Authors: Joey W. Hill
She paused, apparently mul ing the
best choice of words.
“When a K&A man finds the woman
he wants to make his
permanently, they share to a certain
level, but there are
certain lines not crossed, depending
on both the Master
and the woman, what he knows her
needs are. Like Matt.
Savannah, his wife…the lines are
more clearly drawn with
her than me or Cass. They’l do soft
play with her on
occasion, but it’s Matt who holds the
reins, always. Lucas
wil sometimes al ow a little more
with Cass, but it stil stays
along the lines of voyeurism, heavy
petting, things like that.”
Dana shrugged. “I’m al Peter’s, and
yet he knows I like
being shared at times, as long as it’s
only with them, and as
long as he’s a part of it.” Putting a
hand on her heart, she
patted it dramatical y. “That’s how I
know about Ben
firsthand. I think it’s possible to die
from having both inside
me at once, because I pretty much
blacked out during the
orgasm.”
Rachel’s mind was whirling. “Wow.
I don’t think I could…”
But she was lying. The idea was
already whirling in her
head, frightening herself. That
darkness loomed again, how
deep she was wil ing to go, how
much of herself she could
lose.
“Easy.” Dana reached out again, only
this time her
fingers slid over Rachel’s knee,
along the inside of her
thigh. A few scant inches, but it was
enough to have
Rachel’s mind centering again,
remarkably. As her legs
trembled, Dana pushed on them,
spreading her knees out
so they touched the chair arms. The
black woman slid out
of her chair, taking the same bent
knee position on the floor
as she’d had in the chair, only this
time she braced her
back against one of Rachel’s calves,
her toes against the
arch of Rachel’s opposite foot. “It’s
easier that way,
keeping your legs apart, isn’t it?
Sometimes, when things
start to spin in the wrong direction,
taking the position you
might take if your Master is with you
helps you to kind of
balance.”
With a shock, Rachel realized that
was probably why she
preferred the Da Vinci position for
meditation whenever
she was unsettled. Even without a
lover in her life, the
spread legs, the arms over her head,
was a position of
submission.
“W-what’s Jon’s specialty?”
“You have to ask?” Dana chuckled.
Reaching up, she
tweaked the chain at Rachel’s hip,
sending a jolt right down
to her pussy at the friction to the clit
piece. “The man’s a
mechanical and chemical genius. Ben
thinks Jon’s
contribution to history wil be the
Pearly Gate Detonator, a
vibrator that al ows a woman to die
from orgasms, no
matter her age or physical condition.
That way she can
have the best possible end when
she’s terminal or too
ancient to carry on anymore. Ben
says it would be like a
rocket launcher, shooting her straight
up and over Heaven’s
gate, no passport needed.”
When her hand slipped from the
chain back to Rachel’s
thigh, caressing the pale flesh there,
Rachel closed her
eyes, not wanting the contact to stop.
This was crazy,
amazing…perfect. And as Dana
herself had said, scary as
hel . “What about the head of K&A?
Matt Kensington?”
“He’s the king,” Dana said simply.
“As corny as that
sounds, it’s his energy that sort of
pervades al of it,
connects them. He’s Machiavel ian
when it comes to erotic
strategy, and though I think he has a
lot of his own skil s in
the orgasm-to-die-for category, he’s
also more exclusive
than any of them. Savannah is his
queen, his everything. He
can touch your shoulder, and you
know he’s total y in
command, but you don’t mess with
what’s between him and
Savannah.”
“I’m not sure if hearing al this is
making it better or
worse.” Because it was making her
want what she couldn’t
have even more intensely. “You
know this is giving me a
hundred more questions.”
“It’s hard to explain it until you
experience it.” Dana
rubbed her cheek against Rachel’s
leg, then pressed her
lips there. Rachel stroked a hand
over her close-cropped
hair and Dana immediately turned to
tease her pulse with
lips and tongue. Her elegant fingers
closed over Rachel’s
wrist as she lifted her head, dropped
it back against
Rachel’s leg to smile up at her.
“Don’t freak out, hon, but what
happened yesterday was
like the first act of a master play,
being written straight off
the cuff by Jon, with sheer Master’s
intuition. He didn’t tel
Peter, ‘Hey, come in here after she’s
on her knees and play
with her a little bit’. They pick up
cues from each other. It’s
fascinating, a little terrifying, but
after you get used to it, it
works in al the right ways.”
Rachel noticed Dana hesitated, as if
she wasn’t sure if
she should say what was in her mind
next. “What?” she
asked. “I want you to tel me, even if
you think it’s something
I can’t handle.” Which was entirely
stupid, but there it was.
She wanted to know everything.
“What I was trying to say earlier…
Before they found their
wives, when they went to a club,
they’d do their thing with
the casual subs they hooked up with
now and then.
However, when it matters…it’s more
like what you
experienced yesterday, and that was
an introductory taste.
The very fact they brought you to that
gate means Jon wants
to take you ful y through it. He wants
to shut the door behind
you, lock it permanently. You’re his
choice for forever. I’d
bet my life on it.”
