Chapter 8

Rick and Max had always been tight and I’d envied their relationship. My friendship with Sarah was coming close to the kind of loyalty I saw between my stepdad and his best friend, but I had a feeling you had to go to war with someone before you could find the kind of unspoken understanding the pair of them had.

Not to mention during family barbecues the pair were always the best looking men at the party. Where my stepdad was dark haired, Rick was a blond Adonis, with curly hair he’d let grow since the military. He was also one of the sweetest men I’d ever met, always bringing gifts for me or my mother, which made it all the more tragic when his wife had been killed a few years earlier. He hadn’t been the same since.

Rick’s greeting died on his lips when he caught sight of me.

I gave him a little wave. “Heya, Rick. Fancy seeing you here,” I said in a cheery tone.

Blue eyes wide with shock, he gaped at me. His tanned and blond-stubbled face went slack with surprise. He stared at me for several moments, then scrubbed his palms over his face and shook his head as though he still didn’t believe what he saw.

“Casey…I—I’m sorry…fuck. I should probably go.”

“Wait,” I said, and he paused before opening the door again to escape. “I have a question for you.”

He cleared his throat and kept his gaze deliberately averted from me, though his jeans looked uncomfortably tight just in front. He nodded, “Ah, sure, what is it?”

“You’ve known Max a long time, right? Did you ever notice anything unusual about his, um, sexual preferences?” I scrunched up my face when I said the words, going for subtle but hoping he’d get the hint, especially if he knew the kinds of details I hoped he did.

Heavy footsteps thunked down the stairs. Behind me Max said, “Don’t answer that, you’ll only encourage her.”

A heavy terrycloth robe draped over my shoulders, but I shrugged it off.

Rick studied his boots thoughtfully for a moment, then turned and leaned his shoulder against the door. He looked at Max where he stood beside me, holding the robe again and looking like he was about to wrap me in it like a straitjacket.

“Since when are you ‘Max’ to her, buddy?” Rick chuckled and looked at me again, making a low mm-mm sound in his throat. “Big mistake doesn’t even come close if this is what you meant. If you were hoping to get even with Tanya, I think you went a little overboard.”

I sidestepped Max and sauntered a few steps closer to Rick. “You’d be contributing to my education if you answer my question, Rick. Tell my ~stepfather~ that he can’t close the door now that he’s flung it wide open.” I turned to look back at Max, my heart pounding in my chest over the exhilaration of my rebellion—something I’d never really considered doing in my life, in spite of my growing understanding that I wanted something very different than what most girls my age seemed to enjoy—something that wasn’t as far out of my reach as I’d thought. “I have no regrets. I hope you don’t, either.”

Max’s shoulders sagged. Rick was grinning from ear to ear and looked almost on the verge of laughter. I might have been offended at his attitude if it hadn’t been for the giant hard-on filling the front of his jeans.

“I think I need a quick rundown of exactly what you did, Max,” he said. “Just so I can make an informed decision about what I should or shouldn’t tell the woman.” He paused and looked me up and down appraisingly. The frank appreciation in his gaze made my nipples prickle. In a low voice he added, “Because, ~my God~, but you are a far cry from a girl now, honey.”

I smiled, gratified by his response, and crossed my arms beneath my breasts trying not to betray how breathless I was with the excitement of the moment. I stared at Max with my eyebrows raised. “I’ll tell him my version if you want,” I said. “I especially liked the part where you…”

“Fuck, all right!” Max yelled. He sat heavily on a bar stool by the kitchen island. “Last night I wasn’t exactly in a good place. When you came home I was furious at your mother—twelve years ~wasted~. I left behind a life I didn’t think I’d ever miss when I married her. The spanking was just my misplaced way to get back at her, but then…goddamn, Casey if I’d known…”

Rick watched us both, his interest never wavering. He glanced at me now.

“What he means is that if he’d known how much I’d enjoy being spanked, maybe he wouldn’t have done it. Isn’t that right?”

“Things went a direction they shouldn’t have, Casey,” Max said.

“Forgive me for calling your bullshit,” I said. “You loved it as much as I did.”

Rick cleared his throat. “So, what happened next?”

I started to speak, but he raised a hand to stop me. “No, I want to hear it from Max,” he said with a serious look.

My stepfather stared down at his hands, flexing his fingers into tight fists and then opening them again. He let out a heavy sigh. “It brought me back to before, man. The heat of her ass under my palm. Goddamn it felt so good, and then I realized she was…” I bit my lip at the memory of his hand brushing my pussy and discovering how turned on I was, then finding my piercing.

I knew when Max looked at me that he was picturing it as vividly as I was. “She was so wet from it. You know how fucking much I ~love~ seeing a woman turned on by pain. That was when I think I lost it. Then to find out all the things she’d already done to her body. All but one thing.” His voice grew low and soft. “I had to have you, Case. And it had to be like that once I knew that I’d be your first. But I can’t let anything else happen…your mom…”

Rick and I both erupted with objections at the same time. In the middle of me trying to say, “You don’t owe Mom a fucking thing,” I heard Rick’s words and I stopped and stared at him.

“What did you say?” Max and I both asked.