Keeping Karly (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

“We’ll take care of her,” he assures my sister. Casey smiles so widely I can’t deny her anything. I nod, but I’m not really ready for the squeal as she launches herself at me, grabs my hand, and tries to drag me to the stairs.

“We need to find something great for you to wear.”

“Um…thank you, but no. I’ll wear my own clothes.” I look to Bryce and Grant for help, but they’re both just smiling indulgently. Fortunately it’s my soon-to-be brother-in-law who saves me from my sister’s enthusiasm.

“Relax, little sub, or it might be a very long time before I let you orgasm tonight.”

My sister grins unrepentantly. “Yes, Sir,” she says in a voice that holds more humor than respect. The swat Chris gives her bottom is as playful as always, and suddenly I find myself wondering if their relationship is like this inside the club.

As soon as we walk into my bedroom, my sister’s enthusiasm bubbles over once more. “I’m so glad you’re coming to the club. Honestly, it’s nothing like you think it is. I’m sure you’re going to have an amazing time.” She heads over to my embarrassingly limited closet and grabs the shortest skirt she can find. It was one of those “it was on the sales table and seemed like a good idea at the time” buys. I’ve never actually worn it. My sister holds it up to my waist and frowns. “It’s a bit too long, but it should be okay. I’ve probably got time to hem it.”

“I think it’s just fine the way it is,” I say, snatching the skirt back from her. My sister huffs in disappointment, but her thoughts are soon diverted.

“You need a sexy top though.” She quickly shuffles through my lingerie drawer but stuffs it all back in without choosing any of it. “I think I have a corset that’ll fit you.” She grabs my hand and drags me into her room. Amused to see this side of her again—I’d forgotten she can be this bouncy—I follow along, content to indulge her when she’s this happy. “Hey, maybe Grant and Bryce will give you a taste of what it’s like. I mean, you know, nothing too heavy, but something that might give you an experience that you enjoy.”

I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen, but I don’t have the heart to burst her bubble.

“Maybe,” I mumble without really committing to anything.

“Really?” she asks with a bright smile. I want to roll my eyes and say “no, not really,” but Casey seems so genuinely sure that I would enjoy what she enjoys that I can’t find it in me to disagree out loud.

“Does Chris really withhold your orgasms?” I ask curiously.

My sister laughs. “All the time.” She shivers theatrically. “But they’re always worth waiting for.”

“Really?” I ask with a sigh. Technically I could say my ex withheld my orgasms, too. Unfortunately, unlike Casey who now seems lost in a world of her own as she considers her night ahead, there had been no reward for me at the end. John’s idea of good sex had been to climb over me, satisfy himself, and then roll over and snore. If I’d wanted any feeling of completion I’d used my own hand after he’d fallen asleep. I’d found sex so boring that most nights I hadn’t even bothered.

It was kind of strange now to realize that I’d just assumed it was that way for everyone. If Casey hadn’t been severely injured during a BDSM scene I might never have known there was a whole world of men out there who offered something different.

My thoughts stray to the two men currently talking quietly in the hallway downstairs. In the eleven months I’ve been here I don’t once remember either of them having a girlfriend, or even a date. “Do Bryce and Grant have sex with the submissives at the club?” I ask in a breathless whisper.

Casey gives me an assessing look, glances out the door, apparently checking if the men are in earshot and answers with a grin, “Not since they met you.”

* * * *

Little minx.
Grant rubbed his forehead tiredly. Casey had looked straight at him, pretended he wasn’t there, and said the one thing he expected would make Karly run.
Not since they met you
. But instead of freaking out, the woman he’d spent the last year falling for stood her ground and denied the coincidence.

“You’re obviously mistaken,” she said with a voice he would swear was tinged with disappointment. “They’re two amazing guys. There’s no way they don’t both have a mile-long line of subs willing to play with them.”

“Oh, they have the lines,” Casey said with a soft giggle. He’d be speaking to her Dom about her bratty behavior—as soon as he eavesdropped a little more. “But neither of them have played with a sub since they met you.”

