Chapter Six.

Zack sat in front of Maddie's computer to check his email. Since he'd been back, he'd found himself drawn back often to the Facebook page she'd created and some of the links she'd shared about other missing journalists. He was still blown away by the support and networks she'd helped build. Also embarrassed by the attention.

One of the people he'd found there was the widow of a foreign correspondent he'd worked with and with whom he'd become friends. Glenn Peters had been killed about a month before Zack had been taken prisoner. Glenn's wife had been pregnant with their second child when he'd gone missing, their other child only two years old. Zack had made contact with his widow, curious about how she was doing, which turned out to be not great. He also found himself using other contacts to try to do something to help locate other missing journalists.

Maybe he'd been inspired by Maddie's commitment to that cause. It pulled at him.

He needed to get his own computer. He wanted his MacBook Pro back. He hadn't replaced it or any of his camera gear. He was going to have to face that demon. Was he ever going to take pictures again?

He sighed. He missed it, with a bone-deep longing. He had a deep-seated need to capture images. He missed the creativity of it, missed the way he could observe everything from behind the lens, capturing others' emotions without involving his own.

He was already three weeks into his six weeks of leave. Of course he'd get back to it.

He clicked the mouse on the Internet browser on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen that Maddie already had open. But the site that appeared had his jaw dropping.

Mistress Marbella.

Holy fuck. Strap-on play, smoking fetish, objectification, humiliation, bondage...holy, holy fuck.

None of those were his scene at all. Well, other than the bondage. He read on. Spanking, caning, paddling, flogging...that was more like it. Pain and power...oh yeah.

Shit. What the fuck was Maddie doing looking at a site like this? He glanced over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't standing there. His head moved slowly from side to side, eyes on the monitor. Then, with depraved curiosity, he checked her browser history. And found Maison de Sade.

Heh. Just the kind of place he'd been considering finding. His lips twisted as he read about it. His groin tingled.

But again, what the fuck? He narrowed his eyes. Were Maddie and Aidan not as vanilla as he'd thought? Jesus.

Then the question crossed his mind...what had they been doing last night that had gotten so noisy?

Fuck, he'd been hard as stone, listening to them. He hadn't wanted to. He'd listened against his will, imagining what was happening. All kinds of pornographic images of his two best friends fucking had spooled through his mind. He'd jerked off to the sounds of each of them coming, first Aidan with rough masculine pleasure, then Maddie's softer cries. Jesus, how many times had he imagined each of them orgasming, the way they'd look, the way they'd sound, how they'd feel...

He closed his eyes and slumped back in the chair.

He'd been doing so well since he'd been staying with them. Ruthlessly pushing aside those thoughts. Pretending he didn't feel that ache of longing deep inside him. But last night had made it impossible. Now his mind was overrun with those sounds, the imaginary images. And his body was electrified, humming with arousal.

He sucked in a long breath and let it out, rubbing his eyes. Now he had to hang out with them all afternoon and pretend everything was great.

"Zack, are you..." Maddie's voice trailed off behind him. "Oh shit."

He jerked upright. Fuck! He still had the Maison de Sade website open. Every muscle in his body tensed. Slowly he turned to face Maddie.

She stood across the room, blue eyes wide, her lips parted. Her gaze shifted from the computer to his face and bright color rushed up into her cheeks. Their eyes met.

She sucked on her bottom lip.

Christ, he didn't even know what to say.

"How did you find that?" She twisted her fingers together.

"You left your browser open."

"Oh." She swallowed. "Shit. I thought I closed it."

"You just minimized it."

She winced.

"I saw Mistress Marbella," he said slowly. "Then I checked your history and saw this. Why were you looking at sites like this, Maddie?"

She closed her eyes, cheeks still flushed. Her fingers tightened together. "I don't know."

"Sure you do."

Her face squeezed into a grimace, then she opened her eyes. She walked over to one of the couches in the room and sank down onto it. She'd changed into a summery dress, turquoise and green swirls, with tiny straps. Her bare toes with fuchsia painted toenails curled into the rug.

She met his eyes then her gaze darted all over the room. She rubbed her throat with one hand, the other pressed over her abdomen. "This is..." She stopped.

Zack kept his gaze steady on her and waited patiently.

"I shouldn't..." She stopped again and swallowed. "I was thinking about, um...oh god, it was such a stupid idea."

"Tell me." She was so fidgety and obviously conflicted. This was more than just a little web surfing. And for some reason, he felt a surge of confidence and strength. This was something he knew and understood...what had she been looking for, exactly?

She cast her eyes down, staring at her knees. "I thought Aidan might like a, um, Dominatrix."

Silence swelled around them.

Zack kept his mouth shut while his mind went crazy. Holy, holy fuck.

His mind processed it all in lightning fast flashes. She thought Aidan might like a Dominatrix. That meant Maddie wasn't a Domme. That meant Aidan wasn't a Dom.

He, Zack, was a Dom.

What had they been up to that made her think that? What did Aidan like? And was she seriously considering introducing another woman into their relationship?

Jesus, his dick was swelling.

"I'd never have the nerve to actually do something like that," Maddie continued in a low voice. "I had the idea, but...it's crazy."

"Why do you think Aidan would like that?" He kept his tone neutral, his face composed despite his buzzing arousal and curiosity.

