“What happened yesterday?”

Rachel hesitated. What if what Peter had done wasn"t acceptable to Dana? How would she handle that?

“I expect my fiancé was somehow part of whatever happened.” Dana reached out with a foot, nudged her with a toe. “That"s part of what those five are about. Don"t worry, just spill it.”

She did, briefly, aware now that Dana picked up a lot from what wasn"t said. The woman kept her head in that listening tilt, her eyes thoughtful. When she pressed her lips together, her fingers curling around her knees, Rachel reached out, touched her.

“Please tell me that was all okay, or expected. I couldn"t forgive myself if somehow I let something happen that would hurt you in any way.”

“Oh hon, nothing to forgive.” Dana closed her hand over Rachel"s fingers on her knee. “I"m here to tell you, when the K&A men decide on something, a woman"s got a snowball"s chance in hell of having any say in it at all. She"s just got to hang on for the ride of her life.” Now her smile was back. “The reason I reacted the way I did was because of how much I like you. And how glad I am that Jon chose you this way. It"s happy sadness, like at a wedding.”

“I don"t understand.”

“You won"t, not until it comes from inside, so I"m not going to say a lot about it, but whatever Jon"s relationships with women have been in the past, trust me when I say you"re different. You want to know about the K&A men? They"re a pack, a pack that"s connected on some visceral male level that"s scary as hell to experience, while at the same time you never want that experience to end. You belong to one of them, but in a peripheral way, you belong to all of them. Like a family, only you have a lot of feelings and experiences with this family that would be highly frowned upon if you truly were blood-related.”

She flashed a grin. “They each have a specialty, if you can believe it. If there was a Cordon Bleu for pussy-eating, Lucas would be their valedictorian.” At Rachel"s startled reaction, a choked laugh, Dana nodded, a sage look on her pixie face. “Peter… My man is tit-obsessed. He can do things to your breasts with a touch, a flick of the tongue, the removal of a nipple clamp at the right moment, that can make you come in a heartbeat, without touching any other part of your body.” A little shiver ran over her skin and echoed in a reaction over Rachel"s.

“All of them have… They"re all…?”

“Yes, and it does make the tongue trip up and the heart ricochet with the thought of it. All five of them are sexual Dominants. They"re so different, and yet there"s this incredibly similar core to them. Ben…” Dana snorted. “I can"t wait to see the woman who will finally catch his attention. Poor girl. You don"t see it at first, because of the slick, charming lawyer thing, but he"s probably the toughest, most hardcore Master of all of them. And his thing is…well, no way to put it delicately. He"s a master at ass-fucking. Cass and Savannah haven"t experienced it directly, because, as I said, each of the guys are somewhat different in how their Dominance works.” She paused, apparently mulling the best choice of words. “When a K&A man finds the woman he wants to make his permanently, they share to a certain level, but there are certain lines not crossed, depending on both the Master and the woman, what he knows her needs are. Like Matt. Savannah, his wife…the lines are more clearly drawn with her than me or Cass. They"ll do soft play with her on occasion, but it"s Matt who holds the reins, always. Lucas will sometimes allow a little more with Cass, but it still stays along the lines of voyeurism, heavy petting, things like that.” Dana shrugged. “I"m all Peter"s, and yet he knows I like being shared at times, as long as it"s only with them, and as long as he"s a part of it.” Putting a hand on her heart, she patted it dramatically. “That"s how I know about Ben firsthand. I think it"s possible to die from having both inside me at once, because I pretty much blacked out during the orgasm.”

Rachel"s mind was whirling. “Wow. I don"t think I could…” But she was lying. The idea was already whirling in her head, frightening herself. That darkness loomed again, how deep she was willing to go, how much of herself she could lose.

“Easy.” Dana reached out again, only this time her fingers slid over Rachel"s knee, along the inside of her thigh. A few scant inches, but it was enough to have Rachel"s mind centering again, remarkably. As her legs trembled, Dana pushed on them, spreading her knees out so they touched the chair arms. The black woman slid out of her chair, taking the same bent knee position on the floor as she"d had in the chair, only this time she braced her back against one of Rachel"s calves, her toes against the arch of Rachel"s opposite foot. “It"s easier that way, keeping your legs apart, isn"t it?

Sometimes, when things start to spin in the wrong direction, taking the position you might take if your Master is with you helps you to kind of balance.” With a shock, Rachel realized that was probably why she preferred the Da Vinci position for meditation whenever she was unsettled. Even without a lover in her life, the spread legs, the arms over her head, was a position of submission.

