At Your Service: Tammer (3 page)

“Yet. I don’t recognize you as my…well, what are you going to be exactly, Sir Ass? Since you’ve already dubbed me defiance, what do I call you?”

“Not Sir Ass, I can assure you,” Tammer said over a smirk.

Well, he had a sense of humor and the fact he could joke about her out of line nickname spoke of a man who could go with the flow. Most likely he wouldn’t be an overly harsh Dom. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes.

“Tammer. I’m just Tammer.”

“Somehow I hardly think you’re
just
Tammer,” Nina said, warmth crawling along her skin when she glanced up at him and couldn’t manage to look away again before he pierced her very core.

The man’s eyes could change quicker than she could keep up. And right now they spoke of something which made her heart flip and guilt wash over abraded nerves. Then as if to emphasize the very thing she shouldn’t entertain, he reached out and curled one palm under her jaw, stroked her cheek with his thumb, and that look went even deeper. He stared past her doubts, her fears, her carefully constructed defenses and bore straight into her soul. Only one other man in the world had ever torn her down to her very foundation in a matter of seconds and she was fairly certain that man had established his three rules with the sole intent of keeping her from becoming too emotionally attached to Tammer. But honest to God, if he looked at her very often with that look of heartfelt possession he’d just conjured, she might just have to defy what her head told her and listen to her heart.

“You’re fifteen minutes past due for nourishment,” he said, breaking the spell and reminding Nina she wasn’t just behind on the speech she’d been working on, she’d now missed dinner. He blinked and when his eyes opened again, the look which had heated Nina from the inside out had disappeared to be replaced by a completely non-descript one she couldn’t place. “Come on, defiance. Time to eat.”

Not twenty minutes later, Tammer was handing her into a booth in a shadowy corner of a local diner known for their soul food. Nina slid to the center of the bench seat, twisted a couple of times and bounced to get comfortable before taking a cleansing breath. In all honesty, she was grateful for the escape from the house. She’d only been out a few times since Joel had left, mostly to check the mail and get a gallon of ice cream here and there when it struck her at random times he was gone, again, and she felt like crying until there were no more tears. For the past five years he’d spent more time overseas fighting everyone else’s wars than he’d spent at home. In fact, out of those five years, Nina had only seen her husband a handful of weeks between assignments.

“Was this in my mysterious file?” Nina asked, plucking a menu from between the salt and pepper shakers and flipping it open so she’d have something to look at besides Tammer.

He was just the consolation prize sent to, well, console she guessed. He was a playmate, not a lover, at least not by her definition. While Joel had given her the freedom to have sex with Tammer, he’d also revoked the acts of intimacy associated with crossing the line from casual fucking to making love. In her mind the love portion of that equation was what defined lover. When Joel decided to stoop to hiring someone to tend to her needs in his absence, had he really assessed what those needs were? Didn’t he realize that while she missed playtime and fucking, she missed making love? Nina missed quiet whispers and kissing. She longed for soft touches and gentle thrusting.

No, she decided, he’d not thoroughly assessed her needs. Not at all.

Another trickle of guilt made its way across her heart. When had she begun to resent Joel’s career and his commitment to the Corps?

“If you mean your love of soul food, yes,” Tammer said, laying his menu to the side. “This place in particular, no. Is this acceptable?”

“You’re in charge, you tell me,” she snapped before realizing it was entirely possible she was taking her frustrations with her relationship with Joel out on the person he’d sent to try to repair things. At least that’s what she was beginning to believe. This was Joel’s peace offering. With her eyes closed, Nina took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know you. Although you have to admit, had you been in my shoes you might have reacted the same way. You know with the attempted call for help, hiding in the bathroom. The calling you names.” She looked at him and thrummed her fingers along the table’s edge. “But now that I know you’re safe, I should have a little more respect. I made a promise to Joel a long time ago to try anything he asked of me at least once. I’m not really giving you that chance, am I?”

“Why don’t we start again,” Tammer offered, sticking out his right hand. “I’m Tammer Weston from the service. Are you Nina?”

