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Blurb:
Kel
has seen his share of weird throughout his life, but when London asks
him to sub for her and her boyfriend, that tops the list. He isn't
gay. He isn't bi. He definitely isn't submissive. And with an
underlying case of post traumatic stress disorder from years in the
military, anything BDSM just sounds dangerous.
But
he also doesn't want to see his friends hurt, and he's positive that
will happen if they get together with strangers from the Internet.
London plays things too close to the vest for him to get a good
enough read on her, but he trusts Ty, even if he doesn't think he'll
enjoy
turning over control. It'll be a one-off, it'll be a little weird,
and they'll all go back to normal.
He's
not sure what to do when a little weird turns out to be something he
wants.
Excerpt:
"Sit," London said, plopping
herself down on the edge of the couch.
Kel remained standing, shifting until
his back was against the wall and he could see everything and
everyone. He really liked standing. He tucked his hands in his back
pockets. Maybe this was a bad idea. A threesome was one thing. A
threesome with friends was another. A threesome with friends where he
was supposed to be submissive seemed impossible.
And just who would you try anything
new with, his mind murmured, if not with friends?
He hated his mind.
"Take your jacket off." Ty
motioned to a hat stand filled with scarves, coats, and hats. "Stay
awhile."
Right. He shrugged out of his jacket
self consciously. "How does this work?" He sounded more
gruff than he'd meant to. He couldn't help it. London kept watching
him.
"It's pretty simple, really,"
Ty said, wandering toward the mini-bar. "I give the orders, and
you follow them." He smiled at London. "Mostly, I'm
probably going to repeat what London says, so you might as well save
yourself some trouble and follow the lady's instructions."
London grinned.
He couldn't bring himself to believe
she'd request anything really bizarre. Not that he had any
idea what she might request -- reading online had made him more
unsure in that regard than he'd been before. But the twinkle in her
eye was more amused than anything. The urge to smile back at her
surprised him. He worked to keep his face straight. "No
harnesses," he told her, semi-serious.
She blinked at him with wide eyes,
feigning innocence. "That wasn't on your piece of paper."
He thought she was feigning. He
glanced at Ty -- Tyrone -- for confirmation, and Tyrone laughed.
"See, man," Ty said, "This is why she doesn't get to
be a dom."
There was that word. It brought a wave
of uncertainty. "I don't think I'm gonna be very good at being
a-- a--" He couldn't even say it.
Ty -- Tyrone -- cut in. "Don't
think about being submissive. Think about following orders. Just..."
He smiled slowly, teeth white against his dark skin. "Don't
argue."
Kel suppressed the urge to fidget.
"What if I don't like something?"
"Be willing to try new things,"
Ty said. Then he shrugged, crossing to the bar. "But if you
really don't like something, then say so. And worst case scenario,
you can always use your safe word or tap out. You remember your safe
word?"
Kel gave Ty an unimpressed look. "Safe
word." He'd figured he'd remember that, just like remembering to
tap out when he was overwhelmed was automatic.
London grinned. "That was mine,
too."
"Look," Ty said reasonably,
"if you realize you really don't like following orders, we can
always change things up." He poured a glass of water, sipping,
watching Kel over the rim as if waiting for something.
"Okay," Kel said, despite his
misgivings. "We gonna do this or what?"
"You sure you want to?" Ty
asked. London had folded her hands together, as if it were the only
thing keeping her from bouncing up. Ty ignored her. "We could
just talk."
Kel scowled at Ty. "I'm here,
aren't I? Yes. I want to." Besides which, if he left without
doing something he wasn't sure he'd come back.
"All right," Ty said easily,
setting down his glass. "Have a seat." He gestured to the
couch.
A flutter bubbled in Kel's chest.
"What, here? Aren't we--"
"Kel." The word slapped
across him, low and flat. "Have a seat."
Kel glanced at Ty and received a
steady, calm look in return. He narrowed his eyes, fighting the urge
to turn it into a contest of wills. He shifted from one foot to the
other. Silence stretched, like taffy. God damn it, he was
supposed to be following orders. He nodded once, stiffly, and
wandered to the couch slower than he knew politeness would dictate,
the tempo of steps his unspoken protest. He sat when London patted a
cushion, and as soon as his butt was on the leather she hopped up and
spun toward him. Suddenly, he had a lap full of London, sideways
across his thighs. His arm came up automatically to keep her from
sliding back too far, and he glanced up at Ty. Tyrone. It wasn't
Kel's girlfriend who'd just hopped into some other guy's lap,
after all.
