agreed and Krista climbed into Tiffini’s truck. She hoped her friend wouldn’t freak out. Tiffini had a tendency to be a little old fashioned about men and relationships.

“
How do you see this working out, girl?” Tiffini asked.

“
I don’t know,” Krista said. “To be honest, we haven’t talked about it.”

“
Okay,” Tiffini said. “So then what happened? I mean, don’t get me wrong. They are both hot. But how are you going to date two guys? What do you switch off? One on one night, the other on the next?

“
Actually, I kind of see them together,” Krista said.

“
So how do you guys have sex?” Tiffini asked

“
Same way,” Krista said, feeling her ears get hot as she blushed.

Tiffini stopped her truck at the red light and turned to look at her friend.

“
You dirty slut!” Tiffini said, smiling as she hit Krista on the arm.

“
Yeah, well. I’ve never done anything like this before and my new theory is that every single girl in the world deserves a chance to be a dirty slut at least once in their lives before they die. It should be like a rite of passage or something.”

“
But it’s what you want? Tiffini asked.

“
Yeah I think it is. I don’t know if it’s going to work out in the long term,” Krista said. “But for right now, it’s perfect. Oh, and the light’s green.”

***************

“
Krista, we have to talk about your descriptions of things,” Damien said as the class ended and the four of them walked out. .

“
What?” Krista asked innocently.

“
And I quote,” Damien said, “‘It’s the most fun you’ll ever have,’ end quote. Krista, there was nothing fun about that.”

Actually, that’s not true,” Tyler said. “I did get to see you do all those crazy dance moves, but other than that, nothing fun.”

“
Pussies,” Tiffini said, looking at the men judgmentally. “Plus both of you know you punked out when we started in with the weights. No way you should have done your sets with twenty pound weights. I mean I used twenty pound weights.”

“
That was the biggest size there was,” Tyler said.

“
You could have grabbed larger weights from the gym and you know it,” Tiffini said, laughing. “At least you made it all the way through, though. All of the other guys that have tried always quit during the step portion.”

“
Yeah well, it’s no wonder,” Damien said. “What was the instructor’s name? Pam? Yeah, she’s obviously a nazi. On top of which those crazy steps you guys were doing at the beginning didn’t even make any sense. She couldn’t just use regular steps? I never did get that one she calls around the world.”

“
I love Pam,” Krista said. “She makes the class fun. I probably would have quit by now if I had to do the same boring steps over and over again.”

“
Ditto,” Tiffini said looking over at Krista. “You’re cooking brunch, right?”

“
Yeah, why?” Krista asked. “Don’t I do it every Sunday?”

“
Yeah,” Tiffini said, impishly. “Just making sure you did have something… better to do.”

“
I do,” Krista said, winking at Tiffini. “But I have to feed them or they won’t have the strength.”

“
Krista,” Damien said as he looked at all the food on her dining room table. “This is the breakfast version of thanksgiving dinner. You make this every weekend?”

There was bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, tropical fruit salad, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and french toast.

“
Pretty much,” Krista replied. “Although I usually don’t make as much of it. And sometimes I make pancakes instead of french toast.”

“
I take it back,” Tyler said with a laugh as he sat down. “I love Pam’s class and plan to go every Sunday if this is my reward.”

“
That’s the only reason she talked me into it,” Tiffini said as she dished up a helping of eggs and passed it to Damien. “You should have seen me for my first class, breathing hard and sweating like a crazy person. I mean I’m a smoker for christ sakes. I only went because Krista promised to make me breakfast after. Thus the tradition was born.”

“
These hashbrowns are amazing,” Tyler said, lifting another forkful to his mouth.

“
I said the same thing,” Tiffini told him. “Her secret ingredient is love. I swear I make mine exactly the same and they just don’t taste like that.”

“
It was the funniest thing,” Krista said. “She called me one day from the grocery store and asked me which aisle the love was on because her food wasn’t coming out right.”

“
I’m telling you guys, you should try one of her sandwiches,” Tiffini said. “She even calls it a sandwich with love and after you eat one, you’ll never be able to go back to regular sandwiches again.”

“
They’re that good?” Damien asked.

“
I’m telling you, my girl throws down in the kitchen,” Tiffini replied.

“
I just like to cook,” Krista said.

As they ate their food, Tyler’s phone rang. He pulled it out to look at who the call was from.

“
It’s my mom, guys,” he said. “I have to take this.”

“
Aww, are you a momma’s boy?” Krista asked, kidding with him.

“
Not really,” Tyler said as he hit the button on the phone to answer the call. “She just hasn’t been doing very well lately.”

“
You can use my bedroom if you want some privacy,” Krista said, feeling bad now for giving him a hard time.

“
Thanks,” Tyler said. He stood and walked out of the dining area talking softly into the phone.

“
Hope everything’s okay,” Krista said.

“
Yeah me too,” Damien said. “His mom is really nice.”

“
I didn’t know you two knew each other that well,” Krista said thoughtfully.

“
It’s no big deal,” Damien said, remembering the rules he had agreed to with Tyler.

A few minutes later Tyler returned to the dining room.

“
I can’t stay guys,” he said. “My mom fell and did something to her hip. She’s on her way to the hospital.”

“
Do they know if it’s broken?” Damien asked.

“
Not yet,” Tyler said. “She says she’s fine, but I just want to go down and make sure.”

Krista stood and gave Tyler a kiss.

“
Of course,” Krista said. “I completely understand. I hope she’s okay.”

“
Thanks,” Tyler said. “I’ll be back later as long as nothing’s wrong.”

“
Cool,” Krista said, looking over at Damien. “We’ll be here. At least I think so. You’re staying, right Damien?”

“
Are you asking me to stay?” Damien asked.

“
Well, yeah. If you don’t have anything else going on,” Krista said.

“
Then we’ll be here,” Damien said. “I’m just going to walk Tyler down to his car. Be right back.”

When the two men walked out of the apartment door, Tyler turned to Damien with an angry look.

“
My mom’s in the hospital and you’re playing games?” Tyler said.

“
No,” Damien said. “I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t breaking any of the rules we set up. That’s all.”

“
Whatever man,” Tyler said, turning to jog down the steps.

“
Hold on a second,” Damien said, following him.