Polished (21 page)

Spencer noticed how careful Jack was not to say the safe word. He wondered about Rory’s choice for a moment. Those words symbolized an intimacy they shared that was beyond sex. Had she chosen “nail polish” for that very reason? It was an interesting thought.

“Sorry, is that too personal?” Jack said when Spencer didn’t answer.

Spencer laughed. “Nah, dude. I think we’ve gotten personal enough to talk about my nail—” He stopped himself. “My painted toes.”

Jack pursed his lips. “You have no fucking idea how much I want to fuck you right now.”

“Toes, Jack. We’re talking about toes.”

“Right. Toes.” Jack shifted his dick inside his cargo shorts and sighed, a move that made Spencer need to swallow. “That first night, Rory told me it was kind of a thing you guys do.”

“She told you about that? She must have liked you from the start.”

“The feeling was mutual.” Jack looked at Spencer out of the corner of his eye. “You know, it’s sort of like you’re collared for each other when she paints your toes. Ever think of it that way?”

“Collared? What are you talking about?”

Jack smiled at Spencer, obviously amused at his cluelessness. It didn’t bother Spencer, that twinkle in Jack’s eye. It made him eager for the explanation, like a good student.

“Collaring is when a Dom claims his submissive exclusively. It could be anything that symbolizes the collaring. Sometimes it’s an actual collar and sometimes it’s something more subtle.”

“Rory’s no dominatrix.” Spencer dusted the sand from his foot and rested it on the lounger. “I sure as hell don’t tell her what to do either.”

“There’s always someone who has the stronger hand in a relationship. It isn’t a bad thing.” Jack picked up a smooth stone and circled its surface with his thumb. “Anyway, you can collar each other equally at the same time. It isn’t just about domination. It’s about connection, commitment.”

“Never saw it like that. But I guess you’re right. It’s gotten to the point that I kind of feel naked without some crazy color she’s painted on me.”

“So how come your toes are naked now?”

“Because we were coming here to your beach house. Who knew my painted toenails would be the least freaky thing we’d have to talk about?”

“You think what we did was freaky?”

“Fuck, dude. I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel about it.” Spencer darted his eyes to the rock wall separating Jack’s property from the neighbor’s. “It was so fucking hot. I’m not going to begin to try to deny it.”

“I wouldn’t believe you if you did.”

“It’s just new. Hard to wrap my head around, you know?”

“Rory seemed to dig it.”

“Not many girlfriends would be so understanding.”

Jack chuckled softly. “Spencer, don’t be dense. She’s not just being understanding. Rory enjoyed herself last night. Hell, she enjoyed herself a whole lot this morning too. It isn’t just about you.”

The bluntness of his remark made Spencer’s mouth go dry. He’d been pretty wrapped up in his own wild ride. It hadn’t really sunken in that Rory was on one of her own.

“You think she’s really into this Dominant/submissive thing?”

“I think she’s been craving it.”

Spencer thought about her throaty voice saying, “Yes, sir” and couldn’t really imagine her saying it to him.

“We’ve never really done that kind of thing before. Not like that.”

“I have. More times than I can even count. But last night was something very…”

Special.
The word passed through Spencer’s head with frightening ease.

Jack looked out to the sea. “It was just something else. Both of you together… I mean, you’re both so fucking irresistible.” He stopped a moment, shaking his head at some internal thought. “Let’s just say it’s the best of both worlds, you know?”

It was hard to keep from touching him, but he was damn sure he knew where that would lead. “Yeah, I know.”

Jack sighed and relaxed back on the lounger, balancing the stone on his finger like it was a game. “To hell with the real world. I want to stay here with you and Rory forever. Make you my prisoners.”

Spencer smiled out at the crashing waves. “I could think of worse things than that.”

They were silent for a bit—Jack tossing the stone above him and catching it, Spencer placing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes, enjoying the warming sun beating against his skin. It wasn’t an awkward silence, not in the least. It was comfortable and easy and natural.

Rory’s voice floated above him. “You boys hungry? I also made eggs and some ham I found in the freezer.”

Jack answered first. “Starving. Spencer wouldn’t even give me an appetizer.”

She flashed her eyes at him. “I wouldn’t have minded…well, maybe that I didn’t get to watch.”