Rachel drew her hand away,
suddenly cold. “You think…”
“Doesn’t matter what I think.” Dana
grimaced good-
naturedly, giving her a light pinch,
though it didn’t lighten
Rachel’s mood. “Changing your mind
about a future with
him is Jon’s job, and believe me,
these guys are good at
convincing a woman of the most
unlikely things. I was a club
hopper until I met Peter, and I’ve
enjoyed a variety of
Masters, in a lukewarm sort of way.
However, he was it,
everything, the second I met him.
Savannah and Cass wil
tel you the same thing. We al had that
in common.”
“He couldn’t be thinking that. It’s not
possible.”
“Why not?” Dana’s brow creased.
“Why can’t you believe
that you can have something like
Jon?”
“Because I couldn’t, not for so many
years. And…the
wanting it destroyed so much of what
I had.” Rachel rose
then, awkwardly stepped over Dana
and retreated to the
living room, wanting that robe. After
she shrugged it on and
belted it, she found Dana had
returned to her own chair.
The woman was waiting for her,
listening for the sound of
her footsteps, and probably to a lot
more. The scuttling
sound of Rachel’s mind skittering
away from this
absurdness, like a rat seeking an
escape from a sinking
ship.
“Rachel.” Dana spoke softly. Though
it brought Rachel to
the kitchen doorway, she leaned in it,
shying away from
coming back to the table. “I’m tel ing
you what I know about
the K&A men. You wanted me to be
honest, and I’m tel ing
you I believe that history is about to
repeat itself, for the
fourth time. It’s why I reacted the
way I did to what
happened to you yesterday, because
I’d love nothing better
than to have you as part of our
family.” Dana gave her a
smal smile. “You don’t have to argue
with me about it. I’l
wait to see what you have to say on
the other side of it.”
“You’re wrong. I can’t… For me to
handle this, to do this, I
have to accept it as a temporary
thing.” Then she could
enjoy it awhile, and wouldn’t have to
face al this unresolved
pain she’d had to bury. “I don’t…it’s
not that way. I respect
and understand what you say, but
that’s not what I want.
And I’m sure it’s not what Jon wants.
He couldn’t possibly.”
Suddenly, Rachel wanted Dana to go.
She couldn’t bear
to see the confidence the other
woman had, so smug and
sure that things would work out. She
didn’t understand,
didn’t know…
“Rachel.” Dana’s tone held the
firmness of the minister
she was training to be. Rachel
already knew Dana’s lack of
sight gave her a unique ability to pick
up distress, and her
compassion now reflected that she
could feel Rachel’s
grief, wel ing up so deep and strong
it couldn’t escape
notice from a wel -attuned heart.
“Wil you come back and
sit?”
Rachel shook her head, wrapped her
arms tighter around
herself. Though Dana couldn’t see the
gesture, of course
the fact she didn’t move was an
answer itself. The blind
woman cocked her head, considering,
her eyes appearing
to focus on the wal above Rachel’s
head.
“Al of us can get trapped in our pain
and loss,” she said
quietly. “It’s worse if there’s no one
there to help when it
happens. We learn to cope, and we
cope by building wal s.
So nothing terrifies us more than
having those wal s brought
down. It becomes your skin, and
nobody wants to be
skinned and left raw and bleeding.
We believe, to the
depths of our soul, no one wil protect
us, give us warmth
and healing. We don’t think we
deserve it.”
“I need you to go.” Rachel picked up
the cane, brought it
to Dana’s hand. “We’l cal Max. I’m
sorry, but I need you to
go.”
“First, let me say this.” Dana tapped
Rachel’s chair, a
quiet command to sit. With that
preacher’s tone, Rachel
found herself obeying, though she
tugged the robe even
closer around herself. For al that they
were sightless, the
dark eyes became more intent, more
focused. “I do
understand, Rachel. Not the exact
nature of your pain, but
the depth of it.”
She gestured to her eyes, the scarring
that was stil
visible on her left arm. “After this
happened, I wal ed myself
up like I was in a grave.”
The change of subject, the gravity of
it, stil ed Rachel the
way the reassurances couldn’t.
Though from her medical
records she of course knew the kind
of injuries Dana had
sustained, the woman herself had
never spoken directly of
it, or the aftermath.
“I was in this silent hel , scarred,
hideous,” Dana
continued. “I hated bathing because I
had to touch my face,
my body. I lacked the wil to take my
own life, but I’d died,
just the same.”
A faint, bittersweet smile touched her
mauve lips. “In a
few moments, like one of those
hypnosis sessions, I’m
going to snap my fingers and take us
back to a different
reality, the playful, sexy one that
existed when I walked into
your door. If you change your mind
and want me to stay,
we’l start working on this dinner
you’re supposed to make.
I’l talk to you while you’re taking
your bath. We’l gossip
about celebrity hairstyles—you can
describe them to me
and I’l laugh. We’l talk about the
state of the world, and
what your favorite color is. In other
words, we’l be girls and
talk about whatever fun, frivolous
crap we want to talk
about.”
She shifted, her hand closing on
Rachel’s again. “And
that col ar he’s put on you, al the
delicious feelings that go
with it, that are stirring up your body
and making you want
him so hard? They’l come rushing
back, and then you real y
wil need me to leave, because the
closer we get to dinner,
the more everything in you wil
become attuned to wanting
him, to wanting to be ready for your
Master in the way he
commanded. You feel it now, hearing