Sydney's Dogs Ch. 07

"Yes," Sydney replied with as much finality in her voice as possible. "He was verbally and physically violent to me earlier tonight, and when he followed me here, he gave my intern a bloody nose."

"And it was unprovoked?" the other asked.

"If you include refusing his sexual advances as provocation, then no," Sydney replied icily. The light of understanding lit up in both their eyes as they realized the essence of what had happened.

Mason woke up as the police officers were handcuffing him.

"What the fuck?" he cried.

"Sir, you're under arrest for assault and battery," the first police officer informed him.

"I didn't touch her!" Mason denied.

"You almost broke my intern's nose," she replied caustically. "I told you I'd file charges if you came near me again. So now I am."

"Bitch! You won't get a dime out of me," he spat. Then he turned to the officers. "She's just doing this for the money. I didn't do anything wrong."

"Do I look like I need money?" Sydney gestured to the house around her.

"Your company pay for all this—you probably slept with your boss to get this!" he retorted.

"I AM THE BOSS OF MY COMPANY!" she roared. "I own Tobin Corp. AND all the subsidiaries. I make more in one business meeting than you make in a lifetime."

Mason's face paled as he finally comprehended who he had messed with. "I want to talk to my lawyer."

"Hey, are you Sydney Tobin?" The second officer asked.

"Yes, that's me. Ol' Jake Tobin's daughter," she sighed.

"Your company donated a new lab to my cousin's marine biology research center. You kept his research going when no one else would," he explained in awe. "They've had three breakthroughs since. You really did a good thing."

"Thanks," she accepted demurely. "I do what I can to make the world a better place." Like endorsing international slave traders, that vicious voice in her head whispered.

"Thank you," the officer replied. "If there's anything you need, let me know. We'll get this scum-bag out of your house now."

Talon escorted the officers and the downcast Mason out of the house. Sydney then opened up her cellphone and called her lawyer. She went to the window as she talked.

"I know it's late, Megan, I'm sorry. I just want you to take care of this first thing in the morning...I just had a guy arrested for assault and battery...No, not me. A friend. But it was to get to me—he made sexual passes earlier at me tonight, but wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, yadda yadda yadda, and things got out of hand. My friend got in the way and probably saved me a nose job. Yes, I'll take him to the hospital right away and get the damage verified...I don't want money. I want this guy him butchered like the chauvinistic pig that he is. I want him on parole and in therapy and counseling and working off community service. If he ever harms another woman, I want him locked up!" she insisted. She knew her lawyer thought she was being too lenient, but as much as she despised Mason at the moment, she hoped he could change with the right wakeup call. "Thanks, Megan. I'll talk to you later."

She hung up.

"I'll take Brandt to the hospital," Talon offered.

Sydney threw him a grateful glance and the keys to the car. "You'll need to take a taxi. The car is at a tiki bar near the coast. Do you mind brining it home?"

"Not at all," Talon replied.

Then she went over and gave Brandt a hug. "I know the hospital sucks, but you won't even be there overnight."

"It's dot so bad," Brandt replied bravely. "This tibe, I did somethi'g good, right?"

"Very good." She gave him a peck on the cheek. Then she hugged Talon. "Thank you."

"Please, don't worry, Miss Sydney. Everything will be alright," he reassured her. Then the two left and Sydney collapsed once more onto the sofa.

Zaide sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, tears starting to sparkle in her eyes. Zaide wrapped the other arm around her and pulled her close. That's all it took. She stated sobbing.

"I can't win," she cried. "I try and I try to be a good person, and I know I make mistakes. But is this my punishment? I know I'm a horrible person for buying you, but do I really deserve to get raped for it? Is that really cosmic justice? Is karma that cruel? Why can't I just find a nice guy to settle down with? I hate being alone and scared and always on the defensive. I hate it, I HATE IT! I just can't take it anymore. I don't want to date again. If I never meet another guy, it'll be too soon. Maybe I should just join a monastery and spend my life eating string beans."

Zaide just held her and rocked her gently until her sobbing and babbling subsided.

"Miss Sydney, may I speak candidly?" he finally asked when she quieted.

"You shouldn't even have to ask that," she grumbled. "Of course you can."

"You are not a horrible person for bringing Talon and Brandt and me into your life. Yes, we were trained and conditioned for years to be dedicated to whomever our owner turned out to be. But you are a wonderful person to be with. Every night, I thank any god that is listening that I ended up with you, and not some over-weight, poodle-haired, perfume-drenched, demanding, insulting, self-absorbed hag."

Sydney giggled at the image he painted.

"And maybe," he continued, "Karma or Cosmic Justice, or whatever you want to call it, put the three of us here to prevent you from getting abused by would-be lovers. Did you think of that?"

"Well, no..." she grudgingly admitted.

"Is it so hard to care for us? Even just a little?" he whispered.

"But...but the dynamic is all wrong. I don't want to be an owner or mistress," she protested.

"Then just be a lover. You are in charge of what you want to be. Just because one underground organization claims you're one thing doesn't mean you have to conform to it," he insisted. "You've been running from who you think we are ever since you brought us home. Now we're in the middle of the Pacific and there's nowhere else to run."

