“No. Not really. I was happy before all this came to light.”
“And are you happier now?”
“Yeah,” she admitted after a long moment of contemplation.
“Well? Okay, then. Choose to be happy. Don’t choose to sit there and wallow in some imaginary emo swamp when you don’t have to.”
“Imaginary emo swamp?”
“Just work with me, m’kay? You know dang well what I’m trying to say.”
Noel tipped her a salute from her temple.
“Smart-ass. Remind me to ask your Dom to beat your ass next time I see him.”
“So you really think I’m doing the right thing here?”
“Kvetching and needlessly rending your soul over it? No. Enjoying and living your life? Yes.”
“Why do you make it sound so easy?”
“Why are you insisting on complicating it?”
Noel didn’t have an answer for that. Compared to the past two years, including the last few months leading up to the seismic shift in their situation, it felt like she’d upshifted and was now freewheeling downhill instead of struggling to get the transmission engaged.
It was difficult to relax when it felt like it was supposed to be difficult.
“I don’t know. It just seems like after everything I’ve been through, it shouldn’t be this easy.”
“Maybe that’s because you’ve already gone through the hard part and this is the reward.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Keith hadn’t revealed to the two of them what he’d planned for their collaring ceremony. He wanted it to be a surprise, and had taken charge of the whole thing.
Even Tilly and Loren had been sworn to secrecy.
Late that Saturday morning, Noel awoke to Keith deeply kissing her. When she looked, she spotted Scott sucking the man’s cock.
Keith smiled down at her. “It’s the big day. Any second thoughts?”
She reached down to stroke Scott’s head while reaching up to touch Keith’s stubbly cheek. “No, Sir. No second thoughts.”
“Good.” He grabbed Scott’s head, holding his cock deep inside Scott’s mouth as Keith’s orgasm hit him, making him groan. Then he pulled Scott off his cock and pushed his head toward her pussy. “Make her come, then you may fuck her.”
Keith pinned her wrists over her head, staring down into her eyes as Scott dove between her legs and went to town.
Keith grinned, transferring her wrists to one hand while reaching down to lightly tug on her nipple rings, back and forth, triggering her first orgasm.
“Such a good girl,” he whispered. “I’ve trained you well, haven’t I?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Scott climbed on top of her and started fucking her, hard, fast, deep, all the while with Keith still holding her wrists and playing with her nipples. She knew Scott wouldn’t take long to get off as obviously horny as he was, and wondered how long the men had been awake with Keith tormenting him before she finally opened her eyes.
As soon as Scott had climaxed, Keith snapped his fingers and pointed.
Scott pulled out and dove between her legs again, ever the good boy, cleaning her up and drawing one more orgasm out of her before he finished.
Keith smiled as he watched them together. “This is better than TV. Why are we even paying for cable?”
“For the Internet service,” she gasped.
“Ah. True.” He cupped his free hand over her throat, staring down into her eyes as Scott the overachiever started driving her toward yet another orgasm. “We do need that.” His intense gaze bore down into hers and for a moment she wondered if she’d ever be able to remember a time when Keith wasn’t part of their lives.
Not that she wanted to.
He’d become the center of her world in a way she’d never imagined possible, even more than Scott. Not that she didn’t still love Scott, because she did. More now than ever before.
But Keith was their glue. He made everything better, his presence in their lives.
His ownership of them.
The missing piece she and Scott had both needed without knowing it.
After a shower and brunch, Keith led them back to the bedroom and pulled out the outfits he wanted them to wear today. Then he hooked a finger through each of their collars and pulled them in for kisses. “Any second thoughts?”
Scott and Noel smiled at each other. “Nope,” they echoed.
Nerves filled Noel as Keith drove them first to a place she’d never been before.
As Keith pulled into a parking space in front of the tattoo shop that also had a sign for a piercer, he glanced into the rearview mirror. “Again, last chance to back out.”
She shook her head. “Not backing out, Sir.” He’d surprised her by this, because he hadn’t mentioned this part of the plan to her or Scott.
Who looked equally startled, but also wasn’t backing out.
They had an appointment, apparently, and were sent right back.
It was the same man who’d done both their nipples, and he greeted Keith with a handshake.
“Is everything ready?” Keith asked.
“Yep. Just like you asked for.”
Inside the room, with the door closed behind them, Keith snapped his fingers at Scott. “Pants down, and up on the table.”
He’d ordered Scott to wear boxers instead of briefs today.
Now, Noel understood why.
She gulped a little when she realized what that meant.
But Scott didn’t hesitate, even when the piercer had him sign the forms and showed him the needle and the captive bead ring that would be his new Prince Albert piercing.
Through the end of his cock.
Keith wore a decidedly evil grin as he grabbed a fistful of Scott’s hair and tipped his head back. “Who’s my good boy and is going to get pierced for me?”
“Me, Sir,” Scott whispered.
Even Noel was getting wet from Keith’s tone of voice.
Keith crushed his lips down on top of Scott’s, swallowing the man’s yelp of pain as the piercer did what he needed to do.
