Get Off Easy (Noble House, #1) (7 page)

“Duality always draws a crowd.”

“They are really good. Like better than a dive bar in the middle of nowhere good.”

Boyce and Saint exchanged a glance. There was a story there with Kochran and the band. At this point, she wasn’t sure what she’d uncover if she prodded them. Probably better to let it go. She’d already learned the value in that. Too many skeletons in that kind of closet. Luckily, the man in question stepped over to their booth.

“Grae Burrows, this is Kochran Duke.”

If Kochran recognized her name from the membership list at Noble House, it didn’t show in his expression. Instead, he flashed a killer smile and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Grae. Did you enjoy the set?”

Her heart settled into a normal rhythm as her nervousness dissipated. Looked as though she was going to be the only one to out her to Saint and Boyce. If she ever did at all. Which she didn’t plan to do. She’d talked herself right out of that mistake last night.

She put on her best smile. “You guys are fabulous. Really top-notch stuff.”

“Eh, Paddy missed three different cues with her new guitar. Charlene’s vocals were wobbly. Don’t get me started with her fingers fumbling over her bass strings. Jolie decided to take liberties with some notes trying to be fancy with her keyboard. And I dropped an entire section on the back end of the new song.”

Wow. She knew Kochran was a control freak based on chatter on the Noble House message boards, but her compliment had been sincere. He hadn’t sounded mean-spirited. Just an artist unhappy with the bits someone not intimately familiar with the pieces wouldn’t know about. But again, he hadn’t mentioned the fact she was a member of the club, and she wasn’t ready to spill that information to Boyce and Saint just yet, so he won points there. She was familiar with the whole artist mentality because she suffered from it herself on occasion.

“Well, this untrained ear didn’t notice a thing.”

“Kochran is his own worst critic,” Boyce offered.

Kochran sipped from the water bottle he’d carried over. “Says the man who keeps changing out the artwork at my place because he’s not happy with it.”

Boyce muttered something under his breath before taking a long draw from his beer.

Something passed in the look between Saint and Kochran. Unspoken words. Questions. Maybe Kochran was wondering how Boyce was handling the breakdown at the club. Or wondering if they knew she was a member.

“Grae is a college acquaintance of ours.” Saint had finally broken the intense staring contest. “We lost touch after graduation, so we’re playing catch up. We bored her the other night with a movie, so we thought we’d liven things up a bit by bringing her here.”

Kochran’s friendly gaze turned to her. “I hope you enjoy the second set as much, Grae. We should be a little more on point this time. I need to go talk to everyone before we fire up things for the next go. Boyce, you’re not going to skip out on our meeting tomorrow, are you? We have a few things to discuss.” He seemed satisfied with Boyce’s nod. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Kochran sauntered off, and began expertly fielding handshakes and accolades from the crowd. As Grae looked around, the lights brighter now without the band the focus, she recognized a lot of the people here. She’d only seen them on her computer screen, certainly, but many of the people gathered were the more experienced players at Noble House.

She didn’t know what impressed her more. The fact they had come out to support Kochran or the fact they all seemed so...normal. While she wasn’t a stranger to BDSM, she’d only seen the people in the room in various stages of undress and engaging in power exchanges. Of course, they were normal people too, but the strange sense of surrealism washed through her.

“Grae?”

She jumped when Saint tapped the back of her hand. “Sorry. Long day.”

“Are you sure you want to stick around for the second set?”

“Yes. Yes, of course. I don’t have any meetings tomorrow, so I can sleep in.”

Boyce tilted his head and smiled. “Great thing about being your own boss, huh?”

“It has its moments.” She decided not to mention a lot of those moments were filled by watching videos of the men.
Way to sound like an addict
. “What about you two?”

“Taking a well-deserved break.”

A thread of fear spiked through her, stabbing deep. “Not because of me, I hope. I’m sorry if I disrupted your schedule. I know I should’ve called first before I just popped up on your doorstep. I just...”

Saint grabbed her hand and squeezed. “It’s a much needed break for both of us. Planned a month ago. We’re leaving right after Boyce’s meeting with Kochran tomorrow to spend the day at a vineyard Boyce has been wanting to visit.”

A shadow ghosted over Saint’s face.

Saint was worried about Boyce. Not surprising given the closeness the men shared. The relationship they were involved in. It made perfect sense for them to get away for a bit. She wondered if that meant the breakdown at the club wasn’t that far out of the norm for Boyce. And she barged right back into their lives when they needed each other the most and didn’t need to worry about any outside influences or problems.

She had a job.

She had a life.

Sure it wasn’t typical or even all that spectacular, but it was hers.

“Thinking of heading home tomorrow. For real this time.” Goodness knows she needed to put some distance between her and the men or something she would probably regret was going to happen.

Boyce set his bottle down with a loud bang. “We didn’t scare you off, did we?”

“Of course not. I left at a bad time.” Which wasn’t a lie. Not exactly. There was no great time for her to abandon her work, but she’d done it anyway. And felt guilty for every missed email and phone call. Added in with the guilt that made itself known whenever she daydreamed about the life she wanted—craved—and she was a piece of work.

“Grae.”

The commanding way Saint said her name immediately caused her to lower her gaze. So many doubts swirled through her mind. Especially the brash, sudden decision she made to follow her pussy and not her brain. Her sex drive had gotten the better of her, and she’d be thinking with strategic parts that were better off being put on ice. Saint needed to put his focus one hundred percent on Boyce, not deal with her reappearance.

Or her desires dealing with Noble House.

With them.

Together.

Gah
.

“I don’t want to be in the way.”