“Yes, I’m Nina.” Playing along with his attempt to right their bumpy beginning, she took his hand only to have him grasp it, turn it over, and plant a tender kiss right in the middle of her palm. “Nina Prescott,” she breathed at the heated contact which burned clear to her shoulder.

“That’s a beautiful name, Nina,” he said, turning her hand palm down again but not letting go, holding it across the table instead.

Nina shot a glance around the restaurant in hopes no one could see them.

“I chose this booth intentionally,” he said, running his thumb over knuckles. “No one can see us. And I doubt many, if any, of your peers share your affliction with food only to be found in this part of town.”

He had a point.

Nina relaxed a bit and let the nearly unfamiliar feeling of human touch soothe her. He was right. The last time she’d tried to get one of her girlfriends to accompany her out for grits and greens past the great divide, Florence had turned her nose up, declined the invitation, and hadn’t called her for three weeks. Come to think of it, they hadn’t shared lunch since then either.

Nina didn’t know what the big deal was. She was raised on this food and didn’t give a damn where she had to go to get the best in town. If people were afraid of an invisible barrier, they weren’t worth her time anyway. Fuck them.

With all the smells lingering on the air reminding her of home, Nina had a hard time deciding on just one protein and three sides. But by the time the waitress arrived with a pitcher of sweet tea and two glasses, Nina knew exactly what she needed to feed her inner soul sister.

“I want the chicken wings, the hotter the better, greens, black eyed peas, and fried corn, please. And can I have a side of corn bread?”

“Yes, indeed. For you?” The waitress turned to Tammer who ordered catfish and okra, one side apparently all he needed to round out his meal. Not Nina. Since she had the chance, she was tanking up on the full Monty.

“We’ve got pecan pie for dessert today. Be sure to save some room,” the woman said then trotted off to the kitchen.

“I could eat my weight in pecan pie,” Nina said, taking a drink of the tea Tammer poured for her. “I might have to order a whole one to take home with me.”

“As long as you share and let me stop for whipped cream on the way. I like mine with plenty,” Tammer confessed. “I know what Joel told me, but being as you two haven’t really lived together for so long, I suspect his take on things might differ from yours. Living apart for long is rough. People change. So do their desires.”

“Well, nothing like cutting to the chase. Are you hourly?” Nina said, tugging her hand away, disgusted with herself for mistaking his gesture for more than it was, one of the required motions.

“Not hardly. If you’re not ready to talk about that, we won’t. What would you like to talk about? What do you do besides sit in your office and write speeches and talk to invisible people all day?” Tammer didn’t try to retake her hand, but didn’t remove his from the top of the table either as if giving her a choice to reach back out.

Nina didn’t quite know what to say. As she curled her fingers in and out of a fist under the scrubbed, spotless Formica slab, she chewed her bottom lip. The truth was she’d turned into quite a recluse the past year or so particularly. She felt like a single woman who’d had her social privileges suspended for life. None of her so-called friends had the same issues she did with a husband gone so much. Sure, they’d all been through deployments, but none to the extent she had. More than half the people she used to know had received orders and moved away. The rest, she guessed, grew tired of having a third wheel at their family functions and stopped inviting her after a while. And as luck would have it, Joel’s unit was filled with guys who were either single, divorced, or whose wives had opted to go home to Mommy at the first sign of being alone, the big ass sissies. When her walking partner bailed on her, Nina gave up and ordered a few pieces of exercise equipment figuring if she was going to be alone anyway, why bother going to the sidewalk. She had a standing date with her mini-gym every morning.

Now that she was forced to think on it, Nina had no idea the last time she went shopping for pleasure or had a massage or went to a movie. She loved antique shops and used to take weekend trips to the Appalachians looking for the next great find. Had she even put a thousand miles on her car this year?

“Nina,” Tammer said gently, reaching over the table and tilting her now bowed head. “When’s the last time you went out to do anything fun?”

“While Joel was home over Christmas we rented a cabin up at Blowing Rock and spent the holidays there.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant. What do
you
like to do?”

“I used to like to do all sorts of things. I’m not really sure what I like to do now.”

“Well, how about if we figure it out together.”

