“I don’t,” she muttered.
“I know, sweetheart. I hope she can get the help she needs, but it’s out of my hands.”
“It was never in your hands. That’s what we tried to tell you. It was always up to her.”
“I had to try.”
She leaned against the counter. “Once we get through this, can we please not talk about her for a while?”
“I’m sorry. Of course. I know you’re angry.”
“Ohhh, I left angry in the dust several miles back.”
“Are we okay?”
She held up her left hand. “Uh, yeah.” She shoved her hair off her face and let out a heavy sigh before walking back over to him for a hug. “I’m okay.” She stared up into his eyes. “I need that level of dedication from you, though.”
“You have it.”
“Then keep showing me.”
“Can I talk you into going to the club again one night?”
“Maybe. Why?”
“I want to show everyone how I feel about you.”
“You want to formally collar me?”
He smiled. “Yes, but that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Two weeks later, Lynn and Paul were at Venture early on a Saturday afternoon before the space was open to the public. Paul had asked to make all the arrangements so as to surprise her, and she’d let him.
As long as he let her pay for it.
A request that she’d had to pay for by being tied up and fucked senseless, but he’d finally agreed to her writing the checks.
She was really enjoying this side of him being out all the time.
So far, they’d already had a pretty full morning, taking care of several things before this happened so that, once they were finished, he could take her home and do all the things to her he couldn’t do there at the club.
The butt plug she currently wore was keeping her on a low simmer, too.
He’d worn a new suit for her, too, and his goatee and mustache had finally grown back the way she loved.
And even though he wasn’t convinced that they went with the suit, she’d talked him into wearing the boots, just for her.
Lynn stood next to Paul, her back to the office door. They were talking with Tony and Shayla, who’d just pulled them aside because Tony wanted a private word with Paul. The sudden murmur of voices didn’t register at first until someone streaked past Lynn, shoving Paul back a step.
“You fucking son of a bitch. You know what I went through and you still put her through that? Motherfucker.”
Tilly hauled back and punched Paul in the jaw, hard, before anyone could stop her. “Ow!” Tilly cried out as she bent over, cradling her hand against her stomach as Cris and Landry hustled up. “Motherfucking shit biscuit! That fucking hurt. It always looks easy in the fucking movies.”
“That’s because you forgot proper form,” Cris said, trying to help Landry capture her. “Serves you right. You should have hired a stunt double.”
Lynn shoved herself between Tilly and Paul, trying to step back and herd him with her. He had one hand on his jaw and one on Lynn’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, pet. I deserved that.”
“Goddamned right you fucking deserved it, you bastard!” Tilly yelled. Injured or not, she was doing a pretty good job of avoiding being captured by both her men and Tony, who was now also trying to step between them and keep Tilly from taking another swing at Paul.
She straightened and held her hand out, flexing it. “I think I broke a couple of fingers. Motherfucker. I should hit you again just for that, asshole.” Landry finally managed to get an arm around her waist and spin her around so she couldn’t kick him or shove him away, and Cris grabbed her upper right arm.
“You’re going to have a striped ass to go with that bad hand, too, love,” Landry drawled. “That was completely uncalled for.”
“So says the guy who let Ross gut-punch Cris.”
“That was different, love.”
“How?”
“Because I said so. And Cris was expecting it.” Landry turned to Paul. “My apologies. If you wish to press charges, I understand.”
Shayla had apparently run off and returned with two makeshift ice packs, one for Paul’s jaw and one for Tilly’s hand.
“No, of course I’m not going to press charges,” Paul said with a pained smile. “Prison orange isn’t her color.”
Tilly snorted then shook her head. “Let go of me, jerks.” She shook free of Landry and Cris and stepped closer, Tony and Lynn both ready to react. “I won’t hit him again. I promise. I can’t, or I’ll have two fucking broken hands.”
Paul gently squeezed Lynn’s shoulder. “Step aside, pet. It’s okay.”
Against her better judgment, Lynn did.
Tilly stared up at him. “You fuck shit up again, there won’t be any place for you to hide. You understand me? I will make you my goddamned hobby.”
Cris let out a snort. “You’re lucky you’ve got clothes on and she’s not kicking you.”
“Yeah, I remember that story,” Paul said.
Tilly held out her left hand since her right was currently wrapped in the ice pack.
Paul shook with her, then pulled her in for a hug. “I won’t fuck up again. I swear. If I do, please promise to kill me.”
“You all heard that, right?” Tilly asked, triggering a round of nervous laughter from the spectators who now ringed them.
“Yes, love,” Landry said. “They all heard you. Do we need to take you to the ER for your hand?”
“Yeah, yeah. Later. I want to see this shit first. This is a collaring I don’t want to miss.”
Paul cleared his throat. “Not just a collaring. It’s a wedding.”
“Huh?”
Lynn nodded, smiling. “He’s putting a ring on it tonight.” She held up her left hand to show off the engagement ring.
