Out of the Storm (4 page)

Feeling Kyle’s hands massaging her scalp as he shampooed her hair had to be one of the most sensuous experiences of her life, and that was when she had suddenly realized that she was no longer cold. Oh no, not cold at all. As a matter of fact, she was downright hot in certain places and then they basically shut everything down and she was left wondering what she’d done wrong.

Remembering how disastrous her last foray into the mysterious realm of male-female relationships had been sent a shiver of regret and apprehension racing up her spine. Good God Gertie, every time she even thought about Chris Feldman, she felt an overwhelming urge to take a scalding shower. Why she had even agreed to go out with him was something she should probably go into therapy to explore. Not only did they work together, a dating situation she had always avoided like the plague, but she hadn’t even been remotely attracted to him physically. He was a pompous ass at work and even worse on their one and only date. Sighing to herself, she knew the truth and she didn’t like herself very much when she thought about how shallow she had been.

When Chris had dangled the Snowball Gala tickets in front of her like a carrot she’d caved and agreed to go with him. She had always dreamed of attending Austin’s glitzy charity event and envied her friends that had been invited from time to time. But the entire evening had been one cluster after another. Chris had shown up to get her in a limo, which he’d gloated about and she knew he’d been sure his extravagance would impress her…it hadn’t. And then he had wanted to have sex with her as soon as they’d pulled away from the curb. The thought of sex with him disgusted her and the idea of doing it as they drove through the streets of the city made her stomach threaten to revolt.  Every time he’d touched her, she had found herself having to suppress a shiver of disgust. His breath had smelled of whiskey and cigarettes, and smoking had always been a deal breaker for her with dates.

By the time they pulled up to the Civic Center, she had been forced to re-do her hair because he’d continually tried to run his fingers through her long blonde curls. While she had been trying to put herself back to some semblance of order she’d been mortified to look over and see him stroking his very small cock up and down with frantic strokes of his beefy hands. When she’d asked him what the hell he thought he was doing, he’d told her that if she wasn’t going to “take care” of him, he’d just have to take care of it himself. By the time she’d gotten into the ball, she’d been so upset that she hadn’t enjoyed the evening at all.  Feigning a headache, she’d called a cab and left early.

She refused to go out with him again each time he’d called her after that night. These past few weeks he’d started to get more aggressive in his pursuit of her and he had even been making off-hand remarks about her upcoming performance review, so now she was also worried about how the whole disaster was going to affect her at work. His calls had gotten more frequent and his language increasingly graphic and foul, and in the back of Tobi’s mind she knew she should probably file a complaint at work, but she hated rocking the boat. 

Shaking off that train of thought she decided that part of keeping her job would depend on how well this interview went, so she needed to refocus her attention on the task at hand.  Her personal interest in the West brothers’ lifestyle had to be tabled if she was going to concentrate on what she needed to do…the only problem was she was finding the two of them to be nearly irresistible.

From what she’d seen of their home, it was spectacular and she was anxious to get a closer look. Tobi found herself wondering if they would let her take a few pictures for the article, so many people objected to pictures of their homes being publicized now because of the obvious security implications.  And while she understood their concerns, it sure did make her job a lot more difficult. She’d wait until they showed her around to decide what to ask for. She was going to have to fight her attraction to Kyle and Kent West and write a kick ass article if she had any prayer of keeping her job.

The magazine where she had finally found an entry level position was cutting staff to the bare bones because readership had fallen off. With so much free information available on-line, people were reluctant to spend their dwindling disposable income looking at the luxury others lived in. Her reporting position at the magazine wasn’t the best job, hell it wasn’t even in her real area of interest, but it was the only thing she’d been able to find. Who knew a design and marketing degree was going to be so useless in the real world?
Damn, if I lose this job because of that asshole and have to move back in with my brother, I’m gonna go postal.

Feeling like she was being watched brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Kyle standing in front of her with his arms crossed over his muscled chest watching her intently. She felt her face heat and once again silently cursed her fair complexion. When he didn’t say anything for several seconds she started to fidget under his gaze. “Kitten, I’ve asked you the same question three times and you didn’t hear me or were ignoring me, I’m not sure which.”

