Safe Harbor

Chapter Seventeen

Mac let her lean on him for support as they returned to the main play space. By this time, more people were using various pieces of equipment. With her experience out of the way and her nerves settled, Clarisse now had peace of mind and more than a heaping bucket of curiosity. Yvette had Mike kneeling on the floor, apparently free of his humbler but wearing wrist and ankle cuffs and a full hood. She’d attached a leather leash to his collar.

Doreen flounced over as Mac helped Clarisse get food from the buffet. “How are you feeling? Did you have fun?”

Not wanting to be rude, but not really wanting to talk yet, Clarisse settled for a nod.

Doreen grinned. “You’re a lucky girl! I get to play next.” Alex called to her from across the room. Doreen slapped a hug around her before heading off.

Clarisse followed her progress. Sully and Alex stood next to a bench.

She felt her mellow harshing as Doreen stripped and eagerly took her place on the bench while Sully and Alex worked to bind her.

Sensing her discomfort, Mac guided her over to chairs lined along the walls, near the buffet. “You need to eat, sweetie.”

Jealous? Hell, yes. The thought of Sully talking to some other woman the way he’d talked to her, touching her…

Stupid. He’s not yours to be jealous over. That didn’t stop her from feeling jealous.

Mac couldn’t distract her no matter how hard he tried. Bless his heart, he tried damn hard, too. Sully and Alex tormented Doreen, Sully spanking her with his bare hand and implements for a while before breaking out the vibrator. After nearly a half-hour, Doreen begged her head off, pleading, crying.

Clarisse finally looked away when Sully leaned in and whispered something to Doreen, and she cried out as her climax hit her.

She couldn’t stand seeing Sully with her like that. The warm fuzzies she’d felt after her session with him disappeared like dandelions in a hurricane.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” she said to Mac. He helped her stand and walk to the bathroom, then stood outside waiting for her.

She had promised herself she wouldn’t do it, would try to play by their rules, but she cried anyway. The bubblegum and daisies upside to this arrangement—two sweet, hunky men who would let her spend the rest of her life with them—had a dark and thorny underside. She could accept the BDSM aspect of it. If what she’d experienced was as bad as it got, no problem.

But if she wanted to be a part of them, she couldn’t share them.

Not like that.

Mac knocked on the door. “You okay, sweetie?”

“Yeah, I’ll be done in a minute.” She used the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face, and tried for a smile she hoped appeared genuine. When she emerged, Mac looked concerned.

Sully walked over. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

He frowned, but didn’t press her for more. He stepped around her and into the bathroom, closed and locked the door behind him.

Probably washing his hands.

That thought nearly drove her to tears again.

Mac sensed her change in mood. “Honey, talk to me.”

“I’m okay.”

“Please?”

“Mac, I’m fine!” she snapped. “Quit asking.”

He shook his head. “You don’t look fine.”

Alex had Doreen wrapped in a blanket while he talked to her and held her. Mac probably felt okay with it because Doreen was a woman. She wondered if he’d be as accepting of it if Sully played with other guys.

Over the next hour, Sully took part in several scenes with people, helping out the way he had with Alex and Doreen. Each time he touched someone else, Clarisse felt her stomach knot in an ugly way.

Mac tried to keep her talking and laughing, but he finally fell silent when he realized she wasn’t in the mood for his playful commentary.

After the last scene, Sully disappeared to the bathroom yet again.

Clarisse stood and perused the buffet under the pretense of looking for a snack. She jumped when Sully touched her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” She pulled away from the men and tottered over to the large cooler where bottles of water had been put on ice. Mac swooped in and opened the cooler for her, fished one out of the icy water, opened it and handed it to her.

“Thank you.”

He didn’t ask again. When she glanced at him, and at Sully, they wore nearly identical expressions—concern. Sully didn’t turn his focus from her. “Slave, go get our things and get ready.”

“Yes, Master.” He walked off with one last look at Clarisse.

Sully guided her over to the seats and sat with her. “Talk to me,” he softly commanded.

Her eyes flicked over to Doreen and Alex before returning to him.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

“Do you want to leave?”

No, I just want the image of your hand up Doreen’s twat bleached from my mind. “Not until after Mac gets to play.”

He studied her for a moment. “Okay. Would you like to help me with him?”

