Blake, Abby - Maya's Masters [Viper's Dungeon 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

Cam gave him an assessing look, stepped out of the way, and turned back to the restaurant. “Oh,” he said casually over his shoulder, “just so you know, we slept together last night.”

Jealousy flashed through every cell in Derek’s body, and he had Cam by the shirtfront and against the car before he could even think about his reaction. Surprised at himself, Derek dragged in a ragged breath. Hell, he was on the verge of assaulting the guy, and he’d technically done nothing wrong. It wasn’t as if Derek was anyone special in Maya’s life.

It took a moment to realize that Cam was letting himself be manhandled. Any SEAL, even injured like Cam was, would not only be able to break Derek’s hold but probably wipe the floor with him without raising a sweat. Cop training or not, Derek knew when he was at a disadvantage.

Cam grinned again. “I thought so,” he said with a soft chuckle. “So why aren’t you inside already?”

“Because she doesn’t want me.” He let go of Cam’s shirt, really annoyed at himself for his out-of-control reaction and uncensored words. Hell, lack of sleep was making him sloppy.

“Uh-huh,” Cam said in a noncommittal tone. “I’m going to hang around for a week or three. At least until we know she’s safe from the gang that tried to break in.”

Derek really wanted to tell the guy to fuck off, but he was sensible enough to realize he needed help to protect Maya. He’d applied for vacation time, but with the precinct short staffed it wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Having Viper and some of the other Doms from the club checking in on her when they could wasn’t the same as having a full-time bodyguard beside her. Derek nodded his thanks to Cam and started walking toward the restaurant. The other man fell in beside him, the limp that he’d sported last night barely noticeable today.

“Oh, and just for the record, I slept above the covers.”

Derek stopped in the middle of the road and stared at the man beside him for a moment. Did that mean what he thought it did?

* * * *

Maya glanced up as the two men entered the restaurant. In many ways they were as different as chalk and cheese. Physically, Cam was built like a Norse god with golden good looks and muscles that went on for miles. He also seemed like a fun guy to be around, quick to laugh, with an easy smile and a relaxed demeanor. Whereas, Derek was dark where Cam was light, his coloring and build more typical of the Greek gods of old. He was also more serious, and in many ways quite intimidating, but it was the men’s similarities that struck her the most. Both men were protective to a fault, willing to risk life and limb in their chosen professions, and quite able to back up their promises.

With either one of them she felt safe, protected. She shivered as they came closer. With them both she felt stirrings of a passion she’d forgotten long ago. Embarrassed by her unexpected reaction, Maya swallowed hard and tried to ignore the tingling feeling in her breasts and between her thighs.

Surreptitiously clearing her throat, she managed to greet Derek with a grin and a raised coffee cup. He nodded, gave her a happy smile she’d long ago realized was for her alone, and then took a seat at his usual table.

“How long can you stay?” Derek asked Cam as he sat down at the same table.

“As long as it takes,” he answered with another of those devil-may-care grins.

“As long as what takes?” Maya asked, uncomfortable with the idea of interfering in Cam’s plans. It was obvious what they were talking about, but she at least wanted to be included in any decisions being made. She wasn’t about to let her independence be taken away by a threat from a gang of thugs.

“Come here,” Cam said, beckoning her over with his hand. Without thinking she did exactly as he asked. It wasn’t until she was standing directly in front of him that she realized her mistake. A quick glance at Derek proved she’d messed up—big time.

Cam pulled the seat out for her and nodded for her to sit. She considered refusing, but that would probably make her submissive behavior even more obvious. She sat and silently cursed herself.

“Derek and I are discussing the best way to keep you safe.”

“That’s not ne—”

“We had this argument last night, sugar. It is necessary, and it will happen.” Anger gurgled up her throat. She’d spent years trying to rebuild her self-confidence after her failed marriage. She wasn’t going to give in to being bullied, no matter how well intentioned, but then Derek leaned over and pressed his warm hand over hers.

“Please let us protect you, Maya.”

Nothing else he could have said would have deflated her anger so thoroughly. And as much as she hated to admit even knowing they were both dominating men, she felt safer than she had in a long time.

She nodded. “Okay, but please don’t cut me out of the decision making.”

Cam nodded, but Derek scowled and added a proviso. “As long as you promise to remember that we are trained to protect you. Neither of us would presume that we know better than you when it comes to running a restaurant, so we ask for the same courtesy.”

Maya nodded, fighting the urge to lower her gaze. Fuck, what was wrong with her? Memories of the final year of her marriage burned through her, and she tried to hide the fear that threatened to swallow her whole. She’d dealt with this issue years ago. Why was it raising its ugly head now? She knew without the slightest doubt that neither of these men would hurt her. She wasn’t going to get a smack in the mouth for disagreeing with them. Not that she was disagreeing. It was obvious that there was something that she hadn’t been told, but she was smart enough to figure out that it had something to do with the gang member whose nose she’d broken. Dragging her hard-won confidence back into place, Maya turned her gaze on Derek.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked quietly. “I’m not some frightened little sub who needs to be protected from the truth.”

“Is that what you think a submissive is?”

Chapter Two

Derek glanced at Cam, noted the smug look on the bastard’s face, and turned his attention back to Maya.

She shrugged, perhaps a little unsure of her own belief simply from his question. “What else could they be?”

