Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Majesty
I watched Cami’s chest rise and fall as she caught her breath, her cheeks flushed from the ride, hair slightly mussed from the helmet. She looked looser than she had this morning. Like something inside her had finally unclenched.
Fucking beautiful.
The call I was on was Lex checking in, his voice steady and efficient as always. “This is taking longer than I expected. I won’t be back until after seven.”
“No problem,” I said, keeping my eyes on Cami. She was watching the sunset now, arms wrapped around herself against the cooling air. “I’ve got everything handled here.”
“How is she?” Lex asked, and there was that careful interest he tried to hide but couldn’t quite manage.
“Really good, actually. We spent the day with the horses. Arlo was able to give her lessons today.” I paused. “She rode for the first time.”
“And?”
“And she was incredible.” I couldn’t keep the pride out of my voice. “Nervous as hell at first, but once she let go of the fear, she was a natural.”
Lex was quiet for a moment. “You’re getting attached.”
“We’re both getting attached,” I corrected. “Don’t pretend you didn’t spend last night in her bed.”
“That was different. That was aftercare.”
“Was it?” I challenged gently. “Because from where I was standing this morning, it looked like a lot more than that.”
Another pause. “I’ve got it under control,” Lex said. “She mentioned being open to more so eventually, we’ll need to talk.”
“Okay, but not tonight.” I watched Cami turn back toward me, a small smile playing at her lips. “Tonight, let her just be. No heavy conversations, no pressure. She needs that after the past couple days of training. Plus the classes are about to begin and I want her to be able to relax into them.”
“Agreed.” Lex sighed. “I’ll be back by seven-thirty. Don’t let her skip dinner.”
“I won’t. Drive safe.”
I ended the call and walked back to where Cami was standing, her arms still wrapped around herself. Without thinking, I shrugged out of my jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
“You looked cold,” I said when she glanced up at me, surprise in those expressive eyes.
“Thank you.” She pulled the jacket tighter, and something about seeing her wrapped in my clothes did things to my chest I wasn’t ready to examine.
“Lex is running late,” I told her. “Won’t be back until after seven. So it looks like you’re stuck with me for dinner duty.”
“Stuck with you?” She raised an eyebrow, that playful spark returning. “That’s one way to put it, Sir.”
“How would you put it?”
“Blessed with your company?” she offered with mock sweetness.
I laughed, the sound surprising me. She had a way of catching me off guard, making me feel light. “Come on, smartass. Let’s see if you can cook as well as you can ride.”
We walked back toward the cabin, the air growing colder as the sun dipped lower. The cabin was soon warming with the fire I’d built crackling in the great room.
“What are we making, Sir?” Cami asked, following me into the kitchen.
“I was thinking pasta. Something simple but good.” I pulled out ingredients from the fridge—fresh pasta I’d made yesterday, vegetables, cream, parmesan. “You any good in the kitchen?”
“I can follow directions,” she said, moving to wash her hands. “And I make a mean salad.”
“Salad duty it is then.” I set her up with the vegetables and a cutting board while I started water boiling for the pasta.
We worked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, the kind that felt easy rather than awkward.
I found myself stealing glances at her and the way she concentrated on dicing tomatoes, the small, satisfied smile when she got the pieces uniform, the unconscious way she hummed along to the music playing softly from the speaker.
“Wine?” I offered, pulling a bottle of red from the rack.
“God, yes, Sir.”
I poured us each a generous glass, and when I handed her one, our fingers brushed. The contact was brief but electric, and from the way her breath caught, she felt it too.
“To conquering fears,” I said, raising my glass.
“To patient teachers,” she countered, clinking her glass against mine.
The wine was smooth and rich, warming me from the inside. I turned back to the stove, adding butter and garlic to the pan, letting the aroma fill the kitchen.
“Can I ask you something, Majesty?” Cami said after a moment.
“Anything.”
“How did you and Lex start working together? I know you met at college, but... how did you know you’d work well together?”
I considered the question while I stirred the garlic. “Honestly? I didn’t at first. Lex is intense, you know? Very controlled, very precise. I’m more... go with the flow. I figured we’d clash.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. We balanced each other.” I glanced at her. “It’s a good partnership.”
“Is that all it is? A partnership?”
