"How could I not," Krista snapped, letting out some of the frustration she had felt at his disappearance. "You dropped off the face of the planet after aawakening' me. I couldn't go back to my old life and didn't have anyone to talk to about this new one. You left me to figure it all out by myself. Clearly I meant nothing to you."

"That's not true Krista. I didn't think you wanted to have anything to do with me," Damien said. "You didn't seem happy to find out my identity the second night and minutes later you passed out and ended up in the hospital. The doctor said you wanted me to go home. They wouldn't even let me see you to apologize. I figured that was what you wanted."

"Well you're an idiot," Krista replied. "I needed you. I tried to find you, but like I said you had disappeared. I didn't have a number for you. Greg said you didn't work at the club anymore and Hannah's boyfriend said you moved out of your apartment. You turned into a ghost."

"I lost my job and couldn't keep my apartment," Damien said. "I moved in with Greg until I got back on my feet."

"I needed you," Krista said. "And you were gone."

"I didn't know," Damien said. "I swear I didn't know that's how you felt."

Krista looked into his eyes which were filled with sincerity and something else that she didn't recognize.

"So then what are you doing here tonight?" Krista asked.

"I couldn't stay away," Damien said. "Greg told me you were here and I had to see you."

Krista turned to look at Greg who was drying glasses that had just come from the dishwasher. "You little liar," she said, smiling a little to know that at least Damien had felt something for her. "You knew who I was all along."

"Yeah, well, what was I supposed to say?" Greg asked. "Hey Krista, how's it going, you're still smoking hot a oh and Damien's on his way?"

Damien pulled her back around to face him. "That doesn't matter," he said. "You look amazing. Dance with me."

"Umm, okay," Krista said, unable to think of anything else as Damien pulled her out into the middle of the floor. Dancing with Damien was similar to the way she always danced, hips winding sensuously, except instead of caressing the air around her, she was caressing Damien. She got carried away before she even realized what was happening as he ground his body into hers.

Damien pulled Krista's hair, forcing her neck back and kissed along her throat, drawing a moan from deep within. The feel of his lips against her skin made her tingle all the way to her toes and she pulled his head up so she could kiss him on the mouth. As they kissed his hand reached under her cloak and tugged on the chain attached to her nipple clamps. The sharp pain broke the spell she was under. Quickly she stepped out of his embrace.

"I can't. I'm seeing someone." she said, turning to walk away.

Krista walked quickly back to the bar to get the drinks she had forgotten. She looked around for Tyler and Miranda and wondered if they had seen her. It was one thing for him to tell her to do something with another man. It was quite another for her to just do it. Maybe he would understand if she explained. When she couldn't find him in the crowd, Krista sat down at their booth. He would come and find her. She sipped her drink in silence, letting her thoughts roam to the weekend when her whole life had changed.

Chapter 20.

"Long time no see, buddy," Damien said, walking towards Tyler as he came back inside from putting Miranda in a cab.

"Damien," Tyler said nervously. "How are you? I thought you weren't scheduled tonight. Have you been here long?"

"Long enough to know what you've been hiding," Damien said, dropping his voice to barely above a whisper as he advanced on the man who had once been his best friend. "How could you?"

"Damien, wait, I can explain," Tyler said.

"Really," Damien said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. "You can explain how you, my best friend, are involved with my girl a the one I wanted from the moment I saw her, but waited for over a year before making a move on so I could get my act together, the one I lost my job over, the one I have been drinking myself into a coma each night for the last four months trying to forget? You can explain that?"

"I need five minutes," Tyler said.

"Five minutes," Damien said, pushing Tyler out the door he had just entered.

As the door closed, Damien looked down at his watch to mark the time and waited for Tyler to begin.

"The night I met her," Tyler started, "she was prowling, dancing here in this club, practically masturbating on the dance floor. She was hunting for a Dom and not being very particular. At least twenty people were watching her, waiting for her to be too far gone to care what happened. I stopped her and invited her back to a private room before I ever knew she was yours. If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else. It might have been one of the ones who would really have hurt her, Damien. She'd have taken anything that night.

"When I realized it was her and what she was looking for, I kept my cool and started her training. I figured at the very least, you would appreciate that it was me and not somebody like Tom or Ralph. She'd be a broken, damaged version of herself by now if either of them had touched her and you know it."

"So where was the phone call," Damien asked. He changed his voice to sound more like Tyler's and held his fingers up to his mouth and his ear in the universal phone sign. "Hey Damien, guess what? That girl you've been mooning over, well she's mooning over you too and she's here at the club looking for whatever is she had with you. Or hey Damien, Krista is here and I've started her training so she wouldn't end up with one of the whack jobs. We're in a private room. Or even, hey Damien. Krista came to the club last night on a mission and I took care of it for her. But she's still trying to figure out that side of her. She's gonna need your help.

