Her Balancing Act: Quinlan O'Connor Book 3 Read online

  “Hmm. Do you think you could do it?”

  “Yeah. I’ve already spoken to Josh on a number of occasions, and he thinks it’s a great idea. He would be willing to take over the operation of it just like The Sting since his partner sold his interest in that one to another investor. Josh is going to keep his interest in it for a while to see if things settle down again. The new investor has created a shift in clientele. The membership has begun to change, and while his rules are the same, it just doesn’t feel the same to Josh or any of our close friends. Josh was looking to move out of Sheridan after Carter got the job as chief of staff at the large medical group attached to the hospital in Butte. Sue, evidently, worked out her scheduling so her IT job would be done almost entirely remotely. He could let someone else, most likely his brother Keagan, run the place, so he would love to come out here and run ours. Josh and Carter are serious about Sue. She may be the hold out to a more permanent relationship.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I guess they have been approaching the subject of collaring, and she has avoided it like the neighborhood stray.”

  Cheyenne’s mind went where it always went during the question of collaring, Quinn’s reluctance to show his claiming in a publicly tangible way. He said when she was ready, and he would know when she was ready. That would be the right timing. Yes, he had married her, but this was a different type of claiming that he refused to acknowledge.

  “At least they understand the significance of collaring.” She tried to shift in his lap, pulling her legs out as if to stand up and felt his fingers like a vise grip on her thigh.

  “Cheyenne, we aren’t going to discuss this. I married you. I love you. I understand the significance, but you are still not too submissive, my love. Besides, we don’t play at any club these days. I don’t need a collar to stake my claim.”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a kiss that she tried to resist unsuccessfully.

  “Or don’t want to. It isn’t only that, you know. It has a deeper meaning.” She gave him an annoyed look changing the subject back to Sue when he didn’t respond. “She might be looking for a different commitment as well, the more permanent civil ceremony kind of claiming.”

  She twisted in his lap to look him full in the face. “Actually, if Sue moved with them, she’s committed. Women don’t just do that. Not women like Sue anyway. They may offer the collar, but she wants more.” Her demeanor said she was positive of her conclusion.

  Flipping the focus back to them and not Sue, he continued. “When the time comes, we’ll both be ready. Now,” he stood up and placed Cheyenne on her feet briskly, putting an end to the conversation. “Josh tells me Keagan has been having a rough time of it lately as his own woman left him high and dry a couple of months ago. Doesn’t know why she left but when he came home, all her things were gone. When he tracked her down, she was in California and wouldn’t come back although he got the impression she wanted to come.”

  Cheyenne stopped moving towards the kitchen to clean up and turned to Quinn when he quit speaking. “And?”

  “Is there anything else to say?”

  “Yes, a whole lot of details you left out. You guys never get the good information. She left. He was upset, found her… and then what?” This could be serious and how horrible that they just left her in California. If she looked like she wanted to come back, then she did.

  “Nothing. That is all there is to it, end of story.” Quinn began to walk into the kitchen, and Cheyenne put her hand on his arm.

  “Ugh. I can’t just ask him. You’re supposed to know that your wife will want to know more, and ask.”

  “Why would you? It isn’t your business anyway. And you need to learn to stay out of what isn’t your business.” He seemed honestly confused.

  She sighed her exasperation. “Why would you tell me then or even discuss it if there wasn’t a part of you that needed to know more? Maybe even to help him out with his problem.”

  He shook his head. “No, just listening to Josh explain something that was going on. They already did what they could.”

  She threw her hands up and continued on to the kitchen. “Never mind. Just go on with what you were saying.”

  Quinn shrugged and continued as though he had no idea what he had missed but Cheyenne had a sneaking suspicion that he just didn’t want to encourage her meddling. He always said meddling was a paddling offense, right up there with gossip. She rolled her eyes and then immediately looked to see if Quinn saw it. IF he saw her, he didn’t react, and she counted herself lucky.

  She had just learned recently that meddling was one of his biggest pet peeves. She wasn’t much of a meddler or gossiper, but when she tried to help her nephew Jon with cleaning up his dad’s truck that was in the line of paint gunfire, Quinn explained it was something Jon needed to figure out himself. She didn’t exactly agree in that case, so she logged it in that she just had to be more careful. Evidently, the next time might come with paddle penalties. Getting spanked with a plank in any form was never a good thing.

  “Anyway, do you want to go see where I was thinking would be a good place for the club?”

  “Of course, let’s go and on the way, you can tell me how you want to set this up.”

  They hopped in the truck and pulled off the ranch road onto the main road south.

  “Edgewood is what I think we could call it. Wood is exactly where it is located and Edge for the location, control, power, authority, as well as on the edge or fringe of others and with a bite. Think I’m way off?” Quinn cast an inquiring glance towards his wife.

  She shook her head. “I like it. I have a love-hate relationship with edging. No one would think of anything but its location.”

  “Right, that is just how it should be. Since we name everything we have, it would look like our hideaway, and it would be on our own land and unadvertised. The land is right here, a few miles past the backend of Johnson’s pastureland. I can have eighty acres or half a square mile because that is how they offered the property.”