That little nugget was enough to surprise her out of her funk.

“Help?”

His lips curved into a smile. “You’ll be the first person I’ve ever had help me top him. It’s going to be intense for him tonight, regardless. You won’t get safeword rights. All you can do if you can’t take it is step away out of the scene. I owe him a big one though, and I want him to enjoy it.”

Her mouth dried. “What do I have to do?”

“What I tell you to do.”

It would take her mind off her jealousy. “Like what?”

He shrugged, his face clouding for a moment. That’s when his gaze dropped to his hands. “There are things I don’t do for him, even under boat rules.” He looked at her. “If you want to, I’ll let you.”

For someone who normally acted pretty straightforward, his waffling behavior was starting to piss her off. “Just say it.”

“I’m not going to lie to you. I’m going to savage him pretty brutally. He needs it. He expects it. It would make it even better for him if you’d go down on him. He loves you. It would send him into orbit. I’m not gagging him tonight, so he’s going to cry, and he’s going to scream.”

Her heart pounded. Sully’s eyes focused on her, trying to read her reaction.

She nodded.

“Good.” He stood and offered her his hand. “Let’s take care of our boy.”

The trapeze bar, as she thought of it, lay vacant again. Mac emerged from the dressing room with their duffel bags. He’d changed clothes.

Well, clothes being a relative term because he was naked except for his collar, suspension cuffs like the ones she’d worn, and a leather harness around his waist that ran between his legs.

Clarisse stood leaning against the wall where Sully had left her.

Mac’s eyes held hers as Sully adjusted the bar height and hooked Mac to it. She realized he used different straps with Mac than he had with her. They still had panic snaps, but configured differently, where Mac couldn’t reach them to release himself. Sully also cranked the bar much higher than he had for her, so Mac’s arms were tightly stretched high over his head.

Mac didn’t look away from her until Sully put a blindfold on him.

He whispered into Mac’s ear. She watched as Mac’s cock, fitted through a ring in the harness, slowly inflated. He rotated his left wrist, the whole cuff twisting.

Sully continued talking to him as he slid a hand across Mac’s chest. He twisted first one nipple ring, then the other.

Mac’s cock stood fully erect.

Letting his hand slowly trail down Mac’s abs, Sully gripped Mac’s cock and squeezed, hard. Mac winced, but nodded. “Yes, Master,” she heard him say.

Sully stepped away from Mac and unbuttoned his shirt, then draped it over a nearby chair where he’d laid out several vicious looking implements. He motioned Clarisse over to him.

He leaned in and whispered, “Take off your shoes, sweetie.”

She gratefully kicked them off.

“You stand in front of him. I want you to play with his nipples, rake your nails over him, but don’t go near his cock and balls until I tell you to. You can kiss him too, if you want. When I’m ready, I’ll point at the floor, and then you can go down on him. Don’t do it sooner.” He reached over and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“I want to.”

“Do you want a towel to spit in?”

Time to dish a little back at him. “I’ll take a towel, but I’m a good girl. I swallow.”

Sully’s lips pressed together before he burst out laughing and hugged her. “I love you, sweetie. You’re adorable.”

She stood in front of Mac and waited for Sully to get into position.

Sully leaned forward and softly spoke in Mac’s ear. “I have a surprise for you, slave. You get punishment and a reward tonight.”

Mac cocked his head toward Sully’s voice but didn’t ask questions. Clarisse heard Sully’s bare hand strike Mac’s ass. Mac’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t make a sound.

When she reached out and gently brushed her fingers against his nipple rings, he gasped, startled. “Clarisse?”

She leaned in and kissed him. Sully stepped up the tempo and strength of his blows as he reddened Mac’s ass with his hand. As she twisted Mac’s nipples harder, he softly moaned.

Sully switched to a heavy flogger, striking Mac’s back and shoulders as well as his thighs. She drew her nails across his flesh, not hard, but enough to coax noises out of him that Sully’s strikes didn’t.

Even though she was aware of people standing around watching, her eyes never left Mac’s face. His mouth parted, his tongue occasionally flicking out to lick his lips during a lull in Sully’s strokes. At one point Sully stopped. He stepped behind Mac, tightly grabbed his hair and yanked his head back.

“Where are we, slave?”

“Green, Master,” he gasped.

