Hanging On 2: Surreal Neal [Awakenings 6] (Siren Publishing Menage and More) (15 page)

I watched Neal, whose gaze shifted between Drew and me. When I felt Drew’s hands on my waist, I cooperated, getting to my knees so that he could take me from behind. Blowing Neal had made me slick already, so Drew had no need to prepare me.

He sank into me, and I moaned around Neal’s cock, which made him arch and gasp.

“Good morning, Neal. You can’t come until your Mistress does.”

Neal nodded. His mouth moved to form words, and it took him a few tries to get anything out. “Yes, Chef.”

Drew knew just how to angle himself, the exact spot to hit. Neither of us meant to drag it out. He fucked me with glorious efficiency, and I came quickly. The sounds I made caused Neal to writhe. He definitely liked the vibrations. At one point he smoothed my hair away from my face, but he didn’t otherwise touch me because I hadn’t given permission, and neither had Drew.

My husband followed me over that cliff, and Neal came before Drew had finished spurting his seed into me.

Neal handed me a tissue from the nightstand so that I could spit.

Later, we had breakfast on the back patio. It overlooked a massive lawn and tennis court. I lounged with my feet on Neal’s lap. He massaged them casually, and whenever he stopped, I played with his manly bits.

“Neal?”

He finished sipping his coffee and set down his mug. “Yes, Mistress?”

“Sophia.” I brought us out of the scene because I wanted to make sure he felt no pressure.

Neal flinched, and his shoulders tensed. I’d been too abrupt.

I put my feet on the ground and reached to squeeze his wrist. “We want to ask you something, but I want your head firmly out of sub territory beforehand.”

That didn’t relax him at all. I glanced to Drew, who was casually slouched in his chair. He finished a bite of toast and licked his fingers. “We’re heading to Elysium tomorrow. You heard us talking about it earlier this week.”

Neal nodded, but his wary posture didn’t change.

I circled my fingertips on the sensitive part of his wrist. “We want you to come with us.”

He hadn’t been expecting an invitation. He sat back, withdrawing his arm from my touch. “I have to work.”

I smiled tightly. “I’m sure your boss can make other arrangements.” It wasn’t like Neal had been promoted to head chef or anything. Those positions were earned through time and talent. Drew had high standards, and employees found there were a lot of hoops to jump through to gain his respect.

He shot me a thunderous look that bordered on bratty. “How would my boss explain my absence to the other employees?”

I hadn’t seen this side of Neal before, but if he thought he could intimidate me, he was mistaken. I opened my mouth to deliver a set-down, but Drew beat me to it.

He nailed Neal with an icy glare. “Your boss doesn’t owe anybody an explanation. Even if anybody thought to question the coincidence, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to voice anything. If you don’t want to go, then just decline the invitation. Don’t attack Sophie.”

Neal lifted a brow. “Because she’ll punish me? Do you think I’m afraid of her?”

I itched to take him down, but I knew that a show of physical force wasn’t what he needed. It would only make matters worse. I rose to my feet, traveled the two steps it took to put me in front of Neal’s chair, and I leaned down, casting my shadow over him so that he could see nothing but my face. His bratty expression evaporated, and he stared at me with wide, wary eyes.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me, Neal. However I will not tolerate disrespect. We’re negotiating right now, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you won’t be punished for insolence.” I drew my fingertip down his nose and over his lips. “We’re going to start again. This time, leave your hostility out of it.”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond. Somebody had trained him very well, yet he had obvious trust issues. Given what he’d been through—and I knew I didn’t know half of the story—I didn’t blame him. I could, however, help him work through those problems.

Drew and I had a silent conversation for a second, reaffirming that we did, in fact, still want Neal with us.

I sat down and put my feet back on Neal’s lap. He stared at them, but he didn’t touch them.

I swigged the last of my coffee. “Neal, Drew and I would like you to come to Elysium with us as our guest. We leave Monday and return Friday.”

