“Of what?”
She gives me a wry smile. “Of losing you, of course, darling.”
“That’s not going to happen. You know that.”
“Fear isn’t rational,” she responds. “I’ve had a week to get used to the idea. I had no business putting any kind of pressure on you, Maddox. But thinking of Damon takes me back to a time in my life when I was desperately unhappy. But as much as I’d like to pretend that it never happened, that’s not fair to you. You’re an adult, capable of making your own choices. And if you want to make contact with Damon, you should.”
“I’m just curious.” I try to make my mother understand. “You’re a homebody. Dad was too. All my life, I’ve felt different because of the wanderlust running through my blood, and now, it turns out I get it from him.”
Her smile is strained. “You’re more like Stuart than you think,” she says. “You might move around a lot, but you don’t shirk your responsibilities. You came home when Stuart got sick. You were here for him when he needed you.”
Her voice is sad. Neither of us likes to think of those twenty months. Or the two years afterward.
“Did you ever end up talking to Gage?”
She shakes her head. “No.” She makes a face. “I should talk to him, I suppose. He is my son, after all. But Maddox, I don’t want to.”
“So don’t. You owe him nothing. Not after what he did.”
She inhales sharply, and her shoulders stiffen. “Speak about the devil,” she says softly. “Guess who’s making his way over to our table?”
You have got to be kidding me.
“Hello, mother. Maddox.” Gage pulls a chair up to our table and sits down without waiting for an invitation. “It’s been a while.”
My mother’s face is pale and set. Any accusation I think of making about this being an ambush fades the moment I see her reaction. She’s just as shocked as I am.
“What the fuck do you want?” I growl, keeping my voice low. Lorna Pritchett’s eyes are practically bulging out of her head, and her phone is out on the table now. No doubt she’s taking our photos, and we’ll be front page news on her gossip blog tomorrow. The last thing I want to do is give her more fodder than she already has. “I’m assuming this isn’t a social visit.”
“It’s not.” He pulls two envelopes from his jacket pocket. “An invitation to my engagement party,” he says, loud enough that the tables next to us can hear. Knowing Gage, that’s not an accident.
In fact, knowing Gage, he probably tipped Lorna Pritchett off that he was going to be joining my mother and me for breakfast.
He puts the invitations on the table in front of us. I make no attempt to reach for it. “What makes you think I have any interest in attending?”
His smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’m sure you don’t.” This time, his voice is low enough that he can’t be overheard. “But if you spurn my invitation, it’s bound to set off another round of gossip. You might not care about that, Maddox, but I’m quite sure mother does.”
“You’re blackmailing us into attending your engagement party?” Fucking Gage. This apple fell a fucking mile from the tree.
“Blackmail is such a sordid word.”
Our waiter appears at our table and asks Gage if he wants a menu. “Just a cup for coffee, please,” my brother replies. “I won’t be eating.” He waits for the waiter to retreat out of earshot. “Show up to the party, satisfy my future father-in-law that there’s no estrangement between us. Have a couple of drinks, make some conversation.”
“Or what?”
“Don’t test me, Maddox,” he replies, as cold as ice. “You have the luxury of getting on an airplane and disappearing into some far-flung corner of the world until the gossip dies down. Our mother, on the other hand, does not.”
I put my hand over my mother’s. “After everything you did, you cannot seriously be pretending to give a shit about her.”
“I intend to marry Melissa Lee with her father’s blessing,” my brother replies. “To make that happen, I’ll do whatever it takes. You can play ball for one evening, or we can do this the hard way.”
He gets to his feet. “I’ll see you at the party. It’s in two weeks. Wear a tux.”
We’re both silent for five minutes after Gage leaves. Finally, my mother draws a long, shuddering breath. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” I signal for the check. Right now, the only thing I know is that I’m going to Club M with Avery in less than three hours. Gage’s bullshit can wait.
