Borderline Read online

  He never thought he’d be able to love her more, but after that tearful talk—where she wasn’t the only one shedding them sometimes—he now knew everything about her. Why losing Cris the first time, especially in the way that she had, had gutted her.

  Why it had been so important to Landry to reunite Tilly and Cris.

  Why she’d been able to forgive Cris and welcome him back into her life.

  What her step-father had done to her.

  “Can I ask you something?” he said once the worst of the storm had passed.

  She nodded against his chest.

  “Do Landry and Cris really love me, or did they do this for you?”

  She tipped her head back, pulled him in for a kiss, and then smiled up at him. Puffy nose, red eyes, she was still beautiful.

  “The sadist is a funny beast. He’s got his own personal ethos. Yes, there’s an aspect of he feels responsible. But he genuinely cares about you. Loves you. But the main reason you are here, right now, is because he knew how much I cared about you and he felt guilty that, once again, he’d created a separation by his actions.”

  She reached up and palmed his cheek. “You are not a pity fuck. You are our partner. Family. And we love you.”

  “That’s spooky.”

  She shrugged, smiling. “It’s a Domme thing. You’ll get used to it after a few years.” She rested her head against his chest again. “Plus Landry felt the same way after he found out about me. And I had a few moments of wondering if I was that to Lan after I’d married him. So I’m short-circuiting that stinkin’ thinkin’ right now.”

  He rubbed his chin against the top of her head. “I can’t believe I’m…here. It felt like for years I lived along the border looking in but would never have a chance to truly be happy. Don’t get me wrong, I meant every word I said before. But looking out from this side of it…”

  She sighed. “Yeah.” She pulled his arms more tightly around her. “And you get a threefer deal on Owners.”

  “I’m definitely not complaining.”

  “There…is something else, though.”

  “What?”

  “Landry’s a lot more forward-thinking now than he was in his youth. I know he worries about me and Cris when…” She shrugged. “You know. I think he also sees you as his Seth, in a way.”

  It felt like an emotional gut-punch, but not in a bad way, since Landry had basically said this to Axel that night.

  Except Bob hadn’t realized this was something Landry wasn’t exaggerating. “Oh…wow,” he softly said. He hadn’t really known Kaden very well, had met him a couple of times but wasn’t close to him like Tilly and others had been.

  His death had ripped out the hearts of most of the Suncoast Society’s inner circle and left an indelible scar behind.

  “Yeah. Not that Cris or I would be as bad off as Leah, but with KC…shit happens. Bad things happen to good people. Look how we lost Basco to pneumonia, and he was young. Landry knows you’d help us get through it, keep the trains running around here, so to speak, while we try to…learn how to breathe again.”

  Peace settled over him. Landry was not a man to make decisions lightly or in haste. If his own experiences with the man hadn’t made that clear, then how he’d handled their few weeks playing with Skye, working with her and Axel, convinced Bob of that.

  If Landry considered him that vital to their lives, he knew the sadist had true feelings for him. “Thank you.”

  “It’s not something I want to think about. I survived losing my mom, but barely and only through sheer pissedness. I wasn’t going to let the fucker who killed her break me in the process. I knew she wouldn’t want that. Losing Cris…that was close. I didn’t have anything to hang on to then, not really. Not something or someone who could keep me going for sure. Thank god for Loren and Ross, because they’re more stubborn than I am. They held on to me and wouldn’t let me go. Kaden and Tony and the others all helped where they could.

  “But now, I have KC and Cris and you. I’m older, wiser, and know I can lean on my friends. It won’t be fun, and it won’t be easy, but I know we can make it through to the other side and I’m not too proud to admit having you there to help nudge us along will make it a fraction less…painful.

  “I’m not saying,” she added, “that you won’t grieve him, too. But a burden shared, and all that crap, right? And we’ll need every bit of love and help we can have for KC when that time comes. Hopefully not until she’s much older and we’re all a lot greyer, and diaper play has become not an option but mandatory, because we can’t make it to the crapper on time.”

