Brei Betzold - Tribal

“Will do.”

“So how long have you two been together?”

I chuckled, that was Devi, she never missed anything.  “About eight months.”

“And I am just now figuring it out, damn, I am slipping.”

“You’ve been a little busy.”

“That’s true,” she muttered.

I glanced over at Ash who was beet red.  I guess she hadn’t realized her boss knew about us.

“You okay?” I whispered to her.

She nodded but didn’t look up at me; I didn’t know why she was embarrassed.

“So you don’t have a problem with it, do you?” I asked not really caring for me, but I knew Ash did.

“I don’t give a damn, as long as you keep everything zipped around my kids, but that goes for everyone.”

“Yes, I already received that lecture after X in your kitchen.”

She nodded.  “Everyone did.”

“So we’re good?”

“Yeah we’re good, just be nice to her or I will kick your ass.”

“I would expect nothing less from you.”

She smiled over at me. “As long as you’re both happy, I am happy.”

“Thanks, Devi.”

“You’re welcome Cris, now get out of my kitchen unless you want to help cook.”

I knew when to get the hell out, so I went in with the guys.  We quickly got into talking about music, tattoos, and bikes. 

Ash

I watched Cris walk out of the kitchen, then looked back at Devi.  “You’re sure this is okay?”

Devi shrugged.  “Is it really my place to say that I am or am not okay with it?” she asked looking me in the eye.

“I just don’t want this to screw up my job here.”

She nodded still watching me. “I can understand your concern over that, but I’ve never told you that you couldn’t date anyone from my tattoo shop, that rule has only ever applied to the band.”

Mags snickered and Devi shot her a glare.

“I am starting to think that a rule of all employees will be made though,” she mused.  “I keep losing my best and favorite employees to these guys.”

“You… You’re firing me?” I stuttered.

“Of course not, but I know Cris and he keeps his private life private so if he’s making it public then it’s more than just play between you two.   I just don’t want to see either of you hurt.”

I nodded a little confused by this.  “I can understand that.”

She looked me over once more.  “I don’t think you do, at least not yet.  You will though, Cris has been hurt before,” she said sadly, “and I don’t want to see that happen again; he’s my friend.”

“I’ll try not to hurt him.”

She nodded again and gave me a small smile.

“So Ash,” Mags began smirking at me, “how’s Cris in bed?”

“Uhm,” I said eyeing Mags then looking over at Devi who was staring at Mags like she’d grown a second head.

“You can ignore her,” Devi said winking at me.  “I already know that Cris can be a bit unusual, no one needs to know what you two do behind closed doors.”

With that, she turned and walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of food Mags following her asking questions about her last comment.  It’s not that I was embarrassed about being Cris’s submissive, I just didn’t really want that information out to the general public.  Like Devi had said some things were better left behind closed doors.  It also left the question how did Devi know about Cris?  As far as I knew, he didn’t go around advertising his sex life or what it entailed.  Hell, it had taken two months of us dating before he told me about his less than vanilla likes; I just happened to enjoy the same thing.  After that discussion, we never looked back, and we’d spent the last six months learning each other in that aspect of our relationship.

It wasn’t like either of us wanted a Dom/sub relationship all the time, that lifestyle quickly became boring, in my opinion.  Once in the bedroom though, that was a different story, having someone I trusted to dominate me in bed just worked for me.  It wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy normal sex, I did and it had its place.  Only more often than not I liked more.  I liked being ordered, begging, and the bite of pain he could deliver.  That just wasn’t anyone’s business but Cris’s and mine though.  So I had every intention of finding out why Devi knew about Cris and his less than usual sex life.

I grabbed the salad I had been working on and brought it out amongst the squeals of Jaks, and cries of Cait.  I laughed when I put the food down and saw Jaks shoot Xavier with a Nerf gun then run away.  Seth was fighting with a tired Cait; it was past her naptime and she was fighting it hard.  I walked over in his direction when an arm wrapped around my stomach and pulled me back against a hard chest.

I didn’t need to look back to see who it was.  “Yes?”

“So how was it?” Cris whispered in my ear.