Tilly’s jaw gaped. “Well, why da fuq didn’t you tell me that? I wouldn’t have hit him in the face, goddammit! Now the pictures will be all fucked up.”
“Don’t worry,” Lynn said. “We already took most of the pictures earlier today.”
“I’ll shoot the ceremony from his good side,” Kel offered with a smile.
“Well, thank christ for that.” Tilly hugged Lynn then hugged Paul again. “And thanks for not arresting me. Although Landry hopefully would have tried to bribe you if you were going to press charges.” She shot her husband a look.
“No, I wouldn’t have,” Landry said. “We might be well-off, but they are far richer than we are.” He smiled. “However, I would have enjoyed seeing you sit in a cell overnight. It would have given you a certain reputation amongst the Hollywood types and only enhanced your attack-dog image.”
Tilly tossed him a dark glare. “Sadist.”
“As you’ve said before, love, duh.”
“I didn’t think you guys were going to be able to make it,” Lynn said.
“I moved the schedule around a little. I have to fly back tomorrow.” She winced as she looked at her hand again before covering it with the ice bag. “That’s gonna fucking hurt in the morning.”
“Serves you right, love,” Landry said.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Tony pulled Lynn and Paul aside again. “As I was getting ready to say before Tornado Tilly blew in, I have a job lead for you. We’ve got a DBA leaving, and I need someone. Probably won’t be as much as you were making before, but you’ll have benefits.”
Lynn had felt bad for Paul, knowing he really wanted to work despite not needing to. He hadn’t yet found another job.
And she’d finally admitted that if she was going to keep writing, she did need alone time during the day.
Paul looked at her. “What do you think?”
“Sir, it’s your career. I told you, even if you just go volunteer somewhere, I’m okay with it.”
He shook with Tony. “Thanks. What do I need to do?”
; “Come in Monday and talk to me. I’ll interview you, and we’ll go from there. I still have a few candidates I have to talk to, but I suspect you’ll be a shoo-in for the job.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
Lynn met Paul’s gaze and winked.
He winked back.
* * * *
Paul wasn’t sure how he’d managed to go from taking it slow to now committing to spending the rest of his life with Lynn, but he wasn’t going to question it. Considering all they’d been through, and that Lynn knew her own mind—and that things with her felt easy in an almost scary way—he didn’t want to wait.
Lynn insisted, after countless hours of talking and negotiating, that what would make her feel most secure would be taking this step.
For her to know that he was committed to her.
After they settled into married life for several months, they planned to shop for a house. She’d agreed he would set the budget for it, and it’d be a reasonable house, not some crazy mansion. Something that he’d be able to mostly pay for on his salary.
Another reason he insisted on working.
He wanted the boom to be there as their cushion, for fun, for when they wanted to travel, for retirement. Also, so that when Paul saw her stressing out too much, he could rein her in, order her to take a few days off from working, and she wouldn’t have to worry about the hit to her income if she didn’t get a new release out.
Give and take.
Ed had found out through Sarah’s attorney that she entered an inpatient treatment facility, voluntarily, in lieu of facing charges for showing up and threatening them and the deputies who’d arrested her. If she stuck with it, and followed her doctors’ orders after release, in a year all charges would be expunged from her record.
On the condition that she never contacted Lynn or Paul again.
Terrie and Mark walked over. Terrie’s grin told them she’d seen the whole thing.
“She got him good.”
“Did you wind her up?” Lynn asked.
“I might have forgotten to tell her everything was copacetic when we talked the other day and I invited her to the ceremony, yes.” She poked Paul in the chest. “I hope it hurts.”
“It does.”
“Good.” She hugged him. “I will kill you and hide your body if you hurt her again.”
“No chance of that.”
“Hey!” Lynn protested.
“No hurting you in the bad ways,” he clarified.
She grinned. “That’s better, Sir.”
Loren called for them all to gather around. Gilo, who was standing with Abbey, was now taking a look at Tilly’s war wound before he gently fist-bumped with her good hand. Paul hadn’t been warmly received around Venture, at first. Better treatment than Cris had received, but Lynn knew once they started attending again on a regular basis, and people knew that they were back together, everyone would come around.
“Gilo,” Loren called out. “We haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“I’m Tilly’s alibi,” he said, triggering a round of laughter. “So be warned, if he turns up dead, Tilly didn’t do it.”
More laughter.
Including from Paul, who knew he deserved it.
“I’ve basically been asked to be window dressing,” Loren said. “Paul and Lynn have written their own vows. So I’ll let them take this next part.”
Paul had handed the ice pack off to someone. He turned to Lynn and took her hands in his. “I don’t claim to be perfect. I do try to learn from my mistakes. One mistake I will not make a second time is letting you go.
“What we have is deep and powerful, and it frightens me in some ways. I love you, and yet you bring out the dark side of me. And you love that every bit as much as you love the rest of me. You want that part of me, all the parts of me, and you accept me for who I am.
