Retribution Read online

  “I forgot about those fricking stairs.” Tom unwrapped his scarf and hung it on a hook in the foyer, followed by his coat. “Those are hell on me on a bad day.”

  Tyler had already shed his coat and scarf and walked over to Nevvie, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. “Do you like it, darling? Truly?”

  “Well, all I’ve seen of it so far are the parking spot, lobby, stairs, and the living room, but I meant in general.” She tipped her head back and smiled at him. “I know we’re keeping it.” She patted his hands, where they rested over her tummy. “I’m fine with that. I think it’s neat.”

  Next to the window hung several collage frames, full of snapshots of Marcus and Jean-Claude together. She didn’t begrudge those. This little bubble of time outside of their normal lives was plenty large enough to share with the men’s memories.

  Besides, the more she thought about it, it was sad that, other than friends who’d known them, the three of them were the only ones who really…cared what had happened to the men, in the end. Well, Marcus had cared about Jean-Claude, but at the end of his life, except for his paid attorney, Marcus only had them.

  And only because of Tyler’s kind and loving heart.

  Tom walked over to join them, draping his arms around them. “Bed’s going to be small. We might want to think about taking care of that this trip.”

  “Small’s good,” Nevvie said. “Promotes cuddling.”

  He laughed. “Easy for you to say. You won’t be the one falling out of it, either.”

  “We can change things around however you’d like, darling,” Tyler insisted. “Make it our own. Decor, paint, everything.”

  She looked around, took in all the books, the furnishings. It felt…

  Like a home.

  “This trip, let’s focus on us, okay? Not even cleaning out the storage unit. Maybe empty the dressers and closets and put that stuff downstairs so we don’t have to live out of suitcases. Other than that, I just want to chill out and relax and not worry about arrest warrants or poisonings by crazy women.”

  “Nice of Elliot to give me three years’ services free, eh?”

  “The least he could do,” Nevvie snarked. “Considering Crystal wanted to kill me off, wanted to kill off Tommy, and write a tell-all book about us. Elliot knows damn well we could have sued his fucking ass and ruined his reputation.”

  “There’s one thing I still don’t understand about all that,” Tom asked.

  Tyler’s brow furrowed. “One thing?”

  “Yeah. If Crystal was so smart, and she was so hung up on you and all, why did she kill Cole Johnson and not make it clear that it couldn’t have been you who did it?”

  “Well, she was hoping to frame Nevvie for it,” Tyler said. “Isn’t that obvious? When that didn’t work, she resorted to drugging her. As Dad pointed out, perhaps that was another homage to the Augustine books. Shoot Nevvie once she was drugged, make it look like a suicide. Or make her overdose, and then plant evidence on her to make it look like an accidental overdose.”

  Nevvie kept her mouth shut.

  “No, it’s not obvious,” Tom said, “or I wouldn’t be thinking about it. I mean, she steals your gun—and yes, my bad for not shutting the gun safe that night—and shoots Cole with it. The first person they’ll suspect is you, if the gun’s recovered.”

  “Except she knew about Nevvie’s outburst at the station,” Tyler pointed out. “I wonder how ‘lost’ that ballistics evidence really was, though. Yes, sometimes evidence is culled on closed cases, but there’s no record of that happening, and there usually is. And you don’t get much more closed than Alex’s death. Maybe it was simply a paperwork snafu, that someone forgot to notate the evidence’s destruction in the case record. But perhaps Crystal worked her way into the evidence room somehow, either claiming to be a journalist or researcher, or maybe just befriending someone, and now they can’t use the evidence to make a match between the bullets. Sloppy record keeping by the sheriff’s office, at any rate.”

  Tom arched an eyebrow. “What’s sloppy is when you look at everything else she did and then see that one glaring error.”

  “Not just one,” Tyler pointed out. “Also sloppy getting herself caught on our security system. Notice she stopped the visits after we let the cat out about the security system? That proves it was her. Well, and she confessed to it in the note, and—”

  “But what was she going to do?” Tom insisted. “Put the gun back in the safe?”

  “Too risky with us home and asleep, right? Likely, she was going to hide it inside somewhere. Downstairs, maybe?”

