Innocence Defied (New York) (19 page)

“Like what?” His voice was rough as sand paper.

“Like there was nothing else in the world that you wanted more. I’ve heard people describe men looking like lions stalking prey, I just never thought it would be so…so…” She paused, seemingly at a loss.

“So what, darlin’? Tell me.”

“Riveting.”

The whispered word caused an immediate reaction in his lap, and Gage had to take a deep breath and remind himself that she’d had enough for one day.

“Well, I have to agree with you there, darlin’. Watching you two definitely had me riveted as well.” Truth was a two-way street, he needed to be as honest with his reactions as he expected her to be with hers. “It was harder for me to watch than I’d thought it would be.”

Zoe scooted out a little and turned to look him directly in the eye. “How so?”

What Gage saw in her face reassured him. He was no mind reader, but this was a girl he’d known her whole life and she never hid what she was feeling. From him, anyway. He saw the same conflict in her that was boiling in him.

“Oops.” He cupped her chin in his palm. “I told you when we started this what I wanted from a slave. Complete dominance and control. The joy of having you as mine, to share and display. But, God, darlin’, there was a moment there I thought I was going to rip his dick off and choke him with it for daring to lay his hands on you.” He shook his head when she opened her mouth to speak. “Let me finish gettin’ this out.” As he continued, he ran his fingers over the delicate features that made up the loveliest face he’d ever seen. “I’ve had a full-time slave before, and there was never this conflict when I shared her. With you, I don’t know that any other man is going to have that privilege ever again.”

Her smile bloomed like sunrise across her face, and it was a balm to his soul. “As much as I enjoyed it, I’m glad to hear you say that.” The smile dimmed a little, and she worried her bottom lip between her teeth before she said, “But the night we started this you told me what you wanted. What you liked and—”

“Yes,” he interrupted, “what
I
wanted and what
I
liked. What can I say, Oops?” He looked at her, and let her see his emotions, raw and naked. “Turns out what I wanted back then has nothing to do with what I want now. You changed that.
You
. I’ve seen it happen to other Doms and Masters before. I just never thought it would happen to me.”

He chuckled and hugged her close to his chest when her eyes welled up with unshed tears. He told her. “Cade and Trevor are never gonna let me live this down. I’ve been ragging them for years for hogging Riley all to themselves. Sharing is part of the lifestyle, so I never got why they were being such selfish assholes before.” As the truth of his feelings settled deeper in his heart, he kissed the top of her head. “Now…God, darlin’,
now
I get it.”

He felt her take that information in by the way she seemed to draw in on herself. Zoe was an intuitive and bright young woman—she had to know what he wasn’t saying. He would save the actual declaration for another time, though. When he told her he loved her for the first time, it wasn’t going to be with the memories of another man’s touch still fresh in her mind.

She was snuggled in close and content with the way this evening had turned out, and he decided he couldn’t leave it at that. Gage grumbled out a warning just to keep her off balance. “Don’t think because of this you’re going to get out of the lesson you got comin’. Prepare yourself, Oops,” Gage said with a grim smile. “I think it’s time I introduce you to a little thing called ‘funishment’.”

It was comical the way her entire body froze so quickly, even her breathing stopped. Like a rabbit that had just spotted a wolf. “I think we will discuss this in my dungeon tomorrow,” he added. “Though, considering who I am and where I live, I’ve got the Texas version—it’s called a barn.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

“This, darlin’, is a Texas dungeon.” Gage stood just inside the enormous building and gestured with one arm while he kept Zoe tucked close under his other.

He hadn’t let her dress this morning. She’d woken up to breakfast in bed before he’d carried her right out here and she was quite content to stay plastered to his side as long as he’d let her. The place was all wooden and smelled of hay and leather. There was a loft that created a semicircle around three quarters of the building with four wooden stairways for access from different areas. There were beams and crates and saddles in addition to all manner of things that, up until a couple of weeks ago, would not have caused her to think twice about. She would have taken everything at face value and just assumed this was a very clean and beautiful, yet ordinary barn.

