“Thank you,” she said to no one in particular, as she collapsed on Theo’s chest. “I don’t know what else to say. Thank you.” The last word was the barest breath.
“No, thank you,” Theo said in his deep voice, slapping her thigh. “That was very well done.”
Behind her, Jason squeezed her sore ass cheeks. “You sound like you’re coaching her in trapeze. Very well done,” he mimicked.
“Good girl, then,” Theo said. “Is that better? And you, ma chère.” He tweaked his wife’s breast. “When your shoulder is one hundred percent again, we’ll invite Sara and Jason over once more. What do you think?”
Kelsey eyed Sara in admiration. “I’ll need a little more rehab before I can handle an onslaught like that.”
Jason laughed as he withdrew from Sara’s ass and gave her a spank for good measure. “You took Theo and Lemaitre at the same time once. I remember. I was there. People still talk about it.”
“Don’t remind me.” Kelsey shivered. “I’ll take you and Theo any day. Lemaitre, not so much.” She helped Sara ease off Theo and then both of the women collapsed on the bed. The guys got up to take off their condoms, their cocks still partially hard, and Sara burst into a fit of giggling. She couldn’t say why, except that she felt so worn out, and giddy, and happy. Then Kelsey joined in until both of them couldn’t stop laughing.
Theo and Jason exchanged looks. “Slave girls,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I think the disco ball might be messing with their brains.”
Theo stood back to admire the view as Sara snuggled against Kelsey in the glow of twinkling lights. “Better than Christmas, wouldn’t you say? Better than the Citadel, sûrement. All in all, I’d say this was a very enjoyable night.”
Chapter Ten: Mon Dieu
Jason spooned the two women off to dreamland while Theo circled the room, putting away toys and extinguishing candles. When he got to the last one, he picked it up, beckoned Jason, and headed out of the room.
Jason left the girls in their sleeping embrace and followed him to the kitchen. “I always want to smoke after really good sex,” Theo said. “I want a cigarette so badly, but I promised Kelsey, never again. So I eat instead, or drink wine.” He gestured to the chair across from him and Jason accepted a glass along with a buttery, flaky croissant. He was either really hungry, or it was the best croissant he’d tasted in his life.
“Where do you get these?” he asked. “You make them?”
“No. Buy them at the shop. Only in Paris. In Marseille, we haven’t found any as good. Kelsey says if we stay in Paris much longer, she’ll gain too much weight.”
“Ha. That girl can eat anything. She has the magic metabolism. Does she still eat those straws full of sugar?”
“Licky Stix? When she’s a good girl, she gets them,” he said with a smirk. “Speaking of good girls, what a delightful little slave you have. I’m her coach, so I know she’s a good trapezist, but the rest...” His eyes widened. “Such a pervert. I never knew.”
“I was Kelsey’s coach once upon a time, and I never knew either. Although I think with Kelsey, you had quite a hand in perverting her.”
“I trained her to my liking, yes. It was a process. It’s always a process, but with some, it’s easier than others.”
“With Sara, it’s been completely natural. We’ve been perfect for each other from the start, like someone knew exactly what we wanted and created it in the other person. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
He was gushing like an idiot. And to Theo Zamora, no less. If someone had told him three years ago that he and Theo would be friends one day, sharing partners and talking about relationships, he would have politely advised that person to fuck off.
“Are you going to collar her?” Theo asked.
Jason shifted, frowning down into his glass. “I don’t think so, only because she had to wear a collar when she worked at the club. So much baggage there. I was thinking about something a bit more permanent.”
“Nipple piercings?”
“No,” Jason snorted. “An engagement ring. I mean, when the time is right.”
Theo’s eyes widened. “Really? Already?”
“Yes, already.”
Theo raised his glass in a toast. “Félicitations. I understand, you know. Sara is a jewel, something special. When I found Kelsey, it was like finding treasure. I wanted to keep her. It didn’t take long for me to know.” He took a deep drink, then asked, “What is this club you speak of, with the collar? A Paris club?”
Shit. If Jason wasn’t so buzzed and sexed out, he wouldn’t have mentioned it. Now Theo stared at him with one eyebrow raised.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Jason sighed. “But Sara used to work at a sex club in Mongolia. A BDSM club.”
