Brei Betzold - Tribal

Cris

We lay together through the aftershocks. I kept touching and kissing her softly helping her comedown.  Finally, I slowly pulled out of her body and stood, quickly taking care of the condom then gently removing the ball gag and blindfold.  She worked her jaw while I went to uncuff her from the bed.  I lay down beside her and eased her to her back so I could rub her arms and legs, helping ease any of the discomfort from being bound.  I trailed kisses down her spine, just letting her know I was there with her.  She moaned and I ran my tongue back up her spine and watched her shudder.

I moved all of her glorious long gold hair out of the way and kissed up her neck until I reached the hollow behind her ear and sucked.  She groaned and dug her fingers into the pillow.

“You sure you don’t want to move in with me, Ash?”  I watched her hazel eyes narrow, her soft features pinch.  I ran my hand through her sweaty blonde hair hoping but knowing I wouldn’t be getting the answer I wanted. 

Ash

I sat out on Cris’s back porch with a cold beer watching a storm slowly roll in.  The black clouds looked menacing especially when the sunny sky of the afternoon was still shining bright side by side with the storm clouds.  I sighed, only in Texas did you see skies like this—where you can literally have both seventy degree weather beside fifty degree storm clouds in the same neighborhood.  I glanced over and watched Cris walk outside with me.  I knew we were going to have the same argument that we had lately, and I really didn’t want to.  That’s why I walked out of the bedroom when he asked me to move in again.

“So you ever going to answer me?”

“Do I have to?” I asked looking over at him.  He really was gorgeous with his short dark hair, dark brown eyes that were almost black, his tattooed arms and chest were showing since all he had thrown on was a pair of jeans.  His chest was a work of art that led down to abs made for licking that tapered down to that perfect V.  Damn, he was gorgeous, and he was mine, and would be mine for good if I could give him what he wanted.

“It would be nice.”

“I can’t move in with you right now.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not, we had this discussion last week.”

“Yeah, we did.”

“So you know why I can’t move in with you.”

“I love Devi, just like you do, and I love her kids, but Ash you can’t give your life up for them.”

“I’m not giving my life up, I am doing my job.”

“And you can do your job and not live there.”

“They need me.”

“I need you.”

“Cris, you don’t understand what they are going through right now.”

“Yeah I do.  I talk to her daily.  I know exactly what she’s going through.”

“Then you know why I can’t leave right now.”

“All right, what about when Seth comes back from tour?”

“What about it?”

“They are taking a break after the tour is over.  Talked to Sam about it yesterday; he says probably a year or so.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, so I understand not wanting to leave them while Seth’s on tour, because yeah, Devi needs you most then, but after?”

“I can’t just leave them like that.”

“I’m not saying quit, I am saying just not live there anymore.”

“And if it’s a live here or get fired what then?”

“It won’t be.”

“You know that for a fact?”

“I know Devi.”

“It’s my job.  I agreed to be a live-in nanny from the beginning.”

“Yeah, but that was before me.”

“There wasn’t a well until I meet someone condition in my contract.”

“You signed a contract?”

“Yep.”

“And the contract said you had to live there?”

“Don’t remember.” I knew there was a non-disclosure along with some other contracts I signed to help protect them from the press, and I couldn’t blame them for it.

“You don’t remember?”

“Nope.” I really didn’t want to get into this with him again, but I knew he wasn’t going to let it go until he got what he wanted.

“So why not look through it and see if it does?”

“Because I like living there.”

“You like it more than being with me?”

“No, that’s not what I said.  I said I like living there.  I like the way things are going with us as they are now.”

“We’ve been together for eight months and no one knows about us, Ash, you’re okay with that too?”

“No, I am not okay with that,” I told him. “I’ve been thinking about this, let’s tell everyone this weekend at the bar-be-que.”

“What bar-be-que?”

I sighed then glared at him.  “Do you ever listen to me?”

“Yes, I listen to you, sometimes.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Devi is having a bar-be-que this weekend for I think, Max’s birthday.  Hell, I don’t remember.”

“Fine, you want to tell them this weekend, we’ll tell them this weekend,” he grumbled.

I smiled over at him.  “Good, now let’s stop fighting and enjoy our day off.”

Cris

Sunday afternoon Max and I rode our Harleys to Devi and Seth’s house for the bar-be-que to celebrate Max’s birthday earlier that week.  Since Sunday was the only day the shop was closed, it was the only day all of us could get together to really celebrate it.  I was looking forward to seeing Ash, but I didn’t know what to expect when everyone found out about us.  I also didn’t really give a shit, but I knew she did especially since it’s her employers as well as friends.  We were going to say something before but things always seemed to happen to interfere with the timing, like Drake’s accident, so I was waiting for something else to stop us from finally letting the cat out of the bag.

“Ready for this?” Max asked as we were heading up to the door.  He already knew about us and knew the plan to let everyone else know.

“Yeah, been ready for a while.”

“Well good luck, I don’t think they will care much,” he said and smirked over at me.

“Shut up, let’s go in,” I said, ringing the doorbell and walking in the door to chaos which is typical of Devi’s house lately.  The kids were screaming, Jaks running around, and the guys were either trying to soothe a baby or completely ignoring it while playing video games—ah, life at the Taylor household.

