Broken Vows (Domestic Discipline Romance) (28 page)

"What about those?" Josh asked, looking upward to the second-level walkway.

"More of the same, but Kevin wants to give the balcony and metal work a structural inspection before we climb on it," Mila answered.

"Thanks for pitching in. You being here makes our lives a lot less hectic."

"Thank
you
," Mila said in return. "I return the sentiment. I have no idea how I would have managed a newborn without the support and advice I get from you and Jen. At the same time, it is nice when I can get away by myself for a few minutes now and then."

"Don't hesitate to ask for or talk to us about anything," Josh said sternly. "Babies are tough, we are here to help. The babysitting goes both ways, too. If you need to get out, we will watch Little Kevin. Did Jenny tell you the good news?"

"What news?"

"Emmie's psychologist says she doesn't need to come in any longer," Josh said proudly. "With our marriage and relationship back on track, she thinks Emmie's trust issues with us are over. That is why she is talking more and more."

Josh went into his office and downloaded files from the Peak Designs server. He worked several hours on design changes and issues pointed out by Brice. Jenny popped her head in the door to say Mila was with the kids, she was working across the hall, and then she disappeared.

Josh moved on to Jenny's sheets of color layouts for the rooms and her furniture selections. Pretending someone else had to approve the designs was devious since he had veto power over anything he did not like. For the most part, though, he trusted and agreed with his wife's decorating skills. She could have been a professional interior designer. She was that good. Only occasionally did he dislike what she had decided on. If she knew she was decorating for herself and him, she would have been able to argue some of her choices. Pretending to be the mysterious friend/owner might be unfair, but he got veto power without a debate or argument.

As he logged off his computer, he walked over to his wife's workspace where he quietly watched her from the doorway. She was absorbed in busily tying knots and weaving yarns and materials. When she stepped down from the scaffolding, she stepped backward to view what she had completed. He put his arms around her, and she jumped and screamed.

"You scared me," she complained.

"You were to keep the door locked," Josh said firmly, giving her bottom a smack, taking her hand, and pulling her across the room. She flipped the lock.

"You were across the hall," she teased. "You would have saved me from a scary boogeyman trying to get me."

"What if
I
am the Boogeyman?"

"I might like
you
getting to me," Jenny teased.

"Good," he breathed in her ear. He spread his hands across her buttocks, gripped them, pulled her to him tightly, and ground her hips against his rising need. "I want you, here, now."

Jenny felt a sudden surge of moist eagerness, as her eyes darted around. There was only one exterior window in this room and she had covered it with black paper so the direct sunlight would not fade her art pieces. They had also removed most of the furniture.

"How? On what?"

"We'll make do," Josh growled as his hands went under her shirt to pull it over her head and toss it aside, with her bra quickly following. He impatiently unbuttoned her jeans sliding his hands inside between her skin and the tight denim, where he cupped her ass and squeezed hard.

Jenny kicked out of her jeans while unbuttoning his and unzipping his fly. It was a frantic battle to remove the unwelcomed items between them. They never wanted anything between them.

As soon as she was naked, he lifted her while her legs hooked around his hips, then he immediately impaled her against the wall. Once pinned, he devoured her lips and throat as he pounded into her using the solidness of the wall to brace her against his battering. Gripping her ass with one hand, he lifted his other hand to spank her bottom repeatedly in time with his powerful thrusts.

Jenny reveled in the sting of his hands and the heat of his cock inside her. She arched her back, exposing her breasts to him. He latched onto one with his mouth, his tongue encircling the rigid nipple. Josh's multiple sensual onslaughts made her pulsate and tremble with need. She couldn't think, she was beyond thought. She only wanted to feel as he continued driving into her, suckling her.

"Oh!" Jenny panted. It became a mantra. "Oh! Oh!" Then the miraculous happened as they both rose to a peak and fell over the cliff at the same time. As their cries of pleasure died away, their bodies slowly stopped trembling.

Josh still had her pinned against the wall, this time because he did not want to drop her, afraid his knees would give out. Getting his second wind, he lifted and set her down on a small worktable. They held each other, their skin coated with dampness, breathing deeply.

