Home.

  It felt weird not stressing over work, for a change. He’d finally turned on his work phone that morning and put it on its charger, but there was nothing for him to worry about right now. He’d be unburying himself from e-mails for most of next week, but he didn’t fucking care.

  He wanted Shay to have his undivided attention tonight.

  She brought their pizza over to the coffee table, and it felt better than fantastic to have her pressed against his side.

  He leaned in and nibbled the side of her neck, leaving a little smear of sauce behind that he licked up. “Missed you so much, pet.”

  She blushed as she smiled at him. “Missed you, too, Sir.” She tipped her head onto his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re home. This was a good day.”

  “Sure I can’t talk you into taking the Pilot to work?”

  She sighed. “I know I’m weird, but I like your car.”

  “The Pilot’s fully insured, pet.” He grinned at her dark scowl.

  “Not funny, Sir,” she grumbled, but in that way that let him know she wasn’t really aggravated with him.

  “So. Where are we going on vacation?”

  Another grumble from her. “I haven’t decided yet, Sir. Shit went sideways on me last week.”

  “Yeah, it sort of did, didn’t it? Would you like me to decide for us?”

  “Do we even need a decision?” she asked. “Can’t we just…drive? I mean look what happened to our best-laid plans?”

  He thought about it. “You do have a point. You wouldn’t mind just taking off?”

  “No, I wouldn’t mind. I’m actually scared to plan. I’m going to assume it’ll get fucked before we even hit the state line.”

  The more he thought about it… “You know, I really do like that idea,” he finally said. “Let’s just pack a suitcase and go.”

  “I have only one request,” she said.

  “And that is?” He took a sip of his hard cider.

  “We don’t go anyfuckingwhere near goddamned Denver!”

  He started laughing and choked on his hard cider, blowing half of it out his nose and making his eyes water at the pain.

  Shayla almost managed not to laugh.

  Almost.

  He’d give her full credit for that.

  But as she put down her plate and dove for the roll of paper towels she’d brought out for them…yeah. She was laughing.

  And so was he, between blinking back tears from the hard-cider hosing his nose had just endured from the inside out and choking on the cider that had managed to get down his throat.

  “Just swallow, Sir,” she teased, her eyes sparkling, and that made him laugh even harder.

  He had to stagger into the hall bathroom to rinse his nose out and wash his face, and she followed, smiling at him in the bathroom mirror.

  “That is worth whatever spanking you want to give me, Sir,” she said, her smile widening.

  He finally managed to quit choking and coughing—and got his nose to stop stinging from the cider—and dried his face off with a towel. He turned and pulled her into his arms, holding her. “Fuck, I missed you, baby,” he said. “I was so goddamned lonely.”

  She tightly held on to him. “Missed you, too.”

  They stood there for another moment before he turned her around and delivered a stinging swat to her ass. “Let’s finish eating and head to bed and see what kind of maiming we can inflict on each other before we fall asleep.”

  She giggled. “Yes, Sir.”

  * * * *

  Yep, totes worth it. Shayla couldn’t wait for the next time she got together with Loren, Leah, Abbey, Cali, and the others to tell them this whole story. Loren only got part of it, and knew about the anniversary debacle. But they hadn’t taken the time to tell Ross and Loren the entire story earlier.

  After they finished dinner, they headed to the bedroom. They both had work tomorrow, so it wasn’t like they could stay up late tonight.

  Shay was more than happy for Tony to playfully shove her back onto the bed and crawl between her thighs to go down on her.

  Tonight he took his time, slowly building her up with long, languid strokes of his tongue along her clit, lazily circling the bud, teasing it, before another slow swipe of his tongue.

  He knew every inch of her pussy, had it memorized, had enjoyed every second, apparently, of that education because he took her pleasure very seriously.

  Shayla felt sorry for the subs who hooked up with wannabe so-called “dominants” who didn’t give a shit about their sub’s pleasure or needs. Those were just selfish assholes.

  There was nothing but love and passion in her husband’s eyes as his green gaze pierced through her when he stared up her body. He liked it when she watched him, liked her seeing how much he enjoyed this, just like he loved to watch her going down on him.

  They’d had a connection from the very beginning, deeper than anything she’d ever felt before, strong and unwavering.

  Some people were just meant to be together, and Shayla believed to the very depths of her being that they belonged together.

  She reached down and played with his hair as he ate her out. She loved the feel of his mustache and goatee, softly scratchy against her inner thighs.

  He slipped two fingers into her cunt, which was now slick with her juices. He reached up with his other hand and pinched her nipples, back and forth, rolling and tugging them in his fingers and driving her closer to the edge. Finally, he turned his fingers inside her pussy, hooking them up and finding her G-spot, gently pressing on it.

  She exploded, went from not-quite there to over the edge in less than a second. Her toes curled as he kept her coming, sucked on her clit, watched her with a triumph in his gaze that only made her come harder.

  Her Master.

  He owned her, and she’d never been happier in her life than after they finally got their act together and admitted their feelings for each other.

  When she finally finished coming, he sat up, notched the head of his cock against the entrance to her cunt, and easily shoved in.

