Clifftop Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (32 page)

They watched for a few more minutes, Karl pointing out various members of the community to Allie and Brad. He seemed to know everyone, but Allie supposed that was inevitable since he’d been here so long.

“Who’s the guy with Jane?” Allie asked, seeing them sauntering together through the crowd with steven following discreetly behind them. They didn’t seem to be eating, but Jane was stopping every few feet to chat with people, greeting them as if they were dear friends that she hadn’t seen in years. Most people responded in a friendly manner to her, but Allie couldn’t tell how genuine the sentiments were, from either side.

Karl’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Let’s keep an eye on both of them. Jane is unpredictable, and she’s up to something.”

Just then Jane turned and looked straight at them. From halfway across the yard, she beckoned and called in a loud, imperious voice, “Brad! Come over here.”

Brad shot a surprised look at Allie, then at Karl.

“Go ahead, Brad, but be careful,” Karl said softly, acknowledging Brad’s unspoken question. “Allie, why don’t you go with him? I think she’s making her move. You’re going to want to be there.”

“Her move?” Allie shot him a nervous glance. Jane was staging a confrontation here, in front of the community? What did she think she was going to gain?

“You can handle it,” Karl told her with a wink. He nodded toward Brad, who was walking to where Jane and her little retinue were waiting for him. Jane smiled and held out her hand to him. He gave her a confused look, taking her hand as if he was going to kiss it but then dropping it awkwardly.

Jane laughed and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “That’s all right, sweetie,” she said. “I’ll teach you how to greet your mistress.”

Then she saw Allie approaching behind Brad, and her smile widened. “Oh, good,” she said, sounding like a movie villain who was about to explain her evil plans as she tied them to the railroad tracks.

“Jane,” Allie said, trying to sound friendly but not encouraging. “You look great, as always.”

Jane gave a tinkling, practiced laugh. “Thank you, my dear. You wouldn’t mind if I borrowed your boy for the evening, would you? You’re with Karl now anyway, and I have a scene in mind that I think Brad here would
really
enjoy.” She ran a finger down Brad’s cheek as she smiled seductively into his face.

Allie caught her breath. This
was
bold. Her first instinct was to reach out and pull Brad back. But she made herself stop and wait to see how he reacted. He might
want
to go, and she would only look like an asshole if she tried to stop him. It might be a perfectly normal thing for people in the community to do, but in this case it would mean that Brad was choosing Jane over her. It wouldn’t have been the time or place she would have chosen to have this discussion with him, but it didn’t look like she was going to be given a choice in the matter. If Brad wanted to leave her, this was his opportunity to do it, very publicly.

Allie looked at Brad, who was staring at Jane as if he was a rabbit caught in the gaze of a cobra. Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, Allie said in a voice that she hoped sounded dominant, “Actually, no. I don’t loan out my submissive. Sorry.”

“
Your
submissive?” Jane gave her a surprised look then burst out laughing. “Please! Since when are
you
a dominant? You’re wearing a collar, for God’s sake!”

Not taking her eyes off Jane, Allie said to Brad in an undertone, “Is this what you want, liege?”

Brad turned to her. She couldn’t tell from his expression what he was thinking.

This is it, Allie thought.
Time to put up or shut up.
If she was going to be accepted by Brad as his mistress and by the community as someone who could run a business, she needed to take a stand and establish what and who belonged to her. Everyone was silent, watching to see what was going to happen. She looked at Jane’s smug, sneering face and summoned up all of the boldness she could muster.

“I am certainly a very inexperienced dominant,” she said, looking at Brad but speaking loudly enough for everyone in the yard to hear. “I know I have a lot to learn, and we’ve started to make changes to our relationship that could be very stressful for all of us. I love you, and I hope you’re interested in exploring the lifestyle with me, even though it’s going to mean putting up with a steep learning curve and a lot of mistakes. But it’s your decision, and I’ll understand if you’d rather be with someone who has more knowledge and skill than I do.”

