Safeword: Matte - In Training (26 page)

He stroked her face. “Mom and Grams were
talking about the menu at the reception, and I’m thinking it might
be better to wait until we get to the beach the next night, though.
I want you to be able to eat and enjoy our wedding, without
worrying about a cleanout later.”

“So, what will we do on our wedding night?
To make it special?”

He smiled. “I don’t know. I was thinking I
could be a true sadist and we could try it vanilla.”

He couldn’t be serious, could he? Sam opened
her mouth to ask, but Ethan burst into laughter before she managed
the first word. “No, Samantha. I’m not serious. I’d like to focus
on romance over pain, but I’m kind of thinking we’ll play it by ear
and see what happens. If you need pain, I’ll find a way to give it
to you, but I don’t plan to start with it.” He kissed her nose. “I
want it to be special, too.”

He saved the document, sent it to his cloud
server, and turned off the screen. “I need to go before I lose my
resolve and throw you on the floor and take you now.”

Sam’s heart skipped when he stood without
removing her from his lap, but she took it in stride and wrapped
her legs around his waist so she could kiss him from his
height.

They kissed again on the front porch, and
when she came back in the house the cousins were preparing to leave
as well. Those staying in her guest rooms went to their rooms, and
before long she was seemingly alone in her huge house. It’d never
felt empty before she met Ethan.

Her final night with the plug wasn’t too
bad, and she put it in and masturbated fifteen minutes before
allowing herself an orgasm. She was no longer afraid of Ethan’s
cock. She knew she could take it, and felt like the virgin who’s
been made to wait entirely too long for what she wants.

* * * *

Sam awoke to Ethan’s kisses the next
morning, and stretched and tried to pull him into bed with her.

“No sex for us, my lovely bride. Dustin and
Justin are downstairs, but otherwise the house is empty. Do you
want to eat first, or spar first?

“Spar first, eat later.”

“That’s my girl, but don’t get pissed at me
for putting you into head gear. I’m serious about not wanting you
bruised for the honeymoon.”

Sam sighed. “No to mention my mom will kill
me if I have a black eye in my wedding pictures.”

Ethan lifted her, took a step back, and
stood her up. A gentle hand caressed her cheek as he bent to kiss
her forehead, and he rested his hands on her shoulders. “With
someone my size he’s ninety percent punch and ten percent kick. He
seems to be closer to eighty/twenty with shorter people, but he
specializes in waiting until you’re not watching for the kicks and
then delivering a devastating series. Don’t let your mind stop
watching for his feet and knees.”

Dustin and Justin were both in the living
room, and they stood as one when Sam and Ethan came down the
steps.

The sight of the two men side-by-side was
bizarre. Both were dark black, and other than their hair, pretty
much a carbon copy of each other. Under their clothes, Sam couldn’t
see much of a difference in bulk, but when she looked at their
arms, Dustin’s were definitely cut more, though not much bigger.
Their postures were similar but different — one military and the
other slouched, but still the same basic stance.

“Wow,” Sam said, looking at the twins and
Ethan as she internally calculated what the three must weigh. “This
much testosterone in one room is…” She shook her head. “Hello
Dustin, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you, as well. My
cousin is madly in love with you. He was heartbroken when you blew
him off.”

Sam eyed Ethan and looked back to Dustin.
“You heard about that?”

“Yeah, as well as the occasion that made you
change your mind.” His eyes twinkled in delight and Sam didn’t give
him the pleasure of seeing her discomfort.

“Come on downstairs and I’ll show you the
workout room. I think Ethan brought you early so we could do this
without an audience.”

Justin tilted his head. “There are only a
few in the family who’ll voluntarily spar with him, and none are
female. I think it’s safe to say you have everyone’s curiosity
up.”

“Well, my mother’s mortified, so the less we
talk about it in front of her, the better.”

Dustin laughed. “Good to know we aren’t the
only ones afraid of our moms and grandmothers.”

“Yeah,” said Ethan. “I hear you’re escorting
Grams to Jamaica?”

