Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting New York (Kindle Worlds Novella) (5 page)

So Miguel kept working. He shoved away the fear and the doubts and told himself this was his mission and blocked out the voice that kept telling him it wasn’t too late to take it all back.

S
hy felt
a current run under her skin over her entire body. The sensation was almost like an electrical stream. It made her scalp tingle, and get that glittery shimmer you feel right before you fall asleep.

Cheyenne had been turned on plenty since Faulkner had come into her life. The guy could melt her undies from a mile away. And good lord, what that man could do up close should be illegal.

Tonight, however, was all new to them. She’d known right from the beginning that he was sexually dominant. Shy hadn’t really understood what that meant until she’d hit the Internet. Then she’d scared the shit out of herself. Some of the information she’d pulled up along with the photos had been nothing less than terrifying.

It all came down to trust. At least that was how she saw it with Faulkner. She trusted him, and so far, there hadn’t been one kinky thing they’d tried that hadn’t blown her mind.

Shy loved his every touch and she loved the sense she got from giving up control and placing her power in his hands.

He wielded that power like a maestro and her body was his symphony.

As they’d grown closer over the years together, more familiar with each other’s bodies, he’d become a master of her climaxes. Faulkner could take her from zero to screaming “O” in under a minute flat. He’d even made a sexy game of it once. Timing how long it took for him to make her come. Then he’d smiled and done it again. Then again and again.

That’d been one hell of a night.

The irony was not lost on her that he’d given her two minutes. He’d set precedence for that. During that fateful and delightful night, he taken her still-trembling fingers in his and placed them on the soaked folds between her legs.

“It’s your turn,” Dude had told her in his deep Dom voice that never failed to set her blood on fire. “We are at one minute. I’m going to watch you try to break my record.”

Like ice water splashed onto her burning flesh, the challenge had been a shock. Touch herself in front of him? Masturbate
for real
? With him lying on his side, head propped up on his fist directly lined up with her hip? His face couldn’t have been more than six inches from her crotch and she hadn’t thought she could do it at first. She’d teased guys before, and run her hands over herself to tantalize, but to actually do it for real all the way to completion, with him watching? Boy, that had been a challenge.

The first minute she’d been too embarrassed to get anything accomplished other than clumsy fumbling. But Faulkner hadn’t laughed or taunted or any of the crazy reactions she’d subconsciously braced for. Instead, he’d stared fixated like a hungry lion. He licked his lips as though savoring the taste of her still lingering on them.

His pleasure. His absolute absorption in her every move had been enough to rev her engines right back up. She’d come screaming before the end of the second minute.

So now, he was giving her two minutes. And she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to take advantage of them.

All throughout dinner he’d tormented her with that damn remote. Turning it on while she was talking, or up just when she was taking a sip of her wine. Faulkner knew her body so well even when she was desperately trying to hide her responses and act normal, he’d shut her off every single time she’d come close to orgasm.

Cheyenne was so turned on right now she thought she might even be able to break
his
record. Wouldn’t that be something?

As she stepped into the very last stall in the thankfully empty restroom, Shy hoped she did, and that it would spur him into trying to beat hers.

Cheyenne stood in the middle of her stall and turned in a little half circle as she tried to decide how she wanted to do this. It was an immaculate place, so cleanliness wasn’t a concern—thank God—but she still didn’t want to be sitting on the toilet to do something so delicate. It just seemed like the least sexy thing in the world to her.

All the stalls were oversized and roomy, and since this was the back one, it was even more so. There was a small round padded seat in one corner, with a potted plant on the floor next to it. For what she needed, it was perfect.

She tested the seat to make sure it was sturdy enough, then perched herself on the edge so she could recline back against the wall.

There was one slightly scary creak when she wiggled to get her skirt and body just so, and then she was set. Reclined back, with her knees spread, all Shy had to do now was the task at hand. Literally.

A little smile tugged the corners of Shy’s lips at her own joke. She lightly tickled two fingers between her folds, from the drenched opening to the now slippery butterfly she was still wearing on her clit.

Shy liked the slick sensation of the thoroughly lubricated silicone, and rubbed it against herself firmly for a moment. Its slick surface slid against her already swollen, extremely sensitized clit, and that alone almost did her in.

She’d been about to glide her fingers under the toy to take care of business, but she’d inadvertently found the button on the bullet and it roared to life with a low, purely satisfying buzz. Shy’s eyes closed on a groan of pleasure. She pressed that button a second time, and a third. The vibrations got faster and more intense.

“Oh God,” she gasped out. The feeling so pleasurable it bordered on too much.

