The Dom With a Safeword (22 page)

Though her eyes were wide, she did as he asked. He sat up on his heels and observed her. Already her nipples were tight little buttons and her mouth was parted. “Now. Where will I start?”

Sabrina whimpered.

***

For all his misgivings, the photo looked to be that of a ghost. From where he sat on the stool at the kitchen bench, the sun bounced in through the window and off the screen and made everything damn glary. Jude took another bite of the French toast and stared at the laptop screen.

“See!” Sabrina put her hand to his shoulder and leaned in to poke at the screen.

He caught her hand. “No. No, strawberry jelly flavored fingers on my laptop, thank you.” His father’s favorite saying came to mind. “If you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras.”

On the other side of this island bench, with a fork halfway to her mouth, Q paused. “What the fuck? Zebras?”

“It’s a medical aphorism. A saying. It means that common things happen commonly. That is, don’t think up weird reasons for things to happen.”

“Uh-huh.” She lowered the fork, and frowned. “Meaning what, exactly, in this case?”

Good question. The photo Sabrina had taken looked like a ghost. How could anyone have fiddled with it if she took it last night? He glanced at her eager face. “Would Jersey Girl here do some sneaky switch with a photo just to scare us?”

“No.” Q’s answer was matter-of-fact, and Sabrina looked miffed.

“Good. Then, I guess I mean that if it looks like a ghost, maybe it is one?”

“See?” Sabrina crowed. “Knew it! Yes!” As if he’d delivered the Ten Commandments on a tablet, to her doo
rstep, Sabrina did a war whoop.

Not smiling was impossible. Crazy woman. “Why are you so happy? I thought that ghost last night scared the hell out of you?”

She leaned an elbow on the counter next to Q, and seemed to ponder his question while stealing bits of Q’s food. “It did. It was fucking scary. But…” A grin spread across her face and she locked her gaze on him. “I got a real photo! You don’t understand. That’s every ghost hunter’s dream!”

The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Q volunteered.

At least she and Sabrina were decent. Earlier on, upstairs, Sabrina had been prancing around naked while brushing her teeth with a borrowed toothbrush.

Tuesday…Tuesday morning. He remembered who was coming and leaned back on the stool to shout more effectively down the hallway. “Hey Q, it's probably Cross delivering that wood. Tell him I’ll be out in a minute to help unload it in the front yard.”

Cross was a godsend with his truck. It seemed like almost everyone he knew here he’d met through the club.

He’d bought the timber at auction. Salvaged from an old house, the oak planks should be a close match for the treads on the staircase.

Q came through the doorway followed by Cross. A big man with bristly black hair and multiple tats, Cross looked like he was used to working out, and like he could swallow Q and spit out her bones.

“Brought your lumber.” Cross nodded at Sabrina where she’d perched herself on a stool before a plate stacked with pancakes. Then he cocked his head. “Aren’t you Q’s friend, from the shop?”

She sucked maple syrup off her finger and waved vaguely. Red washed over her cheeks. “Umm. Yeah, I am. Hi.”

“Did you wear the outfit Q got you?”

She nodded and said quietly, “To a concert.”

He glanced at Q then winked.

All Sabrina’s energy seemed to have drained away to be replaced by a quiet embarrassment while her face grew ever redder. Jude studied her. Of course – she’d said she didn’t want this relationship known in public, and here she w
as sitting in his kitchen in PJ
s. He looked at Q and she looked back, a small frown of anxiety marring her forehead. Guess she hadn’t thought Sabri
na would count Cross as public
.

“Cross. Let’s get that wood off your truck. I really appreciate your help.” After swallowing the last chunk of toast and some coffee, he slipped from his stool. “The girls are staying with me for a couple of days.” Inspired, he thought of a distraction, “Sabrina is a bit of a ghost hunter so she’s investigating a ghost I might have.”

“Here?” Cross’s eyebrows arched upward.

“Yes.
Here.
” Maybe ghosts weren’t his thing?

