Chapter 37

Aggie climbed the bus steps and found Brian and Myrna breathless on the sofa, still fully clothed, looking simultaneously hungry and satisfied. Myrna was straddling Brian’s lap, her skirt hiked up around her waist, his cock buried inside her. He was whispering, “I love you,” into her ear repeatedly.

“Eric said you wanted to see me,” Aggie said.

“Do you do couples?” Myrna asked.

Aggie’s hackles rose. “Do I do couples?”

“She doesn’t mean it like that,” Brian said, dropping a tender kiss on his wife’s temple. “She means do you instruct couples on the proper way to, you know… do what you do?”

Oh!

Oh, yeah…

Every nerve in Aggie’s body shifted into high alert as Mistress V clamored to be set free. She loved working with couples. Teaching them. Helping them explore their dark sensuality together. It was her favorite thing to do in the dungeon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible here. “There really isn’t the space to do this properly, especially when the bus is in motion,” she said. “When we get back home, I’ll invite you over for some couple’s therapy.”

“And us too?” Sed asked from the front of the bus. Jessica’s head snapped up to stare at him in surprise. He wrapped an arm around her as the bus started forward and eased onto the highway.

“Sure,” Aggie said. “I love to see big, tough guys beg for mercy.”

“And I get to watch, right?” Eric said.

“And they’ll all practice their techniques on me, right?” Jace murmured.

Aggie chuckled. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Jace nodded eagerly.

“We should go into business together, sweetheart. We’d have quite the partnership. I’d get to boss a bunch of dommes around, which is so much more fun than watching men crawl around at my boots. You’d get all the pain you could ever want. We’d be in seventh heaven.”

He stroked her hair from her cheek tenderly. “I’m already there.”

“Hey guys!” Dave shouted from the driver’s seat. “It’s snowing.”

Aggie had never seen snow fall.

She rushed to the front of the bus to stare at the gray sky. Large, fluffy snowflakes flew toward the wide windshield, accumulating on the wipers and slowly painting the desolate landscape white.

“It’s beautiful!” she said, watching the flakes zoom toward them. “It looks like we’re traveling in space at warp speed.”

“Are we going to make it to Montreal on time, Dave?” Sed asked as his brow furrowed with concern.

Coming to stand behind her, Jace wrapped both arms around Aggie’s waist and rested his chin on her shoulder to watch the snow through the windshield. She covered his hands with hers and relaxed against him. A few weeks ago, he never would have embraced her in front of the guys. He’d grown so much since she’d forced her way into his life, but not half as much as she had.

Dave’s attention drifted to his speedometer. “We should. Do you want me to push the pedal to the metal?”

“Are the roads slick?”

“Not yet,” Dave said.

“Better safe than sorry,” Eric called from the dining area. He leaned against the counter and pulled his lucky rabbit’s foot out of his pocket to rub it with his thumbs. He kissed it seven times for good measure.

“What the fuck is that?” Myrna yelled.

Aggie could hear her even through the closed bedroom door, where she and her husband had disappeared to continue catching up. Brian said something in response to his wife that Aggie couldn’t make out, but he sounded apologetic.

The bedroom door burst open. “Eric Sticks, I’m going to fucking kick your ass,” Myrna bellowed. She had lost her jacket and blouse but didn’t seem to care that everyone on the bus could see her bra.

Eric grabbed Jessica, who had been kneeling in a captain’s chair snow-gazing along the side of the bus. Eric used her as his human shield. “What did I do, Myrna?”

“How could you? On his ass, Eric. Brian has a fucking kitten riding on a unicorn permanently etched on his ass!”

Huh? Aggie glanced from one band member to the next, having no idea what they were laughing about.

“Hey, the rainbow background was Jace’s idea,” Eric said.

Myrna went after Eric with a paddle. She struck him twice before he managed to escape.

“I have one too,” Trey said.

He shucked his jeans and presented his bare ass to the bus occupants. A vibrantly bright and colorful tattoo of a fluffy calico kitten riding a galloping, majestic unicorn adorned a third of Trey’s left ass cheek. A rainbow and wispy, white clouds surrounded the mythical creature. Little girls would be ashamed to have that feminine monstrosity on their lunch boxes. Why would a guy have that tattooed on his ass? Correction—two guys.

Aggie joined the laughter. Clutching his abdomen with both arms, tears pouring from his eyes, Sed was lying on the floor, rolling back and forth in the aisle as he laughed. Myrna paused and ran a hand over Trey’s flank as she inspected the “artwork” that matched her husband’s.

“Son of a bitch! You inflicted Trey with that grotesque thing too? I’m going to kick your ass twice, Eric Sticks.”

“It’s not my fault. They lost the bet,” Eric shouted. Trapped in the corner between the bathroom and bedroom, he tried to catch the end of Myrna’s paddle as she struck his thigh.

“You can hit me if you want, Myrna,” Jace said, grinning. “I did suggest the rainbow background.”

“I’m not going to hit you, Jace Seymour,” Myrna growled. “You’d like it.”

“If I wasn’t so scared of you right now, I’d tell you how hot you look in your bra, Myrna,” Eric said. “You’re giving me such a boner.”

She hit him harder.

The interior of the bus dimmed as it entered a tunnel. Aggie squinted out the windshield. Ahead, she could see daylight and something flashing red. Hazard lights?

“Dave? I think someone is stopped up there,” she told the driver.

“I see him,” he said and eased off the accelerator. When they emerged from the tunnel, they came upon a truck parked halfway in the road. Its owner was putting chains on the tires. With no time to stop, Dave veered left to avoid the truck. The bus skidded toward a guardrail on the opposite side of the road. Slamming on the brakes, Dave veered right and narrowly missed the truck.

A patch of ice sent the bus spinning sideways around a hairpin corner. The vehicle tipped onto two wheels. Aggie reached for the back of his seat for balance. A loud horn—like that of a semitruck—sounded a warning.

“Oh fuck!” Dave yelled as headlights approached at high-speed.

Someone grabbed Aggie around the waist just as the semi clipped the right side of the bus and sent it spinning in an uncorrectable circle. The back of the bus hit the guardrail, sending everyone tumbling to the floor. The sounds of shattering glass, rending metal, and her own scream ricocheted through Aggie’s mind. The bus flipped on its side. Jace held onto Aggie as they tumbled through the interior, banging against hard surfaces and sharp edges as the bus rolled side over side. It slid sideways across the pavement—metal grinding—and finally, lurched to a sudden stop as it crashed into something solid.

Jace took a shuddering breath, holding Aggie’s head against his pounding heart. Completely limp, she lay sprawled over his body. She’s dead, he thought. Aggie’s dead. Just like every other person he’d ever loved. Aggie was dead. Crippling anguish washed over him. Sharp talons pulled his heart and soul apart in every direction. He drew her nearer, wanting to follow her in death, rather than face life without her.

After a moment, she stirred. Moaned.

“Aggie?” His voice cracked.

“Jace,” she whispered.

His arms tightened around her. He opened his eyes, but everything was blurred by the tears. “Are you okay?” he said hoarsely. “Aggie?”