I shrugged.  “Fine, but we need to talk before you leave,” I told him.

He stiffened and let his arm drop.  “About what?”

“Later okay, I need to get Cait down for a nap and its lunch time.”

“Sure,” he muttered and I looked over my shoulder at him.

He gave me a strained smile before spinning and walking off towards where the guys from the shop were sitting in the family room.  I shrugged it off and went and saved Seth from a cranky little girl, I was working today.

Cris

“So I hear that you’re leaving soon; have a tour to finish?”

Sam took a drink of his beer and nodded.  “Yep.”

“What after that?” I asked Sam.

“We’re taking a break, working on a new album.”

“My Misery Muse, you and Max have some family stuff to deal with.”

Sam jerked his head to look at me.  “You know about that?”

“Yeah, Max told me, he wanted me to know so if he needed to take some time off, he could.”

“Yeah,” Sam said running his hand through his hair, “that makes sense.”

“I take it you haven’t told them?”

He shook his head.  “Don’t know how.”

“Well if you need anything, even someone to talk to.”

“Thanks,” he said softly.

“You’ll be gone six weeks?”

“Yeah, we have to finish the last leg of the tour we canceled after Drake’s accident.  None of us really want to, but it’s in our contract.  Once we finish this though, we’re done with that label.”

“I heard about that, congrats on buying your own label.”

“It should be interesting,” he murmured.  “Seth and I have wanted this from the beginning.  More control over our music, closer to home, it should be good.”

“So is it just you and Seth?”

“That’s the way it was planned but X wanted in also.  Eli wasn’t interested.  He just wants to beat on his drums, hang out, and not have any kind of real responsibility.”

“Yeah, but you can’t blame the guy.  His dad had been riding him since birth, all he’s known is responsibility.”

“That is true.  So what’s new with you and the shop?”

“Devi bought in as a silent partner in the shop.  We’re hiring a body modifier as well as some new tattoo artists.”  Sam nodded so I went on.  “And I’ve been dating Ash.”

Sam smirked at me.  “I know, how’s that going for you?”

“Ash or Devi?”

“Both,” he said grinning.

“Devi’s always been there, this doesn’t change anything.  She and I have been partners since the place opened; it’s just official now.  Ash and I are… I don’t know what we are but its good.”

“Good for you,” Sam said looking at the floor frowning.

“You okay?”

He nodded but was looking off in a different direction.  “Yeah, I’m okay just thinking.”

I cocked my head to the side and looked at my longtime friend.  “What’s her name?”

“Whose?”

“The girl you’re thinking about.”

He shook his head.  “No one, at least not how you think.”

“Then how is it?”

“A friend who needs help.”

“Someone I know?”

He nodded. “Yeah you know her, but she doesn’t want you or anyone else to know, hell,, she doesn’t want me to know.”

“Then how do you?”

“Would you believe by accident?”

I nodded slowly getting a bad feeling.  “If you need anything…” I began but he looked up at me and I could see the pain etched in his eyes.

“I can’t,” he said softly, “though I want to.”

I nodded reluctantly feeling like we were having two very different conversations right then.

“So how did Ash take you and Devi’s history?” Sam asked slyly.

It was my turn to look away.  “Haven’t told her.”

Sam stared at me, I could feel it even though I hadn’t looked back at him.

“Are you crazy or stupid?”

“A little of both?”

“Oh I would say a lot of both, you know she will find out.  Don’t you think it would be better if it came from you that you proposed to her not only boss but friend?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at him.  “Yeah?”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Haven’t gotten around to it?”

He shook his head taking a drink of his beer.  “You are a dead man,” he said then walked way still shaking his head.

I sighed and silently agreed with him.  This is why since Ash told me she needed to talk to me I had been avoiding both her and Devi.  Though if someone would have told her, especially Devi, I think my balls would have already been detached from my body.  Both women were scary when angry, though Devi’s moods had been all over the place lately.  That alone should scare me into telling Ash my history, as innocent as it was, with Devi.  I still couldn’t; I had tried more than once then stopped for some reason.