She sighed. "We've been trying some new things. Trying to spice things up a bit." She flicked a glance his way. "I probably shouldn't be telling you this."

"We're friends."

"Yes, but so are you and Aidan. It's not that there's anything wrong with our sex life. It's great. It's just...we both felt like there should be more. So we tried some different things, but..."

"But what?"

"I liked what he did to me." Her cheeks got red again. "Even though it felt like he was holding back. Then he wanted me to do the same to him."

Her lack of specifics was making his imagination run wild. Of course, she could be talking about something as innocent as oral sex, for fuck's sake.

"It didn't work out so great. I mean, we laughed, but..." She hitched one bare shoulder. "I just wasn't...that into it."

If she was talking about something like going down on each other, he was way off base in what he was thinking. But he'd always had pretty good instincts. An ability to read people and know what was going on in their heads. And he was pretty sure he was figuring out what was going on here.

Holy mother of fuck.

"So you thought bringing another person into the bedroom might help."

"I know it was crazy! Don't judge me."

"Oh Maddie, baby, I am not judging you." She had no idea. "It's not that crazy. Did you talk to Aidan about it?"

She shook her head miserably. "No."

Huh. Zack rubbed his mouth.

"I get the feeling he doesn't really want to admit...what he wants. So I looked at those websites but it just seemed so...I don't know. Kinky. Sleazy. Dangerous, even. I mean, you don't know what you're getting into when you go to one of those places."

"True. You need to be careful."

She slowly lifted her gaze and met his eyes again. "Have you...?"

"Yeah."

She blinked.

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Is that all you know about BDSM? Those websites?"

She drew her bottom lip between her teeth. "No. I know a little about it. There've been some things I've been curious about."

He nodded.

"God. Aidan would probably kill me for telling you about this."

"I won't say anything. But you should talk to him about it."

She bit her lip. "I can't. He'll think I'm crazy."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe he would like it."

"But even if he would, I don't have the nerve to actually do it!"

Aidan walked into the condo at that moment. Zack quickly turned and closed the browser window, catching Maddie's grateful glance.

Wearing a sleeveless top and shorts, his skin gleaming with perspiration, Aidan spotted them. "Hey. You're up." The muscles in his legs flexed as he walked toward them.

Maddie rose with a smile. "Been up for a while. How was your run?"

She swept over to him and threw her arms around him. Zack totally got the message she was sending. There may be things lacking in their sex life, but she loved Aidan.

Aidan grabbed her arms and set her away from him with a grin. "Hey sweetheart, I'm all sweaty and stinky."

"I don't care." She went onto her toes to kiss his mouth. "Come on. You need to shower so we can get going." She grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall without a backward glance at Zack.

Zack leaned back in the chair, his mind a writhing snake pit. He shoved both hands into his hair and held his head for a moment.

Well. This was...interesting.

________.

Aidan studied Maddie as they walked toward Randolph Street in the summer sun. She'd seemed a little tense earlier, but now was more relaxed. But there was still some kind of weird vibe going on between her and Zack. A few times Aidan caught Zack giving both Maddie and him long, thoughtful looks that made Aidan wonder what was going on in that head of his.

Then Aidan remembered their noisy sex last night.

He closed his eyes briefly. Clearly, Zack had heard. And clearly he was wondering what they'd been doing. Aidan's gut burned at the possibility that Zack knew that Maddie had fucked him with that strap-on.

No. There was no way he could know that.

Unless Maddie'd told him?

Again, no. She wouldn't do that. She could not have been discussing their sex life with Zack. It was just awkward that he'd heard them and Aidan kept getting hot again thinking about how good that had felt.

Maddie clasped his hand and swung it back and forth as they walked.

The things he wanted...the things he fantasized about...seemed so risky. He'd never had the balls to tell Maddie all of it. All his life he'd been looking after other people, and now in his business he had the entire company on his shoulders. He loved it. He didn't want anything different. He loved taking care of Maddie, but there were times he longed for someone else to take charge. But for many people, a man wanting something like that made him weak. He didn't want to seem less in her eyes.

He loved Maddie and he'd finally gotten the guts to show her something he wanted. And she'd done it. But he could tell she wasn't as into it as he was. Which made him feel...uncomfortable.

Now, as they paused in front of shop for Maddie to peer in the window, Aidan watched Zack looking at Maddie, his eyes going hot. Almost predatory.

Seeing another man look at her like that...Christ. That made him hot. He was such a sick fuck.

He wasn't the jealous type, but once again he wondered about Maddie's feelings for Zack. And Zack's feelings for her.

Aidan knew Maddie loved him. He had no doubts about that at all. But he remembered how things had been just before he and Zack had graduated, how Aidan had wondered about their feelings for each other, and how much Maddie had missed Zack.

Zack seemed different. His smiles were still rare, but he did seem more at ease. He also seemed even more confident, more imposing. There was some kind of crackling energy flowing around all three of them, heating Aidan's blood. But confusing him.

They met up with their friends Ethan and Chelsea, and Nisha and Blake, and having the others with them was a welcome distraction from the tension Aidan felt. They spent the afternoon ambling along the six blocks of Randolph Street that had been taken over by local restaurants and artists and various vendors. It was a great sunny Chicago day, with lots of people out enjoying the festival.