Clifftop Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (19 page)

She scrambled four eggs, adding onions, mushrooms, and cheese, and made toast, the whole time chewing nervously on her lip. It was Saturday, which meant Brad wasn’t working. Jane hadn’t come back here last night, so she must be staying somewhere. Maybe with the short, balding man she’d ended up with last night—or maybe with Brad. It was hard to imagine Brad leaving her because of her past and taking up with someone whose past, and present, were so much more objectionable to his family’s morals than hers had ever been. But men were unpredictable, she reasoned, especially where sex was concerned.

Karl came in just as she was dishing out the meal. It was as if she had known when he was coming, or he had known when breakfast would be ready. Either way, he poured them both coffee, even putting a dollop of whipped cream in hers, and followed her to the small kitchen table.

“So how are you feeling this morning?” were his first words when she had put down the food and settled herself opposite him.

She tilted her head to one side, considering. “I’m not really sure,” she told him finally. “I feel like I’m on the verge of huge changes, but I’m a little nervous about jumping in.”

He nodded, slathering jelly on his toast. “What are you planning to say to Brad?”

“It depends on what he says first, I guess,” she said. “If he wants to leave, which is what I kind of expect, then I won’t say anything. He’s free to go, and he doesn’t need to know any more than he already does.”

“What if he wants to come back?” Karl eyed her.

She hesitated, staring into her coffee cup. Karl waited patiently, seeming to understand her dilemma.

Finally she raised her head and looked him straight in the eye. “That depends on you,” she said.

“Oh?”

Allie ignored the sudden, petrified conviction that she had completely misread Karl’s messages. Reflecting that it was time that they all understood each other, she plunged in. “I’m interested in the lifestyle that you’ve been telling me about. I liked what I saw last night, and I think I agree with you that there’s a business opportunity there. But before I give Brad any ultimatums about accepting our new direction or leaving, I need to know where you stand.”

He looked slightly amused, which didn’t help her waning determination at all. “Where I stand as regards what?”

It was time. She had no choice now but to either plunge forward or turn around and slink away from the future she had begun to envision. Most of her brain was voting for turning and slinking, but the rest of it was screaming at her that if she ran now, she’d be running from herself for the rest of her life. She took a deep breath.

“As regards me,” she said.

He put down his silverware and met her gaze. He was completely serious now. “What do you want?”

“I think I want a relationship with both of you—if you’re interested in that.”

He nodded, considering. “Let’s assume for a minute that Brad—and I—are agreeable to whatever you propose. What would this relationship look like, if it was up to you?”

She colored but resisted the urge to turn the question back on him. It was important to figure out exactly what she did want. “I think I’d like something like Gary and Katie and tad have,” she said finally. “I’d like you to be in charge, since you have the most experience and the most—leadership qualities, I guess. I’d like to be your submissive”—she flushed even deeper at actually saying it—“and I think Brad would be happiest to be kind of in the background, at least where the business is concerned. I don’t know…” It suddenly seemed ridiculous to think that either one of them would be interested in this. She had to fight hard to keep from jumping up and running out of the room in embarrassment.

But Karl didn’t look like he thought it was ridiculous. He was nodding again as if what she’d said made perfect sense.

“Let me ask you this,” he began, reaching over and putting one hand over hers on the table. She jumped at the contact but didn’t try to pull away. “Are you interested in a sexual relationship with me?”

There was a second of silence, and then Brad’s voice came from the outside door at the far end of the kitchen. “Well? Are you, Allie?”

Karl and Allie both jumped, having been too engrossed in their own conversation to hear him come in. Brad was standing just inside the door as if he’d materialized there, holding the bag of clothes she’d packed for him on Thursday. His eyebrows were raised, but he didn’t look angry. He looked like it was exactly the conversation he’d expected to walk in on and was only mildly curious about her answer.

Allie did jump up then, but she didn’t run from the room. She walked calmly over to Brad, gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, “Sit down while I get you some coffee. We have a lot of things to discuss.”

“Obviously,” he agreed, setting the bag down and following her instructions. “Seems like I’ve missed some new developments. Or are they not so new?”

Ignoring his sarcastic tone, Allie made his coffee and brought it back to the table along with the pot, which she used to refill hers and Karl’s cups.

“No, they’re pretty new,” she said to Brad, feeling like they were discussing some recently bought casserole dishes or something. “I don’t suppose you would want to back up and give me your decision before we go into Karl’s suggestion for running this place?”

Brad’s expression suggested that he thought she might be trying to trick him, but he seemed to decide to keep the conversation on a friendly, if suspicious, footing for the moment. “I hadn’t decided to leave,” he said enigmatically. “I was thinking maybe we could still work this out.”

“Work out the business or the relationship?” Allie asked.

“Well, both, maybe. I was thinking about our options—my options, I guess.” He flashed Karl a quick, hostile look, which the other man placidly ignored. “I don’t want to split up just because of—your past. And I suppose we can listen to his suggestions.”

“Good.” Allie nodded. “If you haven’t written the relationship off completely, let’s start there. I’ve been seeing some things lately that I think might be a good option for us, if you can bring yourself to consider it. Your parents wouldn’t approve, and it might be hard for you to wrap your head around, but I’d like us to consider becoming—what did you call it, Karl?”

“Polyamorous,” he supplied, smiling.

“That’s right. Polyamorous. I’d like us to try that.”

Brad stared at her as if she’d said she wanted to become a cannibal and start hunting the neighbors.

Karl took over the situation. “Polyamory means multiple partners,” he explained to Brad. “But it’s not like cheating, because it’s in the open and everyone’s needs are taken into consideration. It’s also not necessarily swinging, although swinging is a form of polyamory. If we did it we would negotiate it for ourselves.”

