Chapter Twenty-Three
ISOBEL
Boston
Adrian had been right. We had barely come up for air the rest of the week. If we weren’t reading or marking up scenes with comments and corrections, we were googling objects the heroine, Fanny the Dominatrix, was using throughout the story and then playing them out with our limited resources.
If we could have kept our hands off each other long enough to put on real clothes, I would have insisted on a field trip to meet Chase’s friend Talia. While I’d not been to the studio she shared with her Dom, Emory, I knew she had an extensive collection of toys, courtesy of her job as a sex toy blogger.
I was sure they had every piece of equipment Chase and Evan included in this book because there was no way those two wrote this manuscript without help from the experts. But introducing Adrian to that much hardware at once might scar him for life. It intimidated me a bit to think about seeing all the things I’d only read about before.
There were only a few scenes I was hesitating on, unsure if they were a little too taboo to tie to Chase and Evan’s current pen names.
“Do you think this is going to turn off Evan’s reader base? I know some of them weren’t supportive of the last release. I don’t want to lose readers for either of them over this.”
Adrian’s lips quirked to the side while he tilted his head, looking contemplative. If I’d asked this question in the office, he would have blurted out something totally inappropriate or offensive by now, but I could see he was genuinely trying to do better controlling his filter.
“Those readers are already drifting. While this might entirely push them away from his work, there will probably be just as many who would eagerly devour this kind of content.”
“Wow,” I teased, not expecting that succinct of an answer. “And you thought only desperate housewives read these kinds of books.”
“I wasn’t that bad. I know spicy romance sells well. I’ve seen the quarterly sales reports.”
“Uh, yeah, you were that bad, Captain Dickhead. I believe the words mommy porn and self-insert fantasies of single, middle-aged romance writers were words that actually came out of your mouth.”
“Yeah, well. I get it now,” he shrugged, moving his leg to press up against mine.
We’d been sitting up against his headboard, laptops on our laps, editing in our underwear. I’d tried multiple times to put on a bra, but he just kept taking them off me every time a particularly compelling scene got to him.
“Only because you’re getting something else out of it.”
“That’s not entirely true. I think this book will sell. And you can’t deny their writing styles play well off each other. The chemistry between the main characters is explosive and you can’t easily predict the ending.”
“Okay. You made your point. You’re a changed man,” I teased, reaching over to kiss his bicep.
“Damn straight I am.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question. Does the scene in chapter twenty stay or not?”
Adrian knew exactly what scene I was talking about, quickly scrolling up to the passage that was throwing me off .
Frances looked between the two men sitting on the edge of her bed, smiling at their eagerness.
One watching her face, cataloging her every move. Ensuring she was alright with acting out his request. They both knew she had other partners, her job practically demanding it. But he’d never been in the room during an appointment with one of her clients.
Their relationship happened outside of her sessions, his need to please her feeding the part of her desperate for affection once she shed the mask of her profession.
Dominic’s open devotion after hours kept her soul fed, and her shattered heart pieced together.
She knew they both had deeper feelings for each other than they let on, but their dynamic worked as it was. There wasn’t a need to whisper words they both felt when saying them aloud might alter things.
The other man practically beamed at her pleasure, desperate for the opportunity she’d given him.
It was rare she handed over control, but she trusted him to stay within the confines of their plans for the scene.
“Dom, stand and go to the chair,” she ordered, pointing at an armchair she’d moved close to the bed.
He didn’t hesitate, slowly lowering himself into the plush cushion and spreading his legs wide, his arms draped over the low sides. While this position would make some men look powerful. He looked exactly like he always did at her, waiting for his next command.
“Unzip your pants and pull yourself out, but don’t touch. I want to watch what this does to you.”
Dominic obeyed, lifting his hips to pull down his pants a fraction, his lack of undergarments displaying his half-hard cock laying against his upper thigh. He returned his hands to the arms of the chair, his posture entirely relaxed.
“Callum,” she murmured, turning toward the man still sitting on the edge of the bed. His eyes looked hungry, anticipating what was to come. He wanted to show off as much as Dominic wanted to watch. “Strip. ”
“How can Dom just sit there and watch Callum putting his hands all over her? The reader already knows he’s in love with her at this point. Isn’t that just cruel?” Don’t get me wrong, the scene was starting off hot, but I couldn’t fathom sharing something.
“Is it the fact he’s there watching it that bothers you, or is it that you think he should be more possessive? Because Chase did a good job displaying Dominic’s understanding of the demands of her job. She gives other men their fantasies all the time.”
“But her job is totally different than her time with Dom. When she’s not Madame Frances, she’s just his Fanny.”
Adrian smirked, and I tried to hold back a laugh. “Yeah, he definitely likes her Fanny.”
