STORY EXCERPT

Michael folded one of the paper bags and set it on the counter before reaching for the other. “Would you like to come to the bar tonight and have a drink? Maybe some ribs?”

“No. Thank you. Tonight I plan to take a long shower and curl up with a book. I’m dead on my feet.”

John inclined his head. “Fair enough. How about tomorrow night? There’s a nice Italian restaurant in Tulsa that everyone loves.”

Tempted, Ava finished the last of the lettuce and turned to lean back against the sink. “Don’t you have to work?”

John shrugged. “Just to close. We hired more people so we can take time off when we want to.”

“Like when you go to the men’s club and bid on women?”

Michael met John’s glare with a grin. “That’s in the past.”

John shook his head, his frown deepening. “What the hell do you know about the men’s club?”

Ava went to the refrigerator and retrieved a filtered pitcher of water. “You do know that the women in this town talk, don’t you?”

John gave a disgruntled sigh. “Gossip, you mean. Look, we have no intention of attacking you. Just dinner.”

Michael leaned close, sliding a hand down her back. “I might even try to sneak a kiss. Nothing more.”

After reaching up for glasses, Ava lowered her arms again, the awareness in her beaded nipples sharp. “I don’t know if dating you is a good idea.”

John moved to stand behind her. Closing his hands over her upper arms, he bent to kiss the top of her head. “I hate that we scare you.”

“So do I.” Bowing her head, she poured herself a half-glass of water and gulped it down. She turned and made her way to the other side of the kitchen, both hands closed around the glass. “Being personal goes against the grain, and I’m trusting you to keep this to yourself.”

John took a step closer, stopping abruptly with another frown when she took a step back. “Of course. What happens between us stays between us.”

Lifting her chin, she took a steadying breath. “I’m a virgin. I think it’s only fair for you to know that. I can’t play the kind of games you play. I can’t take sex lightly or do it for fun. I’m just not made that way.”

John slowly closed the distance between them, watching her closely as one might do when approaching an injured animal, and took her hand gently in his. “Thank you for telling us. Your secret is safe with us.”

Lifting his head, he smiled, a tender smile that made her stomach flip. “And now I want you more than before, but I promise you, we won’t take anything that you don’t want to give.”

Looking up into his dark eyes, Ava smiled at the tenderness she found there. “I believe that you mean that.”

John ran the back of a finger down her cheek. “Trust needs to be earned and built up over time. I can’t do that making promises I can’t keep or lying to you.”

Ava bit back a moan at the desire in his eyes and the warm tenderness in his light touch. “Then I’ll be honest with you. I feel things when I’m with you and Michael.”

Michael grinned and moved closer. “Things? What kind of things?”

Ava pushed past them to move back to the counter and refilled her glass from the pitcher. “Telling you that would give you ammunition to use against me. Why would I do that?”

Michael’s smile fell. “Ammunition? This isn’t a war, darlin’.”

Ava shrugged, fearing she’d given away too much. “I’m afraid that you could make me want to do things that I’d regret later.”

Chuckling, John closed the distance between them, a finger beneath her chin lifting it again, allowing him to look into her eyes. “I promise that I’ll bring you home with your virginity intact. No matter how much you beg, neither one of us are gonna take you.”

Giggling at his outlandish promise, Ava set her glass aside. “And none of my clothes come off.”

“No.” John smiled and braced a hand on the countertop on either side of her. “And neither one of us is gonna let you take our clothes off, either. I will, however, let you kiss me.”

Ava glanced at Michael, who watched them steadily, his eyes dark and slightly narrowed. “And you?”

Michael’s lips twitched, but his gaze remained steady. “I’ll agree to whatever it takes to get to know you better. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to touch you.”

He glanced at her breasts, increasing the awareness there and beading her nipples even tighter. “ I might ask to, but you can always say no. Is that negotiable?”

Moving closer, he took her hand in his and lifted it, pressing it against his chest. “And you can touch me all you want to.”

Ava sucked in a breath, the feel of his hard, warm chest beneath her palm and the prospect of him touching her so intimately creating an excitement that made her tremble. “I think I’d like having dinner with you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Stirring the brush in the cup, he worked to create a lather again. “And if I can earn your trust, and do what I want to do to you while making sure you get a lot of pleasure from it, you’re going to let me do it again and again.”

