The Dom Claims His Cougar [Unchained Love 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

His own cock was trying to force its way out of his jeans. One touch on it would send him flying as well, but now was not the time or place for that.

Gently he stroked Verity’s cunt again, lightly touching her jewelry, soothing her down from her release.

Finally he slid his fingers out of her and casually raised them to his own face, pretending to scratch his chin but actually drinking in her scent, loving the way it stuck to his skin.

God, she was hot.

Larry stepped up onto the stage followed by a very tall, lean man with shoulder-length blond hair. Ezra wondered if he was a shape-shifter. He reminded Ezra of some of the panthers in the sleek, graceful way he moved.

“People, this is Zander. He’s here to talk to us about mental telepathy.”

Ezra joined others in a polite smatter of clapping then waited.

“Mental telepathy is more prevalent than most people imagine. Almost everyone has some inherent ability. The hardest part about using it is to focus. Your mind must be totally clear of other thoughts and wishes, concentrated only on the message you wish to send. Until you can do that your powers will be very limited,” said Zander.

The speaker went on to talk about various ways of clearing the mind such as meditation or picturing a window and washing it clean, things Ezra vaguely recalled hearing before.

Finally Zander called Ramona and Gaynor up onto the stage. “Since you both work together you should have some connection, but you’ve never sent each other a message before. Am I right?”

“Yes,” said Ramona.

Gaynor just nodded, her pure-white hair flipping forward to hide her face.

“But you have had minor success communicating mentally with your mates?” Zander ended with his voice rising into an inflection, turning the statement into a question.

“I’m not really sure, but I think perhaps I have,” answered Gaynor.

“Once or twice, but only when I touched my tattoo,” said Ramona.

“If the tattoo helps you focus, then touch it,” said Zander decisively. “But you must both practice focusing only on the message to be sent.”

Gaynor and Ramona nodded.

Zander took out a pack of playing cards. “At this stage we will only consider whether they are red or black. For those who score consistently above fifty percent on the color we will move to transmitting the suit.”

First Gaynor sent the color of each card to Ramona, then they repeated the exercise with Ramona sending and Gaynor receiving. When they began the second time around, everyone broke into small groups, Larry handed out more packs of cards, and many other people began trying to send and receive messages. After two hours the only person still sending messages was Leticia. When she and her mates, William and Oliver, worked together, she scored almost ninety percent on suits and over eighty percent on the actual card. When she sent a message to the other panthers they received it about seventy percent of the time and Jubilee and Lucy also got her messages.

Zander held up his hand for silence. “Which of these men is your brother?”

David stepped forward.

“Send him a specific card.”

The barn was silent as everyone turned to watch.

“Well?” asked Zander.

David blushed and almost stammered. “It’s a red court card. Not the queen, I don’t think…”

Without speaking, Leticia held up the card. It was the king of diamonds.

Ezra turned to Verity. “When he mates, what’s the bet his partners will get mental telepathy?”

“No bet. It’s a certainty.”

“And us?” Ezra stared deep into her eyes. He’d tried hard to read her mind for the cards. He’d paid attention to Zander, done his best not to think about anything but the card, and they’d scored a little over fifty percent. But he rather thought that was due to her, not him. It was a fucking shame Noah couldn’t be here tonight. He’d had to work. Maybe if the three of them worked on it they’d get better. Or perhaps once they were mated any latent ability would be strengthened. If they had mental telepathy it would be wonderful.

Serena, Pete, and Josh had scored significantly above average, but they were all panthers, so likely that meant a stronger connection. If only he could communicate better with mental telepathy it would be good for keeping Verity safe. She could call on them at any time no matter what was happening. Oh well, it was no use worrying about it. They weren’t mated yet after all. Likely it would strengthen at least a bit then.

The evening broke up then. People began moving off homeward. Most of them seemed to think Leticia was the only one with the talent for mental telepathy, although others were talking about the great help it would be if other people could get better at it. Ezra agreed with them but wasn’t going to worry about it, just hope. If they got some ability after they mated, it would be awesome.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said to Verity, gently kissing her lips and trying not to be obvious about grinding his aching cock against her soft belly.

“Yes, but tomorrow night I want us to lay down our plans for how we’ll conduct our lives after we’re mated,” Verity replied.

Oh God!
Now he had something else to worry about.

Verity had carefully chosen her flirty short skirt to wear the previous night, wondering if it would tempt Ezra to touch her. However, she hadn’t thought sufficiently far ahead to guess he might actually finger-fuck her right there on the chair in the barn, but she’d enjoyed every second of the brief orgasm. She was beginning to realize that once she was mated she’d be happy to participate in an open BDSM scene, fully naked in front of everyone at Carnal Connections.

She’d gotten off on the danger that someone might see them and guess what they were doing. How much more would she get off on the knowledge that people were watching the men fuck her and wishing they were the ones being fucked instead of her?

But tonight was different. Tonight was about being totally upfront with what she wanted after they were mated. She needed to be aware of the men’s needs and wants but also to state hers. Neither Noah nor Ezra was a mind reader—well, not yet anyway!—and she couldn’t expect them just to know what she needed, even though Noah was an amazingly perceptive Dom. Her life was about more than orgasms. It was about all of them talking through their hopes and plans and then together working out what was possible short term and longer term.

The house was central to all that for her, not only in hosting the parties Ezra needed to hold for his business colleagues and clients, but also in perhaps eventually establishing her own catering business. She hadn’t mentioned that to the men in detail, had not even thought it through fully herself, but she needed to make them aware of the basic framework.