Neal nodded. “Okay, but I want possession of my round-trip ticket. It stays with me.”

That wasn’t unreasonable. I exchanged a glance with Drew, who indicated with the lift of a shoulder that he didn’t care.

He pressed his thumb into my instep. “And I’ll need to go home now. I have some things to take care of.”

* * * *

Neal fell asleep three hours into the flight. I didn’t know where he’d stashed his return ticket, but he had it tucked away somewhere. He’d slept at his aunt’s house last night, and we’d missed having him in our bed.

Drew and I watched him, crashed on his first-class seat. We’d been holding hands and chatting, but now we lifted the arm rests, and I scooted closer. He slung his arm around me, and I snuggled my head against his shoulder.

Though he’d woken me early to have sex before we finished packing for our eight a.m. flight, I wasn’t tired. The idea of having Neal to ourselves on a tropical island sent my libido into overdrive. If we’d been on a private jet, I would have ordered Neal to strip, and we would have begun our vacation early.

“I’m glad we invited him,” Drew whispered to me. “This feels different—being with him.”

Yesterday Drew’s parents had come over, bringing Lila, their daughter who lived out of state and had surprised them with an impromptu visit. We hadn’t talked too much about our night with Neal, and by the time our unexpected guests had left, we had been too exhausted to do more than go to sleep.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Very different. I wonder if it’s because he’s only ever been ours together?”

Drew considered this aspect. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s just him. He’s the first one who has made me look forward to participating in any kind of S&M scene.”

“We could do that on the island. I don’t think our room has dungeon furniture. We’ll probably have to go to one of the public areas, and I don’t know how he’ll react to that. He might like to watch us, but I’m not sure if he’d want to be put on display.”

The hand Drew had parked on my hip stroked slow circles through the fabric of the comfortable yoga pants I’d worn for the long flight. “I thought that kind of thing wasn’t up to him.”

This was a conversation in which we had engaged before. I sighed. “Everything is up to him. He has the ultimate veto power.”

Drew thought about it, and I was pretty sure it was for the first time. It wasn’t that he’d ignored me for four years. It was more like the information hadn’t been relevant. That had changed. “Like when he agreed to a spanking or when he showed me how to pull on his sac.” Drew nodded as he made sense of what had happened. “Okay, I get it. I’m not sure I understand this new urge I have to do those things to him.”

I smiled into his shirt, and I knew he felt the move. “You know he gets off on it. The power rush comes from giving him what he wants, but on your terms. Think about how it made you feel to deny him an orgasm and then push him so that he couldn’t stop it from happening.”

Drew shifted in his seat, and I knew he wanted to adjust himself, something he refused to do in public. This kind of talk was turning him on.

“You had no intention of letting him get to six,” I continued. “You set him up to take a spanking, and you both knew that’s what was going to happen. He consented because he enjoys the challenge, but also because he wanted to be spanked.”

With his trademark cocky grin on his lips, Drew leaned over and planted a kiss on my forehead. “I think I’m going to enjoy this vacation a lot.”

I woke Neal when the captain’s voice came over the loudspeaker to let us know we were about to land. The three of us retuned our trays to the upright and locked position, and we put on our seatbelts. While I didn’t mind flying, I hated takeoffs and landings. Drew held my hand, giving me solid reassurance. On my other side, Neal did the same. I looked over to see whether he was afraid, and he smiled at me, offering similar support. I was flanked by supportive and sexy men. Feeling secure and safe, I relaxed. In no time at all, the wheels were on the runway and we were stopped on the tarmac.

From here, we transferred to a boat. Elysium didn’t have a large airport, so people wanting to end up there had to fly to a nearby island, and then they had to either charter a noisy passenger plane or a quiet boat.

I’m glad Drew arranged for a water route. The fresh, salty smell of the ocean invigorated me, as did the tropical sun beating on my skin. I’d brought sunscreen, but mostly for my men. My olive skin rarely burned, though the harsher, more direct rays of the sun near the equator had done the trick before. I slathered some on my exposed skin, handed the bottle to Drew, and turned my attention to Neal.

