“That’s only because she’s never played his way before.”

   “She’s never played, period. And why would your way be any different?”

   “Because my way is Dom Rules Croquet,” he whispered in her ear and then he gave her earlobe a sharp bite.

   His words sent shivers down her spine, and a combination of arousal and excitement coiled in her belly.

   “Leave it to you to find a way to make croquet kinky.” She tilted her head, giving him better access to her neck.

   “It’s a gift.”

   “Thank god.”

   He laughed and doing so, his lips tickled her.

   “Mmm.” She hummed. “We could stay here and be kinky inside.”

   “Tempting, but we’ll save inside kink for later.”

   “Promise?”

   “Most assuredly.”

   They were late meeting everyone outside. Though the white collared shirts and long shorts weren’t their normal style of dress, she had to admit the men looked pretty good. Abby and Julie must have just recently been told about Dom Rules Croquet, because they were both looking over the course with trepidation.

   “I still don’t see how you can make it anything other than croquet,” Julie told Abby.

   Abby raised an eyebrow. “Really? I’m more shocked it took them this long to do it.”

   “Okay. True.”

   “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Cole said and then winked at her. “My servant girl needed some extra encouragement.”

   Her heart did the little extra skip thing it normally did when he looked at her that way.

   He walked toward the playing area, stopping near a wooden box. “I set everything up this morning. Now, in regular rules, the purpose is to get your ball around the course in the proper order of wicket and stake.”

   It sounded boring as hell to Sasha. Sort of like pool, but outside.

   “But then I thought,” Cole continued to speak, “anyone can play croquet. Let’s do something completely different. I actually had plans to do more activities outside today, but in light of a particular neighbor who can’t take no for an answer, I decided we’ll just do this outside and move everything else inside.”

   He had been less than delighted to hear about Mary Catherine’s unexpected visit the day before. But even he had to admit Abby had handled it brilliantly.

   “For today,” he said, “we’re going to take turns. Every time you properly get a ball through a wicket, you get to pick something from this box. Fair warning, everything has been wrapped, so you won’t know what you get until you’ve already picked it.”

   From the expressions on the men’s faces, Sasha suddenly had a good idea of where the men went the day before.

   “It’s just the women picking? Right?” Daniel asked. “I don’t think it’ll be fair otherwise since we know what’s in the boxes.”

   “Good point,” Cole said. “Nathaniel?”

   “Sounds good to me.”

   “Let’s get started,” Cole said.

   Everyone agreed he should go first since he was he only one who’d ever played before.

   “Not that it really matters,” Sasha said. “He’s not picking a box.”

   He gave her a knowing wink and the game started. Abby was the first woman to get a ball through a wicket. She groaned and asked Nathaniel, “Do I have to?”

   “No.” He crossed his arms. “But if you don’t pick, I will—and I helped wrap.”

   With a resolute sigh that sounded completely fake, she walked to the box, reached in, and pulled out a brown paper package.

   “Do I open now or wait?” She balanced it in her hands, then held it up to her ear and shook it.

   “I think now,” Nathaniel said.

   With an excitement that dispelled any notion she wasn’t looking forward to seeing what she’d picked, Abby tore through the paper and pulled out a blindfold.

   “A blindfold.” She held it up. “Kind of boring. You had all morning yesterday and the best you could come up with was a blindfold?”

   “Really?” Nathaniel asked.

   “Yes,” Abby kept on, much to everyone’s surprise. “You’d think someone with all your experience could do better than that.”

   “Is that a challenge?” Nathaniel asked. “For me to come up with a not-boring way to put the blindfold to use through all my years of experience?”

   Abby realized what she’d said and started stammering, “No, uh, I didn’t mean boring. Did I say boring? What I meant was, uh, oh crap . . . bewitching. Yes! A blindfold. How bewitching.”

   “Bewitching?” Nathaniel was obviously having fun at his wife’s discomfort. “I’m not sure I’ve ever heard you use that word before.”

   “It was on my Word-of-the-Day calendar.”

   “Now you’re just digging yourself a deeper hole. You don’t have a Word-of-the-Day calendar.”

   But Abby was undeterred. “It could be on my phone.”

   “Is it?”

   Finally caught, Abby took a deep breath and admitted defeat. “No.”

   Her husband didn’t move, didn’t say anything; he simply waited.

   “No, Master,” Abby eventually said.

   “Yes,” Nathaniel said. “I’ll definitely have to think up a very non-boring, but utterly bewitching way to use the blindfold tonight. Especially since there was very little usage of the word Master in your entire exchange.”

   Abby wisely didn’t say anything else.