Get Off Easy (Noble House, #1) (29 page)

“But you couldn’t accept us. Couldn’t give us a chance. That kind of pain isn’t something we can easily get over.”

Saint’s admission stung.

Grae rose, wiping tears from her eyes. “Please understand that I had to try. Had to come to apologize, at least. Even if my effort didn’t make it all right between us, at least I had to have the chance to say I was sorry.” Her voice broke on the last world. She cleared her throat, lifted her chin, and inhaled deeply. “I love you both. So much. I’m sorry I screwed it all up for us. And thank you for giving me the chance to have my say.”

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Couldn’t be in the same room pouring her heart out like this.

As she turned, she felt her heart fracturing, the pieces stripping away the closer she got to the door.

The hope Saint would stop her, come after her, faded as she set her hand on the latch and spun it. Tory had it all wrong. Grae wasn’t a superhero. But she sure possessed the power to fuck up three lives in a single swoop.

Grae Burrows.

Fuck up extraordinaire.

N
o
.

This wasn’t right.

Wasn’t the way things were supposed to go.

Grae paused in the doorway, her heart racing. Steady in the resolve that she wouldn’t end things this way, she slammed the door shut and spun around. As determination flowed through her, she balled her hands into fists at her side. She couldn’t possibly make this any worse than she already had.

So, she went for it.

“I’m not leaving. At least that easily. You’re going to have to throw me out. Physically put me out on my ass if you want to get rid of me. I belong here. In your home. I belong with you both. It’s not wrong to love you. To want a life, a family with you. I can find new clients. I can find another job if I have to, but I can’t find either of you. I can’t...can’t bear the thought of watching you two share another submissive. And, yes, I know I could just join another club and never have to worry about seeing you with someone else. But that’s the point. I want to worry. About you both. I...want to be the woman...the submissive you turn to. The woman you let take care of you. What I said at the ball? Yeah, I’m petrified. But I don’t want to give my heart to anyone else. I don’t want...” She trailed off, lifting her face.

Though she was scared that she would lose everything, she knew she needed to press forward. This time, she would expel the darkness swirling inside her. Hold nothing back. It was the only way she could live with herself.

Even if she failed.

“I don’t want to lose either of you. And if you don’t want me, that’s fine. I’ll accept it. But you’re going to have to say it. You’re going to have to tell me that I don’t have a place here with you. I won’t leave without hearing you say you don’t want me. Both of you. Please. Say something. Anything.”

Saint rose off the couch, face angled toward the television. “You coming home?”

“Yeah,” Boyce answered coolly. “Have a bit to finish up here, though. So take your time.”

Grae nearly growled. “Don’t pretend I’m not here. I’m not leaving.” Not this time. Not ever. “God dammit would you at least look at me, Ford Templar?”

The screen went black, and Saint tucked the phone in his pocket as he drew near. Fear, anger, hope, love, and other emotions she couldn’t put a name to swirled inside her.

Had she made it all worse by ordering their acknowledgement?

So. The. Fuck. What.

Her dignity was already in tatters. What she’d said couldn’t possibly make things any worse.

“I’m not leaving,” she repeated, this time with more power behind her words. She had to make Saint understand. Make him grasp just how much she loved and cared for them. How much she knew she’d screwed it all up.

If they would just listen to her.

“My mother would use my full name when I was in trouble. That’s when I knew I needed to find the best hiding spot possible and fear for my life. ‘Cause if she found me? I was in for a world of hurt.” Saint lifted his hands, smoothing the contours of her jaw as he swept his thumbs over her cheeks. “We didn’t say we wanted you leave, did we? And we never stopped loving you. I’m proud of you, baby. So fucking proud.”

He swooped in, closing his mouth over hers. Demanding. Taking. Possessing. Branding her with a powerful need. Everything she’d been feeling vanished, replaced with the desperate need for Saint to continue kissing her. The contact meant she had a chance. That a sliver of hope existed where this relationship could be repaired.

He broke away slowly, his bottle-green eyes sparking.

“I don’t...I don’t understand. You’re...proud of me?” For what? For being a dumbass?

“You stayed.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You didn’t run. You dug deep and found the determination we knew you had inside you all along. You fought for yourself. For us. For our present. And our future. For our family. For the new life we’re going to build together.” He kissed both cheeks. “You had to be the one to realize what you wanted, Grae. You had to get there on your own. No amount of badgering, cajoling, persuading, or even ordering would help. In fact it would have just made you blame us. Or worse, resent us. We couldn’t force you to accept anything. No matter how much we told you that we loved you.”

“And the best way to get me to understand was—”

“To let you go.” He smiled slyly. “Though I will admit, I nearly had to tie Boyce down on three separate occasions during the past two weeks because he wanted to storm down your door.”

“What about you?”

“My temper wasn’t without its own difficulties. I nearly landed myself in the stockade at Noble House for a whipping doled out by Kochran and Boyce.”

