Winning Her Racy Heart [Racy Nights 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

He stepped inside and glanced at the riding crop. Cute, but kind of silly. Then again, the heart was made of rather thick leather, so it had some useful purpose at least.

“Oh…” She cut her gaze to the toy in her hand. “The delivery truck showed up again today, and this time we have all the toys I ordered.” Her face colored slightly, but she didn’t scramble to put the crop down.
Interesting
.

“That’s nice, but I prefer the traditional kind.”

A quick look of surprise lit up her eyes, replaced with a thoughtful expression.
Very interesting.

“I’m glad you stopped by. I’ve been meaning to apologize for how I reacted last week. I know you were being sincere, and I shouldn’t have blown you off like that.”

Adison nearly dropped his car keys. They started to slip from his hand, so he stuffed them into his coat pocket. He’d been prepared to offer some lame excuse for stopping by, but damned if he could recall it now. “Um, that’s okay. I came at you kind of fast with it.” He wasn’t about to tell her how close he’d come to storming back inside the shop that day.

“Well, I shouldn’t have been such a bitch, but I do appreciate the sentiment, Adison. And, I owe you an apology as well.”

“What?”

She glanced toward Alexa. “Adison, I left school and moved in with someone, even after all the things we said to each other before I went to New York. How is that any different than what you did? I am so sorry, and I hope you can forgive me.”

“Thank you, Kari.” They locked gazes. Adison was stunned. He’d never blamed her for what she’d done. Didn’t she know that? He hadn’t exactly kept in touch with her once she went away to school. It was his fault she’d found someone new, yet here she was apologizing. “Have you thought all these years that I was upset with you?”

She nodded, and it took all his willpower not to hug her.

“Kari, I blame myself for what happened to us.”

She looked relieved and flustered at the same time. “Well, I’ve done the same. I guess we both have.”

“Yeah. But we’re okay now, right? It’s water under the bridge.”

She smiled. “Yeah. Okay. We’re all right.” She absently twirled the riding crop between her fingers, and it was all Adison could do not to ask if he could take her upstairs and try out her merchandise. Her eyes had always held him spellbound, and fifteen years hadn’t dimmed that. All these years, no other woman’s body had excited him as hers had once done. Should he tell her that? No. He had to take it slow. It was huge that she was standing in front of him now, looking into his eyes, instead of asking him to leave.

“Hey, are we doing this or not?” Alexa came bounding over, a large white paddle dangling by its strap from her right hand.

“Doing what?” Adison raised his eyebrows and stared at the toy.

“Huh?” She glanced down at her hand and flushed. “Oh…no…not this…I meant pizza.” She tossed the paddle onto the counter.

Kari laughed. “Alexa and I were thinking about ordering pizza. Would you like to stay and join us?”

Adison didn’t try to stop the grin that spread over his face. “I can’t say ‘no’ to that offer.”

* * * *

Kari ordered a sausage and onion pizza for herself, a pepperoni with double cheese for Adison—after asking what he wanted on his—and a veggie one for Alexa. She walked around the shop with Adison, pointing out the various toys and speculating about what might sell or not in Racy. “The lingerie is all on back order, and I’ve been promised the DVDs will be here before Christmas.”

“You’ve thought of everything.”

“Well, like I said, I have no idea what will or won’t sell here. This isn’t New York, and I didn’t have time or resources to do a market study, so I just went with what sold well there.”

“You might be surprised what people in Racy will flock to buy.” His voice held a touch of sarcasm.

“Oh? Why is that?” She’d been wondering if he frequented Maddox’s house. Noah hadn’t said so, and Kari was glad that he hadn’t outed Adison, but she also hadn’t missed the fact that Noah had mentioned Maddox’s club shortly after Kari asked him if he knew what she and Adison had been into while they were dating.

Adison gave her a sheepish grin. “I stayed in the lifestyle, Kari.”

She didn’t want to tell him that Noah had told her about Maddox’s club, but what if the subject came up between the two men one day? “Noah mentioned a club here in Racy.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched and a shadow of anger passed through his dark eyes. It was quick, but there was no doubt it had happened. Was he jealous, or was he upset because he thought Noah had outed him? A wave of guilt washed over her. How would he react if he found out she’d spent Saturday night and part of Sunday morning in Noah’s bed?

