Tempting the Domme Read online

  “Well, we’re going to have everything we need soon,” Kincaid said. “I suggest getting the front window boarded up and then going somewhere else. Not home. Somewhere more secure. Or bring a big group of people home with you and don’t go anywhere alone today. Obviously this guy is escalating. He may have just gotten lucky today, found out about Marquis somehow, I don’t know. But I don’t want you taking any risks.”

  “Got it,” Olivia said dryly. Sure it irked her a little bit to have one of her Baby Doms bossing her around, but this was Kincaid’s area of expertise and everything he said made sense.

  “You can come to my place if you want,” Luke said, looking down at her, his fingers giving her hip a little caress. “I have a great security system, plus Molly is a security system on her own when it comes to making noise any time someone approaches the house.”

  “And I do need to meet Molly,” Olivia said, smiling. Hopefully the dog liked her. She’d always been more of a cat person. Was it weird to feel nervous about meeting a man’s dog?

  “Oooo can I come?” Lexie asked. They both looked at her as Patrick sighed. She pouted. “What? Molly slept over at our apartment and I barely got to see her. Besides, more eyes aren’t a bad thing. In fact, I’d be surprised if you managed to keep everyone else away.”

  “She’s got a point,” Patrick admitted, looking a bit sheepish.

  Olivia groaned. “Exactly how many people did you two already tell?”

  “Hey, now, Michael got the alarm notification too,” Patrick said. “It’s not just our fault.”

  Ugh. Olivia was so glad she’d left her phone up in her office. It was probably blowing up right now.

  “Just out of curiosity, has anyone talked to Zach about Roland?” Lexie asked, looking at Kincaid. “I mean, Zach’s nice enough since the douchebag left the club, but…”

  “It was one of the first things I did,” Kincaid said, a little defensively. “Trust me, they’re not friends anymore. After Zach stayed in the class when Roland got kicked out, Roland called him a traitor and completely wrote him off. They haven’t talked since.” Olivia knew Kincaid and Zach had become pretty good friends, so she trusted him to know.

  Lexie sighed. “Worth a try.”

  “I’ve gotta go see what’s happening out front,” Kincaid said, giving her a sympathetic smile and then turning his attention to everyone else. He tucked the notepad and pen he’d been holding into his pocket. “Stay safe, everyone.”

  ******

  After the cops left all six of them pitched in to cover up the big window with a plastic sheet from one of the storage rooms and clean up the broken glass on the floor.

  “Do I even want to know what else this might be used for?” Avery muttered under her breath as she pressed the tape firmly down against the edge of the plastic. Luke choked back a laugh—and not just because of the dirty look Nick shot her.

  “It could just be tape and plastic,” Nick pointed out loftily. “Not everything has to be dirty.”

  Avery snorted. “Yeah, not like there’s a sex club upstairs or anything.”

  When Lexie giggled the two seemed to remember they had an audience. Avery flushed red and finished taping down the plastic so Luke could step away.

  The plastic covered the window and provided a tiny bit of insulation, but it was still freaking freezing in the room and they all disbanded as quickly as they could. Luke asked Olivia if he could drive her to her apartment and then back to his house so she didn’t have to take her car—since they knew the stalker knew what her car looked like. To his relief, she said yes and even seemed a little pleased with him. He hadn’t been sure if he might be over stepping his bounds.

  Olivia promised to text Patrick and Lexie when they were on their way to Luke’s.

  He truly didn’t mind having an impromptu gathering of her friends, especially since it did seem like she wanted them there.

  Granted, it would have been nice to be able to go back to cuddling and having her all to himself… but they’d all want to see for themselves she was okay. Which he completely understood. Plus, Lexie had been right. The more eyes and bodies present, the less likely it was Olivia would be targeted right now. So far the shit-gibbon had been very wary about doing anything too publicly.

  They wouldn’t be able to keep a constant presence on her forever, but for tonight at least she’d be able to get peace of mind.

  It didn’t take her long to pick out what she wanted to bring and then they were back in his car and headed to his place.

