“Once we go inside that cabin, that’s exactly what you’ll have,” Master Thorin promised. “We’ll step into our roles, and the only way we’ll step out of them is if you use your safe word. We just need to establish a few more things first, then we can get right to the part where we make some of your dreams come true.”
“I love the sound of that, Sir.”
“I just bet you do.”
Chapter Four
Thorin
Payne’s first request was to arrive on our doorstep properly dressed and ready to start tidying up the cabin for us. In order to accomplish that, I’d retrieved the trunk he’d brought with him and carried it outside so he could change while Wylde ducked into our bedroom. To do what, I wasn’t sure.
Despite my best efforts, the place looked like a tornado had spun through it. How, I still couldn’t figure out. It was like Wylde had strewn three things around for every one thing I’d folded up and tucked away in our drawers. Knowing him, he probably had. Outside, Payne was busy changing. He’d requested that I not peek, and I wouldn’t. I was too busy worrying if what he saw when he stepped into the room would be enough overwhelming chaos that it would send him running for the hills instead of slipping into the scene we were supposed to be playing out.
Clothes, boots, a few scattered dog-eared books, hell, even Wylde’s guitar was in the living room when I knew good and damned well it had started out in our bedroom. Why it was on the couch when it hadn’t been there this morning I didn’t know unless he finally intended to play it again.
Though he’d finished physical therapy on his shoulder over two months ago, he still hadn’t picked it back up yet. Until I saw it laying there, it hadn’t hit me how much I missed hearing him play it in the evening. Would he tonight?
Man, I hoped he did. Rattling and a loud clatter sounded behind the bedroom door before Wylde emerged, dusty black hat on his head, his long hair pulled completely free of the messy bun he’d had it tied up in this morning. Those wavy chestnut locks spilled over his shoulders, drawing out the color in his eyes as he stood in a sunbeam, dusty leather chaps and vest having been added to his ensemble. He looked like he’d just leapt down off the back of a bull. That cocky smirk, that devil-may-care look, seeing him dressed like that, looking that way, was a reminder of all the nights we’d come down from the high of bull riding by pinning each other to the bed and fucking each other’s brains out.
Even in the low moments of crushing defeat, we’d have angry sex to break the tension, then lie in bed breaking down each other’s rides, analyzing everything that had gone wrong. We’d been good together, damn good, but something about having a third had always elevated things between us from good to out-fucking-standing.
And I’d just bet Derek knew that. He seemed to know just about everything about everyone here at the Ranch. At least when it came to their needs and dynamics. We needed this. I’d wanted to deny it when he’d posed his request, but Wylde had jumped right on it, and I’d let him sweep me along with his plans for the perfect fantasy. Which was starting to feel like it involved far more than a messy room and a refrigerator filled with groceries neither of us knew what to do with.
Knock. Knock. Knock!
Showtime!
Wylde strode past me to reach the door before I could move, opening it to a sight that left me breathless. Payne’s sun-kissed skin shimmered with a dusting of glitter where it wasn’t covered by his black lace crop top, matching boy shorts, and the frilly white apron he’d tied around his waist. Fluffy black and white kitty-cat ears were perched on the top of his head, holding his golden hair back from his face, the longest strands falling less than an inch above his shoulders. When Wylde shifted his stance to lean against the doorframe, I glimpsed what his body had kept hidden from my view. Poking through those boy shorts, which could only mean that the base was a butt plug he’d inserted, was a black and white tail even fluffier than those amazing ears he had on.
Holy shit!
The end of his tail was draped over his arm, and in his hand he held a matching feather duster. He’d even drawn whiskers on his cheeks and darkened his nose, which wiggled when he mewed up at us.
“Hi,” he said, grinning, which made his green-gold eyes shimmer almost as much as his skin.
I was a sucker for green-eyed men; they’d always been my kryptonite. How had I not noticed the color in the lobby when we’d been introduced? Oh yeah, I’d been too busy admiring his dimples, another feature I’d always been drawn to.
“Well, hello kitty,” Wylde drawled. “What can we do for you?”
“I’m from the Meow Maids cleaning service, and I’m here to tidy up for you.”
“Really? I suppose the place could use a bit of sprucing up,” Wylde said. “What’s your name? We have to call you something, unless you’d prefer I just call you pretty kitty all day.”
“I wouldn’t mind at all if you did,” he replied. “My name is Payne, and I love to be petted, especially if you like my work. Will you let me in so I can get to work on you, err,foryou?”
Payne blushed so adorably when he said it that I was momentarily stunned and almost failed to move out of the way fast enough when Wylde stepped back, nearly treading on my toes as he ushered Payne into the cabin past me.
“Come on in, Payne,” Wylde said, one hand hovering at the small of Payne’s back, but not touching. “But I should warn you, it’s a hot mess in here.”
Payne just flashed him a bright smile over his shoulder and waved the feather duster at him. “Messy is my specialty.”
“In that case, we can’t wait to see you in action,” I said as I followed them into the living room.
“Would it be okay if I put some music on while I clean?” he asked as he strode around the room, taking it all in. “Unless the owner of that guitar would like to play for me instead?”
His gaze slid from Wylde to me. Was that a challenge? A request? When Wylde didn’t immediately answer, I answered for him, just in case he was tempted to make a bunch of flimsy excuses about why he couldn’t.
“He’d be happy to,” I said as I lifted the case off the couch and passed it to him.