Crafty Bastards [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  Max had glared in reply, unable to deny it. As a matter of fact, Max had come up with some of the hottest, dirtiest fantasies about what they could do with her if she really were between them in bed.

  Thing was, they never thought it would ever be anything but a really hot fantasy.

  Sean grinned. “Great. When we go over for dinner tonight, we’ll ask her.”

  Well, now they were standing here. Cali’s shoulder-length brown hair was damp and pulled back at the nape of her neck with an elastic band. She wore a T-shirt and shorts and sat with her bare feet tucked up under her.

  She was adorable.

  And yes, he wanted her.

  “Hey, Cali,” Max said from beside him.

  “Hi, guys,” she said, her smile looking worn and haggard.

  Sean wanted to pull her into his arms and fix this for her, although doing just that might weird her out if he didn’t lay the proper groundwork first.

  He’d basically worn Max down throughout the day, not hard to do considering their offices sat next door to each other at Sarton, the construction firm they worked for. Sean was an engineer and Max was their senior cost estimator for their projects. They’d met in college and ended up going to work there, Max first and then Sean six months later when Max was promoted and Sean took his place as the head engineer.

  Well, before their relationship had transformed from straight friends into lovers.

  Sean had called Essie that afternoon, asking how best to approach making the offer.

  Hence the dinner invite.

  She wasn’t a smoker, she was kinky, and she was adorable.

  As they chatted over dinner, Sean didn’t miss that Essie had seated him and Max on either side of Cali.

  “Is Cali short for something?” he asked her after learning about her years in Montana.

  “California.” She snorted. “California Raleigh Charleston, if you can believe that.”

  “Wow,” Max said.

  “Yeah. Especially in a Montana high school. My mom swears at the time she thought it was cute. Hence why I go by Cali.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Max said. “Here I thought Maximilian Roscoe Trendle was bad. They were my grandfathers’ first names.”

  “I’m just Sean,” he said, feeling a little lame over that.

  Essie threw her hat into the ring. “Essline Barrone. My dad made it up, wanted me to have a distinct name, apparently.”

  Sean held up his wine glass. “To names. Glad we can pick what we want to be called now.”

  “Says the man who has the normal name,” Max snarked even as he clinked glassed with Sean, Cali, and the others.

  Sean waited until just before dessert to make his move. “Listen, I’ll admit there’s another reason we’re here tonight,” he said, glancing at Max. “We’d like to offer you our spare bedroom.”

  “Thanks, but I need to find another apartment.”

  “You can rent from us,” Sean said. “Here’s the thing, we’ve been meaning to ask you to redesign our website for us. I heard you say you can do that, right? And we need a bookkeeper for our online store.”

  “I’m not going to stay somewhere and mooch.”

  “No, not mooching. You can pay us rent, and work for us in partial trade.”

  “But I have a cat.”

  “So? We’re okay with that.”

  Essie spoke up. “I know you said you picked up a refund from the apartment complex, but I also remember some of the places I went to look at with you. They were dumps. You’ll be a few doors down from us. It’s a great neighborhood. They have a pool. It’s perfect.”

  Sean played dirty, picking up his wine glass and swirling the contents around. “Unless, you know, you think it’d be weird with us because of our relationship together.” He took a sip.

  He’d picked just the right tone and she fell for it. “No! It’s not that at all. I don’t have a problem with you guys. I like you both, you know that. But face it, I’d be crimping your style.”

  “Not at all,” Sean said, trying to contain his glee and ignore the dark glares from Max. He knew his partner would ream him out later privately for manipulating her like that, but a few seconds of manipulation winning out over hours of begging was worth it, in his book.

  Especially for a great cause like this.

  “Not that we don’t want you here,” Essie said, “because we do. I mean it when I say if I could talk you into living here, I would. But I also know you’ve been wanting your own place. Their spare bedroom is like a mother-in-law suite at the other end of their house. At least go look at it before you tell them no.”

  “You can help us test out toys,” Sean added with a grin.

  Cali turned to Max. “You haven’t really weighed in much. Is this his plan, or are you okay with it?”

  “I’m fine with it,” Max said. “I’m the quiet one. He’s the talker.” Max shrugged. “Honestly? Had I realized the full extent of what you were going through sooner, I would have asked you to move in with us months ago. There’s no reason for you to struggle. You can save up and, at some point, if you still want to move out, fine. Otherwise, pad the savings a little. This isn’t charity.”

  Sean wanted to kiss the man. He knew he’d owe him a damn good blow job later for piping up when and how he did.

  Cali looked across the table at Ted. “Well, you’re the shrink,” she said. “Am I falling back on an emotional crutch if I do this?”

  “I’d have to say no, since you’re asking in the first place. We get it. You want to be independent. But get this, we’re your friends. Family. Make us happy and give in and accept it graciously.” He smiled. “You are a damn hard worker. I say that not just as your friend, either, but as someone who’s worked with you as your employer. If you want, we can call Tilly up and let her—”

  “No, no, that’s okay.” She loved Tilly, but knew her straight-shooting friend would probably ask why the hell she was resisting them. “How much rent are you going to be charging? I was paying six hundred, including electric and water, at the other place.”