  “I’m sorry our date kind of got co-opted,” she said with a rueful smile.

  Luke blinked and then glanced at her sheepishly. “Actually, with everything going on I kind of even forgot we had one.”

  She laughed. “Well then I don’t feel quite as bad,” she teased. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all.”

  “I would have remembered eventually,” he argued playfully, reaching out with his right hand to take hers. She immediately wound her fingers through his, her thumb rubbing gently against the outside of his hand. “And it’s okay. There was no way to anticipate this happening, and I think it’ll be good for everyone to get together. Otherwise they’d just be texting you constantly anyway.”

  He chuckled as she winced. After sending out a mass text, she’d turned her phone off because it had been buzzing almost nonstop. Having a lot of friends was great. Having a lot of friends who were all freaking out and trying to contact you at the exact same time was a little overwhelming.

  By the time they arrived, Patrick and Lexie were already there, courteously parked on Luke’s street rather than in his driveway so they weren’t blocking it. Which he appreciated.

  Pulling into the garage, he could already hear Molly barking as Patrick and Lexie walked into the garage behind his car. Both of them were carrying small bags slung over their shoulders. The one gently bumping against Lexie’s hip was making suspicious clinking noises as she walked and he was pretty sure it didn’t have any clothes in it.

  “Everyone’s on their way,” Lexie said cheerfully.

  “Everyone?” Olivia asked, sounding a little startled.

  “Everyone,” Patrick confirmed. “I thought Adam and Angel would at least stay away, but she responded they were coming right after he texted that they weren’t, and then a few minutes later he texted that they were.”

  The grin on Lexie’s face was repeated on Luke and Olivia’s. He’d probably spent the least amount of time with Angel out of everyone in the group of friends, but every time with her had always been entertaining. She seemed to make it her life’s goal to constantly annoy her husband and Dom, while he tolerated it. Although he’d been told normally he just tolerated it right up until he didn’t and that’s when she’d get a spanking, but she’d been pretty heavily pregnant ever since he’d known her and (obviously) only become more so. He’d only heard the stories about her being dragged off for a hot and heavy punishment, not actually seen it. However, with her sassy mouth and Adam’s intimidating scowl it wasn’t hard to imagine.

  As Molly’s barking become more frantic—probably because she could hear their voices but hadn’t seen any of them yet—Luke turned. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Impatient dog.”

  She whined as he approached the garage door and let out an excited yelp when he opened it. One quick rub against his legs and then she shot past him, quickly sniffing everyone before scampering back to him.

  Chuckling, he crouched down to give her ears a good rub while she licked his face. “Ugh… Molly… love me with less tongue, please.”

  Another whine accompanied by a lot of wriggling and then she dashed behind him to check out Olivia who looked… nervous? Was she scared of dogs?

  ******

  Please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me…Olivia held out her hand for the gorgeous chocolate brown dog to sniff. She was beautiful, with floppy ears and silky looking fur, and was an absolute bundle of energy. Obviously she and Luke had a pretty great bond.
/>
  It seemed as though Olivia’s worries were unwarranted however. Rather than sniffing her hand, Molly shoved her head underneath Olivia’s fingers, her tail wagging in excitement, happy little whines pouring forth from her as she tried to entice Olivia into petting her. Chuckling, Olivia happily gave her a scratch.

  Unbelievably, because she really thought the dog’s tail couldn’t possibly move any faster, Molly managed to wag even harder as Lexie came up beside Olivia, crooning about what a pretty girl she was.

  “Isn’t she precious?” asked Lexie.

  “Yes,” Olivia admitted, smiling at the happy pup. Okay, so she was more of a cat person, but there were always exceptions. Molly was sweet, friendly, and obviously well-behaved. For all she’d tried to smother Luke with her love, she wasn’t quite as exuberant towards Olivia or Lexie although her body shuddered with the desire to jump all over them with doggy-kisses.

  Looking up, she caught Luke’s expression as he smiled approvingly, watching the three of them.

