Page 28

CHAPTER 28

Kayley

Turned out Rawhide Ranch in spring was every bit as gorgeous as it was in summer. When I awakened in bed next to Vic on our second morning there, my butt reminded me of the bruises Vic put there last night in the Dungeon. Probably the only time we’d play in there during this visit unless we used one of the private rooms.

Mostly because I did not want my brother to see us playing, and I had no desire to watch him playing, either.

Vic was still sound asleep when I eased myself out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After I finished, I looked at my rear in the mirror and, yep.

I caught myself smiling and realized this was a good thing.

I damn sure had fun earning them.

My hand reached up and fingered the delicate stainless steel chainmail necklace I wore—my day collar.

It still bore a tracking fob, but since I was no longer a protectee it wasn’t tied to the Secret Service.

No, my protective hubby and my overprotective brother had tracking apps on their phones they could use to find me, though.

Not that I minded.

I pulled on a bathrobe and was headed toward the kitchenette to make our coffee when a series of light raps in some sort of musical pattern sounded on our room door.

I didn’t even use the viewfinder because if we weren’t safe here we wouldn’t be safe anywhere except under a damned mountain.

Jordan held a drink carrier with four cups. “Morning, sis.”

I didn’t even have time to ask him what was going on when he kissed me on the cheek on his way past me.

“Um, good morning.” I closed the door and followed him over to the table. “You’re up early.”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “It’s nearly lunchtime at home. Maybe Leo and El can sleep in, but I can’t.” He touched each cup. “Latte, vanilla chai, cappuccino, and dark roast with two creams, sugars, and two shots of espresso. Wasn’t certain what you’d want, so I picked several.”

I reached for the last one as he smiled. “Knew it.” He grabbed the chai and sipped. “What are we doing this morning?”

“Shouldn’t we wait on them?”

He shook his head. “This is fantasy land and I’m damned sure going to enjoy every second. Not to be crude, or TMI, but we can fuck and spank our brains out at home. Don’t get a chance to just hang loose like this, though.” He waggled the fingers of his free hand at me, shooing me toward the bedroom. “Go get dressed,” he said.

“I think I need to clear it with the big guy first.”

He grinned. “Then go do it!”

With the cup in my hand I returned to the bedroom. Vic had rolled onto his side and pulled my pillow into his arms. He peeled one eye open at my return.

“Is that Jordan?” he mumbled.

I walked over and kissed his forehead. “Yes, Sir.”

He wearily sighed. “Go have fun,” he said. “I want to sleep in.”

“What about breakfast?”

“Eat if you want to, baby. We can have lunch together.”

“Okay.”

I grabbed clothes and stepped into the bathroom to dress. When I returned to the living room, Jordan grinned and reached for my hand.

“Let’s go! We didn’t get to see much last night.”

“He said I could have breakfast, if I want.”

“We can do that, too,” he said.

I made sure I had my room key and let Jordan lead me out.

“I want to see the Dungeon,” he said.

I didn’t need to tell him the way, so he’d obviously studied the floor plan.

It was also clear he’d somehow arranged for a quick tour even though the Dungeon wouldn’t officially open for play until nine. Jordan stopped just inside the entry, his jaw gaping as he stared around. “ Wow !” he gasped, awestruck.

Okay, that was adorable. “How have you never been in a dungeon before?”

He shrugged. “I mean…” He waved his free hand as he turned, staring. “Everything. Hellooo, DC fishbowl. This is so cool!”

“Don’t expect to see us in here,” I joked. “We played last night. I love you, honey, but I don’t want to see what you three get up to.”

He grinned, meeting my gaze. “Ditto.”

We explored the themed rooms and costumes, and then Jordan spied the other exit.

“What’s over there?” We headed across the space to the other door. We’d finished our coffees so we dumped the cups in the garbage as we emerged into the hall where the indoor pool, gym, and arcade were located.

I didn’t expect his happy gasp when he spotted the jungle gyms and ball pits and other equipment. He darted inside and had already kicked off his shoes by the time I caught up.

“Come on!” he said.

I laughed. “Hold on, let me get my shoes.” There was no one in here with us except for a woman watching over the space as I stuck my shoes in the cubby next to Jordan’s.

He grabbed me by the hand again and raced over to the large ball pit.

“I didn’t know you’re a Little,” I said.

His infectious grin made me laugh. “I’m not, but helloooo, this is sooo cool!” He climbed up to the ledge. “Come on!”

He jumped in with a happy yell, making me laugh again.

I stepped up and jumped in, landing next to him.

“ Ahh , this is the life,” he said, leaning back like he was going to backstroke through the balls.

