“I randomly assigned numbers to everyone. And those of you who didn’t want copies of your pics, you can come watch me delete them from my iPad as soon as we’re done, if you want. They will not be shared. Number one, rigger Leah and Seth. Nice job, by the way, lady,” he said. “Glad to see your other side come out.”
“Enjoy it while you can,” Seth said. “You won’t see it very often. Not with me as the model, at least.” He smiled as he pulled Leah close. “I’m going to have a wedgie for a week,” he said, tugging at his jeans. He’d actually worn a pair of bike shorts for the rigging.
Once the laughter died down, John said, “Well, you were a very good sport. Number two, rigger Derrick and Marcia. Number three, rigger Sully and Mac. Number four, rigger Max, with Cali and Sean. Very creative, guys. I’ve never seen a man’s penis bent into quite that shape before. I think I’ll be walking crooked just from watching. Not even I would try that”—he pointed at Abbey—“and you’d better not, either.”
Sean gave a thumbs-up to the laughing crowd as Abbey laughed and blew John a kiss.
“Number five, rigger Mike and Jenny. Number six, rigger Rob, and Laura. Number seven, rigger Bill and Gabe. Last but not least, Number eight, riggers Mark and Josh with Essie.” John looked around. “Where’s Ted? I thought he came with you guys?”
“Emergency call,” Mark said. “One of his clients was admitted to the ER on a psych hold and he needed to go talk to them.”
“Ah. Sorry to hear that. Okay, ladies and gents, there are your choices. You are to write a number on your card, and then Abbey will go around with the box and gather everyone’s ballots. Then I’ll have another beer before I tally the—”
“Hey!” someone playfully called out.
“I mean I’ll have Scrye the sober CPA tally the votes, and then we’ll announce the winner of the fifty dollar gift certificate to Sigalo’s. Everyone please give a round of applause to Tony and Shayla for that generous donation, if you will.”
Everyone did.
Twenty minutes later, Scrye emerged from the back bedroom that was John and Abbey’s home office.
“Just remember I have your phone number,” Chelbie called out. “If you make us do the stupid fake waiting thing like they do on TV, I’ll give you evil earwigs for the next six months.”
Scrye laughed. “Nope. The winner by a no-shit serious landslide is…Leah.”
John turned to find her as resounding applause broke out. She looked honestly shocked. He damn well knew why she’d won by a landslide, if Scrye hadn’t faked the results. Which John doubted he had.
She’d created a simple, yet elegant, functional, and—most importantly—secure chest and hip suspension harness on Seth. She’d also hoisted him herself, without any assistance from her spotters, using leverage and several turns of rope through the ring to belay Seth up and down.
And, she was Leah. Everyone knew what she and Seth had been through, and how she and Seth both had put in time, effort, and energy back into their local community, not just their kinky family. They were all happy to see her enjoying herself, laughing, having fun.
Plus she’d been the only female rigger in the group that night.
John presented Leah and Seth with the gift certificate then stepped out of the way so everyone could take their turns congratulating them.
“And now, folks,” John said, “don’t forget you can keep playing.”
He cornered Scrye in the kitchen, raising an eyebrow at him.
Scrye walked with him back down to the office. “No shit, she really won. Honest. Take a look for yourself.”
John did.
It was unanimous.
“Son of a bitch,” John said, a little wonder and a lot of pride at his friends mixing together. “How about that?”
“Well, it was a good rig. Only three of the competitors did suspension tonight. She didn’t even need help lifting him, which in and of itself impressed the hell out of me, and I do this a hell of a lot more than she does. And it looked good, too. Not just a functional tie. Wasn’t elaborate, but it did the job and didn’t look like a drunk mountaineering instructor tied it. Hell, I voted for her.”
“Huh. Well, good for her.”
They returned to the living room. Abbey joined them, her smile lighting his heart.
Yes, he’d do anything for this woman. He pulled her close, his hands sliding down to her ass. “Sorry I flipped you back.”
