Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(35)

“It’s a BDSM club. People get hit all the time.”

“And it’s only consensual if someone consents to being hit first.”

When Ross returned a few minutes later, he was joined by an admittedly handsome man…who was leading Cris on a leash.

She must have stepped forward again, because once again, Derrick grabbed her arm and hauled her back, this time giving her a stern look.

She suspected she was less than thirty seconds from getting a leash snapped onto her formal collar, too.

After snorting at Derrick, she finally relaxed and stepped back. But Derrick didn’t release her arm this time.

She couldn’t take her eyes off Cris and felt more than a little satisfaction when she watched Landry jerk his leash and put him on his knees, head bowed.

While she’d had a few revenge fantasies of her own about what she’d like to do to Cris, it was satisfying to see him like that…

And yet during the evening, the brief frowns Marcia spotted flitting across Tilly’s face at various times, between talking to others and the photographer taking their wedding pictures—and the way Tilly kept stepping between Cris and Loren so the other woman couldn’t kick him—didn’t fool her in the least.

Tilly, despite everything she’d suffered, still had feelings for the guy. Only an idiot would miss that.

All Marcia could do was pray that her friend was more than strong enough to get through whatever it was she had to get through.





By the time the festivities ended, and volunteers had helped clean up and put the dungeon back into order, Marcia was beat. She’d changed into shorts and a T-shirt for the cleanup. She collapsed onto one of the sofas with a mug of hot tea.

Derrick sank down onto the couch, on one side of her. Loren sat on the other. Ross perched on the arm of the couch on Loren’s far side.

They all remained quiet for a few minutes.

Marcia finally said it. “He seems like a nice guy. Sadist, but nice guy.”

“I know,” Loren said. “Makes this one look like Winnie the Pooh by comparison.” She smiled up at her husband. “Love you, Sir.”

He chuckled. “Love you, too.”

“She’s not making a mistake, is she?” Marcia asked. “Because, seriously, I’ll sic June on the f*cker if she is. Hell, screw that, I’ll do it myself.” June and Scrye had also been out of town, or they would have been there.

She’d seen Tilly ferocious, both in Domme mode and in protective friend mode. June, Scrye’s wife and a petite gymnastics teacher, ran a close second in terms of ferocity. She’d seen the two women tag-team a douchebag predator Dom with a history of discarding subs, who’d been hitting on a newbie at a munch one night, and they practically sent the guy out the door in tears by the time they’d finished verbally eviscerating him.

She had no doubts June was tough enough to take on Cris or Landry. Maybe both of them at the same time.

“I really don’t think she is making a mistake,” Ross said. “And even if she is…there will be a looong damn line to get at either of those two men. Good luck cutting to the front of that queue.”

Marcia reached for and found Derrick’s hand and squeezed. He laced fingers with her and squeezed back.

Over eighteen years of marriage and going strong, and she wouldn’t trade him on his worst day for anything. Even when he got sick and man-whiny, she’d still take him over…that. What Tilly had endured for several years.

“Okay,” Marcia said to Loren. “You said you’d tell me the full story. Spill it.”

Ross and Loren both told it. By the time they finished, Marcia shook her head. “Why the hell didn’t Cris just tell her the truth? Fly her out to California and introduce her to him? She could have taken care of him with Cris. She was studying to be a nurse, for chrissake.”

“That I can’t answer,” Loren said. “I’m sure we will eventually get the deets on that. Even if I have to pry them out of the * with a pair of pliers.”

“Oooh! Can I help?” Marcia asked. “Pick me! Pick me!”

“Tilly’s an adult,” Ross said. “We can’t make her decisions for her. Financially, this is a smart move. I mean, damn. I’m an attorney, and I can’t fault her for what she did. I made her let me look at the paperwork after she signed it.”

“Why the hell would this guy trust her like that?” Derrick asked. “How could he possibly know she wouldn’t rip him off and steal him blind?”

It was something Marcia wondered, too.

“Because, wrong or right, apparently he trusts Cris and Cris’ opinion of Tilly. Landry has, financially, the most to lose. And he’s fighting cancer. Who knows how serious it’ll be?”

“Isn’t it Cris with the most to lose?”

“No,” Ross said. “He’s already lost it all. Landry controls everything already. He’s trying to prove to Landry and Tilly that he deserves a chance to stay in their lives.”

“But why is Landry so pissed off at Cris?” Marcia asked, still confused. “I mean, Cris came back. Landry had him. Why is he—okay, yes, I enjoyed watching Cris being humiliated—putting Cris through the wringer like this?”

Ross seemed to be turning it over in his brain. “You’d have to ask him that for sure. If his thinking is the same as mine, then he feels responsible for what he considers not properly instructing Cris and indirectly causing pain to another.”