24
Avery
On Saturday morning, I wake up knowing what I have to do. I refuse to dwell on the detective’s message. I won’t give Victor the satisfaction of messing up my weekend.
But I have to tell Kai and Maddox the truth about the past. About why I left. I’ve fallen in love with them, and if there’s to be any hope of our relationship working, I need to be honest.
It’s ironic. I’m a therapist. I counsel my clients to tell the truth on a daily basis, but when it comes to following my own advice, I don’t have the greatest track record. Not at all.
Maddox knocks at my door at noon precisely. He takes in my red-and-black halter-neck floral dress, and his eyes are appreciative. “I hope you’re packed,” he says with a grin. “Kai’s double-parked downstairs.”
I smile back at him. “I’m all set. I didn’t want to risk a spanking.”
“Liar,” he chuckles, picking up my overnight bag. “You’ve been angling for a proper spanking since Saturday.”
My cheeks flush. I can’t deny it.
I grab my purse and a light jacket and lock the front door behind me. “Am I going to get one this weekend?”
“We’ll see,” he replies, infuriatingly non-committal. “If you’re a good girl.”
Kai’s waiting downstairs in a black sedan. Maddox slides into the back seat and gestures me to the front. I get in, feeling flushed when I remember what the three of us did last night in Kai’s backyard.
“Hello, Avery.” From the smirk on Kai’s face, he’s reading my mind perfectly. “Ready for tonight?”
“I can’t wait,” I reply. There’s no point in being coy and playing hard-to-get isn’t my style.
“Me neither,” he says with a smile. “You forgot your present last night.”
“I did?”
“Your buttplug. Maddox, can you hand it to Avery? She can put it in right now.” He gives me a sidelong look as he maneuvers in and out of traffic. “If you’re wearing panties, now would be a good time to take them off.”
I make a strangled noise in my throat. “You want me to put the buttplug in now? Anyone can see us.”
“Hmm.” He appears to consider my request and then shakes his head. “You’ll be fine. Nobody’s really going to be able to see in unless we come to a dead halt.” His lips twitch. “It’s Saturday. The odds are in your favor.”
“You’re insane.”
Maddox tsks at me from the back. “Avery,” he chides. “There’s a penalty for your hesitation. If you don’t pull down your panties right now, I will insert the buttplug once we get to the club, right in the middle of the main floor, with everyone watching. Do you understand?”
A shiver of lust runs through me, and my insides twist with desire. “I’ll do it now,” I say hastily. Then I remember my resolution to tell them the truth. “There’s something I need to tell you first. Something serious. I want to get it off my chest before this weekend.”
Kai’s eyes meet Maddox’s in the rear-view mirror. “What is it?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and twist around in my seat so I can see both Kai and Maddox’s faces. Face your fear, Avery. “It’s about Dublin.”
They both go still. “Continue,” Maddox says at last.
That’s not an encouraging reaction. Then again, what did I expect? Champagne and confetti? What I did ten years ago was horrible. Unforgivable.
I lace my fingers in my lap. “Victor Lowell was
an acquaintance of my parents,” I say quietly. “I think he did some business with my father from time to time. He creeped me out a little, but mostly, I didn’t pay much attention to him. I was too busy with my life. Juggling school and my bartending job at the King’s Arms.” My cheeks heat. “Crushing on the two of you.”
Kai gives me a sidelong look at that, but his expression remains unreadable.
“Then one day, everything changed. My parents told me that my father’s company was on the brink of failure. Even worse, he’d borrowed a lot of money from the Irish mob, and he had no way of paying it back.” I close my eyes, remembering how scared I’d been that evening. “Victor had offered to bail him out, on one condition. That I marry him.”
“Your parents asked you to marry someone twenty-seven years older than you for money?”
“I had no choice,” I whisper. “The Irish mob always collected. I couldn’t let my father be hurt. Or worse.” I can’t look at them. “I said yes. I thought we’d have a long engagement, but I was wrong. The wedding date was set four weeks out.”