She draped her arms over his shoulders. “Oh, I’m not upset, believe me.”
One long, sweet kiss later, she snuggled close. “Maybe we can save enough energy to play a little once we’re alone.”
He nuzzled his chin in her hair. “Sounds like a plan to me, baby.”
Clarisse appeared in the kitchen doorway, behind Abbey and looking like she wanted her.
He patted Abbey on the ass. “I think you’re being summoned.”
Abbey turned. John caught the flash of concern on Abbey’s face before she and Clarisse quickly left.
Abbey hadn’t told him exactly what was going on, but when he looked and spotted the test kits in their master bathroom, under the towel, he somehow knew they weren’t Abbey’s.
And as he watched Tilly and Abbey go into the master bedroom with Clarisse, Mac, and Sully, he hoped everyone would be smiling when they emerged.
Chapter Ten
With Tilly and Abbey sheepdogging her, Clarisse sought out Sully and Mac and pulled them aside.
“We need to talk,” she quietly said.
The men exchanged a glance. “What’s wrong?” Sully asked.
“Abbey said we can use their room.”
Clarisse had left the two test kits on the bathroom counter, Abbey assuring her no one would disturb them.
When Abbey and Tilly followed them into the bedroom, Sully glanced their way, but Clarisse took them by the hand and led them to the bathroom doorway. “I need to tell you guys something I’ve…I haven’t told you.”
She led them in, turning on the light. “Close the door, please,” she said to Mac.
He did.
“Clarisse,” Sully said. “You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
She took a deep breath. “I didn’t tell you guys I went off my birth control pills,” she said.
At least, she hoped she’d said it. She felt numb, sick—although maybe that might be due to the baby, she thought—and guilty.
Sooo damn guilty.
“What did you just say?” Sully asked. “Repeat it.”
She didn’t want to, but she did. “I’m sorry,” she added.
Sully took a deep breath and raised a hand when Mac had started to say something. “How long ago?”
“The day we got home after Seth and Leah’s Christmas party.”
Mac made a noise, but Sully quieted him again. “December.”
She nodded.
He gave her “the look.” “When were you planning on telling us that, and why did you pick tonight to tell us?”
She didn’t answer the first part of his question.
In response to the second, she picked up the hand towel she’d covered the testers with and showed them.
Mac sucked in a sharp breath.
Sully stared at the two testers for a long moment before he spoke. “I’m not going to assume, pet,” he said, dropping into Master tone. “You need to say it.”
She took a deep breath. “I stopped taking my pills the day after Seth and Leah’s party…and a little bit ago I took two pregnancy tests…and they’re both positive.”
Mac stepped forward, laying a hand on Sully’s shoulder. At first she worried maybe it was to hold Sully back, but then she realized both men were grinning.
Sully grabbed her, almost crushing her in his embrace as he kissed her, hard, deep and coming pretty close to making her forget why they were standing in the bathroom in the first place. He’d no sooner let her go than Mac had grabbed her, spun her around, and kissed her, too.
Then they did something st
range.
The men high-fived each other.
She stared at them. “So…you’re not mad at me that I didn’t tell you?”
Sully cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, long, sweetly, deeply. “No, sweetheart. We’re not mad at you. You never lied. And we did tell you the decision was yours.” He smiled. “Besides, we knew you’d stopped taking your birth control pills.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “You did?”
From behind her, Mac chuckled. “Duh.”
“You keep the pack in our bathroom medicine cabinet, pet,” Sully said. “You know Mac’s daily meds are in there. He’s in and out of that cabinet multiple times a day. When he noticed your pack of pills hadn’t been moved the day after we got back from the party, he looked and saw you hadn’t taken the pill for that day. He told me, and we started keeping track. Within a few days, we were pretty certain you’d stopped on purpose.”
Mac playfully jabbed a finger at her. “Busted. Totally busted. Besides, duh, we kind of noticed when you missed not one, but two periods.”