Uh oh, question? Damn it, I’m going to fuck this up if I don’t yank my head out of my ass.
“Um, could you repeat the question, please?” Almost before she’d finished speaking she felt two sharp swats on her bare ass.
Bare? What the heck happened to the towel I had wrapped around me? Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, maybe I should move back in with my brother and his family, I need a damned keeper.

“Watch your language, sweetness. You are much too smart and attractive to talk like a gutter snipe.” Kent’s voice came over her shoulder startling her. Damn, she hadn’t even heard him walk up behind her and she was usually wary of anyone standing behind her. The only apartment she’d been able to afford was in a neighborhood where being aware was a survival skill.
Shit, I said that aloud?

Kyle put a finger under her chin and raised her face to his and she found herself lost in his dark eyes. They were the most delicious shade of chocolate brown and she wanted to fall into them and never come out. Both men oozed sex appeal and authority, and she found herself wondering what they were like as Doms. They probably already had a gaggle of subs following their every order, and she had no desire to become a notch on their bedposts. And even though she was more than a little curious about their lifestyle, she wasn’t sure she would ever be a good submissive because the thought of being humiliated for someone else’s entertainment didn’t do a thing for her. And as her brother would gladly tell anyone, she was pretty lousy at taking orders without asking a dozen or more questions.

This time when she came back to the moment Kyle was chuckling, “Kitten, I don’t know whether to paddle you until you can’t sit comfortably for a week, fix us both something to eat, or start addressing all those questions and comments I don’t think you realize you’ve been speaking out loud—again.”

“Out loud? Again?  Oh crap on a cracker. I hate that, boy oh boy, you’d think I’d learn. But no, not this girl…I just keep on fu..um, fumbling things up with the same ole stupid behavior.” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Kent wasn’t going to smack her again and saw him smiling and shaking his head.

“Good save, sweetness, but next time you’ll get a swat for intent. Now, let’s get you and my brother fed so we can chat a bit.”

She suddenly noticed they were both wearing faded Levi’s that looked like they’d been molded to their delicious bodies. When they turned and Kyle grabbed her hand to lead her from the room, she tried to pull her hand back but he just tightened his hold on her. “Wait. I can’t eat like this…it’s, well, it just isn’t decent or sanitary or well…right. And what if someone else shows up? That elevator opens right into your home and somebody would see me, and I’m supposed to be working.” They hadn’t even acknowledged that she was speaking and suddenly she wasn’t all that thrilled about being ignored. “Hey, are you guys listening to me? Jumping jack rabbits, this is really not going well at all. I have to do this interview and I have to, well, I mean I want to do a really great job.”

Her words brought both men to an immediate stop and they stood together in front of her. “Kitten, we’ll be talking to you more about the asshole that has become a problem for you at work. Congratulations by the way for not having sex with him. Obviously he hasn’t figured out the meaning of the word ‘no’, but I have a feeling he’ll figure it out soon enough.” Tobi wasn’t sure exactly what Kyle had meant by that, but he didn’t look like he was in the mood to explain, so she kept that question to herself.

“Sweetness, as for your worry about someone seeing you naked in our kitchen, there are a few things you need to think about. Number one, do you believe we would ever hurt you or endanger you in any way?”

Kent’s question surprised her and she was even more surprised to find that she knew without a doubt neither one would physically harm her. “No, I feel safe with you. I don’t really know why, but it’s still true.”

Kent nodded, “Thank you.  Your trust is important to us both, I assure you. Now, number two, that elevator is coded and
only
three people—my brother, the head of our security detail, and I know the code.  So there is no chance we’ll be entertaining surprise guests because Micah never comes up unannounced. And we might as well get this last issue out of the way right now. We’d planned to discuss it, among other things while we enjoyed our food, but if you are going to worry about things, let’s get it done now. While we both are Doms and we enjoy a rather wide variety of BDSM activities, we aren’t sadists. We don’t play blood games or even allow them at our club. We also dislike anything that involves pins or needles of any kind. Piercings should be done by trained professionals and neither my brother nor I have any interest in becoming trained so you’ll be safe on that point as well. Now, as for humiliation play, we don’t particularly like it for ourselves, but you will see it happen in the club because there are some Doms and subs who enjoy it.  Since it isn’t physically dangerous we don’t interfere. We have punished subs in ways they might have considered humiliating, but I assure you they ended up enjoying themselves immensely. We have never had a sub complain about the way we treated them, so you need to strike that from your worry list as well.”