"What I can't handle is how you went from saving her from the big bad wolves in this club to being in a relationship with her? And don't tell me you're not because she told me herself that you are."

"Somewhere along the way I lost control," Tyler said. "I pretended it didn't matter that her safe word was your name. I thought..."

"Wait," Damien interrupted. "What was that?"

Tyler mentally cursed himself for being an idiot. Damien would never let her go now.

"Her safe word, its lance," he said with a sigh. "I knew what it meant as soon as she said it, but that was before she and I had even started. Now it's too late. She's amazing a fiery, strong, seductive. She's everything I could ever want and dominating her was the most intoxicating thing I'd ever felt. I wanted to keep her. I couldn't help it. We've only been seeing each other for a week, but I think I'm falling in love with her."

"You are my best friend," Damien yelled, slamming his hand into the wall. "You cannot be in love with her, because I'm in love with her and you know it."

"I'm sorry Damien," Tyler said. "I am. I'm a shitty friend, but I can't help how I feel. There's this quiet strength under the surface of her that blends with her vulnerability in a way that punches a man in the stomach. Before you even know it, she's knocked you flat and you don't ever want to get up."

"I know that," Damien said, grinding the words out from behind clenched teeth. "That's what I told you!"

"I guess I thought you were being sentimental or something," Tyler said.

"You are my friend," Damien said again, in a whisper this time. "You know me. And I am NOT sentimental. She's the one, the way they always talk about in movies or books. She's the one and she's mine. I've known it from the very first night I saw her. You cannot have her."

"One woman can't be the perfect, happily ever after, soul mate for two men and I feel the same way about her that you do," Tyler said.

"I don't accept that," Damien said. "You've known her for what a week? You will give me a chance with her and let her pick."

"How?" Tyler asked, dreading what was coming. The request was inevitable.

"Invite me to play," Damien said. "I know you've either done it already with someone else or been working up to it. Tell her it's what you want. Watch her when you say it. It's what she wants too."

"I don't want to lose her," Tyler said.

"Tyler," Damien said menacingly, as he flexed his fists. "If you don't do this, you won't have to worry about losing her."

"You don't mean that," Tyler said.

"See that's where you're wrong," Damien said. "Because she is the one person that robs me of anything even close to control. If you don't do this, I won't be able to stop myself. It's been a long, long time brother, since I lost my temper, but you remember what happened the last time."

"You wouldn't hurt one of your friends," Tyler said, trying to reason with Damien. Both guys were the same size, but Damien had a long history of street fighting and Tyler knew he wouldn't stand a chance.

"If we were really friends," Damien spat, "we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I'm thinking we stopped being friends the moment you decided you would keep her for yourself."

"And if she picks me?" Tyler asked.

"Then she did so because that's what she really wanted and knew what she was giving up," Damien said. "I can accept that. Because as much as I want her to be mine, I want her to be happy more. But I saw the way she looked at me. I'm as much in her head as you are."

"Okay," Tyler said. "I'll do it. But there's one condition."

Damien just looked at Tyler, waiting.

"We both have to promise not to say anything to sabotage the other," Tyler said. "Whoever she picks, she picks because that's who she wants to be with, not because they made the other look bad."

"I'm fine with that," Damien said. "But she's going to figure out eventually that you knew all about her before you two ever met."

"If she does, she does," Tyler said. "But it won't be because you set me up."

"Would I do that, brother?" Damien asked, feigning innocence.

"Yeah, you would." Tyler said.

"Whatever," Damien said. "I play to win. I'll abide by your condition, though. I just have a few of my own. For the next month, you will not see her without me, unless she asks it of you and I am going with the two of you to New York. After the party, we'll let her choose."

"How do you know we're going?" Tyler asked.

Damien just looked at him. They both knew that Tyler hadn't missed one of these parties in the last five years and there was no way he would miss it if he had a bright, shiny new sub to show off.

"Fine," Tyler said. "But the same goes for you. You only see her with me."

"Unless she asks," Damien said.

"Unless she asks," Tyler conceded.

"And I get to start tonight, just me and her," Damien said. "I have some lost time to make up for."

"No," Tyler said.

"Scared?" Damien taunted. "Afraid, I'll surpass in a few minutes what you've spent the last week cultivating?"

"Fine, twenty minutes" Tyler agreed, not wanting Damien to know that was exactly what he was afraid of. Tyler was a strong confident man. But Damien was all of that with a little danger thrown in. Plus, Damien was the one that had unlocked Krista's soul. That kind of thing forges a connection that he didn't think he was going to be able to break. He just hoped his connection could compete with it.