Sully rubbed noses with her. “Silly pet. Why do you think we’ve been taking advantage of you every chance we got?” He reached around her, grabbed her ass, and dug his fingers in as he ground his hips against hers. The hard bulge of his cock pressed into her, making her clit throb. Mac stepped in closer, his bulge pressing against her ass.
“Finally,” Mac softly said, “I’ll get to fuck that sweet ass of yours again, baby. God, I’ve missed having my cock in there. And blow jobs. I should make you drop to your knees and give me one right now.”
“Later,” Sully said. His voice flipped back into the Master tone that melted her and always got her instantly wet. “Once we realized you’d made the choice to go off the pill, we decided that since you were going to be a naughty pet and not tell us, then we weren’t going to tell you we were determined to breed our beautiful pet. You’re an adult. You know where babies come from, or should after having two of them. The thought of us getting you pregnant again was more than enough to make us hornier than hell. If we were wrong and you were still taking pills from different pack or something, we figured no harm, no foul.”
He trailed kisses down her jaw, to the side of her throat, up to her ear. “We didn’t want to pressure you,” he whispered. “I’m your Master and your husband, but this is a decision Mac and I needed to be certain was yours and yours alone. I’m not going to lie. We both wanted at least one more baby and we didn’t want to tell you that because we didn’t want you to feel pressured. You know we’ll love our child no matter what, but we’re really hoping we gave you a girl this time.”
A soft sob escaped her as her arms clutched at him. “Me, too, Master.”
“And that’s fifteen with a cane for violating the spirit of the rules by going behind our backs and not telling us you’d stopped taking the pill,” Mac said. “Fifteen each, from both of us.”
Sully chuckled. “What slave said. Although I was only going to give you ten each. But I’ll go for fifteen.”
Now a laugh broke free. “Yes, Master. I’ll gladly take them.” It would assuage the guilt she’d felt about not telling them.
“And then,” Mac said, “we’ll slide our cocks into your pussy and your freshly caned ass and fuck you properly.” He kissed his way down her neck to her shoulder, lightly nipping as he went. “Because I love the way it feels when he’s fucking you at the same time. It feels like the three of us are one. Master said I wasn’t allowed to come anywhere except in your pussy until further notice. That made me even hornier. Especially when he said any day I didn’t fuck you at least once, he’d give me twenty hard cane strokes as punishment.”
“Well, you avoided those,” she said, giggling.
“Fuck yeah, I did. Easiest. Order. Ever. Eeevveerrr.”
“I will admit,” Sully said, “I played dirty. There were a few times I slid a butt plug up Mac’s ass and worked him up right before I knew you were going to go do laundry.”
“And several times Master had me sit under the desk in the office and fluff him and keep him hard until he had a chance to fuck you,” Mac said.
“Okay, seriously. Where the hell was I during all this?” Clarisse asked.
“Oh, busy with the kids, and the boat and stuff,” Sully said. “I honestly thought after about three days either you’d be admitting you were off the pill, or you’d be calling a time out from us mounting you any time you bent over and the boys weren’t around. The longer it went on, the more of a game it became for us, to see when you’d finally break down and tell us. In all seriousness, until tonight, I was beginning to think maybe you’d switched birth control pills or something and were keeping them in your purse, and we had the wrong idea.”
“Why didn’t you just look?”
Sully leaned his head back, staring down at her, a shocked expression on his face. “I don’t violate your privacy. Just because I’m your Master, I wouldn’t do that. You should know that. If I want or need to see what’s in your purse, I’ll ask you to show me.”
“Then please fill me in why that’s any different than looking at my pill pack in the medicine cabinet?”
“Community property,” Mac said. “Duh. Sweetheart, we all go into that. I can’t help it that I’m a particularly observant slave.”
“He’s had a lot of years of practice with me,” Sully reminded her. “As my caretaker after I got shot. Making sure I was taking my meds. It’s second nature to him.”