Brad opened his mouth to say something, but Jane put a hand on his shoulder. “Before you make that decision, you need to listen to my proposal. I know the state that your finances are in. I know you’ve been using a home-improvement loan to fix this place up and you only have one income to live on. What are you going to do when the taxes come due? Do you really expect to make a living from having play parties here?”

Allie was stunned. “How would you know all that?” she asked Jane, her eyes narrowing.

“Oh, I have my sources,” Jane said airily. “Listen to me. You can’t count on
him
”—she tossed her head in Karl’s direction—“to make this place popular with the community. He’s had more investigations for abuse than you could count. Ask anybody here. They know about his past. And I’m aware that the bank is about to start collection proceedings on the loan you took out. But if you sell me a half interest and let me manage the place, we can be profitable within two months.”

Allie was still staring at her in disbelief. “First,” she said icily, “how do you know about our finances? And second, we have our own projects going. So I don’t think we really need your help.”

“Your own projects?” Jane repeated, laughing lightly and dismissing Allie with a wave of her hand, turning back to Brad. “I’m sure you do. Felix”—she indicated the shady character on her right—“is in the movie industry, and he can get us a steady income filming here. There’ll be cute little models running around all the time, and you can have your pick. Won’t that be only fair, since Allie is sleeping with Karl now?”

A buzz of whispers went around the group. Allie glanced at Karl. His arms were folded, and there was a grim expression on his face, but he wasn’t making any moves to come and defend himself. He was waiting to see what her loyalties were, just like she was waiting to see Brad’s. What an odd situation, Allie thought, turning back to Brad. She had the urge to beg Karl to take over and handle the situation, but she knew this was between her and Brad and Jane.

Brad finally broke the silence. He took a step away from Jane, shrugging off her hand. “I’m not interested in your proposals, personal or business,” he said to her. “Karl is our partner in the business and in a polyamorous sense. I know about the abuse allegations, and I’m satisfied that Karl wasn’t guilty.” He knelt down in front of Allie and took her hand, looking up into her face. “My lady, I pledge myself to your service. I don’t care that you are sleeping with someone else. He’s our partner, and he is what we needed in our lives. You’re right that it’s probably not going to be an easy road, but we negotiated everything that’s happened, and I don’t feel the need to jump into bed with someone else just because you have another partner.”

Allie stared into his face, speechless. He smiled at her. “I know we’ve got a bit of a financial mess here,” he said, glancing at Jane. “But I’m confident that situation is about to change. We have our Sir, our friends, and a new community to help us through it. We don’t need to be the lapdogs of a woman running a porn studio.”

There was a motion to their right, and they both looked around to see Beth stepping forward from her place by the grill.

“I’m not going to stay quiet anymore. You’re right, Jane,” Beth began, and Allie stiffened. “We do know about Karl’s past, and we know about yours, at least in connection with our community. I was there the night that Sandy called the police. It was the Sandy Harrison report, am I correct?” She looked for confirmation to Allie, who nodded. “I thought so. Sandy had begged Karl for weeks to let her experience a single-tail whip. Karl was reluctant, but we all thought Sandy would go to someone less experienced and more reckless if he continued to refuse, so he agreed. As we expected, she couldn’t handle it. After only a couple of minor flicks, she began screaming. Of course, Karl stopped immediately, but she was always a drama queen. I seem to recall you being there also that night, Jane, and taking Sandy to another room to ‘calm her down.’ It was shortly afterwards that the police showed up.” Beth had been watching Jane’s face as she talked, but now she turned back to Allie. “The police in Grandpointe are familiar with our lifestyle. They had to do a report, but they were very well acquainted with Sandy and her accusations of abuse against almost every man she dated. They spoke to all of us who had been present and concluded that nothing nonconsensual had happened. I’ve always suspected Jane herself of making a lot of the calls to the police that involved Karl or your father. I’ve never been able to prove it, but when she left town things quieted down a lot.”

