Two Masters for Alex (3 page)

“
You
’
re
Alex? Alex Stewart?”

“Yes! Wasn’t I supposed to be here at one o’clock? Is something wrong?” She clutched her duffel bag, in which she’d packed a change of clothing and fresh underwear just in case things went well. Alex was nothing if not prepared. If the other guy was anywhere near as good-looking as this one, she certainly hoped things would work out! But something was clearly wrong. Daniel was behaving as if she had two heads, as if he expected someone completely different.

Suddenly the coin dropped. “Shit,” she said softly. She’d advertised in several magazines and online sites, seeking her dream Master. On a whim, she’d placed her ad in a gay fetish magazine, thinking it might be interesting to submit to a gay man. The dynamic would be different—she wouldn’t be able to charm her way out of something with her feminine wiles.

When she’d received the email from Daniel, he’d said she would be expected to submit to two men. She assumed then they might be gay or at least bisexual, which had been well and good. She’d been prepared to begin an online dialogue, followed by a phone call or two, as was common practice. She’d been surprised but intrigued when Daniel had suggested she come to their place in Westport for a face-to-face meeting. In the email, he’d given a little background on himself and his partner but had asked nothing about her other than if she would like to come out to meet them.

The Westport address was impressive in itself, and intrigued by the adventure, she had agreed. Alex’s online ads had a picture of her as well as stats that included her gender, but the little ad in the back of the fetish magazine did not. That’s what they must have seen, she realized, with just the name Alex.

“You thought I was a man,” she said, a smile threatening at the side of her mouth at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“Daniel? Is everything all right?” She heard a deep, masculine voice from behind Daniel. He stepped back, pulling the door wide. Another very handsome man, taller and a bit older with dark hair and brooding dark eyes set in a pale face appeared beside Daniel. He seemed to take in the situation more quickly than Daniel had. “You must be Alex,” he said with a gracious smile. “Please come in.”

* * * * *

“But she’s a
girl
,” Daniel said emphatically. They were standing in the kitchen. After showing Alex to a chair in the living room, Liam asked her to excuse them a moment.

“I’m just saying, let’s not dismiss her out of hand. She’s not what we were expecting, but she’s here so why not just sit down and check her out? It’s not like either of us has a problem with women, right?”

Daniel shook his head. “No, I guess not. It’s just thrown me for a loop, is all. I was expecting a man, not a little slip of a girl, which is what she is. She barely looks legal!”

“Let’s go talk to her. We can’t leave her out there sitting all alone. If nothing else, it’s rude. We should at least explain the misunderstanding. If you want, we can send her away with an apology. After all, we were obviously expecting a guy.”

“No, you’re right,” Daniel said slowly. “Let’s at least talk to her. She is very lovely.”

“She is that,” Liam said, smiling.

* * * * *

Alex looked around the large, old room as she waited for the guys to decide what to do about the woman in their midst. It was clear the tall, dark one was far more comfortable with the idea than the blond, built one. But wasn’t he the submissive? Wasn’t his Master’s word law? Maybe he was being read the sub riot act back there in the kitchen. Alex grinned to herself.

She looked around the room, which contained large bookshelves built into one wall lined from floor to ceiling with books. Someone around here was a scholar, she thought, impressed. The room was nicely furnished with large, comfortable pieces set on a beautiful antique Oriental carpet that covered most of the hardwood floor.

She noticed the arrangement of flowers on the highly polished wooden side table, the same lush purple irises that lined the front walk. To distract herself from her nerves, she stood and moved toward the flowers, leaning down to smell them.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a small alcove just off the living room. With a glance back toward the kitchen she stepped inside, intrigued by the long, wide bench upholstered in wine red velvet just below a large bay window. What a wonderful place to read or write on her laptop! She ran her hand over the soft velvet as she looked out the window. She was riveted by the beautiful flower gardens set along the rolling, lush lawns and growing around the trunks of huge old trees that had to be several hundred years old.

