18. Chapter Eighteen
Maya
T he rest of the week went by as if in a dream.
I got up and went to work every morning and after a day of training and learning at the hospital, I came home to one of my guys cooking dinner.
The four of us ate together before either sexy time began, or we snuggled on the large sectional couch in the living room, binge watching TV.
It was finally Friday night and I was chilling on the couch, watching TV while Nico was cooking dinner. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the party tonight?” Nico called from the kitchen.
“I’m good,” I said, snuggling further under the blanket. “It’s been a long week. I’m probably passing out early.”
A cell phone rang upstairs and moment later Marcos’s deep voice answered. I couldn’t hear his words, just the cadence of his voice.
Jason walked in the backdoor through the mud room, just off the right side of the kitchen. He walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table to undo his boot laces. “I changed the oil on the Civic,” Jason said, meeting my gaze across the open concept room.
Warmth spread through my chest and I smiled easily. “Thank you.”
“You’re due for a tune up. We’ll bring it by the shop tomorrow and give it a work over.”
I nodded, before my eyes snapped to Marcos, who was walking down the stairs from the second floor. Fresh from a shower, he had on a pair of dark washed jeans and a black button up, with his leather cut over it. “Kara called. The lease is about to end on my mom’s apartment.”
“Well shit,” I said looking around. “We could put a door on the back den and turn it into a bedroom.”
“That makes the most sense,” Jason agreed. “No sense in paying for an apartment when she’s living in the dorms nine months a year.”
“Yeah,” Nico nodded. “I’m cool with that. It’ll just be for the summer aways, then she’ll go back to school. ”
Marcos smiled down at me, as he wrapped his thumb and forefinger under my chin and gripped it gently, “You’d be OK with my sister moving in here?”
A soft smile spread across my face as I nodded. “Yeah. She’s my best friend and your sister, of course she can stay here. We’ll have to set some ground rules of course, the last thing your sister wants to hear is us going at it like animals.”
A wicked smirk spread across Marcos’s face. Tightening his grip on my chin, he pulled my face closer to his. “When we negotiate, I’m going to ask for punishment measures.”
The blood drained from my face as her my parted, and my jaw practically dropped to the floor. My eyes widened as my heart skips a beat. “Wha—”
“I’m going enjoy spanking this luscious ass and watching it bounce with every hit.” A wicked grin pulled across his face, making my breath catch in my throat. “I think you like the sound of that.”
Speechless, I couldn’t answer him, unable to form a coherent thought. I could only stare up at him with my mouth open.
“Close those pretty lips, Maya, or I might find something to stick between them.”
Blushing, I snapped my jaw closed and turned away from him, forcing him to drop his hand from my face. “This is the shit I don’t want to happen in front of Kara. ”
“Well then bring your best negation skills to the table.” Marcos’s God forsaken smirk sharpened, if possible.
“I’m already going to be outnumbered.” I shook my head. “What’s to say I’ll even get a say in these negotiations, and the three of you won’t just steamroll over me?”
Immediately the smirk dropped from his face and he shook his head.
“Never, Maya. We would never do that. The whole point of this is to hear each other out. If at any point you don’t feel comfortable with any of it, we stop immediately.
And nothing we agree to is set in stone, ever.
We can always renegotiate at any time if anything isn’t working out. ”
Frowning, I stand up, needing space.
“The whole point of negotiations is communication. It’s the number one thing we value, darlin’. Just be honest with us,” Jason said as he stood up from the kitchen chair.
“Right.” I nodded and sat back down on the couch.
Marcos squatted down in front of me, cradling my face between his large hands. “It’ll be alright, you’ll see. Tomorrow then, after breakfast. We’ll pull out all of our check lists and compare notes. We’ll make a new one for the things we’re willing to try and discuss as a group.”
“OK.” I nodded and sighed. “And if there’s something I don’t want or like? ”
“Then we don’t do it, ever,” Jason said sternly from the kitchen. He stood up and walked over to me, stopping when he was a foot from me. “We never want you to feel uncomfortable with us.”
I loved how seriously they were taking this, and nodded slowly. “OK,” I agreed again.
My heart was pounding as I read through the questions once again.
I’d read through both the check list and the questionnaire a dozen times in the last several days.
I’d printed them out and answered everything I could to the best of my ability, and noted things I had questions about.
