Page 55 of The Dom with the Clever Tongue

“Yup. Scarlet has the domming thing down cold now, so I had to diversify my skills to maintain my position in your home.” He sat in his spot on the couch and started to shovel food into his mouth like he was near starvation.

“Wearing an apron instead of wielding a crop?” Scarlet twirled some pasta onto her fork.

“You might be surprised by what I can do with a spatula.”

Both girls paused with their forks partway to their mouths and glanced at each other.

“See? There are still plenty of things for you to teach me.” Scarlet chuckled.

“Like what?”

“Like what it’s like to kiss a guy.”

He snorted and kept eating.

Mortified, Scarlet went back to eating. Why had she said that? Was he not as interested as she’d thought, or had he thought she was joking?

The spaghetti was really very good – the handy thing about having someone in the house who liked to eat was that he took an interest in preparing food. Scarlet ate mostly junk food, and Reece ate salad so often that Scarlet said she was more like a bunny than a kitten.

When they were done, they brought their dishes to the kitchen and Malachi filled the sink.

“You’re not doing dishes, too. Unless you’re a Dom with a kink for serving, you’d better let us do this,” Reece teased.

“Doms are allowed to do dishes. It says so in our union handbook. If you don’t let me help with the dishes, I’ll file a grievance.” He grabbed the sponge from where it had been left next to the sink.

“Hmm. That wouldn’t do. I’m pretty sure there’s a no picketing clause in our tenancy agreement. If we end up homeless we’d have to move into your place.”

“You two should come to my place sometime. It’s not pretty like this, but I’ve added some...features to make it interesting.”

“You live out in the sticks, you said?” Reece asked. He rarely talked about himself.

He rinsed a glass he’d just washed and handed it to her. “Yup. I own a farm. It’s just all overgrown and ugly right now, but I’ve started doing some small renos on the main house. It was a family farm, so there’s another house at the other end of the property that I rent out. Other than my tenants, there’s no one else for miles.”

Scarlet had a hard time picturing him living on a farm. A pirate ship, maybe, but a farm? “Your tenants aren’t alarmed by all of the screaming that comes from your place when you bring dates home?”

“I haven’t brought a date home since Ivy. Besides, my tenants are a little hard to shock. If anything, I’m the one that gets disturbed. Between the drumming and the screaming, I’ve learned to sleep with the fan on, even though they’re a long ways off.”

“Drumming and screaming?” Reece looked both disturbed and amused.

“They’re in a band and they’re kinksters. It doesn’t get louder than that.”

“A band? Have we heard of them? What are they called?” Scarlet asked.

“I think they’re calling themselves Creepy Little Sex Zombies. They just started playing together more seriously, but they’re damn good.”

“Creepy Little Sex Zombies? So not a bluegrass band then.” Reece laughed then twirled her damp dish towel around a few times, until it wrapped into a rope

“Sex zombie is a joke between Cross and his girls.” Malachi replied, oblivious to the mischievous look in Reece’s eyes. “Maybe Gemma will tell it to you sometime. She tells it best. Anyway, Winter liked the story so much that she told it to Mack, and they made it their band name.”

Scarlet kept her eyes on Reece. “You sure you want to play this game with him?”

Malachi turned his head just in time to see the towel flick out. It snapped, hitting his ass like a whip.

Zero to Dom in point three seconds. Malachi wiped his wet hands on his jeans and walked slowly toward Reece, no longer a sweet, attractive man. In his place was a dangerous, predatory, sex-god. Scarlet’s girlfriend backed away, laughing nervously and twirling the towel again.

“You hit me again, kitten,” he growled, “and you’ll be a very sorry little girl.”

She looked scared but she snapped her arm out again and the dishtowel cracked against his thigh.

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