by Tara Rose
She’d never felt this close to them in all the time they’d spent together, and she knew that no matter what happened with all the nonsense going on in the background, her heart and her body now belonged to them in a way she’d never dreamed possible. She couldn’t let them go now. Not ever. She wanted them both, and she knew no other man could ever take either of their places. She was theirs, and they were hers.
They pulled out, and helped her over to a thicker bench with pads on either side for her knees and a raised pad at the end of the top one which pushed her ass high in the air. She lay across it and cried out in pleasure as they took turns fucking her in the pussy. They weren’t holding back now—finally—and Giselle loved every dirty, raw second of it.
“You’re so fucking tight,” said Elliot. “I swear I want to fuck you every second of my life forever.”
He pulled out and Kade took his place, smacking her ass cheeks as he thrust in and out like a piston. “You’re the sexiest, most incredible woman on the planet. Please tell me you love this, baby.”
“I love it, Sir. I love it.”
Each thrust pushed her clit against the warm leather underneath her, and as a third orgasm washed over her, she could only whimper while they still pounded into her from behind. When they each finally came, it was with quick, jerky thrusts and cries that competed with the second wave of thunder and lightning outside.
They took turns holding her and stroking her damp hair as the rain beat down on the roof again, and the woods were lit up every few seconds. One of them carried her to Elliot’s room, and she stumbled to the bathroom, then crawled into bed between them.
Kade gathered her in his arms and Elliot embraced her from behind. She was nearly asleep, despite the noise outside, when Kade’s whispered question woke her back up.
“Did you mean it?”
“What?”
“When you said you were already there.”
Her pulse raced. It was too dark to see his face, but she’d heard the question. She was certain of it. His speech was a bit slurred, as though he were half-asleep, but she had no doubt about the words he’d whispered.
She listened to the rain and thunder, her thoughts racing. This was it. All she had to do was tell him. “Yes.” She listened for an answer or any response, but heard only his gentle breathing. Had he heard her?
“What about you?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Did you mean it when you said you both were as well?”
He still didn’t answer. She swallowed hard, waiting, but he was asleep. And she didn’t think he was faking it. Had she imagined the question, or had he really asked it?
She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Her entire body was weak, and her mind was so sleepy. But she was happy and sated. Happier than she’d ever been. She snuggled against their warm bodies and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Kade woke while it was still dark, and he didn’t know if he’d be able to get back to sleep, despite the rain and his physical exhaustion. His and Giselle’s whispered conversation in his near-sleep state drifted through his mind, until he wasn’t entirely sure it had been real.
He was so in love with her it was ridiculous. He always had been, if the truth be told. He needed to tell her that. There was no reason not to. Except for Elliot. Did he feel the same way? And if he did, then what? Could they really make this work? Share her in and out of bed?
Sure, others did it. But just because it worked for one pair of Doms didn’t mean it would work for another.
Kade left the room and opened up Elliot’s laptop. Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided to do a little more research on what the two were trying to dig up. The sky was beginning to lighten in the east, so it wouldn’t be too long now before the sun rose.
Elliot had put all his links and notes into a Word document, so Kade started there. He’d found out quite a bit already, but there was a piece of the puzzle missing. The more Kade dug, the less he believed that Paolo Greco existed at all, except on paper. He found nothing on the man in New York or Louisiana, but he found plenty on Gregory Flores. He definitely existed.
When Kade came across a site with pictures of a benefit that Gregory and Staci had attended two years earlier in New York City, he pumped his fist in the air. Zooming in on a picture of the two smiling, though, his elation turned to anger and fear. He and Elliot were right, and this picture proved it. Gregory Flores and Paolo Greco were the same man.
* * * *
Elliot woke up to the sound of knocking. It was light outside and he could still hear rain. Kade wasn’t in the bed, but Giselle was, still sleeping. Who was at his house this early on a Saturday morning? Had Kade left and locked himself out? That seemed unlikely.
He crawled out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts, and followed the sound, reaching the front door just as Kade did, looking both excited and very upset. “I have something to show you on your computer.”
“Okay…Who the fuck is pounding on the door?” Elliot opened it frowning. “What’s wrong? Are your parents all right?”
“What? No. I mean yes. They’re okay, but I have to talk to Giselle. It’s about our mom.”
Elliot stepped aside to let Kirstie into the house. “Hang on. She’s asleep.” When Elliot stepped into his bedroom, Giselle was awake, looking around for her clothes. “They’re still in the room where we left the lube.” He dug in his dresser and pulled out a long-sleeved shirt. “Here you go, beautiful. Your sister will just have to deal with it.”
“What? Which sister?”
“Kirstie.”
“Why is she here? What happened?”
“I don’t know.” He took her hand and led her to the great room, where Kirstie was pacing. Kade called from the kitchen that he was making coffee.
“Finally,” said Kirstie, glaring at Giselle. “You need to hear this. You all need to hear this.”
“All right. Calm down. You’re scaring me. Are Mom and Dad all right?”
“Yes. I mean they’re not hurt or anything.”