"Sometimes I feel like a crazed man," Josh whispered. "I react to you the same way as I did on the first day I met you. I still have not lost my need for you. You are mine, Jenny."

"I like being yours."

"What time does Mila expect you back?"

"Whenever I come back," she laughed.

"Good, because it is going to be much later," Josh warned.

Jenny shivered in anticipation from his words of warning. Her husband was always attentive to her needs, but when he was fierce like this, it was magnificent. He became a wild stallion and she reaped the rewards of his raging hormones. She had no idea what triggered these bouts. Sometimes they lasted a few hours, sometimes several days or even weeks. She could only hope she was in for a long duration this time.

* * *

Mila was observing her sister and brother-in-law closely. It was as if they were on a second honeymoon. Whatever was happening between them had been going on for over a week. They slipped off together whenever they thought no one noticed. It was hard for Mila not to notice, as she was the current en-suite babysitter.

Jenny had a permanent orgasmic glow. Josh often walked around with an impressive package in his jeans. In the evenings, when they were supposedly working in the main house, they returned smelling of sweat and sex. Mila was not imagining it, and she couldn't help it, but she envied her sister. Whatever her sister had going in her marriage, it was working.

Mila had not had sex for nine long months and her last time had not been enjoyable, to say the least. After John returned from his fourteen-month deployment, they only lived together for a few short weeks. Those weeks were full of fights, and him hanging around bars and going home with other women until she moved out. When she calculated backward, it had been two years since she enjoyed sex—two long years. Kevin was looking better and better.

Mila had researched domestic discipline relationships, reading everything she could find online. There was no clear-cut definition of what D/D involved, except the negotiation of specific terms between a dominant HOH and a submissive wife.

She had not had the nerve to raise the subject with Kevin. He still came around a lot. Nevertheless, it was the Christmas season and his shop was inundated with rush orders. Their relationship had progressed to the heavy necking stage. She wanted to go further but had to wait for her doctor to clear her for sex. Kevin was not getting lucky for Christmas, but she was sure it would not be long after.

* * *

Jenny's Christmas shopping list was much shorter than usual this year. She and Josh had discussed the six gift tradition in his family. At first, she had been against it. However, after further reflection, she eventually agreed and even talked it over with Mila.

Looking back on their childhood holidays, they agreed, while the overall look of the day had been of generosity, most of the day had not been particularly happy for them. A nanny or housekeeper woke them early to dress them in photo-ready outfits. They had raced downstairs to a beautiful and perfect Marsden Christmas tree; a tree they could never touch much less help decorate. Dozens of gifts surrounded the tree, but the gifts were rarely what they wanted. Denise usually deemed toys they had dreamed about as inappropriate. Instead, she gave them designer dolls they could not play with, and fancy dresses for them to wear at her society functions. As they grew older, even their musical tastes were subjected to what their mother thought was best for them, or what was recommended by their schools.

Jenny thought of Fuzzy, Emmie's beloved little dog. They had given Fuzzy to her when she was fifteen months old. The ragged stuffed Beagle had recently lost an ear. Jenny had carefully sewn it back on while Emmie watched her and cried because she did not want Fuzzy hurt. So many of the toys Emmie and Adam had before the move were gone. They had given them to charities or they were in storage. Her children did not miss them at all. Emmie preferred playing with the few toys she had carefully chosen to bring with her. Adam was happiest scooting around the house in his little red Radio Flyer Steer n' Stroll ride-on sports car, or sitting in his high chair playing with and eating Oaties.

She and Josh agreed their children were happy because of the attention and care they were receiving from their parents, rather than things they had accumulated. Jenny agreed to the six gift rule with one given away to a needy child, but only if the idea was open to change as Emmie and Adam grew older.

Josh thought it was time to give Emmie a real 'Fuzzy' since she adored Kevin's dog, Buddy. Jenny vetoed the idea until Emmie's birthday in June. Housetraining a puppy would be a lot easier in the summer, and Josh reluctantly agreed. Then he insisted they get a rescue puppy, saying there had to be a Beagle adoption organization they could contact. He also thought they should get a second one for Adam at the same time so the puppies could be pals.