“I wasn’t even spying on you on purpose,” Mac said. “I thought maybe you’d forgotten to take it. I was going to tell you, but I mentioned it to Sully first and he said hold off telling you to see what you did, in case you were just late taking it that day. Ironically, because he didn’t want you thinking we were checking up on you. When you didn’t take it the next day, we were pretty sure. And then by the third day—”
“It was game on,” Sully finished with a smile. He pulled his hands from her ass and laid them on her tummy. “Seriously? Another baby? Had you told us the day you you’d stopped—”
“You’d still have been humping me like horny dogs,” Clarisse finished with a smirk.
“Duh,” Sully said. “But I would have been a lot more creative and overt about it. Like having Jason and Katie babysit for a day while we rented a hotel room, strapped you down to one of Sean and Max’s frames, and fucked you as hard and as often as we could get it up until our cocks safeworded.”
“I don’t know,” Mac said. “In a way, I think it was kind of hotter for me like this.” He ground his hips against her ass again. “Secretly breeding the pet. Ooh, there’s a title for an erotic novel for you to write, Master.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Sully stepped close again, cupping her cheek with his hand as he stared down at her with his grey eyes. His fingers curled, tightened in her hair, around the back of her head. “Maybe we need to act this book out in real life first. Make sure I don’t get a single…detail…wrong.”
Her throat went dry in that wonderful way it did when she knew she was about to get a royal fucking from them. “But I’m already pregnant, Master,” she said.
Sully’s lips quirked in a smile. “So? That means we can try even more things without worrying about the consequences.”
His smile faded. “Sweetheart, I had to let you handle this in your way. If we were working off faulty information, it’d look like we didn’t trust you. If we weren’t, I knew either you’d have a reason for holding back, or whatever recriminations you had over holding back would eat you up and be far worse than anything I could say or do. I love you. I won’t say nothing you do will ever make me stop loving you, but I can’t imagine you ever doing any of those kinds of things. This is a teachable moment, as I’ve learned both from owning and loving the two of you, and from raising our kids together.”
She felt even worse. “I’m so sorry, Master,” she whispered, barely managing not to burst into tears again. This time of shame. He’d trusted her
, and she’d been the one to hold back.
Worse, now she couldn’t understand why she’d held back in the first place.
He kissed her forehead, lingering. “I know you are, sweetheart. And I forgive you. But you will still get your punishment, and they will not be easy stripes, either. They’re going to hurt, and they’re going to leave marks. It’s going to happen tonight when we go back to the hotel, because we won’t be able to do them at home. Plus, I want them administered and out of the way so we can put this behind us and focus on the fact that we’re going to be parents again.”
“You’re going to have a looong car ride home tomorrow, babe,” Mac said.
Sully tipped his head. “You know, there’s something ironic here. You two realize that, right?”
Mac asked it. “What?”
“I’ll beat the two of you for fun or punishment, but none of the three of us would dream of laying a hand on the boys.”
Clarisse laughed. “You’ve got that look you give them. You don’t need to lay a hand on them. They see you arch that eyebrow and immediately know they’ve been busted. Mac does, too, a little.”
“I think she should get her fifteen cane strokes while she’s being fucked,” Mac said, his tone sounding evilly playful. “Have her riding one of us while the other stripes that gorgeous ass of hers.”
“Ooh, and a vibrating butt plug,” Sully said.
“Now you’re just teaming up on me,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s fair or not.”
“You’ve never complained before,” Sully said. “I mean, if you want straight cane strokes, we can do that right now. I thought a chance to actually get pleasure mixed in with your punish—”
“Fuck-punishment it is,” she quickly said, realizing how stupid she was to complain. No, normally punishment strokes, while rare, were isolated, meant to force contemplation about what had brought them on, unless they were punishment strokes willingly chosen as a way to violate a standing rule.
They were actually giving her an option to choose funishment.