Master of the Abyss

“Like bondage and BSMD”-Morgan frowned-“or BMDS.”

“BDSM, doofus, and swingers and gay clubs. Whatever.” Wyatt scratched the three-day-old stubble on his cheek. He never shaved when he was on the trail with a group. “If they have a… specialty…weekend, they’ll black out the days, so we don’t book clients then.”

When Mufasa glided over, Kallie leaned down and stroked the cat’s soft fur. “I guess that sounds all right.” Surely the clients wouldn’t do weird stuff in front of her.

“The thing is their…people…are going to want to…you know,” Wyatt said.

She gave him an exasperated look. “I don’t know what ‘you know’ means.” Then again, she might. Serena’s romance books were pretty…interesting. And Kallie had actually tried a few things when she was in college. Handcuffs. Spanking. In the books, BDSM had sounded thrilling; in real life, it had been a dud. Wouldn’t her cousins hit the roof if she mentioned that?

“Yeah. We told Logan you wouldn’t.”

She snorted. “Like you have more experience?”

Wyatt’s dark tan acquired a red hue. “Morgan and I have seen some, and we told Logan that we’re okay with it.”

“You have?” Whoa, new information here. “You are?” Who are you guys, and what did you do with my cousins?

“It’s not our thing, but we got around when we were younger.” Morgan waggled his thick brows. “San Francisco has everything.”

Wyatt glared at him. “Watch your mouth.”

Kallie sighed. Her cousins usually treated her as one of the guys. With Uncle Harvey’s “Everyone is equal in this house” rules, they’d been fine with her being a guide, but perversely, equality didn’t include anything having to do with sex. If they could dress her like a nun, they would, and Wyatt, with his love of the Old West, was the worst of them all.

“Don’t worry about it, Kallie,” he said. “You’re not going to guide any of the lodge’s…special…guests.”

The sense of insult was instant. “That’s pretty sexist of the Hunts. I’m as good as you guys, probably better.”

Morgan grinned at the long-standing competition of “who’s best,” then sobered. “It wasn’t the Hunt’s decision, cuz; it was ours.”

“But…why?” Her chest constricted painfully. Were they trying to ease her out of the business? Hadn’t everything been going well?

“Kallie, these people are doing…” Wyatt’s color grew close to that of a beet. “Those people might have sex-in the open. In front of you.”

“Oh, honestly.” She shook her head. “Listen. If they do weird things in the forest, I’ll just close my eyes.”

“Even if we agreed, Logan insists the guides need to be comfortable with guests, uh, playing during a hiking trip. And you’ve never even seen anything…”

She should take the out. She wouldn’t have to go to the lodge and would be able to avoid Jake. But she’d worked too hard to fit in and be part of the business…and to live here with them. They were the only relatives who had let her stay, and she wasn’t going to risk their love for something as stupid as discomfort. Besides… “It sounds like the lodge will bring in a fair amount of business. We can’t afford to have one of us three not handling some of it-it’d screw up the scheduling big-time.”

From the unhappy expression on her cousins’ faces, they’d realized that too.

She sighed. “So how does Logan suggest we solve the dilemma of me not being adequately informed about ‘you know’?”

“A BDSM club will be at the lodge this Friday,” Morgan said. “He offered to show you around and explain things.”

Wyatt folded his arms over his chest, looking stubborn. “We told him you wouldn’t be involved.”

“Guess you’ll have to tell him different.” Kallie crossed her arms too and gave him the same look back. “‘Everyone is equal in this house,’ remember?” She could see they were torn in two directions-wanting to keep her safe and acknowledging the business concerns. But they couldn’t win against Uncle Harvey’s maxim.

Wyatt raked a hand through his hair. “Kallie. Even if we let you-”

“You can’t stop me, dude.”

He leaned over and squeezed her arm, his brown eyes concerned. “Morgan’s got a fishing group booked, and I’m going to be guiding that mountaineering bunch. You can’t go to that place by yourself. We need to wait for another party, when we’re available to go with you. ”

“And that will be how long?”

“Another six weeks,” Morgan said.

She rolled her eyes. “If you think about it, you might realize that I’ll be by myself if I’m guiding them. I might as well go by myself now. Besides, won’t Logan watch out for me?”

They still looked unhappy.

“Tell you what-I’ll close my eyes whenever something looks interesting.”

* * *

Morgan and Wyatt had felt guilty, and Kallie had taken full advantage of them. They ended up taking her turns at shopping and kitchen duty for a week, and she wouldn’t have to guide that ego- ridden group of yuppies on Monday.

It helped just a little when contemplating what was to come.

On Friday night, she pulled her Jeep into Serenity’s small parking area and turned off the ignition. After a glance at the lodge, she laid her head on the steering wheel in pure misery.

Jake would probably be in there, damn the man. She’d fallen for his looks on first sight-what woman with a hormone in her body wouldn’t? But it was the little glimpses she’d caught of him that had done her in: plucking old Mrs. Peterson’s grocery sack from her arms and carrying it to the car, kneeling to admire five-year-old Olivia’s new kitten, helping push Dan’s car out of a mud hole in the pouring rain. He simply assumed it was his job to help the weaker ones-he reminded her of Uncle Harvey. Yeah, she’d fallen for more than his body.

After climbing out of the Jeep, she scowled at the number of cars in the lot and her doubts rose. There must be a lot of kinky people at the party. But still, that didn’t bother her as much as the Jake Hunt dilemma. Maybe she should have tried to explain her discomfort to Wyatt and Morgan…

Guys, it’s like this: First, if Jake frowns at me like he usually does-as if I’m dog meat-my feelings will be hurt. I’m liable to kick him, and that’s considered bad for business relations.

Second, if I have to watch him…doing…some woman, well, that will hurt too. It was bad enough getting secondhand reports from her friends. How wonderful Jake was in bed, how thorough, how caring. She frowned. Wasn’t it odd they’d never done anything kinky with him? Maybe only the lodge guests were into the BDSM stuff, and he wasn’t. Not that it mattered to her what he did in his bed. Nope.

Third, if he looks at me like he did last time-just the thought made her heart race-then I’ll go belly-up like a whipped dog, beg him to take me, and never be able to look him in the face afterward. Once again, poor business relations.

Oh, wouldn’t those confessions go over well with Wyatt and Morgan. She snickered. Although they knew she dated, they never allowed themselves to think about what that might mean.

She kicked the Jeep door shut and walked into the wide clearing. The cool night air, scented with pine, ruffled her hair. Lights glimmered from the small cabins in the trees, knee-high solar lanterns