“You remember Maddox McCree?” he asked. “He has a dungeon in his house. It’s private and exclusive.”

“Do you play there?”

“I used to. I haven’t had a sub in a while, but I show up a few times a week to help him keep an eye on things.”

Kari glanced toward Alexa. She was sitting on the floor with her back to them, talking on her cell, but Kari moved closer to Adison and lowered her voice anyway. “Why don’t you have a sub, Adison?”

He shrugged. “You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find someone who isn’t nuts, especially in a town this size. Although, people have found their way to Maddox’s place from as far as away as Terre Haute. But still…”

His voice held a note of sadness as it trailed off, and Kari’s heart gave a strange lurch. What had happened to them in the past was over. She wanted to know the Adison who now stood in front of her. They’d apologized to each other. Meeting him halfway was the least she could do.

“Alexa, do you mind waiting down here for the pizza? I want to show Adison the rest of the house.”

“Sure thing. Go on up. I’ll lock up once it’s here.” She waved at them and returned to her phone call.

“We live upstairs. Come on.” She felt Adison’s eyes on her ass as he followed her up the sweeping staircase, and the details of her dream the week before came back to her. Kari still couldn’t believe she’d told Noah about the dream, but his voice had lulled her into such a feeling of confidence and security. He hadn’t reacted like she’d thought he would. Instead, he’d sounded interested. What would Adison think of that?

Kari couldn’t help but smile as she wondered what it would be like to make love to both men at the same time. She’d never done anything like that, but she certainly had fantasized about it. The Sir had been too jealous to allow it, even though she’d once told him it was a fantasy of hers. What would Adison say if she told him her fantasy?

“What’s Alexa’s story? Why did she move here with you?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s her story to tell.” An image of Donnie shooting Tangie in the alley behind What’s Your Pleasure flashed through her mind, causing Kari’s pulse to quicken. What the hell was she doing?

She didn’t regret what had happened between her and Noah, but now she was having fantasies of all three of them in bed together. She couldn’t drag Adison or Noah into her drama with Donnie. She had to keep her wits about her until the trial was over. It was too dangerous to involve either of them.

She led him into the room that had once been a large front bedroom, but now boasted a big-screen TV and several overstuffed sofas and chairs.

“Nice, Kari.” He glanced around. “Very comfortable.”

“We like it.” She waved toward the sofa in front of the TV. “Have a seat. Do you want something to drink?”

“Only if it’s no trouble.”

She smiled. He was being quite the gentleman. “It’s not. The main kitchen is up here. What would you like?”

“A beer is fine.”

“Be right back.” Kari opened the fridge and took a couple of deep breaths. The cold air helped clear her head. Adison was in her living room, about to have beer and pizza with her. It was just dinner with an old boyfriend. No harm, no foul.

She plucked two bottles of beer out of the fridge then grabbed Alexa’s juice carton as well. She poured a glass for her, put the juice carton back in the fridge, and took the drinks into the living room. Adison was flipping through the channels.

“Anything good on?” she asked.

“Same old shit. You’d think they could get some decent cable channels. We can get channels from Indy and Chicago, and I still can’t find a damn thing to watch.”

Kari chuckled as she handed him his beer, and then she returned to the kitchen to get paper plates and napkins. When she walked back into the living room, Alexa came in, carrying the pizza boxes.

“Alarm is set, and we’re all locked up.” Alexa put the pizza boxes on the coffee table and grinned as her cell buzzed. She read the text, sent one back, then put two pieces of the veggie pizza on a plate and curled up in an armchair, phone in her lap.

Adison glanced at Kari, a question in his eyes. Kari shrugged. She suspected the giggly schoolgirl behavior had something to do with Luke, but it was none of her business. She’d tell Kari what was going on when she was ready to.

Kari handed Adison a plate of pizza then took some for herself. She sat down beside him and flipped to a news station, then muted the sound. “So, you were telling me how difficult it is to find someone who isn’t nuts.” Kari wondered if he’d tell her more about his short-lived marriage.

