The Dom With the Perfect Brats (29 page)

Gemma barked a loud laugh. “As if I’d let you, brat!”

The chuckles from the both of them died away, but not the hope. Something had been kindled in Izzy’s heart. There was hope. And she was never letting go of that without a fight.

Cross

He needed to talk this out. After pacing around the apartment for a few minutes he called Malachi, but the call went to his voicemail. The messages on his answering machine flashed at him insistently. Had it only been a few hours ago that he’d last ignored them? It felt like half his life had flown past. Cross had left with his two girls and had come back alone, and possibly single.

But what was he supposed
do? He was their Dom. Gemma had deliberately ignored an order. The swats he’d given her had been almost playful, and he hadn’t even taken down her jeans. If she expected him to ignore misbehavior, she was with the wrong guy. He couldn’t pretend to be vanilla, could he? Did she want that?

Cross paced some more and turned that idea over in his head. Vanilla. Had he ever been? Even before he’d known anything about kink, he’d been a domineering boyfriend. Even in his early teens he’d fanaticized about tying up women and doing kinky things to them. Like his brain was just wired that way. A fantasy about a blowjob had never been just that, he’d always had the girl by the hair and told her what to do.

He was a firm believer that if his woman wasn’t whining, moaning or screaming during sex, he was doing it wrong.

Stepping back and letting the girls have control – not disciplining them – frustrated the hell out of him. He needed control. He craved it. Gemma kneeling at his feet, leaning into his hand. Izzy looking up at him with adoration. And there was nothing like the intense rush of beating a woman
who truly enjoyed it, as he knew his Gemma did. But why couldn’t she submit fully? His hands clenched and unclenched as he paced.

Could he give it up, if that’s what they wanted? If that was the only way he could keep them?

But he was jumping to conclusions. Maybe it would be easier than that, like discussing limits a little deeper. He’d heard that these issues often came up in new D/s relationships, even though all of the girls he’d seriously dated had been profoundly obedient even before he’d trained them himself. He should have kept dating that type of girl instead of trying to convert two vanillas. Two strong-willed vanillas. It was too late now, and the idea of never having experienced a relationship with Gemma and Izzy for the past few months felt so wrong it almost hurt.

He
wished he owned a vase or a statue that he could smash to make himself feel better. Although he’d never been one for tantrums, he felt as if one was brewing.

Gemma
and Izzy were his. He didn’t want to give them up, damn it. He clenched his teeth. The table where he’d thrown his keys beckoned.

That was it. He’d go to Izzy’s so they could talk things through. Fuck waiting.
He was the Dom, right? He grabbed his keys and headed for the door.

Before he got to the first landing he realized he was being an ass. They’d agreed to talk in the morning. Crowding them wasn’t going to win them over. He was pretty sure Izzy was mad at him too.

He got in the truck anyway. It was only about eleven at night. Jude and the girls would still be wide awake, and he needed to apologize for the scene and talk this through. Maybe Jude would laugh now that the brat shoe was on the other foot, but he doubted it. He felt like a shit for riding him about Q and Sabrina. Now he got it, but was it too late?

Q would know what to do. She had as many deep thoughts about dominance and submission as he did, but she
wasn’t as clueless about people. Maybe she could help him figure out how to keep them.

As he’d expected, half of the lights were
still on when he got back to the old house. Hopefully he wasn’t interrupting something important. He hadn’t even called first. Bad etiquette. At least they were close enough that Jude would tell him to come back later if it wasn’t a good time.

He rapped loudly on the door and let himself in, hallooing them from the front hall.

Jude’s harried face poked around the corner from the living room. “We’re in here.”

Cross could hear someone crying.

“You have to go!” It was Sabrina. She sniffled.

As Cross rounded the corner into the room, he saw Q was sitting on the couch, breathing in long slow breaths. Sabrina knelt beside her, clutching at her hand.

“Whoa...uh...” Cross put on the brakes and started backing toward the door. “Bad time, I see. I’ll catch you later.”