Mila laughed about their on-going negotiations because giving gifts to her one-month-old was more about the giver wanting to give him something. Little Kevin had no idea what was happening. However, presents were already under her small tree. She had thought to forego a tree this year, since her baby was too young to know the difference, and they would celebrate Christmas at her sister's house, anyway.

However, Kevin had taken the decision out of her hands. He had brought her a pitiful excuse for a tree reminiscent of a Charlie Brown tree. He also brought a bag of ornaments made by first and second graders from the Durango Elementary Holiday Bazaar.

His actions had melted her heart. That a man who had no children would take the time to go to an elementary school function surprised her. He had bought clumsy, gaudy, handmade ornaments from the six- and seven-year-old students. Among the ornaments were tin foil stars, empty thread spools with faces drawn on them, and antlers or earmuffs made from pipe cleaners. There were felt trees with sequins, and snowflakes made with macaroni glued to cardboard and covered with fake snow. She knew none of the children, but they had proudly inscribed their creations with their names and the year. He had also bought her a little kit she could use to stamp David Kevin's hands and feet into clay to make ornaments for his first tree. She would have them forever to remember his first Christmas. Kevin brought a gift to put under her tree nearly every time he stopped by. The pile was growing exponentially.

Three days before Christmas, Kevin parked his truck and entered the main house. He wanted to finish the trim in one of the bedrooms this morning, long before either family was awake. He was in his typical holiday rush. It was beyond his comprehension why people thought renovating kitchens and bathrooms, or installing bars, or various and sundry carpentry work, were good ideas for Christmas gifts. He tried to talk his customers down from such ideas, but every year he had a few who resisted common sense.

His crews were good, but with three installs due at the same time, his customers were paying top dollar for the inconvenience of completing jobs during the Christmas rush. He liked to be involved in his projects. As it was, his cousins thought he had lost his mind because he insisted on personally working on the Bentley house.

Originally, Kevin had wanted the job because he had worked on the Bentley house when he was a kid. After seeing the damage, he knew he had to restore it himself. The Bentley house had been a source of pride for his father and it was hard to see so much of his Dad's work destroyed. His Dad's hands were not capable of restoring the work himself because of his crippling arthritis. Kevin would do it for him.

He enjoyed working with and being around the Grayson family. Besides, the more time he spent at the Bentley place, the more time he spent with Mila. What were the chances he would fall head over heels for a woman five-months pregnant at their first meeting? He would not have bet on it, yet it happened.

He was treading softly to determine if she was interested. With her recent widowhood, he traversed a bit of a rocky path. Although Mila and her husband had problems before John left for his second tour of duty, his death had still hit her hard. Thankfully, she had not tried to make him a saint afterward as so many people did when they lost someone they loved. In Mila's own words, John had returned from war a different man—a man she did not particularly like. Still, she had been willing to try to save their marriage until the night before he shipped out.

One evening, she told him what John had done to her. She had cried on Kevin's shoulder while he did his best to offer comfort. She admitted her early doubts about keeping a child conceived under such circumstances. He promised to carry her secret to his grave, and he meant it. Even so, she wanted to preserve memories of John, as he was when she married him, not for her sake but for her son.

In Kevin's mind, Mila was one hell of a woman—strong and smart. Yet, even though she had been married several years, he felt she had no idea what a real marriage was like. She and her husband had been in different branches of the military, separated by various geographic postings, and then by him being sent into combat. Of the three years they were married, they had lived together for only eleven months.

Kevin had no personal experience since he had never made it all the way to the altar. However, he had a stable family structure in his background, as well as two long-term relationships under his belt, even if they had not gone the distance. Neither woman understood his love of craft or family. The first had seen his college degree as her way out of a small town, not as an enhancement to what he wanted to do with his life. The second viewed his devotion to his extensive family as competition. Selfishness was not a particularly redeeming quality in his mind. Either way, he regarded those years and women as learning experiences and narrow escapes. He simply had not found the right lady.

Kevin had lived in Miami during his college years and stayed on for one more year after. However, he finally realized he liked his rural roots and returned to Durango. Now, he had devoted himself to winning another woman, a beautiful and giving person with a stubborn streak to match his.