  “Oh, hell no,” Max said. “Two hundred. And contribute to groceries every week.”

  * * * *

  That would mean an extra four hundred a month she could put into savings. Hell, she could think about taking that online college course she’d looked into and getting a degree in accounting.

  Why am I putting up such a fight over this again?

  “I want to do a lease and everything,” she said. “I want it in writing so you guys are protected and it doesn’t get weird.”

  “No problem,” Sean said. “Let’s walk over after dessert and look at it. Hell, we could move you in tonight.” He grinned. “And you can even skinny dip in the pool and hot tub if you want. We don’t mind.”

  “Privacy fences make for awesome neighbors,” Max said.

  This seemed to mean a lot to them, especially to Sean.

  One more glance at Essie, who gave her an eager nod and thumbs-up.

  No, she didn’t get the feeling her friend was trying to shove her out the door.

  If anything, it almost felt like Essie was trying to shove her into the men’s arms, which was stupid. They were gay, and Essie had to know that, considering they were close friends to her anyway.

  Whatever.

  “Okay. After dessert I’ll come look at it.”

  “Great,” Sean said. He leaned over and petted Baxter, who’d stopped to sniff at him. “You can have the run of our house, buddy.”

  When he got to Max, however, Baxter stopped, testing the air, then backed away before turning and running into the house.

  “Go figure,” Cali said. “Don’t take it personally, he did that to my cousin for weeks before he finally warmed up to her. He’s fickle.”

  Max hooked a thumb at Sean. “I live with fickle. I’m used to it, don’t worry.”

  “Hey.”

  “Well, you are.”

  Sean shrugged. “That’s true—I am.”

>   * * * *

  Essie walked down to their house with Cali and the men after dinner.

  “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before,” Essie said. “This is the perfect solution.”

  “I didn’t know there was a problem before,” Cali said.

  “I know you weren’t happy at your cousin’s house.”

  True. Her cousin and her husband weren’t kinky. She’d curtailed her activities by a lot while living there. Of course, the fact that her budget had taken a massive blow didn’t help.

  That was another bonus. She could go to the club more now without worrying about the expense as much. Maybe not every week, but maybe at least twice a month. It’d be nice to spend more time with her friends for a change. And if she was there with Sean and Max, she suspected they’d be willing to let her use them as an excuse if someone she didn’t want to play with asked her to play. That had only happened once in real life so far, and the guy had been quickly discouraged when Cali referred him to Tilly.

  But online, ever since she’d changed her FetLife status to single, creepers had crawled out of the woodwork. Most of them were harmless and easily blocked. She didn’t want to change her status back to involved because that might curtail interest from genuine guys.

  Then again, a guy was the last thing she needed right now.

  Don’t forget that.

  Their house was nice, and the room had its own bathroom. Situated at the far end of the house, it likely meant she wouldn’t hear the guys when they got…frisky.

  Not that she’d mind that, but it would only serve to remind her how alone she was.

  Heck, the bedroom and bathroom together were almost as large as her tiny apartment. The kitchen alone was as big as her kitchen and great room area combined at the apartment. The bedroom had a sixty-inch flatscreen TV on the dresser. They even had Wi-Fi.

  The bed was comfortable, too. A queen-sized bed far nicer than the cheap, full-sized mattress she’d picked up new from one of those model home furniture liquidators.

  “You know you want to say yes,” Essie said.

  She’d have dressers again, and a walk-in closet.

  Not that she had much in the way of clothes.

  At this point, between the wine and the exhaustion, Cali didn’t have the energy to fight any more. “Okay, yes. Thank you. I’ll try to keep it to only six months.”

  “You can stay as long as you need to,” Sean said. “No rush. I’ll go print up a lease.”

  Essie and Cali headed back to Essie’s to once again pack her stuff.

  “Poor Baxter’s going to be traumatized,” Cali said. “Moving him again.”

  “Baxter will settle in just fine. He’ll love it there.”

  “I’m glad June gave me a new scratching post.” The one she’d had for Baxter had been her cousin’s, for her two cats. She’d wanted to pick one up after moving, but June had included a small one in the goodie bag.

  “This is a perfect match,” Essie said.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re wanting more to happen than me just rooming with them?”

  “Don’t be silly. They need the help with their website. It’s perfect.” Essie stopped her at her front walk and made Cali face her. “I hated that apartment you were in,” she said. “It was not the best neighborhood. My guys told me to keep my nose out of it, but it was all I could do not to put my foot down and get Tilly to help back me up to move you in with us then. This works out perfectly. I can quit worrying about you, and now you have no excuse not to make Saturday dinners or come to the club.”

  “Except for money.”

  “Stop it. This will give you a chance to save up. It gives you a chance to breathe easy for one goddamned minute since this nightmare started. Hey, no one would let me and Tilly and Abbey go hunt Shane’s ass down in Miami, so give me this win, okay? Please?”

  “Okay, fine. I didn’t know it meant that much to you.” She felt a little uncomfortable being the focus of everyone’s concern all of a sudden, but maybe that was just her, not them.