“I would’ve liked to have seen that.”

“You and every other member of the club.” He touched his forehead to hers. “It’s
our
life now.”

“I thought I couldn’t have everything I wanted. My career. You. Boyce. Kids. The utterly mind blowing sex. Submission. Noble House. It all was...”

“Too much?”

Heat flushed her cheeks. “I thought I was being greedy.”

“Oh, sweetheart, wanting all those things doesn’t make you greedy. They make
you
, Grae. And we both love you very much for every single one of those things. And, yes, you can have all of those things. With us. I thought you would have figured it out as soon as you realized we knew you wanted both of us together without anything between us. I knew from the very beginning what you wanted. No one has ever pushed you, have they? Truly.”

She didn’t need to answer. The tone of Saint’s voice signaled he already knew.

Saint stood back, distancing himself from her as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets. Intimidating her with just the power of his stare. Her fear was back, swirling dark and foreboding in her gut, but it was different this time. A potent distress as he pinned her with his gaze.

In the blink of an eye, the air had become charged.

“You were so gorgeous in the hall, on your knees. I need that truth, Grae. Right now. That honesty as you’re submitting to me. This won’t be play at the club. A scene staged for thousands of members to watch. This is real. This is us. No shields. No barriers. No cameras. Us. Surrender. Right now. As I see fit.”

She nodded, her heart soaring.

“There you go. My good, sweet girl. My angel. Our angel.” Saint kissed her again, his gaze on hers as he pulled away. “Strip and kneel.”

D
arkness blanketed her vision as Saint slipped the blindfold in place. A surge of panic caused her heart to leap into her throat.

“Shh, angel, relax.” He pressed his lips against her forehead, a comforting gesture in the dark. Being blindfolded wasn’t a hard limit, but she liked being able to see. Liked knowing what was coming.

The bindings holding her in place tightened the more she struggled.

“Breathe, angel.”

She inhaled as Saint instructed, counting in her head each passing second. When she reached thirty, and could take in no more air, she began releasing. Her bindings relaxed as well. Robbed of sight and held immobile, she listened to something heavy scraped across the hardwood floor.

Suddenly, Saint cupped her heat. She sighed and pushed against his hand. His touch firmed, pushing her pelvis back into position. He scissored his fingers, parting her. Something clicked, and she felt a touch against her opening. The item pushed further, spreading her as it slipped inside. Another click sounded and the item stopped its progress.

So full
. She squirmed and was immediately rewarded with a sharp slap against her thigh. She cried out, but stopped moving.

“Good girl.” A hard, smooth object brushed against her lips. “Open your mouth for me.”

As she did, Saint pushed the item between her lips, slipping it into place so the ball gag muffled her cries.

Damn, he really means business.

And she loved it.

She swallowed as best as she could with the gag in place, waiting patiently while he fixed the straps against her neck. Something cool and wet smoothed over her anus seconds before one of Saint’s fingers slipped through the opening.

“Bear down on my finger.” As she did, his finger slipped deeper and the bright spot of pain shimmering through her changed to a pleasurable burn. More cool slickness and another finger. She relaxed by the second, her pussy filled, and Saint playing in her back passage.

When he withdrew his fingers, she moaned around the gag.

He kissed the round curve of her ass as something probed against her tight bud. Not his fingers this time. Something thicker. She accepted the item easily and figured it was another dildo, only much thinner than what he placed in her pussy. When the click sounded this time, the item pushed forward at a much slower rate. The dildo inside her pussy and the addition of the other in her ass made her feel as though she would burst. But she trusted Saint enough to know he would never do anything to harm her.

Another click sounded and now both toys were moving at the same pace.

“So beautiful, strapped down, taking my fucking machine.” That explained the near-perfect rhythmic movements. A heavy weight settled against her back, pushing her against the floor. Saint’s breath sounded next to her ear. “Your only job is to let your mind go, angel. To let my fucking machine take you over. I’ve got you, just remember that. Even when I’m gone.”

Something soft cupped over her ears and the openings strains of Beethoven filled her head. The floor under her vibrated, the sensation slowly fading away as she was left alone.

He’d robbed her of sight, sound and taste.

And walked away.

S
aint unleashed a breath as he stepped into the kitchen. The open floor plan would allow him to keep Grae in sight while still maintaining his distance. Boyce sat at their café-style table, smiling around a bottle of water. He’d come in quietly shortly after Saint blindfolded Grae, stood and watched the two of them from the doorway until the sound of Saint’s custom fucking machine could mask the sound of his footsteps.

Saint angled the chair so he could keep Grae in full view. Though she was a sub for both of them, Saint had been the one to put her in the bondage, muffled her, blind her, and deafen her. Those factors made her his responsibility for the moment. He had no idea where the rest of the night was going to take them, but having so many possibilities spread out before him was tantalizing.