  “Yeah, but why not do it when she was in the house during the d—”

  “Guys,” Nevvie said. “We’re in Brussels, three weeks before Christmas. I’m sorry I mentioned her name. Can we please focus?”

  They turned to her. “Sorry,” they said in unison, making her giggle.

  “That’s better.” She glanced over at the kitchen. “Let’s get the groceries put away and have dinner.” She pulled the curtains shut over the window and started unbuttoning her shirt with a smile. “And let’s have some fun.”

  * * * *

  Tyler had finally read the letters from Marcus a few weeks ago, locked in Tom’s office one night after everyone else had gone to bed, with Tom sitting on the couch and Tyler’s head cradled in his lap.

  He did want to read them.

  He didn’t want to read them alone.

  When he finished them, he’d brushed away tears, looked up into Tom’s sweet brown eyes, and knew the truth—

  The letters didn’t matter.

  Not one bit.

  This man mattered.

  Nevvie mattered.

  Their family mattered.

  It did finally quiet that tiny part of him which had never understood why the man could be so heartless at the time when he’d returned to Brussels. Taken in situ, it certainly seemed the act of a pathological bastard.

  Examined as a whole, the man before and after, and Marcus’ relationship with Jean-Claude…

  He could now look back on the events and see the landscape instead of one blackened tree root.

  Tyler was glad the two men had been able to work things out and spent most of their lives together.

  As he’d gone on to do with Tom.

  Being truthful, Tyler was not in a good place when he’d married Moira. He’d been needy and desperate, and his own actions by almost locking Tom out of his life over a misunderstanding over Maggie, instead of confronting him immediately and talking, could have doomed his happiness forever.

  Somehow, two beautiful souls had fallen in love with him, and together, the three of them had magically created a world he was simultaneously proud and humbled to be a part of.

  After reading the letters, Tyler had kissed Tom, climbing onto him and getting himself fucked right there on his office couch while Tommy stroked Tyler’s cock and whispered his sweet, beautiful spells in his ear.

  “What’s going on in there, Evil Genius?” Tommy quietly asked.

  “Hmm?”

  He leaned in and nibbled Tyler’s earlobe. “You went somewhere in your head.”

  “Giving thanks for missed opportunities.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, I’ve been doing that a lot myself since last time we were here.” He kissed his way down Tyler’s jaw, rubbing his chin along Tyler’s goatee and mustache. “Hey, Nev? You want me to grow one, too?”

  She turned to look at them from where she stood at the stove cooking dinner. They’d gotten her down to wearing only Tyler’s shirt, which lay unbuttoned and open along her front. She smiled. “Not unless you really want to try it. I think I like my boys the way you are right now.”

  Tommy bent Tyler over the kitchen counter and ran his hands down his naked sides, caressing his ass, then squeezing with both hands and digging in. Tyler’s eyes fell shut and he gave up the battle to control his cock. It throbbed, hard from Tom’s determined and incessant teasing ever since he’d had b
oth of them strip before putting away groceries.

  He planted one hand in the middle of Tyler’s shoulders, holding him bent over, and then started bare-handed spanking his ass with the other. Tyler’s head dropped to the counter and he stuck his ass out to give Tom a better target.

  “Too bad I don’t have something better than my hand to smack you with.”

  Tyler’s eyes popped open. “Well, actually…”

  Tom leaned in. “Yessss?”

  Tyler suspected his ass might regret this tomorrow.

  Except he didn’t care.

  “Bedroom closet closest to the door, top shelf, behind some sweaters. Leather valise.”

  “Mmm. Stay.”

  Then Tom was gone.

  Nevvie giggled. “Oh, boy. You’re in trouble now.”

  “Yes, well, you just wait until he wears himself out playing Master, Missy. Then you’ll see.”

  “That better have been a capital M for both titles.”

  “Of course.” He rested his cheek against the cool countertop as he heard Tom return.

  “Ohhh, buddy.” A slight noise as he set the bag down on the floor. “Some of these are too far out there, but I think this’ll do the trick.”