“Shut up for a minute and be serious. I’m talking about their connection, not her vagina.”
“Should we mention Fanny means something a bit naughty in the UK?”
Laughing again, I leaned my head on his shoulder. “If you think that wasn’t one hundred percent intentional on Chase’s part, then you’re an idiot.”
“You keep trying to convince me your writers aren’t sex obsessed, but so far, the evidence is proving the contrary.” His deep voice was teasing, but I could see his point. The further we dove into this manuscript, the more ravenous I was for him. I wasn’t sure if it was just my libido or the fact we were now going to try for a baby, or that he was too damn attractive for me to keep my hands off him. But he seemed to feel the same way.
“Just keep reading,” I told him, and he cleared his throat before he spoke again .
“Now take off my robe,” she instructed, pulling Callum’s rough hand to the silk tie at her waist.
“That’s the last command you’ll give me,” he responded, releasing the tie and pulling open her robe. His warm hands grasped her hips, and he pulled her roughly into his chest as he kissed the side of her neck. “This body is mine now.”
“I want you to see how you affect him,” he whispered while he spun her, grasping both breasts in his palms as he turned her to face the man in the chair. “He wishes his hands were on you. Look at how tightly his knuckles grip the chair.”
She nodded, gasping as one of his hands traced down her stomach and Cal plunged two fingers into her already wet pussy. Dominic may have asked for this, but she couldn’t deny she wanted it too.
“So beautiful,” Dom murmured as he watched Callum manipulate Fanny, the roughness of his hand making her head fall back against his shoulder. A flush spread up her chest as a moan escaped her lips, her eyes closing.
“Look at me,” Dom whispered, and her eyes opened, drowsy with pleasure as Callum drove her closer to release.
She panted as she watched Dom, his posture relaxed, but she could tell he was holding back. He wouldn’t touch himself until she told him to, and as his cock bobbed when a moan escaped her lips, she found herself wanting to see how desperate she could make him.
“Get on the bed,” Callum hummed, pulling his fingers from where she was throbbing. “Hands and knees. Let him see your face while I fuck you.”
Frances didn’t take her eyes off Dominic as she sat down on the edge of the mattress. Callum’s large arms encircled her waist and pulled her back, manipulating her body until she was on her hands and knees in front of him.
“Hold on, darlin’,” he growled as he grasped her hips, roughly pulling her back, his cock throbbing against her hip .
She gasped as he entered her, watching as Dominic sat forward, watching her every move as the man behind her thrust roughly.
Dominic’s eyes were riveted to where Callum thrust into Fanny frantically, his large hands manipulating her into a tight hold.
“Fuck,” she panted as she felt her body right on the cusp of spiraling out of control. Callum’s thrusts were brutal, but the force of them had her desperate for release.
“You wish she let you do this,” Cal taunted from behind her, Dominic’s eyebrow arching as he tried to remain calm. Even being actively provoked she admired her sub’s restraint.
“She’s going to come on my cock harder than she ever has on yours.”
Dominic’s jaw twitched, but still, he held back, taking his cues from Frances.
“Like there,” I murmured, trying not to get distracted by the feel of Adrian’s fingers caressing the bare skin on the inside of my thigh. “You can tell Dominic is upset while he watches Callum manhandle her.”
“He’s not upset,” Adrian whispered, leaning in to place a kiss behind my ear. “He’s fucking turned on.”
“How can you tell?” My voice was breathy as his lips lingered, his warm breath fanning across my neck.
“Because he gets off on watching her receive pleasure.”
“But why?”
Adrian cleared his throat, leaning back and turning my face in his direction. “He doesn’t see her as a thing to possess. He’s not jealous because Dom sees her as something he knows is his because she cares for him. He’s not insecure, but there is also a primal part of him that wants others to covet what he has. Notice how Fanny watches Dominic the entire time. He knows he has her attention. Callum is just a means to an end. His body may be the one fucking her, but Dominic is the one pulling the strings. He’s the one providing her pleasure.”
“But he’s her submissive. Isn’t he supposed to be the less dominant one?”
“You know more about this stuff than I do, but part of his devotion to her is bringing her pleasure. He’s watching her receive it and letting her act out a fantasy for him, which brings her another level of satisfaction.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I hummed, still not convinced you can let someone else touch you like that or let your partner be touched like that and not have jealousy play a part. “Let’s keep reading.”
Callum started whispering depraved things in her ear, her mind registering his words, but unable to respond as she clenched, finally succumbing to her powerful orgasm with a scream.
Panting as Callum thrust a few more times, she watched Dominic, knowing he was close too, his cock throbbed when the man inside her growled loudly, reaching his peak as well.
The sound of the door to her playroom clicking shut echoed in the quiet room, but the only thing she saw was Dom trying to hold back from coming.