Boyce and Saint both wrapped her hands, squeezing.
Oh...
So warm. Safe.

“You aren’t.”

“And I doubt you could ever be,” Saint added.

She squeezed their hands in return despite her misgivings. “You’re just being nice. I barged right in, and while I don’t doubt I’m welcome, something tells me you two need some time alone.”

“Which is why we’re taking a few days away.” The knowing glint in Boyce’s gaze caused her core to heat. “Haven’t settled that little argument about whose mouth is more gifted. Plan to spend a few hours arguing that one out.”

Saint leaned closer to Boyce, his lips hovering inches away from Boyce’s ear. “Just a few? We’re going to have to negotiate if you only intend
a few
.”

Oh!

The image of what they would be doing while they were gone wasn’t helping her perverted mind in any way. She could spend days examining that picture. Months, even. Long, drawn out months where she would savor every second. Especially with the way Boyce’s body had gone tense when Saint had pushed up against him.

Sometimes it was incredible how much these two men excited her just by existing.

“We’re leaving from here to drive west, to the coast. Staying the night at a vineyard bed and breakfast. Enjoy the day away from everything. Sample some new wines. At least this one will,” Saint murmured as he stroked his finger over Boyce’s collarbone. “I can do without the fancy wine.”

Boyce’s eyes flashed. “And obviously were going to be spending quite a bit of time discussing
something
in particular.”

“That sounds wonderful.”
In more ways than one
.

Saint’s gaze shifted to her. “Care to join us?”

So many unspoken things in four little words. A promise of the magic they could share if she simply allowed herself to give in. As much as she wanted to, she knew she definitely had no right to accept. Butting into their lives was enough. She wasn’t going to intrude on their vacation where they obviously planned to smooth out some of the rough edges left over from the broken scene the other night.

“Saint and I have been wondering if we’re picking up where we left off in college.”

“I...don’t know.”

“Would you like to?” Saint leaned closer. “Think carefully about what you say because I already know the answer.”

“You can’t—”

“I do,” Saint stated matter-of-factly.

“Can I think about it?”

“Of course. We can discuss it again when we get back. Say over brunch at our place?”

“Does brunch still include mimosas and Boyce’s sticky buns?”

Boyce smirked. “Sweetie, that’s most nights in our house.”

As soon as she realized what she’d asked, she erupted in a fit of giggles, quickly followed by the men. When she’d gotten herself under control again, she realized she’d decided to stay. Funny how her brain had made up her mind for her. Luckily the manager at the front desk had already offered to extend her stay for as long as she needed.

Brunch did sound nice. And Grae couldn’t remember the last time she had slowed down long enough to eat a home-cooked meal let alone
cook
something. Her menu consisted of takeout and microwave meals.

Wow, that’s a depressing thought.

“Sounds like a plan.”

As Duality fired up the second set, Grae thought about how she could visit Noble House on Saturday while Saint and Boyce were out of town. She could explore and see the club with her own eyes, and be out of there in time to meet the guys for Sunday brunch. And decide if she was ready to rediscover the loving attention of two very gorgeous men.

Perfect.

G
rae sat in her idling car wondering why the hell she thought coming was a good idea. She wasn’t the uproot-her-life type. Yet, she’d done exactly that after seeing Boyce’s breakdown just days ago. She’d even turned down a very lucrative contract offer for a multi-million dollar movie, packed a bag, and found herself standing in their doorway. Scared to death they wouldn’t remember her.

But even though she’d reassured herself they were perfectly fine, she hadn’t left.

There was something else she needed to do.

Noble House.

And now that she was there, she was contemplating turning back. If she’d thought standing in front of Saint and Boyce’s door was intimidating, sitting in the parking lot of Noble House was downright terror inducing.

She’d known what the building would look like, of course. Building, hell. It was a fucking fortress. The about section of the club’s website provided a long history of the building as a former armory for the military and the surrounding land that had once been a base.

But to see everything in person was something else entirely.

From the outside, the towering brick building looked like a typical set of barracks found on any military installation in the country. The three-story tower boasted a large, white clock with ornate black hands. A weather vane perched at the steeple. Complete with a rooster, perhaps? Or some piece of military memorabilia to reflect the history of the area. It was too far away for her to tell.

Grae had grown up a Navy brat, where yearly moves were the norm. Social awkwardness bloomed early because of her father’s career. So many moves in such a short time meant she’d spent her youth playing video games and watching movies to escape.

And the reason she worked at home.

Alone.

Most of the time she left the house out of obligation rather than desire.

Next step was to transform herself into the crazy cat lady everyone whispered about.

Sucking up her courage, she locked the car then shoved her keys into her pocket. She’d gone low-key for her outfit selection tonight. She didn’t plan on playing once she got inside, since this was her first official visit to the former armory. No doubt there was some kind of rule about that. Besides, she was more interested in simply getting a lay of the club and seeing the interior of a space she’d only viewed through her computer screen.

Then she’d be out of there.

And snuggled under the covers of her hotel room bed before midnight.

Her stomach churned as she stepped closer and saw the guy standing in front of the entrance. Standing, hell, his entire bulk took up the double door he was guarding. His presence wasn’t surprising given what went on inside the walls. They’d need a heavy-duty guard who would stop anyone not authorized to enter with just a stern glare.

“Uh, hi. I’m not sure what I need to do.”

The guard shot her a half smile. “What are you looking for, darlin’?”

“I know this is Noble House.” She pointed to the doors over the man’s shoulders. Better to get that right out in the open so he didn’t dismiss her. “And I know it’s a members’ only club for kinky folks. But I don’t know what I need to do to get past you.”