“I felt trapped. Caged. For two weeks, I held it together as best as I could. I attended fittings for a wedding dress. It was as if a weight was pressing down on me, and the only time that lifted was when I was working at the bar.” I gaze at my lap. “When I saw you.”
“Then, one day, two weeks before the wedding, I snapped. I wanted to run away. I didn’t think I could go through with it.” I don’t tell them how Victor had barely said two words to me during that time. I don’t tell them how nervous I’d been around him. What use is that? “I decided to go to Dublin. A schoolmate of mine lived there. I thought I could crash at her apartment while I looked for a job.”
“Instead, you invited us to Dublin with you.”
“I was selfish,” I admit quietly. “I was hopelessly infatuated with both of you. You were so different from anyone I’d ever met in my life. So much more sophisticated. Controlled. And in the back of my mind, I thought that if I had to go through with my marriage for the sake of my parents, I wanted to grab a little pleasure for myself first.” I exhale shakily. “As the clock ticked down to the wedding, I realized I couldn’t let my father be hurt. I couldn’t be that selfish. So I went back to London and did what they expected. I married Victor.” I blink back the tears from my eyes. “I used you. I’m so sorry.”
There’s a long period of silence. It’s not until we merge onto the highway that Kai finally breaks the quiet. “You were so fucking beautiful,” he says softly. “When you asked us to go with you to Dublin, I couldn’t quite believe it. I felt so unbelievably lucky.” He exhales, long and slow. “You were gorgeous, and you wanted to sleep with both of us. For any other man, two weeks would have been enough.”
For any other man. “It wasn’t for you?”
Maddox answers. “We wanted you, Avery. Yes, there were tons of complications. I was never in one city long enough. Kai still had to finish his residency. But yes, we wanted things to work. I’m not sure if I’ve ever wanted something to work so badly.”
I clench my eyes shut. Even now, even after all these years, there’s a trace of hurt in his voice.
I remember the morning I realized I had to leave. I woke up at the crack of dawn. For hours, I’d stared at Kai and Maddox’s sleeping faces, tears streaming down my eyes.
I had everything. I’d known it. Walking out of there was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Face your fears.
“Is it too late?” I ask, my voice so low that I can barely hear myself. “Have I thrown away my chance?”
Another long pause. Another exchange of looks between Kai and Maddox. Finally, Kai exhales. “No,” he says. He turns his head toward me, a small smile on his lips. “It happened. Victor Lowell’s in the past. Let’s focus on the present.”
Hope stirs in my heart at his words. It might not be too late for the three of us. It feels fragile and tenuous, this understanding between us, but against all odds, I’m being given something precious. A second chance.
Victor’s not in the past, Avery. He’s in DC, threatening to press charges about your engagement ring.
I should tell them. I know I should. But Maddox has already given me five hundred thousand dollars, and I feel indebted to him. I felt indebted to Victor once. It didn’t end well. I don’t want that to happen again with Kai and Maddox.
On Monday, I’ll call the detective and sort out this matter. I’ll show him the note Victor sent me, telling me to keep the ring.
I’ll tell Victor that I’ve already sent my parents money for my mother’s cancer treatment. When he realizes that I don’t need his money after all, he’s going to figure out he has no hold on me. He’ll melt away.
You’re hiding things from them again, my conscience prods me.
Not for long, I reason, trying to appease it. Just until I get Victor finally out of my life.
Maddox clears his throat. “About that buttplug,” he says, a note of warning in his voice. “If it’s not inside you in less than two minutes…”
I can’t help smiling. “I’m on it, I’m on it.”
25
Maddox
Something’s not quite ringing true.
Not with Avery. She’s telling the truth; I can see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. Yet I can’t help thinking that something’s off in this story. When we thought Avery had disappeared in Dublin, I’d called in a couple of favors to track her down and find out her home address.