Jude blocked his path. “Cross, please stay. Sabrina is terrified that Q’s going to die and Q didn’t want to do this at the hospital. We’ve been meeting with a midwife. I called her a half hour ago, but she said it’s too soon to come by. She’s delivering another baby. I can’t keep Sabrina calm and be with Q at the same time. Can you keep Q company so I can help Sabrina
calm down?”

“Sure, but I’m not delivering a baby. I’m safewording that. Red! Just in case there’s any confusion later.”

Q laughed and shot him a dirty look. “Don’t make me laugh during contractions.”

“
You’re the boss.” He sat on the other couch and ran a hand through his prickly hair.

“I didn’t think we’d see
you
again so soon. Why aren’t you at home kissing your vanilla girls’ asses?”

“Fuck off, Q. And I mean that in the most loving and brotherly way.” He laughed. “They’re pissed at me. I dropped them off at Izzy’s place. I know it’s my own damned fault for choosing two vanillas to play with – but they’re not really vanilla. They just didn’t know they were into kink.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well thank goodness you were around to set them straight.”

“Straight? I haven’t heard
that
word in years,” Sabrina said. Q laughed and Jude winked at her. Cross shook his head.

“Come on, Sabrina,” Jude pulled her to her feet.
Her face was white. “Q is supposed to break your hand for this activity, not the other way around. Let’s go make some tea for Cross.”

“I hate tea,” Cross muttered
testily to Q.

She smiled at him sympathetically.
“So Cross...buddy...what the fuck happened tonight?”

“
I have no idea.” He shrugged, feeling helpless and lost. His feet led him to the bookshelf and he ran his fingers over the book spines, but didn’t read the titles. They were already familiar with each other’s books, but the contact comforted him. “So was I wrong?”

“Does it matter?” She shrugged, shifting awkwardly. “I would have done the same to Sabrina after I’d given her a direct and specific warning, but if Jude spanked me in front of other people I’d kill him in cold blood. I’m guessing Gemma is struggling with feeling humiliated. If nothing else
, you’ve learned now that humiliation isn’t one of her kinks. Did you ignore a hard limit or something?”

“Fuck, no.”
It wasn’t just about the humiliation of the spanking though. He had a feeling it went deeper than that for Gemma. Cross waited in uncomfortable silence as she breathed through another contraction. He felt like he should boil some water or get some rags or something. Wasn’t that what they did in movies?

“Is it worse than you thought?”

“Not yet. I’m assuming it will be later.” She rubbed a hand over her stomach, her face showing her blissful attachment to her alien invader. Q was already a better mother than his had ever been. This kid was going to have it good.

“Do you want to
...hold my hand or something?”

“You know you’re firmly in the friend zone, Cross. Don’t make a move on me while I’m in labor.” She laughed and he grinned back.

“Crazy woman, but I’m going to go. I have no business being here and I’m being a dick, asking for advice at a time like this.” He got to his feet and stretched.

“You’re like family to us, Cross. Stay.
Talk it out. I might kick you out when things get naked, though. I’d rather you remember me covered in icing instead of pushing a baby out of my hoohah.”

Jude and Sabrina returned, bearing tea.

“She had another one while you were gone.”

Jude nodded and brought Q some tea, which she declined. “Are you feeling okay?”

She snorted. “I’m in labor. I’m in pain and I’m nervous. Other than that I’m fine.” Jude sat next to her and rubbed her neck. Q closed her eyes and looked like she was melting under his touch. “So what do you want to do, Cross? If you want to play with brats that were, until recently, vanilla, you’re going to have to make concessions. I don’t think those two are ever going to be like Josie.”

That was becoming abundantly clear.
“If they’ll even have me back.”

“There’s that. But you’re a smart man, figure it out.”

