meaning to me, Tally. Burn it when you’re done if you need to. Consider it a wedding present.”
Wedding present. Tally swallowed tightly. “One step at a time here,” she breathed in deep and hard. “One
Chapter Seventeen
“You’re so fucked!” Jesse took a seat at the small table on the far end of The Club’s main room and stared at Lucian and Dev in sublime amusement. “You know, I would feel sorry for you if I didn’t think you had brought it all on yourselves. Didn’t I warn you about her?”
Lucian finished the drink he had ordered earlier and shot his friend a brooding look. Beside him, Dev grunted in obvious ill temper. Tally hadn’t shown up at work and hadn’t answered the message they left on her machine or the one they left with the cell phone’s messaging service later that day. Neither man was in the mood for Jesse’s mocking laughter.
“Don’t you have better things to do than harass us?” Dev asked him. “I thought you had a wife to keep fucked. Go home and do your job.” Jesse laughed softly at that. “I’ve had mine today, have you had yours?” Lucian gave him a look filled with the promise of retribution.
“What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Dev growled. “Marriage suddenly staling on you?”
Jesse laughed again as he shook his head. “You two are like bears with a sore paw. I have it on the highest authority she’s going to be home later tonight. You should go back and teach her a lesson. The right lesson this time. She won’t be so eager to make trouble then.”
He was clearly delighting in tormenting them, Lucian thought. Jesse was no more a hard ass than any of them were. Though, sexually, they were all well aware of his hold on Terrie, and hers on him.
Lucian stared morosely around the room. Was it their sexuality that had caused Tally to run? It wouldn’t be an occasional menage; it was a lifetime commitment to two dominant males. Two men who were, defined by society, sexually depraved. Their every sexual desire hinged on their woman’s ultimate fulfillment, whatever that may be. They encouraged their women to relax all their inhibitions, to give in to even the most exacting pleasures.
“Jesse, you’re getting on my nerves tonight,” Lucian finally said with the barest hint of a smile. “Your marital bliss offends me.”
“Well, having your woman threaten my life this morning didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for me,” Jesse informed him with a disgruntled frown. “And I was trying to be nice to her, too.”
“That will teach you,” Lucian grunted, still uncertain exactly where they had gone wrong with Tally.
Jesse was clearly enjoying his smug amusement at the brothers’ expense. Lucian made a mental note to return the favor at the first available opportunity.
“Have you two thought that maybe you pushed her too far?” Jesse asked, his voice sobering.
Lucian sighed as he shook his head and leaned back in his chair. It was a question he and Dev had been asking themselves all evening.
“Hell, Jess,” Lucian finally sighed wearily. “The woman takes control to a whole new level. I’ll be damned if I haven’t given up on understanding how the hell her minds works.”
“I could have warned you of that,” Jesse grunted. “Why do you two think I let her believe she has me under control?” he asked them seriously now. “Tally functions at peak efficiency when she’s in control. You can’t conquer that woman. You have to gentle her. That’s a whole ‘nother ballgame from the one you’ve been playing.”
“Jesse, go away.” Lucian sighed. “I distinctly remember you forgoing advice with Terrie; now we’ll do the same thing.”
Jesse smiled at that. “Well, she surprised me too. Having her bring Tally in the bedroom scared the hell out of me. You don’t want to be restrained with Tally in the room.”
A frown snapped over Lucian’s brow as Devril seemed to growl beside him.
“Forget that night ever occurred, Wyman,” Dev snapped. “Amnesia could be a good thing.”
Jesse chuckled at the ire in Dev’s voice as he leaned back in his chair and regarded the two men with a striking absence of compassion.
“Have you two ever considered that breaking all that control at once could unleash a monster?” he asked them curiously. “In all honesty, I think I’d be scared if I were the two of you. Hell, I didn’t have anything to do with it and now I’m scared of her.” Lucian narrowed his eyes on his friend. Jesse was offering little in the way of solutions and much in aggravation. He glanced over at Dev and shook his head as wry amusement tilted his brother’s lips. They weren’t frightened of her. They were more frightened of losing her.
Lucian finally sighed roughly as he dragged his fingers through his hair in irritation. Hell, he was horny, half drunk and less than pleased with the world in general today. He didn’t need Jesse’s amusement adding to the mix.
“It may have been a miscalculation,” he finally admitted. “Not unfixable, but a miscalculation all the same.”
Jesse snorted. He would have said something more but a commotion in the outside hall had all their eyes widening at the sound of the precise, furious female voice that echoed from there.
“You put your grubby little paws on me again, you little twit, and you’ll be carrying stubs.”
“Terrie!” Outraged alarm filled Jesse’s voice as they all jumped from the table and rushed to the entrance hall.
There she was. Lucian blinked at the vision, not certain he was actually seeing Terrie Wyman exactly as she was dressed.
Skintight, soft cotton black shorts accentuated the long line of her legs. The matching sports bra-type top barely concealed the full curves of her luscious breasts.
Her flat stomach with its gold belly ring looked like the finest silk tanned a soft, golden brown.
Her hair was held securely back from her face in a tight French braid and she wore black sneakers on delicate feet.
“Cat burglars are dressing fine this year,” Lucian murmured behind Jesse as he held back his snicker.
Jessie took a brief moment to cast him a fulminating look before facing his wife once again.
“What the bloody damned hell were you thinking?” he snapped as her eyes widened then narrowed at the incredulity in his tone.
“That I was looking for my husband?” she replied with mocking sweetness. “You spend so much damned time here I was starting to wonder exactly what was going on.
And the goon at the gate wouldn’t let me in.”
“Did he know who you were, darling?” Jesse’s voice was dark, but smooth as silk, a clear indication that his patience and his temper were being tested.
A slender graceful shoulder shrugged as Terrie’s lips tilted in a sultry smile.
“Well, I didn’t mention any names,” she drawled sweetly. “Where would be the fun in that?”
Silence reigned for a full minute before Jesse turned to Lucian. His gaze was filled with amusement, though, rather than anger.
“I’ll warn you, Lucian,” he said mildly. “Only one person could have talked Terrie into such a stunt.”
Lucian’s eyes narrowed as Dev cursed behind him. Tally. It was a well-known fact that only Tally Raines could convince Terrie Wyman to get into any type of trouble.
“Come on, wife.” Jesse’s voice hardened when he turned back to his wife and her less than innocent smile. “I think it’s been too long since your last spanking.” Lucian would have commented on just that lack of threat if someone behind him hadn’t let out a low whistle and a muttered prayer for strength.
“Have mercy!” one of the members muttered from the doorway to the main gathering room. “I’ve been a good little boy after all, because here’s a glimpse of paradise.”
Lucian turned slowly and moved to the doorway. And there she was. The definition of carnal, insatiable lust. This wasn’t sin. This was an angel of pleasure. Every good little boy’s wet dream come to life.
Terrie had warned them that Tally’s years at the girl’s academy hadn’t been pleasant. It was obvious Tally was out to exorcise some ghosts.