Five minutes later, Scott was shakily getting to his feet and gingerly pulling up his boxers and pants.
Then Keith looked at her. “Panties off, girl.”
Without argument, she did, getting up on the table. After signing the forms, Keith pulled her dress up and had her lay back, his hands pinning hers over her head, staring down at her from where he stood at the head of the table.
“Who’s my good girl and is going to get pierced for me?”
“Me, Sir,” she whispered.
She winced as the piercer swabbed antiseptic over her clit.
Keith grinned. “This is going to hurt. But when it’s over, and once it’s healed, guess what? It’s going to feel fucking amazing.” He leaned in, kissing her, distracting her so much that when the piercer prepared and made the actual pierce, she screamed into Keith’s mouth, not so much from pain but from shock and the locale.
Although yeah, it did fucking hurt. At least the pain started fading almost immediately, unlike her nipples, which had painfully ached for a week before she could tolerate the men even touching them.
Keith chuckled, finally raising his head and grinning down at her. “Oooh, baby. Now you both really match. And I’m so fucking hard, you are both going to get a load in your asses later tonight when we get home.”
* * * *
Their next stop was Venture. And when Keith led them inside, Tilly greeted them with hugs. “You damn sadist,” she chided Keith. You got them pierced where we couldn’t see.”
“Yeah, well, he was too busy to leave the shop, and I didn’t want to reschedule the collaring.”
Her clit still throbbed, but it’d already changed to an ooh, goody kind of throbbing.
Or maybe it was just because Keith had trained both of them so well to get aroused by pain, always following it with a reward later.
She wasn’t exactly sure how Scott would get his reward
based on the piercing, but maybe she could at least get one.
Their friends were in attendance, and as Loren called for everyone’s attention, Keith led Noel and Scott to the front of the room, where a matching set of pillows had been placed.
He pointed at both of them, and at the pillows.
They immediately sank to their knees on the pillows as Keith moved to stand between them.
Loren started. “Well, folks, this is a new one, even by our standards. I know many of you met Scott and Noel when they first started their journey into the kinky lifestyle, and yes, this is as confusing as it looks. Gilo, what say ye?”
“I got nothing,” he called out from the back of the room. “I thought me and Abbey had the market cornered on confusing you all.”
“Yeah,” Tilly called out from where she stood behind Loren, “well, you’ve lost that title, dude.”
“Dammit,” Gilo muttered.
The room erupted into titters of laughter that quickly settled.
Loren continued. “Keith comes before everyone today and wishes to publicly claim his two slaves. To publicly state his feelings in the only quasi-official way he can.”
He turned and faced the room. “Some of you, I’ve known a long time, since I first came out and moved to Florida. Some not quite as long, from when I first started my kinky journey, and some of you I’ve only recently met. If you’d told me this was where I’d be today, and what I’d be doing, I’d have told you you were crazy.”
He put his hands on Scott and Noel’s heads. “I’m blessed with not one, but two people who love me, who love each other, and with whom I’ve found peace and happiness that I never dreamed possible. I trust them, I love them, and I’ve sworn to protect and care for them.”
He turned to Scott. “Boy, today I want to publicly collar you as mine. This means even though you are married to her, you are owned by me, and first and foremost you belong to me. Is this what you want?”
“Yes, Sir. I want to be yours.”
Tilly stepped forward and held something out. Noel realized it was a ring box.
Keith reached down and removed the wedding ring from Scott’s left hand and transferred it to his right ring finger. Then he slipped the ring he took from the ring box onto Scott’s left ring finger.
“From this day forward, unless you ask me to uncollar you, you belong to me. Do you accept this of your own free will?”
“Yes, Sir, I do.”
Keith leaned in and kissed him, long and deeply.
Then he turned to Noel.
He stared down at her, sending her nerves fluttering. No matter what, that look always made her horny, wet, and feel like she was a feather facing down a hurricane.
And she loved it.
“Girl, today I’m going to publicly collar you as mine. As with him, even though you’re married to him, you are owned by me, and first and foremost you belong to me. Is this what you want?”
She nodded. “Yes, Sir. I want to be yours.”
Her heart pounded as he slid her wedding and engagement rings off her left ring finger and transferred them to her right hand. Then he slipped his band onto her finger.
“From this day forward,” he said, “unless you ask me to uncollar you, you belong to me. Do you accept this of your own free will?”
She nodded, struggling not to cry happy tears. “Yes, Sir, I do.”
He leaned in and kissed her, slowly, sweetly.
Then he held out his hands to them both and helped them to their feet.
Apparently, there was one more thing.
He opened the ring box again. Inside, one more band, one that matched theirs. “If you are certain this is what you want, the two of you take that band and put it on my finger. Because even though I own you both, I also belong to you. My heart, my love, my protection, my trust, my life.”
Okay, now Noel’s eyes teared up. She and Scott, together, reached in and withdrew the band. They each held his hand up while sliding the band onto his ring finger.
Behind them, Loren spoke up. “Okay, I now pronounce you Master and slaves. You may kiss your property.”
