Safe Harbor

Chapter Three

They returned to dock. Clarisse seemed to fall into her old patterns. She climbed onto the port gunwale as Mac eased the Dilly backward into her slip. She kept watch to make sure they didn’t hit, grabbed lines, jumped onto the dock, and deftly wrapped the line around the cleat. Sully grabbed the starboard side.

Sully offered her his hand as she moved to jump down to the deck. He didn’t miss her hesitation before she finally reached out and took it. As soon as she’d regained her footing, she pulled her hand from his.

Still scared.

Beautiful despite her injuries, she had blue eyes and long, black hair halfway down her back that, combined with her sweet rounded curves, made his cock stand up and take notice. He’d never preferred skinny women. Despite his honest reassurances, his ex-wife had struggled with her weight, constantly working out and dieting, usually miserable and grouchy the entire time, never happy with herself.

Clarisse was a beautiful woman. A real woman.

A woman terrified of him.

Mac helped her with her luggage. After securing the boat and connecting the Dilly to shore power, they headed for Mac’s truck.

She had to ride between them. Sully didn’t miss how she tended to stick closer to Mac’s side of the seat while he drove. Sully tried to observe her out of the corner of his eye as they rode toward the house.

They lived in a small, private, gated community. Their waterfront house on Spring Bayou, a large, sprawling one-story stilt home on a huge double lot, sat near the end of a cul-de-sac. Mac parked next to Sully’s Jaguar sedan and shut the truck off.

Clarisse stared, stunned. “You guys live here?” She knew location alone meant the house had to be expensive.

Mac smiled. “Be it ever so humble and all that crap.”

Clarisse noticed Sully didn’t help Mac with her bags. She started to grab her duffle bag, but Mac waved her off. “I’ve got it, sweetie.

That’s my job. You go on upstairs with him.”

Sully had already climbed halfway up the stairs. A large enclosed room filled the space beneath the house. “Utility room, exercise equipment, and storage,” he explained, pointing at the downstairs room.

She nodded and followed.

Sully unlocked the door and ushered her into the foyer, where he deactivated the alarm. Unpretentious decor, but the furnishings weren’t crap, either. These men lived well, obviously didn’t flaunt it, and the house seemed spotless. A textured Berber carpet, white walls with earth-tone accents, beautiful photographs on the walls. A lot of landscapes, but a few of the men together. A very masculine feel overall.

When Mac walked through the door with her bags, he looked at Sully.

“Take them to the larger guest room,” he told Mac. “The one with the bathroom.” He walked over to a pass-through kitchen counter and laid his keys down. “Can I get you anything to drink or eat?”

She shook her head and slowly walked around the large living room. These men had built a nice life for themselves. Pictures of the two of them showed a happy couple very much in love.

In one, Mac sat on a fence while Sully stood next to him. They looked at each other, blatant love in their gazes…

Clarisse stifled a sob. She’d never felt like that before. Damn sure never felt that way about Bryan.

She tried to rein in her emotions. Exhausted and beat half to death, she felt barely sane and needed a shower.

Mac returned from wherever he’d taken her bags. Clarisse turned to speak to him, then realized his full attention had focused on Sully.

She glanced at Sully and found him staring at Mac. After a long, nearly awkward moment, Sully spoke in a quiet, firm voice. “Don’t make me tell you.”

When Mac’s gaze nervously flicked her way, a horrible feeling washed through her. Maybe she’d terribly misjudged these men.

Without thinking, she edged a step backward, closer to the front door.

Mac finally spoke. “Please?”

Sully leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. “All right, fine. Just remember it has to happen sooner rather than later. Shorts if you insist, but that means you owe me five strokes.”

Mac nodded before disappearing into another room.

Sully smiled. “We warned you, we have a…different lifestyle.”

He walked into the kitchen. She heard him rummaging around, then water running, followed by a coffeepot gurgling a moment later.

She didn’t move. “Different how?” she finally asked. Her voice sounded way too weak for the cavernous cathedral ceiling.

He stared at her from across the counter. “How open-minded are you?”

She felt some of her new anxiety fade. “Consenting human adults.

If you’re not trying to coerce me into it, I probably won’t object.”

