That was Chase. He’d already pissed off the staff. Ben gave Chris his smoothest smile. “The resort is gorgeous. I can’t thank you enough for accommodating us on such short notice. Could you tell me where my brother is?”
“Of course. He’s in the dungeon.”
Well that didn’t take long. “I don’t suppose I can just walk down there like this?”
“Fet wear only, Mr. Dawson. I had a set of leathers placed in your locker. Feel free to change.”
Ben sighed. He was dead tired, but he needed to talk to Chase. “Thank you. Please have the luggage sent up to our room. And any minute now a ball of chaos and tears is going to walk through that door. It’s my sister. Feel free to put her in a closet if she misbehaves.”
He followed the signs to the dungeon. His long night wasn’t over yet.
She’d made a horrible mistake. She knew it the minute she left the dungeon and walked into the women’s dressing room.
“Are you all right?” Gaby asked. She didn’t need to change. She ran the place, but she pulled off her daywear in exchange for a leather bustier. It looked like she and Cal would get in some play tonight.
“I wanted to sleep with him.” There. She’d said it. She’d just put it out there. She’d wanted to have sex with a guy she’d just met. She never did that. She didn’t even scene with a guy until she’d known him a couple of months and had him checked out.
But she wanted Sir. Dawson. Whatever his name was. She’d sat there cuddling with him and there was nothing she’d wanted more than to tilt her head up and hope he would kiss her.
Gaby’s eyes got wide. “Really? He’s so…weird.”
Yes, he’d been weird. He’d been awkward at times. After he’d held her for the longest time, he’d been right back to that cold, distant Dom he’d been in the first place, but she saw through that now. It was his mask. She wore one, too, but he’d let her in by sitting there and holding her, his big, strong hands smoothing back her hair. “I like him.”
“Okay. You know I’ve really heard his brother is nicer.”
Nat didn’t want nice. She wanted awkward. And she wanted to know what his tattoo meant. He’d had one on his chest, just under his vest. An eagle and some other stuff. She hadn’t gotten to really look at it. She’d been too busy nuzzling him and feeling safer than she had in forever.
It didn’t make a lick of sense, but it was true. And she wanted to touch him, to kiss him, and to see if she could do this thing. Sex. Damn it. She wanted sex, and she’d been too afraid to ask for it.
“I want him. But I don’t think I should want him.” Misery washed over her. He could be gone tomorrow. “Do you think he’s here with a sub?”
“I can assure you he doesn’t have a submissive. I don’t know much about him, but Julian told me he’s incredibly intelligent and well trained as a Dom. He takes it seriously. I don’t know that he takes sex very seriously. Julian did say he hasn’t been in a real relationship the whole time he’s known him.”
So he was available and not that into commitment. That wasn’t such a bad thing. It wasn’t like she wanted to marry him or anything. She just wanted to experiment a little.
She wanted to forget a lot. She wanted to erase the whole day. She knew she couldn’t do that, but she could forget for the night. She could lie down beside him and revel in that big body because Gaby was right. He was safe.
Julian Lodge was sort of like Satan. No one fucked with him. Julian didn’t care if a person hadn’t known they were fucking with him. He didn’t give passes or listen to logic. Tony hadn’t realized when he sold her to Hawk that he would come under Julian Lodge’s special brand of justice. After Julian had discovered Tony’s involvement in her slave stint, Tony had lost his job, found he no longer had a credit rating, and got his ass put on the no-fly list. He’d committed suicide rather than going to jail, and Nat didn’t feel bad about it. Certainly not after she’d learned she hadn’t been the only woman Tony had sold.
But Sir Dawson was Julian Lodge approved.
And he was so lickable it hurt. Her girl parts, which had seemed to be in a deep freeze, had come roaring back to life. Yes, Sir Dawson was a weirdo, but so was she. His awkward growl was practically a fucking mating call.
She had pink hair and a tongue piercing, and another little jewel in a place that might shock her tattooed hottie. They were a good, casual match.
She’d just never really done casual before. Despite her previous lifestyle, she’d only had sex with two guys, a high school boyfriend and a Dom she’d seen for a few months after college. What happened with Hawk didn’t count. She’d only chosen to sleep with two men.
Sir Dawson would make three.
But more importantly, he would mean she’d survived. But she still worried. “What if he doesn’t want me?”
Gaby sat down beside her, rubbing her shoulders in a way Nat wouldn’t have accepted a few hours before. “He wants you. He sat there holding you for half an hour. He wants you bad. He didn’t find another sub. He went to the bar. As far as I know, he’s still there. Nat, if you want him, you should take him, but there’s something you should know first.”
“He’s the investigator Julian sent.” She wasn’t stupid. A Julian-approved Dom showed up just as she was being investigated for murder. Duh.
Gaby slumped a little. “You’re not mad?”
That Julian gave a shit? “No. Gaby, I didn’t do this. I didn’t know that Stan had a drug problem. I didn’t really know anything. He won’t find bad stuff on me.”
So it was okay to play around with him. Right? It was okay to lose herself in him, just for a night or for however long he stuck around.
Gaby put a hand over hers. “I know that, sweetie. I just don’t want you to ever think I would betray you.”
Nat understood the meaning of betrayal. Gaby hadn’t even come close. “I knew it when I pointed him out. Just tell me I don’t seem slutty.”
Gaby’s smile broke over her face. “Sweetie, you’re the least slutty girl I know. Go for it. Have fun. Live. I don’t know a single person who deserves a little happiness more than you. If Dawson moves you, if you feel a connection to him, then you should follow it. He’s not a dating kind of guy. He’s a D/s guy. I met Cal one night, slept with him because I knew he was the one for me, and then it all went to hell. And we still got married, and we still had kids, and we still have an amazing life. I wouldn’t take back the ‘mistake’ of sleeping with him for anything.”
It was a mistake. But it was one she was willing to make.
It was just a little pleasure. Just a little sex. She hadn’t had a male hand on her body for years until tonight, and she felt a little drugged by it.
She felt more like herself than she had in years. She leaned over and kissed Gaby on the cheek. “Are you having breakfast?”
“You know Saturday morning breakfast is sacred.” Gaby winked her way.
“Well, maybe I will be there this time and maybe I will be having breakfast in bed so don’t wait for me.” She stood up. A giddy joy rushed through her. It was stupid but it was her mistake to make. Hers. Not something forced on her by someone else or by her own fear. This was a stupid-ass mistake she would make because her pussy was attuned to Sir Dawson.
She walked out of the locker room and turned toward the bar, hoping he was still there and hadn’t left for his room where he’d assured her he would be masturbating to thoughts of her. And he’d taken her panties. They’d been in his pocket when she’d walked away from him. The thought of him pulling out her dumb-ass printed panties and playing with them should have creeped her out, but it was all a part of Sir Dawson’s weirdness.
And then she saw him. Big, strong, seemingly cold. He stepped out from the men’s locker room and put his hands on his lean hips as if he was looking for something—or someone. Her? She stopped, giving him a soft smile. He was a Dom. He deserved her softness since he’d given her his gentleness when she’d needed it most.