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  I wish you the best, and hope that the two of you have many good years together.

  Best wishes,

  John Costello

  Grant sat back and took a deep breath.

  “Well?” Ed finally asked.

  He nodded at Ed’s envelope. “You first.”

  Ed took a letter opener and opened it, quickly scanning the card inside. “Whew. It just says when you’re done to take the letter back, that you can make a copy of it, if you want, and for me to hold onto it…in case.”

  “In case things don’t work out?”

  “Right.” He returned the card to the envelope and tossed it onto the folder. “That’s a damn relief. I thought he’d pull a Kaden on me.”

  “How so?”

  “Long story.” He nodded toward the letter. “And that?”

  He handed it over, and the envelope. “Here. Read it yourself.”

  He sat back as Ed did just that. While what Susie had already told them about John made him respect the man, reading the letter from him reinforced that opinion.

  When Ed finished reading, he laid the pages on his desk. “Wow,” he quietly said. “I thought dealing with Kaden had prepared me for anything.” He looked up at Grant. “While I suspect there won’t be any do-overs for her, did you want to leave anything…just in case?”

  He thought about it, then let out a little laugh. “Sure, but he said it better than I could, and adding, ‘Ditto, me, too,’ to the bottom of that letter seems a little rude.”

  * * * *

  Ed made him a copy of the letter and returned the original to the file. Sitting in his car out in the parking lot, waiting for the AC to cool it down, Grant studied the letter again.

  John hadn’t anticipated she’d meet not one man, but two. He hoped the thought behind the letter would still apply.

  They both loved and cherished Susie. And heaven help anyone who tried to hurt her. They’d have not one, but two very protective men to deal with.

  It was a lot of luck—good and bad—and more than a little sadness that brought them to where they were. Now that they were here, no way in hell would he fuck it up.

  He’d thought he’d lucked out by ending up with Darryl. That life couldn’t get any more perfect, barring hitting the lottery or something like that.

  With Susie, they were…

  Perfection.

  Life could settle into whatever routine they ended up in, however it happened. He didn’t need to marry her to love her and Darryl both. They wore his collars.

  That was forever, as far as he was concerned, unless they ever asked to be set free.

  It was time to head to their weekly D and D game when he got home. Darryl gave him an inquisitive look, but Grant shook his head, indicating they’d talk later. This wasn’t something he wanted to rush into right before they had to meet with friends. They’d pick Susie up from work, and she’d be spending the night with them after gaming. Grant would drop her off in the morning on his way in to work.

  Even after picking her up and the three of them arrived at Rusty and Eliza’s, Grant couldn’t shake himself out of his funk.

  Susie noticed.

  “Are you feeling all right?” she asked him.

  “Just tired and a little distracted.” He kissed her hand. “I think someone should be concentrating on their spell list and not on me.”

  She playfully stuck her tongue out at him, but that was the last she’d mentioned it that evening.

  Grant waited until they were home and Darryl and Susie had both stripped and donned their cuffs and collars to reveal what happened. With them sitting on the floor in front of him, while he sat on the couch, he told them about the visit to Ed’s office, and the letter.

  The copy of which he held in his hand.

  “I want Darryl to read it first,” he told her. “Then if you want to read it, you can. But since in terms of our relationship, he has responsibility for your care, too, he needs to read it.”

  She nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

  Grant handed it to Darryl and sat back, motioning Susie closer. She edged forward and rested her head in his lap so he could stroke her hair.

  Her eyes dropped closed, her arms slipping around his legs.

  At peace.

  He twirled her hair around his fingers, remaining silent but watching Darryl’s face as he read the letter.

  By the time Darryl finished, he was blinking back tears. “Wow,” he quietly said as he handed it back to Grant.

  “Yeah.” He rested his hand on her head. “Do you want to read it?”

  “Is it going to make me cry, Sir?”

  “Probably, but in the good ways. He loved you very, very much. And he wanted us to know that.”

  He felt her sniffle. “Yes, Sir,” she softly said. “I’d like to read it.”

  He handed it to her and watched as her hands trembled while she read it. At the end, her eyes fell closed, tears slipping from beneath her lids and silently sliding down her cheeks.

  Grant took it back from her and folded it. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

  Darryl crowded in, wrapping his arms around her. “You’re our most precious possession, too,” Darryl told her. “We love you so damn much, you have no idea.”

  Grant leaned in and wrapped his arms around both of them, kissing her, then Darryl. “What he said. Keep talking to us. Tell us if something is wrong. Tell us if there’s something you need that we’re not doing for you. Anything.”

  Her eyes remained closed but she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Would you like to go to bed and just snuggle and watch TV tonight?”

  A ragged breath escaped her. “Yes, Sir,” she said. “I think that’s all I can handle for tonight.”

  “You can always talk about him with us,” Grant said as he stroked her hair. “It doesn’t bother us. If you ever need to talk. That’s why we’re here, because we love you. I could never be jealous of him for how much he loved you. I won’t deny I’m glad we finally get to be with you, but I hate like hell how much pain you had to endure to find your way back to us.”

