Fill Me [Dungeon Masters 3] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) (2 page)

Ryia still couldn’t see the person with the dogs and wondered if maybe they lived just near here and came to the shore by themselves. But she hadn’t seen any houses nearby. She walked for maybe ten minutes without finding a pathway down to the beach, so she turned around to walk back toward her car. Her car. It was her car. She was still struggling to understand that everything which Miles had insisted was his, and that she was too stupid and pathetic to touch, had been paid for with her money and were purchased in her name.

She guessed he’d had to buy them in her name because of the way the bank accounts had been set up. But that worked against him now. He had nothing anymore, not even the apartment they’d lived in. Because everything was in her name, paid for by her money, it was all legally hers. Not that she had gone back to that apartment. It had too many bad memories of her being beaten and locked up.

Ryia stopped when she reached the area where the dogs were playing. From this vantage point she could see them much more closely. They really were big. She imagined it’d cost a lot of money to feed them. And then she smiled. No longer did she have to beg for every cent to purchase something. Ten dollars for dog food was not an impossibly huge problem for her anymore. If she wanted a dog, or two dogs, hell, even half a dozen dogs, she could have them.

Ryia crouched down, watching them run around.
Do I want a dog? Would I like a guard dog, or a companion animal? Maybe a cute puppy to play with?

The dogs raced to the headland wall and stopped. One of them seemed to be looking up toward her, but now she was sitting on the grass he likely couldn’t see her. He sort of shimmered, and Ryia frowned. And then a naked man was standing on the sand. He bent down and grabbed a pair of jeans, tugging them up his legs, commando. He shrugged into a sweater and then bent to put sandals on his feet.

Ryia just stared. She had to be hallucinating. Dogs did not turn into people. Clearly she’d had too many shocks today, and her mind had completely lost the plot.

The other dog came to the back of the beach and did exactly the same thing, except he remained in bare feet. There were no other people around. When the two men walked up the foreshore in the opposite direction from the one she’d just gone in there were no dogs anywhere. Ryia turned to face the way the two men had walked. She sat and watched for maybe five minutes and saw them make their way up a path. They disappeared from view for a while and then reappeared at the top of the cliff. No dogs. Just two men.

Either I’m completely crazy or I else just saw a shape-shifter. No, two shape-shifters.

First, it turns out I’m not poor and dependent on Miles for everything. Then I learn I’m not even married, despite the ceremony, the white dress, the cake, and the party. Now I see two dogs turn into men. Either a couple of paramedics will turn up any moment now with a straitjacket to take me away and lock me up in a mental health institution, or else my new life is starting off with a massive bang.

Ryia jumped to her feet. “I claim my new life!” she said firmly.

Four years later

Ryia stood in the center of her store, her hands on her ample hips, staring critically at the new stock she’d just arranged on her brand new shelving. She wiggled her nose, screwed up her eyes, and finally nodded.
Yeah, it’ll do until I think of a better way to display it.

She’d spent most of her first year in college trying to think of a name for the adult store she planned to own. But no word starting with
R
fit with Ryia and an adult theme. After that she’d played with words to go with “Adult.” Finally, she’d settled on “Paddle My Ass” as her store name. It screamed adult store, and sex, and yet fun.

All through the second year of her course she’d been researching places to locate her store. It had to be in the type of neighborhood where people would appreciate the genre, yet it had to be a safe enough neighborhood people would visit the store on a cold, dark winter’s day as well as in midsummer. It also needed to be not too close to any existing store.

Finally, only a few weeks before graduation, everything had come together and she’d rented her store in a new warehouse supply neighborhood, which was perfect for her as she could now have walk-in-off-the-street clients, as well as appealing to businesses in industries similar to hers.

It took her three months to get her store set up and during that time she also had a website designed and ready to go live the minute the store was officially open. Now she’d been here a little over a year, and the bottom line of her accounts had been black for the previous three months, and she knew it’d continue that way. She was already getting repeat customers and business customers who were wonderful as they bought more than walk-in clients did.

Her first year alone had been both wonderful, but also very strange and difficult to adjust to. She’d gone straight from being a schoolgirl, to marriage to a control freak, and then to being totally alone, with no one to speak to and nothing to do.

Miles hadn’t let her spend time with her friends except for the occasional lunch or coffee date when he was there as well. Consequently, most of her friends had long ago stopped contacting her, and her father had died very soon after her wedding. It had been his dying wish that she marry Miles, and she’d been happy to accept his choice of man for her because she knew he loved her. Apparently his illness had blinded him to Miles’s true character and she was glad he’d died without finding out what a cruel and devious asshole Miles had turned out to be.

Once she was alone again, Ryia’d had to learn and relearn everything she thought she’d known about life. No longer did laundry have to be done Miles’s way, everything folded exactly into sections. She could eat whatever she wanted to, whenever she wanted to. She slept in a bed every night, instead of on the floor, unless her husband had wanted her for sex. But best of all she could wear clothes whenever she wanted to, and she could choose those clothes for herself.

Miles had destroyed and thrown away almost every item of her so-carefully-chosen wedding trousseau. Lingerie that she’d felt beautiful wearing. Soft, filmy, silky night dresses that had touched and aroused her skin. Pretty dresses that had made her feel mature and grown up, a fit partner for a handsome man like Miles. He’d liked her to wear jeans and baggy sweatshirts “to hide those repulsive rolls of fat” when she left the house. Yet at home, he’d order her to remain naked, in case he wanted to fuck her.

Now alone, Ryia had developed her own style. She wore long, flowing, ankle-length skirts in fall colors, and teamed them with soft, silky shirts in the summer and fleecy warm sweaters in the winter. She wore sturdy boots in winter that kept her feet cozy and dry, cool flip-flops in the summer, and comfortable athletic shoes when she knew she’d be on her feet walking around all day.

