AllFreeNovel
Share Us
O’Neal kept her focus on Auden. “Tell me. I want to know.”
She wouldn’t once she’d heard. She would wish she could rewind time. Whatever nice image she’d formed in her head about him would dissolve into dust. She’d find out he wasn’t the guy she should’ve been crushing on.
He was the kind of guy her grandmother had warned her about.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
O’Neal’s normally neatly ordered brain was a tornado, thoughts whirling and crashing into each other. She’d thought she’d exhausted every possible reason for why Auden had avoided her after their night together. She thought she’d examined every angle. But this—whatever this was—was so far outside her field of awareness that she didn’t even know how to ask the right questions.
She’d heard the wordkinkybefore but just assumed it was a way to describe people who liked a lot of sex—like slutty. But Auden’s obvious anguish over having this conversation clearly meant she’d gotten the definition wrong.
When he’d said that he’dtake and take and take—that’d he’druinher, she’d felt like the words were wrapping around her body and squeezing. Her skin had gone overly sensitive, like every part of her was buzzing, the air around her crackling with energy. Somehow the statement had both scared her and made her achingly curious. What did thatmean?What wouldruinher?
She wanted to know. But she also feared the answer to that question.
What if Auden did horrible things to women? What if this would change what she thought of him forever? His family was all she had now. What if this changed that?
The risk was one she had to take. She was tired of being in the cocoon she’d grown up in.
She met Auden’s gaze, steeling herself. “Tell me. I want to know.”
After a long, quiet moment, something broke in Auden’s expression—the message clear. He was going to tell her, but he didn’t want to. There would be a Before and an After and no going back.
Auden glanced at Lennox, who nodded, and then his gaze slid back to her. “What happened in the car is not something most guys would ask you to do. Len and I…share partners. We like to watch and be watched.”
She shivered. Theyshared?“Like you take turns sleeping with someone or…”
“Or,” Auden confirmed. “All three people together at the same time.”
The images that popped into her brain made her blush from head to foot, but she kept her expression even. She didn’t want to spook Auden, so she managed to simply say, “Oh.”
Likeoh, that’s interestinginstead ofoh, you’ve just blown my brain to bits.
Auden’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “And we like to…play power games.”
Her mind was still processing the first part, so this second revelation threw a wrench into herkeep coolplans. She blurted, “Games?”
Auden laced his fingers between his knees, his knuckles whitening like it was taking everything he had to make these admissions to her. “In kink terms, I’m a…dominant. I like to be in charge in bed, have all the control—with the other person’s consent, always with full consent.” He looked away like seeing her in front of him was just too much. “Len can switch around. Most of the time we’ll both be in the dominant role. But sometimes he’ll submit to me too, will do what I say when we’re with someone.”
The thought of Auden bossing Lennox around in bed was…a lot to process. Did they do things witheach other?
Whoa.Too.Many. Mental. Pictures. Really, really hot mental pictures.
Did that mean they were gay or bisexual or some different term she hadn’t learned yet? Her old operating system was just going to shut down. A blue screen was about to pop up and tell her to unplug and reboot. She peeked at Lennox, hoping he could guide her back, but his poker face revealed nothing. She latched on to the one thing she could manage to say without embarrassing herself.
“You let him tell you what to do?”
Len gave her a brief smile, one that settled her a little. “Sometimes—when he’s lucky. I can appreciate both sides of that coin, Sweets, and Auden’s good at it.”
She absorbed that.Auden’s good at it.“But Lennox doesn’t tell you what to do?”
“No, at least not in bed,” Auden said. “Being in control is what…gets me off. I’ve tried the other side with a dominant woman.” His face colored a little, but he cleared his throat and continued. “Didn’t work for me. Was kind of a disaster actually.”
At least he was looking at her again. “What does telling someone what to do mean exactly? Just like giving them directions? That doesn’t sound so bad.”
His gaze narrowed a bit like he was slightly pained. “It’s not what you’re imagining. It’s not gentle guidance. More like orders. And sometimes it involves restraining someone. Other times…hurting them a little.”
Her stomach plummeted like she’d hit a drop on a roller coaster. “Hurtingthem?”