Every muscle in her body tightened. Shy bit her lip. Weight gathered in her belly and lower. Cheyenne’s legs began to tremble, and forgetting about her fancy ’do, she shoved a hand in her hair to clench a fistful.
Almost there,
her body seemed to say.
Almost…there.

She was full-on squirming now, her feet doing a slow pedal on the floor while she rode the waves of her body’s response. The back of her head pressed hard to the wall as a sharp spike of pleasure jolted up from her core and pulsed in her heavy breasts. It built and built until Shy feared the tension would never break and she was going to run out of time.

Then, almost unexpectedly, the pressure broke. Like the ocean’s unpredictable tides, her orgasm swooped her up on a massive wave of feeling, then unceremoniously dropped her into a free-fall where for an infinite moment, she hung suspended. Even breathing was beyond her.

When the crash came, it was like that iconic moment in
Flashdance
. The orgasm fell upon her like an endless cascade of water gushing over her arched and straining form while she forgot about being still or even quiet. All she could do, all she could fathom, was a pleasure so intense she could neither control it nor contain it. Only survive it.

The buzz of her phone jarred Cheyenne out of the post-climactic haze. She groped for her purse like a drunk frat boy trying to cop a feel. Shy almost succeeded in shoving it to the floor before she managed to fish it out.

Time’s up.

Shy smiled like a sap and even brushed her fingers over the simple words. She felt connected to him in this moment, regardless of the fact that he wasn’t with her.

“Good gravy, Cheyenne,” she whispered to herself. “You got it bad. Good thing too, cuz he’s got it just as bad for you.”

After mopping herself up with some tissues, Shy righted her dress and headed out. A stop at the sink to wash up had her feeling so smug she shot herself a sassy wink.

Her cheeks were flushed with rosy color. Her lipstick was gone, but her lips were plumped up from her biting on them all night. Cheyenne pulled out her little tube of cherry coke lip balm and added the gloss, so now they looked even better. Faulkner was gonna go mad—cherry coke was his favorite.

Her eyes were glassy and shining and even though she’d done a number on her hair, she thought it actually looked better now. More authentically tousled now.

She took one last second to adjust her clothing and make sure her breasts were in the right place. Since her nipples were so erect, the flimsy bra did next to nothing to hide them and the last thing she needed was to walk out there with one pointed north and one pointed west. Nothing like getting a glance at your reflection in public only to see your chest all cockeyed.

Not tonight, thank you.

Shy wasn’t sure what she’d thought her feelings would be after she was finished with her mission. Embarrassed, maybe, or self-conscious? She sure as heck hadn’t expected the triumphant and smug satisfaction she was experiencing.

Powerful was what she felt. Sensual and womanly and delicious. By allowing herself to be completely open and trusting, she’d opened herself to her own inner goddess.

She walked out of that restroom and to her table with a ground-eating stride that felt like the closest thing to a swagger she’d ever managed. Her strut came complete with a rolling hip sway that had men—and if her guess was right, one woman—turning to watch.

As soon as she drew near her party, she heard Cade say, “There’s your alluring sub now.”

As one, all heads turned. Rather than her usual fiery blush and stumble when she was the focus of too many people, she ignored all but her man and strode straight to him.

Faulkner locked eyes with her and—
swear to God
—his gaze went molten.

Fluidly, he stepped to her side and turned them both back the way she’d come, to lead them out.

His head tipped down, lips so close she swore she could feel them, he said only two words: “Good girl.”

And Cheyenne felt a powerful rush. That of a sub who knew she’d pleased her Dom, and it was as addictive as crack.

She absolutely couldn’t wait to see where he would take them next.

S
tepping
out into the crisp evening air, Cade breathed deep. It did less than nothing to douse the fire raging through his blood.

“Holy shit. I’ve missed this,” Trevor, his best friend, said as he laid a brief kiss to the base of their wife’s slender neck. “Too fucking long since we’ve taken her out to play.”

“I agree with you there.” Cade nodded.

Trevor held Riley’s back to his chest. He had his hands on her shoulders and Cade could tell he was arching her back. The posture forced her considerable cleavage out for Cade to run his fingers over.

Everything in her stilled. He fucking loved what desire did to Riley. All the childlike wonder that allowed her to watch Disney cartoons over and over and still squeal and clap when one of them came on TV unexpectedly dissipated like vapor when the woman put the mommy to bed. Now it was her turn.

“Would you like to play in a club tonight, Ry?” he asked, trailing his thumb between her beautiful plump mounds. “We haven’t done a public scene in quite a while.” He tucked the digit deep and curled the rest of his fingers over the flesh that filled his palm. And tugged. “You in the mood for an audience tonight?”

He needn’t have asked. And not because she was their sub. It was that she loved public scenes. They’d discovered a few years into their marriage that public displays were one of Riley’s favorite parts of the lifestyle.

