“I left your list of chores on the counter. I’m going to be working outside for a while. You can come get me when you’re ready for me to check your work. Finish everything first so I don’t have to come in and out.”
He watched Alex’s face fall as she realized she would have to work again and that play wouldn’t come until later. This irritated him. Liam was treating her as if she were a true sub, as dedicated to service and obedience as he was, when in fact it was rather obvious from last night’s display, she was really just a highly sexed masochist who thought she wanted to play at being a sub. “You have a problem with that?” he said sharply.
Alex sidled up to him, brushing her breast over his arm as she smiled coquettishly up at him. He felt her nipple teasing against his skin. “I was thinking maybe I should practice first, you know, like Liam said…”
Daniel glared down at her, annoyed with his body for responding to her feminine touch. He turned away. “You thought wrong. Get to work.”
~*~
Alex’s knees hurt as she bent over her task, rubbing a rag soaked with wood polish over the stair just above the one on which she was kneeling. She still had over half the stairs to complete. Who needed shiny stairs, for heaven’s sake? These guys were manic about housecleaning. Were they going for some good-housekeeping award or something? She thought about her tiny apartment, piled with old magazines, clothing and books scattered about her bedroom, her bed rarely made. She thought about her clothes even now still stuffed into the drawers of her bureau upstairs. She had made her bed at least, albeit quickly, pulling the quilt over rumpled sheets and plumping the pillows at the headboard.
After polishing the stairs, Daniel expected her to sweep and mop the kitchen floor, wash down the bathroom sinks and counters, clean the toilets yet again and strip the bedding from their king-size bed, remaking it with proper hospital corners, whatever the heck that was.
She took her time, despite her irritation, determined Daniel wouldn’t be able to find fault with her today. She hadn’t been hungry at breakfast, served hours before she was used to being up. Now she wished she’d managed to take more than a few bites of pancake since her stomach was rumbling. Was she allowed to take a break and get herself something from the kitchen? Surely if she was expected to clean the place for free, she could get herself a snack?
Giving herself permission, Alex finished the last two stairs hastily and walked back to the kitchen. She selected a banana from a large bowl of fruit on the counter. As she peeled it back and took a bite, she peered outside, spying Daniel toward the back of their property. He was bent over and appeared to be digging a hole, his strong back flexing beneath his T-shirt, already wet with sweat.
What would Cheryl think if she called her right now? She imagined what she might say. “Hi, I’m in the kitchen of this huge old house in Westport. As soon as I’m done with my chores, a gorgeous blond guy is going to show me how to suck cock like a pro so when his Master comes home, I get to do him next.”
She shook her head. What was she doing here? It was fun as far as it went, but wasn’t she behaving as she always had in these situations, trying to manipulate the men she was with to her own advantage? And what did they really want with her? Had Liam been sincere during the interview when he’d said bringing her into their lives was a way of extending their lovemaking, of deepening it by adding a new dimension? Was there really room in their relationship for a third person? Could any relationship sustain the addition of another person without jealousy and misunderstanding?
Not that she wanted to become part of their relationship. She did want to submit as honestly and courageously as she could to what she termed in her head as a “real Dom”, which she believed Liam to be. She most certainly wasn’t looking for love, and even if she were, it wouldn’t be with two men involved in a gay love affair. She had to honestly admit she was far too self-centered for that. She wanted to be the center of attention, not some “extension of their lovemaking”.
“You’re done so soon?” Alex jumped at Daniel’s voice. She glanced through the kitchen window, half expecting to still see him at the back of the property, digging in the dirt.
“Oh,” she said, almost hiding her half-eaten banana behind her back before realizing how silly that was. “I’m done with the stairs. I still have the rest of the chores to do. I was hungry. I was taking a quick break.” She held up the banana by way of proof.