Mind (Naughty Wishes #3) (4 page)

Geoff paused. Her eyes were streaming with tears as her Dom held her from behind, his hand under her chin, keeping it up so those watching could see her expression as she climbed toward orgasm. Her hands were bound to her sides, but Geoff noted one set of her fingers was curled in the leg of her Master’s pants, holding on to him. Subtle signs of surrender, consent, of need and devotion. Geoff thought of Sam, how she looked at him. He thought of Chris in the yard today, a different look on his face.

He really did have to be arrogant as hell to think he could provide what they both needed. But didn’t that work in either direction? Sam probably worried about being enough for him and Chris over the long haul. And Chris . . . well, if he knew nothing else, Geoff knew that Chris would do anything for either one of them. Truthfully, it was why he was here. Geoff might be frustrated, but he also loved the guy. The issue wasn’t just being whatever they both needed, but realizing he needed them and putting himself out there to see where it went from there.

His lips twisted wryly. Sam had figured that one out far quicker, but she was better at being vulnerable, the curse and blessing of being female. Whereas guys sometimes seemed encased in emotional armor, locked into it until it strangled them.

He paused by a man doing a hot wax and mummification scene. His male sub had been wrapped in pallet wrap from shoulders to ankles, and the Dom was ladling wax over him. He was explaining to his audience that it would create a heavy, additional blanket that would have a cocooning effect on the submissive. It would also increase the restraint in case the Dom wanted to up the edge play with nipple or genital clamping where he’d cut holes in the wrap in those areas.

The Dom had a male slave assisting him, watching the temperature of the wax in the Crock-Pots. When he wasn’t doing that, he was using a flexible rod to do a little bastinado on the bottoms of the sub’s feet. Geoff watched their subject’s toes curl and uncurl in reaction. Mixed expressions of ecstasy and pain suffused the submissive’s countenance. But when his Master bent over him, speaking softly to him, his tone obviously one of crooning praise, the sub’s expression was easy to read. He was flying, his eyes dazed but adoring.

Geoff thought of having Chris in such a position. Nerves rippled through him at the idea of his friend trusting him that much. Geoff wasn’t as much into the hardcore pain stuff like the bastinado, the caning or clamping, but he liked the idea of Chris letting him create a warm cocoon around him, giving him that sense of protection and safety. There were times in Geoff’s life that Chris had been a cocoon of strength around him. He might like to give him the same thing, Dom style.

As to his sadistic side, it ran along a more sensual gamut. He could imagine cutting a hole in the plastic for Chris’s cock and commanding Sam to wrap her lips around it to bring Chris to a climax. He might apply a switch to her pretty butt to focus her on the task, because Sam enjoyed playing more on that edge. But after she was working Chris’s cock in her mouth, sliding up and down his rigid length, Geoff would lay a hand on Chris’s forehead, make him stare up into his attentive face
as pleasure took over, Chris giving it all to him and Sam.

Geoff moved onward, to the back, where the whip demo was being held. It appeared to have been concluded only a few minutes before, because Logan was answering some questions and people were still milling about, examining the whips he’d left out on display. Even dressed casually in jeans and a button-down, the forty-something Dom, his long brown hair tied back on his broad shoulders, emanated authority and a calm in-charge vibe. It was obvious the people asking him questions and listening intently to his answers trusted his expertise, which made Geoff feel calling him had been the right move.

His demo bottom was still grounding. The young blonde woman with a light blanket wrapped over her bare shoulders was sipping a Coke, sitting on a chair. Logan’s attention was clearly divided between her and the questions he was answering. When he finally broke it off with the group, he moved back to her side. She checked her watch, said something that obviously meant she had to go. Logan drew her to her feet. When he set the blanket away from her, Geoff saw she was wearing only a pair of panties, displaying a lithe body with small breasts and a tattoo of roses around her navel. Logan made her step away from him, walk, turn, and prove she was steady.

She shot him a playful look and spun in a circle, then tumbled back against him, laughing. Rolling his eyes, he slapped her ass, but after that he folded his arms around her, offering a bolstering hug. From the sigh that lifted her shoulders, Geoff deduced she was taking a last little draught of aftercare from his arms.

