The Dom With the Perfect Brats (22 page)

Gemma gulped and averted her gaze. Her expression read annoyance though, not repentance. That wouldn’t earn her any brownie points.

He looked at Izzy.
“Okay. I guess I can let you take a few photos.”

“Thank you!” Izzy hugged him round the waist
, burying her face in his shirt. Her burger shed a stray leaf of lettuce to the floor. “I know they’ll take this story. Thank you!”

“
I have stipulations. We take the photos ourselves. And I’m only doing this if Gemma and you get in some of the photos.” His free arm wrapped around her, his heavy voice flowing in like a calming rainstorm. “I want some pictures of my girls.”

“Sure.” Izzy nodded.

Though they went back to eating, a little later Cross added, in a quiet way
, as if it were an afterthought, “I’ve never had much time for sentimentality but this is a good idea. A picture of us together is good.”

From Cross that
“together” word seemed to pack extra meaning and she couldn’t help smiling. She knew now for sure. What she felt for them wasn’t unrequited. Warmth fuzzed through her veins and she had to resist the impulse to leap up and give them both a kiss. These two were getting close to her in a way no one else had ever been, or not for a long while. She was theirs. They were hers. When her dad had left, the world had lost some of its safety and family had become such a tenuous thing. She swallowed away a lump that had nothing to do with food. This was...promising.

Two elderly men
had finished off a game of chess and were shaking hands. One remained – a fellow with glasses, a goatee, and a cane that he used to stump his way around the tables. Izzy could hear him asking if anyone would give him another game. A few sparrows darted about above, in the light coming down from the glass dome three stories overhead.

“I always wonder how they get out.” She stared up at the birds.

“Me too,” Gemma agreed then she took a bite from her burger. “I hope they can.”

“The caretakers open up some small electrically controlled windows every day. Most of them seem to get out that way, or through the glass door entrances.” Cross smiled when they both looked at him. “I asked once.” He patted Izzy’s thigh.

Izzy looked at Gemma and pretended to swoon. “Aww. He cares about nature!”

“Well
...” He held out his hands, palm outward and screwed up his mouth as if considering. “Half right. On Sunday mornings I do come in and hunt them down with a rocket launcher.”

“Sparrows?” Gemma looked pretend-shocked. “I thought you’d be hunting naked girls at the least.”

“Those too, but I use a net for them.” He casually reached across in front of Izzy and pulled Gemma in closer by her neck then his other hand slid up Izzy’s back and fastened around her neck too. He leaned in, and in a low voice rumbled, “Sometimes I catch them, and tie them up, and do evil things.”

With his hand on her, all she wanted to do was sit still while he did all that he’d mentioned to
her
. Embarrassingly, her nipples had hardened enough to poke at the fabric of her thin bra. They’d be showing through her shirt. “Cross,” she choked out through the thickness in her throat. “Let go.”

“Why, little one?”

Then he stared some more. She didn’t know what Gemma was doing, though she was only a few inches away to the left, because he had her caught in that straight-on stare that paralyzed her as good as a fox in a night spotlight. Her whole body awoke and quivered in the deep-seated instinctual response of a woman to a man who wants her.

“Excuse me,
Sir, ma’am.”

Cross let them go and turned. “Yes?”

It was the chess-playing man with the walking stick.

“Would you like to play a game with me?” He indicated the giant chess set then tilted his ear toward them. A hearing aid was clearly visible.

Though a little battered from constant use, the chess pieces were recognizable even to Izzy, and she’d never played chess.

The man looked so hopeful
, and she guessed this was what he did most days – came here for the company and the exercise of his mind. “Go on, Cross. I’ll bet you can’t win.”

“
Hmm.” He wavered, looking from the man and back to her. “Gemma, what do you think? Like to make a bet? If I win, I get to make you two do something. If I lose, you get to make me do something, within reason.”

Gemma snorted. “What’s the fun in that? You get to make us do something all the time.”
She narrowed her eyes and rocked back on the bench. “You’re not like secretly a chess champion, are you?”

“No, I’m not a secret champion.
Are you taking the bet or not, girl? We don’t have all day.”

She thought for a moment and Izzy wondered what she was up to. “Okay. If you win, I’ll go down on Izzy.”

Izzy felt her eyes almost pop out of her sockets.

“If you lose, we get out of any punishments for a week and I can swear a
s much,” she stared into his eyes, “as I fucking want to.”

Fucking hell. She was asking for it.

Even Cross looked mildly shocked. He shook his head and muttered something about needing the patience of a saint. Izzy checked on the old guy. He’d not reacted at all to Cross’s kinky suggestion. How deaf was he?

Finally Cross
nodded. “Okay, little brat. You’re on.”

“What’s that?” The man looked confused and tilted his head again.

“I’ll play you!” Godfrey clapped the man on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s start.” He took the rest of his hamburger with him. “As long as it’s a quick game.”

“Quick?” The man yelled back.

“Yes, quick.”

“Then we’ll take off some of the pieces. That will do it.”

“This is going to be boring.” Gemma stretched out her legs. “Wake me up when it’s over.”

Izzy smacked her arm.
“With those stakes? No. What were you thinking daring him like that? You’ll be lucky if you can sit after today.”

“Nah. I just have to pray he loses. God is on the side of the meek, right? Doesn’t it say that somewhere in the Bible?”

Izzy laughed.

“
Besides, this guy plays all the time. Cross will lose.”

But fifteen minutes later, he won
, and he came back over, leaned down, and chuckled. “You’re in trouble now.” He looked at Gemma. “You get to go down on Izzy.” Then he gestured to Izzy. “And since this was your idea, you’re doing it in the truck.”

Panic shot through her.
“In the truck! No!”