  Tyler kept his eyes closed, preferring the surprise. Tom used his feet to nudge Tyler’s legs wider apart.

  One hand returned to the middle of Tyler’s back…then the cool feel of something being laid across Tyler’s ass.

  Paddle.

  He knew which one, too, even though he’d only briefly looked through the bag’s contents once while they were there before.

  But he remembered his sweet interlude with Ray, Oot, and kitten, and how implements had felt.

  The first smack was hard and stingy, but not a fraction as hard as he’d proudly taken from Ray and Oot years ago. “Harder,” Ty said.

  “Heh. Will do.”

  Smack!

  “Yeessss. Oh, that’s quite lovely.”

  Tom took his time spanking him, obviously not an expert in it but giving Tyler a head full of good memories, past and present, as he felt the tingles of subspace beckoning to him from the darkest recesses of his mind.

  Tom took a break a few minutes later, setting the paddle on the counter and doing something behind Tyler. “Sorry, buddy, but I cannot fucking wait any longer.” Tom had apparently stripped before he’d returned with the bag, because next thing Tyler knew, a lubed cock was sliding up his ass, making both men moan as Tyler adjusted to the sweet pinch of Tom’s cock filling him.

  “See, that’s just not fair!” Nevvie playfully groused. “I’m cooking dinner.”

  “Turn the burner down and come over here and suck him off for me, baby girl.”

  Tyler heard her move the skillet and then felt her soft hair brushing against his inner thighs.

  When her warm mouth engulfed his cock, he nearly came right there.

  Tom folded his body over Tyler’s and leaned in to whisper in his left ear.

  “Who owns this ass, buddy?”

  A sweet sigh escaped him. “You do, you silly sod. Now fuck my arse.”

  “Damn right I will.” He held on to Tyler’s shoulders, pinning him to the counter as he began pounding his cock into him. “Fucking teasing me on the goddamned plane. I was horny over half the Atlantic Ocean. You’re lucky I didn’t bend you over in an airport bathroom in Customs when we landed.”

  Tyler didn’t bother trying to hold his orgasm back. Nevvie had too many years of experience teasing and tormenting them and knowing exactly how to get the best out of them. As Tom plowed his ass, she deep-throated Tyler, one hand cradling his sac and playing with him.

  “Come on, Ty,” Tom said. “You don’t come before I do, gonna make you wait all fucking night for it.”

  Nevvie gently tugged on his balls and that tripped him over the edge. Her happy moans vibrated through Tyler’s cock even as it emptied every drop of cum out of his balls into her waiting mouth.

  “Yeah, that’s it.” Tom finished up in three hard, deep thrusts, sliding an arm around Tyler’s waist to hold him close, warm breath panting along the back of his shoulders, where he started nibbling. “I’m gonna spend so much time fucking that sweet ass of yours this week that cum’s gonna be leaking out your ears when I’m done.”

  “We didn’t have to fly to Brussels for loud and raunchy sex,” Nevvie teased. “We could have gotten a hotel room in Savannah. I thought we were going to sightsee?”

  She extricated herself from under the two men and went to wash her hands before finishing cooking their dinner. “And someone better get me off real soon, because damn, that was haawwt.”

  Tom’s warm chuckle rumbled through Tyler’s back. “We’ll take care of you after dinner, baby girl. Gonna take the two of us that long to recover enough to be able to do you justice.” He bit down on the back of Tyler’s shoulder, holding it, making Tyler’s eyes drop closed again as subspace tried to tether him once more.

  Then—Tom let go of him, stepping back after pulling out and shocking Tyler’s eyes open. He slapped Tyler on the ass. “That’s one.” He spun Tyler around, and Tom’s sweet brown eyes were crinkled at the outer edges in mirth. “How many did I promise you before we flew home?”

  Tyler swallowed hard. “Twenty.”

  Tom leaned in, his gaze narrowing, mirth giving way to playful sadistic satisfaction. “Twenty, what?”

  He fought the urge, at first, to drop to his knees…

  Wait, why am I fighting it?

  He sank to his knees in front of Tom, leaning in to nuzzle the tops of his bare feet with his lips. “Twenty loads of your cum up my arse before we leave for home, Sir.”

