Playing for Satisfaction [Satisfaction Texas 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Satisfaction, Texas 4

  Playing for Satisfaction

  Full-time high school math teacher and part-time pool hustler Ellie Maine has finally moved on from her short-lived marriage to Bram Scoefield. She’s seeing Mayor Ren Davis and is enjoying her job and her life. Then Bram shows up looking to reconcile.

  Ellie quickly realizes she never stopped loving Bram even though she now loves Ren too. Torn between the two Doms, she agrees to try a ménage with the cousins. As they begin to work through their relationship issues, she’s also dealing with an annoying former student who seems obsessed with her.

  When she doesn’t make it to a conference, Bram and Ren have to fight to get her disappearance taken seriously. Her ex-student quickly becomes the prime suspect, but what if he’s being framed? While Ellie tries to save herself from the man she thought was her friend, Bram and Ren race against time to find her before it’s too late.

  Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 47,439 words

  PLAYING FOR SATISFACTION

  Satisfaction, Texas 4

  Diane Leyne

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  PLAYING FOR SATISFACTION

  Copyright © 2014 by Diane Leyne

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-620-7

  First E-book Publication: April 2014

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  About the Author

  PLAYING FOR SATISFACTION

  Satisfaction, Texas 4

  DIANE LEYNE

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter 1

  Present Day, The Whips and Spurs Saloon, Satisfaction, Texas

  Though she didn’t look like anyone’s typical picture of a black sheep, Ellie Maine was just that in her family. She was five foot four, although she’d often wished she were taller, a desire that had led to a long term obsession with shoes. She was of average weight and had an athletic build. Maybe she was a touch busty for her height, but not disproportionately so. She had long, straight black hair and black, slightly almond-shaped eyes, both inherited from her Korean grandmother. Her inheritance from her other grandmother was less obvious, but her Irish temper flared whenever she saw what she considered injustice or unkindness.

  It wasn’t her looks that made her the black sheep or the way she dressed or even her attitude. It was her job.

  Her parents were medical doctors. Her grandparents on both sides were medical doctors. Her two brothers and one of her sisters were medical doctors. Her other sister wasn’t a medical doctor like the rest, but she was an astrophysicist with a PhD so doctor was part of her title. Also, she was currently training for a mission to the International Space Station, so she got a pass from her family for not being the right kind of doctor.

  Ellie, on the other hand, only had a master’s degree in mathematics, and instead of going after her PhD, had elected to get her teaching certificate and take a job teaching high school math in the small town of Kinsdale in West Texas.

  Her family had been happier when she announced, after three years of teaching, that she was going back to school. It was only a matter of time they all said, nodding with relief. However, once they heard that she was just getting her master’s in education, the disappointment returned and she solidified her role as the family black sheep.

  Now she was the assistant head of the mathematics department at Kinsdale High. However, teaching, even with her additional administrative responsibilities, didn’t pay well, so she was here on her regularly weekly visit to The Whips and Spurs hustling pool so she could afford a pair of Jimmy Choos she had her eye on.

  Ellie Maine easily sank the eight ball, much to the consternation of the trucker who had been convinced that she was an easy mark. Hell, she hadn’t even had to try very hard. One part of her mind was still on poor little Clyde. Her true love. Dogs weren’t just man’s best friend. They could be woman’s best friend, too. She had been devastated by his recent and unexpected death and had almost not come tonight, but she needed to get out of the house and hustling suckers like this would be just the thing to distract her.

  Ellie studied the table. When she played for money, she definitely played up the teacher look and was wearing a pair of flat-heeled black Mary Janes on her fe
et. She hated flats, but she knew that looking small and helpless helped her find suckers, er, competitors.

  She’d been in the process of winning her second game against the trucker and was thinking about taking a break when Mr. Tobias T. Martindale had walked in with two cronies followed by the cowboy she’d played and beaten the last two weeks.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck. What had she done to deserve this? If she’d been asked to give a list of people she never wanted to meet again in, it would be jointly headed by Tobias T. Martindale and Bram Scoefield. She wasn’t sure who was worse.

