Mac looked up as she walked in. She felt a cautious mask descend. Something she’d never felt from him before.

“Can I interrupt you?” she quietly asked.

He nodded.

“I want to understand. About you and Sully. Why you can do this with him.”

“Does it matter? Sully’s told you, you can stay here with us as long as you want. When he says that, he means it. I agree with him.”

He laughed. “See? He did ask my opinion on that.”

She took a deep breath. “I want to understand what you two have.

I want to be able to get it.”

“Why? It’s between me and him. We’ve already told you we’ll never force you to be part of us like that. As long as you let us do our thing, respect what and who we are, it’s okay.”

Her face felt hot, flushed, throbbing as her pulse pounded. “I want to understand,” she carefully said, “because I don’t understand it. But I want to.”

He watched her for several long, silent moments. Her face heated even more under his steady gaze. “Close your eyes,” he softly commanded.

She did.

“Don’t open them,” he said in that same soft, steady voice.

She heard him push his chair back and stand. She tried to listen for him, but his lack of clothing made it impossible.

Then she felt his breath against the back of her neck. When he whispered near her left ear, she flinched. “Trust doesn’t happen overnight.” He stepped away.

Her breath came in ragged gasps she struggled to control. Where would he be next? What would he do?

Then in her right ear, “Do you trust me not to hurt you?”

She nodded.

His fingers softly brushed up her left arm, making her shiver.

“Don’t move,” he whispered. “Don’t speak until I say so.”

His fingers disappeared. Then he repeated the action along her right arm and withdrew his fingers.

For a long moment, nothing. No sound, no movement, no hint of breath.

She jumped when she felt the gentle caress from his lips, warm and moist, along the back of her neck, above her neckline.

Her pulse thrummed in her throat.

His mouth disappeared.

“What do you feel?” he asked. “Tell me.”

She struggled for an answer. “I don’t know. What am I supposed to feel?”

“I can’t tell you that. What do you feel?”

“Horny.” She blushed even deeper, but his soft, amused chuckle warmed her further.

“I imagine you do.” Then he caressed both arms with his fingers.

She fought the urge to moan. “What else?”

“Scared,” she blurted out.

His fingers hesitated. “Of me?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s a good place to start then, isn’t it?” His fingers disappeared, and she sensed him step back. He next spoke from in front of her. “Fear prevents trust. You have to learn to trust, even if it’s only one step at a time.” She heard him sit. “You can open your eyes.”

He now sat at the computer again and stared at the monitor. She felt frozen, incomplete, on the edge of something and she didn’t know what.

“That’s all?”

“What do you mean?”

There should be more, shouldn’t there? “You didn’t…there wasn’t…”

He grinned. “I already earned myself ten with the cane.”

Clarisse fought and lost against her frustration. “Dammit, I want answers, not fucking Yoda!”

He leaned back. She glimpsed a frown, a hint of the expression he wore on the boat. “You have to learn when to appropriately trust. You can’t have everything your way. I’m not saying trust everyone all the time or even in the same way.”

He turned toward her. “If you’re saying you want me to take you to bed and fuck your brains out because you’re horny, I can’t do that no matter how badly I want to. Sully and I have boundaries in our relationship. We don’t cross them without discussing and agreeing first. That’s part and parcel of having trust in each other.”

Fuck her brains out? She swallowed to form spit. That’s exactly what she wanted him to do, God help her, and the fact that an immediate flood of moisture pooled in her sex confirmed it. “I didn’t ask you to do that,” she said. But dammit, she wanted him to.

He smiled, a slight, knowing curve to his lips. “You didn’t have to.” He turned back to the monitor. “When you can trust—really, deeply trust—then maybe we can talk more.”

“Can’t you be my…whatever? My Dom? Can’t you play with me the way Sully played with Alex and Doreen?”

“Is that something you want?”

She couldn’t say it. She nodded.

“Maybe one day.”

He didn’t say anything else. From the way he focused on his work, she realized the conversation was over. On shaky legs, she walked to her room and closed the door.

* * *

After she left, Mac leaned back and let out a deep breath. His cock throbbed, harder than ever. He didn’t dare touch it, not even to scratch, for fear of exploding. That would earn him an extra twenty-five in addition to the ten he’d get for what he had done with her, for kissing the back of her neck.