Now she saw it through the eyes of a sub, and every hook, box and rope had endless possibilities that caused her body to tingle in a combination of trepidation and eagerness. Looking at all the different equipment and devices caused images to flash through her mind—of herself and how she could be strapped on or against them at the hands of her Master.

“Kneel here.” Gage’s voice had that undertone to it that somehow made it impossible for her to deny. Her legs folded without thought. His hand stroked over her hair. “Legs spread. Wider. That’s good. Now, arms behind your back—that’s the way. Stay exactly like that.” He walked away from her with his long stride, and didn’t look back when he added, “I’ll just get some rope.”

“Dammit.” Brice hung up his cell and threw it onto the end table with enough force that he would be surprised if it wasn’t ruined.

Terryn came into the living room, wide-eyed with two cups of coffee in her hands. “What is it? Are you okay?”

Brice took a couple deep breaths and kept himself seated. When Terryn reached out to hand him his coffee, he took the cup in one and urged her onto his lap with the other.

“I just talked to Gage’s admin,” he told her. “The son of a bitch took Oops to fucking Texas. She told me that he could be reached at the Houston estate in case of an emergency.” Worry and anger, betrayal and heartache waged a war inside him.

Terryn said nothing for a moment, only settled deeper into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder.

Brice felt her tense after a bit and then she said, “She loves him. I really believe she loves him. Do you honestly think that the two of them together would be so bad?”

With a silent curse, Brice stroked a hand over her fiery curls. “She’s too young. Too innocent. No way is she emotionally equipped to handle a D/s relationship. Christ, Red, she’s barely out of high school. She should be dating guys that count themselves lucky if they get to second base with her—not a man more’n a decade older than she is who wants to tie her down and whip her.” As a horrifying thought occurred to him, every muscle in his body turned to steel. “What if that asshole shares her or loans her out?” His mind went black at the thought. “It’s what he loves. His favorite thing in the world is group sex, Red. You know that. Can you imagine Oops strapped down on a bench, with a dozen men going to town on her?” The black in his mind boiled like a sea of vipers, writhing and spitting with venom. “I swear to God, I’ll kill the bastard if he even thinks of doing that to her.”

Before she could answer to that, the front door opened and Cade, Trevor and Riley spilled into the room with a chorus of noisy hellos. The commotion was a welcome distraction, and both Brice and Terryn got to their feet with smiles.

“Yay!” Terryn squealed as she ran to embrace Riley in a hug. “Why didn’t you let us know you were back? We could have met you at the airport.”

“We just cut our trip short and jumped on a plane. No biggie,” Riley said as she bounced from Terryn’s embrace to Brice’s.

“Glad you’re here, beautiful.” Brice kissed the top of her head and held her for a moment since she leaned heavily into him and seemed content to stay there. “You were missed.”

He met Cade’s eyes over her head and lifted his brows when he saw the expression on his cousin’s face. When he looked at Trevor, he was even more puzzled. Trevor looked at Riley like she was going to drop any second and he was hovering around to catch her.

“Wait.” As a thought sank in he put some things together. Home early, Riley clinging like a burr, Cade and Trevor looking sick with worry while they stared at her. “Oh my God. You’re pregnant.”

Terryn started squealing again, then wrenched Riley out of his arms and started bouncing around with her.

“How did you guess?” Trevor asked, still watching Riley like a mother hen.

“You’re joking, right?” Brice said with a brow raised. “You two are watching her like you expect her to collapse any second.”

“Ry.” Apparently not able to stand it a minute longer, Cade gently took their wife by the shoulders and steered her to the couch. “Please stop jumping. And sit down. The flight exhausted you, and you’ve already thrown up twice just since we landed.”

“I still think we should have gone straight home and let everybody visit us there,” Trevor said as he took a seat next to Riley and rubbed a hand on the back of her neck.

“Oh, geez.” Riley waved that away and looked at Terryn and Brice. “You’d think I was the first woman who ever got pregnant, the way these two have been acting since they found out. I should have waited to tell them. At least then my vacation wouldn’t have gotten cut short.”