Something finally hit me. “You didn’t have a happy childhood.”

I knew this, but it hadn’t been at the front of my mind until now.

He looked at me. “Nope. When I wasn’t sick or in the hospital, I never got to cut loose like this.”

He dolphin jumped in the balls, disappearing under the surface before emerging again and sending balls flying around us. “Yeah, I want to have some sexy fun while we’re here At the Ranch, I mean. Not in here in the ball pit. More importantly, I want to do stuff like this that I can’t do anywhere else.” He happily sighed. “I want to play in the playground outside and splash around and ride the water slides and everything.”

“What does El want to do while you guys are here?”

“He wants to publicly be Leo’s pet in a place where he can relax and not draw attention. He won’t have to worry about who might see him. We’ll probably be the most boring kinky people ever while we’re here because we want to do all the normal stuff we usually can’t do. Or that we drastically scale back in public.”

Vic and I are a cis-het couple so we didn’t draw attention in that way. Sometimes it was easy for me to forget that my brother and brothers-in-law didn’t enjoy that same built-in anonymity, and not just because of Elliot’s fame, either.

“Horseback riding later?” I asked.

“Sure.”

After hitting the slides and jungle gym—and finding myself laughing with Jordan as we played—we finally headed upstairs to eat breakfast. We’d just given the waitress our order when Master Derek walked in, spotted us sitting there, and ambled over.

“Mind if I sit down?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said.

He pulled up a chair. “We didn’t have time to discuss this in-depth during your last visit, but I wanted to circle back to it. Would you be interested in working here?”

Jordan’s eyes widened. “Yes! She’ll take the job.”

Derek laughed. “Leo wasn’t wrong about you, Jordan.”

“I think I’d need to know what I’d be doing,” I said, ignoring Jordan’s “helpful” input. “Plus, I’m still remotely teaching, and I’m working on my book.”

“You’d be seeing clients, for starters,” Derek continued. “And we would work around your schedule. If you wanted, you could teach here, too. We’re always looking for opportunities to broaden our program offerings.”

“She’ll do it,” Jordan said.

I shot him another look and refocused on Derek. “I’ll have to talk to Vic first,” I said. “I know he said he was looking into a private security position.”

Derek rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, he already said yes,” he admitted. “To the security job. Contingent upon me convincing you to say yes.”

I blinked. “Say whut?”

“She says yes,” Jordan insisted. “She’ll do it.”

“Jordan!”

He stuck his tongue out at me. “The job is here , sis.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Well, duh, my job would be h?—”

“ Vic’s job,” Jordan said.

That shut me up again. “Here?” I looked at Derek. “The job he’s considering is here ?”

The man smiled. “Yeah. I always need good, reliable, kink-friendly security. And he volunteered to teach self-defense classes, too. And?—”

“Tell her about the house!” Jordan eagerly said.

I glared at him. “For fuck’s sake, Jor, let me hear him ou—wait. House ? What house?”

“One of our long-time employees who lived over in Rawhide Ridge moved across the country to take care of their elderly parents,” Derek said. “Meaning we have a house that will be available to move into in a week, once we go through and inspect it and check it out, make a couple of upgrades first. I figured I’d give you and Vic dibs on buying it if you wanted to accept the jobs. I already asked around our other staff if anyone wanted to buy it, and no one did.”

I sat back, stunned. “Um…” Brain. Officially. Scrambled. “Does Vic already know about that, too?”

“He said it’s your decision.”

I risked a glance at Jordan, who sat there nodding like a damned bobblehead.

“I should talk to Vic first,” I finally said.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jordan said. “He doesn’t want to be part of this conversation because he’s afraid to influence your decision.”

“And you’re not influencing me?”

He waved that away. “I’m your little brother. Of course I get a say in this. Duh . Dooo eeeeet. Say yes to this mess!”

No one could ever accuse Jordan of being afraid to express his opinion, I supposed. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

Derek smiled and laid a set of keys on the table. “Moses is free to drive you over to look at it anytime. Just let the front desk know.”

Before I could even reach for them, Jordan snatched the keys away, jingling them. “We’ll go as soon as we finish eating breakfast.” He pocketed the keys.

I wanted to argue with him, but then I felt a subtle shift in him and he cocked his head, arching his eyebrow at me in a very…

Well, Domly kind of way.

Shit .

That’s right. It was easy to forget Jordan had a pretty damned strong Alpha streak in him. It was how he’d safely guided Elliot through eight years in the Oval Office. I didn’t know—or want to know—all the dirty deets, but contextually I’d gleaned that Jordan was a switch, and had definitely been Elliot’s Dom while the man was POTUS.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll let you know after we look at it.”