  Tony was hard, and she knew it was both from what he was doing to her, how much he loved watching and listening to her come, as well as the friction of his cock rubbing against the sheets under him while he did it to her.

  He leaned in close, staring down into her eyes as he fucked her. “One more, baby?”

  She held on. “I’m done, Sir.” She pulled him down for a kiss, loved tasting herself on him as he let go and groaned his release into their kiss, filling her top and bottom before falling still. Their kisses gentled, nips and licks and sweet nose nuzzles before he let out a sigh.

  “I do not want to go to work tomorrow,” he said.

  “Well, cheer up, Sir. There’s one good thing.”

  “What’s that, pet?”

  She smiled. “You have a snazzy new ride to do it in.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, pet, I do have a snazzy new ride.”

  Chapter Eight

  Tuesday morning when Tony arrived at work, he found something on his desk—a cobalt blue glass disk approximately three inches across, hanging from a blue cord. In the center of the blue disk was a white circle, with a light blue one inside that, and a dark blue dot within that at the very center.

  He recognized it from seeing them all over in Tarpon Springs and elsewhere, and knew immediately where it’d come from.

  He walked out of his office and into the bullpen where the monitor stations were, holding it up as he approached Mike, where he sat at his desk. “Do I thank you for the nazar?” he asked, the evil eye ward hanging from his finger.

  Mike grinned and sat back. “Hey, can’t hurt, can it? Maybe you should hang it in your new car.”

  Loren had wasted no time telling Jenny the latest bad-luck story, and Mike had giggled at the retelling yesterday when he’d asked Tony for the deets.

  Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. “Thanks. I think.” He carried it back into his office and hung it from a push pin on his bulletin board.

  He wasn’t superstitious. At all.

  But it definitely felt like his mojo was out of whack, and had been especially ever since learning about his ex-wife’s suicide while he was in Denver.

  One good thing?

  Their crew in Denver was settling into their new jobs. That data center was only being used as a backup, not their primary one right now, until they had run it a few weeks and had a solid burn-in time to reassure Tony it was ready for full production loads.

  Besides, the call center portion of the Denver facility wasn’t finished yet.

  Darren stopped in his doorway. “So, hey, how are you?”

  Tony sat back in his chair, now feeling wary from Darren’s weaselly tone. “I’m not giving up my vacation.”

  “No, no no no,” Darren quickly said, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. “I need to talk to you for a minute.”

  Tony glared at him.

  Darren actually swallowed hard. “I need you to go with me to a VP meeting.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they want to hear from you what happened out in Denver.”

  “Why do you look like you think I’m going to choke you for this?”

  “Because it’s going to probably take a couple of hours.”

  Tony internally grumbled. “That doesn’t sound bad. I mean, it’s going to put me behind—”

  “It starts at seven tonight, because two of the VPs are flying in from being out of town.”

  Aaaannnnd there it is.

  Tony glared at him. “I have to stay here until at least nine tonight after all the shi-stuff I went through?”

  “I know. Sorry. I’m really sorry, Tony.”

  “You’re fricking buying me dinner. I want takeout from Outback. Steak, rare, all the fixings. Bleu cheese dressing on my salad.” He sat forward and shook his mouse to wake up his computer.

  “Oh, sure.” He laughed. “I mean, hey, least I can do.”

  “You do realize they’re going to get a piece of my mind tonight, right? Had that idiot not red-lined my budget—without telling me at the time—we would’ve had the resources and manpower to have that data center fully online and staffed over two months ago.”

  “I know, I know. It’s not your fault, no one’s blaming you—”

  “That idiot tried to blame me.” Tony didn’t even want to say the guy’s name.

  “That’s because he didn’t know you, and he was a freaking idiot. Tony, seriously, you saved our asses. Don’t think I don’t know that. I’ve been making sure everyone knows that.”

  He nodded. “Thanks. Let me get back to work.”

  “Oh, and there’s one other thing.”

  Tony silently grumbled. “What?”

  “They want us to cut two people from your team.”

  Tony blinked and turned to him. “Say again?”

  “I mean, don’t you have two part-timers or something?”

  “We are understaffed, Darren. You know that. We have listings out to hire more people. I need at least three more people to have a complete crew, and that’s running bare minimum to avoid overtime every week! Which I get bitched at if I run, but news flash—no data center, no insurance company, no call center, no online services, no new underwriting or policies, no billing—nothing!”

  Darren sighed. “I know. If you talk to them tonight, you can probably explain that a lot better than I can.”

  “If they want to cut someone, cut a VP or two. That’ll probably pay for two or three sys admins with enough to spare to hire some Windows people or DB admins, because they’re severely understaffed, too!”

  “That’s the other reason I need you there tonight. To tell them all that. Please?”

  Tony closed his eyes and imagined Darren on his knees, in a gimp suit, gagged, and getting the crap beat out of him by Tilly.

  Wasn’t the first time he’d had that fantasy to prevent him from committing career suicide, either.

  He finally opened his eyes and sent another death-glare to Darren. “You need me to be the bad guy, is what you’re saying?”