“What?” Theo gawked.
“She wasn’t working there, like in the private rooms,” Jason clarified. “Just waitressing to supplement her income. I met her there before I ever scouted her.”
“And by ‘met her,’ I suppose you mean you hooked up?”
“Unfortunately. Or fortunately. If we hadn’t, she wouldn’t have known where to find me after Baat shot down the initial offer.” He paused, remembering the sexual intensity of their first encounter. “It made the scouting side of things awkward, but I have no regrets.”
“Wow.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. This wine...” He pushed it away. “Don’t tell her you know. She wasn’t happy about working there.”
“Poor Sara.” Theo traced a jagged scar in the tabletop. “But we all have skeletons in our past.”
“Skeletons in our closet.”
“What?”
“The expression is—”
Theo waved a hand. “Skeletons, shadows, spectres, whatever. Do you know, she told me outside it was time to let Minya’s ghost go?” He turned away, shaking his head. “She has a mouth on her sometimes, that one.”
“She does,” said Jason. “In this case, I think she hit pretty close to the truth.”
Theo was silent a moment, then he leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. “I have peace with Minya, most of the time. As for Sara, all she wants is to stay here by you. She’ll throw a thousand ghosts under the bus to do it, to get her Paris trapeze act.” He pursed his lips, thinking. “Maybe she can do something else. You can help her make an acrobatic routine. She’s very strong. She would learn quick.”
“No. Sara belongs in the air. Anyway, I can’t sleep with her and be her coach.”
“Merde,” Theo drawled at Jason’s look. “Yes, I’m her coach, but I did it for her. Poor Sara, turned out from the Citadel by Le Maître himself, when she was so excited to go.” He stared at the guttering candle. “I don’t understand why Michel wouldn’t allow her there. He allows everyone, especially those he’s fond of. It makes no sense.” He passed his fingers through the flickering flame, once, twice.
“Self-preservation,” said Jason. “He doesn’t want to be tempted by her.”
“I don’t think so. He loves to torment himself with what he can’t have. Remember the Venezuelan dancer with the exceedingly faithful wife? He invited them to everything. I think he would have moved into their house if they let him.”
“Maybe he was having an off night. Maybe he was on something. Maybe he looked over and thought she was the devil.”
Theo sucked his teeth. “First of all, no one could ever mistake Sara for the devil. And second, Michel never plays under the influence. He was sober as the grave.”
“What did Sara say on the way out of the club? About him not liking her?”
“She says he doesn’t like her, but I think it’s the opposite.” Theo paused. “I think he likes her too much. The way he studies her… They’re two of a kind, in a way. Both reckless, strong and persistent. And they both have those same pale blue eyes.”
The candle flame lengthened as it reached the end of the wick. Jason stared at it, turning Theo’s words over in his head.
Those same
pale blue eyes...
Jason and Theo blinked at each other as the candle fizzled and went out.
“Mon Dieu,” Theo breathed. “C’est possible?”
Jason gripped his head, reeling with a thousand emotions. Confusion, shock, disbelief. Fury like a burning ache. He shot to his feet and stumbled over to the living room, pacing in circles.
Blue eyes.
The same pale blue eyes.
“She’s his daughter,” Jason said. “Jesus fucking Christ. She’s Lemaitre’s daughter.”
“Be quiet,” said Theo. “You’ll wake her.”
“Oh my God.” Jason collapsed on the couch, burying his face in his hands. Sara was Michel Lemaitre’s daughter. It all made sense now, the way he knew how to pronounce her name the very first day, his anger when he found her at Jason’s, his close attention to her training, his refusal to allow her in the club. And those pale blue eyes any idiot could have matched together.
“Why didn’t I see it until now?” he groaned. “It’s so obvious. Why didn’t I suspect something?”
“None of us suspected,” said Theo, walking over with Jason’s glass of wine. “They don’t look alike, and Lemaitre doesn’t seem old enough to have a grown daughter. He’s always treated her with such...professional distance.”
“God damn him.” Jason threaded his hands through his hair. He had to calm down. If he stomped around and ranted, he’d scare Sara and ruin her pleasurable memories of the night. He drained his glass but the alcohol didn’t have any soothing effect. Theo sat across from him, deep in thought.