  Tom’s hand stroked his hair and his voice suddenly sounded hoarse. “Goddamn, that’s sexy.” The hand turned into a fist holding his hair, not too hard, just firmly enough he could tip Tyler’s head up and back to look him in the eyes.

  “Let’s go grab a quickie shower while she finishes cooking dinner.”

  Tyler sighed, contented. “Yes, Sir.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Tom had not anticipated a callback to Marcus like that, the bag of implements, but since Ty had offered he’d tried it on for size.

  The paddle had fit well in his hand and left Ty’s ass a gorgeous shade of red that felt hot and sexy as hell when he fucked him.

  In the shower, Tom pinned Tyler against the bathroom wall and kissed him hard. “And by the way, sorry, I decided your boy’s not in the house this week. Your boy stayed home, in Savannah. You and Nev can flip-flop back and forth if you want, but your ass belongs to me this week.”

  “Switch,” Ty said, smiling.

  “Huh?”

  “Switch. Not flip-flop.”

  “Whatever it’s called.” Tom slanted his lips over Tyler’s and kissed him again, hard, long, sucking him, holding him pinned in place with his hand cupping Tyler’s chin. “It means I’m gonna tap that sweet ass of yours on demand while we’re here. And no fucking working, either. You can take notes with your notebook and a pen, and that’s it. We’re either sightseeing, fucking, or sleeping. I see that laptop out without permission, you’ll get the bad kind of spankin’, mister.”

  Netflix had already green-lit two more seasons of the Augustine series, much to the delight of Tyler’s fans and their own bank account. This was a true vacation, not a working vacation.

  At home, Colin and Andrew were staying at their house with Willow, Zoey, and Mikey. Steven had taken over Andrew’s duties with Chloe for the duration of their vacation, and Karen had told Nevvie she wasn’t sure who was happier about that, Chloe or Steven, because the two of them were getting along great, like he really was her big brother.

  Which was fair, since Chloe was calling him her big brother, and defied anyone who tried to argue with her.

  After they dried off, Tom smiled. “Oh, I got you something for this week, too. I brought it with me. He turned to dig it out of his suitcase. “Eyes closed.”

  Tyler patiently waited,
gasping when he felt Tom buckling it around his neck.

  “Open.”

  Wide-eyed, Tyler stared up at him as his hand flew to his neck to feel.

  Tom kissed him, this time slow and sweet and loving. “I got three of them. We all match. Mine’s at home, though. Like I said, I left your boy back in Savannah.” His sexy, playful smirk melted Tyler’s heart. “We’ll buckle Nevvie’s on her tonight.”

  Tom grinned, hooking a finger through the leather collar’s D-ring and pulling him in for another kiss. “Brand new, picked them out myself. We’re gonna fill this place with our memories.”

  Tyler blinked back tears and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror over the dresser. Black, the collar was embossed with Celtic knots. Tom wrapped his arms around Tyler from behind, chin resting on his shoulder. “You look damn good in my collar, mister. Maybe you and Nevvie will have a harder time getting your boy back than you thought when we get home.”

  Tyler gripped Tom’s arms, never wanting him to release him. “I think I know how to coax him out of hiding.” He leaned back against Tom, staring into the mirror. “But this week, I think I’m happiest belonging to you two.”

  “Dinner!” Nevvie called from the kitchen.

  Tom didn’t move, holding on to Tyler. “We good, buddy?”

  Tyler nodded. “We’re perfect, love.”

  Tom nipped his earlobe. “What?”

  Tyler grinned. “We’re perfect, Sir.”

  “That’s better.” He smacked Tyler on the ass. “Dinner, then we’re going to get our girl and hold her down while we fuck her brains out.” He headed for the bedroom door.

  Tyler was having a hard time tearing his gaze from the mirror. Of course this was all in fun and games, part of their shared history and their relationship.

  Except…

  A sweet ball of excitement had formed in Tyler’s gut. This was the first time Tom had ever taken this kind of direct action regarding him being Tyler’s Dominant, even in a quasi-formal way.