But Tyrone seemed unperturbed about
it, wandering over with his glass of water in one hand and a beer in
the other.
Kel's eyebrows rose. "I thought
you didn't drink while you... played."
"I don't," Ty said with a
half smile. "But my job is to make my people comfortable, and
you said you wouldn't get drunk off of one." He held it out.
Kel didn't need alcohol to calm
down, but he took it with a sense of relief, anyway. It was even a
brand he liked, he realized as he sipped.
Tyrone settled sideways on the couch a
few feet away, facing Kel and London and looking perfectly happy to
stay there. That was kind of a relief, too.
"First rule," Tyrone said as
London took Kel's beer away and drank from it herself, "is to
not initiate contact unless otherwise directed."
Kel, halfway through taking his beer
back, slid a look over to Ty.
Ty's mouth was gentle, amused, but he
looked pointedly at Kel's hand and then back at Kel.
Well. That changed things. Cautiously,
testing out how it felt, he pulled his hand away. London grinned at
him and offered the bottle again, waggling it. He couldn't decide if
it was a real offer or if he was being baited. Kel glanced at Ty,
which didn't tell him much, and glanced at London.
"If she's offering it," Ty
said, "you can have it."
Kel took it. "This seems like a
tease."
"It is," Ty agreed easily.
"That's one of the fun things about having-- having someone who
takes orders." He was being careful not to say sub, Kel
suspected. Kel appreciated it. "Taking them to the edge and
holding them there until you tell them to fall. Good news is, contact
is going to be encouraged most of the time."
That, he had to admit, sounded like a
great way to spend an evening. Of course, it also just sounded like
sex. Wasn't that the point? To get close to the edge and stay there
until you fell? He kept his gaze on London, sipped his beer, and when
she took it from him again he didn't object.
So far, so good. If this was what they
were doing, he could manage it. No problem.
Then London leaned in and kissed
him. He hesitated, overly-aware that Ty was watching. He kept his
hands off her, even removing the one that had been steadying her
where she was.
Ty spoke quietly, sounding like he was
holding back a laugh. "You can kiss back."
So Kel did. His free hand -- the one
not holding beer -- rose to thread through her hair, cradling the
back of her skull. She was a little higher than he was, being on his
lap, and he had to tilt his head to meet her.
Faintly, he realized he was surprised
she was a good kisser. Somehow he'd always figured her awkwardness in
conversation would translate to awkwardness in the bedroom, too. He
changed the angle of his head, closed his hand gently in her hair to
tug, and felt her breath catch. She pulled away and he followed,
right until her hand slapped against his sternum and stopped him.
Even if he hadn't been supposed to follow orders, he'd have stopped
at that. He didn't make it a habit of pursuing women when they didn't
want to be pursued.
At some point, he realized, Ty had
taken his beer. With a slight smile, Ty took a sip, then handed it to
London, who took another sip. She waggled it at him again, this time
with a wicked tip to her mouth. When he reached for it she pulled it
away.
Kel's eyes narrowed. It made her
laugh
"Did you want some?" she
asked with polite courtesy so innocent it was bordering on mockery.
He followed suit, just shy of sarcasm
himself, with the ultra-polite manners his mama had drilled into him.
"Yes please, ma'am." He hadn't meant it in any sort of
following-orders way; it just came out, tinged with the accent he'd
rid himself of when he'd joined the military.
London's mouth opened. Ty's eyes
widened. Kel scowled at them both. Before he could say anything,
though, London put the bottle to his mouth and tipped it. He
swallowed so that beer didn't spill down his front, his hand coming
up to catch her wrist and pull it away before he drowned. As soon as
he could breathe, though, Tyrone's hand closed around Kel's wrist and
tugged away from London. Not hard, but irrevocably.
Kel looked at dark fingers wrapped
around the large bones of his wrist for a long, deciding moment. He
could think of twelve ways to break that hold, and seven of them
involved breaking bones. Instead, he let go of London and allowed
Tyrone to pull his hand down and put it on the couch between them.
Tyrone flattened his hand over Kel's, pinning it there gently.
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