Then he gently pushed her back, said something. Geoff noticed they didn’t kiss, and nothing in their affection suggested they were lovers. If anything, Logan’s behavior toward her was paternal, and not in a Daddy Dom way. Many people sought outlets in Dom/sub play that didn’t involve actual sex. Though they needed the special type of connection and intimacy that could be found in kink, their hearts might be committed to significant others in the non-BDSM world.

Based on what he’d felt from Sam so far, Geoff doubted her need for submission was going to wane. She seemed as eager to embrace that side of herself as he was his own Dom side. But Chris was a different matter. If this wasn’t Chris’s thing, but Sam still wanted both of them—and Geoff really wasn’t seeing this working any way other than as a three-point relationship—how would they figure that out?

When the blonde moved away with an enticingly innocent sway of hips, Logan saw him. He waved him over and pointed to a chair, sliding a hip onto a stool behind him while he picked up a bottle of water and took a healthy swig. “Geoff. Good to see you.”

“I appreciate you meeting me.”

“Timing was good. So what’s up? Things okay with Sam?” Logan gave him a more thorough look, noting the bruise on Geoff’s face that had welled up after the earlier wrestling match. “She do that?”

“No.” Geoff touched the spot and winced because it was still sore. “Chris and I had . . . I’d say it was an argument, but it was more like veiled foreplay that turned a little violent. Sam and I, though, we’re good.” Geoff hesitated. “My question has to do with Chris.”

A smile touched Logan’s mouth. “Yeah. I was surprised you didn’t bring him up the first time, but figured you were a linear kind of guy. One complicated issue at a time.”

“Yeah.” On the way over, Geoff had thought of presenting the information just that way, but he decided maybe linear wasn’t the best way for this. “Sam did something the other night.”

Geoff explained the night she’d brought herself and Chris into Geoff’s bedroom. “It seemed like a mutual thing at the end, Chris wanting to lie on the floor instead of in the bed with us. But when I told him to stay, to lie down, I realized I wanted him on the floor. Not because I didn’t want him. I’m not explaining this well.”

“You’re doing just fine.” Logan’s steady eyes never wavered from his face. Geoff thought he’d be a great choice for a court-ordered mediator. “You know what was going on there. On some level, Chris probably did, too, and a part of him was open to it. Else he wouldn’t have stayed. I think he would have made his excuses to Sam to spare her feelings and slipped out. He seems like he’s pretty much his own man.”

“Yeah. He is. In a quiet way. Most people miss it until they try to treat him like a doormat. He’ll even let them get away with that for a while, if it’s nothing that aggravates him. You know the way a parent’s patient with a kid’s weaknesses? Chris is like that with the whole world. But once you push him, he either becomes a turtle until you go away, or he simply picks you up and sets you out of his way. You have to get pretty deep inside to provoke him.”

“Looks like you drew that winning straw.” Logan grinned at the bruise again, but then he lifted a shoulder. “Sam is easy. First off, your relationship to her has always been more defined. And she clearly wants to submit. Chris is the unknown. You know he wants to submit, but he’s not as easy as Sam. You’re having to prove Dominance, because he’s another male and he’s got his own alpha thing happening.”

Geoff thought of their wrestling match. He could have left it alone when Chris backed off, but something in him had retaliated, not willing to let it end without taking his own pound of flesh. Though the wry truth was he’d been able to pull that off because Chris hadn’t been expecting it. Chris’s approach to fighting always reminded Geoff of the line from the movie
A Knight’s Tale
:
“How would you beat him?” “With a stick. While he slept!”

“Mistresses sometimes have the same issue when dealing with a male sub, especially one who defines himself as an alpha,” Logan continued. “Do you think Chris is a true sub? No editing, just say it straight out.”

“No. Yes. Sometimes. To me. When it fits the moment.” Geoff’s brow furrowed. “But that sounds like ‘gay for you.’”

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Many of us fall hard for one person, Geoff. No one thinks that’s unusual, because it’s what society has romanticized. A man being attracted to other men, consistently and exclusively, is what we call gay. The opposite is heterosexual, and those who are open to being attracted to either sex, bi. But a man who simply falls in love with someone, regardless of gender, regardless of labels, is something different.”

