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“Yes, it is. It’s been a month since I found out I was adopted, I have a brother, and my father is a sociopathic asshole. That’s a month of having Dominic and Rita dangling over my head, waiting for them to kidnap me, which I know is stupid, because in their minds, I’ve been dead a long time.” She reached out and patted a hand on Jasper’s arm. “It’s been a terrible month for me, but this has been dragging on longer for you. That’s not fair to you and Anarchy, or any of us. It needs to be over, Saul, with those monsters dead and buried in some forgotten graveyard.”
He couldn’t argue with that. Jasper had spent months expending time, energy, and Atticus’s resources into tracking his parents down, with no success. People had died, and would continue to die, unless the Fairfaxes were brought to heel, and justice was served.
He just wanted Caera as far away from the whole sordid mess as possible.
Over the past few weeks, she’d started sessions with Connie again. Her confidence in and out of the bedroom had doubled, and she was gaining weight. Her sleep patterns were still fractious, her subconscious undermining her whenever it could, but she was beginning to thrive.
“Set the bait, Jasper,” she said, her voice strong with conviction. “If you think that dangling my name out there, my history, will get him to come slinking back home, then do it. It’s just my name, Saul,” she murmured, leaning into him. “Do you think your friends would tie me up in pretty knots and leave me hanging for the monster to devour?”
Protectively, he lashed his arms around her, pulling her tight against him. Glowering at Jasper, he managed not to snap the sadist’s head off. “It’s your choice, little rabbit, but I want it on record that I’m not happy about it. I also want it on record,” he continued darkly, feeling his ire respond to what was—for now, at least—a phantom threat, “that if this comes back to bite you, I will beat your brother’s ass so hard and so fucking long that he won’t be sadism’s bitch, but mine.”
With deliberate intent, Jasper’s head inclined, said sadism turning his eyes into glaciers that could cut through flesh with a look. The arch of his white-blond eyebrow didn’t soften his expression in the slightest—neither did the predatory smirk. “Mind what threats you make, Saul. Some are more difficult to follow through than others.”
The reception area was rapidly becoming heated with tension and testosterone. Dominance butted roughly against dominance as the two men assessed each other, wary of the small woman caught in the crosshairs from both sides.
“Like it or not, Jasper, Caera’s mine. My sub, my lover, my heart. My goddamn little rabbit.” Saul tossed it down like a challenge, the gauntlet thrown. “That means I assume the responsibility for her. Mine to love, mine to protect, and I will bulldoze anyone who puts her in harm’s way.”
Caera wriggled out of his arms, subtly adjusting the butt plug keeping her fluffy ball of a bunny tail in the perfect position with an indignant huff, then straightening the headband supporting her costume ears. “You don’t get to fall out about this, either of you. It’s why I made the decision without offering it up for discussion first. Jasper has my permission, so he can do with it what he will. Other than that, there’s nothing else to do but enjoy our night.
Smiling, Jasper relaxed. “Working at the bookstore has certainly made you bolder, Caera. As it happens, Atticus has asked that we don’t make a move on this until he gets back from D.C. and has time to analyze the data. More than likely, he’ll want to talk to you,” he added, shooting a smug look at Saul. “The resident Daddy Dom is as protective about our womenfolk as your Dom here.”
Saul scoffed. “Speak for yourself, sadist.”
The tension broke as they grinned at each other. They both knew that any of them would charge into the fray to defend the girls, it was just how they did things at Avalon. When there was a threat, everyone came together to neutralize it.
“Att is supposed to be back before Christmas, so he’ll probably wait until after the holidays to set this into motion. It gives Dominic a few weeks to think we’ve given up on him after all the tail-chasing we’ve been doing.”
“The only tail you’ve been chasing is Anarchy’s,” Saul joked, attempting to steer the conversation away from the subject at hand. “Where is she tonight? Visiting the baby?”
“Done that already. Couldn’t pry the kid out of her arms for nearly two hours.” Jasper did not sound upset about that in the slightest. “She knows I wanted to catch you before the club officially opened, so she went to bug Liam. If she’s a good girl, she should be waiting for me on her knees by now,” he mused, checking his watch. “I suppose I should get into costume.”
Saul disguised a laugh as a cough, studying his friend. Black long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, black boots. If it wasn’t for the shock of white hair, the sadist could slide into the shadows and scare the panties off the incoming subs when the doors opened.
“What are you supposed to be?” Caera queried, looking bewildered. Some of her bravado had faded, tamped down by the potential of violence between her lover and her brother, but it was regrouping.
Jasper’s grin turned wicked, almost wolfish as he reached into his back pocket and drew out a leash. Running the doubled leather between his hands, he gripped the ends, bringing them together so the straps formed a gaping O.
Saul snagged Caera by the nape, digging his fingertips into her flesh to ground her to him and the present as Jasper yanked the ends apart, snapping the leather loudly. She jumped, jerking and whining, but her eyes only lost focus for a few seconds.
Good, the desensitization they were working on was doing its job.
“Good girl, bunny,” Saul whispered proudly.
Folding the leash in his hand, Jasper kept his grin in place. “I have a very naughty kitten in there who needs to go to the vet. She hates having her temperature taken.”
“You’re dressed up as an owner? Imaginative,” Saul muttered sarcastically.
Jasper’s eyes blazed blue, glowing with humor as he glanced down at the thick bulge in his jeans, then back at Saul. “Owner and veterinarian,” he corrected smugly. “Me, I love taking my kitten’s temperature.”
Caera squeaked.
“I’ll see you inside,” he said cheerily, tipping an imaginary cap, then slipped past them through the double doors into the social area.
“Before you say anything,” Caera told Saul earnestly, “I can assure you I will never need my temperature taken, even if I have a raging fever and delirium.”
Laughing, he pulled her in for a kiss. In a few minutes, the doors would be open to the membership, and stolen kisses would become all too public. “Little rabbit, for making decisions about your safety without talking them through with me first, you’re lucky I’m not considering giving you a colonoscopy.”
“With your cock?” she asked in mock horror.
