Borderline Read online

  She handed her tablet off to Landry, who set it on the bedside table. She started to say something, but then Landry grabbed her by the hair, tipped her head back, and started murmuring to her in French.

  Bob froze, hypnotized by the scene. She softly whined, squirming under him as he reached down with his other hand and lifted the shirt up to her neck. Cris helped get it all the way off, and Landry only changed hands in her hair so he didn’t have to release her to get the shirt off her and discard it onto the floor. She wasn’t wearing panties.

  Cris slid between her legs, pushing her thighs wide apart as he lowered his mouth to her shaved mound. All through this, Landry talked to her, low and fast and in French.

  A moment later, her eyes dropped closed and her back arched, her moan muffled by Landry kissing her, long and hard.

  When she tried to reach down to push Cris away, Landry caught her wrists and pinned them over her head, still talking to her.

  Another command barked in French, and she came again.

  I really need to learn that language.

  Cris had hooked his arms around her thighs despite her trying to squirm away from him. Apparently, the third time was the charm. Landry ordered her to climax once more, and she did. Only then did Cris stop, kissing the insides of her thighs before sitting up to kiss her.

  Turning, Cris spotted him standing there and smiled. He climbed out of bed and grabbed him, kissing him hard and deep. Bob could taste her on him, knew that was deliberate, and wondered what, if any, tricky machinations Landry had running through his brain in an attempt to speed things along with Tilly.

  Landry patted the bed between him and Tilly. “Here, boy.”

  Bob climbed in, and Landry immediately hooked an arm around his waist, spooning Bob’s body tightly against his, his hand settling over Bob’s crotch.

  Okay, then.

  Tilly lay facing him, a sated smile on her face. She kissed him. “Welcome to the family, sweetie.”

  Peace settled over him. “Thank you, Mistress.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “These are fricking adorable.” Bob turned to where Tilly was sitting and going through items in the spare bedroom in his condo. It was only four days since taking that step, and Tilly was eager to get him moved before he changed his mind or Landry and Cris humping him with a strap-on every time he bent over scared him off.

  Actually…it was nice having the attention.

  Feeling…wanted.

  She held up a box with a Hallmark kitten ornament in it. “You realize KC is going to insist we have like three Christmas trees this year to hold all of them, right? And Landry will make it happen.”

  “I’m looking forward to it. It’ll feel good having a big tree to decorate again.”

  She frowned. “Didn’t you put these out?”

  “Not usually. I’d put out the ones I’d bought that year on a small display tree with some battery-operated lights. I didn’t have the heart to do a full tree. I used to decorate the tree for Mom and Dad, then for Mom after we lost Dad. Once she died…” He shrugged.

  She set the ornament back into the plastic storage tub and rose to walk over to him. Wrapping her arms around him, she pulled him in for a kiss. “You’ll never be alone again.” She smirked. “Hope the two goobers chasing you around haven’t made you rethink this agreement.”

  He shifted position slightly, the butt plug wedged in his ass slightly uncomfortable but actually smaller than the one Landry had wanted him to wear.

  Tilly had interceded on his behalf that morning and overruled the sadist. Her point being if he was too distracted by being horny, it would only slow down the process of him moving.

  She’d then tossed him a wink, as if they were conspirators.

  “No, Mistress. They haven’t. I love you.”

  He knew when he got home he’d be getting reamed out by both men with strap-ons in the pool house while Tilly kept KC distracted helping her cook dinner.

  His cock kept wanting to thicken at the thought. He couldn’t remember feeling this horny when he was in college.

  She stared up into his face for a long, quiet moment. “I love you, too. I hope you understand I have a history with Cris. And with the damned sadist, of course.”

  “I do.”

  Another kiss, then she rested her head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. He would have been happy with their previous status quo for life.

  They’d made it even sweeter.

  He nuzzled his face into her hair. “Can I ask a question?”

  She didn’t move. “Of course, sweetie.”

