Page 43 of Secret Submission

Her tongue slid against his, making his cock stand at immediate attention. A sharp scream cut through the air, reminding him of where they were and what he was supposed to be doing. Immediately, he jerked his head up, turning in the direction of the cry.

17

Julie

Watching Connor cuddle Amy had been interesting.

It hadn’t been good. But it hadn’t been necessarily bad, either. Just… interesting. She’d enjoyed watching how caring he was, and at the same time, she’d definitely felt a little jealous. It was an interesting dichotomy.

If she was Kincaid, she’d be jealous of the way Zach was holding Amy. She happened to know that Kincaid was out of town this weekend. Did he know Zach was here? Probably, she answered her own question. It would be extremely foolish to be here out in the open if Kincaid didn’t know.

The gossip train ran Stronghold. And Marquis.

Especially with Connor needing to intercede at the end of the scene—everyone was going to be talking about that for a bit.

She wondered if Kincaid had seen Zach and Amy together recently.

Though, with Amy getting married…

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Besides, Connor was almost to her. She tilted her head back, smiling up at him, reaching up to his chest. The leather Dungeon Monitor vest was cool under her palms, and she slid one hand up to his neck, encouraging him to bend down for a kiss.

When his hands came to rest on her waist, she shifted closer to him, feeling the growing bulge in the front of his pants as it rubbed against her stomach. She’d deliberately arrived when his shift was almost over, so she wouldn’t have to wait long. Since she was surprising him, she wasn’t sure if he’d be interested in a scene, but either way, they’d get some time together.

Even if he wasn’t interested in a scene, she wanted to spend more time with him. If showing up at Stronghold because he’d taken on an extra DM shift was how she had to do it, so be it.

The kiss deepened, lingered—and abruptly cut off when a shrill scream echoed through the Dungeon. Connor jerked upward, fully at attention, and Julie was already going up on her tiptoes, trying to see where the noise had come from. The woman screamed again, a word this time, but Julie couldn’t make out what it was.

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know… I can’t…” Connor’s head was turning, his gaze scanning over all the equipment, looking for whose scene it was coming from. If he couldn’t see them, she sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to, no matter how much taller she tried to make herself.

Several more shrieks from different voices, then a moment of silence followed by chatter that had an oddly relieved sound to it.

“What the hell is going on?” Julie snapped, not liking that she was completely out of the loop. Especially since whatever it was had interrupted a very nice kiss. There was a stir among the crowd between them and whoever had been screaming, and suddenly, Master Michael came shouldering his way through, holding out his hands out in front of him, one atop the other, like there was something between them. Like Connor, he was dressed in leather pants and a Dungeon Monitor vest, indicating that he was currently on duty this evening. His eye-length brown hair swished as he walked, and he shook his head to move it back out of his eyes—since his hands were full.

Julie automatically stepped back as he moved, getting out of his way.

“What happened?” Connor asked as Master Michael approached.

Julie wondered if it would be too obvious to hide behind Connor. Master Michael was in the classic ‘I’m holding something gross in my hands’ position, and it was likely the something gross had too many legs and was moving.

“Spider,” Master Michael said, his lips starting to twist up before he managed to stop the smile. “A really big one. Angel just about took out Adam when she saw it, and for some reason, it kept running right for her. I’ve never seen her jump like that.”

Managing to suppress a shudder, Julie took a deep breath. It wasn’t that she was afraid of spiders or bugs. She just didn’t like them. And she really preferred not to have to touch them. She also didn’t want anyone thinking she was afraid or that she couldn’t handle a spider. Especially when someone else was holding it.

“I’m gonna take this guy outside where he’ll be safe… and so will Angel.” Chuckling to himself, Micheal moved past them, heading for the stairs. Julie sighed with relief once he was past them.

Turning around, Connor looked down at her, amusement clear on his face.

“Don’t like spiders?” he asked.

“Does anyone?”

“They’ve never bothered me much, but no, I guess I can’t say I like them, either. My dad does, though. He likes watching them spin their webs. When I was a kid, he had a wolf spider that we kept as a pet. He named it Drake.”

Julie didn’t know what to do with that. While she knew people sometimes kept spiders as pets, she’d never known anyone who had one. Spiders were meant to be removed from the house immediately, along with any other bugs that made their way inside. But it sounded like Connor had fond memories of it.

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