Page 60 of Full Mountie

I nod. “Yeah. And on constable salaries, too. And that wasn’t even the worst of it.”

Lachlan puts his fork down and claps his hand against his leg, howling. “That’s right!”

I make a face. “The fucker pulled out a bottle of ketchup and tried to pretend that would make them better.”

Beth giggles. “Oh, God. Actually…” She presses her lips together for a second. “I shouldn’t say anything. It’s mean.”

“Mean?” I spread my arms wide. “Bring it on.”

She holds up a finger. “You’re sworn to secrecy.”

“Definitely.”

“When Gavin was in Washington last month… President Best did the same thing. Well-done, dipped in ketchup. A filet mignon.”

“No.” I’m horrified.

Lachlan coughs. “No comment.”

Beth rolls her eyes. “We’re going to talk about nipple clamps next, but we can’t gossip about world leaders? The German Chancellor is picky about her toast.”

“Toast isn’t the measure of a man. Or a woman,” he hastily adds, and Beth winks. He laughs. “And I don’t have any nipple clamps.”

She pouts.

“Disappointed?” I ask.

She grins. “Only because I wanted to use them on you.”

“That’s not my kink,” I say smoothly. “Is it yours?”

“No.” She says it swiftly, instinctively. “Oh! Look at that. I don’t think I like nipple clamps. Unless Lachlan…”

He waves his hand in the air. “I’m good. Feel free to pinch me, but fingers only. I like the human touch.”

“Okay.” She holds his gaze then, the heat ramping up quickly, and holy hell, yeah, I want to see that. I want to tell her what to do, how to hurt Lachlan just enough to make him squirm. How to boss him and tease him and make him moan. “What else?”

“I…” He laughs under his breath and slides a quick glance my way. “Hugh was my first experience with someone really dominating me. He’s got a special touch. I haven’t explored that since our…”

Affair? Fuckfest? Clusterfuck of unspoken feelings? All of the above, really. I throw him a bone. We’re having fun this weekend, nothing else. “Since Moose Lake?”

“Yeah.” He shifts on his chair. “It opened my eyes to a whole new level of kink. I’d played a bit before, but nothing like that. When I moved to Alberta, I got more involved in the world. For almost a year, I just went to social things. Fully clothed. Didn’t find anyone…” This time he doesn’t leave me hanging. He looks me right in the eyes. “I didn’t find anyone who yanked my chain the way you did. So I started to explore other things. Figured out I like service. Which is kind of obvious in hindsight.” He laughs gently. “Kink often is.”

“Service.” Beth’s brain is going a mile a minute. “So whatever we want?” She gestures at me, then back at herself. “That’ll make you happy?”

“Well, I like that. But there’s a lot more to it. Service topping isn’t the same thing as playing inside an intimate relationship. I don’t want to top Hugh.” I snort, and he laughs. “See? And he wouldn’t like that, either. But I could top you.”

Her eyes go wide. “Do you want to?”

He shrugs. “If it pleases you.”

Her gaze is unsure, but the flush in her lips, the change in her breathing…I think she’d like that.

Lachlan’s paying attention, too. He leans in. “It’s important to me that people’s first times be safe.”

“Like at the holiday party?” Beth asks.

I shove a piece of steak in my mouth to keep from pointing out that this wholejust having funthing would be a hell of a lot easier if we didn’t have bucket loads of history between us.

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