“W-what"s Jon"s specialty?”

“You have to ask?” Dana chuckled. Reaching up, she tweaked the chain at Rachel"s hip, sending a jolt right down to her pussy at the friction to the clit piece. “The man"s a mechanical and chemical genius. Ben thinks Jon"s contribution to history will be the Pearly Gate Detonator, a vibrator that allows a woman to die from orgasms, no matter her age or physical condition. That way she can have the best possible end when she"s terminal or too ancient to carry on anymore. Ben says it would be like a rocket launcher, shooting her straight up and over Heaven"s gate, no passport needed.” When her hand slipped from the chain back to Rachel"s thigh, caressing the pale flesh there, Rachel closed her eyes, not wanting the contact to stop. This was crazy, amazing…perfect. And as Dana herself had said, scary as hell. “What about the head of K&A? Matt Kensington?”

“He"s the king,” Dana said simply. “As corny as that sounds, it"s his energy that sort of pervades all of it, connects them. He"s Machiavellian when it comes to erotic strategy, and though I think he has a lot of his own skills in the orgasm-to-die-for category, he"s also more exclusive than any of them. Savannah is his queen, his everything. He can touch your shoulder, and you know he"s totally in command, but you don"t mess with what"s between him and Savannah.”

“I"m not sure if hearing all this is making it better or worse.” Because it was making her want what she couldn"t have even more intensely. “You know this is giving me a hundred more questions.”

“It"s hard to explain it until you experience it.” Dana rubbed her cheek against Rachel"s leg, then pressed her lips there. Rachel stroked a hand over her close-cropped hair and Dana immediately turned to tease her pulse with lips and tongue. Her elegant fingers closed over Rachel"s wrist as she lifted her head, dropped it back against Rachel"s leg to smile up at her.

“Don"t freak out, hon, but what happened yesterday was like the first act of a master play, being written straight off the cuff by Jon, with sheer Master"s intuition. He didn"t tell Peter, „Hey, come in here after she"s on her knees and play with her a little bit". They pick up cues from each other. It"s fascinating, a little terrifying, but after you get used to it, it works in all the right ways.”

Rachel noticed Dana hesitated, as if she wasn"t sure if she should say what was in her mind next. “What?” she asked. “I want you to tell me, even if you think it"s something I can"t handle.” Which was entirely stupid, but there it was. She wanted to know everything.

“What I was trying to say earlier… Before they found their wives, when they went to a club, they"d do their thing with the casual subs they hooked up with now and then.

However, when it matters…it"s more like what you experienced yesterday, and that was an introductory taste. The very fact they brought you to that gate means Jon wants to take you fully through it. He wants to shut the door behind you, lock it permanently.

You"re his choice for forever. I"d bet my life on it.” Rachel drew her hand away, suddenly cold. “You think…”

“Doesn"t matter what I think.” Dana grimaced good-naturedly, giving her a light pinch, though it didn"t lighten Rachel"s mood. “Changing your mind about a future with him is Jon"s job, and believe me, these guys are good at convincing a woman of the most unlikely things. I was a club hopper until I met Peter, and I"ve enjoyed a variety of Masters, in a lukewarm sort of way. However, he was it, everything, the second I met him. Savannah and Cass will tell you the same thing. We all had that in common.”

“He couldn"t be thinking that. It"s not possible.”

“Why not?” Dana"s brow creased. “Why can"t you believe that you can have something like Jon?”

“Because I couldn"t, not for so many years. And…the wanting it destroyed so much of what I had.” Rachel rose then, awkwardly stepped over Dana and retreated to the living room, wanting that robe. After she shrugged it on and belted it, she found Dana had returned to her own chair. The woman was waiting for her, listening for the sound of her footsteps, and probably to a lot more. The scuttling sound of Rachel"s mind skittering away from this absurdness, like a rat seeking an escape from a sinking ship.

“Rachel.” Dana spoke softly. Though it brought Rachel to the kitchen doorway, she leaned in it, shying away from coming back to the table. “I"m telling you what I know about the K&A men. You wanted me to be honest, and I"m telling you I believe that history is about to repeat itself, for the fourth time. It"s why I reacted the way I did to what happened to you yesterday, because I"d love nothing better than to have you as part of our family.” Dana gave her a small smile. “You don"t have to argue with me about it. I"ll wait to see what you have to say on the other side of it.”