  She finally opened her eyes. “Thank you, Sir. I never thought it was possible to be happy again. I thought that part of my life was over forever, and I knew I wouldn’t be happy with a vanilla guy. Now I wish I had let him introduce me around. Maybe we would have found each other sooner. I hate that I was so scared, and for so long he basically denied himself people he’d called friends because of me.”

  “Don’t think of it like that,” Grant told her. “He loved you and wanted you to be happy. He had you. You were who he needed. The rest was a bonus, but not necessary for happiness. I’m glad you’re feeling more secure now, because I really don’t want to give up our friends. I feel you need friends who can understand what we do, friends you don’t have to pretend around. But at the time, he gave you what you needed and loved every bit of you for it.”

  He stood and held his hands out to them. Helping them up, he led them to the bedroom. “That’s it. Time for us to hit the hay and sleep. I feel a good snuggle session coming on.”

  Susie tipped her head onto his shoulder as they walked. “Yes, Sir. Me, too.”

  * * * *

  But sleep didn’t come easy for Susie that night. Her mind turned, twisted, thinking about the letter.

  That John had loved her she had no doubts whatsoever.

  Grant and Darryl were not John. Considering so much of their lives had to be spent in hiding and denial, the last thing she wanted to do was to deny them their friends, friends they could be completely genuine around.

  She’d have to get over her fear. Yes, so far, everyone she’d met had been wonderful and many of them were now close friends. And no, she didn’t have anything to fear, personally. If the men were willing to risk going to the club, or to events, who was she to overrule them?

  I want to be his slave. I am his slave. I want to be his good girl.

  That meant she’d need
to learn to completely release control of this to him. To his judgment. She trusted him. Hell, she wouldn’t have gotten into this if she didn’t trust him.

  I am his good girl.

  The next morning, as Grant drove her to work, she laid her hand on his thigh. “Can we go to the club this weekend, Sir?”

  He glanced at her but couldn’t really take his focus off the morning traffic. “You’re asking to go?” Usually, it was them telling her they were going, and she agreed.

  “Yes, Sir. And dinner at Sigalo’s.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “What brought this on?”

  “I should push myself out of my comfort zone more. I know you would never deliberately put me or us into a situation you didn’t think was safe for some reason. I want to get over my fear.”

  At the next stop light, he pulled her in for a kiss. “I’m very, very proud of you, sweetheart. You have no idea how proud I am.”

  Her heart raced, thrilled. “Thank you, Sir.”

  “You’re my very, very good girl.”

  Her smile broadened, her heart near bursting. “Thank you, Sir.”

  “Darryl won’t be able to join us, but you and I will definitely go.” He laced fingers with her, holding her hand. “I promise you, we’ll have a good time.”

  “I know, Sir. I trust you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Susie couldn’t believe how fast the last three months had flown by. They now had a routine, the three of them. Sometimes she would spend the night at their house and make sure to leave early before Kyle got up. Or, sometimes, Grant would sneak over to her house after she’d returned home.

  Sometimes, if the timing was too close in the morning, or if it was so late she couldn’t drive home, she’d just move out to the couch and make it look like she’d fallen asleep there.

  At least the kid was a sound sleeper and the three of them could slip into Grant’s bedroom for snuggle time together, even though they didn’t dare risk anything loud.

  They still had to be careful. Grant’s work most likely wouldn’t fire him for being gay or bi. They would, however, possibly take exception to him being into BDSM, or being in a poly relationship. It could trigger his morals clause, and he couldn’t risk losing his job.

  Darryl would definitely get fired for any one of the three issues, much less all three of them. Grant and Susie didn’t want Darryl to lose his job, so it was a no-brainer for them to let Kyle think Susie was just a friend.

  Kyle had even remarked, once he’d learned the circumstances of her being widowed, that he felt sorry for her and was glad she now had her friends back.

  For her part, Susie felt a little badly that, in vanilla settings, she and Darryl couldn’t really “claim” Grant as their partner or Master. It didn’t feel fair, even though she of all people understood the need for discretion.

  One day, they’d all be able to live together under one roof, all the time, and then it wouldn’t matter. With her income added to the mix, Darryl could give the proverbial middle finger to the church and go back to teaching privately, or playing gigs in bands with his friends. He could stay home and take care of the house, and take care of them.

  It would be perfection. Ed was already working on setting up the next round of custody wrangling. She told Ed to put it on her tab if Darryl couldn’t afford it.

  She wanted Kyle to be happy, even if it meant it would put a crimp in their sexy fun-time. It was more important for Kyle to be happy.

  And once Jackass was out of her hair for good, it would be one less stressor in her life.

  Kristin loved the fact that Susie was actually taking personal days off now. In fact, she would be taking Monday off, as was Grant, and they planned to spend the day together.

  Mostly in bed, but she was looking forward to it.

  Saturday night during dinner at Sigalo’s, Ed noticed how distracted Susie looked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Jack’s time is almost up and I want him gone,” she said. “He’s been keeping his head down since our last dust-up a couple of months ago.”