  Finally, he chuckled. “You have a way with words, Mistress.”

  She laid a finger over his lips. “Tilly. We’re alone. Or…something else.”

  “Like what?”

  She shrugged, smiling. “You have a little less than a year to come up with what you want, unless you come up with it sooner. Which I kind of hope you do. You’ll be getting quite a bit of alone time with me. Like I told you during our first attempt at this, I’m not Mistress Cardinal, that was just a job. Especially working together, I’m going to need decompression time. Sometimes, you’ll be the only one there for me to decompress with.”

  “My choice?”

  “Mostly, yeah. Although save the Mistress Sassysnark for more playful times.”

  He nuzzled his nose against hers. “Cara mia.”

  She shivered in his arms. “Mmm, Gomez, you beast. Très bien.”

  She’d gently teased him when she’d discovered his DVDs for the TV show and movie versions of The Addams Family, because with hers, they now had a complete set of duplicates for both.

  He grinned. “Tish, you spoke French!” He grabbed her arm and started kissing it from the hand up. “Say some more. Soup de jour! Pamplemousse! Bibliothèque! Gérard Depardieu!”

  She roared with laughter, collapsing on him, both of them laughing as they sprawled across the couch, her on top.

  After finally catching her breath, she laid on top of him, arms crossed and her chin resting on them as she stared down into his eyes. “I never could quite get Landry to grasp how funny those scenes were. We’d be in a sexy moment, and I’d say something in French, and without thinking, he’d switch to speaking French and be confused as to why I was saying random things in French. He didn’t grow up with the reruns like we did. Cris always humored me but I could tell it was more to make me happy than he really thought it was funny, you know?”

  “You’ll have to teach me how to tango. I don’t know it.”

  She snorted. “Someone will have to teach me how to tango first. I have two left feet. But don’t start juggling knives, please. Or smoking cigars.”

  “I promise.”

  They were fully dressed, too. He understood, especially now, why she wanted to take the physical part of their relationship slowly. Pick up where they’d left off, in some ways. She’d had a non-existent courtship with Landry, and she’d had two with Cris.

  It wasn’t too much to ask. Not when Cris and Landry had fun going after him in bed.

  Truth be told, Bob was enjoying the hell out of it, too.

  He could easily settle for watching the men being able to make love to her while he held her, or while one of them made love to her and the other tackled him for some fun.

  He got to share the air with her. Finally firmly fixed in her permanent orbit.

  He would get her to himself for small, precious bits of time.

  It was more than enough, and far more than he’d ever imagined possible.

  Chapter Seventeen

  All the packing was completed, double-checked, and ready to go. With KC down for the night, the adults headed for bed. Tomorrow morning, Landry and Cris would drive them to Orlando for their afternoon flight to London.

  Bob felt simultaneously terrified and excited. He desperately didn’t want to let them down.

  Especially not Tilly.

  In the five weeks since that night, Bob realized not only had
he not really been living before, but that he felt like he had started life over from scratch in good ways. Was life perfect? No, but it was overall perfection. Sometimes, Landry got grouchy over work issues, and it now got taken out of Bob’s hide instead of Cris’.

  Bob didn’t mind. Because on the other end of it, Landry always said those magic words to him—I love you.

  And good boy.

  In those moments, Cris would be especially affectionate with Bob, gently teasing him that he was glad there was a new whipping boy in the house for Landry to vent on.

  The usual routine was for Bob to don collar and cuffs at bedtime. Landry sometimes had Cris wear only his collar, sometimes collar and cuffs, depending on the sadist’s mood.

  They didn’t make love every night, but the number of times there hadn’t been fooling around by at least two of them could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare.

  Tonight, Cris wasn’t to wear either. Landry told him to get a towel and lube and make it fast.

  Tilly arched an eyebrow at him. “What are you planning?”

  Landry answered by tackling her on the bed, a fist holding her by the hair and pinning her in place as he kissed her.