Avery had lived with her parents. Even after I found out she was married, I hadn’t been able to stop myself from walking past her house. Just one time, and then I realized I couldn’t do this to myself. I had to leave London.
But I remember Jeremy and Maisie Welch’s house in Chelsea. It was not the house of two people that were destitute.
We pull up for lunch at a roadside diner. Avery looks surprised when she sees where we’ve stopped. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the diner types.”
“I love traveling around the world,” I reply, “But I do miss a good burger. It’s the one thing I get homesick about. You thought we’d be eating somewhere fancier?”
“I don’t know what I thought.”
I put my finger on her chin, tipping her face up. “I work for a living. I like being busy. The money’s nice, don’t get me wrong. Unlike my peers, I don’t have to stress about where the next assignment is coming from. But I’m not part of the idle rich, and I loathe pretentious restaurants.”
“You’re right,” she says ruefully. “I did have you typecast. Sorry.”
She’s not dangerous because I’m crazily attracted to her. I am; that goes without saying. She’s not dangerous because she’s smart. She’s dangerous because of moments like this. She could have lied, but she didn’t, and I respect her for it.
She’s dangerous because I genuinely like her. Though I have every reason not to.
“I thought we’d eat outside.” She’s still wearing the buttplug. Her stride is a little stilted because of it, and her steps are smaller, but she thinks she’s getting accustomed to its weight. I’m about to change the rules on her. “They have picnic benches in the back. Shall we?”
“Sure.”
I lead the way to the back patio. The moment Avery sits on the hard, unforgiving wooden bench, the plug settles deeper inside her, and her eyes go round. “Oh. Oh wow.”
Kai chuckles. “Is that a good wow?”
“It’s so deep.”
“Not as deep as my cock will be tonight,” I whisper into her ear, sitting next to Avery. “You want that, don’t you, sweetheart?”
She clenches her eyes shut, and a shiver runs through her body. Her nipples, under her thin shirt, are rock hard. I want to suck them into my mouth, hear her moan as I play with her breasts, her pussy.
Fuck. I’m supposed to be teasing Avery and keeping her simmering with desire until we get to the club. Instead, I’m fighting my desire to bend her over this table and slam int
o her.
“Yes,” she groans.
A waitress comes over with three menus. “I’ll have the burger and fries,” I tell her without even looking at it.
“Same for me,” Avery replies. “Kai?”
I laugh. “Kai is much more conscientious with his health than me. I think he eats a burger once a year.”
“I challenge you to be a cardiovascular surgeon, operate on clogged arteries, and still eat fries,” he retorts. “I’ll have a grilled chicken salad, please.”
He’s talking about being a surgeon? That’s progress. Last week, he bit my head off when I asked him about going back to work.
“Do you know what I think?” Kai says once the waitress has gone to place our orders. “I think Avery’s been a very good girl today, and she deserves a reward.”
“I like rewards,” Avery says warily.
“And I already know you can keep quiet when you have to,” Kai adds with a wicked grin.
“You know where this is going, don’t you?” I lean close to her, breathing in her scent, my lips grazing her earlobe. It’s a little late for lunch, and there’s only one other table occupied. An older couple sits a few feet from us, engrossed in their conversation, paying no attention to us. Just as well. “You’re going to keep very quiet, and I’m going to make you come.”
She inhales sharply, but her eyes glitter with heat. She’s not ready to do anything about it yet, but our girl is really turned on by exhibitionism. “Okay.”
“Keep your legs spread for me, sweetheart.”
Her whisper is soft and compliant, and it sets my cock aching for her.
I move closer to her, so close that I can feel every breath she takes. Reaching under the table, I tug the hem of her dress up to mid-thigh. Kai’s shifts his position so he’s blocking Avery from view.
I can feel the heat from her pussy. I run my fingertips through her folds, and she hisses as I reach her clit. The sound is barely audible, but I test my theory. “Remember to be quiet,” I tell her. “Unless you want an audience.”
Taming Avery_A MFM Menage Romance Page 13