Krista had come out of her daze a few minutes before when some guy she didn't know had asked if her Master would let her play. She said no and stood to find Tyler and Miranda. It had been awhile and they still weren't back. She started to think that maybe Tyler had seen her on the dance floor with Damien and gotten angry. He might have even left.

"Greg," Krista asked, walking up to the bar. "You didn't see Tyler leave did you? I don't see him anywhere."

"He hasn't closed out his tab," Greg said, having a pretty good idea where Tyler was and who he was with. He just hoped Damien kept his cool. "I'm sure he's around somewhere."

"All right," Krista said. "Thanks."

Krista turned to survey the room and leaned against the bar. She saw Tyler coming into the VIP area and felt a rush of relief. She wasn't sure where Miranda had gone, but maybe everything was going to be okay after all. Her hopes were shot down however, when she saw who followed him. It wasn't Miranda. It was Damien and neither man looked particularly happy. Krista had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The guys seemed to be looking for her, so she stepped away from the bar and walked over. The funny thing was that both men lit up when they saw her, like Christmas had come early or something. Krista wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but figured she would have to talk to them to find out.

"Hey," Krista said as she walked up to Tyler. "Where have you been? And where's Miranda?"

"I put her in a cab," Tyler said. "She needs some time to adjust. I've got her number and she wants you to call her, but I'd give her a couple of days."

"Okay," Krista said. "What about you? It didn't take you all this time to put her in a cab."

"I had some things to handle," Tyler said, leaning down to give Krista a kiss. He couldn't resist showing Damien a little of the fire that burned in her at his touch. Tyler deepened the kiss, pressing her closer as he tilted her head to get access to more of her mouth.

Damien cleared his throat, trying to tamp down his annoyance. This was not going to be easy. He'd never actually shared a woman before, especially not one that he felt something for. It was going to be hard to hold his jealousy in check.

Tyler pulled away from Krista leaving her lips swollen. She didn't know why he had kissed her like that in front of Damien, but she had no choice but to respond. From the moment they'd met, Tyler had affected her that way.

"Krista," Tyler said, pretending he didn't know about them. "This is Damien. Damien, Krista."

"We've met actually," Krista said looking into Tyler's eyes, then Damien's. She was hoping to read something there and get an idea of what was happening, but neither man gave anything away.

"Oh," Tyler said, feigning surprise. "Good then. You and I are going back to one of the private rooms, and I've invited Damien to come with us."

Krista opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She didn't know what to say. Everything was happening too fast for her to keep up.

"You do want to, don't you Krista?" Damien asked, his voice taking on a darkness that sent a shiver up her spine and filled her eyes with lust as he stepped closer to her.

She nodded, thinking to herself that this was one of her darkest fantasies, one she had never told anybody. She just didn't know if she would survive. If her body didn't give out, her heart surely would. There had to be some way to control how she felt, or she would get burned, either from one end or the other, maybe both...

"Answer me properly, slut," Damien said, reaching out to yank painfully on her hair and tilt her face up to his. The only thing in the world he wanted right now, was to reach out and hold her, but that would have to wait for another time. Damien knew that Krista had a much darker side that Tyler wouldn't have explored. To have any chance with her, he was going to have to show her that he could match all of her darkness and Tyler couldn't. Tyler was a good top, a good Master, but he never let himself stray too far from the light.

"Yes Master," Krista said as pussy juice ran down her leg. "Please, yes."

"Then drop to your knees and show me, slut," Damien said, thinking it would serve Tyler right since he'd put on such a show with the kiss.

Krista dropped to her knees and unbuttoned Damien's pants. She was so turned on, she couldn't even think. Her fingers fumbled as she tried to free Damien's cock, but finally it sprang free.

Krista made a muffled sound as Damien grabbed her head and began shoving himself into her mouth. She moaned and her pussy throbbed. He was using her mouth without regard in the middle of the floor and it was turning her on. She didn't know why, but this called to her on a level she couldn't explain.

She opened her lips as wide as she could and relaxed her throat muscles so she could take more of him. She already knew that he had the biggest dick she'd ever seen. Sucking it took some getting used to. She'd have to breathe soon, but for now, she just wanted to get all of him in her mouth.

"Swallow it, slut," Damien said, forcing her head all the way down his dick. Finally, he let go, giving her a chance to breathe.

"Show me how much you want it," Damien said. "Prove I'm not wasting my time."

Krista began sucking in and out on her own, taking as much of it down her throat as she could get. When she couldn't get it all, she grabbed onto Damien's hips and forced him down her throat. She began pumping against him this way, unwilling to give up even a second to catch her breath.

"Good enough, slut," Damien said, pushing her away. Krista took a deep breath, eyes glazed over with lust as Damien slid his dick back into his pants and zipped them up. "Which room Tyler?"

"Opposition," Tyler said.