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The thought of someone else touching her ever again enraged him. “Over my dead body,” Markus growled. “She’smine. No one else is ever gonna fucking touch her again.” Markus stared into his friend’s eyes before issuing his warning. “And that includes you, Lukus. I can hear it in your voice. You wanna fuck my wife.” The thought terrified him.
But Lukus laughed his warning off. “Hell yes, I wanna screw your wife. Have you seen her lately? She’s smoking hot. You have no idea how great you and James have it. You lucky bastards get the wife, the submissive. Hell, you’ll even have her popping out babies before you know it. She’s smart and the perfect balance of submission and strength. You’re rich and successful. You’re one of the privileged few who gets to have it all in life. Don’t screw this up ever again because the next time you do, I won’t be coming out here to help you figure it out. I’ll be stealing her away on a plane. I’ll take her far away from here and believe me—I’ll know how to give her what she needs. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
Markus should have been pissed, but seeing the levity on Lukus’s face helped lift the blanket of dread he’d been wearing since listening to his wife cheating on him the day before.
“That sounds like a threat.”
Lukus grinned back. “Hell, no. It’s a promise.”
The men stood still, awkwardly silent until Lukus walked closer and offered his hand for a shake. A wave of gratitude had Markus reaching out and pulling his best friend into an embrace instead. “Thanks so much for coming out here and knocking some sense into me. Seriously, I really can’t thank you enough.”
Lukus slapped his back as he answered, “Any time, bro. You dug my ass out of the fire this week, too. It’s only fair I repay the favor.”
Markus sighed as they stepped back from one another, a new worry forming. “So now what? Do I just come down and collect her and say ‘Oops, sweetheart. I made a mistake’?”
Lukus laughed out loud. “I have a better idea and I think it’s gonna help you put your fear of her ever cheating on you again to rest for good. It might be a bit tricky, but I think we can pull it off.”
Markus was onboard for any plan Lukus came up with, as long as it accomplished the most important goal of his life.
I’m not resting until Brianna is home and back in our bed where she belongs.
Chapter Three
Brianna
Twenty-four hours ago, I was making the biggest mistake of my life. If only I could go back and choose not to go with Jake.
Brianna was exhausted, yet she just couldn’t get to sleep. Her brain wouldn’t shut down the crushing guilt long enough to let sleep claim her. It didn’t help that her arms and wrists were uncomfortably tied to the headboard, making it hard to find a comfortable position. At least she wasn’t stuck back in the stupid cage she’d slept in the night before.
God, she wanted to call Tiffany. She needed to make amends with her best friend almost as much as Markus. Only Tiffany knew about the dangerous blackmail material her ex held over them both. More importantly, Tiff truly understood the dark part of her psyche that had allowed Jake to keep wedging his way back into her life. In her quiet captivity, Bri swore she’d make her mistakes up to both her husband and her best friend if it was the last thing she did. She just prayed she’d get the chance.
Crushing guilt gripped her as hard as the ropes at her wrists. Sleep eluded her as she obsessed over every horrid detail of the last twenty-four hours. There were so many things she didn’t understand, but one truth that was crystal clear was she loved Markus with all her heart. Knowing that, she couldn’t reconcile that she’d allowed Jake—the man who had terrorized her and nearly put her in the hospital years before—to blackmail her into a tryst that could ruin her life. It was unforgivable, so how could she expect to be forgiven?
The worst part is he made me come. I may not have enjoyed it, but my body is broken. I hate that I crave the pain.
Worse, as she turned the events around in her head, Brianna remembered Jake was not her only indiscretion in the last twenty-four hours. There was no denying the physical attraction to her husband’s best friend.
The freaking gorgeous, sexy… okay, stop Brianna.
Without a doubt, it was Lukus’s yummy dominance that was the draw. He’d treated her exactly as she’d dreamed of Markus mastering her. Sure, he’d punished her severely, but she’d deserved every stroke of the paddle, every humiliation he’d dished out. On the surface, Lukus appeared to be the perfect balance of dominance, protectiveness, and tenderness she’d craved all of her adult life. To that end, Bri was smart enough to know she needed to keep her wits about her when he returned.
I wonder what kind of Dom Markus was to Georgie? Was he just like Lukus?
The revelation that Markus had once been part of the D/s lifestyle was fantastical to Bri. As hard as she tried to imagine her husband doing the things to her his best friend had, the memories of his tender lovemaking crowded in, making the vision of him punishing her impossible to see. How could he have hidden his true nature for so long?
A flicker of anger sparked in her heart. Had he lied to her by withholding the truth of his past, or was Lukus right that he’d only hidden his kinks from her to protect her? She’d been determined not to keep secrets about the abuse she’d suffered at Jake’s hand, but she instinctively knew her truthfulness at the beginning of their courtship might be the nail in the coffin of their marriage. Before yesterday, she’d just thought Markus wasn’t capable of understanding her submissive needs. Now she knew he’d been either too blind, or lazy, to recognize them.
Damn him. Why couldn’t he have been more like Lukus who had no trouble ferreting out my deepest secrets—the ones I’ve never known how to talk about?
Was Lukus with Markus by now? Would he be able to get through to her husband? Would he even try?
The round-robin of endless questions played over in a loop in her brain until she finally fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.
* * *
Lukus
The men had been bouncing ideas back and forth for about ten minutes when Lukus heard a vibration coming from nearby. They spread out trying to find the source of the noise and Lukus was first to locate Markus’s wayward phone.