He smiled again. While she didn’t trust him, she had to admit that the way his lips curled softened his face and crinkled the corners of his grey eyes in a playful way. “Girl after our own hearts then.” He disappeared into the kitchen where she couldn’t see him.

Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Mac had returned to the living room. He wore shorts and nothing else.

Almost nothing else.

Something in her heart fluttered at the sight of his bare chest. Yes, he had nipple rings, gold ones. She also realized his chest was completely bare, shaved. That wasn’t the unusual thing.

The custom-tooled leather collar around his neck with a small silver lock attached to the buckle caught her attention.

Sully stepped out of the kitchen. “And?”

Clarisse looked at him. “And what?”

“Not you, sweetie.” He looked pointedly at Mac.

Mac knelt on the floor. That’s when the situation hit her.

Whatever their relationship, Sully was in control, not Mac, regardless of what she’d witnessed on the boat.

Sully walked over to Mac and stood beside him, brushed his hand through Mac’s blond hair. “Mac and I have a complex relationship.

I’m his Master, he’s my slave.” Sully’s hand remained on Mac’s head, his fingers twined through his hair. “So we’re partners, lovers, and more than that. It’s consensual. We’ve lived this way for several years.”

As she stared at them, trying to decide what to say, she watched Mac lean in, close his eyes, and rest his head against Sully’s thigh.

She realized both men wore matching bands on their left hands, like wedding bands.

“It’s okay, Clarisse,” Sully assured her. “You can freak out now if you want.”

“That’s not funny, Master,” Mac mumbled.

Clarisse noticed a change in Mac’s voice, like he’d suddenly relaxed.

Sully must have noticed her expression. “Sorry. I don’t want to freak you out, but since you’ll be living here, you need to understand who we are. Usually no one outside the lifestyle sees us like this. As you can see, he enjoys this as much as I do.”

Her mind whirled. She didn’t know what to say.

“What you witnessed on the boat,” Sully continued, “is just one aspect of what we do. I own the boat. Mac is the captain. I decided that as captain, we could play by his rules when I went out with him. I don’t get to go out with him all the time. Sometimes it’s fun for me to sit back and let him have fun. He enjoys topping on occasion. It mixes things up.”

Clarisse stared.

Sully gave her a moment, obviously realizing she was still processing information, before he continued. “As I said, we will never expect you to join in this with us. Although if you were curious and wanted to learn more, we would be happy to answer questions or help you out. Hopefully, after a few days, you will be more comfortable with this. Of course, we expect you to not say anything to anyone about this aspect of our relationship.”

She nodded.

“Normally I would have told Mac we’d act vanilla. Under the circumstances, because you’ll be with us for the foreseeable future, I’d rather be up front about this from the start instead of hiding what and who we are.” He patted Mac’s head. “Show her to her room, get her anything she needs. Then you and I need to shower and get dressed so we can take her to visit Tad.”

He stood and flashed her a smile. “I already laid stuff out for you.

Come on, this way.”

He led her down a hallway to a bedroom. At first, she thought maybe they’d walked into the master suite. The house she’d lived in with Bryan hadn’t had a master bedroom this large.

Mac walked over to the bathroom door and flipped the light on. “I got you Epsom salts to put in the water. That’ll help with the soreness.

I put out towels and some shampoo and conditioner for you. I’ll get with you about a shopping list, things you like and want, so I can buy them next time I go. I also put a disposable razor in there, and some shaving cream.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “Don’t have any shaving gel, sorry.”

She felt numb, in a good way. “That’s okay. That’ll be fine.”

Anything to shave and quit feeling like a filthy Sasquatch would be a blessing.

“Just leave your dirty clothes and the towels on the floor for me,” he said over his shoulder as he walked out.

“What?”

“I do the laundry,” he said from the bedroom. “And most of the cooking. The cleaning.” He paused. “I need to talk with Sully. He’ll probably want to let you do some of it. Anyway, we can work that out later. Tad’s going to be so glad to see you. He’s really missed you, talks about you all the time.”

With that, he walked out and softly closed the bedroom door behind him, leaving her feeling guilty as hell.

Uncle Tad was her only living relative besides a few distant cousins she didn’t even know. She should have stood up to Bryan, kept in better contact. He never should have had to go through this alone.

Well, bitching and moaning wouldn’t get her there any sooner.

