Two Loves for Alex (14 page)

“Forever is a very long time. How long has forever lasted so far?”

“Two weeks.”

Anthony began to laugh again, and in spite of her annoyance, Alex laughed with him. “You are adorable.” He pulled her close and whispered something in Spanish into her ear. She didn’t understand it but could tell it was something sexy. His cologne smelled good and it felt nice to be held in someone’s arms. She closed her eyes and leaned against him, aware she was very drunk but not caring in the least.

He rocked her gently and she very nearly fell asleep. “I wish I could take you with me,” he murmured.

Alex shifted against him, wishing the room would stop tilting. “Why? Where’re ya’ goin’?” Her tongue felt thick and slow in her mouth. Maybe more champagne would loosen it. She raised her glass but it was empty.

“I have another engagement. Perhaps one day I can see you again? If you decide to leave these gentlemen and seek true love on your own terms.”

“Hey. I told you. Daniel and Liam adore me.” Her protest was halfhearted, her thoughts muddled by too much drink.

Anthony put a finger to her lips. “Shh. I understand. I’m speaking in terms of possibility. Now pay attention, my drunken beauty. My name is Anthony Campos. I live at 12 Sutton Street in Wilton. I’m listed. If you ever want to connect with a real Master, someone who will take you where you’ve always dreamed of going, call me. I’ll be waiting, Alexandra. For you I will wait a thousand years.”

He pushed her gently from his lap and stood. “I must find Matthew and your Masters and thank them for their gracious hospitality. Goodbye, beautiful Alexandra. I will wait for you in my dreams.”

Alex sighed, remembering his flowery words. In the cold light of day with her head pounding and her brain full of cotton, she realized he was probably full of shit. Nevertheless, it had felt good to have someone so handsome and worldly telling her she was beautiful and he’d wait a thousand years. What a poetic, romantic thing to say.

Still he was wrong. Daniel and Liam regarded her as more than just a toy. Maybe they didn’t love her as much as they loved each other, but how could they after only two weeks? Their love would grow in time, she was sure of it.

Wasn’t she?

The two men entered the room as if on cue. Alex pulled her arms back smartly, arching her back and thrusting her breasts out as she waited for Liam to inspect her body.

After he’d made sure her pussy and underarms were smooth, he walked behind her. Alex bent forward and gripped her ankles. “Look at this, Daniel.” Daniel joined him behind her. Alex knew they were looking at her bruised ass. “That’s Mistress Marianne’s handiwork. She really let Alex have it and Alex handled it beautifully. You would have been very proud of her, Daniel.”

Even bent over in this ignominious position, Alex swelled with pride. Liam’s compliments were all the more precious because of their rarity. He tapped her shoulder and she stood. “Put on a dress. Let’s have some breakfast.”

Once settled in the cozy breakfast nook, Alex sipped gratefully at the fresh-squeezed orange juice. Some of the fog in her brain began to dissipate and though she couldn’t face the pile of bacon, hash browns and scrambled eggs Daniel ladled onto her plate, she did manage to eat a piece of toast. A cup of coffee almost restored her to something approximating normal.

Because they were all dressed the conversation was an informal one between friends. They talked about various scenes each had witnessed or participated in at the party. Though Daniel was wearing a T-shirt, Alex recalled the welts she’d seen on his back the night before.

“Were you caned, Daniel?” she asked.

Daniel surprised her by flushing and looking away. Liam answered for him. “Yes. I’m afraid that friend of Matthew’s overstepped his bounds.”

“Anthony?” Alex interjected. She blushed when both men stared hard at her.

Liam nodded. “He and Matthew decided to cane Daniel and Phillip to see who they could break first. I was with you and Marianne at the time or I would have put a stop to it. I don’t believe caning is something that should happen during a public scene and definitely not as part of a competition. It’s too risky.”

Daniel looked miserable and Alex felt bad she’d brought it up. Yet she couldn’t help asking, “But it wasn’t Daniel’s fault, right? I mean, we were told to obey each Dom at the party as if they were you, right?”

“Just drop it, Alex,” Daniel said.