“I thought Joel got you to…” Nina closed her lips tightly and peered around the side of the booth then turned back and whispered. “To service me. You sound like you’re trying to date me.”

“A good Dom knows his sub. I can’t get to know you unless we spend time together. If we’re going to spend time together, we might as well get comfortable with it and have some fun,” Tammer said, chucking her chin. “Don’t you think?”

He had a point.

“Does Joel know this is part of your plan?” she asked, moving back a bit so the waitress could slide her steaming plate in front of her.

“Yes, he knows. I won’t do anything he doesn’t know about,” he explained, popping a fat, crispy piece of okra in his mouth. “He’s aware telling me what you like and me experiencing it with you are two totally different animals. What kind of music do you like?”

Over an hour later, they were the last people seated in the restaurant as the staff started lifting free standing chairs on the tops of tables to begin the evening cleaning.

“I think that’s a hint,” Nina said, finishing her tea and scooting to the side of the booth where Tammer helped her to her feet.

“I’m not normally one who has to be told twice,” he said, flipping a couple of twenties on the table and picking up their pie before waving at the waitress and leading Nina out.

She yawned all the way home. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like she could fall asleep before midnight. After Tammer parked and took her to the door, he took her key from her and unlocked it then stood back as she stepped inside.

“Um, Sir Tammer,” Nina said, scrunching her eyebrows today. “The bedroom is inside.”

“Well, I’d hope so,” he answered.

“Aren’t you coming in?”

“Not tonight.” Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he winked at her. “Enjoy the pie. We forgot the whipped cream and I’m still too full anyway.”

“But what about my punishment?”

“Well, defiance, that was your punishment.”

“Dinner? Dinner was my punishment?” Nina asked, not understanding this new Dom’s way of thinking at all. Joel would have had her on the wrong end of a cane for being mouthy and disobedient. “But there were supposed to be two.”

“And your second one is to go to bed. Right. Now. No arguments and no more working tonight,” Tammer said, backing up almost to the steps. “I mean it, defiance. I’ll see you again soon.”

He waved, turned, and hopped down the steps. After Nina watched him climb back into his monster of a vehicle, she didn’t close the door until his taillights disappeared around the corner.

As it turned out, Tammer did mean it. Twenty minutes later as Nina settled into bed, propped up on her pillows and her laptop on her knees, her cell rang.
Sir Ass
flashed across the screen.

“Very funny,” Nina said, placing the device to her ear.

“Put the computer down and close your eyes, defiance,” Tammer growled, sending Nina’s heart into a pitter-patter.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good night, Nina.”

“Good night.”

Chapter Four

When Tammer finally got home and settled in front of his computer, he found an invitation to chat flashing from Joel. He glanced at the clock at the bottom of the screen. It was lunch time in the Middle East and he figured the man was hanging around his desk, pacing and eating a sand laced sandwich on pins and needles awaiting Tammer’s report.

You there, man?
Tammer typed then opened a search window to do some surfing while he waited for a reply. It wasn’t long in coming.

Yeah, how did it go?

You know you could have given me a picture that did her justice. Why didn’t you tell me she was so pretty? Instant wood. No offense…

Tammer switched windows and Googled
wine tours in North Carolina.
Within seconds more than a dozen attractive looking offers popped up boasting the best vineyards in several counties. Of course they were all the best.
Huffman, Duplin, Hinnant Family…

Try being me,
Joel typed back
. At least you get to do something about it soon.

Fuck off. Just remember this was your idea. LOL

Tammer read what he’d written and immediately regretted it. Joel could have had any one of dozens of service Doms from the service but he’d approached Tammer because they knew each other personally. Well, as personally as top secret missions could afford two people. Eating the same patch of dirt in Tammer’s book was personal. Did that make two men BFFs? Not really, but it did make them tight. If a man was willing to give up his own soul for someone else’s, knowing each other’s shoe size was irrelevant in the scheme of things. Joel was having a hard enough time as it was and Tammer understood that. Being a special ops man wasn’t marriage friendly. It was why Tammer had never been married. The fact Joel trusted Tammer enough to entrust his wife and sub to him was huge and goading the man was just inconsiderate.