Two Doms For Angel (19 page)

“
Interesting. You didn’t say
no.”

“
No! She loves you, and you
want
me
to marry
her?”

“
Now you’re being obtuse.
She loves us both, but she needs marriage. She needs to feel clean
and have her shame completely wiped away.”

“
Then you marry
her!”

“
No.”

“
So if I marry her, she’ll
just jump into bed with both of us and feel no shame?”

“
I think with time we would
all adjust.”

“
Adjust?
You think her sleeping with two men is an
adjustment? I know for me it goes far beyond a simple modification
of my thought process.”

“
Why?”

“
You can’t be
serious?”

“
Do you remember when I made
you go to the club and submit to a domme?”

“
Yes, that’s not a memory
I’m likely to forget.”

“
To be a good dom, you need
to understand what a sub goes through, how they feel, what it takes
to completely give up your power. You were at the domme’s mercy. If
I remember, she beat the living shit out of you. You could have
used your safeword but you didn’t. Even when she put a butt plug up
your ass, you didn’t safeword.”

“
Your cock is never going up
my ass.” He stopped pacing and faced Monroe, trying to decide if he
should finish the beating he started last night.

“
So, you make it a hard
limit.”

Zach was too stunned to speak for about
thirty-seconds, “You actually think about putting your cock in my
ass?”

“
I doubt there’s anything
concerning you I haven’t thought about.”

“
This is fucking
unbelievable!”

“
I know your feelings for me
are wrapped up in a tight, neat package. But what about your
feelings for Angel? She loves us both. We could have it
all.”

“
You’d be the one having it
all, but you don’t figure in the package I want with
Angel.”

“
And I think you need to
stop lying to yourself. My hands have been all over your body. I’ve
seen the way you watch me. You think there’s nothing sexual in your
feelings for me?”

“
No, I don’t.” It was his
final word. It was also a lie, and Zach knew it.

“
When are you leaving?”
Monroe always knew what Zach was thinking and what he would
do.

“
This afternoon. I need to
say goodbye.”

“
She won’t stop loving
you.”

“
I doubt I’ll ever stop
loving her.”

He walked out.

Up in his room, Zach changed into
sweats and then took off for a long jog. He made it five miles and
then walked another two. He ran away but all it got him was the
long path back.

Chapter Thirty-three

No one was around when he made his way
to his room and a shower. He felt light-headed because he hadn’t
eaten, but he took his time, delaying his goodbye as long as he
could. He knew it would be hard not to ask her to come with him,
but he also knew the bond between Angel and Monroe went too
deep.

Monroe’s bedroom door was open when he
walked passed, but Angel wasn’t inside. He made his way down to the
kitchen and grabbed a banana to keep from keeling over. Marguerite
was standing at the stove.

“
Have you seen
Angel?”

“
El la
llevó a la sala de juego.” Her eyes shot fire.

There was censure in the
look, too, but he wasn’t sure if it was aimed at him or Angel. He
understood the two most vital words of the exchange though, and
headed to the playroom.

The music through the door
gave him pause. It was opera: sensual, gritty, consuming. Why the
thought that Monroe was with Angel hadn’t occurred to him
immediately was beyond him. His hand grasped the doorknob. He took
a breath and turned the handle, entering the room.

The scene stopped him
cold.

Angel was naked, hogtied,
and suspended from the ceiling about two feet off the floor. Her
head was hanging down and Monroe lay under her, resting on pillows.
His hand smoothed wispy strands of hair from her sweating face,
then stroked her breasts, squeezing her nipples. She swayed above
him, seemingly oblivious to the pain she must be feeling. Zach knew
the strain on her arms was incredible but her eyes were closed, her
face almost dreamy.

Monroe’s hands stopped her
slow turn. He kissed her cheek, and then the line of her jaw.
Grabbing the long braided rope of hair at the nape of her neck, he
pulled back and brought his lips to hers before letting her head
gently fall forward again.

Seeing Monroe with Angel,
loving her, and wanting her so badly it hurt — Zach could only
stare.

Monroe’s hand lifted and
the light flashed off the blade in his hand. At the same time, he
grasped the back of Angel’s neck, placing his other hand in her
braid. He pulled it away from her neck and severed her hair. All of
it.

“What the fuck did you do?”
Horrified anguish poured out with every syllable.

Monroe turned to Zach, his
face showing no emotion. He rolled to the side and used the knife
to cut through the rope holding Angel above him. She landed beside
him and he made quick work cutting the remainder of rope. Angel
sagged into the pillows.

Monroe stood, then picked
her up and carried her to the couch. Zach’s eyes followed, and then
went back to the pillows where her glorious hair lay.

His eyes watered. He wanted
to scream. Slowly, he moved forward and bent. He shakily brought
the braid up to his face.

The music stopped. He
turned and saw Monroe toss the remote to the floor. He could hear
Angel’s sobs. The twisting in his gut unbalanced his
world,

“What. The. Fuck. Did. You.
Do?”

“It’s yours, Zach.”
Monroe’s arms tightened and pulled Angel further into his body.
“She wanted you to have it, and I can deny her nothing.” His
fingers traveled through the short strands of hair almost floating
across her scalp.

His hands tightened around
the braid.
Fuck!

