by Marla Monroe
Knights in Black Leather 5
Their Independent Submissive
Darla has struggled to make a home for her son without his father’s help. Even working two jobs she barely makes ends meet. When Scope returns from the Marines with a friend, can she trust them with her heart as well as her son?
Scope has loved Darla since she was in high school, but there was a three year difference in their ages. When he decided to join the Marines, Scope thought it was better to leave before he lost his good intentions. When he returned years later with a medical discharge, he never expected for her to still be in Perkins City and unmarried.
Darla doesn’t trust easily after Tommy’s father walked away when she told him she was pregnant. Can she trust Scope and Gunner to stick around? She’s afraid to trust her feelings for them, but they intend to prove they can always be counted on.
Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Contemporary
Length: 68,342 words
THEIR INDEPENDENT SUBMISSIVE
Knights in Black Leather 5
Marla Monroe
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at
[email protected]
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
THEIR INDEPENDENT SUBMISSIVE
Copyright © 2015 by Marla Monroe
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-027-5
First E-book Publication: March 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of Their Independent Submissive by Marla Monroe from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Marla Monroe’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Marla Monroe’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
www.SirenPublishing.com
www.BookStrand.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
About the Author
THEIR INDEPENDENT SUBMISSIVE
Knight in Black Leather 5
MARLA MONROE
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
“Come on, Gunner. I’m starved man. Working on the house is killing me. I’m used to regular meals,” Chester “Scope” Nettles said as he got out of the truck.
“Fuck you, man. You haven’t had regular meals since boot camp. I don’t see you drying up and wasting away there, Chester.” Gunner produced one of his infrequent half smiles.
Scope scowled at him. “Stop it with the fucking Chester. Just because my mom calls me that doesn’t mean you or anyone else can.”
He led the way into Rizzoli’s, purposefully letting the door close behind him, leaving Gunner outside. The other man didn’t bat an eyelash. He opened the door and walked in right behind him. His normal unreadable expression had a little something different about it. That worried Chester. Payback was a bitch, and he was usually on the other end of Gunner’s payback. He sighed.
Looking around, he noticed that the place had been through a nice update. Everything looked freshly painted and the tables were new since he’d been there nearly eleven years ago. As he waited in line to order, he caught a glimpse of someone familiar to him, yet different. Was that Darla Sanchez all grown up?
Damn, she looks fucking amazing! I can’t believe how good she looks. I sure hope she’s still as sweet as she used to be. I really missed that about her while I was gone.
“Hey, meathead. Are you going to order or not?” Gunner asked, punching him in the arm.
“Ow. Yeah.” He looked up to smile at Taylor Rizzoli. He hadn’t seen her in years either. “Hi, Taylor. How are you doing?”
“Ches? Is that you? Wow, welcome home,” she said with a huge smile. “How long have you been back?”
“It’s Scope now, and I’ve been back for about a week. How are you doing? What about your parents, the twins?” he asked.
“Mom and Dad retired to Florida. Rod and Rich are planning to move back from Houston.” She shook her head. “It’s really great to have you back. Where’s Darla? You remember Darla, don’t you?”
He watched as she turned and got Darla’s attention. “You’ve got to see who’s here!”
Darla walked over with a smile as she dried a plate. When she looked up, her face paled then turned a dark pink. He loved that about her. She always had blushed despite her darker skin. That initial paleness wasn’t normal, though.
“Ches? You’re home. Um, that’s great. How are you doing?” she asked, looking even more flustered than before.
“Doing great. It’s good to see you again, Darla. You look
fucking amazing, doll. Here, I want both of you to meet my friend, Gunner Barnes. We were in the same unit, and he’s moving back with me since he doesn’t have any family anywhere.”
Taylor quickly extended her hand. “Great to meet any friend of Ches—uh, Scope’s.”
He slowly took her hand and nodded. “Thank you. It’s my pleasure.”
Taylor nudged Darla who, after sneaking another peek at him, stuck out her hand as well.