Sydney thought about it, and the more she did, the more comfortable it felt. Certain facts about her life were inevitable. She was bound to Talon, Zaide, and Brandt by circumstances beyond her control until they were all dead. With sex thrown into the mix for two of the boys, as much as Sydney hated to admit it, Brenna was right; for all intents and purposes, they were married. Unconventionally, perhaps. Legally, no. Religiously—better not to think about that. But joined, definitely.

But just like the PPA's definition of "owner" didn't apply to her, neither did any conventional definition of "marriage." "Life partners" sounded misleading in so many ways. "Boyfriends" sounded kinky. They were simply family. A weird family, but maybe the family she had been secretly wishing for, for years.

Sydney hugged Zaide close, pressing her whole body against him. She kissed him with all her might. He responded in kind, kissing her back with the desperation of a drowning man needing air. She could feel his erection through his jeans and just the memory of her previous encounters made something in her womb melt with delight. Her hands snaked up his shirt to trace the well-defined muscles of his torso. Soon she shoved up the offending garment so her lips could follow their path. Obligingly, Zaide shucked his shirt quickly, and tossed it in the general direction of the kitchen. His hands began a similar path under her shirt.

She loved the way he smelled as they rubbed together, each trying to stimulate the other more. Frustrated with the lack of skin-to-skin contact, she pulled off her shirt and tossed her bra. As soon as her breasts were revealed, both of his hands cupped them and he gently twisted her hard nipples between thumbs and forefingers. She groaned and leaned into him as her hands drifted down to the button of his jeans.

"Mmm, Butterfly," Zaide groaned, obviously enjoying himself.

"What?" she grumbled as her fingers tore at the button and then the zipper.

"Might I suggest...something more private?" he grunted. "After what happened last night and all?"

Oh. Sydney blushed and stopped trying to disrobe him. She got up and off him and started towards the stairs. Suddenly Zaide was right behind her, literally sweeping her off her feet. He carried her up to her room, closing the door behind him with one flick of a foot, and then laid her out on the bed. He gently pealed her jeans and panties from her and, before she could protest, his fingers probed her hot core. She had no idea why his hands felt so much more amazing than her own, but for a long moment, she was speechless with pleasure as he pushed as much of his hand as would fit inside her. She writhed, unable to find satisfaction but so enraptured that she didn't care.

Then his tongue joined his hand, lapping at her clit, and she just exploded. She must have screamed, but her hearing seemed to cut out at the exact same time and the edges of her vision blurred to white. After the pent up hornyness from the night before and earlier that morning, not to mention the relief of being saved from Mason, the first orgasm was like a hurricane of marvelous ecstasy.

Zaide pulled his hand away and let her recover for a minute while he finished stripping. Then he curled up next to her and just massaged her breast with one hand until her breathing returned to normal.

"I can feel that, you know," she whispered, one leg rubbing his raging hard on.

"I can't help it, Butterfly. You are so damned delicious," he growled, kissing her ear and then down her neck, over her collar bone, to take one erect nipple in his mouth.

"Then you'd better do something about it," she whimpered. "It can't be comfortable."

"Comfortable, no. But I am enjoying it," he replied. Then he pushed himself up and over her. She spread her legs invitingly. Gently, he took her ankles and guided her legs so they could hook over his shoulders. Then, with his hands holding her hips in place, he slowly—painfully slowly—guided himself into slick channel. Sydney moaned with the sensation of being filled so completely. After all the prep work, he slid in easily and fit snuggly. He joined her vocally with a groan of his own at finally being back in the sweet sanctuary of her body.

Then he started to move. Zaide was determined to take his time and enjoy the exclusive oneness with Miss Sydney—who knew when it would happen again—but she was too hot and too tight, her already sensitive folds milking him as he pushed deep into her before pulling almost all the way out again. He pushed forward, driving himself into her with a cry of happiness. Again and again, he pounded into her, thrusting at a furious pace. She came again, screaming out the name she had given him as the pleasure washed through her and didn't subside.

Tears pricked her eyes as he plundered her deepest secret parts. He lunged forward one last time and exploded inside her. He shuddered and heaved as burst after burst filled her up. Sydney gasped and held onto Zaide as if her life depended on it. He fell on top of her and rolled to the side, still quivering. She clutched at him, unwilling to let him go, and he held her close, equally unwilling.

"You're...amazing," Sydney whispered.

"You're...amazing," Zaide corrected.

She smiled, completely aglow. "Fine. We're amazing together."

"Works for me," he replied as his eyes drifted closed. Then he grumbled half way into his pillow and halfway into her shoulder, "I should give you more, though."

"How could there possibly be more than this?" she demanded, already half asleep as she snuggled into his embrace.

"I was trained for stamina as well as gusto," he pointed out. "I should be able to make love to you all night long. I want to. But I can never hold back with you. You just...drain everything."

"What, am I a sexual vampire now?" she teased as she snuggled close to him.

"Nope, just my beautiful butterfly," he replied softly.

She snuggled into him and felt more content than she had felt in a long time. She drifted off to sleep. She woke slightly when Talon and Brandt came back, but snuggled back into her current bed partner.