I’d gone over each answer multiple times until I could recite both the question and my answers verbatim.
Even when I was confident in my answers, that they wouldn’t change or that I wasn’t confused about anything, I still reread them.
Now, sitting out back around the fire pit, I was rereading everything again , while waiting for my guys to get back with breakfast. I had spent the day before googling everything I didn’t know, then writing questions on the papers for my guys, for a more detailed look at how something might work within our relationship.
It wasn’t long before I heard the telltale sound of Harley’s in the distance—a sound I had grown to love. I was still rereading everything when a shadow fell across my papers. “Come on, Little Dreamer. We’ll talk after food. ”
“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted.
Nico crouched down beside my chair and reached for my chin. Pulling my gaze toward his, he gave me a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it so much, Maya. We’ll still love you no matter what.”
I gasped, my mouth dropping open in shock. “You love me?”
Nico’s smile was radiant and breathtaking. He pulled off his sunglasses and tucked them into his shirt collar. “Of course I love you, Maya. I told you already, you’re mine. We play for keeps.”
“I love you too, Nico.” I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips.
His hand slid from my jaw to around my neck as he kissed me passionately. I moaned when his hand squeezed gently around my throat. His laugh was rich and full as he pulled away from me. “Come on my Dreamer love. Let’s do this.”
He stood up and held his hand out to me. I grabbed it and let him pull me to my feet. Holding hands, we walked into the house where Marcos and Jason were setting food out on the kitchen table. The Styrofoam containers from the local diner contained all our favorite breakfast foods.
“Change of plans guys,” Nico said as we entered the kitchen. “We’re gonna negotiate first, then eat. Maya’s too nervous to eat.”
I squeezed his hand.
Jason and Marcos immediately stopped what they were doing and looked up at me, both of them examined me carefully. “Alright. Let’s go in the living room,” Jason said .
I swallowed thickly and let Nico pull me into the living room. He dropped my hand as he rounded our massive sectional couch and pulled me sideways across his lap. He pulled the throw blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around my shoulders, before he tucked me against his chest.
Feeling snug and secure, I felt my heart rate slow as I started to calm down. I didn’t know why I was so damn nervous, but being bundled like a baby against Nico had immediately calmed me.
Jason and Marcos took a seat on the couch in front of me, both of them holding sheets of paper. I realized I was still clutching my own papers tightly in my fist and slowly pulled them out from under the blanket.
“No need to be nervous, darlin’. Let’s just do this, so there’s no more build up.
” Jason grabbed my papers and set them in his lap.
He snatched the top two sheets—his and Marcos's—and placed them on the coffee table before grabbing Nico's. “We’ll just go down the list. It’s mostly alphabetical per category, so it’s simple.
Marcos, grab that blank one and we’ll check off things we all like as we go. ”
I took a deep breath and kept my eyes down on the papers in Jason’s hands.
“First category: bondage and suspension. Blindfolds: everyone said yes,” Jason said.
Marcos marked off on the blank paper.
“Does that mean you like them on yourselves or on me?” I asked .
“For most of these, we chose for you, but there’s some we went both ways on. You’ll see,” Marcos said.
“Bondage heavy and bondage light,” Jason continued. “Maya said yes to light and maybe for heavy. That’s valid. We’d work you up to anything heavier. See where your comfort levels are.” He gave me a soft smile.
I grinned in return, feeling my heart skip a beat. This was going easier than I expected. I really didn’t have to talk much; he was just reading off our answers.
“To make this go a little faster, we’ll do your answers unless I know it’s something one of us has an issue with, OK?” Jason asked.
I nodded.
“Bondage multi-day, maybe. Bondage public under clothing, willing to try. Leather restraints yes, chains maybe, ropes maybe. I’m assuming you put maybe for things you’re willing to try?” Jason asked.
I nodded. “Yes. Most of that I won’t know until I try them.”
“Good girl,” Nico murmured in my ear.
“Lots of maybes for immobilization, arm and leg sleeves, harnesses of all material types: chains, ropes, leather. Cuffs of leather were maybe, but metal handcuffs, manacles, and irons were listed as ‘unsure’, do those worry you more than the others?” Jason looked up from the paper to meet my gaze.
I nodded slowly .
“Something else we can work up to? Is because it’s harder to get out of? Or the symbolism?”