Chapter
Thirty-four

Two months
later…

“Derrick, you need to catch
up on reports. You’re stuck at a desk until they’re finished, do I
make myself clear?”

“Yes, LT. Thank you,
sir.”

“Get out of here and get
started.”

Zach checked the calendar
on his phone. He had a meeting this afternoon and then needed to
catch up on his own paperwork.

It felt good to be back.
Deciding to accept the desk job seemed to be his only option after
returning from Houston. He dragged his feet for two weeks and then
scheduled an appointment to speak with his old captain.

The job wasn’t the same but
even with the improvement to his knee, its weak moments kept him
out of the field. Babysitting rookies wasn’t his idea of fun, but
Zach remembered the supervisors who took the time to steer him in
the right direction. Now he was one of them.

He worked, he went to the
gym, and he drove two hours to an out-of-town kink club every other
weekend.

He tried to
forget.

It wasn’t enough. He wanted
Angel, and he needed his friend.

A few days after returning
home, he received a package in the mail containing Angel’s braided
hair. He placed the box in his spare room and swore he would never
open it again.

He lasted a
week.

Kinky was wrapping an
unattached braid of hair around his hand and getting a hard-on.
Kinky was bringing the hair to his nose and picturing a woman
hanging from the ceiling being kissed by his best friend. Kinky was
imagining his hands, running through her short strands then holding
tight while he fucked her mouth. Kinky was dreaming about the three
of them writhing together in a mass of sweaty, gleaming
flesh.

His captain grumbled when
he took the following week off work, but he needed to go see his
parents. He looked forward to the drive, and then a week of playing
board games and walking along the beach. There was a local club he
planned to visit, too. He wasn’t in a relationship but needed to
relieve stress in the only way that worked for him.

***

The day after he arrived,
his mother baked a cake for him. A few hours later, he went for a
run along the beach to burn off the calories. The sun was setting
when he made his way back. After a quick shower, he went into the
kitchen where his parents waited.

“Would you like some
coffee?” His mother rose to get him a cup.

“Sit down, please. I think
I can manage getting my own.” He smiled to take the sting out of
his words.

“I know you can, but
without a woman to take care of you, I feel your poor old mother
must continue the chore.” To her, a wife would solve all his
problems.

“The day you are old and
poor will be the day dad buys his speedboat.” It was an old
joke.

He grabbed a cup and poured
his coffee before settling down at the table.

His dad looked at him, then
looked at his mom before turning back to him.

Zach waited.

“Your mother and I thought
it might be a good time for you to tell us what’s bothering
you.”

The room grew smaller and
Zach grew younger.

After taking a deep breath,
he started talking. Once he decided to come clean with his parents,
he couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out. He told them
everything; about Monroe saving him in the Marines, and how they
had become friends, and then about Angel.

His mother wiped her eyes.
His father placed his still strong hand over Zach’s.

“We love you, son. We will
always love you. More than anything, we want you happy.”

His mother jumped in. “Do
you know how many times we wondered if you were gay?”

Zach felt his face turning
red.

“We didn’t care, we just
didn’t understand why you wouldn’t tell us.”

“Six months ago, I would
have strenuously denied being gay. As for the other kinks, well… it
just never seemed right to tell my parents.”

His mother blushed, spared
a quick glance at his father, and said, “You think you’re the only
one who has a corner on kink?”

Zach looked between the
two.

“Okay, this is a little too
much for me,” he said. “If one of you hangs from the rafters, I
really don’t want to know.”

They all laughed and then
talked long into the night. The conversation was mostly about Angel
and Monroe.

He left the next day. He
had a long drive ahead of him.

“Bring them both here to
visit.” His mom kissed him on the cheek while Zach squeezed her for
all she was worth. Then, his dad pulled him in for a
hug.

“Monroe already feels like
another son, and your mother has never given up hope of having a
daughter or granddaughter.”

“I have a lot to work out
first.”

“I know, son. Just remember
we love you, and will love the people in your life too.”

During the long drive, Zach
realized coming clean with his parents was the first step in
admitting who he really was. He’d always known they would accept
him no matter what. His problem had always been accepting
himself.

Chapter
Thirty-five

He worried that they might
be gone, and when Marguerite answered the door, the feeling
multiplied. It should have been Stephens letting him in.
Marguerite’s ample arms engulfed him and her Spanish filled the
air.

“Are they home?”

“
No,
signor. Volverán mañana.”

Zach was almost relieved
but knew waiting until the following day would likely kill him. He
didn’t know how Monroe and Angel would feel about his sudden
return, but he needed to get this huge monkey off his back. He had
to join them in bed at least once and find out if there was any
chance of a future here.

If, they would have
him.

He slept in his usual
bedroom and resisted the need to sleep in a bed where he could
smell Angel. He thought of her hair and wondered how it looked now.
He fell asleep thinking about her swinging above Monroe just before
he cut it.

Marguerite cooked him
pancakes in the morning. Against her protests, he helped her clean
the kitchen. They both turned at the sounds coming from the front
of the house. The muted voices floated into the kitchen.

“Master, may I please skip
my lesson today? I know Stephens is tired.”

“Stephens is never too
tired to give you lessons, but I’m sure we could compromise. I want
to work with a new rope design before Melody comes tomorrow for a
photography session. You will be naked and ready in five
minutes.”