Walk Between the Raindrops Read online

  “May’s in the shower. I’m going to run down to the store and get some food for us. Will you be okay if I leave for a few minutes?”

  He nodded.

  Once she left, he nuzzled the top of June’s head. “I love you.”

  She pressed herself even more tightly against him. “I love you, too.”

  “They’ll get the sonofabitch. One way or another, he’ll face justice.”

  She sniffled. “I know.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Now

  Mark and June arrived at Sigalo’s a little after seven. June had taught two yoga classes that morning, and another two that afternoon. While she felt mentally drained, she still wanted to join their friends.

  Tilly spotted them immediately and stood to greet them with hugs. “How you doing? You okay?”

  “This crazy weather.”

  “Yeah, I thought London’s weather was shitty, and I come home to Florida to rain.” She smiled. “Maybe I brought it with me. Sorry about that.” It had cleared up Friday, but moved in again early that morning and looked like it would rain until late tomorrow.

  “I don’t blame you.”

  “I do,” Cris teased.

  Tilly stuck her tongue out at him, where he sat on Landry’s other side tonight. “Sit next to me, honey. That seat and the one next to it are empty.”

  June settled in. “How’s Leigh doing?”

  “Bow-legged and babysitting for us tonight.” She smiled. “And as of yesterday, she’s officially pregnant, I’m allowed to reveal.”

  “That’s great!”

  “She went to the doctor and they confirmed it. About four weeks along, based on the timing. Likely looking at a Valentine’s baby.” Tilly grinned as she rubbed her hands together. “Now to form a betting pool for size, weight, date—all of that. And to juggle my schedule around so I can throw her a kick-ass kinky baby shower.”

  June had heard about what Lucas and Nick were doing to Leigh—with her full willing consent and complicity—to get her pregnant. “Bet she’ll be glad to get a rest now, huh?”

  Tilly snorted. “Hell, no. Lucas hasn’t had pussy in a couple of months. Now he’s going after her every time she bends over. He wanted to wait until they were sure she was pregnant so they knew this one would be Nick’s.”

  “Oh. Poor Leigh.”

  “Yeah, more like poor Tilly. With her out of commission, I’m going to be spending a few months in Jordan with a full production crew and some pissy actors who apparently never became acquainted with the great outdoors outside of a film set.”

  “Ah.”

  “Yeah. Ah. Ooh!” Tilly pointed at her. “You want a job?”

  “No,” Mark said from her other side. When they both looked, he sat there with a smile, but an arched eyebrow. “Sorry, Til. I love you like a sister, but I’m not letting you drag my wife off to Jordan for filming. I need her at home.”

  She blew him a raspberry. “Spoilsport. I was only going to borrow her for a month or two, not the whole time.” She drew an invisible sign with her hands. “She’d get billed as ‘Yoga Master and Brat-Actor Wrangler’ in the final credits.”

  “Sorry,” June said. “Daddy says no. Besides, all kidding aside, I really can’t leave him. He’s just healing up from the last time he threw out his back.”

  “There you go using logic on me,” Tilly said.

  “Maybe Eliza can help you out,” Mark suggested.

  “I already asked and Rusty nixed it. Said his balls would get too lonely without her around to bust them. Rat bastard.”

  * * * *

  They were standing outside and chatting after dinner. Some of them were going on to Venture to play tonight. The rest of them were going home or elsewhere.

  Tilly hugged June. “You doing okay? Seriously?”

  “Yeah. Did I tell you the state finally gave me my gun back?”

  “I think so. Glad that got settled. I was worried they might file charges against you. While I can fix a lot of shit in the Hollywood world, I can’t fix shit in the Florida legal system, unless it’s specifically going through Pat Donnelly’s courtroom.”

  “Betsy, Nolan, and Kenny are doing well,” June said. “We saw them last week.”