  “If Cris and Landry hadn’t shown up, would you and I…” He couldn’t finish.

  She looked up into his gaze again. “I’d have probably fucked you into a coma by now.” She smiled. “I’m sorry you got hurt by Kim and Kylee, but I’m not going to complain about this outcome.”

  “Me, either, Mistress.”

  “Tilly. I don’t give a shit what the sadist says. When it’s you and me alone, and Cris and Landry aren’t around, you can call me Tilly unless I specifically put you in slave mode. That’s our default. Okay?”

  He nuzzled noses with her. “Thank you, Ma’am.”

  She chuckled. “Hard habit to break, huh?”

  “Yes, M—Tilly.”

  She cupped his face in her hands. “You are my very good boy, sweetie. And look at it this way, for the foreseeable future, you get to spend more time with me than Landry and Cris do. We’re going to be ramping up production on three different movies. I’ll have to bounce between the UK and LA and you’re going to help keep me sane and reasonably non-homicidal. You are, no offense, going to be more valuable to me than those two men for a while. You might get sick of me. I’m a tough boss.”

  “Give me your worst. I’ll take it.”

  She grinned. “Having you around to help bark orders at crew will be a plus. Alpha Bob mode—engaged.”

  “Whatever you need from me, it’s yours. Anything. Always and forever.”

  Her gaze softened and she leaned in to kiss him again before releasing him. “Always and forever, sweetie. I swear.”

  * * * *

  It was only two weeks since he’d agreed to this new dynamic with them, but his condo was nearly empty and Ed was working on the final paperwork for the sale of his business to one of the guys who’d worked for him for years. He probably wasn’t making as much profit as he might if he shopped it around, but that wasn’t the point.

  Bob wanted this done, handled, out of his mind.

  He needed to focus totally on Tilly, on not disappointing her, on learning his new job and making sure he didn’t drop any balls.

  Metaphorical or literal.

  He’d spent every night since that night in their house.

  In bed with them.

  For now, all his stuff would go into their garage, what wouldn’t fit in his room or the spare bedroom. Landry had already called the contractor who’d built their house to discuss adding an addition so Bob could have his own private suite of rooms to escape to on occasion. Mostly so he’d have his own home office, as well as a place for his things that he couldn’t easily co-mingle with their belongings. But, usually, he’d be sleeping in bed with the trio, unless Tilly said otherwise.

  In addition to the keys and alarm code he’d already had for the house, he now had keys and alarm codes to Tilly’s Venice and LA offices. He’d receive more upon arrival in London, for the office and flat there. He had a new work laptop, corporate e-mail address, a tablet, work phone, business cards—and was already starting to learn the ropes when he wasn’t working with Tilly to empty his condo.

  Or having his balls drained dry by Landry and Cris.

  He’d admitted to them he was trying to learn French, which had earned him five cane strokes from Landry for concealing the info—delivered while Cris was blowing Bob as a reward for being so thoughtful.

  Definitely a mixed message, but Bob wouldn’t have the sadist any other w
ay.

  Landry also ordered him sets for Italian and European Spanish, since next they would be filming in areas where those languages were spoken.

  Landry had informed him Japanese would also be in his future.

  Ironically, KC was proving to be a helpful tutor in French. Already fluent in it because of her parents speaking it, there were days Landry playfully asked his daughter to play a game and to not speak any English to “Père,” as Landry had told her she could call Bob. Then, Bob would have to struggle to communicate with her.

  She was definitely a sadist’s daughter, although Bob wasn’t sure if that was due more to Landry’s or Tilly’s influence.

  Although the immersion technique was definitely helping him.

  One of Bob’s duties would be managing Tilly’s schedule and calendar. Later that evening, he was going over things on his laptop when he noticed she’d made two new entries, one for the night he’d said yes, and one for a year from that date.

  When he looked back, he could see she’d added a note on the day they’d first collared him.

  It also had an anniversary marker.

  He couldn’t help tearing up a little.

