Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  That made Maddox smile.

  “You good?” Maddox asked.

  Diesel slightly lifted his mug and muttered, “I will be.”

  Then he took another sip.

  “We should call Mol,” Maddox told him. “Check in. See how things are going down there.”

  Diesel lifted a big hand and rubbed the top of his hair making the thick mess an even bigger mess before his hand dropped to his thigh like he couldn’t hold it up anymore.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, and sucked back more joe.

  “We can wait until you’re at least a quarter human,” Maddox told him.

  “Obliged,” D murmured.

  Maddox grinned again.

  He’d gone back to the pot, glugged more creamer into his mug, refilled his cup and resumed his position at the sink, leaning his ass against it to enjoy the always entertaining show of Diesel becoming human when the call to Molly became one they would take, not give.

  His phone on the counter rang and it was their girl.

  “Mol,” he muttered, snagging his phone, taking the call, hitting speaker and walking to the kitchen table, greeting, “Hey, baby.”

  “Hey, Mady,” she replied as Maddox set the phone to the table and sat down at corners to D.

  “You got me and D, you’re on speakerphone.”

  “D’s up?” she asked.

  “Yup,” Maddox answered.

  “Is he alive?” she asked.

  Maddox chuckled and looked to D who was staring at the phone like he didn’t know what it was, but at least the sides of his lips were turned up.

  The caffeine was kicking in.

  “He’s at least breathing,” Maddox told her. “How are things down there?”

  “Well . . .”

  She trailed off.

  Maddox stopped looking at the phone and started glaring at it as he felt his neck muscles get tight.

  Molly had a great family. They’d been a little confused at the way of things in the beginning but they managed to pry open their minds, this happening as they witnessed Maddox and Diesel and how they treated Molly.

  After that got through, it was all good. They traded off Thanksgivings at her folks or Mad’s (and Mad’s folks, including his little sister, were live-and-let-live people—they’d all loved D from the beginning and when Molly had come around, that same shit happened immediately). They got both guys birthday presents. Sent hilarious Christmas gifts, like matching hideous sweaters for the three of them.

  Holly was included in that.

  She was a good gal.

  But she was also totally high maintenance and could be a pain in the ass.

  Especially Molly’s ass.

  “What’s up?” D barked and Maddox’s eyes shot to him.

  Caffeine eventually woke him.

  But anyone fucking with Molly would make him instantly alert.

  Fucking fuck, but he loved that guy.

  “Okay, well, um . . . she’s already picked out my bridesmaid dress,” Molly told them. “She had it picked out before I got here. I just have to go this morning and try it on to see how she feels about it.”

  “Good,” Diesel bit out. “So you’re comin’ home later today?”

  “Actually . . . no,” she said, but didn’t say anything more.

  “Molly, spit it out,” Maddox ordered.

  “Okay, well, Dylan is . . . not a big fan of Holly’s bridezilla. He’s been getting up in her face to calm down. I think this weekend was more sister time to play off me to make her feel better that her going off on one with this wedding was an okay thing to do. The problem was, as Mom was following me down here yesterday, they had it out and Dylan put his foot down. He said if she didn’t get her head out of her ass and stop spending so much money on what amounts to a day in their lives, they were going to have problems.”

  Dylan was Holly’s fiancée. Good man. Loved Holly. Doted on Molly like she was his little sister. Treated D and Maddox like bros.

  No clue how it came about, because by the look of him—all poster boy for the boy next door—you’d think he’d be the opposite. But stereotypes went both ways. Dylan didn’t blink when he’d learned Holly’s sister lived with and slept with two men, that was how it was, not a phase—a relationship that had traction and would extend through the future.

  For Dylan, it just was what it was.

  Fuck, Dylan had asked D and him to be ushers at the wedding.

  Maybe it was because he was a history professor at U of A.

  Gotta love those liberal college types.

  “I’m not thinkin’ that was the way to go,” Maddox muttered.

