Page 4 of Playing By Their Rules

“Oh. Right. Okay.” I take out my phone and hesitate. The natural person for me to text is my roommate and former foster sister. But I don’t want to tell Mina about these guys. For once, this is something that’s all mine. I don’t want her to worry, though. I text her that I’m going to a party and I’ll stay the night out. She starts to respond, probably to invite herself along, but I click over to Caitlyn’s number and text her the guys’ full names and where we’re going instead. I hold up my phone so Ethan can see it.

“There,” I say. “Happy now?”

“Was that attitude in your voice?” Ethan folds his arms across his chest.

Oh, crap. What should I say? There was definitely attitude. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? What will get me the spanking I want?

“Might’ve been a little attitude,” I say, cocking a hip to the side. Sassy, yes. I can be sassy. In fact, I’m starting to feel more like my real self with every passing moment.

Ethan’s smile is slow and certain and he says to Chance, “It looks like we’ve found ourselves a brat.”

“Oh good. Brats are perfect,” Chance says, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I love their squeals of indignation when I spank their asses red.”

2

SPANKUS INTERRUPTUS

Ethan

This woman is half angel, half succubus. Mostly angel. It’s the succubus I want to bring out.

I shouldn’t want her this much. It’s wrong. If she hadn’t agreed to come with us, I don’t know what the fuck I would’ve done. I’m overcome by a shadowy need to possess her, to make her moan my name and Chance’s name.

This shadow side is dangerous. I should run far from this bratty little angel for her own good.

I drive. We make small talk about SEU and our respective departments—psychology for us, linguistics for her—and briefly stop at the store so Chance can purchase condoms and lube. Then it’s off to the hotel. Chance and I take one-night-stands here rather than to either of our apartments. It’s safer and less personal.

Yet I have an impulse to take her straight to our apartment building instead. Keep her there until she’s exhausted from too many orgasms, and then wake her up in the morning to do it all over again. I want to care for her when she’s sick, feed her when she’s hungry, cheer her up when she’s feeling down, make love to her when she’s horny.

Oh yeah, and I want to punish her when she’s a brat.

But I don’t take her to my apartment as Chance’s and my prisoner. I’m not a predator. We have rules for a reason, because we’re not monsters even if we like to dole out a little pain sometimes.

Chance sits in the back seat with our angel. He doesn’t do anything other than hold her hand. She’s nervous despite her eagerness to play “games” with us. My sick mind takes me into a fantasy where she role-plays a virgin college student who thinks she’s coming over to play Monopoly or something, and she arrives with snacks and board games while Chance and I are holding silk bindings and blindfolds.

Yep. This is going to be fun.

* * *

Maisie

The men stand on either side of me in the elevator as we go up to the room Chance booked. My breathing becomes shallow. They have this down to a routine, a science. How often do they bring women here for one night of fun? It shouldn’t bother me that I’m the latest in their string of play partners, but it kind of does. There’s something about them that I desire on not only a physical level, but an emotional level. I just met them, so none of this makes sense.

They’re perhaps double my age. Old enough to be my father, if I had one. Is this about latent daddy issues I was never aware of? Entirely possible. Do my emotional motivations really matter for something casual like this? I know what to expect, going in.

One night of fun.

And they smell so freaking good. They smell like men. Mature, spicy, musky. I want to rub my face against their shirts and inhale.

As the elevator gives a soft ding for our floor, Chance takes my hand again. His thumb brushes the inside of my wrist as we walk down the carpeted hallway. How can something be both soothing and arousing at the same time?

“You were giving us attitude, baby girl,” Chance says as we reach the hotel room door. “You come into this room with us, your ass will get spanked. Like we told you, we play hard.”

“I’m here for that,” I whisper.

“Good girl.” His smile is devastatingly handsome, and the words of praise make me weak in the knees.

Chance unlocks the door and we go into the hotel room. I don’t get much of a glimpse of the room—just the standard bed and dresser, and a small desk and armchair—before Chance pins me between Ethan and himself, his hands on my upper arms, Ethan at my back. “I have been dying to kiss this sweet mouth and these blushing cheeks.”

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