  “Excellent. I’ve e-mailed with her but haven’t been able to make the schedules gel to get together.” She smiled. “My little ducklings. Gotta keep ’em all in line.” She snapped her fingers. “Ooh. Yesss. Since your big bear dude won’t let you come with to Jordan, I’ll pass the word you’re now the official head matchmaker. How’s that? I need feet and eyes on the ground. You, Eliza, Abbey, Cali, and Chelbie.” She drew another invisible marquee in the air. “‘The Frightful Five.’”

  “Are you trying to abduct my wife again?” Mark teased as he shifted his focus from his conversation with Landry back to Tilly.

  “Nah, chief. Just gave her a promotion. Head matchmaker for the Suncoast Society.”

  “Ah. What’s her pay raise?”

  “Thirty percent of nothing.” Tilly grinned.

  Mark pulled Tilly in for a hug. “Damn, it’s been dull around here without you.”

  “Yeah, well, some of us don’t have boring day jobs. And you so don’t look like a CPA. I could get you cast as an extra playing a thug or something.”

  “It’s my camouflage. Can’t have everyone thinking I’m a big softy.”

  “There is that.” Tilly’s smile faded. “So, hey, you talked to Chelbie the past couple of days?”

  “No, why?” June said.

  “Mal’s in-patient now. A real good place up in Tampa. Looking at a minimum three-month stay. A bed opened up Thursday evening. Kel doesn’t want that to be open knowledge yet, just the inner circle, so to speak. And he asked me to make sure you knew so you could tell May and Jim, in case they want to go visit her. Kel and Mal really appreciated how they talked with them about…the baby. And that’s why Cali and her guys aren’t here tonight. They’re taking a turn working over at the club, so Marcia and Derrick can take a night off finally.”

  “If they need to schedule us to volunteer, we can work,” Mark said.

  June poked him in the chest. “You will sit your ass in a chair to DM, Daddy-Sir. Your back is still iffy. I’ll be your order giver-outer.”

  “Yeah, yeah, fine, fine.” He rolled his eyes at Tilly, but smiled.

  After saying their good-nights, June and Mark got into the car, but he hesitated before pulling out of the parking lot. “I know I said we’d go home, but would you mind if we headed over to the club to tell Cali to put us on the schedule to volunteer?”

  She stroked his thigh. “You read my mind, Daddy.”

  * * * *

  Venture wasn’t just a fun place to escape to. For Mark, it was like a second home, in a way.

  Their kinky family.

  Family was family.

  And family was everything.

  Maybe he couldn’t fix things for Mal and Kel, but at least they could pitch in and help out at the club if they were needed.

  When they entered the office, they found a frazzled-looking Cali behind the counter with a young woman Mark didn’t recognize.

  “Hey!” Cali rounded the counter to hug them. “You here for fun tonight, she asks hopefully with an ulterior motive?”

  Mark smiled. “Tilly told us you were looking to pad the volunteer roster.”

  “Yeeesss!” Cali walked behind the counter and found their name badge lanyards, where they hung on a hook with the others. “Here you go. Scrye and June. Oh, and this is Skye. She’s a new volunteer. I’m starting her out here because until you showed up, I was the only other person I had here tonight who could run the computer and front desk. And I already have twenty people inside and we haven’t even been open fifteen minutes yet. Plus, Max is giving a newbie orientation to five of them in there, meaning Sean’s by himself on the floor.”

  In fact, the outer office door opened, and four more members walked in.

  Scrye and June put their badges
on and June signed them in on the clipboard. “Daddy, if you promise not to lift anything and to sit down while you DM, I’ll stay out here and help Cali at the counter.”

  He kissed her. “Good girl.”

  As he headed inside, Cali called out, “Thanks, Scrye! I love you!”

  He stuck his head back inside. “Love you, too—”

  “Still not doin’ you,” June finished for him with a grin.

  “That cracks me up every time,” Cali said.

  He continued his journey inside. Sean stood inside the doorway leading to the new side of the dungeon, where he could see all the activity on both sides of the space. A couple was already making use of a spanking bench on the old side, and two other couples occupied St. Andrew’s crosses over on the new side.

