Page 110 of Naughty Dreams
The voice matched the body. Deep, with a compelling reverb. It was Roy-like, threat and seduction in the same chord.
“Just showing a customer around. He might be interested in your furniture. Don’t let us interrupt.”
She drew DJ only a few steps from the door, as if loathe to leave Logan’s proximity. DJ didn’t blame her.
“Holy testosterone gods, Batman.” It was easy to respond just as she expected, since it was unvarnished truth.
“See? It’s why your dazzling celebrity charms are wasted on me. No offense.”
“None taken. I pale in comparison.”
“Hardly,” she dimpled, sweeping an appreciative gaze over DJ. “But being stupid in love has a way of commanding exclusive attention.”
He couldn’t argue with that. “The homo-monogamous thing. How did you figure that out?”
“The way you checked me out says you’re not a stranger to enjoying a woman. But the way you look at your bodyguard says who has your heart.”
She looked as if she intended to say more, then gave him an easy smile to cover the callback.
“Nowyou’re going to get tight-lipped, Guru of the Sex Shop?” he asked.
Her eyes twinkled again, but a somber cast stayed in place. “Helping my power exchange customers navigate relationships encourages an in-the-moment familiarity that isn’t always welcome. I won’t call it false intimacy, because it is very real, but…”
“It’s like a confessional.”
“The overlaps between faith and sexual expression tend to be unavoidable,” she agreed.
“So what’s the feedback?” he asked.
“Do you worry about it? Him being so interested in you, and you in him, and his objectivity as a bodyguard?”
DJ sent her a wry look. “Have you ever had an experienced Dom as a bodyguard? He doesn’t miss details. Keeping me safe is his top priority, way the hell ahead of his own feelings and desires.” Roy was always aware of DJ, what he was doing and where he was.
Proving it, DJ dipped his chin to his left, drawing Madison’s attention in that direction. Her eyes widened when she found Roy standing in the shadows, silent and unnoticed until this moment.
“That was a few seconds off his normal game,” DJ murmured. “He’ll give himself hell for that. Or me.”
“Told you not to leave the building,” Roy said, stepping forward.
DJ’s earlier anger was gone, leaving only a simple gladness that Roy had come looking for him, despite DJ’s pissy behavior. Still, he had to be a wiseass. DJ lifted a finger and twirled it, indicating their surroundings. “Still in the building. Just a long-assed building.”
Logan came to the threshold of his workshop. When his gaze shifted to the new arrival, DJ was surprised to see recognition. “Roy,” he said. “How’ve you been?”
When Roy reached past DJ, Madison got distracted by those two very masculine hands locked together in a warm clasp. Logan being straight and Roy not at all made it an easier thing for DJ to appreciate as well.
“Good, thanks. Good to see you.”
“I see you traded up.” Logan grinned before he offered a curious Madison and DJ an explanation. “Last time I saw Roywas at a BDSM trade show in Vegas. He was guarding a spoiled pop princess who wanted to giggle over dildos and make fun of the lifestyle.”
“I would have let you all beat her ass to teach her some manners, but it went against the bodyguard code, throwing her to the wolves like that.”
“Those darn consent rules.” Logan slid his arm around Madison, hooking his fingers in the sash. “If they’d just let us do what we know is best for them.”
“Master, megalomaniac.” Madison held up her hands, palms cupped as if weighing the words on a scale’s two sides.
“I’d say ‘preach it, sister,’” DJ agreed, “but Roy is the one standing between me and…”
He faltered. The quip had run full tilt into a wound that was still too fresh. Time to go. He turned to Madison and gave her hand a squeeze. “Thanks for your outstanding help.”