“Excellent,” Derek said, standing. “I look forward to welcoming you aboard.”

Once we were alone again, I shot another glare at Jordan. “Why do I feel like I was just shanghaied?”

He grinned. “Because you were.” He made a little flourish with his right hand as he tipped his head at me. “Annnnd you’re welcome.”

I did convince Jordan to let me return to the room first, where Vic was lounging in the hot tub with another mug of coffee.

“She’s in, chief,” Jordan said as he perched on the edge of the hot tub.

“No, I’m not! Not yet, anyway.”

Jordan waved my protest away. “Formality. She wants to go look at the house. Wait’ll I show you the ideas I have for paint, and?—”

“Hold on!” I stared from him to Vic and back again. “Can we back up a few steps?”

Jordan crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t make me call Leo in here to tag-team you.” He winced. “Wait, that sounded wrong.”

Vic—who must have been anticipating our return because he wore a bathing suit—sat up and moved over to the side of the hot tub closer to me. “Yes, I’ve already talked to Derek. Yes, I knew he was talking to you this morning.” He glanced Jordan’s way. “Yes, Jordan’s ready to move us in yesterday.”

“If you don’t let me tell her I’m going to explode, dude,” Jordan said.

“Tell me what?”

Vic indicated for Jordan to go ahead. “We bought a piece of land on Rawhide Ridge.” Jordan grinned. “We’re going to build a house there. Then we can come out here whenever we want for Elliot to have fun on the Ranch.”

“Why is this the first I’m hearing about all of this?” I asked Vic.

He shrugged but he wore that playful smirk of his that always melted me. “I really want this to be your decision,” he said. “And I don’t want you making it because of me. We’ve already proven that I can be a dumbass?—”

“True story,” Jordan snarked.

“—and I am being completely honest when I say that whatever you decide, I’m all for it.”

I sank into one of the patio chairs and let those details run through my brain. “What about my parents?” I finally said.

Jordan threw his head back and groaned. “Oh. My. Gawd.” He looked at me. “They’re retired now, you know that. They’re thinking about selling their house and moving, but they don’t want to move away from you if you’re staying in Laguna Beach.”

He started ticking off points on his fingers. “Earthquakes. Firestorms. Mudslides. Lather, rinse, repeat. Add insurance and property taxes and you could probably build three houses for cash here for what you’re spending a year there just on all of that.”

I considered it. He had a valid point.

“And,” Jordan added, “you’ll be close to Leo here. To Cedro and his family. There’s Robyn’s Nest, the new B&B on the Ridge, so it’s not like vanilla family can’t visit. In fact, your parents could probably build somewhere nearby and literally never worry about money again after they sell their house in Laguna Beach.”

I felt like I’d been drop-kicked into a Twilight Zone episode. “Let me guess—you’ve been talking to them.”

“ Duh ,” Jordan said. “You’ve always said you regretted that you don’t get to spend more time with Leo and your parents all together. Well, now you can. And Vic’s family, too.”

This felt… overwhelming.

Jordan pulled the keys from his pocket and jingled them. “You know you want to look at it.”

I swiped the keys from him. “Okay, fine.”

Vic smirked.

“What?” I asked him.

“Nothing, baby.” He stood and reached for his towel. “Give me a few minutes to change clothes.”

I stared at the campfire. “A lesser woman would be pissed off, you know,” I said. “About being managed the way I was.”

Leo reached out and poked me in the shoulder, where I sat propped back against Vic. “Jordan said you actually squeed when you saw the kitchen.”

“She did!” the little rat bastard piped up from Leo’s far side.

“I did,” I muttered.

It was a damned nice kitchen, I had to admit.

Vic rested his chin on my shoulder. “You can say no, sweetheart.”

“But I don’t want to say no!” I protested, realizing the second the words left my mouth how I sounded.

A chuckle rumbled free from Vic, vibrating through me. “Wren told me they found an abandoned momma dog and four puppies over near the mine this morning.”

“They did?”

“ Mmm-hmm .” He nuzzled the back of my neck. “The vet told her they should be old enough to be weaned in a couple of days, and then she can find them a home.”

Grumbling, I stood and stepped around him.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“To Wren’s,” I called out. “If we’re going to get a puppy, we might as well get two so they aren’t lonely, and we should pick them out before anyone else does. You coming?”

“Oooh!” Jordan said, scrambling to his feet. “I want a puppy!”

I turned and found Vic, Leo, and Elliot reluctantly climbing to their feet.

“I guess we’re getting puppies, too,” Leo said. “Can’t break up a family.”

Vic laughed and slapped him on the back. “Misery loves company, brother.”

The End