  He held his hand up to Scrye in greeting when he spotted the name badge and flashed him a wide grin and a thumbs-up.

  “Wow, are you a sight for overwhelmed eyes right now,” Sean said when Scrye walked over to hug him.

  “What happened? Why don’t you have more help?”

  “Tony and Shayla were supposed to be here, but she’s down with food poisoning from iffy lunchtime sushi with Leah, and Tony got called in to work for an emergency an hour ago while he was on his way here. We thought we could handle it without calling Marcia until the other volunteers got here at ten…but apparently, we can’t. This shit is not as easy as it looks.”

  “Tell me about it. Listen, my little hellion is riding my ass over my bad back. Mind if I sit on the old side and watch that, in case they need security in the office or something? That way, I’ll be right there.”

  “Sure. I’ll handle the new side. When Max is done, he can float, or take care of other newbie talks.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  After getting himself a cup of coffee, Mark settled into a chair at the table closest to the play area, where he could see the scene currently going on and keep an eye on the office door when it opened. As the four people walked in, Mark spotted a line starting to stack up out the outer office door.

  Holy crap.

  It wasn’t even a night with a special promotion, or a presentation or anything. Experience told him if a night was this busy this early, usually that meant it got even busier later as people finished dinner and decided to come out.

  Once Max had released his newbies into the wild, he walked over and hugged Scrye. “Did Sean tell you about tonight?”

  “Yeah. Lucky for you, we talked to Tilly at dinner. We hadn’t planned on staying until Cali sent up the SOS when we got here. We were only going to stop by and volunteer to volunteer. But we’ll stay as late as you need us tonight. I don’t want to leave you shorthanded.”

  “Well, we owe you.” More people had arrived. “Marcia said this night is usually their slow night.”

  “Uh-oh.” Mark pointed to where a guy he didn’t recognize had just attached the sliding chain choker collar of a woman Mark also didn’t recognize to the frame of a St. Andrew’s cross with a snap clip. “Stop him. That’s a snapped neck or a crushed windpipe.”

  “Aw, shit!” Max hustled over and quickly explained to the guy why you should never attach a collar—especially one that could constrict and choke and kill the person—to an upright piece of furniture or an overhead suspension hard point.

  Fortunately, the guy looked suitably abashed and quickly unclipped it.

  Max returned to Scrye. “Thanks, man. See? That’s why we need you here. I didn’t even realize he was doing that. I thought I was a pretty decent DM until tonight, when I’m the lead DM. Waaait…” He smiled, then pointed. “You’re the lead DM tonight. You have seniority.”

  “Well, for as long as you need me, I suppose.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “So you want to go tell that lady she can’t use a strap-on on her guy here, or you want me to do it?”

  He turned. “Son of a—I literally just gave them the damn newbie talk!” He hustled off to stop her while Mark chuckled.

  They ended up staying all night, which put a crimp in Mark’s earlier plans to have fucked June into a gooey bliss by that time. When they locked the outer door at two a.m., Cali even had to play the full closing music playlist to get the stubborn people moving toward the exit.

  It was The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald that finally broke down the wills of even the staunchest chatterboxes and got them heading for the door.

  Mark hauled himself out of his chair and went to turn on the overhead work lights. “Well, there’s another one in the books.”

  Max and Sean got busy sweeping and mopping, while Mark started wiping down tables and prayed he finished that before June caught him doing it. By the time she joined them to help, that part was done.

  “How’d we do?” he asked her.

  “Good night. Cali texted Marcia the total and she called her right back to confirm that wasn’t a typo. I think I know why we were so busy, though.”

  “Why?”

  “Apparently, a group from down in Ft. Myers came up tonight to check us out. The woman who was throwing a regular monthly play party down there on this weekend had to relocate because of work. I think we’re the new monthly party.”

  “Oh. Wow.”