“Strip.”

Neal glanced around, but nobody was in sight. Our short cruise was a private one. Most of Elysium’s customers were wealthy, and some of the locals had cultivated successful businesses ferrying groups of kinky people in well-appointed private boats.

“We’re the only people on the boat.” I didn’t have to give him assurances, but I did. I saw no reason to expect his complete, blind trust until he’d been with me for a while. That’s how relationships worked. Plus, I knew he wasn’t quite ready.

Drew made a strangled sound. “
Yacht
, Sophie. It’s not a ‘boat,’ and don’t let the captain hear you refer to this vessel as one.”

I did a visual sweep of my surroundings. I wasn’t a seafaring kind of person, and to me it just seemed like a large, luxurious boat. Since I’d been with Drew, he’d spent significant time trying to acclimate me to his lifestyle. He was of the opinion that I should be pampered, and I had grown to like being spoiled by him. Still, I shrugged away the distinction. We’d rented the vessel. It wasn’t like the captain was going to dump us overboard.

He shook his head with more drama than necessary, and the amused grin on his lips only added humor to his display of mock exasperation.

Neal snickered at our exchange, and he removed his shirt.

I poked at his jeans. “These too. Keep your briefs on for now.”

Lotioning Neal took some serious time. I had to make sure every exposed inch of him was covered with sunscreen, and it all had to be rubbed into his skin to prevent streaking. I began with his shoulders, and by the time I’d made it to his legs, Drew had joined me.

“You want him to keep his underwear on?” Drew rubbed Neal’s cock through the softness of Neal’s teal briefs. The poor man had been growing an erection the entire time I’d been administering to him.

“Tropical island,” I said. “We don’t want certain areas to get burned.”

Drew rose to his feet. Neal was a few inches taller, but Drew managed to dominate the space nonetheless. “Tell me your thoughts on public nudity.”

A shadow passed behind Neal’s eyes. I stood and put my hand on his arm, letting him know that I was there to support him without imposing my will.

He stared at my hand, avoiding Drew’s eyes. “If it’s all the same, this is as naked as I like to get in public. However if you want to strip down, I’m good with it.”

“Neal?” Drew wasn’t going to let him get away with the evasion. All that time spent with a Domme in the bedroom, and he’d definitely picked up on the subtleties. “What’s wrong?”

He took a breath and seemed to come to a decision. “I don’t want to limit you or Mistress, Chef. I know this place lends itself to slaves with little to no clothing and public sex, but I don’t care for either of those things. I know you don’t share that reservation.”

“We’d never break your hard limits,” I said softly. “But we need to you be clear about what they are.”

He nodded and brought his gaze up, locking eyes with me and then with Drew. “I dislike public nudity for no reason. If it’s part of a scene, then I’m okay with it, but if you’re doing it just to show me off, then I’m not.”

Drew’s jaw flexed, I think more out of surprise than anger. He nodded. “Okay. So you’re good with being naked as long as you’re being flogged or fucked.”

Neal’s granite expression cracked, and a smile appeared. “Yes, Chef. Would you like me to put sunscreen on your back? I wouldn’t want you to get burned or do anything that might limit your ability to move. Mistress, I would love to help you as well.”

Though I had the feeling that he wasn’t being completely forthcoming with us, I let Neal change the topic. He was with us for fun and friendship, not to have us pry into his personal life. If we had our way, that would eventually change. For now, I let it go. I let him have a turn at my back when he finished with Drew, and then I presented him with a collar.

“For the duration of our trip, I’d like you to wear it.”

Neal eyed the simple royal-blue snakeskin collar. He’d told me that bondage didn’t turn him on, so I had chosen something simple, with clean, masculine lines. It indicated ownership, and it lacked metal rings that would come in handy for tying him up.