  “Well, no, but you see, what I didn’t know and you don’t know until right now is that Mom and Dad gave her a budget and she’s exceeded it by about seven thousand dollars.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Diesel clipped.

  “I know,” she said softly. “So her and Dylan have to cover that and she’s not even done planning. So then she um . . . she um . . .”

  She trailed off.

  “Molly,” Maddox growled.

  “Well, you know Mom met me last night so she could follow me down for this weekend so she could be there too. But when we showed, Holly was a mess, crying and carrying on and saying she didn’t know if she could marry a man who doesn’t get how important a wedding is for a woman. And then she told us she’d told him that it would all be good because she’d talk to Mom and Dad about it and get my budget for a wedding, because obviously I’d never have one, and everything would be okay.”

  The air in the kitchen could not be cut with a knife.

  It’d take a chainsaw.

  “Say that again,” Diesel demanded, which was good because Maddox was so ticked, he couldn’t get his lips to move.

  “You heard me,” she whispered, then took a beat and spoke normal. “Dylan called her a selfish bitch and stormed out, which she thought was insanely out of line. I think she expected Mom and me to agree with her but I took one look at Mom . . . and you know how she gets red in the face when she’s drinking? Well, it was like that. And she just took off. Walked out before she said anything she’d regret and stayed in a hotel last night.”

  “And you’re still there because . . . ?” Maddox prompted irately.

  “Because she’s my sister.”

  “Come home,” Diesel ordered.

  “Honey, I calmed her down and we talked—”

  “We might not get a bullshit vanilla wedding but whatever we have will be what you want with flowers and cake and a beautiful dress and shit like that and she knows that so throwin’ your lifestyle out like that is not on. Come home,” Diesel demanded while Maddox stared at him.

  He was on board with that.

  He’d always been on board with that.

  But Maddox could not describe the depths of relief he felt hearing Diesel say that with the power he put in the words that he was still on board with that.

  “I told her that after Mom left and I got her to calm down,” Molly replied, “And she realized she was over the line. It was like the haze of wedding fever lifted and she got it. She apologized to me and called Dylan and they talked for about two hours while I talked with Mom, and then Dad because Mom called him and he was pissed, then Mom again. And now we’re about to go have breakfast with Mom so Holly can sort things out with her and then we can go look at this gown. But I think I should stay. We have to go over what she has planned and cut out seven thousand dollars, something that’s probably going to take a lot of work. But in the end, she just . . . needs me.”

  Good down to her soul, their Molly.

  The one individual in that scenario who had the right to lose their mind was her and she was the one who calmed everyone down.

  “You need us, we’re there. You need to leave, go. More shit happens and you get upset, don’t drive. We’ll come down and get you,” Maddox told her.

  “It’s all going to be okay now,” she assured.

  “If it’s not, you heard me,”
Maddox replied.

  “I heard you, baby,” she said softly.

  Maddox drew in a breath.

  “So how are my boys doing?” she asked, moving them away from that subject.

  “We’re good,” Diesel grunted.

  “What are you up to?”

  Maddox and Diesel locked eyes.

  Then Diesel said, “Maddox nearly fucked me through the wall last night. No worries, baby. There might be drywall damage, but if there is, we’ll fix it.”

  They heard her pretty laugh through which she said, “Too bad I missed that.”

  D dropped his eyes to the phone in a way Maddox couldn’t read. “We’ll reenact it when you get home.”

  Apparently he was over it if he was joking about it.

  Or at least Maddox was going to go with that.

  “Awesome,” she replied. “So while the cat’s away, the cocks play?”

  “Pretty much just fuckin’ each other’s brains out,” Diesel shared casually.

  “Don’t get too much in, save some for me,” she said.

  “Always ready for Molly,” Diesel told her gently.

  “Love you, D.”

  “Back atchu, Mol,” D replied.

  “Love you, Mady,” she went on.

  “You know you got it back, baby,” Maddox said.