Brad looked back at Allie. “You’re saying you want to have sex with both of us?”

“Well, yes, basically,” she admitted, trying not to feel guilty. “I think it makes sense. I still love you, and if you want to stay and be part of the business, I would be very happy. But I think Karl has a lot to offer me—us, really—and”—she steeled herself to say it—“I am attracted to him. That doesn’t mean that I want to end our relationship. It just means I need different things from him than I do from you.”

There was silence while Brad processed that. Then he frowned. “What if I say no?”

Karl and Allie exchanged a look. Karl’s eyebrows lifted, and he seemed to be asking her the same thing.

No one was going to make this easy for her, she could see that. Karl wouldn’t take over until she officially asked him to, and Brad was just being difficult. What did he want her to say?

Then it came to her. She knew exactly what he wanted her to say. He had been trying to run this place, be the boss, but he wasn’t cut out for it. The only way he would be comfortable staying here was if someone else took charge. Brad wasn’t an alpha male. Karl was. And Karl seemed to think that she could be dominant, too, at least part of the time. She wasn’t completely sure that she believed him, but if ever there was a time and place to try, this was it.

She planted her palms firmly on the table and gave Brad the most commanding look she could muster.

“If you say no, then you’re free to leave,” she said, resisting a strong urge to back down. “I won’t blame you. I understand if you aren’t interested in this lifestyle. I am personally choosing to give it a try, and I am going to do it with or without you. I’d be very happy for you to stay, but if you do it will be with the understanding that we are going to try polyamory.”

She stole a glance at Karl to try to gauge his reaction to her speech. He was watching Brad but gave a tiny nod that she took for approval.

Brad was regarding her thoughtfully. He turned to Karl and said, “What about you? Wouldn’t you rather I just left so you could have her to yourself?”

Karl shook his head. “It’s not about that. I don’t want to break up your relationship, but nobody can supply all of their partner’s needs. There are things that Allie wants to explore that I can help her with.”

“What kinds of things?” Brad’s eyes were narrow now. He turned back to Allie as he waited for her to explain.

“Umm…I guess it’s called BDSM.” Allie glanced at Karl to see if she should have phrased it differently, but he nodded at her.

“BDSM? What the hell is that?”

“Put bluntly, it’s kink,” Karl put in. “It can be anything from tying up your lover with silk scarves to living in a full-time Master/slave dynamic.”

Brad gave a quick glance around. He seemed to expect someone to jump out from around a corner with a camera and yell, “You’ve been pranked!” or something.

“You’re shitting me,” he finally said. Allie was a bit shocked. He almost never used what his mother would have called “vulgar language.”

She gave Karl a look that she hoped said, “Let me handle this,” and touched Brad’s shoulder.

“That’s an extreme example,” she said. “BDSM can encompass many different things, or at least that’s the impression I have. Karl can tell you a lot more about it, but first let me say that I don’t want to get into anything really perverted. I just want more of a structured family.”

Brad looked startled. “Structured?”

Allie nodded. “I don’t think either one of us is really capable of being in charge of the kind of business I’d like to run here. Karl is much more of a leader than either of us. If we all form a partnership—”

“A sexual partnership?” Brad interrupted in a dubious tone, and Allie nodded.

“A sexual partnership, yes. But also a business partnership. And you can handle whatever part of the business you’re comfortable with. If you’re curious about any of the kinky stuff, we can certainly try that, too. But there’s no pressure for that. Karl would take care of that for me. He’d be my dominant.”

Brad stared at her. “You’d hand over the entire business to him, just like that, because he...” He stopped, shaking his head in bewilderment.

Karl stood up. “I’m not taking over the business, Brad,” he said firmly but quietly. “But let’s face it. This place isn’t working as a bed-and-breakfast. It needs another angle. I’ve told Allie my idea to run it as a fetish resort, and she’s interested in giving it a try. In order to do that, she will need to learn about BDSM in depth. It’s not like you can just hang up a shingle and they’ll flock in. They need to know that the proprietor of the establishment understands their lifestyle from the inside. It wouldn’t work otherwise. I can help her with that, and you if you’re interested, too. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that you were at least a little intrigued when Jane was talking about it the other night.”

Brad flushed a bit but didn’t deny it. Instead he tilted his head and asked Karl, “What about your long-term plans? Do you really think Allie is capable of running this kind of place if you leave?”

“Absolutely.” Karl took his cup to the sink and rinsed it. “I’m going to go work on the barn now. If you have more questions about what we’ve been discussing, feel free to come and hang out. You can even help if you want.” He shot a look at Brad that made his words seem more like a command than an invitation.

“That’s a great idea,” Allie said, picking up the suitcase. “You go help Karl, and I’ll get your clothes washed. You can let me know this afternoon if you want to be part of what we’re doing or not.”

After a moment of hesitation, Brad stood up. “I’ll go change into jeans and meet you out there in a minute,” he said over his shoulder, heading for the stairs.

Allie stared after him, unable to believe he hadn’t simply walked out. But he had listened to what they’d had to say, and he actually looked as if he was considering it. Maybe it wasn’t a lost cause after all.

Chapter 17

As she cleaned the kitchen and started lunch, Allie glanced out the window periodically. Karl and Brad were scraping the barn in preparation for painting it. Though she couldn’t hear what they said, it was obvious that Karl was in charge. He did most of the talking, pointing out what needed to be done, and Brad listened as he worked, nodding occasionally or seeming to ask a question.

About eleven o’clock, Allie heard the front door close and went, a bit hesitantly, to see who’d arrived. Jane met her by the front desk and immediately enveloped her in a fervent hug.