“I promise here, in front of everyone, that, unless you tell me you want out, I’m here, and I’m not leaving. For the rest of my life, I promise to do everything in my power to protect and love and nourish you, mind, body, and soul. As my friend, as my lover, as my slave, as my wife, and as my life. Because you are my life. I’m not an incomplete person without you. But with you, I’m a better person. I want to strive to always be as good as the person you think I am, and more. And I want to spend the rest of our lives together as your Master and Sir and husband, our dark demons snuggling together every night.”
* * * *
Lynn had specifically avoided mascara and eyeliner for this very reason, because she was already crying. Paul had refused to show her what he’d written for his vows, and now she knew why.
She’d have begged him to just marry her there in the clerk’s office when they filed for the license, it was so perfect.
That they’d gone down the same trail in their vows without comparing notes was only more proof to her that this was meant to be.
She struggled to recall what she’d written and hopefully did it justice.
“A couple of years ago, I went from on top of the mountain to feeling like I got buried by a rockslide. I thought I was digging myself out, but then I realized, I wasn’t. I couldn’t. Because I’d had the love of my life, the man who knew my dark side, the man who wanted and needed to play in those places, his demons and mine, together. And he was the very same man who’d sent the rockslide. I gave up.
“But then one day, I saw a little daylight. I started trying to dig out again, and there you were, your hand held out to me. While everyone who loved me cautioned me not to trust, I couldn’t not trust you. Because you hadn’t meant to bury me. I knew you felt horrible about it. Even though I didn’t know it, you’d been trying to dig me out. And once we were together again, you swore you’d never let me go.
“If we can survive what happened, I know we can survive anything. Regardless of what anyone else thinks, you’re the man I want walking by my side. You’re the man who I want to trust. You’re the man whose collar I want to wear and whose ring I proudly wear. You’re the man I love and who I know will stand beside me. And I’m proud to be your friend, your lover, your wife, and your slave.”
Loren smiled. “Rings?”
Terrie handed Lynn Paul’s wedding band. She slipped it onto his finger and repeated what Loren told her to say. Now her gaze was fixed on Paul’s eyes, unable to pull her focus from him.
When he slipped the wedding band on her ring finger, she didn’t hear a thing he said. Fortunately, Mal and Kel were filming it and catching it from Paul’s non-punched side.
“By the power vested in me by the State of Florida,” Loren said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife and Master and slave. Kiss your girl, mister.”
He grabbed Lynn, dipping her low as he planted a long, sweet kiss on her that made her whole body throb in really good ways.
Lynn was vaguely aware of everyone applauding when he finally stood her upright again.
Her world began and ended with him.
But he wasn’t done. After they signed the wedding certificate, Paul led her over to a bench, where he’d laid out five implements.
“Your choice, pet,” he said. “You get twenty from whatever you pick.”
She hadn’t been allowed to wear panties or a bra under the beautiful, silky black sundress he’d purchased for her to wear.
As she perused the selection, which ranged from her favorite leather slapper to more sterner implements, she smiled, and her hand reached for the most severe item there, the hexrod cane.
She turned, presenting it to him in her open hands. “This, Sir. Please.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Because…?”
“Because I want my Sir’s marks on me. And I know you like the way I jump when you hit me with it.”
He smiled, the corners of his eyes turning up in that delicious way when she knew he was looking forward to inflicting pain on her because she was more than willing to take it.
“Over the bench, pet.”
She assumed the position
, her mind already spinning, falling, imagining what the pain would feel like and relishing it.
His hands caressed her ass, followed by the sensation of him laying the cane against her.
“I won’t make you count. Do you want them fast or slow?”
“Fast. And hard.”
“Noted. Ready?”
She smiled, her fingers curling around the edge of the bench. “Ready, Sir.”
He delivered them, hard and fast and at a blistering pace that had her screaming with agonized ecstasy by the time he finished. When his finger brushed against her clit, she screamed again, this time from the orgasm twisting through her nerve endings.
Reprogramming complete.
That’d been another reason she couldn’t come when he’d left. She’d needed that bit of pain to get over.
Needed Him.
He kissed her cheek. “My very good girl,” he whispered in her ear, even as she still trembled from the force of her orgasm.
He helped her up, wrapping her in a blanket and getting her settled on a couch. After cleaning the bench and putting their things away, he returned to snuggle with her, her mind a blissfully clear, empty haze.
The pain…
Him…
Happiness.
* * * *
Paul had hired a caterer, and their delicious dinner was apparently the main wedding expense, that and the gorgeous cake. Blue and purple and black accents over silver frosting with chocolate cake and raspberry filling.
Between the butt plug and the stingy pain in her ass, she was incredibly horny by the time they returned home. He didn’t even wait until they were in the bedroom, instead sitting her on the back of the couch, unzipping his slacks, and fucking her like that.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him, kissing him, holding on as he fucked another orgasm out of her while her sore ass rubbed against the couch. When he added his load to her pussy, he nipped her lower lip.
“Don’t let me go too far,” he hoarsely said. “Never let me go too far.”
“I won’t, Sir. I promise. Don’t you ever hold back.”
“I promise.”