  “Okay, gotta let you go. I’ll call tomorrow before I hit the road. ’Kay?”

  “Call whenever, if you want, we’re here,” Maddox ordered.

  “I know. But I’ll probably be busy. If I can, I’ll connect later. Now gotta dash.”

  “Later, babe,” Maddox said.

  “Later, Mol,” Diesel said with him.

  “Later, boys,” she replied.

  The screen muted and Maddox again looked to D.

  “We gotta take care of that for her,” Maddox told him.

  He meant making moves on their future.

  Diesel knew what he meant.

  So D sucked back more coffee, and after he swallowed, he murmured, “Yeah.”

  “House is done, bud, pool, yard. She won’t want anything big but we gotta give her what she wants and be ready to cover it.”

  Diesel nodded and took in more joe.

  Maddox felt his stomach tighten as he threw out, “And we got a future to plan for.”

  With that, he meant building a family.

  D knew what he meant with that too.

  Diesel’s eyes came right to his.

  “Yeah,” he said softly.

  On board.

  Commitment ceremony.

  Kids.

  Still soft, Diesel said, “She needs a ring.”

  Diesel, absolutely not the shopper unless Mol was there (not that Maddox was but he could buy himself a pair of jeans and had opinions on couches and shit) offered, “I’ll look into those.”

  Diesel nodded again, set his cup aside and watched his hand do it.

  Then his gaze came direct back to Maddox.

  “Come here,” he ordered quietly.

  In that voice, with that look on his face, you’d have to bolt him down with chains to keep his ass in the chair at corners to D’s.

  But he was not chained so he got up and barely took a step before D’s long arms were reaching out.

  He grasped Maddox by the hips and pulled him around so his ass was to the table, D shifting in his chair to face him, his head tipped back.

  He didn’t take his hands off Maddox’s hips when he asked, “You sleep good?”

  “Nope,” Mad admitted.

  “Me either,” Diesel muttered, his eyes dropped and he couldn’t miss Maddox’s meat pushing at the bottoms, something that had started to happen at “come here” and culminated the minute D got his hands on him.

  But something shifted in his gaze as he stared at Mad’s junk.

  Mad read it and his balls drew up, his chest warmed, and D’s fingers moved into the elastic waistband, pulling the bottoms down to Mad’s thighs, his cock snapping free.

  Diesel took hold and Maddox tried to watch as he bent forward and swallowed him.

  But the instant he had that mouth, his head dropped back and his hands went behind him to brace against the top of the table because D had a hot, wet mouth, power behind his pulls and could seriously suck cock.

  Christ.

  Right before he blew, Diesel popped him out and pushed his chair back, getting up.

  D left him there and went to open a drawer and Maddox knew what that was about.

  Who they were and how they all went at each other, certain things needed to be convenient pretty much everywhere.

  So he watched as D turned from a drawer, his sweats now tucked under his balls, his hand greasing his dick with lube, his other hand carrying a condom.

  D caught his eyes and came back to Maddox. He whipped him around, bent him over the table and Maddox felt that slick cock bump his ass as D reached around and rolled a magnum condom up his dick.

  D just got it to the stem when he positioned and drove in.

  Chest pressed to the table, head back, Maddox took the so-serious-in-their-fucking-beauty-they­-were-almost-spiritual thrusts of D’s cock.

  But he felt his legs shake when D’s chest came down to his back while his hips bucked against his ass.

  “Remember?” he asked.

  The pajama bottoms.

  The dry fuck.

  Cum all over the floor.

  The morning after their second date.

  When it began.

  “I remember. No lube that time, though, and no condom,” Maddox grunted.

  “Yeah, we’re gentlemen now, though, bro.”

  Maddox torqued his neck to look over his shoulder at D’s face and grinned a grin that looked cruel on the harsh face God gave him but D understood was actually hungry as D pounded in.

  “We’re good,” Diesel whispered.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  He hoped to fuck that could be believed.