Brice opened his mouth to tease the guys about overreacting, when he got his first good look at her. She’d lost weight, her skin was yellow under her natural coloring, and there were circles under her big almond eyes that had never been there before.

“Aw, babe,” he said as his cousin’s worry took up residence in his own chest. “How are you feeling? You look like maybe they’re right and you should be resting.”

Terryn must’ve seen it too, because she tucked a cashmere throw on Riley’s lap and asked, “What do you need? Can I get you some water or ginger ale? I hear crackers are good if you’re feeling nauseous.”

Riley was still trying to act brave and wave that away but Cade answered for her. “Ginger ale would be great and she likes dry white toast if you could. Or pretzels. Right?”

She crumpled under his loving regard. As her shoulders wilted into the couch cushions, she rested her head on Trevor’s arm and said, “Pretzels. And ginger ale would be amazing.” Her cheeks pinkened a little when she added, “And it might be a good idea if you brought a big bowl too. Just in case.”

“Oh, poor baby.” Terryn bent over to hug her and fussed with tucking the blanket more securely around her legs. “Don’t worry. The sick tummy is only supposed to be for the first part. It’ll be over before you know it.”

As Terryn went to the kitchen, Riley said, “God, I hope so. This is awful. Everything makes me sick, even smells can send me running for the nearest bathroom. And weak. I’m so wimpy and sleepy all the time now.” She glared at Brice and he looked at Cade for help but Cade only lifted his hands in the air in a gesture that stated clearly he was on his own.

“I used to pop out of bed every morning, raring to go,” she went on. “Six o’clock was sleeping in for me and I could go all day. But now? Now all I want is a nap. And you know what sounds good to me when I wake up after a nap?”

Since she was still glaring at him like he was at fault in some way, Brice answered, “What?” as softly as he could.

“Another nap, that’s what. It’s awful. I feel awful.” Her face drooped into lines of sadness and her eyes welled up with tears. Brice felt like a bully and he knew damn well he had nothing to feel guilty about but for some reason that didn’t make a bit of difference.

He was about three seconds from a panic attack when Terryn came back in with a bowl of pretzels, a glass of ginger ale, and a steaming cup all on a serving tray. “There, there, sweetheart. It’s just your hormones getting to you. You’ll feel better in a while. You’ll see.”

“I know.” Riley sniffled, and Cade produced a tissue for her. “I keep telling myself that, but I cry all the time. That is when I’m not puking or sleeping.” Cade sat on her other side and draped his arm behind her. “I hate that this is like this. I’m supposed to be a glowing, full-of-energy sex fiend. Not this bloated tummy, feeling like a dead zombie thing that is going on.”

Terryn handed Riley the steaming cup and wrapped her hands around it. “Who says? You are making a baby. It’s hard work and I promise even if you feel like this the whole time, it’ll be worth it. And when it’s all done and you are holding that beautiful baby, none of this will matter.” She kissed her cheek and added, “Now try this tea. It’s got sugar in it, which is supposed to help, and it’s a nice mellow jasmine.”

Riley test drove a small sip and waited with comic stillness, before she gave a small relieved smile and picked up a pretzel to nibble.

“So,” Terryn asked, “is this a Wellington or a Marshall?” Her smile was infectious, and Brice just knew that tonight’s pillow talk was going to be about when they could start on their own baby.

He looked at his lovely wife in bewilderment. Riley looked sick as a dog and like she could boot chunks any second, but his wife was staring at her all misty-eyed and dreamy. He caught Trevor looking at Terryn the same way and the two of them shook their heads in mutual bafflement.

Women.

“We don’t know,” Riley answered with a sigh. Seemed the tea and pretzels were helping. She looked less tense now, and her color was more sea foam than pea soup. “We talked about it and decided that we’d leave the first one up to chance and then go back and forth from there.” She lovingly patted her still-flat tummy. “A test will let us know when he/she gets here. Until then, I like not knowing. It’s not like it’ll matter to any of us anyway.”