The question was casual, but I heard the curiosity underneath. “What are you really asking, Cami?”
She focused on the peppers she was slicing, not meeting my eyes. “I guess I’m trying to understand the dynamic. You two are so close. So coordinated. It’s more than just business partners.”
“We’re friends,” I said simply. “Best friends, really. We trust each other completely. We have to with this lifestyle.”
“But not...” She trailed off, clearly trying to figure out how to ask what she wanted to know.
“Not romantic,” I finished for her. “No. We’ve never been interested in each other that way. But we have shared partners before of course”
Her head came up at that, eyes wide. “You have?”
“A few times over the years. When it made sense, when everyone wanted it.” I added cream to the pan, watching it swirl with the butter.
“Most of them were intense short-term arrangements. The one time that it was serious, she decided that two men were a lot and she broke things off. Well, she asked me to be her partner and leave Lex out. I chose him over her of course. I’d never stab my brother in the back. We haven’t shared anybody since then.”
“And that worked for you?”
I turned to face her fully. “It did. Until recently.”
“What changed?”
You, I wanted to say. You changed everything. But it felt too soon, too intense, so instead I said, “I think we both started wanting something more sustainable. Something real.”
She took a long sip of her wine, processing that. “Is that why you started teaching these workshops? To find that?”
“Maybe. Or maybe to figure out if it was even possible again.” I turned back to the stove, adding the vegetables to the pan. “What about you? At dinner that first night you told us you were curious about multi-partner dynamics.”
“I remember,” she admitted. “I wanted to understand how it works.”
“And now? After being here, learning about it?”
“Now I think I want it,” she said quietly. “Not the exact same dynamic as Shelly, Harrison and their submissive, but something like it. That level of connection.”
I added the pasta to the pan, tossing everything together with the cheese. “What if I told you that you’re already building it?”
She set down her wine glass. “Sir, what do you mean?”
“This. Right now.” I gestured between us. “The way you spent last night with Lex. The way you’ve been here with me today. You’re not trying to perform or be something you’re not. You’re just present. That’s the foundation.”
“It doesn’t feel like enough.”
“It’s everything.” I plated the pasta, the motions automatic while my mind focused on her. “Trust and communication take time, Cami. You can’t rush it just because you want it.”
“Says the man who’s been watching me like he wants to devour me all day.”
The boldness of it surprised us both. She clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes going wide.
I set down the plates and moved around the island until I was standing in front of her.
“Sir,” she said softly.
“You noticed that, did you?”
“Yes, Sir. Kind of hard to miss.” Her voice was quieter now, breathier.
“Good, because I do want to devour you. Have since the moment I met you.”
“Majesty...” It came out somewhere between a warning and a plea.
“But I’m also patient,” I continued. “And I know that what’s building between all three of us is worth taking our time with. Even if it kills me.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes searching mine. “What if I’m not patient, Sir?”
“Then we’ll work on that.” I stepped back, putting necessary distance between us before I did something stupid like kiss her before we’d properly talked everything through. “Come on. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
We carried our plates to the small table by the window, refilling our wine glasses and settling into seats across from each other. The first bite made her moan softly, and I had to adjust in my chair.
“This is incredible,” she said. “Where did you learn to cook like this, Sir?”
“My grandmother. She was Italian, very old school about family meals.” I twirled pasta around my fork. “She used to say that feeding people was another way of showing love.”
“I like that.” Cami took another bite, clearly savoring it. “My mom was more of a ‘dinner comes from a box’ person. I had to teach myself most of what I know.”
“You did well. This salad is perfect.”
She smiled, pleased by the compliment, and we fell into easier conversation—trading stories about family, childhood, the random things that made us who we were. The wine flowed, loosening both of us, and I found myself laughing easier than I had with any other woman I’d dated before her.
“Okay, but seriously,” Cami said, leaning forward with her elbows on the table, slightly tipsy and adorably unguarded. “The worst date you’ve ever been on. Go.”
I groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Yes. I shared mine. Now it’s your turn.”
“Fine.” I refilled both our glasses. “Met her at a conference. She seemed great—smart, funny, shared interests. We went to dinner, and halfway through the appetizer, she started talking about her ex. And didn’t stop. For two hours.”
Cami winced. “Ouch.”