From Sir, With Love

by Rachell Nichole

  “I know. You were hoping I was someone else. It’s okay.”

  He sighed. At least he didn’t have to explain. “What are you doing here?”

  “Are you going to invite me in or just leave me standing in this tiny hallway?”

  He laughed, and moved back to let her in. “Hate to tell you this but the apartment isn’t much bigger.”

  She came in and quickly scanned the studio. “I see that.”

  “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

  “It’s time,” she said cryptically.

  She rolled in a small carry-on and released the handle and handed him an open envelope. It had Benson’s handwriting on the front.

  “Evangeline is coming home. I don’t know how long she plans on staying. I’m not even positive where she’s been the past month, as I’ve barely heard from her. But she’s ready to sign over the house. I was hoping you would be, too.”

  He nodded, trying to follow what she was saying, but his focus was stuck on two things. Evangeline home. And the envelope in his hands.

  “Where did this come from?” He would tackle the most immediate problem first, because it was concrete and here.

  “Please don’t hate me.”

  “What did you do?” he demanded.

  “That came for you a month after you left on the tour, and I opened it, and I kept it. You would have come straight back, or flown to Europe to chase after her if I’d given it to you sooner, despite the fact it’s the opposite of what Benson suggests in his letter.” She walked to the bar stool in the kitchenette area and sat. “Just read it. Hopefully you’ll understand.”

  He pulled out another letter from his brother, resisting the urge to scream at his sister from keeping it from him.

  Leo,

  It’s time, brother. I know that I asked too much of you. I’m sure that my Angel has put you through your paces, and that it’s been an uphill battle to honor my wishes. I’m smiling now, thinking about what trouble Evangeline has likely been for you. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been gone. A hard year, I’d wager. But I’d also assume it’s been an exhilarating one as well.

  He had no idea. Leo couldn’t help but argue with Benson in his head as he read. What a meddlesome pain in the ass. How could he possibly know all this?

  I’m sorry I kept Evangeline from you for so long. But I knew if I asked you to come home, to repair our relationship, to go back to the way things were before Renee, that Evangeline would choose you too. And unlike with Renee, she would actually want all the things Renee only thought she wanted. I hope that you will both forgive me my selfishness, and my posthumous matchmaking.

  I want you to know that I love you, brother, and if Evangeline is as true a match to you as I think she would be, don’t give her up on my account. Please give her some time to figure out for herself if she wants to keep you. I’m sure this year has been hell on her, too. But don’t wait too long. Too much time and she’ll have rebuilt all her defenses against you. Don’t let her go without a fight, Leo. She deserves the world. I hope you can give it to her.

  Yours, always, Ben.

  Leo sat down hard on the edge of the arm of the loveseat. “I...” He looked at Charlotte. “How could you have kept this from me?”

  “Would you have waited, would you have given her the time she asked for, the time she needed? Or would you have gone off half-cocked and given up what you’d always wanted for her?”

  “Obviously I wouldn’t have waited. Not after reading this!”

  Charlotte held up her hands, her shoulders raised. “Of course you wouldn’t have. Which is why I didn’t forward the letter to you. Benson had already done a number on the both of you with his damned letters.”

  He paused at this, his anger momentarily lessening. “Yeah, Evangeline told me about Ben’s letter to you, and his letter to her, just before she left. You both had to figure out what you wanted.”

  “I knew what I wanted, damn it.”

  “I get that. But how long do you think it would have taken you, sitting in Kempert Manor, losing the chance at what you’d always dreamed of, before you started to resent her for making you stay?”

  He shook his head. “She wouldn’t have made me stay. I would have chosen to stay.”

  “Chosen to stay for her. It would have been the same thing. Even if she didn’t ask you. You can’t live your life for someone else, Leo. Trust me, I know. But now, you’ve both had some time. Seven months of you getting your career back on track, of Evangeline finding the thing she needed.”

  “What thing?”

  Charlotte’s smile was small, tinged with sadness. “She wouldn’t tell me, actually. She said she couldn’t tell me what she’d found, that I’d have to find it myself.” She shook her head. “Never mind about that. What you need to know is this: she’ll be there tomorrow, Leo. She promised she would come in person, and sign the paperwork, pick up her boxes from storage, and take them with her.”

  “Take them where?”

  “I don’t know. But I do know where she’ll be tomorrow. I brought the deed with me, of course, if you’d rather sign it here and I can meet with her myself tomorrow.”

  “Not on your life.”

  “I didn’t think so. Now, why don’t you take your sister to lunch in the Big Apple and show me around a little bit. It’ll get your mind off of what the hell you’re going to say to her tomorrow.”

  He stared at her for a long moment. “You know, I want to be really pissed at you.”

  “But you know I did it for your own good?” she said hopefully.

  He wouldn’t go that far. “No more meddling, damn it. Not from you, and not from Benson, okay?”

  “I don’t make any promises that our brother didn’t somehow rig it so letters would keep coming for a decade after his death, but I promise to stay out of the way from here on out. What are you going to say to her?”

  “I have absolutely no idea.”

  “Well, might I suggest you figure it out.”