“Nice to meet you.” Her smile seemed a little brighter for a second, then she pulled back and, nodding, turned and quickly left.
“What can I get you boys? It’s on the house. We’re so happy you returned safely,” she said.
“Oh, that’s okay. We can buy our—” Scope began before Taylor cut him off.
“Nonsense. We all owe you big time for fighting for us. This one’s on me. Now, what do you want?” she asked again, her eyebrows furrowed together as she waited.
He and Gunner ordered burgers and fries then took a seat at one of the back tables. Gunner hadn’t said another word since they’d sat down. Scope was used to his silence, but this time, he wanted to talk out his thoughts.
“I haven’t seen Darla in eleven years. She’s about three years younger than I am, but she’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Man, she’s fucking beautiful.”
Gunner arranged his silverware before looking up. “I remember you talking about her a lot at first. You didn’t talk much about anyone after a few years. Wasn’t sure if you’d gotten a letter that made you stop or if time just deadened the memories.”
“I think time just made everything seem so far away that I didn’t want to think about it as much. Made me homesick, ya know?”
Gunner grunted and shook his head. “Not really.”
Scope wanted to kick himself. No matter how long they’d known each other, he could never quite get it through his thick skull that Gunner had no fond memories of anything or anyone in his past. It was something so foreign to him that he was never able to stop from making stupid statements like that.
“Anyway, she’s really something now. I loved how sweet she was back then. I hope she hasn’t changed any.”
“Taylor has a wedding band on, but your Darla doesn’t,” Gunner told him.
“You were checking them out?” Scope grinned at that. Gunner never really gave women much thought outside of fucking them or dominating them.
“They’re friends of yours, so I figured one of us needed to be sure you didn’t step on any toes by accident. You are known for jumping before you look.”
Scope frowned at him. “I’m not interested in Taylor. We were good friends in school but that was it.”
“And Darla? Are you interested in her sweet or not?” his friend asked him.
He dropped his mouth open for a second before recovering. How did he feel about her? When she’d been 15 to his 18 it had been mostly a type of adoration on his part, but now she was all grown up and hot as hell. Yeah, he could see himself getting to know her all over again. Three years wasn’t much of an age difference now. Besides, she was most definitely all grown up. You couldn’t miss those curves or how her breasts were a generous handful.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am. If she’s anything like she used to be, and with those curves, I can see getting serious about her fast.” He smiled at his friend. “Interested?”
Gunner started to say something when Darla walked over with their orders. She still had that cute blush going on. He wondered if it was from earlier or if it was new and just for them.
“Thanks, doll. How are you doing?” he asked as she set his plate in front of him.
“I–I’m doing well. You look good,” she stammered as she set Gunner’s plate down as well.
Just as she turned to leave, Scope caught her wrist to stop her. She gasped and turned around, more than a little unease in her eyes. He wondered why she would look that way at him. He’d never done anything to hurt her that he was aware of. It bothered him.
“Hey, I was hoping we could get together when you get off work and catch up on what’s been going on around here. If you don’t want to go anywhere, we could sit here and have coffee and some of that amazing pie Rizzoli’s has always been famous for,” he suggested.
“Oh, um, I have to go straight home after work to let the babysitter go. M–maybe some other time.” She smiled shyly at him before hurrying back to the counter.
He quickly closed his mouth once she’d walked off.
Babysitter? She has kids? Is she married?
“Guess you can’t always go by if they’re wearing a ring or not, Scope. Too bad,” Gunner said around a mouthful hamburger. “I sort of liked her, too.”
* * * *
Oh, my God! What am I going to do about Chester—no—Scope? I can’t believe he wants to talk to me. Well, maybe now that he knows I have a child he won’t ask again. That would settle everything.
A part of her was relieved, but another part of her that lay deep in her heart regretted that he wouldn’t ask her again. Darla had worshiped him since she’d been twelve and he a gangly fifteen-year-old. As they both grew older her initial admiration turned into a crush and then into something she hadn’t recognized at the time, but by the time she had, he’d joined the Marines and was gone.