Dustin’s face clouded. “My superiors think
it’s just as bad of an idea as I do, but she has friends in high
places. What are the odds she’ll listen to me when I tell her we
need to bow out and leave an area because it’s too dangerous?”

Justin shook his head. “Slim to none.”

“You’re her favorite, Ethan,” said Dustin.
“Maybe you can talk to her about how I’m trained to know when to
leave? Suggest it might be a good idea to listen to me?”

“I’m not her favorite.” Ethan ignored
Justin’s snort and continued. “But I’ll talk to her. I worry about
her, too.”

“If it’ll help,” said Sam, “I’ll put my two
cents in as well. I’ve grown to love her, too.”

“She thinks the world of you,” said Justin.
“She’s wondering how to clone you so the rest of us can find a
wife.” He eyed his brother. “Unfortunately, while a clone of you
might work for my brother—”

Sam interrupted. “Enough.
I am
not
discussing my sex life with future in-laws. Let’s head
downstairs.” She looked at Dustin. “Ethan is insisting I wear
headgear so I’m not bruised up before the honeymoon, but I want to
go on record as saying I want another round with you later, without
the protective gear. I’m agreeing to it now because we haven’t
sparred and don’t really know each other’s styles, not because I
don’t think you know how to practice without banging me up too
bad.”

“Noted,” Dustin said with
a smile. “And I won’t bring up the fact he doesn’t want you
bruised
before
the honeymoon.”

“You spar with Ethan and others his size on
a regular basis?” asked Justin.

“No one else his size, but others who are in
the same league, skill wise.”

“Did he tell you she was National Kung Fu
champ a few years ago?” Dustin asked his brother.

“Yeah. Heard about that before they started
dating, when he was all smitten with her and she wouldn’t give him
the time of day.”

Both men seemed to have heard a lot about
her. “Just how often do ya’ll talk?”

“We talk quite a bit,” said Justin, “but I
think he and Dustin mostly send email.”

“I Skype him when I’m not on a mission,
usually after I’ve read his emails.”

They entered the workout room and Dustin
looked duly impressed. “Nice.”

Sam didn’t argue when Ethan pointed her to
the bench press bench with the headgear and gloves. She noted
Dustin donning gloves, too, and she glared at Ethan.

“You’ll both wear gloves when you spar, too.
And maybe headgear,” she informed him.

Ethan shook his head. “We’re not going to
spar today. We get pretty rough with each other, and it’s a bad
idea the day before the wedding.”

“But you’re letting me?”

“Letting you? No. I set it up because you
asked me to, and you’re doing what I asked with the protective gear
because you know it makes good sense.”

If he hadn’t set it up and she’d asked about
it, he wouldn’t have told her the timing didn’t work out unless it
truly hadn’t, and she’d have been ticked if she thought he was
making decisions for her. She sighed. “I love you. I won’t do this
if you don’t want me to.”

“No,” he said, smiling. “It’s okay. Just
don’t let him land anything and you’ll be fine.”

Sam rolled her eyes, bounced on her feet,
stepped to the heavy bag to land a dozen punches, and finally
kicked with both legs until she was sure she wouldn’t pull
anything.

She met Dustin in the center of the sparring
mat and threw a combination to his sternum and chin, and he only
managed to block the chin. Her weight shifted and she spun on the
ball of her foot, rolled her body around his, and kicked below his
knee.

Ethan hadn’t gone down when she used the
trick on him, but Dustin hit the mat and sprang up all in the same
motion. There was no time to gloat, though, as he used his upward
momentum to barrel into her with a round of bicycle punches and she
was glad she’d donned the headgear.

Instincts brought her knee
to her chest and she kicked out, imagining her foot
traveling
through
his torso. Dustin took a few quick steps backward and Sam
plowed forwards and tried to deliver a punch sequence that always
worked, but Dustin used both inside and outside blocks and she
didn’t manage to land a single strike. No one had ever used a
mixture of blocks in quite this way before, and she couldn’t
anticipate his next defensive move.