  Tobias was an obnoxious former student she had hoped she’d seen the last of when he’d graduated, and the laconic cowboy who had first come back into her life few weeks ago was someone she’d tried very hard to forget.

  The two men couldn’t have been more different. The cowboy looked authentic with his scuffed boots and battered Stetson. Tobias, on the other hand, wouldn’t know how to spell authentic. She looked at him. He was just as insufferable as he’d been the last time she’d seen him at his high school graduation. She’d shaken hands with his parents and then when she’d moved to shake his hand, he’d pulled her in for a hug. It had been quick, but she could feel his body pressing against hers. She’d taken a long shower that night.

  The cowboy, on the other hand, had acted like a gentleman. He was quiet, polite, and didn’t try to touch her. All the other women in the bar, both patrons and staff, were in a tizzy over him, but Ellie knew the real Bram. She hadn’t seen him in four years, but men like him didn’t change.

  She didn’t know why he’d decided to reappear in her life but there was no use asking. He’d reveal it in his own time. He could be as stubborn as a mule when it suited him. He was hung like one, too, but she wasn’t going to think about that. Nope. Not at all. She just hoped he’d tell her what he wanted soon and then get the hell back out of her life. Or, even better, he’d just get out of her life, period.

  Ironically, she’d spent a summer with both of them four years ago when she’d been teaching an advanced mathematics summer course at Texas A&M University for high school students going into their senior year. She’d gotten the job at the last minute because another teacher had dropped out. She’d just finished her Master’s in Education and was happy for a chance to earn some extra cash.

  Bram had just finished his own Master’s degree and was there taking an advanced course in his own field, which was Petroleum Engineering.

  She’d almost laughed when Tobias had come face to face with Bram a little while ago. He’d walked up to the older man, held his hand out to shake, and had tried to act like they were old friends. Bram just stared at him. Eventually Tobias had flushed red and his hand had dropped. As Tobias had turned away in anger and embarrassment, Bram had had the nerve to wink at her.

  Tobias had responded by ignoring the older man and becoming even more obnoxious. One more black mark in Bram’s book.

  She tried to ignore him and concentrate on playing Tobias, but it wasn’t easy. She’d been trying to block out the memories of the summer she’d met Bram since he’d first reappeared in her life, but now with Tobias here, too…

  * * * *

  Four Years Ago, Early July, Texas A&M University, 90 Miles North of Houston

  Ellie was pleasantly surprised to discover the summer job she’d taken strictly for the money was actually a lot of fun for the most part. The students were going into their senior year of high school and were taking advanced placement calculus and algebra, so they were generally highly motivated, although there were one or two notable exceptions.

  There were sixty students in the program, including several from Kinsdale High who she had taught when they were freshmen, before she left to do her Master’s.

  She was glad to see that two of them were females. Sandra Brookdale and Nancy Garcia were two of the brightest in their year. And she adored young Darcy Davis. He was a year younger than the others, having skipped the third grade. He was one of those kids who were a pleasure to teach. He had been a skinny kid with a shock of bright red hair, freckles, and thick glasses. He’d shot up more than eight inches, packed on forty pounds of muscle, tamed the mane, and acquired contacts. But he was still the sweet young man she remembered.

  She was less happy to see Tobias P. Martindale III. He was the trifecta of annoying. He was bright but unmotivated, from a wealthy oil family that made him think he was better than everyone else, and a bully. It had been an eye opener for him as a freshman when he hadn’t been able to coast in her class. He’d found out quickly that his family’s money couldn’t buy him good grades. He’d even had his socialite mother come in to speak with Ellie. He’d been furious when his mother realized that Ellie’s oldest brother was her plastic surgeon and the meeting had ended with her berating her own son. Ellie had felt a bit sorry for the boy, but mostly she’d been relieved when he’d buckled down and eventually they got through the year with him earning a B plus that he’d actually earned.