“What?”

“Enlightened.” Logan smiled. “Based on the brief time he was in my store, and what Madison has told me about the three of you, that’s my impression of Chris. I think out of all three of you, he’s the one most open to possibilities, in a ‘Standing Outside the Fire,’ Garth Brooks kind of way. He can be hurt, badly, because he doesn’t have any shields. Not with you two. Keep that in mind.”

Logan straightened off the stool and began packing up his whips. “But you need to keep something else in mind, too. You’re new to this, learning your way, but there’s a core to what you are that’s as old as time itself. Don’t doubt that part. Your desire is as much a component of this as theirs. They’re all tangled together, if it’s meant to be.”

It might be Zen-sounding garbage, but it resonated with Geoff. It actually made sense, and since most things today hadn’t made sense, he welcomed the change. Seeing it, Logan gave Geoff a grin.

“I don’t think you’re on the wrong track, Geoff. You just haven’t spent as much time working out your desires about Chris as you have Sam. When a good Dom stumbles, he tends to be harder on himself than a loving sub would ever be. They’re forgiving, and they’re willing to help us figure things out, as long as they trust that we want what’s best for them above all else. If your sub feels cherished, he or she will handle a few harmless missteps. If you love her . . . and him, and that love is mutual, there’s no difference between that and a vanilla relationship. Someone who loves you doesn’t expect you to be perfect. They just expect you to be there with them every step of the way as you figure it out together.”

Geoff looked in the direction of the blonde. She was now in street clothes, saying good-bye to other friends. “If you don’t mind me asking, is she a love or cherish situation?”

“Cherish, for certain.” Logan smiled fondly at the woman. “
Missive
is her scene name. Multiple meanings, multiple layers. When I’m in session with a sub, even for a demo, she becomes the center of my universe. Everything is about her, about her reactions, my responses. Keeping her safe, giving her pleasure and finding what level of sadism will add to her arousal, even if she doesn’t know that herself until it happens, is part of what turns me on as a Dom. So much so it’s oddly self-serving.”

Logan shot him a wolfish grin, which Geoff found himself returning. He understood it, a hundred percent. “But being in a D/s session is very much an in-the-moment experience. When you step back and let that moment go, it’s done. As beautiful
as it was, it’s transient.” Logan’s brown eyes kindled with a different light then, his mouth setting in a firm curve. “On the other hand, when you do it with the love of your life, the person with whom you want to share every moment, not just a D/s session, you’ve found Nirvana. That pure connection will be like nothing else.”

“Yeah. But not everyone can have that.”

“No. You’re right about that.” A shadow passed over Logan’s features. “And it’s a shame when someone wants that and can’t find it, but it’s no different from looking for love in the non-BDSM world. It doesn’t always happen how we want it. In our world, we might have to settle for splitting it. We love outside of this, and meet our needs inside in a way that allows that outside relationship to still thrive.”

He paused, considering Geoff. “But some of us won’t settle for less than having the full package. If it ever comes our way, we better damn well make the most of it, because the gods aren’t going to throw it our way that often.”

“Like you and Madison.”

Logan’s eyes gleamed, appreciating him. “Careful, boy.”

Geoff spread his hands out in amused conciliation. “Just calling it like I see it. Oh, and thanks for the lack of pressure.
Not.
You just said that it’s okay to make mistakes. Unless one of those mistakes loses me that choice.”

“If the love is there and real, a mistake won’t destroy it,” Logan said seriously. “That’s the hardest thing for a Dom to understand. You can’t control all of it and, in the end, it’s the sub’s heart that leads you where you need to go.”

Logan closed his suitcase and hefted it off the table. “A Master may be in charge in a lot of ways, but when we fall in love, we’re the ones on our knees. The sub who loves you back knows that, even if she . . . or he . . . doesn’t consciously acknowledge it.”

* * *

In Geoff’s job, it was imperative he not only review information pertinent to a case, but know it well enough that he could respond to unexpected twists and turns. He’d always enjoyed that challenge, pushing himself to anticipate and comprehend two steps ahead of anyone else. It was a skill a Dominant used. So on the drive home, he reviewed everything that had happened over the past several weeks, picking up clues and information that would help him with Chris.