  They went about fifteen miles before turning. “It looks awfully dark.”

  “There isn’t anything but forest on the land or around it. I think, even when we have lights on, you won’t see it distinctly. I’ll put in a driveway right down the center with a gate and a fence around the actual place so no one will bother it. Come walk it with me,” he said as he pulled up and started to get out. “It's a little drive for the others, but no one seemed to care as it’s about an hour and that’s not bad—oh, besides, it won’t matter if it is dark because you won’t be coming here alone.”

  She allowed her head to loll back, and she did her famous eye roll before turning to reach for the door handle.

  “Oh, and Cheyenne,” he glanced over and raised his eyebrows, “we’ve talked about the eye roll. Cut it out.”

  “How do you do that? It’s creepy, Quinlan O’Connor, just creepy.” She leaned back hard on the seat and shook her head in disbelief.

  Quinn shrugged and hopped out of the truck, coming around to open the door Cheyenne had already opened. She took his offered assistance out and felt a solid pop on her bottom after she cleared the truck.

  “All right, I get it, okay?” She rubbed her bottom more for effect than anything else.

  Quinn took her hand and laughed, his playfulness warming her belly and destinations south.

  After walking about seven acres back, Quinn stopped next to some tagged trees that he illuminated with a flashlight and said, “Here. This is where it will be.”

  “Wow, it’s very dark out here,” she repeated, stepping closer to her husband.

  “That works in our favor so that if we have our lights on during a play night, you won’t see much from the road, and even if you see the lights on the driveway, you won’t see us as we are down a small hill. I want the parking in the back with most of the windows there as well. The front will have circular drive. I don’t expect too many to come on any given night.”

/>   His voice grew excited in the way she was sure hers did when she found a mystery to solve in the accounting books or discovered lost information solving a numbers puzzle. She had to smile at the enthusiasm.

  “I figure we will have the setup the same as at The Sting. One night a month or maybe two nights in three months will be an invitation for newbies, and training once a quarter. We can do demos, classes, and the like. I already have a full set of legal documents that I’ve collected from several of the better places I have visited and offered each owner who shared their blank membership forms a free membership to ours for six months.

  “I don’t think they will do more than visit the site because it is a distance from them and not established with little to no competition if they are even worried about that. I think that a more select clientele would be the way to go. I’ll talk to Josh about that. We’ll solicit discretely, word of mouth, naughty shops, demos, and several other ways.”

  “But wouldn’t it be difficult to ask Josh to be his own competition?”

  “Not really. We are far enough away for our membership to be exclusive to each other and yet close enough to share visitor status. Josh and I have spent a while working on the details and I believe, when we are done, we’ll be contract tight, accidental visitor free, and have a good clientele base. We would have weekend promos where we would open for forty-eight hours for those who want an immersion weekend.”

  They planned for a while longer and then went for ice cream to satisfy Quinn’s complaining sweet tooth before going back home to play. Cheyenne needed the complete break from daily reality, and Quinn just needed to play with his wife. He led her into their newly built home on the Circle C ranch where he sent her to the bathroom and then to change before going downstairs to the separated basement where their sparse but new playroom resided.

  A spanking bench that had different bench features and the St. Andrew’s Cross then the suspension pulley and the shibari stand all built by Parker. Quinn did worry if Kelli would blow up when she found out that some of Parker’s woodworking talent went to this extreme. He had just laid the carpet and pad last night. He was anxious to practice his shibari. It would take Cheyenne out of herself and relax her.

  Walking into their playroom in only his jeans, he whistled at his lovely lady in something similar to a string bikini. The push-up bra and barely there panties were all black and red lace except for the tiny triangle gusset, held on by a string.

  “You won’t need this top, baby, but leave your bottoms on unless I change my mind. I’m going to practice tonight, and you might need the protection from the ropes.” He ran his hands over her body in awe. “I can get to you if I need to, piscín, never fear.”

  Cheyenne laughed nervously as he placed her in the middle of the room where there was a suspension device above her.

  “I know you will be careful. I trust you do make this good for both of us, sir.”

  She loved the feel of weightlessness when he lifted her up after binding her. The silken strands of the ropes he used were satiny to the touch, and he wound them firmly but never tight enough to cut off circulation. He checked her often. There was a loving tenderness about the binding. As he wound the cords around her skin, encasing her body in a variety of ways, a security formed. His hands were constantly feeling, touching, caressing her body in a possessive, protective way. She would never be harmed in the cocoon of his love, and the ropes of his shibari were the physical manifestation of that love.

  “What do you have in mind, this time, sir?” She always asked, and he never told. It had become a type of ritual.

  “Just wait and see.”

  He began kissing her as he wound and tied the intricate design. Touching and caressing as he worked on reproducing the body art he had been practicing on his created foam rubber dummy. He had her arms and upper torso bound with fine detail, showcasing her breasts as he loved on them. Each time he wound the rope and put another carefully designed element into place he could feel his muscles tighten and his cock harden.

  The rope was meticulously trussed and knotted to the suspension frame as he tread around her. He wound the silk carefully around her arms giving them a heaviness that he saw she sank into. Sinking into that feeling of security. He went on to bind her pelvis and hips to place her red and glistening pussy on display as it swelled with desire. The scent was heady, making him almost lightheaded with the perfume of her arousal. Her full weight was supported from every angle.

