Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  Their conversation was weighty, but still, D had to smile about the truth of that.

  “We’re gonna put a ring on Molly’s finger, D. We’re gonna commit in front of God and family and everybody. We’re gonna make babies with our girl. We’re gonna build a family,” Maddox declared. “And if those assholes aren’t all in with that, they’re not in at all.”

  His last words rang so close to what Tommy had said years before, Diesel felt a chill hit the back of his neck.

  “Yeah?” Maddox pushed.

  “What do I have to give to all that?” Diesel asked.

  “Sorry?” Maddox asked back, his graveled voice now gritty.

  “Built-in babysitters. Lots of Christmas presents. Big Thanksgivings. Huge-ass graduation parties. And that’s all you and Molly and your people. And then there’s me. I got nothing to give but me.”

  “And Rebel, and if you don’t know this, it shocks the shit out of me, but she’s three aunts, two grandmothers, and a couple of dozen nosy but well-meaning cousins all rolled into one,” Maddox returned.

  That also was the damned truth.

  And he wanted to smile at that too.

  He just couldn’t.

  He turned his head to look at Maddox again but he didn’t get to say what he intended to say.

  Maddox was still speaking.

  “And if you do not get that even if you didn’t have Rebel, you’d be enough, you’d be all we needed, then Mol and I are seriously falling down on the job.”

  That hit him low in the gut and right in the throat.

  He looked back out the windshield. “We need to quit talking about this.”

  “We needed to start talkin’ about it about four years ago. Now we’re here, last thing we need to do is quit.”

  He again turned his eyes to Mad. “I’m serious, bro. You need to let this lie.”

  Maddox glanced at him, back to the road, and let that sit until he turned on his signal to go left on 44th.

  “For now, brother,” he murmured after he stopped at the end of the line of cars waiting to make the turn.

  Diesel shifted his gaze out the side window.

  That feeling hit him in the gut and throat again after Maddox made the turn and they were nearly to Indian School Road.

  It did because Mad said quietly, “Thanks for tellin’ me about Tommy.”

  D wanted to pass it off with a “whatever,” but that wasn’t in him. Not then. All his cocky had left the building.

  He felt weird.

  Exposed.

  Raw.

  Wrong.

  And he had since that scene with Sixx watching.

  Blurting that shit about Tommy hadn’t helped.

  He didn’t know what would help.

  Except maybe Molly getting home and them getting back to where he felt right. Secure. Good.

  He waited until Maddox turned into their drive before he declared, “Think we should lay off the fucking until Molly gets back. She’ll be rarin’ to go and we need to be ready for her.”

  Mad pulled his truck in beside Diesel’s, shifted into park, switched off the ignition and turned to D, resting his forearm on the wheel.

  “Man, if you think you’re gonna tell me about the first ass you took, the first cock you took, the first man’s mouth wrapped around your dick and you think you aren’t gettin’ me stakin’ my claim to all of that, think again. We get in there, I’m goin’ at you, brother. We can rest up for Molly over a beer later and lay off each other tomorrow, but only after my cum’s deep up your ass.”

  “Seriously, Maddox—” D started, and Mad’s hand snaked out, catching him at the back of the neck.

  He held hard and leaned in.

  “That body’s mine,” he growled. “You’re tired, I’ll hold. You’re raw, I’ll hold. You’re slippin’ into your head about shit that’s crystal clear to everyone but you, no fuckin’ way, D. You don’t hold me back like that, not like that. You know who owns you and you think about it for a second, you know, tellin’ me about Tommy, even if it’s ancient history, your man’s gonna stake that claim.”

  That shit hadn’t occurred to him.

  Nothing had before it all came rushing out of his mouth.

  But giving it a second to think about it, Maddox did not lie.

  Still, D pulled at the hold and felt his face get hard. “I didn’t tell you so you’d—”

  “I don’t give a fuck,” Maddox bit off. “You keep this up, I’m gonna strap you down and switch you red then fuck you until you make a permanent dent in the bed and you’ll be in no condition to help me take care of Molly when she gets home.”

  D stared into his eyes and kept pressing against the hand at his neck but otherwise didn’t move until his whole body jerked when Mad’s other hand shot out and gripped his junk.

  Then he smiled that hot, nasty smile and D, already hard, only got harder taking it in.

  Mad didn’t miss it or the opportunity to do something about it.

  He dragged the apple of his palm tight along D’s length as he dug his fingers in at D’s neck and his smile turned into a hotter, nastier sneer that made Diesel’s balls draw up.

  But all he said was, “Yeah.”

  Then he let him go, got out of the truck and Diesel watched him walk to the door.

  You love all of a person and if you don’t, you don’t love them at all.

  He had that from Molly.

  It fucked with his head, but he had that from Maddox too.

  He gave it back to Molly.

  And he knew it fucked with Mad’s head he couldn’t give that back to Maddox.

  And that fucked with D’s head.

  “Christ,” he exploded, eyes on the side garage door Maddox had disappeared through.

  The man needed to lock his truck and D didn’t have the key.

  “Fuck,” D muttered, threw open his door, jacked his body out of the cab and stalked after Maddox, his hard-on rasping painfully, which meant spectacularly, against his fly.