Jude half-smiled. “I know it’s hard to change your mind about what’s acceptable this late in the game, but they’re not looking for an uber dom. Brats need Doms with a sense of humor that can let some things slide. You just have to decide if they’re worth it.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s been your excuse for the past long while. I thought you were just getting soft in your old age.”

“It’s not my fault. They keep me drained.”

Both women laughed.

“Yeah, sometimes he gets really dehydrated. Poor bastard.” Sabrina winked.

Q tensed and gritted her teeth. Sabrina was at her feet in a flash, stroking her knee. “Breathe, Q. Don’t fight it or it’ll make it worse.”

Jude stroked Q’s hair and she growled at him like an angry dog.

“Hey!” Jude barked.

Q got The Big Eyes and clung to him. Her world focused in on Jude, the adoration radiating from her body. Cross had never seen Q get that look on her face. She’d been more like an abused and slightly feral pet with Nico, rather than a submissive. Jude had assured him that Q was deeply submissive if you knew which buttons to push, but Cross had never witnessed it. This was the real deal.

“Hurts?” Jude rumbled.

She nodded. Gradually, she melted back into his embrace.

“Done now. Another one will come soon, and this time you’re going to be a good girl and let it happen, okay? No fighting it. Your body knows what to do.”

She nodded again and snuggled into his neck.

Cross grimaced. “That wasn’t very long between contractions. Should one of you be calling that midwife?” Please let him not have to be involved in delivering this baby.

“How long?”

“I don’t know. Four minutes?”

Sabrina bolted for the phone.

“It’s not an emergency yet, Sabrina
love,” Jude yelled after her. “Don’t scream at the woman.”

“Yes, Sir,” she called back irritably.

Q peeked at Cross from where she was burrowed into Jude’s side. “I think those girls are good for you. You really weren’t happy with Josie, no matter how well-trained she was. They’re smart and funny. Pretty too. They could find another Dom who was willing to meet them at the level they’re comfortable with, no problem.”

“Yeah,” Jude’s forehead creased. “You’d better talk it through with them soon, or someone else will snap them up. I know Malachi has had his eye on them.”

“Fuck off, Jude.” Cross grimaced. “Mal wouldn’t do that to me. We’ve been friends since we were five.”

“Yeah, I reminded him that
you shouldn’t mix business and pleasure. He said he was just looking. They’re pretty tempting, though. I’d keep my eye on him if I was you.”

Q snorted and smacked Jude. “And
you’d
better keep your eyes in your head before Sabrina gouges them out, mister.”

“You mispronounced that, Q. It’s Master, not mister
.”

“You’d have to master me
first, before I’d give you that honor.” Her eyes were a challenge.

Sabrina strode back into the room and clapped her hands loudly. “Enough you two! The doctor said no wrestling and nothing violent, remember?”

Q’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Give me a couple of hours, little girl, and you can hold the baby while we work this out.”

Without warning Q’s face turned red and she gripped Jude’s shirt.

He ran a hand over her back. “You’re going to do a good job for me, my Q. Relax into it, like you do with a beating. Can you do that for me?”

Q nodded vaguely, but released the breath she’d been holding. “It’s not good pain, Jude... I don’t like it
.”

“I wish I could let you safeword this, but it doesn’t work that way.”

“You and your dumb rules.” Q grimaced as the pressure let up. It was kind of adorable. “Whose idea was this whole birth thing? The pain is a serious design oversight. If women are supposed to breed, it should be easier on them. I’ve already been pregnant for nine months. Isn’t that enough?”

Jude gave her a few perfunctory
pats on the back. “Get used to it. I want eight snot-nosed kids running around this house. You and Sabrina divide up the pregnancy and labor workload. I’m just the sower of seeds.”

“The stunt cock? Yeah, glad you got the memo.”
Sabrina gave him a dirty look. “Just remember that having two wives isn’t going to save you from changing diapers.”

“Back to Godfrey’s issue, before I get distracted. So... Cross
.” Q turned to him. “These girls of yours are pretty cool. They’re my kind of people. Do you think that you actually deserve them?”