  He’d been sitting at the breakfast bar when Cris walked up and slung an arm around his shoulders, kissing him on the cheek. “What’s up?”

  Cris pressed his body against Bob’s side, and Bob knew exactly what was up, since he could feel the outline of Cris’ cock rubbing against his thigh through the man’s shorts. But that was as risqué as any of them would get with KC happily babbling a story to Landry out in the living room.

  He kept nothing back from the trio. He tipped his head onto Cris’ shoulder and pointed at what he’d found. “She put that in there.”

  Cris nuzzled his head. “Yeah,” he softly said. “She’s loved you for a long time.”

  “Are you really okay with this?” Bob whispered. “You said you left him before because he wanted to be poly.”

  “Do you love Tilly?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “And do you love me and Master Fussypants?” he whispered.

  Bob tried not to snort. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Okay, then.” They were still whispering. “If Lan had suddenly dropped you into our laps out of nowhere without us knowing you, no, that’d be different. Yeah, I was jealous of you at first in the very beginning, even though I knew I had no right to be. I mean, when Landry and I first came to Florida and I saw you and Tilly playing that night. I got over that really fast, because almost losing him to cancer a second time put things back into perspective. Under any other circumstances, no, this would not have happened.”

  Cris swiveled the barstool around so he could stare into Bob’s eyes. “For life,” Cris said. “Just promise me one thing.”

  “Anything, Sir.”

  “When you’re with Tilly, you protect her with your life for me. And KC. When Lan and I can’t be there, we’re counting on you. In fact, I’m going to work with you on some basic self-defense stuff, and when you’re over in London, one of the stunt guys said he’d help train you. Eliza’s going to hook us up with the martial arts studio she goes to here.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. We need to talk about you getting a concealed carry permit, too, for when you’re here in Florida. The production company is really taking off, and I would rather be proactive than playing catch-up.”

  He brushed his hand through Bob’s hair. “I hate not being with her to take care of her. Of them. But Lan’s right that if we sell our company right now, we’ll possibly be losing out on maybe as much as a billion dollars in profit if we don’t hold out even another year or two. I know we’re well off, but I can’t ignore that kind of money. It means we’re set for life, even if we all decide to retire the next day, and we can still afford to send KC to whatever college she wants to attend.”

  “What happens then? When you retire?”

  He smiled. “You get your ass chased by two horny Doms when we’re all together.” He leaned in and kissed Bob, on the lips. “You do realize I’ve only slept with two people before you, right? Lan, and Tilly.”

  “Really?” That was news to him. He’d had more sexual partners than Cris?

  “Really. I fooled around a little before I met Lan, but I never slept with someone before him.”

  Cris stepped back as the sound of voices approached and he surreptitiously adjusted the front of his shorts. Landry rounded the corner, holding KC.

  “Gentlemen, our princess is in search of ice cream,” Landry said.

  “Gelato, Poppa,” KC corrected.

  “Ah, yes, pardon. Gelato.”

  Bob smiled and immediately moved to get up, but Cris stayed him with a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing.

  He dropped Bob a wink. “You’re working. I got this.”

  “Thank you, Daddy,” KC said.

  Cris bussed her cheek on his way past. “You’re welcome, sweetheart.”

  “Where’s Mommy?”

  “She’s still on the phone with Uncle Lucas. He’s in California today.”

  “Oh.” KC’s gaze fell on Bob. “Père, would you like to have gelato with us?”

  Bob was still trying to get used to that, instead of her calling him Uncle Bob like she had before. Landry had decided on the term because it was French, and meant father, but it would fly under the radar around vanillas. When alone with her and Tilly overseas, people would assume Bob was her father, which would also suit their purposes.

  “Père?” Cris asked as he opened the freezer.

  Bob smiled, nodding. “Yes, please. Thank you.”

  She motioned for Landry to let her down. When he did, she ran over to Bob. He scooped her up into his arms, sitting her on his lap.