  She hated that she felt she couldn’t even be her true self at work concerning her two men. When they stopped by to see her, or to pick her up to go to dinner, or for lunch on the rare Saturday when she worked now, she had to pretend they were nothing more than friends for fear of anyone finding out about it and, somehow, Jack finding out and using that to leverage against her.

  Ed frowned. “You need to buy him out.”

  “His shares aren’t worth anything.”

  “Not as-is, no. Is it worth your peace of mind to have those two shares back in your hands where you know his parents will never be able to get to them?”

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “It absolutely is.”

  “Then buy him out. Use it as incentive to get him to leave voluntarily before the deadline.”

  “For how much?”

  “However much you want. What can you afford?”

  The dealership’s financial officer had just gone over the previous month’s numbers with her Friday afternoon. They’d had another good month, and Susie had earned a salary bonus from the corporation as a result.

  Not to mention she was still sitting on most of the payout from John’s life insurance policy.

  She thought about Jack’s salary. He was a decent salesman…when he showed up. Based on how little he showed up, and some rumors she’d heard, she knew he had another job on the side. His pay at the car dealership wouldn’t even top twenty grand that year at the rate he was going. His main benefits were health insurance and the car.

  Of which he’d been seriously downgraded in that department.

  “Twenty grand and paying his health insurance until the end of next year. And he can keep the car.” The car would have been a write-off anyway. Most trade-ins like that were, barely making at auction the expense of transporting them there in the first place.

  “Sounds more than fair to me,” Ed said. “I can draw up a contract to that effect and have him sign everything over. We can get him in Monday afternoon and do it.”

  “That fast?”

  He grinned. “You’re family,” he said. “You get special treatment. Besides, it’s a pretty straightforward contract. For the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and for his health insurance premiums to be paid for him until the end of next year, and the title to the car, he resigns his job and turns over full control of his two corporate shares and rescinds and forever forsakes any claims he has to them in the future. Easy.”

  “You don’t know Jack the way I do,” she grumbled. “Life with him is not easy.”

  Grant gently poked her. “Let the legal beagle talk. That’s why you pay him.”

  “Hell, I’m the one who helped draw up John’s will,” Ed said. “It was mostly Kaden who laid it out, but still, I’m the one who ended up with it.” A melancholy expression crossed Ed’s face before he seemed to return his attention to them. “As long as Jack agrees, that’s it. Easy.”

  She slowly nodded. “When do you want to do it?”

  “Set it up for Monday afternoon. Don’t tell him what it’s about. In fact, it’d be best if you weren’t around at work for most of the day.”

  “I was already planning to take the day off.” She smiled at Grant.

  * * * *

  Monday afternoon, Susie felt less nervous with Ed there in the conference room with her, but she would have felt a lot better had Grant and Darryl been able to be there as well. Right now, they were waiting in Ed’s office, hidden out of sight.

  From the wary look on Jack’s face when he walked in—alone, thank goodness—Susie knew she should shut up and let Ed do all the talking. She’d actually been chickenshit enough to let Kristin deliver the news to Jack that his presence was requested at Ed’s. Jack was almost as intimidated by Kristin as he was by Susie, except he knew he couldn’t try pulling any bullshit with Kristin or she’d put him in his place.

  She had before.
<
br />   So when Kristin had called Susie a little after lunch to report that Jack would be there as requested, she’d breathed a sigh of relief.

  “What’s this about?” Jack asked as he settled at the table, across from Susie.

  Ed slid the paper over to him. “A quick transaction. Sign over control of your two shares.” He explained everything to him.

  Jack frowned. “I should probably talk to my attorney first.”

  Ed reached for the paper. “Okay, but this offer expires at five p.m. today. No extensions.”

  Jack pulled the paper back toward him as he shot a glare Susie’s way. “Why are you so hot to buy me out all of a sudden?”

  “It’s not all of a sudden,” she said, unable to help herself. “It’s the first time I’ve felt strong enough since you killed my husband to deal with this. Believe me, I would have done it a lot sooner if I’d felt up to it.”

  Ed reached over and touched her shoulder, quieting her. “My client wants this part of her life behind her. I’m sure you can understand the emotions involved here. It would be best for everyone if this were handled quickly.”

  “So…I just walk away? That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” Ed said.

  “What about my parents?”

  “What about them?” Ed asked before she could. “They are not part of this transaction.”

  “Are you going to be buying them out, too?”

  “That’s confidential between us and them,” Ed said, his tone turning chilly. “Just like this transaction is confidential.”

  Jack sat back and studied the paper for a long, quiet moment. “I loved John,” he said. “You know that. I’m sorry this happened. I never meant for it to happen. He was my big brother, for chrissake.”

  Susie kept her mouth shut.

  A great feat that was.

  “A lot of people are hurt by what happened,” Ed said. “I will advise you that, upon the expiration of the window you’re guaranteed a job, my client is very eager to revoke your employment as soon as possible. If you truly loved your brother, you know how much he loved Susan and wanted to provide for her. He had already been planning to buy back all of the shares when he died.”