  “Yeah. We had about thirty new members join tonight, in addition to regular members.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Yeah. And I hope you don’t mind, but I added us to the volunteer schedule for the next few weeks.”

  “Thank you, baby.” He kissed her. “And I sat down most of the night.”

  “I know. I peeked a few times when I could.”

  When they finally returned home, it was almost three thirty in the morning. He was ready to go to bed, but as they passed through the kitchen, he reached out, snagged June by the hair, and bent her facedown over the table.

  He pulled up her dress and stroked her ass. “Ah, my good girl. No panties.” Smack. “Remember the morning after the Christmas party?”

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  Smack. “What’d I do to my good girl?”

  “You ate me out here on the table and later made faces at me all through Christmas dinner when Maren and Sonya were here.”

  Smack. “Yes, I did, didn’t I?” Smack. He fingered her pussy and found her already wet, practically dripping.

  Over twenty years together, and he could still get her wet. “Spread.”

  She immediately complied as he hiked the bottom of her dress up around her waist and really started to spank her.

  She moaned and squirmed and tried to get her ass up in the air to provide a better target.

  He missed their daughters, but this was definitely a bonus of having an empty nest.

  Smack.

  He kept doing that until his cock finally woke up and cooperated and decided it wanted in on the party, too. Then he unzipped and started fucking her, hard, scooting the table with every thrust until he quickly came and filled her pussy.

  Then he reached around to finger her clit. “Come fast, baby, or you don’t come at all.”

  She ground herself back against him, not taking long until she was gripping the edges of the table with white-knuckles and moaning his name. All that while her pussy squeezed his cock.

  Once he knew she was finished, he withdrew and shoved two fingers into her pussy, coating them before withdrawing them and pushing them into her mouth.

  She moaned again, deep-throating them, sucking hard, licking his cum and hers off them.

  He chuckled. “My good girl. That weekend I spent fucking you and then making you suck a dildo coated in my cum while I did forced orgasm play on you really rewired your brain, didn’t it?”

  “Mmm-hmm!”

  He pulled his fingers free and drew her up into his arms. “How do you put up with my twisted mind, sweetheart?”

  “Because you’ve never tried to use a Christmas tree on me as an insertable, and you won’t try to draw tiger stripes on me with permanent markers.”

  �
�Is that why Loren calls red on markers?”

  “Yep.”

  “I love that man, but Ross is a little tetched, as they say.”

  “Says the man who got his official start in shibari by doing macramé on his daughters’ stuffed animals.” She grinned.

  “Well, when you put it like that.” He yawned. “Let’s sleep late tomorrow,” he said. “I think we’ve earned alone time together doing absolutely nothing.”

  “Like that weekend in Indy.”

  He turned. “The camp?”

  Honestly? He was a little surprised she brought that up. She rarely talked about it.

  “Our very first weekend together alone without anyone else.”

  “Wasn’t exactly the best circumstances.”

  “I know. But now I can look back on it and I love you even more for what you did for me.”

  He cupped her face. “Baby, it’s my job to take care of you. Always has been, and always will be.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Back then

  Under the circumstances, June’s parents didn’t object to Mark driving her to Indianapolis to the gymnastics camp and attending with her. If anything, they acted a little relieved to know that he’d be there to protect and keep an eye on her. Even though it was only two weeks after July’s murder, and a week after her funeral, her parents thought they needed to get her away from home and the crazy media coverage that had descended upon them following the crime.

  Mark would refuse to let her out of his sight, except for her going to the bathroom or being in a dressing room at the camp.

  June suspected they hoped attending the camp would help her, would be a focus for her.

  Mark’s parents bought a video camera for him to take with them, so he could film the event for everyone to watch later. They also let him drive his dad’s car, since it was only a year old and in good mechanical condition.

  June’s mom couldn’t make the trip because she was barely vertical, and her dad wanted to stay home with her.

  June didn’t miss that her dad made Mark take one of his handguns with him, kept locked in the glove box.