“Thank you, Beth,” Karl said quietly from his edge of the group.

“Just setting the record straight.” Beth went back to her grill, exchanging nods with him.

“That’s very sweet, but it doesn’t alter the fact that you simply can’t afford this place,” Jane said impatiently. “steven here is a vice president of Grandpointe First National Bank, and he can attest that they are losing faith in you as a borrower and business owner.” She put out a hand to draw steven to her, but instead he stepped to one side, avoiding her.

“Actually, after seeing the obvious support shown by all of you this weekend, I should be able to persuade the bank to extend a little more time on the loan,” he said. “I admit we’ve been a little nervous about it, but I was talking to Karl about the new business plan, and Charlie and Conrad were telling me about some of their ideas. I’m pretty confident they can make a go of it. Since Karl is becoming a partner, we can take into account his credit as well as Brad and Allie’s.” He smiled at them. “You probably don’t recognize me without a suit and tie, but I originally wrote up your loan for you. You can disregard the letters you’ve been getting. Just stop by the branch next week and I’ll take care of the extension for you. Jane, I don’t know where you got your information, but I can assure you that we will find the leak and put a stop to it.”

“What is this, the townspeople rallying around Jimmy Stewart to save the bank?” Jane snarled at the group in general. “You people are pathetic. This place could have been a real moneymaker, for all of us. And you’re going to let them turn it into some kind of community center?”

Allie took a small step forward. “Personally, I think that’s a great idea,” she said, looking around. “I don’t want it to be known as a porn studio. I’d rather it was a place for all of us to get together as a community. I think my dad would be very happy about that if he were here. We can invite speakers, have classes, meetings, parties, and weekend getaways. Or it can just be a place to come so you can run around naked without the kids catching you. You’re all welcome here any time—at least most of you.” She looked pointedly at Jane and Felix. “I’ve seen that we have enough friends and enough creativity between us all that I’m sure we can come up with lots of ways to keep the place running. I think I heard a rumor about photography and painting lessons?” She turned and looked at Karl, who nodded, a grin growing on his face.

There was a murmur of approval from the group. One or two people clapped and someone called out, “We’ve got your back, Allie!”

Allie felt three or four inches taller. She looked around at the smiling faces. “I hope so. I really don’t know a lot about this lifestyle yet, so you are going to need to help me figure things out as we go. I can already tell that I’m going to enjoy the process.” She turned to Jane, who was glaring around with a look of disgust. “I think it’s time for you to leave, Jane, and please take your friend with you.”

Allie had a nervous minute wondering what the other woman was going to do. Jane wouldn’t be able to run fast in her tight dress, but Allie could be in a lot of trouble if Jane was a good aim and decided to throw one of those five-inch stilettos at her. They looked deadly.

She glanced around the lawn, and her gaze landed on Dave. He was standing as if ready to intervene in case of violence. The dogs both had their masks on again and were tensed next to him at full attention. She turned back to Jane, smiling wickedly. Her voice took on a deeper, more dramatic tone. “I asked you to leave. I’ll give you three minutes, and then we’ll release the hounds!”

The whole yard burst into laughter at that, and Jane stalked out through it, shooting murderous glances around her as she went. The two dogs strained at their leashes, doing their best to bark furiously. Dave seemed to be trying to scowl fiercely, but there was a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Chapter 28

Allie wouldn’t have recognized the main room of the barn if she hadn’t known where she was. The lights were low, there were candles mounted into the walls, and all of the dungeon equipment had been cleaned up and moved into the central area. Techno music was playing in the background, and that, along with the long, dark shadows that danced in the candlelight, gave the place a surreal, mysterious air. The walls were hung, as Brad had said, with a combination of pictures, some of which she recognized as the ones Karl had shown her. Allie felt a shiver of exhilaration go through her. The air felt different, as if she had stepped into another universe, and she half expected to see vampires or ghosts lurking in the dark corners.