Kade returned to the room. “It’ll be ready in a minute. What’s going on?”
“Last night Tim came to the bar. It was almost closing time. He was drunk, but not incoherent. You know what I mean?”
Elliot pointed toward the nearest chair. “Sit down, Kirstie.” She was making him nervous with her wide eyes and over-the-top hand gestures.
She took the seat, but it didn’t help. She still looked too wired. “He insisted on speaking to Mom, but I listened at the door to the storeroom. He told her to tell you to stay away from these two, and she told him to mind his own damn business. Then he said, and I quote, ‘I know by now you’ve told your daughters what I did to you.’ Mom said, ‘I haven’t told anyone about it, you pig. But if you threaten me again, I’ll tell Asa you came here today, and I’ll tell anyone else who will listen what you did to me.’”
“Tell him what?” asked Kade. “What was Tim talking about?”
Kirstie stood again, waving her hands. “Hang on! Hang on. I’m getting to that part. Then Tim said, ‘I’m not warning you again. Tell Giselle to stop seeing Kade and Elliot.’ Dad came up behind me then and asked me what I was doing, and Tim came out of the storeroom. Dad and Mom got into an argument over what he was doing in there alone with Mom, so I left.”
Giselle looked thoroughly confused. Kade left the room and headed for the kitchen, so Elliot put an arm around her shoulder. “What was Tim talking about? Do you know?”
Giselle shook her head and then addressed her sister. “Do you know? Did you ask her?”
“I did ask, but she told me to mind my own business and refused to say anything else about it.”
Kade returned, handing them each a cup of coffee. He took a sip, then glanced at Elliot and Giselle in turn. “Enough of this shit. I’m calling Asa and asking him to come over. We all need to be in the same room when he does. He needs to hear this story, and he needs to know that Tim told us Norm was in his office yester
day.”
“I agree,” said Elliot. “This is nuts. It’s time to get this all out in the open. Enough secrets already.”
Kirstie put up her hands. “I only came here to tell Giselle what happened. I tried to call last night but she didn’t answer her phone, and I wasn’t going to come looking for her in that storm. I came over as soon as I woke up.”
“And you really know nothing about what Tim meant?”
She rolled her eyes. “Elliot, I swear to you if I knew, I’d have told my sister by now. Your families are both nuts. I want no part of this.”
“Thanks, Kirstie,” said Kade, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Can you find your way back home, or do you need a ride?”
“I drove. I’m out of here.”
Elliot massaged Giselle’s upper back. She looked like she was going to pass out. “You okay?”
“I don’t know. I’m so confused…what the hell did Tim do to my mom? Why didn’t I know about it? Why won’t she talk about it? I mean think about that…what would you assume had happened?”
“Hang on, okay? Let’s not assume anything yet.”
Kade left the room, but they could both hear him down the hall on the phone.
“Let’s wait for Asa. He’s a straight-shooter. If he knows anything, he’ll tell us now.”
“Why? What’s changed?”
“Lots of stuff.”
When Kade returned, he told them Asa would be there in an hour. Giselle said she needed a shower before he arrived, so while she went to take care of that, Kade motioned Elliot to his computer in the other room.
“Here’s the proof I’m sure Asa will want to see. Gregory Flores is Paolo Greco.”
“Son of a bitch. Tim never checked their backgrounds. What else would explain this? Asa is going to shit his pants.”
“But at least now he’ll know we’re just as eager to out Staci and Gregory as we are to find out what happened between Laila and Tim. He’ll know we’re not doing this just to protect Giselle.”
“Yeah. Okay. You’re right. He’s going to tell us the whole truth this time. I’m sick of this shit.”
“So am I.”
They high-fived each other in agreement, then each man went to shower and dress before Asa arrived.
* * * *
Giselle sat in an armchair, her hands folded in her lap, while she listened to Elliot, Kade, and Asa reveal what each had found on their own during the past week and a half. Her knuckles were white and her mouth ached from biting the inside of her cheeks. How many secrets and lies did Asa and the others hold in their hearts every day of their lives?
Asa, Kade, and Elliot had discovered that Gregory Flores and Staci Wanamaker were most likely still married, and they owned the parent company for What’s Your Pleasure. Asa revealed he had found out late last night that Floremaker was also the parent company for Pony Tails.
“They hid it well, but I finally found it. I was going to tell you both today. You saved me a phone call.”
The man she’d met and been introduced to as Paolo Greco didn’t exist. She’d actually met Gregory, and both he and Staci were still on the island. She watched Asa’s face as Kade and Elliot told them about the odd visit from Tim, telling them to watch Norm. When they said Tim had told them Norm had been caught in his office, Asa swore under his breath.
“That’s it. That’s the missing piece. He was looking for something.” He turned his cold gaze on Giselle. “You said Norm and Staci were in your parents’ bar in May, right after her interview, correct?”
Giselle nodded because she knew if she spoke right now, she might start crying. This was all too much to take in at once.
“She’s put him up to this. I’d bet my life on it. Norm was snooping in Tim’s office.”
“Looking for what?” asked Elliot.
