"It's great to see the three of you again." She covered the mouth of her store phone. "I'm handling a problem with a shipping company, my apologies, but go ahead and wander around. Get yourself a cup of coffee and a scone from the Dungeon Room. I'll be off in just a few minutes."
The first time they'd come here together, the two men had stuck close to Sam, demonstrating typical male wariness of a lingerie store, but Madison had helped alleviate that. She'd drawn Geoff over to the Dungeon Room selections and left Sam and Chris to examine role-playing choices and lingerie. Sam wasn't sure how they'd behave this time, but she received an answer quickly enough. Geoff moved straight toward the Dungeon Room and Chris to the wall of lingerie and open display jewelry offerings, as if both men had specific ideas in mind.
Wow. Well, then.
For perhaps the first time, she let herself believe how thrilling it might be to wait and see where their minds were taking them. She could let them control their direction.
She knew what she wanted to look at, but she drifted in that direction instead of making a beeline there, though she was unsure why she was self-conscious about it. Functional collars, black straps in varying thicknesses and embedded with D-rings for attachments, were hung on the wall. More expensive ones were under glass. She saw choker-style necklaces in pewter or with rhinestones, heavy iron bands with pin locking mechanisms, and delicate braids of silver and gold. She studied one that looked like a buckled collar. Instead of leather or fabric, it was stainless steel, a silver circlet.
"That one would look beautiful on you. And I'm betting it's the right size, though it can be custom ordered." Madison had finished her call. Moving to the opposite side of the display, she unlocked the back of the cabinet and put her hand on the piece. Sam shook her head.
"I can't afford it. Not even close."
"That's why it's fun to put it on. Just promise me you won't make a dash for the door." Madison winked and held out a foot encased in a strappy heel. "I didn't wear my chase-down-shoplifter shoes today."
Sam chuckled, but before she could tell Madison not to do so, she'd moved back around the case with the silver band. Madison took her hand in her friendly shopkeeper way and drew her over to the mirror. "Here we go. I'll just slide your hair over this way so I don't snag it. You have such beautiful hair."
"It's too fine and straight."
"Perfect for Southern humidity. Yours looks lovely and silky all the time, whereas us thick-haired folk look like we stuck our fingers in a light socket and made it worse by dragging ourselves backward through a hedge." Madison fitted the collar around her throat, keeping her fingers beneath the hinge so it couldn't pinch Sam's skin as she hooked the decorative buckle in the front. "You fit the peg into the buckle to hold it. This one is actually a very good fit on you. You have a swan's neck."
A finger's width could still get beneath, but it was snug enough that things quieted inside Sam, the effect of its hold. She imagined Geoff or Chris putting it on her when they wanted her to go into full submissive mode, so they could explore their desires for her, together or separately. She was fine with both scenarios, as long as it wasn't an either or proposition. Each man had proven capable of immersing her in pleasure, but when the three of them had been on her bed, her in between them, she knew she would never be content with separate only.
Chris's reaction to Geoff's touch made it a grim possibility, yet she also remembered Chris was the one who'd invited Geoff to come taste her with him.
"So how is it going?" Madison asked in a low voice. The just-between-us-girls tone told her what she meant. Sam had opened up to Madison first about her secret desires for both her roommates, and Madison was giving her the opening if she needed more help and guidance.
"A work in process. But progress has been made."
"Looks like it." Madison glanced over her shoulder. "They didn't even go for the food and coffee first."
"I'm sure you'll be light a few scones before we leave." Sam chuckled. She looked at herself in the mirror, putting her hand up to touch the collar, slide her fingers along it. She thought about either man touching it, tugging so she felt its hold even more keenly. She knew she'd love that, just from how she'd reacted to Geoff or Chris gripping her throat.
As Geoff appeared behind her, Madison stepped discreetly out of range.
"What do you think?" Sam asked, a little nervous. The man had too good of a poker face, giving nothing away. Chris had been looking over a selection of electronic toys, but now he joined them, standing at her other side, the two of them studying the collar and her.
"Madison had me try it on," she said, realizing Chris might think Geoff had put it there, and finding herself worried that might bother him. "Geoff?"
"I'm thinking about it." His gaze stayed on the circlet. She had a little trouble breathing when he was studying her with that weird detachment that wasn't detached at all. Like being surrounded by a ring of fire while a sex demon stood just on the outside, considering his plans for her. "Chris found something for you," he added absently.
She saw a sparkle before Chris closed his fingers over the bauble. "No. It's nothing."
"What do you have?"
He shook his head, but she turned toward him, her shoulder pressing into Geoff's chest so she could lean there. Between them like this, she could feel their merged heat on her skin and was glad neither moved back. Capturing Chris's hand, she pried open his fingers. If he'd really not wanted her to see it he could have simply held it over her head or retreated, but he let her see. Her heart tilted. "It's lovely."
It was a ring, the design a little cat whose twirling whiskers and tail made up the silver wire band. The eyes winked with rhinestones like her pewter bear navel jewelry.
"You're always talking about getting a cat," Chris said.
"Hmm." Geoff's eyes twinkled as he drew their attention to the designer tag. "My Sweet Pussy Designs."
Sam giggled. "Well, it's appropriate." She stuck out her hand. "Will you put it on me, Chris?"
Chris slipped it on her ring finger. It was too big for that, so he switched it to her middle finger and she flexed her hand in the grip of his, letting the sparkling eyes catch the light. "I love it. And this I can probably afford."
Chris slid his hands into his jeans pockets. Today he'd worn one of his few pairs, the fabric dark blue and snug in the right way. "I'm buying it for you, so yeah."