Alex bit her lip and looked down, the throbbing in her head picking up again. Her stomach felt sour and she wished she was in bed. Liam put his hand over hers. “Within limits. Remember, you can always refuse, even with us you can refuse. While we own you, we would never harm you or push you past where you were ready to go. Daniel made a judgment call and things worked out okay. At least the guy knew what he was doing.”

He smiled toward Daniel, but Daniel, who was staring at the table, didn’t see. In a lighter tone Liam added, “He left us one of those floggers as a gift by the way. It’s really well-made—probably worth at least three hundred bucks. We’ll have to try it out later, hmm?”

Alex felt a rush of throbbing warmth between her legs. She hadn’t come last night. In fact she hadn’t come in ages. They’d kept her in that stupid chastity belt to keep her on edge for the party. Marianne had teased her but she hadn’t been permitted to come then either. Now she pressed her thighs together, wondering if she dared to ask them when she could come again.

She decided against it and smiled to herself. Maybe she was finally learning some self-control and patience. “Yes, Sir. If it pleases you, Sir,” she said in answer to his question. Liam glanced at Daniel and smiled. Daniel met his eye and smiled back. Alex, relieved the obviously sensitive topic of Daniel’s caning scene had been dropped, smiled too.

They ate for a while in silence. Liam poured himself a fresh cup of coffee from the carafe on the table and turned to Daniel. “So you have a job tomorrow with Spencer Landscaping, right?” This was the first Alex was hearing of it.

“Yeah. A Mrs. Carson over on the waterfront. Sounds like she has way more money than imagination and needs someone to figure out how to spend it for her. She has several acres of beautiful land. I plan on touring it with her, scoping it out and getting a feel for what she wants. It’ll be fun to do a big project with no money limitations. It’s been a while since I worked on something substantial.”

“That’s great. I hope you have fun. I’ve decided to take tomorrow off by the way.”

“What?” Daniel frowned. “How come? I won’t even be here most of the day.”

“I didn’t realize that when I made the plans but it’ll work out fine. I’m thinking of taking more time off going forward. Especially now during summer. A lot of my clients are on vacation and I realize I’ve been working too many hours and for what? We don’t need the money. I want to be here more with you and Alex. Especially during these early months of her training.”

“Oh.” Daniel didn’t sound especially happy.

Alex looked at both men. Liam was regarding Daniel with a curious expression on his face. Alex felt a sense of disquiet slip over the room and wished they were still talking about all the characters at the party and laughing as they had been before.

She had to admit she too was surprised to hear Liam wanted to be more a part of her training. While she felt submissive toward him, she had come to regard Daniel more as her trainer with her efforts to be shown to Liam only after they were reasonably perfected. It was obvious Daniel felt the same way. The realization he felt proprietary toward her gave her a warm, secure feeling, though this was offset by the strange vibe now going on between the two guys.

“If you don’t want me around more—” Liam began.

“No! No, please. I’m sorry. Not at all. This is your home. Alex belongs to both of us. Of course I want you around. I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting it, is all. And me having to be gone Monday and all… I mean, I’m sure I could reschedule…”

“No. Keep your appointment. This won’t be the only day I take off, don’t worry. I think I’ll enjoy putting Alex through her paces. She can show me how she does her chores and maybe between us we can even whip up some dinner. I can make a mean macaroni and cheese.”

He laughed and put his hand on Daniel’s arm. “It’s okay, Daniel. We’ll talk some more later.” They looked at each other and the love Alex saw exchanged between them nearly made her heart break with longing.

Love me like that. Love
me
.

She realized she had been fooling herself all the times she told herself she wasn’t looking for love. From the moment she’d laid eyes on these two guys love had grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into its relentless embrace. She’d denied it to anyone who questioned her, most especially herself, but she could deny it no longer. She wanted them to love her more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.

Anthony’s words came back to her like a death knell.
You can never be more than a toy to them. A diversion of which they will eventually tire.