I can’t believe he’s back. I wish…No, I don’t. I wouldn’t have Tommy, and I love him more than anything.
There had been news over the years from his parents of how he was doing, but she only heard bits and pieces of it, and hadn’t heard he was home. His parents had always met him somewhere when he was stateside. He hadn’t been back to Perkins City since he’d left. But now he was back. Was it for good? The tall, dark, and handsome man with him hadn’t been hard to look at either. She was surprised that she even noticed him with Chester right in front of her. Did that mean she wasn’t as attracted to her old crush as she had been in the past?
“Didn’t you used to follow him around as a kid?” Taylor jarred her from her thoughts.
“Yeah. I think I had a case of childhood hero worship back then. He was so cute, all arms and legs.” She smiled, then escaped into the kitchen. She didn’t want Taylor reading too much into it.
“Looks like he’s not married, and he sure was giving you the eye, Darla.” Taylor followed her to the back and leaned on the counter next to the sink.
“Naw, he was probably just trying to figure out who I was at first and then just catching up on what I looked like. He’s older than I am. He isn’t going to want someone my age. Besides, I have Tommy and don’t have time for anything but him. The boy wears me out!” She swished the water around to disperse the dish soap she’d added.
“I don’t know. I think he’s interested. His friend was checking you out, too,” Taylor said.
“No he wasn’t. I didn’t even see him look up from his meal.”
“Oh, he looked up, all right. When you walked away his eyes were perusing all over your ass, girlfriend.”
“Taylor!”
“Darla!” Taylor grinned. “All I’m saying is that he seemed interested. You should see where it goes, have a little fun for a change. You’re a great mom to Tommy, but you need to have some fun, too. He’s old enough for you to start thinking of finding someone you could settle down with the rest of your life, or two someones.”
Darla narrowed her eyes at her friend’s teasing. Since Taylor had fallen in love and married two men, she thought everyone should settle down with two men. She talked continuously about how great it was and how much they satisfied her in bed. It was enough to make Darla want to scream, but at night, naughty images fueled her dreams with the dark pleasures of two men.
“I don’t have time or the energy for a relationship right now. Maybe in a few more years, when Tommy is old enough to hang out more with his friends, I can think about it. I doubt Scope is going to wait around. With all the pretty single women in this town, he’ll snatch one up real quick,” she told her friend.
&n
bsp; “Maybe, maybe not. I guess time will tell. I still think you should jump on him with two feet. Grab his buddy while you’re at it. He looks to be a hot one. You know how the dark brooding guys are. Deep down beneath the surface they’re commanding and will turn your socks inside out when they touch you. Sure you want to let the chance to find out pass you buy?” Taylor asked with a smug smile on her face.
Darla sighed. Taylor was her friend but she was also her boss. As much as she wanted to tell her to back off and drop it, she didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Instead she just ignored her and continued washing up the dishes.
“Okay. I’ll give you a break. I need to get back out front anyway,” Taylor said with a sigh. “Do me a favor and just think about it, okay, hon?”
Darla looked up, and after a brief second nodded. She would think about it. Only to remind herself that it was foolish to even consider starting a relationship of any kind with him. He was out of her league with a hint of confidence she’d only dreamed of having. He was larger than life to her now, and his friend just as commanding with his dark good looks and the brooding expression he had going on.
Besides, he’d looked appropriately shocked to find out that she had a son. No doubt he’d already forgotten all about her or asking her to talk over coffee. Kids usually turned men off, since to them it signified that a woman was looking for a husband and father for her children and not for a man to love and devote herself to.
She shook her head and tried to drop the thought and concentrate instead on the dishes and figuring out what to cook for dinner that night. Tommy wasn’t usually a picky eater, but he leaned toward the foods that weren’t as good for him. She tried to have at least three healthy meals a week, but when she was exhausted from working such long hours it was so easy to wimp out and pop some chicken fingers or fish sticks and fries in the oven.