“Here she is,” she heard someone call behind her. Alex whipped around, feeling her face heat. “We thought you had flown the coop,” Liam said, grinning down at her. Daniel appeared behind him, his eyebrows knit in consternation.

“I—I hope you don’t think I was snooping. I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful flowers and lawn.” She turned back to the window, drawn in spite of herself. “The play
of color and light—the subtle geometric designs created by the placement of the gardens—it’s like looking at a fine work of art.”

She looked back at the two men, both of whom were now smiling. “Alex,” Liam said with a laugh. “You couldn’t have picked a better way to break the ice with Daniel if you tried. Come on into the living room and let’s talk.”

The three of them settled in the living room, Liam and Daniel on the large sofa with Alex across from them in a wing-backed reading chair. She was perched on the edge of her seat, her hands folded demurely in her lap, her bare legs crossed at the ankle. She was wearing a turquoise blue sundress with spaghetti straps, the material something silky and feminine. Her skin seemed silky as well, so it seemed to Liam, a soft pink lightly kissed by the sun, supple over her collarbone and the hollow at her throat. Her breasts were high and round, the nipples hinting through the sheer fabric. Her hair was cut in layers so it hung in sheets of butterscotch yellow and gold, the longish bangs falling over her large green eyes. There was a certain strength in her face and the set of her jaw. She reminded Liam of some kind of fairy sprite—small and pixyish with the look of the devil in her eyes. He sensed if they were to take her on, she’d be a handful.

“Well, Alex,” he said pleasantly, aware she was nervous. Daniel seemed nervous beside him as well. He was out of his ken, Liam realized, clearly less comfortable with the idea of bringing a woman into their lives than Liam was. Liam had had his share of female lovers. He liked the soft sweetness of a woman—so different from the hard-muscled intensity he craved with a man. He’d never been in love with a woman, however. He supposed that was what truly defined a person’s orientation—whom one connected with, whom one fell in love with.

He glanced at Daniel, his face softening into a smile as he did so. Daniel, perhaps feelings his eyes on him, met his glance. Gently Liam put his hand over Daniel’s, hoping the love he felt showed in his face. Daniel smiled back and Liam felt him begin to relax beside him.

Turning again to the young woman, he said, “I’m sorry for what must have seemed like a pretty lukewarm welcome. We expected a man, as you’ve no doubt gathered. You did, after all, advertise in a gay magazine. I’m curious, why did you do that?”

Alex flushed slightly and bit her lower lip, which Liam noticed was plump and tinted a pleasing dark pink. He wondered if her nipples were the same color. “I guess that was kind of stupid,” she said, flashing a smile that revealed small, even teeth, very white. “I got this package deal, you see. You could advertise on several different sites and in magazines for a set price. I picked the obvious ones and just for fun I added
Leather Boy
.” Her voice was pleasing, smooth and low.

She leaned forward, her expression earnest. “I want to learn what it is to submit to real Master. Not to play sexual games where I ultimately control the man I’m with because he wants my sexual favors. It occurred to me that a gay man might be the right Master for me. He could take me beyond the purely sexual to something different. I
don’t know how to explain it exactly.” She paused, tilting her head as she tried to find the right words.

“He could take you where you really need to go. To that submissive place inside of us where sex is no longer the object but merely a vehicle, just one more way to serve the Master who owns you, who possesses your soul.” Daniel spoke softly. Alex whipped her head toward him. Liam also looked at him. Daniel was staring, not at Alex but at Liam, the love light spilling from his eyes.

“Yes! Precisely. I long for that. To serve, to submit. I’ve never done that. Not really.”

Liam looked back at Alex. “You’ve no experience, then? This is all a fantasy for you?”