Her head pounded. “I need some aspirin,” she announced, standing abruptly. All at once her stomach rebelled from the toast, juice and coffee. “Oh,” she moaned. “I think I’m gonna be sick…”

Daniel jumped up and whisked her to the sink. While she vomited he held her hair, pulling it back in a ponytail. “It’s okay,” he said soothingly while she retched and groaned. “You had too much to drink last night. You can go back to bed if you want.” He stroked her cheek and Alex’s heart filled with an aching love so powerful she would have cried if she wasn’t too busy attempting to hawk up her lungs.

When she was done she splashed cool water on her face and stood shakily. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to throw up in your kitchen sink.”

“Don’t worry about it. You okay?”

Surprisingly she was feeling better. She nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.” Her headache had subsided for the most part and she even found she was hungry. She had barely eaten the day before, too nervous in anticipation of and then during the party. “Maybe I’ll have some eggs now.”

“Good girl.” Daniel smiled and led her back to the table. She felt sheepish as she sat.

“You’re looking decidedly less green.” Liam patted her arm. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah. I haven’t had that much to drink since freshman year in college. I played this stupid drinking game that involved clapping to a rhyme that had something to do with whales and tails and the Prince of Wales.” She shook her head ruefully. “I feel pretty stupid to have passed out last night. I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself.”

“You were fine. You didn’t pass out until just about all the guests had gone. Don’t worry about it. Drink a lot of water today and take some aspirin.” Liam yawned and stretched. “Maybe we could all three use a few more hours’ sleep. Let’s make it a lazy day. What do you say? We’ll just snuggle into bed and maybe order a pizza later or something. Sound good?”

“Yes, Sir,” Daniel and Alex said in unison. They all laughed and Alex felt happy. Did they love her? Would they come to love her? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, for that moment at least there was nowhere she’d rather be.

Daniel entered Alex’s room to find her standing with her fingers laced behind her neck, eyes straight ahead, ready for inspection. No doubt she was expecting Liam instead of him. Her eyes flickered slightly when he entered but she didn’t otherwise react, which was good.

Daniel was dressed for his consulting job in a dark blue button-down shirt and khaki pants over brown leather work boots. He hadn’t worked outside the home in over a month and while he was looking forward to the job, he couldn’t get past his reluctance to leave Alex alone with Liam.

He’d had everything all planned out before Liam threw him for a loop with his intention to stay home. He had a list of chores for Alex to do while he was gone plus an exercise routine sure to work her up to a good sweat. In addition, he was going to have her work on orgasm control, bringing herself to the edge and then stopping several times over the course of the day. He had a camcorder set up in the playroom and had planned to have her videotape herself so he could review and critique her progress later.

They’d brought Alex into their lives supposedly so he could explore and realize his dominant feelings—not so Liam could create some kind of slave harem. Until recently Liam had barely taken an interest in Alex except insofar as she could further their sex play, so what the hell was going on?

Daniel knew he was being irrational. Furthermore, he knew if he was having these feelings he needed to discuss them with Liam. Failure to communicate was the first sign of a relationship in trouble. Wait a minute—they weren’t in trouble. They were doing
great
, better than ever.

Having Alex had heightened their erotic play, there was no question about it. She’d added a new dimension to their lovemaking. Not only that, she was a good companion during the day and was actually becoming useful around the house. So what was his problem? It was, he realized, his possessiveness. He had come to, or really had always, regarded Alex as
his
. Now Liam was encroaching on his territory.

But he didn’t want to be like that. He belonged to Liam, body, heart and soul. If that was true and not just romantic wishful thinking and lip service, then how could he withhold anything of his from Liam? He should offer Alex without reservation or hesitation. He should learn to control these irrational jealous feelings instead of letting them control him.

He looked at the lovely young woman waiting for inspection and silently vowed to let go of his possessiveness. He approached her and ran his fingers under her arms and over her smooth mons. “Liam says he’ll inspect you later. I just thought I’d give you a quick once-over to make sure you’re ready for him.”

He couldn’t resist pressing a finger into her tight tunnel. She was wet as always and this made him smile. “Make me proud today. Show Liam how obedient and well trained you are.”

“Yes, Sir,” Alex said, eyes still ahead. He continued to finger her until color washed over her chest and throat and her breath quickened. He pulled his hand away and for an instant thought about locking her into the chastity belt and taking Liam’s key with him.