At first, she’d suffered from dreadful pangs of guilt each time she bought something for herself, constantly hearing Miles’s accusing voice in her head, railing at how ugly, and useless, and unworthy she was. But she’d forced herself to repeat over and over again that the money she was spending was her own. It had always been her own, not his.

I am
not
useless. I am
not
completely stupid. My store is a success now, and it will be an even bigger success as I learn more and more about the industry. I
will
support myself and I
will
be happy.

Ryia hurried through the store to her tiny office and picked up the brochure lying in the center of her desk. She’d been trying to decide about this conference for a week now, and today was the last day to sign up for it at the early bird discount rate. So today was her deadline. Would she go or not?

New Directions in the Adult Industry was a live-in, three-day conference in Richmond, a city of several million people where she now lived. One major problem of going to the conference was that she ran her store alone, so she’d have to close it for those three days. This, in turn, meant that on top of her having to pay the costs of the hotel fees and conference registration would be added the loss of income due to not doing business for those three days. She could ameliorate that to some extent by putting a sign on her store door and on her website about the coming closure. She could e-mail her regular business clients as well so they could place their orders early, but she would still lose some customers, and she’d worked so hard to build up clients the risk of losing even one was a very scary thought to deal with. She was a very new newbie to this industry and her clients could easily find other stores to visit.

Miles had told her endlessly that she was stupid. However, she wasn’t so stupid as to not know that the only way her business would be an ongoing success was if she continued to grow and develop it to fulfill the needs of the community. And the only way she could know what new trends and developments were emerging was to attend conferences or workshops such as this one.

The beauty of this conference was that it was being held right here in Richmond. If taking three days off was going to lose her some clients, having to travel halfway across the continent to attend a convention somewhere else would lose her even more clients and cost her a passel more in airfares as well.

No, this was a necessary step she had to take. Ryia had already spent several months web-surfing to try to find an online means of learning more about her market. But there seemed to be very little available, apart from discussions of the porn industry, or actual companies that made or developed toys and were displaying them for sale at trade shows. Ryia was concerned that if she went to a conference sponsored by the markers of adult toys there could be pressure, even if it was only her own innate good manners, to buy their products. She really just wanted the knowledge about trends, not just new products right now.

I’ll do it. I’ll go to the New Directions in the Adult Industry conference and I’ll buy some new clothes to wear as well. So fuck you, Miles!

* * * *

Asher Roberts, head chef at The Dom’s Dungeon BDSM club, waved a brochure under the nose of his friend, senior security officer Elijah Deakin. “I’m about to go online and sign us both up for this conference, okay?”

“Sure, fine, whatever.”

“Give me your credit card so I can pay for us.”

“What?” Elijah turned from the ballgame on TV to stare at Asher. “Why do I have to pay for us?”

“Because you’re the wolf.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

Asher grinned at Elijah. At least the man was listening to him now. He sometimes wondered if the wolf heard a word he said. “One. We haven’t found a woman we both like yet.”

“And?”

“Two. We want someone who’s interested in the BDSM lifestyle.”

“So?”

“Three. Where better to find one than at a conference like this?”

“I’m pretty sure your logic is full of holes but I agreed to go when you first mentioned it, so I’ll pay up and we’ll go. Have you asked for time off for both of us yet?”

“I mentioned the conference to Leif. He seemed to think it would be doable. We’re both replaceable. You’re head of security at the club but there are other men who are used to leading the security teams. The same for me. I’m the head chef but really, the other chefs can manage without me for a few days. Besides, I truly believe we have a chance of finding ourselves a mate here. Hopefully someone who won’t freak out when you go all toothy and furry.”

Asher watched as Elijah paused the TV. “Don’t get your hopes up too high. There’s no guarantee some hot chick will fall into our arms. I mean, I know Leif and Simon hooked up with Tamara at a wedding, but three days isn’t all that long and likely we’ll be spending most of our time in workshops learning about stuff.”

Asher leaned over the back of the couch. “I know. I actually want to go to some of these sessions. I reckon we can both learn a lot to help the Dungeon stay at the forefront of our industry. But I also want to find our woman. Ever since I turned thirty I’ve felt that it’s time to settle down, you know?” Asher couldn’t completely explain his feelings, but it was almost as if thirty was some kind of doorway. He’d walked through it, and now he needed to get on with the rest of his life.

Elijah punched his shoulder. “I understand. Likely I’ll feel the same after my next birthday. We both have good jobs, and a nice home, so I totally agree it’s time to find the right woman and be a family. But just because a female is at the conference, it doesn’t mean she wants to be our sub or that she’ll accept a werewolf shape-shifter, you know.”

Asher sighed. “Yeah, I do know. But at least the whole concept of BDSM shouldn’t frighten her away. And hell, if Leif can do it we can, too. There’ll be what, maybe four hundred people there? Half of them women. We only need one to like us after all. How hard can that be?”

Asher ignored Elijah’s shaking head and dropped down onto the couch beside his friend, picking up his iPad off the coffee table. He swiped through a few screens and typed in the website for the conference. They were going and they
would
find themselves a mate. Done deal.

* * * *

Two weeks later Elijah kicked the hotel room door shut behind himself as he wheeled his suitcase into their room. He flicked on the lights and stared. “How much did this fucking cost me?”

“We can’t romance our mate in a poky little cheap room,” argued Asher.

“Fucking hell. I hope there’s enough money in my account to cover this. I really don’t need to still be paying it off next year.” The huge glass windows had a panoramic view out over the city. The room was way bigger than he’d expected, with plenty of space to move around in despite the two king-size beds. He hurried into the en suite bathroom and it was as bad as he’d feared. There were two sinks, a toilet, an enormous shower, and a fucking Jacuzzi in there.