She sorted dirty clothes from clean ones in her bag and dumped them in the bathroom. That didn’t feel right though. She felt guilty again, this time over saddling Mac with her laundry. She tried to tidy the pile a little.

Must be exhaustion.

She gave up, stripped, then turned, and studied herself in the bathroom mirror.

What a mess.

Turning, she saw the huge purplish-green swaths of bruises around her kidneys in addition to all the others.

That dealt the final blow to her psyche. She burst into tears, loudly sobbing. How had she let her life get so out of control as to reach this point? What was that stupid line, relying on the kindness of strangers?

Had she really sunk to that?

A knock sounded on her bedroom door. It opened a crack and Sully softly called to her.

“Clarisse? Are you okay, honey?”

Mac had even hung a robe on the back of the bathroom door. She grabbed it and pulled it on. “Yeah,” she called out as she sniffled. She wiped her face with her hands.

“Is it safe to come in?”

“Yeah.” She walked out to the bedroom.

He stuck his head in. “Are you really okay?”

She started to say yes, then burst into tears again and crumpled onto the end of the bed. He walked in and sat next to her. Despite her earlier hesitation, she let him put his arm around her as she cried against him. Mac appeared in the bedroom doorway.

“We promise he won’t hurt you again,” Sully quietly said. “I swear.”

“I’m sorry. I…it’s just that…it’s horrible. I look like a punching bag.”

“I’m going to make a suggestion. Please keep in mind I was a cop for over ten years.”

“Okay.”

“Did anyone get pictures of your injuries? Did you go to the hospital?”

“My friend Raquel took some. The cops took some. I don’t remember if the hospital did or not.”

“Do you want me to take another round for backup? Just in case you need them later?”

She didn’t want to, even though she knew it was a good idea. But she feared the file and the evidence getting lost and Bryan getting off, no matter how much they had assured her that wouldn’t happen.

He continued. “I can give you the roll of film to have developed. I don’t even have to see it after I take them.”

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “It’s probably better someone else has them. In case.”

Mac stepped into the room. When he spoke, his voice dropped in anger. “I’m telling you, if your boyfriend shows up, we’ll fucking kill him, I swear we will. We won’t give him another chance to hurt you.”

Sully flashed him a look that obviously meant shut up. “I’ll go put in a fresh roll of film. We can do it right here. Mac will get you a large towel so you can stay covered.”

She nodded.

He gently patted her thigh before leaving the room.

Mac fetched a large towel from the bathroom and turned on all the room lights. She felt touched that he held the towel and averted his eyes as she slipped the robe off and pulled the towel around her.

When he saw the bruises on her thighs, he sucked in a sharp breath.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “That motherfucker.”

She couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she kept her eyes on the collar around his neck. “They don’t hurt as much as they did the other day.” Then again, she suspected her exhaustion had masked a lot of her pain.

Sully walked in while adjusting the camera and pulled up short when he saw her bruises. It shouldn’t have shocked him, considering what he’d seen as a cop, but it did.

A surge of rage welled inside him. The asshole that did this to her would not get away with it. It pissed him off that any man would do this to a woman.

It brought back his own nightmares.

She lifted her gaze to him, briefly, then her focus skittered away again. He took a deep breath to steady his voice.

“Let’s start with your back. Sit on the bed and you can let the towel fall open, okay?”

She nodded. Mac stepped back, holding her robe ready to put on her as soon as they finished.

Bless Mac’s heart. Sully could easily see where this would lead Mac if she spent any length of time with them. Wanting to prevent the past from repeating itself.

Sully took the pictures, fighting through his own anger as he saw the bruising on her back. The digital readout on the camera confirmed the shots. He would save a backup of each picture while still committing them to film. He did each arm, then her legs. He focused on her sweet blue eyes through the viewfinder.

Her crippling fear bubbled just below the surface, he suspected.

Then came time to photograph her torso.

“Where did he bruise you? Maybe we can keep you covered and not expose anything.”

Her face reddened. “Everywhere.”

He knelt in front of her. “If you don’t want me to—”

“It’s okay.” She took a deep breath. “If it’ll help later, help nail him.”

“I’ll make it fast. I promise.”

“Okay.”