  Darren nodded. “They listen to you. Every time you’ve gone up against them, they end up backing you and loving everything you say. I try it, they pretty much ignore me.”

  That’s because you’re a weaselly little shitstain.

  But he didn’t say that.

  “And you always manage to make me look really good,” Darren added. “I admit it—I need you. I’m hosed if I lose you. Please?”

  Tony felt his Dom mask slip into place. “Fine. Tell HR to add five extra PTO days onto my account for this year. And that it’s my new minimum per annum PTO scale. Right now.”

  “What?”

  Tony sat back. “I know they can do it, and I know you’re friends with the head of HR. Tell her it’s to make up for Denver, and because it’s still four months until my annual review when you can give me a raise. When you message me it’s done, then you’ll know for sure I’ll be at that meeting and will make you look good.”

  Darren looked like he was going to want to negotiate this, but Tony leveled a cold, steady gaze at him.

  Darren folded like wet toilet paper. “Okay, okay. Give me a little bit. I don’t even know if she’s in today.”

  Tony glanced at their internal messaging system. “Show’s she’s online right now. You’re on the clock. Go.”

  Darren headed out.

  Tony shook his head and pulled out his personal phone to text Shay and update her.

  She wouldn’t be happy, but at least it wasn’t as big of a clusterfuck as it could be.

  But not that he’d say anything here at work…it did give him an idea.

  If he could make his boss look good, a man who Tony damn well knew was making at least twenty grand more than Tony was…

  Why the hell shouldn’t I be making that money?

  Normally, he wasn’t the kind of guy who engaged in bullshit workplace politics. He did his job, put in honest effort, and went home.

  Darren, however, had been a pain in his ass for years now.

  And he’d never see it coming, because he would never expect Tony to throw him under the bus.

  Tony knew he’d have to do some planning during his vacation. It wouldn’t do to start putting a plan into action and then leave for two weeks and give Darren time to stab him in the back.

  Better to wait and seem like all was well.

  And then strike.

  * * * *

  Wednesday night, Shayla stopped by Publix on her way home and picked up sushi, since she’d be eating alone.

  Again.

  Come on, vacation.

  Tony’s boss had asked him to attend another late meeting today after last night’s apparently went well. Tony wasn’t telling her everything yet, she suspected, but that wasn’t unusual when it came to work.

  He kept his frustrations to himself.

  When he was ready to talk it out, he would. It never bled into their relationship, so she had no reason to badger him about it.

  At least she’d come up with a few ideas about their vacation. They’d head up into the Panhandle first, stop where they felt like it, and work their way to New Orleans. Then they’d head north, to St. Louis, and make a big loop, through the Great Smokey Mountains, and eventually home again. No firm agenda. And that was flexible, too. They’d take back roads, stop at small towns, explore.

  She couldn’t wait.

  She’d already told Cali that she could put her and Tony back on the volunteer calendar once they’d returned from their trip, which had made their friend happy. Mal and Kel were still MIA for now, which worried all of them, but it couldn’t be helped. Mal’s health needed to take priority to the club.

  They could handle things.

  I’m glad Tony had a vasectomy before I ever met him.

  Maybe it made her selfish, but when she thought about having a child, and how much more difficult Tony’s absence would have made her life, and how it’d be hard to do everything else they did if they had children, Shayla realized she didn’t have any urge to be a mom.

  Or to risk going through the utter heartache Kel and Mal had endured.

  Life works in funny ways. It took care of her before she’d ever met Tony, as if it was aligning events in her life to put them in each other’s paths. Her ex running up thousands of dollars in porn bills in her name had made her call off their wedding and triggered her move to Florida in the first place.

  Even in the best of times with her ex, she’d never been as happy as she was with Tony, minor blips like the “Denver period” aside, as she was thinking about it.

  When he finally returned home a little before eleven, he pulled her into his arms for a long, strong hug.

  “Are you okay, Sir?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Tired. Did you eat?”

  “Yes, Sir.” She made him look her in the eyes. “Can you talk about it?”

  He sighed. “I don’t have anything firm in mind yet…” His tone darkened. “I think I’m going to rat-fuck my boss and get him fired and take his job.”

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard him right, at first. Then she was waiting for a smile or a laugh to indicate he was kidding.

  There wasn’t one.

  “Darren?”

  He nodded. “Don’t say anything to anyone. We have too much cross-pollination now between kinky and vanilla lives with our friends.” He sighed. “But when you see something on my mind, for right now, that’s what it is.”

  “Do we need to postpone our vacation?”

  He snorted. “No. Like hell. We’re still leaving on Saturday.”

  But later, as she lay there in bed with him and thought about how he’d said it, the revelation about work…she shivered.

  That had been all Dom-tone, the darkness of the sadist at his “worst.”

  Or best, maybe, depending on what she was in a mood for.

  I think life’s about to get interesting for a while.

  Chapter Nine

  A little after seven on Saturday morning, Shayla made one final pass through the house while Tony loaded the Pilot. One large suitcase, one small one, two carryon-sized bags for their laptops, chargers, and other personal belongings, and a small cooler that right now held ice, bottled water, and a few cheese sticks for snacks.