Spencer raised his eyebrows. “You’re full of surprises.”

“I know, right?” She giggled. “Go figure.”

Jack slapped her ass. “Come show me your fantastic hotcakes.”

“Yes, sir.” She answered on cue with a big grin. Spencer caught Jack’s eye. Rory was in as deep as he was.

They were finishing up breakfast on the patio when Jack’s phone rang. Rory watched him take one look at it, swipe at the screen, and put it back in his pocket.

“No business this weekend,” he said passively, sopping his last bite with maple syrup. “Rory, I can’t believe you’re not having any of these.”

“A lifetime on the hips, Jack,” she said, taking a dainty bite of egg white. “Don’t get me wrong. I love food. Problem is it loves me back. Doesn’t want to say good-bye when I’m done, keeps sticking around.” She laughed.

Jack stuck her with his gaze. “Don’t do that.” His gray eyes burned bright and serious. “If you want some, I insist you have some. Don’t deprive yourself. At least not around me. I don’t like it.”

She twisted her mouth, considering his words. “You’re giving me permission to break my own rules?”

“I demand it.” He winked at her. “My house, princess. My rules.”

There was that tone again, making her toes curl. She smiled at him and opened her mouth. Jack cut into the stack of pancakes left on the platter, bathed them in syrup, and placed a forkful into her mouth. She moaned, not unlike the way they’d both made her moan earlier that morning. Her senses ignited with the sweetness and texture. The buttery flavor played on her taste buds. It was heaven, truly.

“I love your body, Rory,” Spencer said, placing his fingers on her neck under the haphazard ponytail she’d concocted atop her head. “One hundred percent woman.”

She’d always had wide hips and a generous ass. Being bottom-heavy had irked her since she was sixteen, and she’d gotten used to avoiding all temptations that would make it worse.

“You’re perfect. Sweet perfection,” Jack said, placing another bite in her mouth. “And you couldn’t be any sexier if you tried.”

She danced in her seat at how good it tasted, at how good those words sounded. “More butter. I need more butter.” If she was going to dive off the deep end, she may as well drown. “Be right back.”

As soon as she slid open the deck door she heard the house phone ringing. The machine picked up just as she stepped inside. She turned to yell to Jack, but a man’s voice caught her attention.

“Jack…Jack, pick up the phone. I know you’re there. You don’t get up before noon on the weekend.” A pause and then, “Hope you took care of our little problem like we discussed. We don’t need that clunk-head demo guy suing us over that tunnel mishap. When you said you were on track yesterday, I expected you to call me this morning with the all clear. Call me back, damn it.” He hung up after that.

Rory’s heart fell to the floor. That clunk-head demo guy? She wanted to scream in horror. Instead she stood there frozen, not knowing what to do, wishing there was some other interpretation of what she had heard. The events of the weekend replayed in her mind, but those words on the answering machine twisted everything, making it all seem less like a dream and more like a nightmare. Did Jack have some sort of sick ulterior motive all along?

She imagined Jack laughing about the whole thing over cocktails at some fancy SoHo club, assuring his business partners that their little problem had been “taken care of,” bragging to his friends about how easily he had manipulated them, about how he had them literally jumping at his every command.

Suddenly Rory couldn’t trust anything anymore. All the feelings of security and safety she’d allowed herself with Jack had turned into a pile of shit before her eyes. She’d trusted him! She’d entrusted her boyfriend to him! She’d walked them right into a trap. Tears streamed from the humiliation of it all. Oh God, Spencer! What had she let him do to Spencer?

The telltale prickling of hives began to gnaw at her arm. Someone touched her shoulder and she nearly jumped two feet.

“Hey, didn’t mean to startle you,” Jack said. “Just came to get some more juice.”

She started crying even as the fire rose in her throat. Her arm burned with sudden ferocity. She scratched at it absently as her chest heaved up and down. “Get away from me!” she screamed and pushed past Jack back onto the deck. “Spencer!” Oh God, Spencer. What was she going to tell him? “Spencer, I want to get out of here. We need to go. We need to go now!”

Spencer got to his feet by the table and began hobbling his way to the deck. “Huh? Why? Is everything OK?”

“No! Not OK. I need you to call us a cab.”