  Indeed. It was time to show his minx that they could have it all. That he chose her. Not because of Benson, not because of obligation, or anything else. But because of her. Because she was incredible, and strong, and he’d never wanted anything more than to spend the rest of his days sparring with his little minx.

  ***

  Evangeline sat in the conference room at the bank, waiting for Charlotte. She leaned back in the chair, watching the dust motes float in the sunlight. She was picking up her stuff later today, to move it home with her. Home. It had taken her more than half of a year to find it. To realize that home wasn’t in Tuscany or Paris, Vienna or Prague, or even Spartan. Home was a Chelsea townhouse, that she’d been renting for two months. Tomorrow, she would close on the property.

  Because despite her resistance, Charlotte had insisted she’d made enough with the B&B in the past few months that she could afford to buy the house from her and Leo. It wouldn’t be a lot of money, but coupled with what she had left from Benson’s insurance, it would be enough for the down payment and to get by for a few months until her job at the Balance Clinic was established.

  She’d never thought of herself as a city girl before, but she had fallen in love with New York on her first day. After Chicago, no other place held the same sizzle for her, no matter where she landed. So she’d thought, what the hell? Maybe she’d get that same feeling being in the same city as Leo. What she hadn’t expected was that even never seeing him, even knowing they would never run into each other in the sea of more than eight million people, was that she would love it.

  She’d found it. That thing she’d been searching for. That sense of home. That drive of purpose. She’d started looking for short-term housing that first night in the hotel room. Sure, a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that she’d known Leo was here somewhere. That she could find him if she wanted to. And she would. She just had to put a few roots down first. Before she sought him out, before she asked if he
could still want her. Before she offered to be his minx in truth.

  Where the hell was Charlotte?

  She looked up as she heard footsteps. When the door opened, it was Leo who walked through the door not his sister. Her breath caught. She couldn’t breathe for a full minute. He just stood in the doorway, staring at her, like he’d been struck by lightning. Since that’s exactly how she felt, she also couldn’t move.

  They just stared at each other for long moments. She finally remembered how to breathe, and said, “Leo.” It came out a breathy strained whisper. Barely audible. But he reacted like she’d shocked him.

  He jolted and then rushed into the room, shoving the door closed behind him. Then he began to pace.

  “You look... fantastic,” Leo said as he moved. She watched his muscles bunch and release as he strode up and down the room on the other side of the conference table.

  “I ate my way through Europe,” she said, chagrined. It was the first thing that came to mind. She had, in fact, eaten her way through Europe. She had fundamentally changed her relationship with food in a way that she hadn’t thought possible.

  He laughed, dark, and rich, and the sound made her want to cry. Fuck, she’d missed that sound.

  “I didn’t know you’d be here,” she found herself saying. He was fucking up her plans. Again. She’d wanted a few more weeks. She’d needed a few more weeks. To get established at the clinic. To close on the townhouse. To get moved in and settled. To figure out exactly what she was going to say to him. She hadn’t figured that out yet.

  “It’s my house, too.”

  “I know that,” she tried not to snap at him, but failed.

  He stopped pacing and leveled a Dom glare at her. His eyes sparked at her from across the small conference room, his brows raised.

  “Where’s Charlotte?” she asked.

  “She’s running late.”

  “Convenient.”

  “Indeed.”

  Had his sister set them up?

  Those fucking Hastings.

  “I’m doing this wrong,” he finally said with a sigh. He turned to her. “You’re an idiot,” he announced.

  “Excuse me?”

  He held up his hand. “Shut up and let me finish, damn it, minx.”

  She shut her mouth.

  “You’re an idiot. You should know better by now,” he continued. “I love you, even though you’re a moron. Even though you fucked everything up, even though you didn’t trust me enough to help you fix this. You...” he stopped, staring at her, his throat working hard as he swallowed.

  Tears sprung to her eyes.

  “You are the most insufferable man I’ve ever met, and I fucking can’t stand you most days, but damn it, I love you,” she finished Heidi’s line for him. The big gesture. He’d quoted almost the entirety of the big gesture from her favorite book. Her favorite movie.

  “You were right. The book was better,” he said into the silence.

  She laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes. “You fucked up my entire plan.”

  “I don’t remember that line.” He grinned.

  “That’s because it’s an Evangeline Turner original.”

  “I shouldn’t have let you go for so long.”

  “But you should have let me go?” she asked.

  He nodded. “You needed to do whatever it is you’ve been doing the past seven months, and so did I. Because we both needed to know.”

  “Know what?” she was going to make him say it. Yes, they’d both just told the other they loved them. But those had been movie quotes. Not them speaking to each other.

  “Know that we didn’t want to live without each other. Not that we couldn’t. Just that we didn’t want to.”

  She nodded. “And that we were choosing each other.”

  “Exactly. I needed to know that it was me you wanted. Not just any Dom. Not a stand-in for Benson. Not a replacement, either, mind you. But me. Not anyone else.” His brows rose, questioning.

  “Yes. It’s you, Leo Hastings. And me? I need to know that you don’t want to be with me out of some heroic sense of responsibility. I’m not to be your burden.”

  “Never. Just my favorite pain in the ass.”

  She laughed. “You got that right.”

