Penance (Devout Trilogy #3) - Lesli Richardson Page 0,40
privacy.
Carter is more than ready and willing to give me what I need and crave when Susannah is unable to. He’s also ready and willing to be a warm body in my bed so I won’t feel so alone every night.
Because before the whirlwind that was my campaign to become governor, the three of us shared a bed nearly every night.
* * * *
Where I’m kneeling about three feet from the far end of my desk, I can’t be seen when Carter answers the knock on my office door after unlocking it and cracking it open to see who it is. He moves aside just enough to allow someone else to step in, and my breath catches, my pulse races.
Her.
“I only have a few minutes,” Susa says in her usual clipped, all-business tone.
Carter closes and locks the door behind her and, moving faster than it seems possible for a human to manage, grabs a handful of hair, tipping her head back.
“What was that, pet?” he softly growls.
She’s never allowed to use that tone on Carter and she damn well knows it.
Her entire posture and voice change, needy and soft, even as my own body responds to Carter’s tone. “I only have a few minutes, Sir.”
I struggle not to smile, not to laugh. With today’s craziness, she likely forgot herself.
I only wish I could be there later tonight to watch when Carter reminds her who she belongs to.
He marches her around behind my desk and I allow my gaze to follow them. He bends her forward over the desk, making her put her hands flat on it, and hikes up her skirt. Since she’s also wearing three-inch heels, it means her gorgeous ass sticks out nicely.
“Who said you could wear panties today, pet?” I hear the fabric rip and a quiet meep from her.
“Sorry, Sir. I thought—”
“You thought wrong.”
Another violation.
She’s going to have fun sitting tomorrow.
She’s lucky we already did a sound check one evening last week, before I took office, and we discovered Carter can’t spank us in here if someone’s in the outer office.
Like Julia, my administrative assistant.
Who, right now, is sitting out there at her desk, along with a trooper from my security detail.
Holding out the offending material, Carter walks over to me with a playful smile on his face. “Do you believe this shit? Looks like a certain pet has forgotten her place.”
“I see that, Sir.”
He turns from me, stuffing her ruined panties into his left front slacks pocket. I have a feeling they’ll probably end up in my mouth later.
Not the first time he’s gagged me with her panties.
Not saying I mind it, either.
“Loyalty.”
I immediately relax into the position, knees still wide, but my back now rounded, my left hand on my thigh, my right flat on the floor, my gaze focused down.
It’s a Carter thing.
It works—that’s all that matters. Countless times he’s put me into this position during the day behind a locked office door, but with my clothes on. Especially if it’s been a rough day and I need a quick reset.
I can think about Him, about what we have together.
It’s not a one-way street. Carter is loyal to us, always putting us first no matter what. That might sound odd to someone who doesn’t know the three of us. There’s a lot of bullshit out there about what people “should” or “shouldn’t” do.
Carter sets his own path, trims his sails, and we follow.
Loyalty.
When I first idly floated what at the time I thought was a ridiculous proposition—running for governor—it was Carter, and then Susannah, who had my back and were my most vocal and vicious supporters.
Loyalty.
She is my queen, my heart and soul, my sun and my moon, all rolled into one. My muse, my reason for living. I would kill or die for her if it came down to it. I would—and have—embarrassed the hell out of myself just to make her smile.
Loyalty.
All of these things I think of as I slow my breathing and my back muscles loosen, enjoying a break from the more formal Primed position.
Primed is always performed naked. Frequently for long stretches of time. The bastard extraordinaire takes great pride in sometimes torturing me while in that position, expecting me to maintain it.
Or expecting me to fail to maintain it, which brings punishment.
Win-win.
But that’s life with Carter.
I didn’t say I didn’t enjoy it.
* * * *
In Loyalty, I can hear what’s going on but, because of where I’m kneeling and with my head bowed, I can’t see.
But I