  He barely made the door to the garage when the locks on the truck beeped.

  Maddox was waiting for him to get out.

  You love all of a person and if you don’t, you don’t love them at all.

  Diesel entered the garage to see Maddox had made it to the inner door and was holding it open, looking at him.

  “Switch?” he asked, brows up, mouth twitching.

  “Fuck you,” Diesel muttered.

  Maddox chuckled and it was as rough as his voice.

  So of course that went right to his dick.

  “You try to hold that door open for me, I’m gonna punch you in the throat,” D warned.

  At that, Maddox let out a deep, harsh belly laugh that made Diesel wonder how his fly was holding in his junk, he was now so hard, it was a miracle his dick didn’t punch through the zipper.

  Maddox walked through the door two steps before Diesel made it to him.

  D lifted a hand and caught it before it closed and he walked in behind Mad.

  It was fucked, but without hesitation, he followed Maddox to the bedroom, hoping he’d earned the switch.

  He had.

  Maddox

  On bare feet, Maddox walked down the hall to their bedroom silently.

  He stopped in the door.

  The room was dark. The sun had gone down after he’d left earlier. But the Edison bulbs outside along with some muted moonlight coming in the big window that had a view to their pool illuminated Diesel’s big body in the bed.

  Naked, on his stomach but shifted slightly to his side, back turned to the door, sheets tangled around his calves, one long leg partly hitched, flesh so raw, Maddox could see the welts in the shadows, plug snug up his ass.

  D was out.

  He would be.

  They’d had a marathon session where Maddox had forced three out of him, to Maddox’s one.

  Another man or another time, he’d walk into that room for more together time that might not include fucking, instead of walk
ing away from it alone.

  But he walked away from it, pulling his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans.

  He hit the kitchen, nabbed a beer, popped the cap and headed out to the back patio.

  It was August. The heat was definitely still on the Valley and would keep it in its grip for another two months, at least.

  Maddox had grown up in Phoenix. Unlike ninety-five percent of the population, he was comfortable in what he was wearing at that time of the year. Jeans and a tee.

  It wasn’t like he didn’t feel it. It was just that he not only didn’t mind it, he loved it.

  He’d been other places. The minute the temperature dipped below seventy, he hated it.

  Lower than that? Trussed up in parkas and scarves and gloves and shit?

  Not his bag.

  He sat on a slider that had a view to the French doors, put his feet up on the ottoman, engaged his phone and muttered to it, “Call Molly.”

  He put it to his ear.

  “Hey, Mady,” she greeted on ring two, sounding sleepy.

  He was surprised.

  It wasn’t late. Maybe seven thirty, latest eight.

  Shit, that sister of hers was running her ragged.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “No, it’s just been a big day.”

  “Tell me about it,” he urged.

  “Is D there?”

  “He’s passed out.”

  He heard her soft, sweet laughter then her quiet, “You so totally aren’t saving any for me.”

  Maddox grinned.

  “I’ll share in total tomorrow when I come home,” she went on. “If I tell you, I’ll have to tell Diesel or you’ll have to tell him and I might as well tell you both. But we’ll just say, the dress works, but cutting seven thousand dollars from a wedding spend is hard work to the point it might be impossible.”

  “Sorry, baby,” Maddox murmured.

  She was Molly, so she switched in right away and her tone was different when she asked, “You okay?”

  As always with his Molly, he didn’t beat around the bush.

  “You know Tommy Barnes?” he asked. “D’s Tommy?”

  Her tone was vastly different, the alarmed variety, when she repeated, “D’s Tommy?”

  “His first dude, started it all for him. Back in high school.”

  She was silent.

  Totally.

  “You know him,” Maddox said, not knowing what that made him feel but he did know it wasn’t good. “He told you.”

  “I’ve never heard that name in my life,” she replied. “He’s never mentioned him. He’s never mentioned his girls. That’s not true. He did once, saw it bugged me, so he hasn’t done it again.”

  That was D. All about Molly.

  “And none of the guys?” Maddox asked.

  “Nope,” she answered in a way he knew she was also shaking her head. “But he shared with you?”

  “Just came right out with it in the truck on the way home from a movie this afternoon.”

  “Whoa.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s Holly and Dylan and the wedding,” she decided.

  Maybe.

  More like Sixx and knowing she witnessed that kiss Maddox laid on him during their scene.

  “And Sixx,” Molly went on.

  Maddox grinned again, reminded like he frequently was of one of the many reasons he loved their girl.

  And then she gave him more.

  “You guys aren’t right,” she declared.

  “I’m tryin’ to make headway with that,” Maddox told her.

  “Knew you would, honey,” she whispered.

  Yup.

  Totally loved her.

  And total pressure.

  Because it was on him to do more than make headway with Diesel.

  “Is it working or are you trying to do that simply by fucking our D until he passes out?” she asked.

  “Seein’ as he gave me his trip down memory lane with that Tommy guy, I’m thinking it’s working.”

  “Of course, and that’s good, so maybe . . . baby steps?” she said tentatively.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Though I get the feeling from him it was a giant leap, not a baby step. So I’m gonna let it go and lay off for a while.”