* * *

Josh was not surprised to see Kevin's truck already parked in his driveway. The man was keeping early hours lately. As Josh went into the main house, he heard the distant thump, thump of a nail gun. There was a lot happening. The fencing contractor was working hard, trying to accomplish as much as possible between snowfalls. The security company was also hard at work, although they were a lot less intrusive or visible. They assured him their crew would install the surveillance cameras when the fencing workers were not around. They would also camouflage and hide the cameras. The whole point of high-tech spyware was no one should know it was there. It was all worth it to keep his family safe.

Josh was trying to complete last minute details on the Richfield Towers designs before their December 28 deadline. He ensconced himself in his office and managed to get a good three hours' work done before 8:30 a.m. when Kevin rapped on his open office door.

"Hey, I'm leaving for now. I might be back later, depending on my schedule. I have this arrogant rich dude who thinks nothing is correct unless I am on the job personally. He is a major pain, walking around telling my crew how to do things even though he doesn't know crap. So far, he is batting zero. I have to deal with it though, mostly to keep my crew from busting my nuts and walking out."

"Good luck," Josh said. "If you want, you can shut down operations here over Christmas. We can't accomplish much between now and the New Year. We are leaving on the 26th, my presentation is on the 28th, and we won't return until the 30th. My partners and I will use the extra time to work out last minute details while our wives get to know each other."

"It's a big deal," Kevin said nodding. "I will be around for Mila and Little Kevin, don't worry. By the way, the balcony door in the master bedroom was left unlocked again last night. That is the second time this week. Tell the girls to be more careful."

Josh frowned. "I double-checked the balcony door myself last night since I knew you were leaving it open to air out the paint fumes. It was locked when Jenny and I left. Could the lock be broken?"

"I'll double check," said Kevin, going upstairs with Josh following. He checked the locking mechanism and found it working properly. "Someone either came in this way with a key or left this way." He walked out onto the balcony and looked over the side. "There are prints in the snow going away from the house, not toward it. Someone left this way and, by the size of those prints, it looks to be a man."

Josh looked around. "Someone must have broken in through another entrance."

Kevin walked back through the house checking each entry door and window for evidence of forced entry. "None of these doors or windows looks as if they have been jimmied or forced. I'm not an expert, but I can generally tell by the damage around the frame. If someone left through this patio door, they came in using a key or were damn good at picking the lock. I tried to learn how to do that when I was a kid and wanted to be a spy, but I never did figure it out."

"You think someone has a key, and is coming in and out?" Josh asked looking around. "Why?"

"I don't have an answer. The only things of value are our tools, Jenny's art, and your computer equipment. None of my men reported any tools missing, and I have not heard either one of you complaining about missing stuff. Let's do a second walkthrough," Kevin suggested.

The two men inspected the house, slowly surveying each room and work area. They had already removed ninety percent of the household furnishings, only keeping items Jenny thought she might be able to reuse. The only rooms in use were Josh's office, Jenny's studio, and the library. Josh locked his office whenever he was not there. Jenny locked her door when she was working inside the house alone. The library was an open floor plan.

Mila and Jenny were still in the process of packing the thousands of volumes of books into boxes. It was there the men found evidence of an intruder. The boxes Mila and Jenny had carefully packed were misaligned and the tops opened.

Josh called the Sheriff's department.

"Someone is looking for something, this is the second time," Kevin said ominously. While they waited for the law to make an appearance, he went around again to all the windows and doors making sure they were locked. Josh went to the guesthouse and explained what was happening, so Jenny and Mila would not be concerned when the police arrived.

Sheriff Hollis Leonard came nearly an hour later. He walked through the house, checking locks and windows but agreed there was no sign of forced entry and nothing was missing. He suggested new locks, wrote his report, and left.

"I will be back later," Kevin said grimly. "I'll pick up new locksets for all the entrance doors, so the only people who have keys will be us." He looked over at Josh. "Sorry, I am making assumptions. That's provided you want to give me a key. My nose won't be put out of joint if you don't, but it will be an inconvenience."

"I trust you," Josh said gruffly. "Can you keep it to yourself though? I don't want to be snarky, but I don't know your men."