He’d been trained early on in their dynamic to control his orgasms, able to come without external stimulation if she demanded it. But he’d also learned how to keep himself on the edge, riding the painful wave between restraint and release.
After she caught her breath, she climbed from the bed, not hesitating before she settled into Dom’s lap, pulling him to her entrance. Callum’s release dripped down the head of his cock, a filthy reminder of the man who’d been inside her moments before.
Dom’s fingers dug into the arms of the chair roughly as she thrust her hips downward, completely engulfing his hard cock inside her.
“Is that what you wanted? To watch him claim me?” she whispered, grasping the back of his neck and riding him with abandon .
She’d never been on the receiving end of this kind of scene, the person whose partner watched them with someone else. But now she understood it.
Understood how overwhelming it was to have eyes on you like that. Overwhelming in how much she needed Dom to reclaim her body.
“Fuck me,” she whispered lowly, and Dom didn’t hesitate, immediately grasping her hips and pounding into her from below as his head fell backward, his eyes never leaving her.
“Make me come again,” she whimpered, and his thumb moved to press against her clit, his other hand roughly manipulating her on his lap the way he knew she liked. “He was wrong. You’re the only one who gets this side of me.”
He felt her clench, knowing the one thing that would drive her over the edge.
She gasped as he sat up, grasping the back of her neck and pulling her face to his as he uttered the one word they both knew would always be true.
“Mine.”
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Adrian responded, reaching down to adjust himself. “That almost made me come in my pants. Isn’t that what we’re going for?”
“You’re not wearing pants,” I pointed out, eyeing the hard outline of him through his briefs. I had to give him credit. I was tempted to touch myself as he’d read that, and he’d kept going until the end. Maybe he had a bit of Dominic in him.
“Is, quit deflecting. Why is this scene really bothering you?”
“Do people really do that?” I asked, unsure how to refer to what had happened between those three characters. “Do people really watch their partners do that? I thought that was something people only did in porn. ”
“What kind of porn have you been watching?” Adrian laughed, grasping my thigh and rubbing his fingers suggestively over my panties.
Smacking his hand away, I turned slightly to face him. “That’s not the point. I’m worried this may cross a line from romantic thriller to erotica. Those are two vastly different genres.”
“The plot still works if you gloss over the sex. It could fade to black or be non-graphic and get the same effect. It just makes it more compelling with the details Chase and Evan included.”
“I gotta be honest. I was not expecting you to be so open-minded about this manuscript. Should I be worried you hit your head and gave yourself brain damage?”
“Maybe all the orgasms in the last month and a half have lightened me up a little,” he joked. But I wasn’t entirely discounting his dickish behavior, being exacerbated by a dry spell.
“A few months ago, I would have labeled you as the type of guy who was only concerned about getting yourself off.”
“I’m a little insulted by that,” he chuckled, putting his laptop on the bed beside him before pulling me into his lap. “I may have acted like a dick and unfairly judged your genre, but I’m clearly not as selfish as you thought I was.”
“Well…” I cringed and then shrieked when his fingers dug into my sides.
“Okay. Okay. You’re a sex god,” I laughed as I wiggled in his lap, the feeling of him hard beneath me making it difficult to concentrate on the conversation we were having.
“That’s better,” he murmured as he grasped my waist, holding me still. “But to answer your question. That kind of thing happens more often than you think it does.”
“I don’t know.” I was still unsure if that kind of thing happened outside of fiction or internet porn.
“If you want to ask someone questions, I might know a guy. ”
“You know a guy who sleeps with women while their partners watch?”
“I told you I was full of surprises,” he replied with a shrug.
“Who is he?” And how did Adrian know him? Being a participant in a cuckold scene wasn’t exactly something you talked about in casual conversation.
“And ruin the surprise?” He grinned, pulling his phone off the nightstand and rapidly typing into the screen before he set the phone back down a few moments later.
“He said he’s available tonight. We can order some takeout and you can ask him some questions.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Is it safe for this guy to come to your apartment?”
“He’s been here plenty of times before. It’ll be fine. Relax a little.”
“He won’t expect us to be into that sort of thing, is he?”
Adrian laughed, shaking his head before he leaned in, pecking my lips before he sat back against the headboard.
“He won’t expect anything other than helping you understand things a little better. And I’m sure as fuck not sharing you.”
Suddenly nervous, I ran my palms along the sheets beside Adrian’s hips.
“I… uh…”
“Isobel, relax. I promise he won’t intentionally make you uncomfortable. He might try to make you blush a bit, but I promise you can trust him.”
“And you’re not going to tell me anything else about him?”
“Nope.” He shook his head, an obnoxious grin showing off the dimple in his cheek. “If I tell you, it’ll spoil the surprise.”