Keith grinned, reached out and grabbed a fistful of hair on each of them, and drew them in. “Love you both, my sweet pets.”
He kissed Noel, then Scott.
“Love you, too, Sir,” they echoed.
“You guys have made me the happiest I think I’ve ever been in my life.”
Noel smiled up into his mocha gaze. “That makes two of us.”
“Three,” Scott said. “And if you think we’re letting you get away from us, think again.”
“What he said,” she joked.
Loren hugged all three of them. “Congratulations. You all accomplished something no one’s ever managed to do before.”
“What’s that?” Keith asked.
Tilly snorted. “You put Gilo at a loss for words.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two weeks after their collaring, the first test of their new formal dynamic hit.
They were awakened by Noel receiving an early morning call from her mother that Noel’s father was being taken to the hospital via ambulance for what appeared to be a heart attack. Less than an hour later he was in surgery, and Keith was already on the computer, checking flights for the three of them and arranging for a rental car.
Noel asked that Keith go with them.
He couldn’t deny her, especially when he could tell how shaken up she was by this. Considering what she’d told him about her family it likely wasn’t the greatest idea in the world, but his main concern was Noel and her well-being, not a bunch of conservative pricks he couldn’t give a shit about.
It was a blustery early fall day in Indiana, and late in the evening when they arrived at the hospital and found their way to the waiting area at the cardiac ICU where her father was now recovering. Noel’s mother and siblings, as well as some other family members, were gathered there. When they entered, Keith faded back, letting Scott stay close to Noel as she tearfully greeted her family and received the latest update.
Her father’s condition was critical, and the prognosis was uncertain at that time.
Keith had instructed them to introduce him as a friend from there in Indiana, who’d picked them up at the airport and was letting them stay with him. That whatever lies they needed to tell to keep the peace were fine. He didn’t want their relationship to cause a distraction from the main issue or create drama. He’d tried to remain downstairs in the main waiting area, but Noel had tearfully begged him to come upstairs with them and he found he couldn’t refuse her.
Unfortunately, his two headstrong pets didn’t follow instructions very well. He’d quietly taken a seat near the doorway after giving silent head nods to everyone without him having actually been introduced. He’d hoped his presence would go mostly unnoticed.
It didn’t take Noel’s mother longer than thirty seconds to start taking thinly veiled potshots at her for not living closer, despite the fact that two of her siblings had also flown in from out-of-state. Her siblings, of course, piled on.
He listened quietly, the magazine he’d picked up going unread even though he slowly flipped through the pages as if he was. Instead, his attention was on Noel, on Scott, on fighting the urge to tell the self-righteous prigs to quit picking on them.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he watched Noel as she looked around, her focus falling squarely on him. He didn’t look up to meet her gaze. He knew if he did he would likely insert himself into the situation and make a mess of things. These were the two people he loved being poorly treated, and he knew he couldn’t just take care of it without leaving a lot of emotional carnage behind.
“How long are you going to be able to stay?” her mother asked. “Did the school give you time off paid or unpaid?”
“I’m not teaching anymore.”
Oh, shit. Keith winced. One of their rules was no lying. But that was between the three of them. He’d specifically told Noel and Scott t
o say whatever was necessary to keep the peace, including lying about her job, if necessary.
“What do you mean you’re not teaching?” her mother demanded. “Since when? What are you doing now?”
“Keith got me a job working at the marina. I love it there.”
He hoped his groan was silent, not out loud. Yes, Noel loved working at the marina. She was also loved by the owner, who had given her free rein to redo all their office procedures. As a result, the place ran like a well-oiled vibrator, far better than it had since Maria was there.
“Keith? Who’s he?” He felt every eye swivel onto him and he risked glancing around.
So much for me being a friend from Indiana.
“He’s our partner,” Scott said.
Keith softly sighed in resignation, closed the magazine, and set it aside before standing up as her mother made a noise.
“Your partner?” she asked.
Obviously, staying out of it was no longer an option. “Hi,” he said. “Keith Knepp.”
“Who the hell are you?” one of the brothers asked.
Keith stared him down, the guy taking a step back after a moment. “Like Scott said, I’m their partner.”
He’d drawn close enough that Noel was able to snag his arm. She pulled him up against her. “He’s with us. We’re a family.”
Every voice in the waiting room fell silent, both Noel’s clan and others who were now more interested in watching this drama play out than focusing on their own loved ones’ troubles.
“This isn’t some twisted sex thing, is it?” the youngest sister asked.
“How would you know?” Noel shot back, an uncharacteristic steel edge to her tone. “Your metrosexual hubby’s probably got a few kinks in his own closet he hasn’t fessed up to, and everyone in this family knows it.”
Oh, holy shit.
Scott tried to rein her in, bless his heart. “Honey, this isn’t the time to discuss—”
“No, fuck this shit, it totally is.” She took in all her family. “You all have picked on me for as long as I can remember. I was never good enough for any of you. I spent a lot of years worrying about how to make all of you happy, to make you like me, and I’m done. I’m happy, I’m in love, I’m loving my life for the first time in I don’t know how long, so back the fuck off!”