  Finally, he placed her and the suspension octagon that he had attached to the pulley and chain system in place, making sure all elements were safe and secure. She appeared as though she were a tasty morsel caught in the spider’s web. Quinn, just as the spider, slowly approached his tasty morsel to devour her whole. He carefully raised her off the ground. She was so damn beautiful in her submission. When he had her one foot off the ground, he began to reach for the mats but stopped to caress her face and kissed her lips tenderly and then more substantially, taking what she had no choice but to give him.

  Cheyenne had grown quiet in the last ten minutes, and while he kept a close eye on her, he needed her to verbally give him her status.

  “What’s your color, piscín?”

  “Um, blue sir,” she answered dreamily.

  “Baby, that isn’t one of your colors.” Confusion came through in his tone as he looked at the quick release knots wondering how fast he could cut her loose if blue meant numb. He mentally began the process.

  “I’m better than green, sir, so I’m blue,” she said still a bit fuzzy.

  He relaxed. “Good, lómhara, good. I’m going to finish suspending you as soon as I put the mats under you so hold on.”

  Raising her at the right play height for Quinn, he tied her off and splayed her folds and played with her bits, edging for a while, playing to keep her orgasm just on the other side of release. He loved her whimpers and begging. Not as a humiliation but because it meant he was doing something right.

  “Quinn, please, please…” Her plaintive wail was music to his ears.

  “Please what, piscín?” He took her breast in his mouth as his hands teased and taunted the other. He could hear her moan.

  “Come, please, I need to c-o-m-e.” Her aroused was at the desperation level as she began to try to rock but to no avail.

  “God, please, whatever you want, please just let me go.” It was a new phrase from her and he checked in seeing her breath becoming more rapid and shallow. He couldn’t let her panic, but he didn’t see any signs of that. Still, this was play.

  “Chey, piscín, what’s your color?”

  She swallowed. “Um, what? Color? Um, orange, burning up…”

  “Chey, yellow, green or popsicle, what is your color, honey?”

  “Oh, mmm, hot, need to come. Please? Please?”

  He took that as she was okay but they would need to practice more on the words so she would have them embedded in her long term. Then he wouldn’t have these moments of worry. He stripped his jeans and tipped her just so, swinging her slightly as he inched inside of her and drove his cock deep.

  “Oh, god, yes, please, harder. Faster, more, more.” Quinn knew Cheyenne loved his roughness after he had been tender and he wanted to give her what she begged for. Quinn, who had been hard as cement after he wrapped the first strands of silk around Cheyenne, came right behind her joining in the shout of release. Because she had been sitting on the edge for so long, just as he planned, her frenzied writhing brought on his tumble over the precipice, fast and hard.

  As he regained his composure enough to stand up straight, he gently began to reverse the binding process, first lowering her to the ground and then locking the suspension bar in place before releasing her length by length, strand by strand. As he unbound her, he spoke low and lovingly to her to help her slowly come back to him.

  “Okay, a lómhara, you are my cailín maith aren’t you, my good girl? Tell me how you are feeling. Give me a color, baby.”

  “Good
, I’m good, green, sir.”

  She was coming back to herself, and Quinn smiled.

  “How did that feel, piscín?”

  “Amazing, sir. It was as though I had no body and was just floating in nothingness. Like I was balanced on a precipice and nothing could harm me because I was tight in your arms, snuggling into you. I was all warm and cozy and yet floating free without any restraint. Safe.”

  Her voice was still rather wispy and dreamy making him feel the tingle of arousal again. Only his Cheyenne could do that to him so quickly. Yes, it was amazing, fucking amazing. He took her to bed.

  Chapter Two

  The new account from the Spencer Ranch was already giving Cheyenne fits. It was ruining her off time, causing her husband to get irritable and that was not good for her comfort she thought as she readjusted her body weight in the chair again. Cheyenne, against her husband’s wishes, had decided to take on one additional large customer so that she had three substantial clients and did not need to gain anymore. In the short term, it meant more work but in the end, the savings in time would be noticeable. The income would be better, too. It was the first real marital disagreement they had experienced. As she closed the ledgers of the new client, she drifted back to that earlier conversation.

  Cheyenne looked up as the screen door to the kitchen slammed shut heralding Quinn’s appearance. She was making dinner. She offered her cheek for her husband’s kiss and smiled when he took her lips instead.

  “Hi sweetie, what’s the face for?” asked Cheyenne a bit distracted with putting their casserole in the oven. She wiped her hands on her apron as she straightened, looking expectantly at him.

  “Cheyenne, I just talked to one of the foremen on Spencer’s place, and he said someone named Cheyenne Sterling has taken on their accounting.”

  She laughed. “I’m sure the ink isn’t dry on that contract. I forget about the gossip express sometimes. It always amazes me that my husband knows what I did in the morning before I have a chance to share it with him in the afternoon.” She looked at Quinn’s face and said, “I’m kind of surprised you listen to gossip but in this case it’s true. I signed this morning.”