The Masters of Falcon's Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

* * * *

He could do this. Finn came downstairs for dinner whistling, unable to keep his enthusiasm inside. Everything looked new, and he ran his hand down the banister, regarding his surroundings as if everything there belonged to him. He saw Daphne at the bottom of the staircase talking to Blaze in a low voice. They both looked up at Finn as he approached, and his newfound confidence dwindled a bit at the habitual sneer on Blaze’s face. Not as much as usual, though, since Blaze’s nose was still swollen, making Finn feel better.

Daphne gave him a friendly smile, though, and he forced himself to stop and put his arm around her. Blaze’s face darkened even further.

“Don’t give up,” Blaze said to Daphne.

“Give up on what?” Finn asked, but she just laughed and leaned into him, reaching up a hand to stroke his cheek.

“Forget it. He made his choice,” she said to Blaze.

Before Finn could ask again what they were talking about, there were footsteps behind them
,
and their heads all turned to see Decker descending toward them as well.

If Blaze had looked angry before, it was nothing to how he looked now. Angry and—was that fear? Finn wondered, his attention caught by the sudden movement as
Blaze
turned on his heel and stalked out the front door, muttering something that sounded like “—same room as that asshole.” A second later there was a crash and the sound of glass shattering. Daphne ran to the door.

“He broke his beer bottle,” she reported, after having stuck her head out. She glanced back at Decker, a strange smile on her face. “I’ll clean it up.” She pranced into the kitchen and came back carrying a broom and dustpan. Allie followed her, wiping her hands and asking, “Who broke what? Was anybody hurt?”

“Nope. Blaze was just expressing his feelings about his impromptu nose job this afternoon,” Daphne told her as she went outside. Allie turned to Decker and Finn for an explanation, but there was a burst of laughter and conversation on the staircase as the rest of the crew came downstairs. She shrugged and returned to the kitchen, seeming to realize that nobody would be able to do any talking with so much noise.

Daphne came back a minute later carefully balancing her load of broken glass and took it into the kitchen. Finn followed and was surprised to hear Daphne offering to set the table for Allie. This was his chance.

“That’s a good girl,” he said, taking a stack of silverware.

Daphne turned in the doorway and peered at him over her armful of plates. “What?”

“Nothing.” He blushed a little, mentally kicking himself. What a stupid thing to say. She wasn’t a poodle. They worked together until Allie brought out the food.

Daphne gave her a brilliant smile as they took their places. “Ooh—that smells wonderful!”

“Thanks.” Allie sounded dubious, as if she suspected sarcasm. Daphne’s face fell a bit.

“It sure does,” Finn supplied, trying to reassure Allie that nobody was laughing at her. “What is it?”

“Lasagna.”

Daphne peered at it, and Finn could tell that she was debating with herself the benefits of eating it and making Allie feel good versus the possible ramification on her weight.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. I’ll work it off you tomorrow.” He smiled at her, trying to look playful but serious. Daphne looked surprised but finally nodded, holding out her plate for him to fill.

“Not a whole lot, please. I want to save room for—bread.” Her eyes went wide as Allie put a huge dish of rolls on the table. She hesitated but took one. Then her face relaxed as she noticed the salad that Karl was setting out. “Oh—I’d like some of that, too.”

“As long as you eat some of the lasagna, that’s fine.” Finn was aware that he sounded like the father of an anorexic sixteen-year-old, but he couldn’t help it. He struggled for something to talk about that wouldn’t remind her of the fiasco with the politician or make it sound like he was chewing her out for disappearing on Saturday. This was why he’d never had kids. How did you get their attention without turning into a nag?

“So. Are you all rested and ready to get back to work tomorrow?” he asked her finally, pouring blue cheese
dressing
on his salad.

“If I can walk after all—” She stopped, blushing, and glanced at the doorway that Allie had gone through. “I mean, sure. Do you want to come and watch?” She was looking at Decker now.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Finn’s voice sounded much sharper than he’d intended it to. He forced himself to smile at her, but it didn’t feel like much of one. “We’ve got a lot of work to do this week. It would be distracting to have someone there.”

Decker nodded, not looking at either of them. Finn wasn’t sure if the nod was to communicate approval of the way he was taking over the situation or just meant he understood Finn’s objection.

Daphne was looking at him as if he’d grown a second head. “What is your problem?” she asked finally, laying her silverware on the table and leaning toward him.

This was it. Decker had warned him that she would challenge his authority at first. It was the point where he needed to assert who was boss in this situation.

He steeled himself. “My problem? My problem is that we’re several weeks behind schedule on this project. We made up some good time last week, and you did a great job. But it’s time to crack down and get it finished. We have several songs left to write and choreograph. Since you insisted on doing it all yourself, you have a lot of work left to do. I don’t want there to be any distractions.”

They stared at each other. Daphne’s eyes flicked over to Decker, who was studiously concentrating on his meal as if there was nobody else in the room. The other band and crew members were staring openmouthed. Daphne’s face was turning red—a very bad sign. He’d seen her get angry before, and his first instinct was to say something calming. But if he was going to be the boss, he couldn’t simply allow her to have temper tantrums whenever he asked her to work.

“Did you not ask me to be in charge of the project and keep you on track?” He forced his voice to remain calm but firm. Decker had kept stressing firmness. Be firm
,
but don’t allow yourself to get angry. Anger leads to rash, hurtful statements that you’ll regret later. If she gets angry and starts lashing out at you, think of her as a small child trying to be the one in charge.

“I didn’t ask you to be an asshole about it.”

He took a deep breath.
A small child. She’s a small child having a temper tantrum
. “I’m sorry if you think I’m being an asshole. I’m just pointing out that we need to stop playing around and start concentrating.”