  “Come here.” His voice was a hard order.

  She rose instantly, rushing around the table and he yanked her into his arms. “You’re never to leave me again, you hear me, minx? I don’t care how fucked up or stupid we both get, I don’t care what life throws at us. You can handle it. I know you can. No more running away from me. Not ever.”

  “Yes, Mister,” she whispered.

  “Good girl. Now, kiss me.”

  “The no kissing rule is officially dead then, huh?” she teased. She couldn’t help it.

  “Minx...” he warned.

  She kissed him. She kissed him like she’d been wanting to do from the minute she’d called aardvark. She poured everything she felt for him into that kiss. When they finally broke apart, she was gasping, her head spinning, her knees wobbling, her core damp.

  Fuck, she’d missed this.

  Leo never wanted to stop kissing her. His minx. She was here. She was warm, alive, healthy in his arms. Her lips were swollen from his kisses. He wanted nothing more than to lie her back on this table and have his way with her. After making her ass red for her ongoing impertinence. They could figure out the logistics later. She’d hate living in his dinky little studio in New York, but if that’s what they had to do temporarily, that’s what they’d do.

  Where had she been staying? Was she planning to stay in Nevada, even though Char was buying the manor? He didn’t care about the details. All that mattered was that Evangeline chose him. She wanted him. She loved him. They would figure out the rest. Together.

  “How long are you in town for?” she asked him.

  He blinked, focusing, chasing away the fog of desire ruining his head at the moment. “I have to be back to the theater Wednesday.”

  She nodded. “Good. We can get things situated with Charlotte today. I have to leave tomorrow, though.”

  He groaned. “Where are you going now?” He’d just gotten his hands on her. And he’d have to let her go again tomorrow? It was torture.

  She laughed. “I, um, have an appointment, to close on a townhouse.”

  “Where?”

  “Chelsea.”

  His hopes soared. “Please tell me you mean Chelsea, New York?”

  “I do.”

  He hugged her close to him. “I really did fuck up your plans, huh?”

  She laughed against him, wrapping her arms around his back. “You really did. I was planning out a whole big gesture of my own. You beat me to the punch.”

  He nuzzled against the top of her head. “I did.”

  “I’m gonna have to find a way to repay you for that one,” she said, poking him in the ribs.

  “Hey, now. You better be careful, minx. You’re far overdue for spankings.”

  She shivered against him. “Don’t you threaten me with a good time.”

  He laughed and pulled back so he could look down at her. “You really are a brat, you know that?”

  “Of course I do, Mister. And what are you going to do about it?”

  What, indeed. “Oh, I have a few thousand ideas.”

  Her eyes glinted. “I’ll bet you do.”

  “I plan to spend an inordinate amount of time implementing every one of them.”

  She grinned, and then pushed back, sashaying away from him, wriggling her hips. “Promises, promises...”

  She winked at him, and his cock twitched.

  Oh, minx. You’re going to regret that.

  He would make sure of it.

  *

  Did you love Leo and Evangeline’s Story? Want even more kinky fun? Check out Amber, Tobias, and Nathaniel’s story in Between Sirs.

  Maybe instead of one Sir, what she really needs is two. But two possessive dominants could never agree to share one
submissive, could they? One-Click Now

  Between Sirs Excerpt

  “She wants what now?” Tobias Powers asked the other Dominant.

  “A play partner who can be both hard and gentle with her,” Chase said before lifting a glass to his lips and sipping his drink.

  When The K Club’s owner had asked him to drinks, he’d thought it odd, but he’d figured maybe the guy was looking to get into investments or securities and this would be a business meeting. Clearly, he’d thought wrong.

  “That’s not me. Also... are you starting a dating service for the members?” Tobias had never found himself lacking for willing partners at the club on the nights he was able to get away from work long enough to enjoy himself.

  Chase smiled. “I know that’s not entirely you. I like to know our members pretty well. And no, we’re not exactly a dating or matchmaking service, strictly speaking, but I think I’ve got a bit of knack for spotting good matches. Sometimes people, like Amber, come to me looking for suggestions or an introduction to someone in particular. It’s why we have members fill out profiles when they join.”

  Tobias nodded. “Makes sense.” He remembered doing his profile a few years back when he’d joined the kink community. Chase’s club was the only one like it around. “So, why are you coming to me when you know sweet and gentle is pretty much the opposite of what I offer subs?” Tobias helped himself to his own bourbon, savoring the taste.

  Chase cleared his throat and leaned back in the lounge chair opposite him. “You’re probably going to think this is crazy, but I was thinking what Amber might actually need is two Doms who could share her. Someone like you who is about as demanding as I’ve ever seen, and someone whose style is gentler.”

  Obviously, his initial reaction was hell no. Dominants didn’t share submissives as a rule. Play partners were something else though. “She’s looking for something permanent, though, right? We’re not talking about someone who wants a few different play partners?” Before he told Chase he was nuts outright, he wanted to have all the facts.

  “Correct. I know that a relationship with more than one other person can be challenging. I mean, shit, some days just a relationship with me and Liz seems impossible. Especially when we first started dating. So finding three people who can all be together is a tall order.”