“They could be women with careers and heavy responsibilities who want simply to be able to relax into someone else’s care for a while.” Maya raised an eyebrow in disbelief, but he chose to ignore her skepticism for the moment. “They could be busy housewives happy to please their husbands by submitting to their pleasures and experiencing mind-blowing orgasms in the process. Or, they could be sex slaves who need to build their lives around pleasing their Dom to feel happy themselves.” He was encouraged to see a shadow of uncertainty cross her features, and so he pressed on, hoping at least to open her mind to the possibilities. “My point is that Domination and submission is different for everyone. Some subs submit only in the bedroom, some live the lifestyle twenty-four seven. Some like Emma, Jace, and Logan make up their own rules.”

Derek glanced up in time to see the smug look falter on Cam’s face.

“So s–submitting can be confined to kinky sex?”

The way she asked the question had all his blood traveling south. Judging by Cam’s pained expression, he was experiencing the same thing.

“Yes,” Derek managed to force past a tightening throat. He’d been attracted to this woman since the moment they’d met, but this was the first time he’d seen anything to confirm the gut feeling he’d had about her.

Maya wanted to submit.

And Derek wanted to dominate her with every fiber of his being.

But for some reason, despite knowing many of the people from Viper’s Dungeon, submitting frightened her.

“What was your ex-husband like?” Cam asked quietly.

Ex-husband? Derek had never heard anything to suggest Maya had been married before, but it was obvious that Cam’s question hit the right topic when all the blood drained from Maya’s beautiful face.

“I…I…don’t want…”

Maya stood up from the chair as if she planned to run away, but Cam grasped her wrist and held her in place. “Sit down, sugar,” Cam said in a voice worthy of a true Dom. Derek knew Cam was friends with Logan but was fairly certain Cam wasn’t into the lifestyle. But the look on Maya’s face was beautiful. Being dominated might frighten her, but it was obvious that it was what she wanted. If they could get to the bottom of what had caused her fear, maybe they could work through things.

Derek glanced at Cam and finally realized that maybe having him around wasn’t just good for protecting her. If there was one thing he’d learned at the club, it was that sometimes a fresh perspective had a way of pinpointing an issue previously overlooked. Derek had coaxed many a submissive into relaxing enough to orgasm on the St. Andrew’s Cross simply by being able to sense something their own Doms had missed.

Despite his internal fight over wanting Maya but not wanting a relationship, Derek cared deeply for the woman and wanted her to be happy. If Cam was the man who could do that… Derek didn’t even want to finish that thought. Somehow the idea of Maya being happy without him left a bitter taste in his mouth. Derek ground his teeth together and tried not to look as confused over his own feelings as he felt. Damn it! This was about protecting Maya from harm.

“It’s okay, sugar,” Cam said rubbing his thumb over the pulse point in Maya’s wrist. “You’re safe here. Nothing you tell us will go any further than the three of us.”

Maya stared at Cam for so long that Derek thought she was going to refuse, but then she opened her mouth and began to talk. The details that followed had Derek clenching his fists tight. Her ex-husband had been a bully, plain and simple. Any man who would treat a lovely woman like Maya with such contempt deserved a lot more than a quick divorce. But the part that concerned Derek the most was what Maya left out. He’d been a cop long enough to know that if her ex hadn’t actually knocked her around, he would have been the cowardly type to threaten it.

“Where is he now?” Derek asked through clenched teeth, wanting nothing more than to track him down. Hell, if she wouldn’t press charges, he’d go rearrange the guy’s face for him anyway.

“Parkview Cemetery,” she said with a sad smile. “He was killed in a traffic accident four years ago.”

“Damn,” Cam growled in disappointment, obviously thinking along the same lines as Derek.

“We’d been divorced for nearly a year when he died,” Maya admitted quietly as tears filled her eyes, “but I still had trouble hiding my relief. I’ve never really mourned him a day since his death. Some days I feel guilty for that. We did have some good times, but they will always be overshadowed by the way he treated me after he was discharged from the Navy.”

Cam leaned over and dragged the woman onto his lap.

“Don’t ever feel guilty,” Cam said as he pressed Maya’s head against his chest and ran a hand over her hair. “I hope the bastard is rotting in hell.”

Derek’s thoughts exactly, but Maya proved why she was such an amazing person by her next words.

“I don’t,” she said very clearly. “He wasn’t a bad person. I hope he found peace. He had a difficult childhood, and joining the SEAL teams had been the only dream to pull him through. When he failed at that, it colored everything else.”

* * * *

Maya dragged in a deep breath, surprised by how freeing admitting her failed marriage out loud made her feel. Even after the divorce, her ex had managed to terrorize her into doing things his way. She’d carried the guilt for so long. Guilt for putting up with his behavior, guilt for not saying anything, guilt for sometimes feeling that she’d deserved what he did, and even guilt for the way it all stopped. But with a few simple words Cam and Derek had managed to give her an outsider’s point of view and let her see it from a different angle.

She heard Derek move. He sat in the chair she’d been in and stroked a hand down her back. “Maya, thank you for telling us about your marriage. I can understand now why you would find being told what to do so distasteful. Is that why I always feel that you’re frightened of me?”

Frightened? She shook her head, surprised by how Derek had interpreted her reactions to him. Couldn’t he tell how much she was attracted to him? True, she was trying to hide it, and may at times have seemed awkward around him, but she hadn’t meant to give the impression that she was scared of the man.

“Maya,” Derek said quietly, the movement of his hand on her back soothing and slightly hypnotic, “a true Dom cares for his sub. He protects her, and he provides for her. He doesn’t blame everyone around him for his own failures.”

She knew all of that. She truly did, but knowing the difference didn’t make it any easier to cope with the idea of being at the mercy of someone else. There had been a time when the idea of being tied down created all sorts of delicious warmth in her belly. But after her husband’s intimidating and sometimes violent mood swings, letting anyone have that much power over her seemed to go against the independence she’d tried so hard to regain since his death.