Grant smiled at the memory of all the times that the three of them—him, Karly, and Bryce—had enjoyed a quiet night in over the past year. Their friendship had grown really comfortable, and both he and Bryce liked it that way. They wanted more, of course, but since the woman was still recovering from a disastrous marriage, they were willing to wait.

“Have I been cramping their style? Monopolizing their time?” Karly asked anxiously. “I feel like I need to apologize, but saying something seems like a rather embarrassing idea. What would I say? Ugh, sorry, guys, didn’t mean to get in your way. Please go out and spank some poor woman.”

He could almost imagine Casey rolling her eyes. “Any woman they chose to spank would love every moment—you included.”

Karly seemed lost for words, and Grant decided enough was enough. He stepped into Casey’s bedroom just as she held up the most amazing corset for Karly to consider. It was a confection of lace that would hug every beautiful curve Karly owned and would highlight her breasts and nipples perfectly. He felt his cock harden just at the thought of her wearing it for him.

“I can’t wear that,” she exclaimed before she realized Grant stood behind her.

“Pity,” he said close to her ear, pleased to notice that she no longer skittered away like she’d done in the early months when someone had come up behind her. “It would look amazing on you.” He deliberately placed a hand on her hip, needing to touch her as he turned his attention to her mischievous sister. “I think I hear your Dom calling.”

“No you don’t,” she said with a bright, smart-ass smile.

“Go now, or I’ll paddle your ass myself.”

Casey gave him a sassy wink. “Promises, promises,” she teased on the way past, but at least she left the room.

He’d felt Karly tense up as soon as he’d issued his threat and really wanted to take the words back.

“You wouldn’t, would you?”

“Paddle her ass?” he asked, trying to brazen out the behavior he and Bryce had been curtailing ever since she’d moved in. Karly nodded, but she didn’t turn around to face him. He didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t see her eyes, but perhaps Karly felt more comfortable talking about this if she wasn’t actually looking at him. “In the past, and if her Dom asked me to, probably.”

“And now?”

“Chris isn’t much of a sharer. If his sub needs paddling, he’ll do it himself.”

“His sub is my little sister,” Karly said quietly. For a house with two Doms and a sub living in it they’d certainly managed to avoid the subject over the past eleven months. It was about time they talked through this openly. He didn’t want to scare Karly away, but he was determined for her to realize the difference between a Dom and a wife beater.

“Do you remember when your sister used to cut herself in high school?”

“You know about that?” she asked, turning to face him. He savored the feeling of being close to her when his hand slid across her lower back as she spun in place.

“Of course we know. It’s a Dom’s job to know a sub’s history.”

“So you’ve played with my sister?”

“No,” he said, very glad he could reassure her on that topic. “Casey is a masochist. She likes pain—a lot of pain,” he said, trying to emphasize his point. Karly needed to know beforehand what she was liable to see at Casey’s collaring ceremony. “Bryce and I don’t really enjoy delivering intense pain. We prefer to torture our subs with pleasure.”

We prefer to torture our subs with pleasure.

“Oh.”

As unintelligent as it is sounds, it’s the only word I seem to be able to force past my throat. It doesn’t help that I just realized Grant has his warm hand on my hip, his thumb stroking me softly through my slacks. “Pleasure,” I mumble as I try to get my thinking back on track. I can almost imagine the type of pleasure Grant or Bryce would be able to provide. “But…but…” I had a point to make. What was it?

Oh yes, my sister—the masochist?

“But you could beat me if you chose to,” I say, again completely losing track of what I wanted to say. His eyes widen at my poorly chosen words. “I mean, you could…ah…hurt a sub if you wanted to.”

“No,” he says, completely confusing me. Didn’t he just threaten to paddle my sister? But her reply suggested she would like it? Or maybe she just knows him well enough to know it was an empty threat.

“No?” I ask as my thinking seems to spin in circles. Isn’t BDSM about hurting the sub?

“No. Not if I wanted to. If the sub wanted it, needed it, that would be a different story, but it’s not something Bryce or I feel the need to do. We tend to avoid subs like Casey. Don’t get me wrong—we adore your sister—but she likes more pain than we’re prepared to deliver. It never would have been a good match.”