  “Alright, can we go pet the dog inside the house?” Patrick asked, sounding exasperated. Despite his tone, as soon as he had put his bag down in Luke’s kitchen—which was just past the mud room Luke’s garage opened into—he was down on his knees with his arms full of wiggling, ecstatic dog.

  “They’ve already seen the house, but let me give you the tour,” Luke said, grinning. He held out his hand and Olivia took it, not unhappy to leave Lexie and Patrick in the kitchen cooing over Molly while she got to explore Luke’s house with him on their own before everyone else showed up.

  The kitchen led into the two different rooms, the living room and a formal dining room with a rather battered looking table—covered in paperwork—and set of chairs in it.

  “Basically my home office,” Luke said dryly, just letting her peek in before pulling her away and into the rectangular living room. There was a big leather couch that took up about a fourth of the room even though it was pressed up against the wall. Across from it was a large television, and a couple of armchairs on the same side of the room as the TV provided extra seating but no way to see the screen.

  Down the hall there was a front room that Olivia could basically tell was a play area for Molly. There was a Christmas tree set up so it could be seen out the front window, and covered with lights and red and green ball ornaments. However, the room was definitely dedicated to the dog. Her lips twitched as she took in the doggy toys strewn all over it, as well as a doggy bed that looked so comfortable she was tempted to curl up on top of it, and it was the first room she’d seen with any pictures. Mostly of Molly with people. Luke shrugged when Olivia lifted an eyebrow at him.

  “I’m pretty sure I know who runs this house,” she teased him.

  “I wish I could say you were wrong.”

  Upstairs there were guest bedrooms and, funny enough, a home office which looked like it was barely used—unlike his table downstairs. Luke claimed he just worked better downstairs, but that didn’t quell Olivia’s amusement. His bedroom consisted of a massive king-size bed and several rows of bookshelves.

  None of them had books on them.

  They were covered in Star Wars action figures, collectibles, and what looked like a signed photo of Luke with Mark Hamill. Two lightsabers were hanging on display on the wall to the right of the bookshelves—one blue and one red. Olivia’s jaw dropped.

  “So, uh…” Luke started to say.

  “Oh my God, you’re a hidden nerd.”

  “Uh. Yes.” He leaned against his door frame, hands in his pockets, as she started inspecting his collection. There had been nothing else anywhere in the house to indicate this hidden geek side of him and Olivia was fascinated. “It’s mostly Star Wars focused though. My brother and I were obsessed as kids. He always took the action figures out of their packaging though. I was the collector and I just never… stopped. Now it’s just my thing.”

  “I can’t believe you never said anything. You realize as soon as Angel and Kate know you’re a big nerd, they’re going to try and drag you into their debates.” The two of them would get into the most ridiculous arguments, which everyone else mostly tried to ignore.

  “They seem more into Harry Potter and Doctor Who,” he pointed out.

  Olivia chuckled as she moved back towards him, smiling slightly as he stood there waiting for her, his head cocked, eyes slightly alight with anticipation. “You keep telling yourself that will save you.”

  Coming to a halt in front of him, so close there was barely a millimeter of space between their bodies, Olivia reached up to slide her hands into his hair and pull him down for a kiss.

  Unfortunately they’d barely gotten started when the doorbell rang. Sighing, Olivia pulled away, enjoying the now slightly rumpled state of Luke’s hair. She’d become rather fond of messing up his hair.

  “Time to go face the horde,” she said ruefully.

  Donation $10, download any books in one month

  Chapter 17

  Giving Olivia a tour of his house had been a nice little break from reality, especially the kiss in his bedroom, but it all came crashing back down when they reached the downstairs and her worried and upset friends. Olivia moved through them, doing her best to calm everyone—and only wincing a little when Angel burst into tears on her shoulder—and reassure them she was okay.

  She was fine.

  She wasn’t worried.

  That last was a lie, but Luke didn’t call her on it and neither did anyone else. For right now she really was all those things. After all, they were here at his place and there was no reason to think the shit-gibbon would do anything while there was a house full of people.