“I got a picture.” She grinned like a Cheshire cat on crack. “I can’t wait to do it again. But not alone. And with a better camera.”

All of them stared at her.

Looking bemused, Cross headed for the door. “Finish your coffee, Jude. I’ll go back the truck in. Let me know if you need a hand with anything else, while I’m here.”

“I will. Thanks.” When he got up to put his mug in the sink, something smacked against his backside. He swung around, expecting to find Sabrina smiling with her hands behind her back. It surprised him when Q smirked then leaned against the opposite counter.

With a head shake and a chuckle, he told her, “I’ll take care of you later.”

Cross looked back and forth between the two then rumbled as he passed, “You’d better keep a firm hand, man. They’ve got you outnumbered.” They’d had this discussion at the club awhile back.  Cross hadn’t been sure wha
t he thought about bratty subs.

Luckily, Jude liked them just fine.

Chapter 11

Q

The girls giggled as they slid out of the backseat of Jude’s car and straightened their clothes. Q tugged surreptitiously at her short skirt, wishing he’d let her wear jeans. She felt more naked than naked. Fortunately, he had parked on the side of the building away from the door and windows, and no one was in view.

“You
really
never wear dresses, do you, Q?” Jude asked. “If you stopped pulling at
it, it would be much prettier.”

“No, she doesn’t wear them anymore.” Sabrina laughed. “She used to wear skirts and dresses all the time when I first met her.”

“
Nico
forced me to wear dresses. I hated it. I gave them all away not long after I moved in with Sabrina.”

“Well, they look beautiful on you.” Jude smiled. “You shouldn’t stop wearing them out of spite.” He adjusted his jeans. “It’s a good thing you two decided to wear the same shade of lipstick,” he grumbled. “It would have been less distracting if you had put it on directly, instead of Sabrina putting it on you, Q, and you kissing it back onto her.”

“We had to touch it up anyway,” Sabrina smiled slyly. “Besides, you shouldn’t have been spying on us in the rear view mirror. And don’t even
think
of complaining about us switching shirts.”

“I wouldn’t dream of complaining about that, Sabrina girl.”

The other two walked off through the parking lot arm-in-arm, then paused as they realized that Q was lagging behind.

“Coming?” With the sun having sunken below the building already, Jude’s face was partially in shadow.

She stayed where she was, by the side of the car. Dressed like this, she felt like a complete idiot. She scratched at the gravel with the pointy toe of her knee-high boots. “I think I’ll stay out here for a while. I’ve always wanted to take up smoking. It seems like a good time to start.”

“Come on! It’ll be fun,” Sabrina encouraged.

“Remind me why we have to go out again?”

Jude walked to her and looked down with his blue, blue eyes. “I thought it would be fun for all of us to go out somewhere together.”

“To avoid the inevitable likelihood of having to fuck us all evening?” she asked, arching a brow.

“Take pity on me, Q. I’m only one man.”

“I’m sure we’d have no problem finding volunteers to stand in for you,” Q quipped. She turned to look self-consciously at her reflection in the car window. How did she manage to attract men anyway?
Nico
used to say it was because she oozed sexuality, even though she wasn’t feminine enough to be beautiful. Other people had told her she was gorgeous, but
Nico
had heartily disagreed. He believed in Painful Truths, but only as they pertained to other people.

A tight fist in her hair startled her. Jude pressed her forehead to the car and leaned in close to her ear. She gasped and mewled as a hard throbbing began in her groin. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“You plan on replacing me, do you?” he growled. “Do other men give you what you need?”

“No!” she squeaked. Her voice had gone up several octaves.

“No what, little brat?”

“No, your Majesty?” The words were out of her mouth before she could swallow them. She had only just managed not to add “purple” before “majesty”.

He shook her a little by the back of the hair. She thought of him yanking down her panties and fucking her against the car and she squirmed.

“Do you seriously think I’d be that easy to replace?” He didn’t sound like he was playing anymore.