“So your idea of fun would be?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I regret them. Do I really want to know the answer?

His hand is still on my hip, his thumb still caressing me softly. His other hand lifts to my face, and I suddenly find myself hoping that he’s going to kiss me. Both Grant and Bryce have given me friendly, affectionate kisses and casual embraces over the past several months, but it’s no longer enough. I want more from them both. God, could I be any more selfish? Not only do I monopolize their time, force them to curb their natural behavior, and disrupt their love lives, I also want both of them to love me.

Shit. How is my behavior any different to my husband’s controlling ways? Haven’t I—unintentionally, of course—made Grant and Bryce act differently because they feared my reaction?

“I’m sorry.” The words leave my mouth instinctively.

“It’s okay, little one. We know you’re scared.”

“It’s not that,” I say quickly, wanting to shake my head but unwilling to break eye contact with a man who has become very important to me. “I’m sorry for making you act differently, for not letting you be yourself.”

“It’s okay, Karly,” he says, sweeping his thumb under my eye to catch the teardrop that escapes my control. “We don’t mind.”

“But I do,” I say as I drag in a halting breath. “I mind. I refuse to be like my ex-husband.”

Grant gives me a smile and leans forward to press a warm kiss to my lips. “I’m afraid you lost me. How are you like your ex-husband?”

“He controlled my actions because I feared his reaction. You and Bryce are doing the same thing—restricting your behavior for fear of upsetting me.”

Grant looks over his shoulder and I realize that Bryce has joined us in Casey’s bedroom.

“The difference,” Bryce says as he moves to stand beside me, “is that Grant and I aren’t really curbing our behavior. This is who we are—Doms, yes—but for the most part just regular guys.”

“We enjoy playing Domination games in the bedroom, but outside of it we want an equal partner, someone we can share life with, not a fulltime submissive.”

“Oh.”

There’s that dumb-sounding word again. I’ve made so many wrong assumptions about these men that I truly am starting to wonder about my own intelligence. When had I become so narrow minded that I’d begun seeing the world in black and white?

“But you haven’t been to the club the whole time I’ve been here.”

“True,” Grant says as his thumb caresses over my cheek in a very soothing, rhythmic movement, “but that’s because we prefer to spend our time with you.”

“Why?” Okay, I really have to stop blurting questions out like that. Do I really want them to explain why they’ve spent all their spare time babysitting a broken woman?

Bryce steps up behind me and I suddenly find myself pressed between them. Amazingly, all I feel is excitement, not fear—an unexpected but very welcome reaction. Grant lowers his head, capturing my lips with his own, kissing me gently, but far more thoroughly than any man I’ve ever known. I’m panting by the time he breaks the kiss, but it’s when he turns me around and Bryce does the same that my arousal leaps into the stratosphere.

Holy heavens, I never expected that—wondered about it, daydreamed it, perhaps—but never expected it. Yet how selfish am I to accept it? It’s not like I can suddenly become a submissive, even if it’s just in the bedroom.

“Stop overthinking it, Karly,” Grant says as Bryce rubs his thumb over my lower lip. “Come to the club with us tonight. We wanted to introduce you to the lifestyle gradually, but with Casey’s collaring ceremony set for next week, we need to hurry things up a bit.”

“Hurry things up?” I ask, wondering when I lost the thread of this conversation. I thought we were just roommates. Well, I thought that was how they saw me, no matter what my imagination might have conjured in the loneliness of the night.

“That’s probably not such a good idea,” Chris says from the doorway. Casey is beside him. She looks a lot less excited than she did a few minutes ago, but she doesn’t say anything. “My sub finally mentioned something that I should have been told earlier—although I can appreciate that Karly might not wish to discuss it.” He gives me a sympathetic look and I’m suddenly glad he’s going to be my brother-in-law. He is a really nice guy. I know he’ll protect and love my sister for a very long time. “I don’t believe Karly would be comfortable watching the scene I have planned for tonight. It includes blood play.”