Little Bird (The Tangled Series) (17 page)

He nuzzled her, murmuring, “I’m sorry we got interrupted. I’ll make it up to you later. Promise.”

He followed Cara into the private room. Just as they entered, Savannah’s lips brushed against his neck and she sighed, “Yes, Master.”

Lee was so startled by Savannah’s response he nearly dropped her, but she held tight and he recovered quickly. Lee looked down at her and she tipped her head to meet his gaze. Her eyes sparkled with merriment. She thought she was being so funny calling him Master. Maybe later when they were alone he’d turn the tables on her and tell her she had to call him Master. He didn’t really care about that sort of thing, but it would teach the little minx a lesson.

Lee surveyed the room, looking for a place to sit with Savannah. The room was surprisingly nice for a sex club. Rich green fabric draped over the walls to give the impression of windows behind curtains. The walls themselves were exposed brick, weathered and old and the floor was hardwood. The furniture, on the other hand, was somewhat less classy. A small table with two chairs stood in one corner of the room and a brown couch with an end table sat next to the door. The middle of the room was dominated by a bondage table. When Cara sat in one of the chairs, Paul crouching by her feet, Lee headed for the couch. Taking a seat, he leaned back into the cushions and felt Savannah relax against him, sprawled over his chest. He kept his hands on her bottom, gently massaging her tender skin.

Cara watched Lee and Savannah for a long minute before finally asking, “So, how did you find me here?”

Lee dragged his eyes from Savannah to look at Cara. In his peripheral vision he could see Paul fidgeting anxiously, obviously frightened Lee was about to tattle on him. “Mike has his ways. I didn’t really think to ask.”

Cara narrowed her eyes. “I think you know more than you’re telling.”

Lee shrugged. “Does it matter if I do? I’d rather hear you explain why someone broke into my house and killed my dog.”

Savannah shivered against Lee and Cara turned to Paul, avoiding the question. “Go get a blanket and some hot tea.” As Paul hurried from the room she said to Lee, “She’s coming off the adrenaline high. You’re doing a good thing holding her and cuddling her. They always like that. But a warm blanket and a soothing drink will help, too.”

Lee snorted, amused by the assumptions Cara was making. “This isn’t my first rodeo, Cara.”

“No? I haven’t seen you here before.” She raised a perfectly shaped brow at him, her eyes narrowed.

“The Vault.”

“All the way to Baltimore, eh?” Cara looked surprised. “I should have known you weren’t new to this. It’s her first time though, isn’t it?”

Lee nodded, looking at Cara for a minute before asking, “Exactly how long were you watching before you decided to spoil the fun?”

Cara laughed. “The entire time. It was very enlightening.”

“How’s that?” He was softly running his hands along Savannah’s sides as he looked at Cara cautiously. Of course, he’d known she might arrive at any time, but he was vaguely unsettled that she stayed back watching, instead of making her presence known from the start.

Cara smiled and shrugged, a surprisingly affectionate expression in her eyes. “We were fucked up, Lee. In pretty much every possible way two people can be fucked up together. I’m glad to see you’re with someone who makes you happy now. That’s all.” She paused for a moment, laughing to herself before she added, “I think the nicest thing you ever did for me was sleep with Patty. And probably the nicest thing I ever did for you was leave. At least now we can both find someone who makes us happy instead of just continuing to make each other miserable.”

“I’m a little surprised by what evidently makes you happy these days, Cara.” Lee hadn’t meant it to be insulting, but of all the things he’d ever thought about Cara he’d never quite imagined her as a dominatrix.

“Oh, stop it. I’m trying hard to be nice.” Cara gave Savannah an appraising look before adding, “She doesn’t like me.”

“I don’t know why you would expect my girlfriend to like you.” Lee gave Cara a perplexed look, trying to figure out what game she was playing.

“Your girlfriend? The last I heard, you didn’t do the whole girlfriend thing. Oops, now she’s really giving me a dirty look.” Cara laughed before continuing, “Anyway, I don’t expect her to like me. I’m just trying to figure out if she’s jealous or if you’ve told her all about us.”

Before Lee could respond, Savannah spoke and he was more than a little surprised by the ferocity in her voice given she still lay against him, limp as a wet dishtowel.

“He does the girlfriend thing now and I’m certainly not fucking jealous of you.”

Lee had to try very hard not to laugh at the utterly stunned expression on Cara’s face.

“Well, I guess that answers that question. And, honey, whatever he’s told you about me, about us, I’m sure it’s all true. Just in case you had any doubts.” Cara turned her attention back to Lee and grinned. “I like her. She’s feisty. Although, a little on the mouthy side for a submissive, don’t you think?”

“I’m so glad you approve.” Lee’s voice was heavy with sarcasm but it softened when he added with a smile of his own, “And we’re working on the mouthy part.”

Savannah lifted her head from his chest to glare at them both. “I am not submissive.”