  She pointed at the calendar. “Mommy’s got a lot of stuff to do.”

  “Yes, sweetheart, she sure does.”

  “I’m glad you’re going to London with us. Mommy gets really busy. I want to go to Cardiff and see the TARDIS and stuff but she doesn’t have time to do things like that.”

  Before Bob could process that, Landry laughed. “My precious little Whovian,” he said. “That would be my doing. I might have let her watch some Torchwood, too.”

  “I want to meet Captain Jack,” she said.

  Bob wasn’t very familiar with those shows, or why Cardiff was important to her.

  Cris cleared his throat. “Lan, Tilly’s going to have words with you when she finds out. Torchwood’s a little old for her. Even Doctor Who’s pushing it.”

  “Nonsense. It was on the BBC. It’s practically pabulum compared to most shows. I covered her eyes during the scary parts.”

  Something else Bob had become privy to even more than before—on this side of the mirror, he got to see all the vanilla interactions between the triad—now a quad.

  Landry sometimes got into trouble himself, and Tilly and Cris reined him in. Landry would, left unchecked, give KC any- and everything her heart desired, spoiling her rotten, sadist or not.

  Bob was still trying to figure out how to ease himself into that dynamic, but the beauty of it was that he was welcomed into it in the first place.

  They had flat-out told him they wanted him to take a parenting role with her.

  Because as far as they were concerned, he was now one of her parents.

  “Père will take you to Cardiff, sweetheart,” Landry said, meeting Bob’s gaze. “I’ll ask Uncle Lucas to call a friend and arrange a special studio tour for you.”

  “Yay!” She looked up at Bob. “Thank you, Père!” She wrapped her arms around Bob’s neck, hugging him. She was small for her age, nearly four but already reading at a first-grade level.

  It would likely take all four of them to raise her. Otherwise, she’d be running them ragged.

  Tilly groaned as she walked down the hall from the office and joined them in the kitchen, climbing up onto the barstool next to him and leaning her head against his shoulder. “Kill. Me. Now.”

  “
Do you want gelato, Mommy?” KC asked.

  “Sure. Why not?” She nuzzled her head against Bob’s shoulder. “I’ve earned it.”

  “What’s wrong?” Bob asked.

  “Stupid Foley artist showed up stoned for work today and—” She seemed to catch herself, remembering KC was sitting right there. “He’d taken some medications that had some…interesting side effects and they spent the better part of three hours trying to get him out of the Foley studio after he barricaded himself in.” She cleared her throat. “And he decided to improvise the, eh, facilities while he was in there.”

  In other words, he’d shown up stoned out of his gourd, freaked out, and in the process took a dump in the room.

  Cris snorted. “Oh, wow.”

  “Yeah. Run a movie production company, Leigh said. It’ll be fun, Leigh said. Now Miss Preggo Pants gets to keep her expanding patookie here in Florida while I get to run all over the world.” She poked Bob in the arm. “You’re now me, and I’m now Leigh, by the way. Except you’re not allowed to go off on your own. I already laid down the law to the gang. They’re not allowed to filch you to run other projects once you’re up to speed. Your patookie belongs to me.”

  It felt soooo damn good being able to kiss her temple, loving, simple gestures missing from his life for far too long.

  He also didn’t miss the subtext behind her last sentence. “Can’t get rid of me that easily.”

  “Thank god,” she muttered, inhaling deeply against his sleeve. He noticed she did that sometimes, to him or to the others, even to KC, as if trying to reassure herself they were there, real. As if the only borderline between that world and the nightmares of her youth were the grounding presence of her loved ones.

  * * * *

  Two nights later, while Landry and Cris took KC out to see a movie, Bob and Tilly had a “date night” at home alone where she’d curled up in his lap on the couch and opened her soul to him.

  She’d told him about the dark stories in her past, now that they were “official.” He’d known there were hints of something, but he’d never asked before, never pressed.

  He’d known she would tell him in her own time.