He’d like nothing better than to walk into her bedroom and order her to strip and spread her legs and spend all night there with her.

He closed his eyes and took several long, deep breaths to steady himself. Because he wanted to, that’s exactly why he couldn’t. He wouldn’t risk what he had with Sully.

They had trust. He wouldn’t betray it.

Sully called from the airport a little before midnight. When he walked into their bedroom shortly after one o’clock, Mac was waiting, naked, on his knees, the cane on the floor before him.

Sully pulled up short as he closed the bedroom door behind him.

“What’s going on?”

Mac didn’t lift his gaze. “I owe Master ten strokes.”

Still watching him, Sully walked around him and started removing his shirt. “What did you do?”

Mac inwardly winced at the cautious tone in Sully’s voice. The guarded fear. He closed his eyes and related his discussion with Clarisse. How he’d kissed the back of her neck.

Well worth ten. Hell, it was worth twenty-five to do it again. It wasn’t, however, worth putting Sully emotionally on edge over it.

Nothing was worth that.

Sully’s voice sounded soft and firm. “On the bed. Ass over the edge.”

Mac rushed to comply. He’d barely moved into position when Sully struck him, hard, across the ass with the cane.

He closed his eyes and anticipated the second stroke, but it didn’t come. Instead, Sully’s hand, warm and gentle on his flesh, stroking the mark. “That’s all that happened?”

“Yes, Master—” Whack!

Mac braced himself. The strokes felt harder tonight, but not as fast. Sully would draw it out.

Sully’s hand again, stroking. “How did that make you feel, kissing her like that?”

“I couldn’t touch my dick for an hour, I was so fucking hard.”

Whack!

The way his cock rubbed against the bedspread now didn’t help either.

“Are you hard, slave?”

“Yes, Master.”

Whack!

Six to go and his eyes already stung with tears. Damn!

“You could have taken her to bed right then, couldn’t you?”

“Yes, Mast—” Whack!

Mac struggled to control his breathing and his willful cock.

Dammit, he was so fucking horny he could barely stand it.

“You want to come, don’t you?”

“Yes, Master!” He tensed, anticipating, but the strike didn’t come.

“Stand up.”

Mac didn’t have time to consider the change in routine. He complied.

“Grip your cock. Both hands.”

He did.

“Start stroking, but you don’t come until I tell you or you’ll get an extra fifty.”

Mac fisted his cock, trying to keep his eyes on Sully.

Sully stepped behind him and took another stroke. Mac’s rhythm faltered as he struggled to hold back.

In quick succession, the rest of the strokes fell. “Now,” Sully ordered.

Mac’s climax exploded, his juices coating his hands as the pain in his ass drove him over the edge hard and fast.

Sully stood beside him. “Show me.”

Trembling with exhaustion and release, Mac lifted his hands.

“Lick them clean, slave.”

Mac did, wishing it were Sully’s come and struggling not to get hard again.

Sully reached over and tugged on one of Mac’s nipple rings, then the other. “You’ve been a good boy for me, have you?”

“Only that, Master. What I told you.”

Sully stroked Mac’s cheek in a softly tender way. “That pleases me. You know honesty is always rewarded.” He stood in front of Mac and unzipped his slacks, freeing his cock. “I know what you want. Go ahead. On your knees.”

Mac fell to his knees, grabbed Sully’s hips, and greedily sucked his cock. The feel of his lover’s hands tightly fisting in his hair, holding on as he fucked his thick cock down his throat only intensified Mac’s already growing need.

“Swallow every drop, slave,” Sully ordered.

Sully fucked his face, hard, ramming his cock into Mac’s mouth.

Mac stayed with him, not missing a beat, careful not to hurt him with his teeth and finally giving up the fight to keep his own cock soft.

Mac closed his eyes and enjoyed every second. Harder and faster until he sensed the change in Sully’s pace.

“Now, slave.”

Mac sucked, hard, swallowing, moaning at the taste of his Master in his throat. Sully fell still, the hard, firm grip in Mac’s hair changing, loosening, tender strokes along Mac’s scalp as Sully’s thick member softened against Mac’s tongue.