It was Trevor who had a difficult time with them. Admittedly, out of the three of them, he spent the most time in the public eye, on television and as the face of his charity organization. It wasn’t like he was worried people would recognize him. He couldn’t have cared less about that. He simply claimed, “It was enough damn time in the spotlight.”

However, when the mood struck to show off their Riley, the scenes never failed to blow not just their minds, but the mind of every person in the room.

“Yes, sir.” Big eyes the color of rich amber slowly blinked up at him. She pouted a little before she lowered her inky lashes and said, “As long as Trev is doing this for himself too, and not just you and me.”

It flooded his heart with a rush of warmth whenever she did that. Stuck up for Trevor. Or for him. Their Riley was wife to them both. And she stood up for each of them as fiercely as she did for their children. Even if it meant she had to step between her two Doms. Like now, when she thought Trevor was going to do something he wouldn’t enjoy just to please the two of them. Or whenever Cade worked too hard, she and Trevor would literally have intervention meetings for him.

They had one hell of a woman on their hands.

“He would say something if he was uncomfortable.” The lobe of her ear was soft as a whisper under the glide of his fingers. “You know him by now.”

“Yeah.” Trevor bit at her opposite lobe and Cade could imagine the feel of that ultra-soft flesh in his own teeth. “You know me by now.”

They both pulled back as their car came forward.

The others, who’d been equally oblivious to their surroundings as they’d been, slid into the stretch SUV behind them.

Normally, the streets of the city were too congested to be reasonable for stretch cars or limos, but on the rare occasions like tonight, they were well worth the added trouble.

“Okay, I’m gonna put some stuff out there.” Cade smiled at Trevor’s words and shook his head as he chuckled a little. Trevor always was the first one in the pool.

“The place we are going to tonight is new to us. It’s Cade’s direct competition and he’s been scoping it out as a possible investment.”

“Yeah?” Brice asked. When Cade only nodded, he added, “Why didn’t I know about this?”

“Early stages yet,” Cade told him with a one-shoulder shrug. Not much else to say about it.

“No no no. Not that part,” Trevor said and Cade thought he was beginning to sound like he was spending too much time having conversations with nothing but teenagers. “I only brought it up because of the point Riley made earlier this afternoon. Tell ’em what you told me, Little One.”

“It’s just that—” Riley had to stop and take a breath, because just then, Trevor turned on either the butt plug or the bullet attached to her clit. “Uh-hmm. That, they—um.” She slapped both hands to her knees and closed her eyes for a moment. Then, her jaw clenched and she lifted her head, and Cade’s shaft turned to steel at the look in her eyes.

She was
there.
Already in subspace. They’d had the toys in her belt going all throughout their meal, and the touching on the sidewalk had been intense, but too brief. She must have been aching for their play to be this far gone so soon.

Cade forced himself to unclench his muscles and relax. Well, he forced himself to
appear
relaxed, at least. They had all night and he planned on making this last.

She was too close to orgasm for speech. Trevor, of course, caught it too, and after fifteen more torturous seconds, he turned off her toy.

Her eyes clenched shut and her head dropped back. She wasn’t quite able to hold back the groan that came from having her climax ripped away just when it was within reach.

“Whew,” she said with a smile and rubbed her palms on her thighs. “Okay. It’s just that I thought it was great timing to go to this new club tonight. Because Dude and Shy are new to all of us.” She gestured toward them and shared a co-conspirator’s grin with the other woman. “So this way, we will all be kinda in the same boat since none of us are familiar with this place either.”

“That’s very insightful of you, Riley,” Faulkner told her. “It would have never occurred to me to think that having people with me who were also new would bring comfort.” He shook his head. “But it does. So thank you. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable to know we won’t be the only visitors.”

She wiggled in her seat and smiled at him. Pouring on the coy. Yup, their sexy as hell wife was a flirt.

She was swathed in a ruby red, wraparound dress. It would only take one tug on the floppy bow at her hip for the gown to be hanging open from its three-quarter-length sleeves. All that luscious flesh beneath it on display. Cade considered it, quite seriously, and then Brice spoke.

“About that,” he said, sitting forward in his seat, holding out a hand to ensure he had everyone’s attention. “Just to get all the formalities out of the way before we get there.” He sat with an elbow braced on one knee and pointed out each one in turn as he spoke. “Terryn’s safe word is pickles”—cue surprised chuckles—“hey, you think that’s bad. Hers is spinach,” he told them, pointing at Riley.

“We don’t really stand on protocol,” Faulkner said without rancor or inflection. “Up until now, we haven’t come across a situation that called for it.”