“Oh, is that how it is?” Cara laughed and shook her head. “Maybe you don’t know it yet but you certainly are. When he told you to take off your panties and lay across his lap so he could spank your ass you did it. Sure you were timid and uncertain, but you still did what he told you to do and you liked it. It’s not something you should be ashamed or embarrassed about. You’re giving him a great gift that a lot of women can’t or won’t.”

Savannah’s lower lip quivered, tears welling in her eyes. She sounded like a petulant child when she said, “But I don’t want to be a gift. That’s too much pressure. I just want to be me.”

Lee pulled Savannah against his chest, holding her tightly, as Cara stood up, crossing the room to sit on the couch next to them. As much as he had enjoyed seeing Savannah cry while he spanked her, he hated to see her cry like this, when she seemed so vulnerable. He was surprised by his own feelings of protectiveness.

Cara took Savannah’s chin in her hand, turning her head so their eyes met. “Shh, don’t cry. You’re coming out of subspace right now so you’re feeling extra emotional. But when you’ve had some time to think about it, you’ll realize being yourself, being you, is the gift. Look at you, all sweet and trembling in his lap and he looks like he’d kill anyone who even looked at you cross-eyed. He’s all puffed up and predatory. The gift is your trust and faith that he’ll take care of you. Just be yourself and he’ll take care of the rest.”

After all the ugliness that had passed between him and Cara in their former life together, Lee was surprised by her encouraging pep talk for Savannah and he was appreciative for it. He knew Savannah needed to hear it.

Savannah was wiping her eyes with the edge of Lee’s shirt when she asked, “What’s subspace?”

Paul returned to the room in time to hear Savannah’s question. As he closed the door behind him he said, “Subspace is where you go during a scene. To me it feels kind of like an out of body experience, like I’m totally detached from the scene and watching it happen more than I am a part of it. But I’ve heard other subs describe it as floating or flying. Afterward, when you’re coming back down, it’s kind of like crashing. You’re all sensitive and delicate. Mood swings, tired and weak. Sort of like being hung over or PMS, according to some of the girls.” He paused, suddenly looking anxious. “I’m sorry, Mistress, I shouldn’t have interrupted…”

Cara cut him off with a wave of her hand. “No, it’s okay. You know what Little Bird is feeling, so you can explain it to her better than either of us could.”

Paul and Lee were tucking the blanket around Savannah’s shoulders when she cocked a brow at Cara and asked, “You don’t know my name, do you?”

Cara laughed and leaned back against the arm of the couch. “I don’t. But it doesn’t matter. You don’t even like me.” Cara turned her eyes to Lee, smirking at him. “Speaking of names though, I couldn’t help but notice when you were spanking her out there and she was begging and pleading with you she kept calling you Levon.”

Lee snorted. Of course Cara had noticed. “Yeah, I have your mother to thank for that.”

Cara looked surprised. “My mother?”

“She called your Mom. She told her she’d gone to school with you but had lost track of you and wanted to get a message to you. They had quite the conversation.”

Cara rolled her eyes. “Oh lord, what did she say?”

Savannah grinned, snuggling into the blanket against Lee’s chest. “Well, she told me his name was Levon and how she always liked him. She was disappointed when you split up. And, apparently, she thinks he’s hot.”

Cara laughed. “Some people just can’t understand why a pretty face and a big cock aren’t always enough.”

Savannah was apparently warming up to Cara because she wiggled in his lap and giggled, “He does have a big cock.”

Lee coughed, choking. He had to put a stop to this conversation right now. His ex-wife and his girlfriend comparing notes on the size of his dick was not his idea of a good time. He gave Savannah a firm smack on the bottom and she huffed irritably. He guessed she wanted him to know he was spoiling her fun, but that didn’t particularly bother him.

Looking down at her with what he hoped was an appropriately stern expression, he scolded, “That’s enough, Little Bird.”

Cara opened her mouth to say something, a devilish look in her eye, when Lee cut her off, too. “Maybe we should talk about the reason we’re all here.”

Cara laughed, amused by his discomfort but she turned the conversation back to the topic at hand. “Did you find the pictures at the bank?” When Lee nodded she asked, “Recognize anyone?”

“Yes, one person. None of the others though. The government sign on this building threw us off for a bit, too.”

Cara nodded, as if that was what she had expected. “Right, the other two men, George Anders and Harry Langston, are both local businessmen. Nobody special, except for their business relationships with the Senator. As for the sign, this used to be a government building. When Geoff bought the site it tickled his perverted funny bone to leave it up.”

Lee narrowed his eyes. “So what’s Hartwell’s business with those other men?”

“Selling information to the highest bidder. Senator Hartwell has access to a lot of very important information. There may be others involved, passing information to him. I’m not sure. But he’s the one meeting George and Harry here and they take care of finding the buyer and disseminating it. They rely on the strong sense of privacy in the BDSM community. He has absolutely no connection to them outside of it so no one would ever link the three together.”