  Luke went around getting people drinks and showing them where to set their things. Adam, Angel, Jared, and Leigh were the only ones not staying over—they were going to go back to Adam and Angel’s later in the evening. Although Angel insisted the girls’ night the ladies had planned tomorrow would go on as usual so she wouldn’t be missing out on anything.

  He set out the food Maria, Leigh, Justin, and Kate brought and the drinks everyone else had brought and made sure Olivia got a glass of white wine. As quickly as he could, he gathered up the papers on his dining room table to make sure people could sit in there as well. He’d never really considered his house small, but right now it felt like it was full to bursting of very large personalities and quite a few large bodies.

  Molly spent the half hour of meeting everyone frantically running around attempting to love on all the people who were happy to love on her right back. She eventually ended up panting with exhaustion, laying across Maria’s lap and snuggling into the curvy beauty while Lexie pouted about not being the ‘chosen one.’ Next to Maria was her boyfriend Rick, who was leaning up against her, arm around her shoulders and whispering in her ear. Both of them were petting Molly, who looked like she was in heaven, pressing her head against Maria’s pretty generous breasts and unsuccessfully trying to turn her head up and lick Maria every couple of minutes, making the woman giggle.

  Sitting on the floor between Maria and Patrick’s legs, Lexie was doing her best to get in on the Molly-loving action while Patrick just watched with a kind of resigned amusement as Lexie dropped many broad hints about wanting a dog for Christmas. Jessica and Hilary were cuddled up in one of the armchairs while Leigh and Jared were in the other in much the same manner, all of them adding to Lexie’s list of the joys a dog could bring to a household.

  Angel was in the kitchen holding court and insisting she was too uncomfortable to sit down right now because of the position the baby was in. Because he was never far from her side, Adam was keeping a close watch on her while chatting with Olivia and Jake. Ellie, Kate, and Sharon all had their hands pressed to Angel’s belly and were softly laughing in delight as the baby kicked for them. Justin, Chris, Andrew, and Liam had all taken over Luke’s dining room to sit around the table and chat and that’s where he found himself drifting as well. It was a good spot for sitting down and taking a breather as w
ell as keeping an eye on Olivia through the wide doorway into the kitchen in case she needed anything.

  Grabbing a beer, he headed into the dining room.

  The guys all turned and smiled at him as he came in.

  “Come, sit, join us,” Chris said in a humorously magnanimous way, obviously fully enjoying the irony of acting like a host towards Luke while in Luke’s house. Next to him, Justin snorted and rolled his eyes. Watching the two of them was always so interesting because they looked so alike, shared the same girlfriend, and yet often acted very differently. Although he’d been told they were rubbing off on each other a little. Justin was apparently a lot more relaxed than he used to be and Chris less lackadaisical. They were sitting across from each other, with Andrew next to Chris and Justin beside Liam.

  “Thanks for having us all over,” Justin said as Luke took the open seat next to him at the foot of the table. He could have sat at the head but then his back would have been to the kitchen. Now he could see straight in to the other room and keep an eye on Olivia. She was working on her second glass of wine so when she got low he wanted to be ready to get her some water. “I know it can’t be fun having all of us crashing in on you like this.”

  “It’s okay,” Luke said, although he appreciated the sentiment. “I think it’s helping her to feel more comfortable in general, plus you all aren’t so bad.”

  They all chuckled at that.

  “Plus, having us all here to boss around helps,” Andrew said—although Luke noticed he said it quietly. “Means she’s not taking it all out on you.”

  “I wouldn’t mind if she did,” Luke said without thinking. He winced, thinking they might tease him about being her bitch, the way his brother had, but all of them were looking at him with a kind of hushed respect and admiration. Maybe even a little bit of awe.

  Chris leaned over to clap him on the shoulder, his face almost comically serious except Luke could tell he truly wasn’t trying to be funny this time. “You are a brave, brave man.”