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of experience in the scene, if that’s what you mean. A while back I even joined a BDSM organization, complete with meetings and elected officials. I thought maybe I could meet a real Dom there.” She sighed heavily and then flashed an impish smile. “It turned out to be little more than a bunch of posers with their slave contracts and ridiculously elevated opinions of themselves as god’s gift to submissive women.” She gave a small snort and shook her head, the shiny hair rippling. “I’ve dated guys who were Doms or wished they were at any rate. I even lived—briefly—with a man I thought might be able to give me what I craved. I can take a whipping, I love being bound and I adore sex,” she paused, again flashing that wide, infectious grin that made both men smile back despite themselves.

She sobered as she said softly, “I’ve never found what I’m looking for. I’ve always been able to control the man I was with. I suppose it would look on the surface as if I were submitting to him, but in the end, I never did a thing that wasn’t really just for me. I could always get the man to back down, to give in, to stop whatever he was doing the moment he pressed my sensual envelope just a little too far.” She leaned forward again, her hands on her knees. “I long to truly relinquish control to someone else. An honest exchange of power, not just a game for some short-term sexual thrill. I want something
real
.”

Liam found himself drawn to the young woman. She seemed to grasp at an intuitive level the potential of a truly romantic submissive experience. Until he’d met Daniel, Liam had nearly despaired of finding a submissive partner who wasn’t really just a masochist looking to subtly control his Dom, topping from the bottom to get his way. From what Alex was saying, she herself was guilty of the same behavior, manipulating her lovers into giving her what she wanted. It took a certain level of honesty and introspection to admit or even be aware of this behavior.

Yet she claimed to crave a deeper experience. Would Daniel and he be able to provide it for her, given that they were committed to one another? Could a woman really fit into their lives? Would she satisfy Daniel’s dominant needs without coming between them as lovers?

He looked at Daniel as Alex shared a funny story about a bully at a play club who tried to force her to kneel in front of him just by virtue of the fact he was supposedly
Dom and she was supposedly submissive. Daniel was smiling as he listened to her. His posture was relaxed. Sensing Liam’s eyes on him, he glanced his way, nodding slightly as if to say, “I approve.”

“Please stay for lunch,” Liam said, glancing at his watch. They’d been talking for over an hour and so far it was going well. “Daniel’s made chicken pot pie and a salad from our gardens. He’s a great cook.” He couldn’t keep the pride out of his voice. Though they’d been together over a year already, Liam still sometimes had to pinch himself to make sure it was real. Daniel was everything he’d ever wanted in a partner. Surely they could easily handle a third person in their lives—nothing permanent, just a way for Daniel to explore his dominant impulses in a safe, loving environment. Neither Daniel nor he much cared for the club scene.

“I’d love to,” Alex grinned. “I’m starving.”

They talked of trivial things over lunch, saving weightier matters for later. As Daniel served them, Liam asked, “How old are you, Alex?”

“Twenty-four.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a writer.”

“Published?”

“Yep,” Alex grinned, the pride evident in her face. “I write erotic romance mostly and some straight romance as well. I’ve got four novels published and several more in the works. It’s my passion as well as my vocation.”

“You’re lucky. So you support yourself with your writing?”

“Well, not entirely,” she admitted. “I earn enough to get by, but I have this trust fund from when my dad died.” She looked embarrassed but continued. “I get an allowance from it once a month. It’s not a ton, but it enables me to cover the rent and food when royalties aren’t enough. My needs are modest. I live in the garage apartment of a friend of my mother’s. The rent’s practically nonexistent. My old clunker of a car is paid for.”

“Tell us about some of your experiences in the scene. Do you still go to the BDSM clubs?”

“Not anymore. I was burned out pretty quick. It’s mostly just a pickup scene with whips and chains instead of booze.” Alex entertained them with her lively stories about people she’d met in the scene, most of whom were little more than posers and wannabes. She made the people she was talking about come to life, painting an especially vivid picture of an odious little man she’d met at a club in the city, strutting in black leather, metal cuffs dangling from his belt, snapping a whip to punctuate his conversation, which consisted of what he would do to her once he had her in his clutches.