“Kitten, we promise to take very good care of you, but first let’s get something to eat. I didn’t get any dinner this evening and I doubt you did either. We’d like to talk to you and we like seeing your lovely body, but how about a compromise? I’ll get you a shirt to wear, but you won’t be allowed to button it or sit on it.”
Sit on it? What an odd thing to say.

She was pretty sure she’d heard a grunt from Kent at Kyle’s offer and she didn’t want to risk them snatching back the olive branch they’d extended so she quickly agreed. Kent pulled her the rest of the way to the kitchen while Kyle went back down the hall. By the time Kent had gotten her a bottle of water from the refrigerator Kyle had slipped a soft cotton dress shirt over her shoulders. He picked her up and sat her on one of the bar stools so she was facing the kitchen before pulling her knees apart and showing her how he wanted her to hook her ankles around the legs of the stool.  And true to his word, he hadn’t left the fabric under her bare ass and the cool leather had caused her to gasp.  The thought of her bare girly bits against the seat made her pussy wet and wasn’t that just great? 
I’ll probably leave a big ole wet spot and that’s just gonna suck.  Could I possibly embarrass myself more?

Before he’d left her side he’d run his fingers lightly through her soaked pussy lips and smiled at her. “I don’t think we mentioned it in the shower, but we were both pleased to see that your pussy is nicely shaved, kitten.  Being able to see each and every response is a serious turn on for us both.  Watching your pussy’s lovely lips swell as it prepares for us and seeing your honey coating the soft folds is sexy as hell.” She felt her whole body shudder in response and knew he’d felt her pussy moisten even more. When he withdrew his fingers she’d almost fallen off the stool watching him lick them clean before moving around her and into the kitchen.

While they worked together reheating the dinner their housekeeper had left for them, they’d kept her entertained with tales of their exploits as kids. She’d enjoyed hearing about all the trouble they’d gotten into and had found it easy to see the mischief making boys they had been. They had asked her about her job, but not specifically about the trouble she was having with Chris Feldman.  She had always been uneasy sharing such personal information, but she had known those questions were coming. They had listened intently as she told them her worries about the staff cutbacks the magazine had been making and how perilous she felt her employment situation was. They had quizzed her about her degree and experience, and she’d felt they’d been asking for a specific reason, but she hadn’t been brave enough to ask. It would be too much to hope for that they knew of a job somewhere, and rather than face disappointment or rejection, she just kept her questions to herself.

They’d eaten their meal at the small kitchen bar and she’d found herself relaxing more than she would have thought possible considering the day she’d had and the fact that she was sitting there eating with her legs spread wide and the shirt Kyle had given her gapping open in the front. The one time she’d tried to pull the edges together Kent had slapped her hands and opened it even further, admonishing her to leave it alone or she’d lose it and find herself over his knee as well. His words had made her pussy clench and moisture roll out in response to the picture that flashed through her mind.  She wondered what on earth had happened that her body and brain seemed to be on totally different pages all of the sudden.

Chapter Four

Kyle didn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed a dinner with a woman as much as the one he and Kent had just shared with Tobi. She was bright and had a great sense of humor. She’d asked thoughtful questions and had been open in her answers to their questions even when he’d known she had often been uncomfortable doing so. Granted they hadn’t gotten around to the really hard questions yet, but they’d established enough of a baseline with her that at the very least it should be easy to spot any attempt she might make to evade the information they needed before they’d go any further with her. No doubt she’d seen their conversation as casual and free flowing, but as she’d eventually learn that was rarely the case when dealing with sexual Dominants.  They had deliberately led the conversation and asked questions they knew would be easy for her to answer as well as a few that had caused her to pause briefly.  By doing so, they’d learned her tells—those little signs of discomfort with a question or with what she was being asked to reveal.