Unconditional (Masters and Mercenaries #5.5)(21)

Keith would be the one putting together the financing. He was good at that sort of thing. And she was good at helping him relax. She’d started to notice how tense he was at the beginning of their sessions. At the end, he was just as relaxed as she was and he hadn’t even had an orgasm.

“Could we get back to the part where Keith is taking advantage of my sister-in-law?” Ryan said with a frown. He neatly sidestepped the baby, managing to place a kiss on the top of her head without allowing her to grab on to his suit.

Emily had left little handprints on more than one of his formfitting suits.

She had to get her brother-in-law under control and fast. “He isn’t taking advantage of me. We have a contract.”

“I want to see it. Who the hell wrote it?”

“Ian did.”

Ryan held a hand out as though trying to get her to take a time-out while he processed. “Taggart wrote a contract for you? Without consulting me? That son of a bitch.”

One of the things she’d learned about the lifestyle was that Doms tended to think it was the year 1503 and the gender laws were still rigidly enforced. Because he’d married her sister, in Ryan’s head that made him responsible for her, and Emily too, because she didn’t have a father or a man in her life.

Except she kind of did.

“I wouldn’t have let you write a contract for me, Ryan. If you had come to me with the idea, I would have turned you down flat because there was no way I would ever have talked about those things with either of you.” She cleaned up Emily and reached down to lift her. Something about having her daughter in her arms always gave her strength. And it took strength to admit the truth. “I wouldn’t have told you how lonely I am. I wouldn’t have told you how weak and inconsequential I feel. I wouldn’t have admitted that I’ve never enjoyed sex.”

“Oh, honey.” Her sister had tears in her eyes. “Why wouldn’t you talk to me about that?”

“Because I was ashamed. Because I felt like I wasn’t much of a woman. I couldn’t hold on to Trevor. I wasn’t even strong enough to force him to pay child support. Jill talked Simon into doing that for me.” And even that hadn’t lasted. He’d stopped sending checks months ago and had turned off his cell phone. She’d been too embarrassed to do anything about it. “I need this.”

Ryan sighed. “Fine. But I reserve the right to beat the holy living shit out of him if he hurts you. And I want to read that contract. Sometimes Taggart forgets I run that damn club. This is one of his plots. The man is always plotting. Sometimes I pray for the CIA to call and put him on assignment so I can get some f*cking peace around here.” He put a hand on her shoulder, visibly calming. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

She had no idea. She only knew that she was happier than she’d been before. “He’s helping me and with way more than the orgasms.”

Ryan turned a little green. “Please don’t say that word in front of me.”

He was shaking his head as he left the room.

“Wow. How is he going to handle tonight? Master Keith and I are supposed to scene together.” She hadn’t really thought about how she would feel being naked in front of her brother-in-law.

“He’ll manage. He’s been in the lifestyle a long time now. So you said he was teaching you more than orgasms?”

Emily settled onto her lap. Ashley patted the pretty cap of dark hair. “He’s giving me some homework. You know how I get a little distracted and disorganized?”

“A little?” Her sister laughed, probably remembering how bad Ashley’s room had been when they were kids.

It was a problem. “So Master Keith and I sat down and I’m supposed to turn off everything for two hours a night so I can get my work done. He’s a monster, too. He checks my laptop. Did you know that they can tell where you’ve been on the Internet and what time you went there?”

That had been an unpleasant spanking when he’d caught her checking a social networking site during the two hours she’d promised to spend on her work. The upside was she’d managed to get everything done because she hadn’t been distracted.

“Uhm, yes, hon. There are about a million ways for your Dom to keep track of you these days. So this is working for you? I have to admit, I always thought Keith was a little cold.”

He wasn’t cold. A little aloof, maybe, and he seemed to prefer to talk about her instead of himself. With one exception.

He changed the subject any time she mentioned her daughter.

But then he was a guy who didn’t have kids. He probably didn’t know many either. When he met Emily, he would fall in love.

She stopped herself because that was a long ways down the line. But she was starting to care about him, starting to plan her days around the time they spent together.

He seemed to really like her.

“There is one problem though,” Ashley admitted.

“What?”

“He’s been very generous with the sex stuff.”

Her sister’s eyes rolled. “You have to stop calling it the ‘sex stuff.’”

She ignored her sister. “But he hasn’t taken, if you know what I mean.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. And at first I was pretty sure I just wanted him to teach me discipline, but I think I want to have sex with him.” She wanted more. She wanted to give to him.