He was surprised when Jillian practically ran from behind the bar. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that would be respectable on someone with less perfect breasts, but they bounced in a way that made his mouth water.
“Are you talking about Mace, Len and Cat’s story? I’ve been waiting forever. I’m holding you to this, Adam. I want that book.”
“Book?” Ryan asked.
Miles was grinning. “My wife writes erotic romance of the ménage and BDSM type. It’s gotten me in tight with all the subs. Not that I want, like, in the subs. I don’t. I’m perfectly happy at home, but some of the subs are excellent bakers. I’ve been known to trade books for cookies. Serena can’t cook to save her life, and apparently baking is beneath Sean. I’m just a man. I need my sugar. Jilly, honey, whenever you feel the need to make those brown sugar things again, you just send some my way.”
Ryan felt his brow start to twitch. She was fucking cooking for Adam Miles?
She grinned, the sight kicking his heart into overdrive and making his cock twitch in his leathers. She had a smile that could light up the room. Room? Hell, when she smiled, his whole fucking world seemed to brighten. “We’re all crazy about Serena’s books. I like to call them sub fantasy books. The Dom always gives in in the end.”
All of the Doms groaned, but the subs, even the males, were nodding their heads in agreement. They all seemed to know Jillian. In the few weeks she’d been here, she had really made a place for herself. Before she’d been utterly content just being with him. Or had he forced that on her because he was a possessive prick?
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, suckers,” Miles said with a grin. He winked Jillian’s way and gestured her to his side. Ryan felt his blood pressure tick up as she gracefully fell to her knees beside him.
He took a deep breath because he would very likely cause gossip if he did what he wanted to do. Yep, twisting Miles’s perfectly coiffed head off his body with his bare hands and then playing around in his blood would very likely get him in some trouble with the owners.
Jumping him later in the parking lot was a better idea. He wouldn’t kill him. Just break his kneecaps so he would remember to keep his fucking hands off Ryan’s sub.
He forced himself to talk. “Does anyone have any questions before we get started?”
He wouldn’t be able to do it. How the hell was he supposed to watch Miles spank Jillian? He knew Adam was telling the truth. He had no sexual interest in her. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who saw him with his wife that he was madly in love, but he was younger than Ryan. Adam was successful. What if Jillian had a thing for him? She’d practically jumped over a table to get to him.
Jeff held up a hand. “We’ve been playing at home a little. I think I might be spanking her too hard. She’s fair skinned and she moves around a lot. Her skin gets so red.”
The sub at his feet looked down. Ryan noted that Jeff immediately set his hand on her hair and began to stroke her. He gently guided her head to his lap and whispered something to her that had her clinging sweetly to him.
This was a problem he could solve. “You just don’t have the proper training. I assure you that if you use the correct technique, you won’t leave a mark on her. Does she enjoy the spanking?”
Jeff nodded down, giving his sub permission to speak.
“I think so,” she replied quietly. She kept her eyes averted. “I don’t mind it. Sometimes I think it feels good.”
An idea played in his head. A sweet, slightly manipulative idea. Jillian was fair. Her skin was practically porcelain, so smooth and soft. And she’d loved spankings. Why should Adam Miles get the pleasure of spanking her? What had he done to deserve it? He got to go home every night to his submissive, his wife. He got warmth and comfort, and Ryan got a crappy apartment that would have fit into his old bathroom. And he stayed there alone. Always alone. He’d been alone since the moment he’d let her go.
What if he could have just another moment with her? They were both here. He was a Dom. She was a sub. Maybe she was as lonely as he was.
“I’ll show you. Jillian, I need a partner. Please come join me.”
Chapter Three
She stopped, her heart threatening to cease its intended function. “What?”
Ryan was standing there, a chair at his side. He looked so tall, imposing, sexy as hell. And he couldn’t have said what she thought he’d just said.
“If you wouldn’t mind joining me,” he offered. “You made yourself available for use when you took Miles up on his offer. You’re not wearing a collar. I require a submissive for training purposes.”
What he wasn’t saying was that part of her contract gave him this right. She ran the bar, but she was also available for training purposes until such time as her status as an uncollared sub changed. Only Ryan, Ian Taggart and Alex McKay had rights to train, but she’d never dreamed Ryan would claim them.
“Go on, sweetie.” Adam winked down at her. All the subs loved Adam because he was a big old softie, and getting through this training class wouldn’t change him. “For all the hell I give him, I hear he’s actually a great guy. He won’t hurt you.”
Not physically. Nope. He would never do that. Now casually ripping her heart out of her body and tossing it around like a football—that was another story.
Everyone was looking at her. She was brutally aware that if she didn’t get her ass up quickly, it would make Ryan look bad. It would make her look bad.
She got to her feet though her knees suddenly felt a little wobbly. This hadn’t gone exactly as planned. Joe had mentioned that Adam would need a partner, and she was the only female around for another thirty minutes. It had seemed like a good experiment. She wanted to dip her toes back in the D/s pond, and Adam was perfectly safe.
Ryan wasn’t. He wasn’t safe at all.
But maybe this was the perfect way to prove that she was over him. She’d been in love with Ryan. That was what had made the sex so good, the attraction so heady. She wasn’t now. She’d moved on, so she could handle this.
Maybe. She moved to his side.
“Excellent,” Ryan said. “I’m going to demonstrate on the lovely Jillian, and then we can all practice. Jillian, remove your clothing and kneel.”
Jill felt her eyes go wide with panic. He wanted her to get naked? In front of a room full of strangers? In front of him? She swallowed. The last few weeks had gone a long way in making her comfortable around him, but she wasn’t sure she was ready for this.