Her eyes got bright, as if she were on the verge of tears. Finn felt himself weakening, beginning to mentally form an apology.
Was
he being an asshole? He honestly couldn’t tell. But she’d seemed to like the forceful, confident type this afternoon. She’d been lying on the ground at Decker’s feet, for God’s sake. Why was she reacting now like he was beating her up instead of just trying to be a little dominant?

She stood up. “I’m not playing around. I worked really hard last week
,
and I took the weekend off. I’m sorry if you think I should be working twenty-four hours a day. You probably don’t think I deserve any time off. You—you—” She broke off and started to turn away from the table. Then she hesitated, grabbing three of the homemade rolls. She stalked away from the table, muttering, “Who cares?”

Finn stared after her, bewildered. His gaze met Decker’s. The other man looked sympathetic.

“Too much?” Finn asked him.

Decker nodded. “Little bit.”

For the rest of dinner Finn debated with himself whether he should go to Daphne’s room and try to talk to her, or give her time to get over being angry. It wasn’t an easy choice. For all the times he’d threatened to quit, he really didn’t want to be fired over something stupid like this. Daphne could be very unreasonable and very impulsive. She would calm down, he told himself. He’d be especially nice in the morning and make it up to her. Maybe even take her out to breakfast—no, that wasn’t a good idea. It would hurt Allie’s feelings. When the meal was over, he went upstairs after dinner to read in his room. Pausing in front of her door, he went through the whole argument again. But in the end he went on to his own room and spent the evening trying not to feel bad about his disastrous attempt to establish some structure in their relationship.

Allie was up early. She’d been dreaming about Daphne and the glass on the front porch, but instead of cleaning it up, Daphne was cheerfully smashing all of her front windows and throwing the pieces at members of the leather community, who were walking past the house in some kind of odd procession. The front yard was filling up with blood as Allie watched, horrified.

When she’d startled herself awake at five, she hadn’t felt like going back to sleep. Images of her friends bleeding in front of her house kept flashing before her eyes and a heavy, desolated feeling threatened to engulf her whenever she tried to settle back down.

She got up and dressed, wondering again what it was about Daphne that bothered her so much. It was almost threatening, as if Daphne’s presence was crowding her out of her own home.
Stupid
. Daphne had it all
. Sh
e was rich, famous, thin, gorgeous. There was no way Daphne would want to trade her life for Allie’s. Not that there was anything wrong with her life, Allie reflected. She loved having her own business, having two men to love and take care of and who loved and took care of her. She couldn’t imagine a better existence.

She smiled at the two men, still sleeping peacefully. It was satisfying to get up early and have coffee and breakfast ready when they came downstairs. She’d hardly ever done that when it had been just her and Brad. She smiled warmly at Karl’s sleeping form and once more thanked the universe for bringing the three of them together.

As if her attention woke him, Karl yawned and stretched, opening his eyes.

He smiled. “Good morning,
b
eautiful. This is early, even for you.”

Allie gave him a rueful smile in return. “I had a nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep. I thought I’d go down and try a new recipe.”

He got up and walked toward her, and she was struck again by what a beautiful body he had. His shoulders were wide and muscular, and his chest was like chiseled rock. She put a hand up and ran her fingers down his torso as he drew her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. She marveled, as she always did, how just touching him in any way always stoked such a fire between her legs. Sinking into his embrace, she let his love chase away the last vestiges of her bad dream.

“Let’s go into the bathroom for a little talk,” he said, releasing her and glancing at Brad to make sure they hadn’t woken him.

She followed him in and Karl sat on the edge of the tub, pointing to the floor in front of him.

Allie pulled over a rug and sank to her knees. “Is something wrong?” She tried to keep her voice light, but she had a feeling she knew what this was going to be about.

“I’m not sure. I think maybe there is.” He paused, studying her with a serious face. “I’ve noticed something lately that I want to discuss. It’s obvious that you don’t like Daphne very much. Can you tell me why?”

Allie’s first reaction was to protest that Daphne was a spoiled brat who did nothing to deserve her respect. But she knew that wouldn’t go over well. “I’m not sure,” she finally mumbled. “Maybe it’s just a personality conflict.”

“Hmm. I don’t think I buy that, and even if I did, it’s not an acceptable answer.” His voice got a little deeper
,
and Allie suddenly felt like a small girl being scolded by her father.

She squirmed a little. “I don’t know what it is. She doesn’t appreciate her success or the things that Finn does for her. She treats him like he’s trying to hold her back or keep her from having fun or something. He deserves to be treated better than that.”

“I agree.” Karl’s eyes narrowed. “But that really isn’t our business.”

“In a way it is,” Allie argued. “This is a BDSM resort, and part of our obligation is to educate the people who stay here. She agreed to be submissive to Finn—or at least she agreed that Finn was the boss while they were here. She’s not keeping her end of the bargain. You’ve seen how she treats him!”

“Yes, I have.” Karl stroked her hair. “But we don’t get involved in other people’s relationships. As long as there’s no danger of anyone dying from their activities, and they’re not breaking any laws, we can’t dictate how she treats him. You wouldn’t like them coming in here and telling me I boss you around too much, would you?”

“No, of course not. But—”

“But what?”

“Does that mean I have to like her?”

Karl thought for a minute. “No, I can’t say you will or should like every guest we’re going to have here. That would be impossible. But I can tell you that as an innkeeper, you’re going to have to give our guests the benefit of the doubt until they give us reason not to. There will be times when you hate some of the activities your guests engage in. You’re not into humiliation play or age play, either. But we’re not going to institute rules against them. If it’s legal and consensual and reasonably safe, then we’re going to allow it, no matter what our own personal feelings.”