As Cara spoke, Paul knelt on the floor between them, reaching up to hold the tea cup he’d brought back with him to Savannah’s lips as she sipped. Lee felt a stab of possessiveness in his gut. He knew with absolute certainty Paul was not a threat, but another man catering to her in such an intimate manner was not something he could tolerate, regardless of the threat level. Snatching the cup from Paul, Lee said to Cara, “Can you prove any of this?”

Paul looked hurt and Cara rubbed his back consolingly as she sighed and said, “Well, I’m working on that part. I’ve gained a certain level of trust with the Senator and George. Not enough to get solid proof yet but we’re getting there.”

Lee cocked a brow. “And Harry?”

“Harry is more skeptical. It was his men that broke into your house.” She paused for a second, a look of real regret on her face. “I’m sorry about Meg, by the way.”

“You could have warned me.” Lee’s voice was harsh, accusing.

Cara shook her head, adamant. “I couldn’t actually. He told me beforehand he was going to do it. He wanted to get a reaction out of me and he wanted to know if I’d warn you. If his men had thought for even a minute that you’d been expecting them, my credibility would have been shot. I couldn’t risk it. The fact that I didn’t warn you, and that they didn’t find anything there, has put Harry at ease, at least a little about me.”

“Well, I’m glad to have served your purpose,” he snapped. Lee was still angry with her for not contacting him but, grudgingly, he could understand the position she’d been in. “What about your parents? Richmond isn’t so far away and if they were willing to come after me they may go after them, too.”

Cara nodded. “I thought of that. They left to visit my sister in Colorado this morning.”

“And you? This is a dangerous situation you’ve put yourself in.” Lee hadn’t loved Cara in a very long time but he didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. As was typical, she was chasing a story despite the personal risk. They’d been down this road together before, though this was, by far, the most dangerous.

Cara shrugged. “They don’t know where I’m staying right now. If anything, that’s what they really hoped to get from you. They don’t even know about the pictures. They aren’t going to hurt me here at the club, way too many witnesses. And if they don’t know where I’m living they can’t get to me outside the club. Just to be safe, even Paulie doesn’t know where I’m staying right now.”

“Well, it’s probably not going to help your credibility to be seen with me here tonight.”

Cara shook her head. “I don’t think Harry even knows what you look like. The guys he sent to your house were just some street thugs he paid to do the job. He doesn’t care about you; it wasn’t ever really about you. It was about trying to scare me. To be safe we’ll go back downstairs separately but I don’t anticipate any issues.”

“I see. Well, then I guess I can get going. It doesn’t sound like they’ll be coming back to my house any time soon and you seem to have this under control.” Lee nudged Savannah, urging her to get up.

She was climbing out of his lap when Cara said, “Wait. I was hoping…” Lee looked at her dispassionately and she went on, her voice unsteady, “I was hoping you’d stay. I mean, come back. Hang around the club for a few weeks. All the better that you have her. You’ll just look like a new couple and no one will suspect a thing.”

Lee stood next to Savannah and he noticed her breasts were still hanging out the top of her corset. She was sleepy, leaning into his side, and didn’t seem aware of her state of undress. Dragging his gaze from her, he looked at Cara impatiently. “Why?”

For the first time, Cara sounded scared, her big, brave journalist façade cracking. “You said yourself this is a dangerous situation. I’d just feel better knowing there were two more people here who knew what was going on and were keeping an eye out. We wouldn’t have to talk at all. You two could come and play and do your own thing. But you’d be here if the shit hit the fan.”

Lee sighed. What the fuck was he supposed to do now? He didn’t want anything to happen to Cara but she was out of her mind if she expected him to bring Savannah around again while this was going on. If things went all pear–shaped, the last thing he wanted was for Savannah to be involved and in danger. He couldn’t risk her like that. He was shaking his head even before he spoke, his voice firm. “I appreciate the situation you’re in, Cara, but I won’t put Savannah in danger for you.”

They were all surprised when Savannah was the next to speak. “I don’t see what the problem is. This has been dangerous ever since I met you, but now all the sudden you’re concerned about my safety? We should do this.”

“No.” Lee was undeterred.

Savannah glared at him, her fists balled up tightly at her sides. She suddenly seemed wide-awake again, her lips forming a pretty little pout. “You’re doing your whole overbearing bastard thing and it’s pissing me off. Look, I don’t even like her but we should finish what we started, and there are no guarantees that they won’t come back to your house again just to try and push her buttons.”

“No.” Lee grabbed her upper arm, giving her a little shake. She’d just admitted she didn’t like Cara, why they hell was she so wound up about this?

“Fine, I’ll do it myself. This place doesn’t seem so scary.” Savannah glared at him, her chin set with what he knew was false bravado.