Sully bit his neck, hard, leaving a mark behind. Then he took a bottle of water and held it to Mac’s lips, let him have a sip before he started in on him again. He switched to a paddle, the loud strikes making Clarisse wince in sympathy. Next came a riding crop. Mac couldn’t help but respond at this point, twisting against the blows, mixed sounds of pain and pleasure flowing from him. Sully switched to a cane. That’s when Mac’s cries turned anguished even as his cock throbbed hard between his legs, drops of clear pre-come coating the engorged head.

“Do not come, slave,” Sully firmly commanded as he savaged Mac’s ass with the rattan cane. “Do not come or I will use this on your fucking cock.”

Mac jerked against the restraints, the equipment rattling, his fingers tightly wrapped around the bars inside the suspension cuffs, but he didn’t call red.

“Who do you belong to?” Sully barked.

“You, Master.”

“What are you?”

“I’m your slave, Master. I belong to you.”

“Who does this ass belong to?”

“You!”

Mac’s face twisted in pain with each stroke. When Clarisse rubbed her thumbs over his nipples, Mac gasped with need.

Sully took several hard strokes with the cane, harder than the others, before he stepped close again.

“How are we?”

Mac panted for breath. He rotated his left hand.

“Say it.”

He finally did, even though his voice sounded low and slurred.

“Green, Master.”

Sully immediately started on him again with the cane. She pressed her lips to Mac’s, surprised when he eagerly kissed her back, fiercely, as if she offered and relief from the onslaught.

She felt his moans against her tongue even as he kissed her, until Sully finally ended the set with the cane.

Sully spoke again. “Girl, do not step to either side of him without raising your hand first to let me know you are.” That was all the warning she had before she heard the loud crack of a whip. Mac screamed, jumping, straining against the restraints and rattling the entire bar again.

Sully stepped in and pushed Mac’s feet farther apart with his. “Do not move, slave. You earned punishment, remember?”

Another crack, and Mac screamed again, his head dropping to Clarisse’s shoulder.

“Safeword if you have to, slave,” Sully commanded.

Mac rotated his left hand.

Sully grinned. “I didn’t think you would.” He struck him four more times. “Safeword yet?”

Mac rotated his left hand even as his hips thrust in empty air, his cock rigid and nearly purple.

Sully adjusted his position and started regularly timed strokes.

Mac cried out, cried, shivered. Clarisse cupped the back of his neck with her hand, cradled his head on her shoulder as best she could, tried to soothe him as he screamed with each stroke.

Sully stopped after a few minutes. “Step back, girl,” Sully softly ordered.

Reluctant to let Mac go, she did. Sully walked around the front of Mac and grabbed his chin. “Surrender yet? Want me to continue?”

He rotated his wrist.

“Say it!” Sully yelled at him as he released Mac’s chin.

Mac’s head hung, sweat dripping from him. “Green,” he muttered, his voice slurred.

Sully grabbed Mac’s hair and pulled his head up. “Tell me what you want.”

“Fuck you! Green!”

Clarisse gasped, worried. Mac’s answer seemed to amuse Sully though. He ruffled Mac’s hair and kissed him. “Have it your way, slave.” He returned to his position behind Mac, waited for Clarisse to resume her position, and viciously started in on him again. Mac screamed, strained against the restraints as tears ran down his face.

Each blow ripped another ragged howl from Mac. Before long, he was swearing at Sully and calling him every filthy name in the book and then some as he yanked on the restraints.

But he didn’t safeword. Sully dished the insults back to him as good as he took them, interspersed with taunts to safeword.

Mac’s standard response to that: “Fuck you! Green!”

He was still screaming when Sully stepped closer and, almost without missing a beat, switched to a riding crop and locked eyes with Clarisse.

He pointed to the floor.

Still stunned from what she’d witnessed, she dropped to her knees in front of Mac and swallowed his cock, wanting to give him some measure of enjoyment.

Sully yelled, “Come now, slave!” He savaged Mac’s ass with rapid-fire blows.

Mac’s hips bucked against her face as his cock swelled and his hot juices exploded from him, pouring down her throat almost faster than she could keep up. When he went limp in the restraints she worried he’d passed out, but Sully was already there with a blanket, wrapping it around him, supporting him. He pulled Mac’s blindfold off.