  All the students had grown up so much in the last two years, even Toby. He had turned into a handsome young man but she still couldn’t warm up to him like she could the others. Maybe she overcompensated, to cover up her feelings, but after the orientation breakfast, she couldn’t seem to get away from him. He was always around. He didn’t say or do anything inappropriate, but he always seemed to be watching her, and he always took the opportunity to sit next to her. He was charming on the surface, even asking about her brother, but she didn’t like the look in his eyes when he thought she wasn’t looking.

  Luckily, theirs wasn’t the only summer course being held on campus. There were three other classes of high schoolers and a half a dozen classes for post grad students that would be starting shortly, so she’d have more grownups to hang out with. In the meantime, she spent a lot of time in the games room. She’d learned pool when she was an undergrad and had discovered she was a natural at it. Maybe it was her knowledge of geometry and her ability to calculate the angles, but she’d quickly grown so good that most of her peers had stopped playing her for money.

  It wasn’t just the students. Once she’d beaten the faculty, she had to go elsewhere to find opponents. She’d kept herself in pocket money and paid for all of her textbooks playing pool. It didn’t eliminate her student debt, but it definitely kept it manageable, though she hadn’t played in a few years.

  She liked her students, but she didn’t want to spend all her time with them, so she spent hours there alone, practicing. It had all come quickly back to her and now she was refining her skills, working the angles, and refining her technique.

  Of course, all the students wanted to play her. She refused to play for money, but agreed to a few games. They’d all taken their losses good naturedly except for Tobias. He was furious, but hid it under a mask, pretending to be a good sport, but she could tell he hated losing. Even worse was the way he stared at her ass when she bent over the table. But since he never said anything or even touched her, she couldn’t really object.

  She pushed back her thick black hair, which hung halfway down her back in a simple blunt cut. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of schoolmarm’s glasses that kept sliding down her nose as she considered her next play. She moved around the table, pausing to adjust her frumpy tweed skirt that didn’t fit quite right. To top it all off and perfect the look, she was wearing a light blue sweater twin set and pearls. Her extra-large purse lay on a chair that was situated against the wall under the cabinet containing a selection of pool cues, not that she was using one of the cues the saloon provided. She had her own that she carried around in a custom carrying case.

  With the distractions, she’d lost game number two, but then she focused and had finished off her current opponent by trouncing him in game three. She watched silently as Tobias picked up a cue, spinning it with a grin. He motioned to one of his cronies to rack the balls.

  Toby looked like the very preppy and very cocky college boy, but he hadn’t changed other than superficially. He’d
laughed and guzzled beer and charmed the regulars while watching and studying her and waiting for his turn. They didn’t know him like she did. He made her skin crawl.

  He now sported highlighted blond hair with a two hundred dollar haircut and he wore a pair of jeans that likely cost two or three times that. His handmade cowboy boots were python if she wasn’t mistaken. He was with a couple of similar looking and attired buddies. They were all dressed in a parody of the Western wear that the majority of the bar patrons wore every day of their working lives.

  Clearly they were slumming, down from the big city to mingle with and mock the local cowboys. Well, that was okay with her. She wouldn’t compete against a local except for fun, but a tourist like this was fair game. Normally she would have toyed with him, setting him up for the kill carefully. A lot of her marks didn’t even realize that they were being taken. They just thought she’d gotten lucky.

  Mr. Martindale, however, had picked a bad night to come back into Ellie’s life. She was mourning Clyde and not in the mood to take shit from anyone. And now that he wasn’t her student anymore, she could thrash him without mercy. She grinned, but it held no warmth. Of course Toby thought it was all about him and smiled, reaching out to pat her hand.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you.”

  She took a deep breath. She really didn’t want to play this jerk. She wanted to have another drink and remember Clyde. Sweet Clyde had comforted her through some of her darkest days and had been taken from her by some asshole that had left poisoned meat in the dog park where she walked him. Three other dogs had gotten sick, but only Clyde had died. She’d been grieving him since it happened and didn’t have the patience to deal with the young asshole. Maybe she shouldn’t play him, but if she backed out now, he’d think he won.