  “Yeah,” Maddox growled.

  “Gonna make you come now, my man,” Diesel warned.

  “Go for it.”

  Maddox thought he’d then do what he did. Pull away, lift up, hold Mad’s hips and watch his cock ram him.

  He didn’t.

  The table moved and they moved with it but Diesel stayed chest to back as he took Mad’s ass and stroked his cock until Mad jerked back. Pressing his shoulders into D’s pecs, he gritted his teeth and shot into the condom seconds before D grunted in his ear, drove home and came up his ass.

  He mentally prepared for D to pull out, go bro, end it, put a line under it, communicate clearly to Maddox what this was and who they were.

  He didn’t and Maddox had to prepare more when Diesel ran his hand up his side, in between chest and back, over his shoulder, up his neck and into his hair, cupping his scalp, pressing him forehead down to the table.

  Not a domination.

  Just post-fuck touch.

  Jesus.

  D’s lips came to his ear as he flexed up his ass and a low noise sounded in Maddox’s chest.

  “Wanna take in a movie today?” he asked.

  Maddox closed his eyes and pushed out, “Yeah. Go out to breakfast now, though.”

  “Yeah,” Diesel agreed and flexed again.

  Fuck.

  Shit.

  Did what happen last night penetrate?

  Was Diesel thinking on things?

  Thinking them through?

  “Shower first,” Diesel growled.

  Maddox opened his eyes, turned his head and caught D’s gaze.

  They should slow their roll. There were a lot of reasons Molly was theirs, including her sexual appetite. Two days without her men, she’d come home with needs they’d need to assuage.

  He knew that.

  D knew that.

  Still, what came next out of his mouth came right out of his mouth.

  “Fuck yeah,” he growled back.

  Diesel smiled.

  That smile.

&
nbsp; In the very beginning, the body had caught his eye. And that face, a man’s face, all man, lumberjack or linebacker.

  Yeah, when Maddox first saw him, he wanted to fuck that body looking at that face then he wanted to dominate that body, and while doing it, if he was looking at that face, that definitely would work.

  But when Diesel had smiled, that had been it. Maddox had known it was going to be a fuckuva lot more because he was going to make it that way.

  D slid his hand down to the back of Mad’s neck, gave it a firm squeeze, but that was all he got. No kiss. Nothing else.

  That said, he slowly lifted away and carefully pulled out.

  But he stayed close and it was D that slid the condom off.

  Diesel yanked his sweats over his junk as Maddox lifted up and righted his pants, watching Diesel open the cupboard and toss the condom in the kitchen bin.

  D then sauntered to the table where Maddox still was, snatched his mug, and from up close said, “More coffee, Mad. Then meet you there.”

  D went to the coffeepot.

  Maddox watched him go, wondering if he’d fucked some sense into his man last night.

  He didn’t ask.

  He didn’t push.

  For now, he thought his best play was to let what just happened stand.

  So he headed to the shower.

  Right Here

  Diesel

  “IF THERE’S A medical condition that’s the opposite of balls dropping, that just happened to me,” Maddox muttered as he and Diesel walked out of the jewelry store.

  They’d had breakfast at Snooze. They’d taken in a movie at the Fashion Mall. Then they’d taken this unusual opportunity of both of them being at a mall to hit a jewelry store to look at diamond engagement rings for Molly.

  Neither of them had ever bought a significant piece of jewelry for a woman before.

  D’d had girlfriends prior to Molly and he couldn’t say he’d gone the chocolates and flowers route often, but he could get his romance on. At a festival once, he’d even bought a long-term girlfriend he’d had in his twenties a silver necklace with a heart pendant that he thought she’d rock, he’d been right and she’d loved it.

  Maddox, he knew since they’d talked about it before and after Molly, also had his share of babes. But he was not the romantic type so even Molly got her flowers and little nothings that she acted like they were everything from D on Valentine’s Day and her birthday, though D made Maddox sign the cards.