“Let me focus first, before you drop the towel.” He prepared as best he could, then told her to move the towel. Shooting quickly, he fought back the bile in his throat. From the dark purple of some of the bruises over her breasts, he suspected they’d been nearly black when fresher. “Okay, that’s it.”

She wrapped the towel around herself while Mac swooped in to drape the robe over her. Sully spotted the tears in Mac’s eyes.

So did Clarisse, apparently.

That finished her. She broke down crying again. This time Mac consoled her. When she composed herself, Sully tried to offer her a comforting smile, although he suspected his anger had given him a harsh look.

“Go take a nice hot bath, take as long as you want. Do you want any Tylenol or anything? We’ve got hot tea.”

She nodded. “That’d be great. Thank you.”

Mac jumped up and raced to get them, leaving Sully alone with her. He knelt in front of her again. “Take your time. We can visit until eight tonight. We’ll see if we can eat dinner with him.”

“Okay.”

He left her alone.

Clarisse sat there for a moment before willing her legs to stand.

She figured why close the bedroom door? They were gay, what difference did it make?

Maybe she could trust Sully one day. Not right now. Not this soon. She sensed he wasn’t an ax murderer. Still, it made her uncomfortable baring her soul to him.

Mac was a different story. She trusted him, instinctively sensed he would die before he let anyone hurt her. Considering the men were all she had, she was willing to trust that much.

She’d crawled into the tub, comfortably immersed in the water, when Mac knocked on the bathroom door.

“I have your Tylenol and your hot tea.”

“It’s okay. Just bring them in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

He opened the door and cautiously stuck his head in. “I didn’t know if you wanted sugar in your tea, so I brought some.” He walked in and set everything on the counter. He handed her two capsules and a cold bottle of water. When she downed the medicine, he took the bottle back and handed her the tea. “Sugar?”

“No, that’s okay.” He sat on the edge of the huge tub after he handed her the mug. She didn’t bother trying to cover herself or sink lower in the water. It was too exhausting, and, frankly, she didn’t want to expend the effort and feel her muscles scream.

He looked like he wanted to say something but caught himself.

“What is it?”

“Can we take you to the doctor? We’ll pay for it.”

She blushed and shook her head. “I let them look me over at the ER before I checked myself out. They x-rayed my ribs, said I wouldn’t die. It would have been stupid to waste time sitting in a hospital when I could have been moving.”

“Aren’t you hurting?”

She laughed, setting off pain in her ribs. “Yeah, worse than I ever have in my life. I’ve got a high pain tolerance, though. It’s okay. I once smashed my hand in the rigging. When Uncle Tad wanted to turn around and head to dock, I wouldn’t let him. I just stuck it in ice for a few hours and kept sorting. My mom was pissed, but my dad was proud of me.” She studied her left hand as she flexed it.

A light scar traced across her palm. “Did that when I landed a lemon shark one night. Took ten stitches to close it when we got back, but I used butterfly bandages on it and didn’t let Uncle Tad see how bad the shark got me.”

Mac gently caught her hand in his, kissed it, and gently traced his fingers over the scar. “How long has he been hitting you?”

She didn’t pull her hand away. “Verbally? From day one.

Physically, this is only the second time he laid his hands on me. And the last.”

“You won’t let me take you to the doctor?”

“No, but thank you. I appreciate it.”

Mac released her hand and stood. “You’re not going to go back to him, are you?”

“Hell, no.” She sighed. “I need to get Bart, though.”

“Bart?”

“My dog. My friend Raquel is taking care of him for me.” A horrible thought hit her. “He’s little and he’s crate trained. Will Sully let me bring him back?” Then she did start to cry. “He’s my baby.

He’s the only reason I stayed sane. Bryan let me get him after the first time he hit me. I think he used him as a peace offering. He’s a really good dog.”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of it, honey. Don’t worry.” He started for the bathroom door. “Take as long as you need. Don’t rush.” He pulled the bathroom door partially shut behind him.

Clarisse sipped the tea and closed her eyes. She was safe and relatively secure here. She wouldn’t even try to say she was sane at this point, because she still felt like an alien in her own body. Partly due to the exhaustion and stress and pain, partly due to fear.

She set the mug on the edge of the tub and slowly sank deeper into the water.