  Bob’s cock hardened. None of the three of them tried to circumvent her rule about intercourse, because they were still having a lot of fun even with the rule in place. And two nights ago, while Landry and Cris had been teasing Tilly, each sucking on a nipple while finger-fucking her but not getting her off, she’d finally grabbed Bob’s head in her frustration and shoved his face into her pussy.

  He’d been happy to oblige, her loud, satisfied moans music to his soul as he licked her clit and made her come.

  One more step forward.

  Landry lay back on the bed and pulled her on top of him, impaling her on his cock. Cris knelt behind her and started lubing her ass as Bob watched, wishing he was part of the tableau.

  As one of the men or even in Tilly’s place, he wasn’t picky.

  Then Landry smiled at him and crooked a finger for him to come closer. He snagged the D-ring on the front of Bob’s collar and drew him in for a deep kiss.

  “Give me your cock, boy. I don’t want to leave you out.”

  He climbed onto the bed and knelt next to Landry’s head, moaning when the man grabbed his cock and sucked him down to the root. Bob wasn’t sure if he had permission to come, though. With one hand braced on the headboard for balance, he did his best to hold back even while Tilly moaned from Cris sliding his cock up her ass.

  Landry slid back up to the head, tongue circling, languidly exploring and tasting before he smiled up at Bob. “She’s not allowed to come until you do, boy.”

  Bob’s moan as Landry swallowed his cock again was drowned out by Tilly’s moan of frustration.

  Bob stared down into Landry’s green gaze, mesmerized. The outer edges of Landry’s eyes crinkled in a way Bob had already come to know meant the sadist had a plan.

  Cris reached around Tilly and rolled her nipples between his fingers, making her whine. A steady stream of French rolled from her, needy, whining, pleading. From her tone, she sounded like she was already in subspace and begging for release.

  Landry took his time, sliding his lips up and down the side of Bob’s cock.

  That’s when Bob finally grokked the man’s plan. Just as Landry had driven Tilly nearly insane with need the other night, he was doing the same to her now.

  The more Tilly whined and pleaded, the slower Landry went, and the more amused he appeared, until, finally, Tilly leaned in and started mouthing Bob’s cock herself.

  Bob gasped in pleasure when Landry shifted his grip and moved his mouth, allowing her to swallow Bob’s cock to the root.

  Landry blew Bob a kiss, followed by a wink.

  Bob’s other hand came to rest on the back of her head as she went down on him, eager desperation in her every move. Landry started talking to her in French, his free hand cupping the back of her neck. With Landry’s tone stern and commanding, Bob could only assume he was ordering her to make Bob come.

  And come he did. It felt like his balls might turn themselves inside out from the strength of the orgasm washing through him. A happy moan rolled through her as Cris started fucking her, his thrusts shaking all four of them.

  “Good girl,” Landry whispered. “Hold him right there for me, love. If you get the boy hard again, take care of him like a good girl first before you come.”

  She didn’t release his cock from her mouth, every whine she made rolling through him and threatening to harden him again.

  He hadn’t felt this horny in…ever.

  Sure, he supposed they’d eventually fuck themselves senseless, but this was…fun.

  Sheer, happy, joyful fun.

  Even the pain, even the scenes, even the sadist getting his jollies.

  Because he was their good boy.

  Landry released his grip on the base of Bob’s cock and his arm slid between his legs. Bob heard him snap, Cris paused his movements to do something, and then Bob felt Landry’s lube-covered finger probing his ass before easily sliding home.

  Bob’s cock hardened like steel.

  The sadist’s gaze narrowed, a smile playing the corners of his lips.

  The man was fucking evil.

  And damn, did Bob love him.

  Every bit of him.

  Tilly’s efforts started all over again, but Landry apparently wanted to use a little positive reinforcement on her. He said something to Cris, who paused his thrusts again to reach around her body, presumably to finger her clit.

  The rolling moans from her mouth vibrated through Bob’s cock and balls just as Landry’s finger paused over Bob’s gland.

  Landry arched an eyebrow at him, waiting.