I walked through the house to the kitchen and found Devi, Mags, and Ash in there getting food ready for the grill.  I walked behind Ash and ran my fingers across the skin showing on her lower back and had to fight a smirk when I saw her shiver.  I loved that I could get a reaction like that out of her.  I happened to glance over at Devi and found her watching us.  She winked at me and went back to what she was doing—well I guess we weren’t being as circumspect as we had thought.

“So Cris, more interviews tomorrow?” Devi asked.

“One, I am meeting Haven tomorrow.”

“I’ve heard good things about her.”

“Yeah me too, and she was trained by a pioneer of body modification.”

Devi nodded.  “Let me know how it goes.”

I took a deep breath.  It was still strange to think that Devi had just as many rights to my shop as I did, but Devi wasn’t acting any different than she normally would have.  I had always discussed hiring and firing with her.

“Will do.”

“So how long have you two been together?”

I chuckled, that was Devi, she never missed anything.  “About eight months.”

“And I am just now figuring it out, damn, I am slipping.”

“You’ve been a little busy.”

“That’s true,” she muttered.

I glanced over at Ash who was beet red.  I guess she hadn’t realized her boss knew about us.

“You okay?” I whispered to her.

She nodded but didn’t look up at me; I didn’t know why she was embarrassed.

“So you don’t have a problem with it, do you?” I asked not really caring for me, but I knew Ash did.

“I don’t give a damn, as long as you keep everything zipped around my kids, but that goes for everyone.”

“Yes, I already received that lecture after X in your kitchen.”

She nodded.  “Everyone did.”

“So we’re good?”

“Yeah we’re good, just be nice to her or I will kick your ass.”

“I would expect nothing less from you.”

She smiled over at me. “As long as you’re both happy, I am happy.”

“Thanks, Devi.”

“You’re welcome Cris, now get out of my kitchen unless you want to help cook.”

I knew when to get the hell out, so I went in with the guys.  We quickly got into talking about music, tattoos, and bikes. 

Ash

I watched Cris walk out of the kitchen, then looked back at Devi.  “You’re sure this is okay?”

Devi shrugged.  “Is it really my place to say that I am or am not okay with it?” she asked looking me in the eye.

“I just don’t want this to screw up my job here.”

She nodded still watching me. “I can understand your concern over that, but I’ve never told you that you couldn’t date anyone from my tattoo shop, that rule has only ever applied to the band.”

Mags snickered and Devi shot her a glare.

“I am starting to think that a rule of all employees will be made though,” she mused.  “I keep losing my best and favorite employees to these guys.”

“You… You’re firing me?” I stuttered.

“Of course not, but I know Cris and he keeps his private life private so if he’s making it public then it’s more than just play between you two.   I just don’t want to see either of you hurt.”

I nodded a little confused by this.  “I can understand that.”

She looked me over once more.  “I don’t think you do, at least not yet.  You will though, Cris has been hurt before,” she said sadly, “and I don’t want to see that happen again; he’s my friend.”

“I’ll try not to hurt him.”

She nodded again and gave me a small smile.

“So Ash,” Mags began smirking at me, “how’s Cris in bed?”

“Uhm,” I said eyeing Mags then looking over at Devi who was staring at Mags like she’d grown a second head.

“You can ignore her,” Devi said winking at me.  “I already know that Cris can be a bit unusual, no one needs to know what you two do behind closed doors.”

With that, she turned and walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of food Mags following her asking questions about her last comment.  It’s not that I was embarrassed about being Cris’s submissive, I just didn’t really want that information out to the general public.  Like Devi had said some things were better left behind closed doors.  It also left the question how did Devi know about Cris?  As far as I knew, he didn’t go around advertising his sex life or what it entailed.  Hell, it had taken two months of us dating before he told me about his less than vanilla likes; I just happened to enjoy the same thing.  After that discussion, we never looked back, and we’d spent the last six months learning each other in that aspect of our relationship.

It wasn’t like either of us wanted a Dom/sub relationship all the time, that lifestyle quickly became boring, in my opinion.  Once in the bedroom though, that was a different story, having someone I trusted to dominate me in bed just worked for me.  It wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy normal sex, I did and it had its place.  Only more often than not I liked more.  I liked being ordered, begging, and the bite of pain he could deliver.  That just wasn’t anyone’s business but Cris’s and mine though.  So I had every intention of finding out why Devi knew about Cris and his less than usual sex life.

I grabbed the salad I had been working on and brought it out amongst the squeals of Jaks, and cries of Cait.  I laughed when I put the food down and saw Jaks shoot Xavier with a Nerf gun then run away.  Seth was fighting with a tired Cait; it was past her naptime and she was fighting it hard.  I walked over in his direction when an arm wrapped around my stomach and pulled me back against a hard chest.

I didn’t need to look back to see who it was.  “Yes?”

“So how was it?” Cris whispered in my ear.

I shrugged.  “Fine, but we need to talk before you leave,” I told him.

He stiffened and let his arm drop.  “About what?”

“Later okay, I need to get Cait down for a nap and its lunch time.”

“Sure,” he muttered and I looked over my shoulder at him.

He gave me a strained smile before spinning and walking off towards where the guys from the shop were sitting in the family room.  I shrugged it off and went and saved Seth from a cranky little girl, I was working today.