He glanced back toward Alexa, but she was absorbed in her text messages. He gave Kari a searching look before answering. “Did you know I was married?”

Kari nodded. “Heard a rumor, but nothing specific.” That was partly the truth, at least. No point in telling him that her parents had sent her the news clipping from the local paper, or how hard she’d cried over it.

“It didn’t last long. We met during my sophomore year at Ball State, and we got married that summer. She dropped out, and then she ran off with a lit prof she’d been banging while I was in class all day.”

“I’m so sorry, Adison.” No one deserved that.

He shrugged. “If it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have gotten my shit together, you know?”

She chewed her pizza and watched his face, content to let him talk. She had always loved the sound of his voice. It was soft yet commanding, and almost musical at times. She’d forgotten how pleasant it was just to listen to him.

“But in retrospect, my getting married was a bad idea.”

“Then why did you?”

“I thought if I settled down and acted like an adult, I’d become one.”

“Getting married doesn’t make you an adult.”

“I know. I realize that now. After the divorce, I finished my degree, and then Maddox invited me to his club one night, shortly after I got the job at Notus.”

“What’s your degree in?”

“Criminal justice. I was in the right place at the right time. Notus was looking for someone to oversee their security force here in Indiana, and I was the candidate who had a four-year degree.”

“Do you enjoy the job, Adison?”

He nodded. “I do. And I also get to do surveillance work when odd shit happens, like people trying to break into the turbines.”

“So you’re a spy as well?” She grinned so he wouldn’t think she was making fun of him.

He returned a look so sexy she nearly dropped the piece of pizza she was holding. “Bond. James Bond.” It was a near-perfect imitation of Sean Connery.

Kari laughed, enjoying the way Adison’s eyes lit up at her response to his joke. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt this comfortable in his presence. She’d told Noah people could change, and it was true. Adison was now a different person than the kid in high school who had promised to love her forever.

“I guess I am a spy. I even get to carry a gun.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You mean at work?”

He nodded. “When I’m out in the fields I have to. Some really crazy shit goes on at some of those remote turbines.”

“Would you two be terribly upset with me if I left for a while?”

Kari turned toward Alexa to find her face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Go. Have fun. Should I expect a call tonight?”

“Ah, no. I’m only going to Luke’s Bar to hang out.”

“Okay. I’ll clean up the leftover pizza when we’re done eating.”

Alexa blew her a kiss. “You’re the best. See ya, Adison.”

After she left the room, Adison fixed Kari with an intense stare. “Spill it.”

“I honestly don’t know, and even if I did, it’s not my place to tell.”

He smiled warmly. “You always were a genuinely loyal friend, Kari.”

“Without trust, a relationship means nothing.”

“That’s very true.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Why did you ask her if you should expect a call?”

“Our code. If one of us is in a situation where we might run into trouble, we set up a specific time to call the other. If she doesn’t check in, we go looking for her.”

He nodded. “Sounds like something you’d do for a friend if she was going out to meet someone she’d met online.”

“That’s one scenario.”

“Or, say, if someone was going to meet a potential Dom for the first time.”

Kari stared at Adison, wondering how much she should tell him. He was fishing—that much was obvious—but she wished she knew why. Was he simply curious to know if she’d stayed in the lifestyle, or had he heard something in town?

“And that’s another reason,” she said, glancing at his empty plate. “You want some more?”

He shook his head. “I’m stuffed.”

Kari took his plate and stacked it on top of hers. “Want another beer?”

“If that’s all right.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t.” She smiled at him as she took the empty bottle from his hand. Once she cleaned up and put the leftover pizza back in the fridge, she took two more beers to the living room. Adison had finally found a channel that interested him. Porn filled the screen.

“Oh, I see you’ve found our free porn channel.”

He chuckled. “At least there’s one thing to watch.”

She handed him the beer. “It’s reliable, that’s for sure.”

He tilted his head. “But not very realistic.”

“Ouch. I agree.” She took a sip of her beer as she watched a woman get into a very uncomfortable position just so she could fit two cocks inside her pussy. Another dick was thrusting inside her mouth. “She’s going to break a wrist balancing like that.”