  She hoped.

  “Thank you.” Essie hooked arms with her again. “Now, let’s get you settled into your new home.”

  Chapter Six

  The first couple of days Cali lived with Sean and Max, she worried about cramping the men’s style.

  It didn’t stop her from fantasizing about them as she lay alone in her bed at night, though. Her libido had made a screaming reappearance, due in no small part to the men’s daily presence in her life.

  Not that she could say that to them. That would sound really douchey.

  Hey, you guys don’t mind if I fetishize and objectify you in my fantasies, right?

  Yeeaahh, no. Not something she’d ever admit to them.

  Still, it helped her when rubbing one out to think about herself sandwiched between the two cuties. Or to fantasize how sexy they probably looked fucking each other.

  As she settled into a semblance of a routine with Sean and Max over those first few days, she also realized she felt increasingly guilty.

  It would be far too easy to let them become an emotional crutch and she’d never get out on her own again. It didn’t help that Baxter went out of his way to snub Max, while loving up on Sean like he was some sort of cat Messiah.

  On Friday morning, they were all in the kitchen getting ready for work when she finally had to bring it up.

  “Guys, I really appreciate this, and you have been more than great, but I’m thinking I probably should look for my own place soon.”

  The men exchanged a glance. “Why?” they asked.

  “Did we do something?” Max asked.

  “No, you have been fantastic. I don’t want to end up overstaying my welcome.”

  “You’re not overstaying anything,” Sean said. “We want you here. What do we have to do to convince you of that?”

  “I’ve never lived on my own before. I had less than forty-eight hours in my own place.”

  “So?” Max asked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Besides, we want your help with the website.”

  “I’ll still do that for you. I just—”

  “Is it because we’re bi?” Sean asked.

  “No, it’s… Wait, because you’re what?”

  “Bi,” Max said. “Did we do something to come on too strong or something?”

  “I…” Her jaw snapped shut. “I thought you guys were gay?”

  The men looked at each other and started laughing. “Nooo,” Sean said. “We love women.”

  She stared at them. That meant…

  “Is that why you asked me to move in? Because you’re attracted to me?”

  “It’s not the only reason,” Sean said. “We’d be lying if we said we weren’t, though.”

  “Oh.” That changed things.

  In a biiig way.

  On the one hand, it meant the dirty fantasies she’d been having about the men the past couple of days could come true.

  On the other hand, it meant the dirty fantasies she’d been having about the men the past couple of days could come true.

  And that scared her.

  “Okay, so we’ll admit it,” Sean said. “Yeah, we like you. A lot. We would love to play with you, and not just testing implements. A full-on, no-holds-barred scene. And if you wanted to do more, we’re open to that, too.”

  “More?”

  He stepped forward, forcing her to look up at him. “More. As in, we’ll show you ours if you show us yours.”

  “What are you afraid of?” Max asked.

  “I’m not. I’m…” She swallowed hard. She was.

  “Well, if you’re not afraid, then what is it?”

  “I need to get my own place.”

  “If the rent’s too high, we’ll drop it,” Sean said. “Hell, you can live here for free.”

  “I can’t mooch off you guys. I can’t live here for free.”

  “Sure you can, if we say so,” Max said.

 
“What,” Sean said, “you think you can’t handle us?”

  She bristled, getting in his face. “I can handle anything you throw at me and more.”

  When he smiled, she realized he’d set a trap and she’d stepped right in it. “Then let’s make a wager,” Sean said. “Let’s scene together. We win, you stay for at least six months.”

  “What?”

  “Chicken?”

  “No—”

  “Don’t you like us?”

  “Of course I like—”

  “Aren’t you attracted to us?”

  He wasn’t giving her time to think. “Yes, I think you’re both—”

  “Think we’re not men enough for you?”

  “I never said that—”

  “Good. Then here’s the deal,” Sean said. “We make you safeword, then you live with us for six months, free. You don’t move out. By living with us, I mean with us, however you want, in our bed or out of it.”

  Max stepped forward. “Hey—”

  Sean silenced him with an upraised hand. “Deal?”

  She frowned, ignoring the “in their bed” part. That was too tempting. However, she’d seen them scene and knew she could handle that easily on her worst day. “That’s not fair. How do I know you won’t use needles or something on me? Anyone can be beaten into a safeword.”

  “No,” Sean said. “Honest scene. Accidental blows don’t count toward a safeword. No needles, no cutting, nothing like that.”

  She wasn’t convinced. “What’s the catch?” It’d been so long since she’d had the good, hard kind of scene that left her emotionally and physically spent that maybe it was worth listening to him just to get that.

  “No holds barred, either,” Sean said. “Meaning anything we want to do inside of your hard limits but including sexual play.”

  That would be a different limit. One that, considering her relationship status, wouldn’t be completely unwelcomed at that point. “Why is this so important to you?” she asked.

  “Because I really like you and so does Max. We’re not looking to take advantage of you. Why are you being so stubborn? There are people out there who’d jump at a chance to live rent-free for six months.”