Another idea that had only just come to her was using the house as a showcase for the talents of people in the community. Instead of buying pictures for the walls of the great room, perhaps they could ask Galen to frame a few of his photographs, ones he wanted to sell. And the same with some of Autumn’s yarn crafts. Maybe they could hang one or two that she was willing to sell. And likely there were other people who could make beautifully crafted, one-of-a-kind items that might appeal to better-off businessmen.

Her house could be not just a gift to herself, but also to others in the community. But then again, that might depend on what Noah and Ezra wanted. Just as they hadn’t consulted her about her thoughts, she, in turn, hadn’t canvassed their opinions. And Noah and Ezra might have separate, and very different, ideas, not just from her own but also from each other.

So, she dressed warmly in jeans, boots, and a hand-knit sweater and took her laptop as well as a notepad and pen to the small meeting room on the first floor of the main house, which was where they were going to meet for their discussion.

Verity put her things on a small table, pulled three armchairs around it, then went to a bench on one side of the room and switched on a coffeepot, arranging three mugs, creamer, and sugar on a tray.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there last night,” said Noah, striding into the room and coming across to kiss her cheek.

He looked so handsome her panties instantly dampened. His muscular shoulders and arms filled out the thick sweater he was wearing, his hair was a shiny blue black in this light, and his eyes were dark brown. She ran her fingers over his chin. This late in the day he’d usually have a hint of stubble but his face was smooth and had the slightest scent of pine about it. “Thank you for shaving for me,” she whispered, kissing his chin.

“I wouldn’t want you to get whisker burn anywhere delicate,” he said, grinning at her.

Verity felt her face blush and was glad to look over his shoulder as the door opened again and Ezra came into the room. His light brown eyes were sparkling with happiness and he picked her up and spun her around. “Hey there,” he said as he put her down again.

“Hey yourself,” she replied breathlessly.

Verity fetched them all a cup of coffee then sat down and wondered whether she should speak or whether Noah, as their Dom, would open the discussion.

Noah said gently, “This was your idea, Verity, so you go first.”

Verity nodded, took a deep breath, and said, “I really don’t want to sound like this mating is all about me, me, me. I know it’s about all three of us. Each of us being an equal partner with all the others. But I just wanted us to talk about what life will be like for all of us after we mate. I feel like everything is rushing toward me so fast I can’t get a grip on reality so much anymore. I know I love you both, that’s not under dispute, but it’s a big change from living as a single person in one room, free to do pretty much as I please when I’m not at work, to being part of a tight-knit little family again.”

“Premarriage jitters,” said Ezra with a grin.

“It’s just been you and Serena for a while now, hasn’t it?” said Noah.

“Well, the two of us and Dad. It’s true he’s been overseas, in the Middle East, for the last few years.”

“We’re not going to turn you into a household drudge, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’ll all share the chores. My mama brought me up right to do more than just man jobs like taking out the trash,” added Ezra.

Verity laughed. “That’s good to know. But it’s more that I want to know what the shape of our week will be like. How often do you need to entertain? How often will you be going places where we can’t go? How many nights do you need to stay back for meetings, Noah? Do either of you ever work weekends? What about vacation time? Will we be able to go away together sometimes? All those sorts of things.”

“Would you like to travel overseas, Verity?” asked Noah.

“I don’t know. It might be nice to visit Dad if he isn’t going to come home at the end of May, early June as he said he would originally.”

Noah nodded and Ezra got out his phone.

“About when I’ll be in meetings and such. I can easily send you my weekly calendar if that’ll help you. It’s not always one hundred percent accurate, sometimes things come up or get canceled, but it’ll give you the basic layout of what I’m doing. Would that help?”

“Oh, yes. That would be really good.”

“Okay. Done. I’ll try to remember to send it to you every week,” said Ezra.

“About the shape of our time together, I don’t see that as set in concrete. I don’t see why we can’t be flexible, if there are things you want to do or not do. We can set up a roster for chores or each pick the jobs we like doing, it doesn’t really matter to me. We’re all working, so we need to make time to be together and have fun, out of the dungeon as well as in it. Although it’ll be great to be able to just go to bed together instead of having to travel home. I’m sure as hell looking forward to that.”

“God, yes,” agreed Ezra.

Verity laughed. She did love these men, so much. They were so much nicer than her, she didn’t deserve how wonderful they were to her. How did she get to be so lucky as to have them love her?

“You know I’ve been thinking a little about maybe starting my own catering business?”

She watched as both men nodded. Ezra was looking interested, while Noah was wearing his “Dom” face.

“I’m not planning to stop working or anything yet, but I have decided to explore the idea further. To make some menus, trial some recipes, look into the project more carefully. And if it all comes together, then I will start very small, with just a few clients.”

Ezra was nodding enthusiastically, smiling at her. “If you’re happy with the idea, it’s possible some of the people I deal with might hire you. Catering my parties would be a way for them to get to know you and then they might want to hire you, too.”

She hadn’t thought of that, but of course, it was a logical extension of what she’d said. When she looked at Noah, he said, “Yes, if that’s what you want you should do it. I know how much you like talking about menus and ingredients. I should have known you’d be interested in taking cooking further than just talk.”

“How do you feel about maybe using the great room as a showroom for people’s artworks to sell to your clients? Not a hard sell, just hang them there and if people express interest take it further?”

“What sort of art were you thinking of?” asked Noah.