The challenge in the arch of his brows and the slight tilt of his mouth would have looked at home on a demon.

“F –” She caught herself. She could see he wasn’t going to relent. But could she handle this? The idea scared her and yet also, thinking of Cross making her do it
–
that made her hope he’d carry through. Not that the man ever backed off on these sorts of threats, promises...whatever this was. She shut her eyes and shook her head. “Fine.”

As they walked away, Izzy had to ask, “Is blackmail and betting the normal way to get subs to do your bidding
...Sir?” She figured she might as well get on his good side.

“Nope. But
sometimes I need to use unorthodox methods with you two.” Cross nodded to himself as if he’d made some grand decision. “Gemma here is the worst brat I have ever come across.”

The look Gemma shot him seemed a half second away from morphing into some insulting comment when the old man yelled after them.

“Hey!”

They all turned to see him waving at them. “Next Saturday, Godfrey? Same time?”

“Sure,” Cross called back. “Next time try harder.”

“Fuck you!” The old guy laughed. “Next time bring the girls again. They are a great sight for these old eyes.”

Cross had played him before?

“
What the f –” Before Gemma could complete the swear word, Izzy leapt and put her hand over her mouth.

Cross grinned at them. “You two will have to get up early to get the drop on me.”

“That was cheating.” Gemma said mock-angrily as she linked her arm through his. She did a half-skip to catch up to his long stride.

Izzy took his other arm. Would he bite at that accusation? Sometimes she wondered at what went on in Cross’s head. He scared her on occasion and she almost expected him to turn around and snap like a cornered wolf. Her dad would have. Gemma was only playing, but did he know that? The whole dynamic made for some electric conversations.

Walking through a forest at night with wolves howling had nothing on being around Cross. But, she knew why she wasn’t running away...it thrilled her too.

Gemma tried again. “Isn’t that against the Dom code of conduct or something? Can we report you to the Supreme Dom of Cobalt Harbor?”

“Fredrick’s got my back.” He chuckled, the laugh deep and going on for a while. “I’d love to see that conversation.”

“So
...” Izzy took a chance – ribbing Cross could get to be her favorite sport. “Does that mean we can cheat too?”

“Na
h.” He screwed up his face and kept walking as if he was pondering. “Only if you want to say hello to my strap. Cheating during a bet is a Dom privilege.”

Gemma ducked her head and whispered – as if Cross couldn’t hear, “We get the practical jokes, Izzy. I saw it on one of those websites. Our job is to do things like put superglue on his paddle handle.”

“Keep going. Dig your hole deeper. When we get to the truck, you’ll be sorry,” Cross said in a dead-level tone, but the twitch of his mouth told Izzy he was still amused.

Funny, even though they’d lost the bet to Cross, and she
was nervous about how they’d arrange things in the truck, Izzy couldn’t help a small smile arriving on her lips. He was having fun with this. They all were. It was like today they’d found a rhythm that suited them in some weird freaky kinky way. No one else would understand, but the three of them fitted like jigsaw pieces. She gripped his arm just a bit tighter, feeling his hard muscles flex under her fingers. How in hell had she gotten so lucky?

When they reached the rooftop
, the crazy weather had summoned another rumbling thunderstorm. Rain pelted down as they jogged to the truck. Cross unlocked it fast and slid into the front driver side seat while she and Gemma sat in the back.

When he turned and laid his forearm across his headrest, and eyed them for all of a minute without doing anything else, she murmured to Gemma. “I think he forgot to take his memory pills this morning.”

Gemma snorted.

“
Taunting me? Not smart, little one.” He sighed. “You’re lucky it’s raining.”

He craned his neck round to check out what was going on outside the truck.

The windows were tinted, and rain spattered on them. Luckily, or maybe by design, Cross had parked right in the corner farthest from the lifts. The thunder clouds clogging the sky had cut the light back to a dim setting, and the dribbles of rain on the glass made everything outside blurry. Which meant, hopefully, that they would look blurry to anyone hurrying by. Izzy tried to slow down her stupid panicking heart. How exactly was he going to work this? It seemed like they’d need to be contortionists. Had he planned this from the start? She squirmed on the seat. Sneaky bastard.

He smiled. “Getting impatient? Take off your bra. And
, since we have this storm, take off your shorts too, and panties.”

“Woohoo.” Gemma tilted an eyebrow, a big smile
forming at the prospect. “Show us your ass, girl.”

“You’re not bi
, so close your eyes.”

“No way! I changed my mind
...today...temporarily.”

“Voyeur,” Izzy muttered. “It’s too public!” she protested.

“No one can see. Do it.”

She fiddled with the seat cover, maybe if she delayed enough
...

Cross stretched through the gap between the seats and slapped his hand on her bare thigh.
“Now!”

She jumped. He left his hand there, right where her skin stung warmly from the slap.

Damn. No one outside still. A few miles away, the sky cracked a spear of lightning earthward. She closed her eyes for a second. This was dumb, and there was something exciting about being told to undress here, in his truck with them both watching. So she reached behind and undid her bra. When she moved to slip the straps down her arms, Cross stopped her.

“Wait. Gemma, you help her undress then Izzy
will do the same for you.”

Now that idea, oh my, it was as if someone had put their hands on her and softly stroked her clit, then along her lower lips. Izzy felt the blood pulse down there, heating her up.

For a second, it seemed as if Gemma would make some acerbic remark, but she caught Izzy at the very moment her mouth fell open just a little. For Izzy had been staring at the ever so near, and ever so perfectly rounded, breasts of her friend. A friend about to help undress her.

Their eyes connected. Gemma heaved in a quiet ragged breath and swallowed. “Yeah, I can do that.” She glanced at Cross and said dryly, “Maybe you should shut
your
eyes.”