Free Secrets Dispatched by Raven McAllan Page B

down heavily on the bed and cradled her wrist. It still throbbed where she’d thumped it.
    “Shit, that bloody hurts.”
    “That’s five so far,” Ross said in a level tone. “Want to make it a nice round half dozen?”
    “Eh?” What on earth is he going on about? “You’ve lost me here.”
    “Cuss words. Five spanks per word. I’ll remember.”
    Even in her agitated state, that pronouncement made her wetter and more turned on than she’d have thought possible. It was almost worth adding something more to his list. Almost.
    “Look,” Shane said desperately. “Is she okay? Even if you can’t tell me any more than that, is Jess…well, I dunno, normal?”
    Ross burst out laughing and Shane clenched her fists. Infuriating, awkward, pain in the…
    “No, kitten, don’t hit me. You’ll regret it.”
    He marched up to her and held her arms above her head with one hand and took hold of her chin with the other. Neither hold was gentle. Neither upset her, more the opposite. Shane squirmed on the bed and clenched her thighs to try to ease the aches in her clit and pussy.
    “Stop it. You will not come unless I say so, and the way you’re behaving at the moment, there’s fat chance of me letting you. The spanking I’d give you for that, plus your cussing, wouldn’t be for pleasure, I assure you. However, to go back to your question. Normal? Define normal.”
    As usual, he made a valid point. What was normal? “Happy, then? No monster in the closet or… Oh, help me here please, Sir. It matters.”
    “As far as I know, kitten, Jess is happy.”
    Shane let out a sigh. “I guess as a Dom you’d see the signs if she wasn’t.”
    “I guess I would, and David certainly would.”
    Shane nodded and yawned. The events of the day, to say nothing of the previous week or so’s happenings were catching up with her. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s not the company or the surroundings that’s making me yawn. It’s been a hectic few weeks.”
    “Come on.” He dragged her onto her feet. “I’ll show you where you’re sleeping. We can talk tomorrow. Jess won’t get back ‘til mid-morning at the earliest.”
    “Yeah, sorry.” With another yawn—and one last look around the dungeon—Shane let Ross lead her out of the room and back to his flat. Her self-imposed fast was sure looking like it would break soon. It couldn’t happen quickly enough. She was ravenous, and not for food.
     
    * * * *
     
    “Do you want anything to eat?” Ross steered Shane back into the kitchen. “One sec.” He disappeared and returned with her robe. “You’re so tired, you’re shivering.” He helped her into the warm dressing gown and tied it around her waist. “I’ll rephrase that. Sit down and let me get you some soup.” He pressed down on her shoulders until she folded into a chair. “Two minutes.”
    It was less than that when Ross plonked a bowl of steaming, fragrant soup in front of her and added a thick chunk of what looked like homemade bread. “Eat,” he said. “The soup I made, the bread is Kath’s. Since she had her babies, she’s going through an earth mother phase. There’s no guarantee if it’s as light as a feather or as heavy as a brick. It all depends on how many distractions there were when she made it.”
    Shane held a bit to her nose and salivated. It smelled amazing, warm, yeasty and mouth-watering. She bit into the doughy center and sighed. “Oh, no distractions. Or whatever they were, tell her to have them again. This is amazing.” She spooned some soup into her mouth. “And so is this. Are you a chef in vanilla-land?”
    Ross blushed and Shane stared at him. “You are?”
    He shook his head. “Not now. I was for a while, before I got fed up working evenings instead of playing. Now I sell insurance.” His eyes twinkled, daring her to disagree.
    “You do not.” She ate some more bread and soup. The cold, hungry, shivery feeling had disappeared. She still had a shivery feeling, but