"It's not snarky, it's smart. However, I know my employees and vouch for them. Hell, half of them are relatives. We will keep it to four keys." He looked over at Jenny who had joined them. "We are assuming someone used a key to get in, but there might be another way in we don't know about. It's a big place. You shouldn't be working in here by yourself."

"This sucks," Jenny grumbled. "Wasn't this place empty for months before we arrived? Why didn't whoever is doing this now, search before we got here?"

* * *

Jenny loved her new life. She had found a balance at last. She had time for her husband, her children, and her art. Her art pieces were flying out of Julia Scarlett's hands for top-dollar, not only to tourists, but also to art dealers in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. Julia was selling pieces through an open-bid process on her gallery website. Mila spent several evenings a week at the guesthouse allowing Jenny more to time to create. She had even created a play space for the kids in her workroom. Constructive playtime and naptime for them was work time for her. Everything was perfect—except for her continued strained relations with her mother.

Denise Marsden was a sore spot for both Josh and Mila. Mila had literally closed their mother out of her life altogether. Jenny couldn't do it. There were many times in her life when she had wanted to, but she could not bring herself to cut her mother out entirely.

Unfortunately, Jenny's relationship with her mother was more strained than ever. Denise had been sharp-tongued and condescending ever since Mila had taken a call pretending to be Jenny and refusing to return to Waterbury for her surgery. She demanded information from Jenny about things that were none of her business, such as how much Josh received in his settlements, what he was doing for a living. In one conversation, she shocked Jenny by demanding she send a piece of her artwork to Denise.

Her demand hurt Jenny deeply. Over the years, she had given her mother many pieces of her art, but she had never seen any of them displayed in her mother's home. She finally stopped giving them to Denise after she found a piece of her art at a consignment shop and bought it back. The owner of the store said she had found it at a yard sale. She kindly traced it back to an address and a name Jenny recognized as one of her mother's maids. Whether Denise had given or thrown it away, Jenny had never asked. It was one of the pieces now hanging in a designer's home and featured in
Home Beautiful
magazine.

Jenny made an excuse, but she did not intend to give any more of her art to her mother. She knew the reason for her mother's sudden demand. Since Jenny's name had appeared in
Home Beautiful
, her pieces were demanding high prices. Her mother had not thought her daughter's art worthy of being hung in her home before. Now she wanted to claim credit for it. She had witnessed her mother playing such games before, praising Jenny's art to her socialite friends and then slamming her in private for wasting her efforts making homemade items.

Jenny walked across the deck looking out at what she considered perfection. She dialed her mother's cell number, but it went straight to voicemail. This was the third time she had not been able to get through. She dialed the home number where she reached a maid who told her Mrs. Marsden was away. She had not given her staff a return date.

Jenny returned to the guesthouse where Mila gave her a look with a raised eyebrow of inquiry.

"Mom's out of town, and not answering her cell."

"Good, you can enjoy your holiday," Mila exclaimed. "Don't worry, Jen. I doubt Mom has given any thought to Christmas except what she wants for herself. You have too much to do to give her any more consideration than she has given you or her grandchildren."

There was a lot of truth in Mila's bitter statement, Jenny realized.

* * *

After she had told Josh about the opportunity to do her own show in Denver, he encouraged her to go ahead with it. He helped her schedule several webcam meetings with Julia and the representative of the Denver Arts Dealer. Her art would be part of a four-city tour, traveling from Denver to Chicago, to Washington, D.C., and finally New York City. The Denver show would be over the first two weeks of July and go on to the other galleries until the Labor Day opening in New York City. She had six months to create twenty accepted pieces.

Josh and Mila both assured her they would be with her at her shows in all four cities. This was her chance to make a statement in the art world.

* * *

Once they decorated the Christmas tree, the challenge was to keep it decorated. Jenny baked dozens of cookies and bought candies to stick onto the branches. She chased Emmie around reminding her to brush her teeth several times a day to counteract the sugar. She tackled Adam's teeth herself, as the lower limbs of the tree were suspiciously empty most of the time. She had also seen Buddy walking around with sugar crystals of bright colors around his mouth. Once she could have sworn the dog smiled at her.