“You’re devious.”

Michael moved between her legs, bending her knees and spreading them wide. “And you’re enjoying it.”

He picked up the brush, coating it with thick lather and spreading her folds. With slow deliberation, he ran the brush over her folds, lightly stroking her clit with every pass. “Making sure you enjoy everything we do to you is the key to make you want more. When your virginity is taken, it’s gonna hurt.”

“How badly?”

“A sting. It won’t last.” He delved into the cup for more lather and resumed smoothing it over her folds and using the brush to tease her clit. “But the next time we take you, you’ll remember the pain and stiffen up because you think it’ll hurt again. It won’t, but it’s something we’ll have to get past.”

Tightening her butt muscles, she rocked against the brush, frustrated that he wouldn’t give her clit the friction she needed. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“Get you very aroused and distract you. Now be very still. It’ll be easier if you hold your breath on each swipe of the blade.”

Setting the cup aside, he picked up the straight razor, using his fingers to hold her skin tight. “Take a breath. Hold it.”

Ava held her breath and gripped the bedding as he slid the razor over her sensitive skin.

“Breathe.” Glancing up at her, Michael wiped the blade on the towel. “You’re being so good.”

Looking down, Ava met his gaze, warmed by the affection in it and the praise in his words. “Is that the kind of thing a Dominant says to a submissive?”

Michael’s lips twitched. “Hold your breath again.”

Holding her breath, she closed her eyes, smiling when he spoke as he slid the blade over her again.

“You need to know when you’re doing something right as well as when you’re not doing what I expect. It’s my job to guide you. Breathe.”

She watched him wipe the blade on the towel, leaning back again. “And what if I do something wrong?”

“Then I’ll guide you.”

Raising a brow, she looked down at him again. “And what if I do something wrong on purpose?”

Smiling again, he pressed her folds open and poised the blade above them. “Hold your breath and be very still.”

He slid the blade along the inner side of her fold, somehow managing to brush the back of a finger over her clit with every swipe. “If you misbehave, I’ll need to determine why.”

Ava waited until he lifted the blade again, bristling at the word. “Misbehave?”

Wiping the blade, Michael looked up at her, holding her gaze with his unreadable one. “Misbehave. You’re gonna have to live by a set of rules, such as letting us know where you are at all times. You’ll know where we are, too. If you’re sick or not feeling well, we need to know it.”

“And in bed?”

“We want free access to do what we want to do to you. If you don’t like it, that’s one thing, but if you’re being belligerent, it means that you need attention. A spanking and some attention to that sweet ass should put you right back in line again.”

“Nat and Jesse were right. The men in this town are arrogant.”

Michael grinned. “They seem to have adapted nicely. You will, too. Be still.”

By the time he finished, her clit felt double in size, and there was an incredible awareness where she’d been shaved.

After wiping her clean, he bent his head and ran his tongue over her mound. “So beautiful. Nothing hidden.”

Gripping the backs of her knees, he pushed them up and wide and licked at her slit. “It’s gonna be more sensitive here, something that I think you’ll learn to appreciate.”

Ava moaned and squirmed, but his firm hold didn’t allow her much movement. “And you?”

“Oh, I appreciate it already. Let me show you how much.” Without warning, he closed his lips on her clit, using his tongue and gently sucking.

Already sensitized, Ava writhed restlessly, crying out when he released her legs, letting them fall to his shoulders as his hands slid up her body to her breasts.

The attention to her nipples heightened the pleasure even more.

Her clit burned, and suddenly a rush of shimmering heat washed over her, the pleasure even more intense than with her first orgasm. Stiffening, she cried out, the bliss growing stronger when he tightened his hold on her.

He slowed the caress to her clit, keeping her held in the grip of her orgasm.

Ava moaned when the pleasure crested and eased, struggling to catch her breath again.

Michael lifted his head, stretching out beside her, and gathered her close. “Thank you for trusting me, baby. We have so much pleasure ahead of us.”

Even though his crooning tone and the warmth and security she felt in his arms unnerved her, she couldn’t resist closing her eyes and cuddling against him. “I like the pleasure.”