  “Please, Master,” he whispered, already knowing what the sadist wanted.

  “Good boy.” His finger massaged Bob’s prostate, and Bob couldn’t have held back if he’d wanted to. Landry shoved Tilly’s head down onto Bob’s cock, making her deep-throat him as Landry barked an order for her to come.

  Bob was barely able to stay upright between the force of his orgasm and the other two men suddenly fucking her, racing to catch up and finish.

  Finally, a few moments later, they lay sprawled over each other, gasping for breath.

  “You’re fucking evil, Lan,” Tilly mumbled from where her lips still touched Bob’s cock.

  “Was that a complaint, love?”

  “I didn’t say that.” She finally managed to sit up and kiss Bob. “Did I mention the sadist is a tricky damn fuck?”

  “I kind of got that message.”

  “Okay. Just checking.” She hesitated. “Sure you want to be stuck with us for life?”

  He kissed her again, slowly. “Absofuckinglutely, Mistress.”

  * * * *

  Bob waited for Tilly and Cris to clear the bathroom before he headed in, following Landry. As the sadist washed his hands, he met Bob’s gaze in the mirror.

  Electricity shot through him, the way it always did when Landry looked at him like that.

  Out in the bedroom, he heard the TV go on and Tilly and Cris talking.

  Landry dried his hands and stepped behind Bob, one arm sliding around Bob’s waist and the other fisting his hair. Landry jerked Bob’s head to the left and then bit down, hard, on the top of his right shoulder.

  Bob’s knees threatened to give way. He had to grab the counter for support as Landry’s low, rumbling growl vibrated through Bob.

  Landry kissed a scorching trail up Bob’s neck, to his ear, his gaze still piercing Bob’s in the mirror. Barely a whisper, Landry said, “You may have been Tilly’s toy first and longest, boy, but she is my wife, and I own her. That means I own you, too, by default. Never forget that.”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Bob felt his exhausted cock trying to wave that it wasn’t completely down for the count.

  Landry bit his earlobe, then spoke again in that hushed tone. “Who do you belong to?”


  “You, Master,” he whispered without hesitation.

  “Very good, boy.” Landry sucked on Bob’s earlobe, easing the pain of the bite. “After tonight’s success, I’m hoping you are as brilliant as I believe you to be and can gently and subtly persuade her to drop her final rule well before the time is up.”

  He nuzzled the side of Bob’s neck. “Cris and I are dying to bury our cocks inside that sweet ass of yours and completely claim you together. I shall reward my good boy quite generously if you can make that happen early. Do you understand me?”

  He shivered, both understanding and wanting it now. “Yes, Master.”

  Landry’s other hand dropped to cup Bob’s cock and balls. “You want to be my good boy, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Master.”

  Of course he did. The sadist had unlocked his brain and tossed all the keys. Landry could walk through his soul without hesitation. Bob had no desire to do anything except obey and please him.

  Like he was made to kneel at the man’s feet.

  He craved it.

  “I’ll let you in on a little secret, just between us, pet. I decided the very first time I played with you at the club that night with Tilly that I had to have you, one way or another.” Teeth grazed his neck, down, up. By tomorrow morning, he’d have marks all along there. “That night, after we played, when Tilly introduced you to those two women? I wanted to grab you by the scruff then and drag you home with us.”

  Bob’s throat went dry. “You did?” This was news.

  “Mmm-hmm.” Another bite, hard and sucking, higher than the first. “I could see the look in her eyes for you. She wanted you all to herself. She only turned you over to those two because she wanted to be fair. And had Tilly fully reconciled with Cris sooner, I would have made quite the interesting argument that night as to why you should have gone home with us. My Tilly loves you. My Cris adores you. And I…” He chuckled.

  “And you, Master?”

  He rested his chin on Bob’s shoulder, smiling at him in the mirror. “I, my dear boy, wanted to be the lucky bastard who got to own you. You are not simply a toy to me. You are the perfection we did not realize was missing until we claimed you.”