“No, Sir,” she whispered. “Sorry, Sir.”

“Good girl,” he rumbled, kissing the top of her head. He released her and looked down into her eyes when she turned to face him.

The sight of his satisfied smirk made Q squirm inside. Ever since they’d gone to Jude’s to paint, it was hard for her not to kneel at his feet whenever he walked into a room. The protocols she’d learned with
Nico
were far more ingrained than she’d thought. Jude had
dommed
her ass good, and now she couldn’t help acting all goofy schoolgirl around him. Temporary. Temporary.
She had to keep reminding herself. She was going to be crushed when he left, no matter how hard she tried to stay emotionally distant. They clicked way too well for comfort.

He walked away and rejoined Sabrina. Q looked back at her reflection in the car window, trying to regain her composure. She smoothed her hair and walked after them, worried that at some point this evening – before they got somewhere private – he was going to magically transform her skirt into a belt.

The unpromising exterior of The Rig was nondescript stucco that was looking the worse for wear. As they rounded the corner, they saw that, despite the building’s disrepair, a crowd had formed itself into a line. Trance music drifted out the door and the heavy bass throbbing through Q’s body made her think of fucking even more.

“Why would someone drive all the way outside of town to go to a dive bar?” Q whispered, hoping that no one overheard.

She held her arms at her sides, hoping a stray breeze wouldn’t flip her skirt. Jude had insisted they wear sexy panties. Hers and Sabrina’s matched – wispy blue thongs that were more mockery than undergarment. Tonight, when he’d picked clothes for them out of Sabrina’s closet, it felt like he was dressing up his new toys. He hadn’t complained about them swapping shirts in the car. Hopefully he didn’t mind.

Sabrina grinned. “They didn’t use to card girls that were a little underage so I used to party here a lot.”

The idea of Sabrina in a dive bar seemed incongruous to Q. “I’ve never been. I did most of my underage drinking at pit parties.”

Jude shook his head at them in mock exasperation. “Underage drinking? I hope you both got spanked for being so naughty.”

They glared at him. He hadn’t been whispering and two guys in line turned to check them out with appreciative leers. Q reddened.

Jude cleared his throat. “Anyway, the new owners have rebranded the place and it’s kind of artsy and edgy now.”

When they reached the door, Jude was allowed in directly, but the girls both got carded. “I guess you look like you’re robbing the cradle,” Sabrina said. He swatted her ass and she squeaked.

After settling them on a funky, zebra-print couch, the padded back of which extended several feet up the wall, Jude went off in search of drinks. The room was cavernous and dark. The trance music and throbbing lights made the figures on the dance floor sinuous and erotic. Q shifted in discomfort, trying to get enough skirt under her to shield her bare ass from the couch. She reassured herself that even if there were people in the room that she and Sabrina knew, they’d never recognize them. Although she felt like she was dressed like a whore, most of the young women dancing wore even less.

When Jude didn’t come back right away, Sabrina shifted closer to Q, their bare legs pressing together from knee to upper thigh. “You okay? You looked a little rattled after the smack-down you got in the parking lot.”

“I’m fine. Probably just a little too horny and naked to be in public. I’m glad it’s dark.” She brushed Sabrina’s knee with her fingertips, then dragged her nails up the side of her bare leg. Sabrina shivered. Even in the dim light she could see the hardened points of Sabrina’s breasts bumping the fabric of her thin top. “So what are your rules for PDA with me?”

Sabrina gave a short laugh. “Here? It’s dark and people are getting drunk. If we get caught by someone we know, I’ll just say I was drunk.”

The words hurt a little, but she understood. Sabrina had family close by and Q knew she didn’t want to be out about their relationship. Despite that, she couldn’t help but feel like Sabrina was a little ashamed of her.

A moment later, Jude was back with a fancy girly drink for Sabrina and a whisky and soda for Q. It was disturbing how he knew their preferences, even though they’d never told him. “Only two each then you’re switching to something non-alcoholic.”