“Tortured?” he asked with a smirk.
“Basically.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been on stakeouts that lasted for weeks and have interrogated suspects for hours on end, all with just a smidgen of a chance that I’ll get what I want.” He put his hand out to her again. “So, I can be infinitely patient when the end result is worth it.”
There was an underlying warning in his words. She could only imagine what that level of patience and self-control could mean in a D/s situation. A guy who wasn’t rushing to get to the finale. One that could erotically torment his sub until he or she couldn’t be pushed any further. She took his hand. “Must make you a formidable master.”
“Hmm, guess you’ll find out,” he said, pulling her to his side. “Now, let’s get you to bed before I make a liar out of myself.”
Knowing it was no use protesting further, she followed him to the other side of the cabin and into his room. It was almost a mirror image of Jace’s, except that the bed at the center was bigger than any she’d ever seen before and was half covered with file folders and papers. “Holy crap, that thing is huge.”
“Always what a guy wants to hear when a woman walks into his bedroom.”
She rolled her eyes.
“It’s a custom bed meant to serve the polyamorous of the world. You put two big guys and a woman in a king bed, it gets a little tight.”
Yeah, she remembered that from the few times she’d slept in Daniel and Marcus’s bed. “Do you and Jace usually sleep all together with the woman you’re sharing?”
“No, we use this bed for play, then Jace goes to his own room for the night.” He stepped around the bed and started gathering all the paperwork he’d apparently been working on when he’d gone out to get that glass of water. “Once we’re outside of a scene, Jace usually likes to be alone. Plus I’m not sure he’s totally comfortable with the idea of sleeping naked with his roommate. Like I said earlier, sex and sleeping together are two totally different things.”
She frowned. Jace seemed like the most sexually open person she’d ever met. It seemed odd he’d be uncomfortable about that. But it wasn’t her business.
Andre grabbed the stack of papers he’d gathered and walked toward the desk in the opposite corner of the room. “Let me get all of this out of the way. I was trying to get some work done since I couldn’t sleep.”
“Working on a day off?”
He shrugged. “I’m trying to make detective. There are a few people competing for the position. I’m one of the younger ones. Figure I can’t out-experience some of them, but I can damn sure outwork them.”Author: Roni Loren
He put his hand out to her. “Come on, gorgeous. Let’s get you into bed. It’s late.”
She smiled and let him lead her by the hand to the bed. Andre peeled back the comforter and patted the mattress. She climbed beneath the covers. “You know, I don’t think I’ve been tucked into bed since I was a little girl.”
He laid the blanket over her and placed a light kiss on her lips, the latter sending warmth to the best places. His gaze softened. “I feel privileged to be the one to break the dry spell then.”
Oh, he and Jace were breaking her dry spell all right.
“Good night, bella. Get some rest.” He leaned over to click off the bedside lamp.
“Wait.”
He paused, his fingers on the switch, looking over at her.
She was going to tell him to leave it on because of her fear, but something else sprung to her lips instead. “Stay.”
“What?”
She pushed the comforter back down. This was ridiculous. She spent enough nights alone. Screw that. This was supposed to be her fantasy weekend. And she had no history and mixed-up feelings to worry about with Andre. She just liked him, plain and simple. Enjoyed talking to him, and well, touching him wasn’t so bad either. “Stay with me?”
He eyed the bed a bit warily. “Evan, I’ll be fine. The couch won’t kill me.”
“It’s not about that. I’m just—” She looked away quickly, biting her lip. What in the hell was wrong with her? She’d almost slipped up and told him she was tired of sleeping alone. “I mean, I was thinking before we jump into the whole ménage thing, this might help me get more comfortable with you, be less nervous.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Just how comfortable are we talking? Because I pride myself on self-control, but I’m not dead.”
She laughed and raised her hand, remembering his Boy Scout reference from a few weeks before. “Scout’s honor. We’ll just sleep. I won’t even run my tongue along your nipple rings and tug them with my teeth, even though I really, really want to.”
He shook his head then peeled off his shirt. “We better be careful around you, bella. We may have met our match.”