Logan winked at Henry and Nell as he walked off. The day had been a shitstorm of crap, but the evening was looking up.
Chapter Eight
Seth stared at Georgia, her blonde hair flying around as she yelled and tried to beat the shit out of his best friend’s backside. He felt like he’d just been through a fight. She was so sweet, and she’d always been so kind to everyone around her. His staff adored her. Never once had she thrown stuff around or tried to take his head off with a handbag. Death via Prada. It was almost how he’d gone down.
Logan was walking away with her. Logan hadn’t been surprised at all. Logan had walked right in and tossed her over his shoulder and taken charge. Seth had stared down crabby investors and lawyers and bankers. He’d ruthlessly handled the sharks of Wall Street, and he’d been utterly at a loss with what to do with one blonde in high heels.
“Is that your girl?” Henry had moved up behind him, settling a hand on his shoulder.
Seth just kept staring. “She’s never acted like that before.”
“What was she upset about? The idea of being shared?”
Seth shook his head. “No. I ignored her all day and then I hit her with the D/s stuff. I think I scared her. I was so sure she would be interested. Her brothers are all lifestylers.”
“I don’t think she’s afraid. Logan gave her every out he could, and she just waited until he scooped her up.” Henry smiled a little as Georgia’s curse-laced screams carried across the yard. “I think that’s just the way those two are going to play. Did you see how relaxed Logan got? I’ve never seen that kid so confident and happy as he was when he shoved her over his shoulder. They have a connection.”
“A connection?” Seth was a little worried Henry had gone soft in the head.
“Yeah. She’ll come around. She wants this. She wants Logan to take charge. If he’s half the Dom I think he might be, he’ll have her purring by morning.” Henry turned to him. “You should think about this. You seem really disturbed. Perhaps this isn’t the lifestyle for you. D/s can seem cruel to some people.”
He wasn’t exactly a tourist. “I’ve played before, Henry. I’ve done just about every sexually deviant thing a man can do.”
Henry winced a little. “I don’t know that I needed to hear that, son.”
“I love her.” He just wasn’t sure he knew every side of her. There hadn’t been anything deliberately cruel about Georgia’s rant. Well, the needle-dick charges leveled against Logan had been uncalled for and untrue. “It just caught me off guard.”
Henry slapped his back in a gesture of manly affection. “I’m just saying you should think about it because she obviously needs this. I don’t know that Logan is ready for anything on a full-time basis. That girl needs a Dom. She needs one so badly that I wouldn’t hesitate to find her one.”
An unholy rage filled Seth, churning his gut and making him stand taller. “She doesn’t need a goddamn thing, Henry. I swear we’re going to have trouble if you try to match her up with someone you know. I will make sure he’s not fucking breathing by the end of the night. Do you understand? She’s fucking mine. Head case or not. She belongs to me.”
His heart was pounding, blood beating through his system. The very thought of someone coming between him and Georgia made him goddamn insane. So, no, her little hissy fit hadn’t really thrown him off her. He’d been a bit surprised, yes. Her anger had shocked him, but it wasn’t really anger, was it? It had been passion. Georgia was passionate. She gave a shit. Of course, she’d freaked out. He’d ignored her, and what woman worth her weight wouldn’t get pissed? His mother would have rolled her eyes and moved on to the next lover, but his Georgia had let her position be known and Logan was handling that shit. Seth was being a pussy, expecting to not have to work. A woman like Georgia deserved work.
Henry was smiling at him despite the fact that he was pretty sure he’d just bared his teeth at his mentor like a damn mountain lion looking for a meal. “Excellent. You sound like a caveman. Go get your girl. Don’t let Logan have all that sugar. Come by for dinner sometime this week and bring your Georgia. I’m sure Nell wants to talk to her about those boots.”
He looked ahead. Logan was trying to open the door to the cabin, but Georgia was wiggling, her legs kicking and her hands reaching for…damn, it looked like she was trying to get at Logan’s dick with those gorgeous claws, and not in a hot, sensual way, more like a rip-it-off, Lorena Bobbitt way. He felt his palm twitch. Damn it. She was asking for the flat of his hand on her ass.
Fuck all. He might actually be a Dom. It had always just been play before, but with Georgia, all those instincts were coming out.
“You thinking about spanking her?” Henry asked with a grin. “Because she’s begging for it.”
He felt his lip curl up, his shoulders straightening. He’d played in clubs, but this was the first time he’d felt a righteous indignation with a sub. She wanted to question him? Oh, he had some answers for her. She wanted to shock the fuck out of him with a side of her nature she hadn’t allowed him to see? Maybe it was time he showed her his inner shark. “Yeah, she is. We’ll come over for dinner sometime this week. I can’t promise you that Georgia will be able to sit down, though.”
Seth stalked the distance between them, his anger growing with every step. He’d done nothing but treat her like a precious angel up until this afternoon. Yes, he’d been an asshole, but his prior good behavior should have bought him something more than a Prada bag to the head.
He jogged the distance between Nell and Henry’s place and his own. Not just his. His and Georgia’s and Logan’s, whether Logan wanted to admit it or not. His heart was pounding, adrenaline pumping as he walked through the door.
It was deadly silent, and just for a minute, he wondered if one of them was dead.
Georgia stood in the middle of the great room, with its magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows and views of both the river and the mountains. He didn’t give a shit about any of it. All he could see was her, her blonde hair wild around her face as she stared at Logan. Logan was sitting on the couch, his body relaxed as though he hadn’t just carried a woman away.
Maybe he could still save this. They weren’t screaming at each other. He could mediate. The Dom in him snarled at the thought, but he couldn’t just start yelling when she was looking so fragile. “Georgia, would you like to explain to me what all of that was about?”
“Seth, would you like to go fuck yourself?”
Logan laughed. “You’re just making it worse, Georgia.”
She tossed him a quick middle finger and then turned away from them both.
His inner Dom was howling to get out. She thought she could pull the rug out from under him? Yeah, he’d invented that play. And he was finally comfortable with the fact that Logan and Henry were right. She was in a corner and she didn’t know how to get out. Oh, there was a wide hole she could go through, but it took her away from them. She wanted this, but she couldn’t ask for it. “Every time you curse or make a rude gesture when we’re trying to behave like adults, you’ll take another ten.”
It was time to get the rules out in the open.
She turned on him. Her face was red and tears pooled in her eyes, but she wasn’t crying. “Do you know what my brother will do if you lay a hand on me?”
He practically growled. It occurred to him just how happy he was that this was coming out. If she’d been hiding her psycho side, he’d been covering up his ruthless-bastard side. It was time to show her there was a little Hyde in his Jekyll. He moved into her space, just daring her to back up. “Are you talking about Win, baby?”