Asa shrugged. “I don’t know. Anything. Something he could take back to Staci. It doesn’t matter now. Norm is gone. I’m firing him. I don’t give a shit who he’s related to by marriage. I won’t have spies in my company.”
He glanced toward Giselle again and sighed heavily. The hair on the back of her neck prickled as she watched his eyes. He looked like a man about to confess a dark secret. She reached for the nearest hand, which was Kade’s, and squeezed it with all her strength. But it didn’t help. Her body went cold inside, and she wondered if she’d ever be warm again.
“I’m sorry, Giselle. I kept this quiet because Tim is a fuckup and has been all his life. I was trying to protect him. Your parents are good people. I hope you know that.”
Once again, she didn’t answer him. She couldn’t. All she could do was watch his face and wait for him to tell her what she already knew in her heart to be true.
“Years before Neeva was born and your parents got together, Tim took your mother out a few times. She…she refused his advances, and he got rough with her. He didn’t rape her, but he came close. She came to me, not knowing what to do about it, and I told Tim if he ever did anything that fucking stupid again I’d kill him.”
Giselle closed her eyes for a brief second until the room stopped spinning. Even the shocked outbursts from Kade and Elliot didn’t help. Asa had known the truth all this time. That was why he didn’t want her seeing Kade and Elliot. “You thought I knew.” Her voice came out in a whisper, but he heard her. “You thought all this time that I knew about it.”
Asa nodded. “I assumed your mother had told you, at least, after all this time. But now I realize she never told anyone. Probably not even your father.”
Kade was on his feet. He let go of her hand and curled both of his into tight fists at his side. “That’s why you didn’t want us seeing her? You were afraid she’d tell us?”
Asa had the grace to look ashamed as he nodded.
“And that’s why you and Tim have stayed so close to her parents,” said Elliot. “Not because you like them. To keep them quiet.”
“That’s not entirely true. I meant what I said. They’re good people. But yes of course I had to protect Phoebe’s Playthings from a scandal like that. That’s something you two never understood. You still don’t.”
“Fuck you,” said Elliot. “Don’t you sit there and lecture us on business acumen.”
“Would you rather I have told you both the truth when you started seeing her?”
“Yes. You should have told all of us. Instead you made it sound like Giselle wasn’t worthy of us, which is bullshit.”
“It wasn’t my truth to tell. It was Laila’s.”
“You might be able to justify your intentions, but your particular methods for keeping us and the company safe from this scandal, as you call it, sucks.”
“Point taken. But what’s done is done. I can’t change it. And it’s a moot point now, anyway. You have my blessing to keep seeing Giselle.”
“We don’t need your blessing,” said Kade.
“But you do need your jobs.”
They exchanged a glance, and Giselle became confused all over again at the grins on their faces. “No we don’t.”
“That’s right,” said Elliot. “We don’t. So I’ll ask you not to threaten us with them.”
Asa glared at one then the other, but Giselle didn’t need to know him as well as Kade and Elliot did to see he knew they’d quit, and he didn’t want that. If it weren’t for the circumstances surrounding this conversation, it would be fascinating to watch these two bring this fearsome and arrogant man down. They were his equals right now, and he knew that.
“So now what happens?” asked Kade. “What are you going to do to make this right?”
“I’m going to confront Tim. And then I’m going to find Staci and her husband, and kick their asses off this island.”
“Good luck with that one. You don’t own it.”
Asa laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Wanna bet? There isn’t a cop here who doesn’t owe me ten times over. If I want someone off this island, never to return, it’ll be done.”
Chapter Eighteen
> After Asa left, Giselle told the guys she needed to talk to her mother. They drove her into town, but she asked to speak to her mother alone, so they told her to call when she was ready to return to their homes, and they’d come and get her.
Giselle hadn’t lived in her parents’ home for years, but she still had a key. They’d be at the bar soon, getting ready to open, but it was still too early for that. She let herself in and found her mother in the kitchen. As soon as she turned around and looked into Giselle’s eyes, she knew. Somehow she just knew.
Giselle started crying before her mother did, and the two embraced. “Let’s talk outside,” whispered her mother. “I don’t want your father or sisters to hear this.”
They walked along the beach, hand in hand, just like they used to do when Giselle was very young. Her mother pointed out the caves she used to play in. “I hated it when you all would go in there. I was so afraid you’d fall into a hole or something.”
“They’re too shallow for that, Mama. We explored every inch of them. No secret chambers or underground streams. Very boring, as far as caves go.”
“I still hated it.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell Dad what Tim did to you?”
She shook her head. “What would have been the point? We have to live and work in this town. The Durantes and Raleighs own all of it, even if that’s not on paper. You know that. Our business is thriving, and that in part is because of Asa.”
Giselle stopped walking and stared at her mother. “What do you mean?”
“He’s been helping us all these years. I assumed you knew that part, too. We need tables or chairs, they’re paid for. When the stove went out suddenly years ago, we had a new one the same day. Things like that.”
“You mean blackmail money.”
“No. I mean helping us. I had no obligation to take the money. I could have refused it.”