Sully face was an unreadable mask, his voice hoarse. “Good girl,” he whispered. “Help me unhook him.”

She jumped to her feet and ran over to the switch to lower the bar so she could reach the straps. Mac cried, sobbing in Sully’s arms.

When the bar was low enough for her to reach, she unhooked the straps. Sully draped Mac’s arm over his shoulders and his own around Mac’s waist and half dragged the larger man away.

“Bring our stuff,” he called over his shoulder.

She quickly gathered their things and ran after them to the dressing room.

Sully had Mac seated on one of the benches. He was slumped over, his head in Sully’s lap, no longer crying but he shivered.

Clarisse hadn’t put her shoes back on yet. Sully glanced at her.

“Please bring me a bottle of water.” She ran for one and brought it to him. Sully twisted the top off and cupped Mac’s head in one hand, lifted it enough he could place the bottle against Mac’s lips. “Drink, buddy,” Sully ordered, his tender tone the polar opposite of the one he’d used during the vicious beating.

Mac took a small sip.

“No, Brant,” Sully said. “More. You need to drink.”

Mac finally did, then rested his head in Sully’s lap. He still didn’t open his eyes.

Sully nodded toward one of the duffel bags. “There should be a pair of shorts and a T-shirt in there. Get those, please. And a towel, and the zip-top bag with the ointment and stuff in it.”

She found them. “Where do you want them?”

“Bathroom.” Once she placed the items on the counter in there, Sully carefully nudged Mac to his feet and guided him into the bathroom.

He closed the door. She felt her heart fall at being shut out.

Sully called out. “Clarisse?”

“Yeah?”

“I thought you were right behind us. Come here.”

Her soul lightened as she stepped in with them and locked the door behind her. Mac stood, albeit dangerously swaying on his feet and leaning on the counter for support. His eyes were still closed.

“Get the harness off him, babe,” Sully quietly ordered.

She did, working by feel under the blanket and trying to be careful of his back. Sully peeled the blanket up and let out a low hiss.

“Fuck, Brant. Why the hell didn’t you safeword?”

“I didn’t need to,” he replied, his voice still sounding slurred.

Clarisse started to look. Sully touched her shoulder and shook his head. “Not tonight, babe. Sit on the counter and let him lean on you.

Keep your eyes closed.”

She did. Mac wrapped his arms around her waist and put his head in her lap. She buried her face in his hair and didn’t look as Sully removed the blanket from him and did something. Mac grunted in pain a couple of times. She guessed Sully was dressing his wounds.

Sully grabbed her hand. “Hold this.” He placed her hand against Mac’s back. She felt something under her fingers. “It’s safe to look.

He’d draped a large nonstick dressing across Mac’s back and affixed bandage tape to hold it in place. Angry welts and red marks were visible around the outer perimeter of the bandage.

“So his shirt doesn’t stick to him,” Sully explained as he secured the dressing. “The ointment will help prevent infection.” He grabbed the T-shirt, carefully pulled it over Mac’s head, and she helped him get his arms in it. Then Sully slowly rolled it down Mac’s torso, being careful not to dislodge the dressing.

He picked up the shorts and tapped Mac’s right leg. “Lift.”

Mac obeyed. Sully repeated it with his left and gingerly slid the shorts up Mac’s legs and into place. “Stay here with him. I’ll be right back.” He left the door open as he rummaged through the bag and found the cane, crop, and whip he’d used. He wiped them with antibacterial wipes and then put them away in the bag and packed the rest of their gear.

He looked through the bathroom door. “Can you handle the bags, sweetie?”

“Yeah.” She brushed her fingers through Mac’s hair.

Sully shoved her shoes into one of the bags, put his own shirt back on but left it unbuttoned, then grabbed the blanket, and draped it over Mac again. “Come on, Brant,” he said. “Time to get you home.”

Mac finally opened his eyes. Sully helped him straighten up and supported him while he walked. Clarisse followed them. She grabbed the bags on the way out the door and they made their way through the dewy field to the Jag.

Sully led Mac around to the rear passenger door. “Shit. Honey, the keys are in my left front pocket. Can you get them?” His left arm was hooked around Mac’s waist.

She fished around, found them, and unlocked the car. “Put the bags in the trunk,” he said. “Get your purse out so you have your license.” He helped Mac into the backseat and slid in beside him. Mac immediately leaned over, put his head in Sully’s lap, and fell asleep.

