Something unexpected came behind Rachel’s laugh. A tiny sob. Ever intuitive, Dana made a reassuring sound in her throat, her hands squeezing Rachel’s hard. “C’mon, girl. Let’s sit down and have that tea. You keep the robe off. I can’t see you anyhow, and I know you’re more comfortable without it.”
* * * * *
“Not just more comfortable,” Rachel admitted as they sat at her cheerful bistro set by the window, mid-morning sun streaming in. “It felt…like what he’d want. You were the one who told him I wasn’t married, weren’t you?”
Dana had her now bare feet drawn up and curled on the chair edge, one arm linked loosely over her shins, the other hand holding her coffee mug, since she preferred that to tea. When they sat down, Rachel had noticed Dana also wore a set of dog tags, embellished with a solid silver frame. They were strung on a chain along with a handful of jasper beads that picked up the mixed rusts and earth tones of the T-shirt. It was a short chain, the tags falling below her collarbone, making them easy to read. Winston, Peter R. It might as well say “Property of”, Rachel thought with a longing pang beneath her breast. She noticed Dana toyed with them often as she spoke, as she was doing now.
“Yes, it was me. I hope that’s okay. Jon has an unbreakable code, they all do. But he kept coming back to your classes. He’s thought about you a long time, Rachel.”
“I’m older than he is.”
“You’re older than two thousand years? Really? Because I’m pretty sure Jon’s soul dates back to the Druids. I see him standing on top of some temple platform, gazing into a forest, and when he turns his head, he has this mystic charisma that tells you he’s some kind of conduit for the gods.”
“Wow. You get all that without sight?” Because it was all too accurate.
Dana grinned. “Some things you see better when you don’t look with your eyes.”
Rachel sighed. “Thirteen years between us, Dana. And it’s not only the years. He did all this to keep my mind spinning with lust, and believe me, it’s working, but at some point I have to come down from that. From his standpoint, I know that will be okay. He’s probably had plenty of relationships like this, and I guess I should be glad that for the first time in my life I get to experience a Master’s touch. It’s better than I ever imagined, because of him. I should just let that happen, enjoy it while it lasts, but I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if…”
Dana put a hand over hers on the table, traced the fingers with the same sensual touch she’d used when she’d explored the chains on Rachel’s body. “No ring. You took it off.”
“Jon did. I couldn’t…couldn’t bring myself to put it back on.”
“Hmm.” Peter’s fiancée cocked her head. “People make their own decisions. It’s obvious you have a lot of hurt stored up in you, a lot of disappointments. Now you’re figuring out how to deal with those against a force of nature like Jon, and I think that’s good. He needs to see that, know what obstacles he faces. You’re right—pretty much up until two days ago, Jon could walk into a BDSM club, or hook up with someone in his business or social set, and thoroughly enjoy a short-term relationship. He’s very good at seeing them to their natural end and making that end go down smooth as silk.”
She was supposed to be glad to be hearing this, instead of wanting Dana to stop putting images in her head of Jon with other women. Dana’s fingers flexed on hers, as if sensing the direction of her thoughts.
“I think you need to know a little bit more about the K&A men. Would you like to?”
A sensible person would say no, would resist being drawn deeper into a world where she couldn’t stay. Instead she already had her mouth open to give her answer. “After yesterday, I’m overflowing with curiosity.”
“What happened yesterday?”
Rachel hesitated. What if what Peter had done wasn’t acceptable to Dana? How would she handle that?
“I expect my fiancé was somehow part of whatever happened.” Dana reached out with a foot, nudged her with a toe. “That’s part of what those five are about. Don’t worry, just spill it.”
She did, briefly, aware now that Dana picked up a lot from what wasn’t said. The woman kept her head in that listening tilt, her eyes thoughtful. When she pressed her lips together, her fingers curling around her knees, Rachel reached out, touched her.
“Please tell me that was all okay, or expected. I couldn’t forgive myself if somehow I let something happen that would hurt you in any way.”
“Oh hon, nothing to forgive.” Dana closed her hand over Rachel’s fingers on her knee. “I’m here to tell you, when the K&A men decide on something, a woman’s got a snowball’s chance in hell of having any say in it at all. She’s just got to hang on for the ride of her life.” Now her smile was back. “The reason I reacted the way I did was because of how much I like you. And how glad I am that Jon chose you this way. It’s happy sadness, like at a wedding.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You won’t, not until it comes from inside, so I’m not going to say a lot about it, but whatever Jon’s relationships with women have been in the past, trust me when I say you’re different. You want to know about the K&A men? They’re a pack, a pack that’s connected on some visceral male level that’s scary as hell to experience, while at the same time you never want that experience to end. You belong to one of them, but in a peripheral way, you belong to all of them. Like a family, only you have a lot of feelings and experiences with this family that would be highly frowned upon if you truly were blood-related.”
She flashed a grin. “They each have a specialty, if you can believe it. If there was a Cordon Bleu for p-ssy-eating, Lucas would be their valedictorian.” At Rachel’s startled reaction, a choked laugh, Dana nodded, a sage look on her pixie face. “Peter… My man is tit-obsessed. He can do things to your breasts with a touch, a flick of the tongue, the removal of a nipple clamp at the right moment, that can make you come in a heartbeat, without touching any other part of your body.” A little shiver ran over her skin and echoed in a reaction over Rachel’s.
“All of them have… They’re all…?”
“Yes, and it does make the tongue trip up and the heart ricochet with the thought of it. All five of them are sexual Dominants. They’re so different, and yet there’s this incredibly similar core to them. Ben…” Dana snorted. “I can’t wait to see the woman who will finally catch his attention. Poor girl. You don’t see it at first, because of the slick, charming lawyer thing, but he’s probably the toughest, most hardcore Master of all of them. And his thing is…well, no way to put it delicately. He’s a master at ass-f*cking. Cass and Savannah haven’t experienced it directly, because, as I said, each of the guys are somewhat different in how their Dominance works.”
She paused, apparently mulling the best choice of words. “When a K&A man finds the woman he wants to make his permanently, they share to a certain level, but there are certain lines not crossed, depending on both the Master and the woman, what he knows her needs are. Like Matt. Savannah, his wife…the lines are more clearly drawn with her than me or Cass. They’ll do soft play with her on occasion, but it’s Matt who holds the reins, always. Lucas will sometimes allow a little more with Cass, but it still stays along the lines of voyeurism, heavy petting, things like that.”