In Kung Fu it’s almost all inside blocks.
When you stop an opponent’s strike with your right arm it moves
clockwise and deflects their hand out. Some martial arts styles
block primarily from the outside, but Dustin was switching it up
and blocking her from all directions, and she couldn’t land any
punches. She threw a couple of low kicks, blocked a few of his
punches, and stepped to the side to avoid his right fist.

All in one motion she threaded her arm under
his and over his shoulder, dropped to her knees, and flipped almost
three hundred pounds of muscle over her back, slamming him to the
floor before delivering a series of strikes to his face, but not
too hard, as he’d be Ethan’s best man in the wedding tomorrow. It
occurred to her it’d be just as bad — possibly worse — to give the
best man a black eye as it’d be to have one of her own.

She backed off as his arms rose to flip her
over him, and when he moved his hands into the traditional time-out
signal, she leaned forward to catch her breath.

“Ethan’s right,” said Dustin, winded. “Your
technique’s too good for me to handle you without using more force
than I’m comfortable with in a spar.”

“I’m game to stop sparring until after the
wedding as long as you’ll show me your blocking technique. How the
hell do you manage to block from the inside and outside
simultaneously?”

Justin laughed. “Wax on, wax off. Didn’t you
see The Karate Kid?”

“Smart ass,” Sam laughed. “I know how to
block from both directions, but I’ve never seen anyone incorporate
them together quite so successfully.”

Dustin showed them his sequencing, and Ethan
had Sam show Dustin and Justin her rabid-weed-eater
combination.

When family began arriving, the four went
upstairs and talked a few moments before Sam pointed Dustin towards
a shower he could use and she went to her room to get ready for the
day.

When she returned, a good portion of the
family was in the kitchen, and Grams and Nana wouldn’t hear of
letting Sam or Ethan cook, so they all sat and talked as a big
southern breakfast was prepared for them.

The rehearsal wasn’t until three, and the
family had a lot of time to talk and catch up until time to drive
to the historic Read House. Sam’s parents joined them there, as her
mom still seemed uncomfortable around Ethan’s entire family all at
once.

Sam and Ethan had talked to the minister via
Skype, as he was Ethan’s choice, but this was the first she’d met
him face to face. During their online talks he’d told her several
funny stories about Ethan as a child, and she understood he was a
close family friend as well as the minister of the church his
family attended. He handled the rehearsal with skill, and Sam felt
the last of her worries fall away as the group made their way to a
nearby restaurant for the rehearsal dinner.

“It’s only a few blocks,” Ethan told the
group as everyone figured out who would ride with whom. “Sam and I
are going to walk, and we’ll meet the rest of you there.” There
were a few protests, and his voice was firm as he responded, “This
will be our last chance to talk in private until after we’re
married. We’ll see you there.”

“I talked to Kirsten about tonight,” he said
once they’d separated from the group. “She asked me to give you
permission to go a little wild tonight.”

“Just what do they have planned?”

“I’m not telling you details, but when you
reach your final destination you have permission to grind, dirty
dance, and even kiss someone if the mood strikes you. If you want
to feel them up a little, even that’s okay…but no one touches you
under your clothes, and you aren’t to have an orgasm.”

He stopped and pulled her to him, face to
face in the middle of the sidewalk. “If you come I won’t punish
you. I’ll just be hurt.”

“Okay, I understand, but I don’t think I
want to kiss anyone besides you.”

“Then don’t. I’m merely saying if it works
out so you want to, and it’s a fun celebratory kind of thing, you
can. Male, female, or gender neutral — you have my blessing for any
and all.”

“Okay. Noted. What are you not telling
me?”

“A lot,” he said, grinning. “Oh, one more
thing. Tyler and Kirsten arranged for ya’ll to have a limo to drive
you around, and your driver apparently works with Tyler, so he’s
also a professional bodyguard. He’ll be going in with ya’ll, and
will dance and generally be part of the party, but he’s the
designated driver so he won’t drink.”

“Kirsten doesn’t do anything half-way, does
she?”

“No. You’re packed already, right?”

“Yes. You?”

“Yep. Wedding at four o’clock tomorrow, then
the reception, and then we get on the elevator and go to our room,
wake up the next morning, and fly to Hawaii.”

Chapter
Fifteen