  “Mm-hmm,” she murmured.

  “Couldn’t read that, baby,” he told her. “Give me more.”

  “I don’t know, Maddox. I mean, we’ve never pushed him, except that once, when you suggested letting that Dom work you, and that didn’t go too good.”

  That was an understatement.

  “But, I think he’s been opened up now,” she continued. “I think that’s what’s behind the change in him these past few weeks. And I don’t know if it’s in a good way where we can get in there, or a bad way, where if we try to push, he’ll shut down.”

  “I’m where you are, Mol,” Maddox agreed.

  “Did you hear what Sixx said to him?” she asked.

  “When?”

  “After that scene, after you guys brought those baddies down at the Bolt. When we were saying goodbye in the parking lot. Did you hear her tell him that the scene you two had was beautiful?”

  Maddox lifted the forgotten beer he was holding between two fingers to his mouth and took a draw, his eyes moving from the doors to the pool.

  He should turn on the light. When that pool was glowing, it looked the shit.

  “Mady, did you hear me?”

  He swallowed. “I heard you, baby. And yeah, I heard her.”

  “I think . . . he was . . .” He listened to her pull in a breath. “I think he took that in. Like, she’s a . . . I don’t know. Like a counselor. Like an objective observer. Something like that.”

  “You think we should get Sixx to observe again?”

  The way she spoke next, he knew she was shaking her head. “I don’t know. But he respects her. He likes her. She was like, one of us almost immediately, not, you know one of us, one of us. But she got us. She felt natural being there. I think he felt that too.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “Did you? Did you feel that from her?”

  Truth be told, he’d be happy never taking another Domme, never going back to the Bolt to do their gig public, just having what they had at home. When D played him, he got all he needed. When he or they took Molly, the same. What they had together, the three of them, was it for him and always had been. He couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy it when they let themselves get worked by a Domme so they could get off and Molly could watch and get off too. But he’d be good without it.

  So in the beginning, he could take or leave Sixx.

  But after their scene, when she’d looked right in his eyes, put her hand on his chest and he knew how deep her empathy ran to where he was at, having his boy like he craved having him, but for too short of a time, way too short, and having to give that up . . . for D.

  Yeah.

  She’d felt natural then. Not one of them, one of them, but an integral part of that scene that took some of the bitter out of the bittersweet.

  Not much, but since the bitter stuck in his craw, even a little bit helped.

  “I had to work my way up to it, baby, but she was solid and I can’t lie and say it didn’t mean a lot she got it,” he told her.

  “Yeah. You being D’s Dom, her being a Domme, you’re like, mind melded or something.”

  He chuckled.

  “I think we should just feel our way, honey,” she said softly. “I think right now, if he’s opening up, he’d be easy to spook and that’d be bad.”

  He didn’t want to give it to her, but he had to.

  “Fucked him angry last night, Molly. He told it true, nearly fucked him through the wall, but I did it because I was pissed he pulled the bro after having drinks with those assholes he works with. Coming home, I went at him, let him have me, it was good, and then he goes bro. Pissed me off.”

  “I see that,” she said gently.

  “I took c
are of him but he saw through it and we fought.”

  “Oh, baby,” she whispered. “Did you tell him why you were angry?”

  He did not.

  “Just told him I thought we’d disconnected and I was trying to reconnect.”

  “Well, that’s one way to put it,” she muttered.

  “I want all of him, Mol,” he told her.

  “Of course you do,” she said in a soothing, musical coo. “I want you to have all of him too.”

  “I’m not a patient man,” he reminded her.

  “You’re the most patient man I’ve ever known.”

  He blinked at the pool, his chin jerking in.

  “Just stay patient, Mady,” she carried on. “A little while longer. We’ll get him there.”

  And if we don’t?

  The question lay unspoken between them as Maddox took another swig from his bottle and moved his eyes back to the door when he sensed movement.

  In his cutoff sweats, Diesel was making his way to the fridge.

  “He’s up,” he told their woman.

  “Yeah, and Holly’s opening another bottle of wine. I’ll let you go. Tell D I said, ‘hey,’ and I should be home around two or three tomorrow. Mom’s leaving earlier because she’s got farther to drive so she’s not stopping around. I’ll text when I’m on my way.”

  “’Kay, baby. Try to have fun, tell your family we said hello and see you tomorrow.”

  “I will. You too. And love you.”

  “You got that back,” he replied.

  “’Bye, honey.”

  “Later, Mol.”

  He hung up and watched Diesel pop the cap on a beer.

  He continued to watch as Diesel came to the door, through it and walked out, closing the door behind him as he lifted the bottle and took a pull.

  He moved to the chair opposite Maddox and eased in.

  Maddox felt one side of his lips snag up.

  “You took that plug out, bro, you’re gettin’ more of your monster,” he warned.

  Diesel adjusted his ass in the padded slider in a way that Maddox knew he still felt his man’s switch and his ass was definitely full.

  “Not my first rodeo with you, Mad. Who were you talkin’ to?”

  “Molly,” Maddox answered. “The dress worked. The seven thousand dollar cuts are not. And Holly’s opening up another bottle of wine.”