Jack joined her back outside on the deck. “Rory, are you feeling all right? We could skip the regatta.”

She whipped around to face him. “Why did you do this to us?” Rory put her hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t bother lying to me. I know. I know why you set this up. The accident was your fault and all of this was so Spencer wouldn’t fucking sue! You’re one sick bastard.” She started to cry again.

Jack looked stunned. “I…I don’t know if the blast I ordered had anything to do with the water main break.” He stumbled over his words and raked his hand through his hair. What was that look on his face? The nerve of him to look mortified when he’d made fools of them both! And now she was sniveling like a weak little girl. Damn it all to hell.

“You look guilty as fuck, Jack.” Rory spat the words at him, hoping they would sting. “How could you? How?” He flinched and started to speak, but she interrupted him. “No! Save it. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.” Her tears started to fall again and she swiped angrily at them with the back of her hand.

Spencer made it to her side and pulled his cell phone from his pants. “Shhh, baby. I’m calling a cab, OK? Go pack.”

“This is crazy. I’ll drive you home if you want.” Jack held his hands out, as if offering something they could trust. Rory sniffed. She couldn’t look at Jack anymore, not for another second, and she took off running past him to the pretty guest room with the unslept-in bed.

Spencer held his hand out in an entirely different posture, one finger pointed defiantly at Jack’s chest. “No ride. I’m calling a cab like Rory wants.” He tapped his foot while the phone rang. “When I’m done you have exactly two seconds to explain what the fuck she’s talking about.” Spencer’s eyes had narrowed to dangerous-looking slivers.

Jack’s head was spinning. What had happened to spook her like that? He was at a loss for words. Spencer continued to look at him expectantly when the dispatcher asked for the address. He shook the phone at Jack when still nothing came out of his mouth.

“Oh, right. 23 Old Pine Road.”

With the dispatcher confirming a ten-minute wait, Spencer ended the call. He set his jaw and raised his chin. “You better start talking.”

“I don’t know why she’s so upset, Spencer, really.”

“Something about me suing you? For what? You afraid your company was negligent for trying to blow that tunnel on the cheap? You brought us here so I wouldn’t sue your ass for almost getting me killed?”

The furrow in Spencer’s brow deepened. Jack tried to match his incredulity. “Dude, if you remember I was almost killed too.”

Spencer made an ugly sound at the back of his throat. “That isn’t the part I’m concerned with right about now.”

“I didn’t invite you for that reason. I didn’t bring you here to seduce you.”

“How come you can’t look me in the eye when you say that?”

Panic flooded over Jack. “This weekend was… Fuck, you know what it was, don’t you?”

Spencer shook his head. “I don’t know anything.”

“Well it wasn’t…it wasn’t what Rory was talking about. You need to believe me. I don’t know if the tunnel fuckup was my fault. I…we just wanted to take care of the situation before it got worse. But none of that has anything to do with what happened between us.” Instinctively he reached out toward Spencer’s shoulder.

Spencer jumped a step backward, as if Jack were infected with some kind of deadly plague. “Fuck you! Leave us the fuck alone.”

“Spencer, just give me a chance to—”

“To explain how you brought us here to fuck with our heads?” Spencer’s face was a far cry from the easygoing teddy bear Jack had fallen for on first sight. His furious expression twisted a knife into Jack’s stomach.

“Please, just hear me out.”

“You’re lucky I don’t beat the shit out of you where you stand.” Spencer turned and walked down the hall.

Jack’s cell phone rang again. He stepped through the sliding door and slammed it shut. “What?”

“I don’t appreciate you ignoring my calls, son. You were supposed to fill me in on your progress last night.” Jackson sounded pissed.

“Progress?” Jack repeated the word with acid on his tongue.

“On the union guy. Didn’t you get my voice mails? Get your head out of your ass, Jack. We need to put a lid on this whole shitstorm before it gets away from us.”

Jack palmed the back of his head and stopped pacing the tight circle he’d been making on the deck. “I’m hanging up now. I have to go.”

“The hell you do. Tell me you offered him the hundred grand we talked about.”

“I didn’t. He’s not that type of guy.”

“Everyone likes money, Jack. Don’t be so fucking naive. Listen, Mayor Daniels is asking about you. Do me a favor. Call that horny bastard back.”