The SEAL cut his eyes to his own dark-haired beauty, and the connection between them was not lost on Cade.

“But for tonight, in a public club and testing our boundaries, I think it’s a good idea. You wanna pick one out, Shy?”

“Batman,” she said eagerly with a little bounce.

“What? Why?” he asked on a chuckle that the whole group shared.

“Because I think it would be totally awesome to be in a club and hear somebody scream out ‘Holy shit,
Batman
!’ even if it has to be me.”

The laughter that erupted was long and loud. Cade had tears streaming from his eyes; Trevor was clutching his gut and practically in the fetal position in his seat while Riley was laughing so hard she looked as though she couldn’t breathe.

As Cade wiped the moisture from his eyes, he saw Brice holding Terryn since she’d collapsed into his lap while they roared. And best of all? Cheyenne’s stoic Dom was trying to keep his cool, but his shoulders were shaking like he was having a seizure and his face was purple from holding back.

“All right then,” Dude said, but he had to stop for a moment to clear his throat, having not quite gotten a handle on his mirth yet. “All right. Batman it is.” He snaked a hand around the back of her neck and brought her in for a quick hard kiss. “God, you’re adorable.” Then he licked his lips, before diving back in for another taste. “Is that what I think it is Shy?”

She nodded, breathless, keeping her face close to his in that purely feminine way women had where their foreheads and noses touched and her sweet breath was all he could taste.

Yeah, Cade thought again, the love between them was unmistakable.

“Cherry coke,” she whispered.

“My favorite,” he whispered back, and cupped her jaw.

“I know.” She turned to kiss his palm before resting her cheek there briefly.

The car came to a stop but nobody made a move to go.

“For starters,” Faulkner said, “you and me, we’re just going to find us a table where we can get a good view of the play area. After taking everything in for a while, we’ll see which activity you most want to try. And if you are ready or not for a public scene. How’s that sound?”

“Great, to be honest.” She smiled on a huge exhale that indicated to Cade she’d been more nervous than she’d let on.

He was about to speak up, caution her about the importance of using her safe word even if she was just nervous or unsure of what was coming, so her Dom could be aware. But he needn’t have bothered. Her Dom was on it before he could even open his mouth.

“Shy, you gotta let me in on what’s going on in your head. I can’t read your mind, and this is new territory for the both of us. We’re a team. A unit. I depend on you to hold up your end of this bargain. Don’t let me take you down a path you’re not ready for.”

“Okay,” she said. “I promise. I’ll be calling for Batman so much he might just show up.”

He smiled at her attempt to tease him, then looked at the rest of them. “I think that about covers it. We’re ready to go if you all are.”

Inside, the club was an elegant lobby filled with over-stuffed furniture and heavy velvet drapes done in warm earth tones. A hostess greeted the group and asked them to sign in. Cade and Trevor had already gotten their temporary memberships in order, along with Riley’s. Brice and Terryn had taken care of theirs, and had secured a visitor pass for Faulkner and Shy. Therefore, it was a simple matter of showing IDs, signing the guest book, and they were passing through the heavy gold curtain.

Inside was like stepping into another world. The club was already in full swing. People filled the place, dressed in club and fetish wear that ranged from peek-a-boo lingerie to silver-studded leather.

The small dance floor was packed. Bodies churned and pulsed to the deep, throbbing bass of the music pumping from the overhead speakers.

Everything was wood. Deep, gorgeous and golden, polished until it looked as lustrous as stained glass. All the time he and Trevor spent on building projects for their charity endeavors had given Cade an eye for lumber. He recognized the quality in the Douglas fir and knotty pine—the latter clearly chosen for its beauty. Whoever had built this place was a true craftsman.

Passing beyond the dance floor, they came to the public play area. Cade thought it was no accident that each section looked like barn stalls for million-dollar thoroughbreds. As they slowly walked the length of the room, it occurred to him that he wasn’t surprised by the layout because the owner was an avid racing fan and owned several winning stallions. Watching a latex-adorned Mistress take a single tail to her muscled and straining sub while he gnashed at the ball gag in his mouth like a bit, it was easy for anyone to get the impression they were in a stable.

Black iron-wrought work was used flawlessly to add detail and contrast. Twists and whorls of it snaked along the dividing walls like gothic garland. Cade saw too that the black iron was also the metal used for the hooks and bondage equipment.

A hunger started making itself known in the pit of his belly as he eyed a hook and pulley system in the ceiling of one of the stalls.

“This one is ours for the evening.” They stood staring at the reserved sign hanging from the burgundy velvet rope that closed off the opening. Cade slowly tilted his head to one shoulder and then the other, the crack and pop of his neck loosening his muscles for the work ahead.

It was time.