She framed his face in her hands as he brought her down onto him. The gasp that left her was full and undeniable—her whole body registering him, the reality of it, the inevitability of it. One hand curved around her hip and set the rhythm. The other threaded into her hair and held her there, close, his exhale warm against her mouth like something he’d been keeping too long.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and moved with him. Not surrendering. Meeting.
Not with Leland beneath her, solid and real.
Not when everything she’d wanted, everything she’d once believed was beyond her reach, had led here.
To this.
To him.
***
Rain fell steadily on the playground. One intrepid couple, already soaked, still splashed in the pool. The others had sought shelter inside, resuming play in the private rooms and the playroom. Some had called it a night. Others had settled into the lounge, wrapped in that soft, contented haze that only came at the end of club night.
Cari curled deeper into Dev’s side on the couch. His arm, a solid weight, rested possessively around her waist. Around them, other couples relaxed. Whether indoors or out, the lounges were never empty at this hour as the night wound down.
Across from them, Julia sat tucked securely in Leland’s lap. Heads together, they murmured quietly, words for them alone while she absently traced the swirling ink snaking down his arm. Her expression caught Cari’s attention the most.
Contentment. The kind that settled deep after surviving a horror no one should have to face and finding love on the other side.
Leland looked different, too. Still controlled. Still intense. But no longer distant. His attention never strayed far from Julia, as if some part of him needed the reassurance that she was there. And safe.
Cari settled deeper against Dev. Everything seemed back to normal. The same laughter, the same conversations, with scenes unfolding beyond the open doors. And yet, beneath it all, something wasn’t the same.
A usually bubbly, outgoing submissive paused and scanned the room before entering. Even before the weather turned, more people played inside than out. And except for Leland and Julia, who she suspected had a distinct purpose, she had seen very few down by the water. It was the small things, easy to miss unless you were looking.
“Do you feel it?” she asked quietly.
Dev glanced down at her. “Feel what?”
“The edginess. It’s subtle, but it’s there.”
His gaze swept the room. “Yeah, I feel it,” he said finally. “For years, Devil’s Pointe has been a refuge. The killer being one of us has left them shaken. The women especially. Requests for escorts to the parking area happen nightly now. It has always been an option, but we’ve never needed it before.”
Cari tipped her head back to look at him. “I know art, not security, but no one could suggest you’re not doing everything possible with the enhanced measures you’ve put in place.”
The membership reviews were stricter now. Background checks went deeper. Callan had taken over their systems completely. If they needed a contractor, access during the job was monitored and removed once it was done. He was currently working on fail-safes. And Dev had overhauled the security protocols personally, from top to bottom.
“Rebuilding trust takes time,” he said quietly. “We’ll get there. But none of my men will ever let their guard down again. That’s a promise they can count on.”
Cari looked around at the subs in doms’ laps, or at their feet. That was a common occurrence, but tonight, it was more necessity than preference. Every seat was taken.
She slipped her hand into his. “I think they know that.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The club is at capacity tonight. Even rattled, they came back. This is home; the other members are like family. You don’t give that up without a fight.”
They lapsed into silence, watching the others.
Alec had stretched out in his chair, feet crossed on the table. Emily looked half asleep, curled against him like a kitten. Both had wet hair from the waterfall, their favorite spot.
He murmured something against her temple before kissing her, utterly unconcerned with the complaints Dev had received tonight about them monopolizing the play space.
Cari smiled. Some things never changed.
Nearby, Rhys and Gaby occupied one end of a love seat, speaking quietly enough that no one else could hear them. She said something that made Rhys’s mouth curve in that rare, restrained way, his focus fixed solely on her, as if the rest of the room ceased to exist.