Sully buckled his seatbelt. “You okay driving?”

“I’m fine.”

He pulled the back door shut as she opened the trunk to get her purse. A moment later, she was adjusting the Jag’s seat, mirrors, and steering wheel. When she glanced in the rearview mirror, she could make out Sully’s form in the darkness. He had his arms around Mac and leaned over to kiss him.

Without another word, she started the car and slowly made her way down the driveway.

She thought she was nearing the interstate when Sully spoke. “Do you remember how to get home?”

Her hands tightened on the wheel. “Yeah.”

He was quiet for a few minutes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

More silence. Then, “You had to see us at our worst.”

“Worst?”

“Rarely do we play harder than that. Very rarely.” He let out a clipped laugh. “Usually when we play that hard it ends with me fucking him. I normally beat him like that bent over a spanking horse or bench, not standing up.”

“Then why did you play differently tonight?”

“Because I wanted you to be a part of it. For you to see what it’s like. To give you a chance to see it from both sides.”

“To see if I could take it?”

He fell quiet for a moment. “You could say that.”

“Is that why you were so hard on him?”

“Nope. I warned you, sometimes he needs it this hard.”

She still had difficulty processing that, but her brain had stepped a little closer to accepting it, even if she didn’t understand it. “You weren’t that hard on him just because I was there, were you?”

“No.” He was quiet for a while longer. “If you want to be a part of us, you have to accept who we are, not just the parts of us you want to accept. Just like we’ll accept all of who you are.”

“I’ll never be able to take a beating like he did.”

“I know you couldn’t. I would never make you take one like that either. You’re not him. I couldn’t believe you went as far as you did tonight.” More silence. “I’m sorry, by the way.”

She glanced in the rearview mirror. In the headlights of an oncoming car, she saw his grey gaze focused on her. “For what?”

“For pushing you so hard tonight. I told you I wouldn’t hurt you.

But you took the lighter stuff so well I wanted to see how far we could comfortably take you.”

“It was okay.” She might be sore tomorrow, but well worth it. “I told you, I’ve got a higher than average pain tolerance.”

“I’m still sorry. I hope you don’t hate me.”

She had to stop for a light in downtown Tarpon. She turned and looked over the seat at him. “I would have safeworded if I couldn’t take it. I don’t hate you for what you did to me.”

“But you do hate me.”

Only a moron could miss the regret in his voice. “No, I don’t hate you. Quit putting words in my mouth. Did the thing with Mac shock me? Yes. I’m not supposed to lie, so I won’t. It shocked the hell out of me. What you did to me…” She shook her head. “I don’t have words to describe it.

“Wow?”

She laughed and turned to drive as the light changed to green.

“Yeah, wow about covers it.”

“What upset you later?”

She didn’t want to admit it. “Nothing.”

He didn’t respond.

“Just dealing with it all, that’s it,” she added.

He studied her, but said nothing.

At the house, Sully roused Mac enough to get him to climb the stairs. Clarisse brought the bags in and hesitated in the living room.

Finally, she left them on the couch, returned to her room, and changed clothes.

Too tired to do anything else, she was ready to fall into bed when Sully softly knocked on her door.

“Yeah.”

He opened it. He’d changed out of his jeans and wore only a pair of boxers. “I wanted to say good night, and you did good.”

She blushed. “Thanks.”

He pointed at her neck. “Want that off?”

The collar. She’d forgotten about it.

She nodded. He removed it for her, then he stepped in and pulled her to him for a long, strong hug. “You don’t have to try to make sense of things tonight or tomorrow or even a month from now. There is no expiration date on this offer. I’ve already told you what would make me ask you to leave. If you stay a year or a lifetime, as long as we’re the only men in your life, we’re fine with that.”

“Thank you.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’d ask if you wanted to sleep with us tonight, but he’ll wake up horny.”

She snorted. “I doubt that.”

“No, seriously. The next morning, he’s…” He smiled. “One of those things you’d have to learn about us.” He turned and quietly shut the door behind him as he left.

Clarisse stared at the closed door. Horny?

She guessed she had a lot to learn about the men. The question was, could she take the risk to agree to their insane proposition?

Or could she risk not taking them up on it?