Initiative Read online

  Including some especially naughty ones of the three of them in bed together.

  Looks like that will stay firmly in the realm of fantasy.

  “They live here locally,” Corey said. “Rusty still sees them every week. They bumped into each other at dinner one night with some mutual friends, and they ended up joining the weekly game Rusty plays in.”

  “Game? You mean they’re still rolling dice?”

  He grinned. “Absolutely. You still play?”

  “I haven’t played in years. Wow. That’s awesome.”

  “I’m sure they could fit you in, if you wanted to. I’ll give you Rusty’s contact info. Hey, we’re all having dinner together Sunday night. Why don’t you join us?”

  Before she could even think about it, she heard herself saying, “I’d love that. Thank you.”

  Maybe it was just wishful thinking on her part, but looking back, some of the best times in her life—before John—were spent with her gang of friends.

  Especially with Darryl and Grant.

  Somewhere, in a box in her house, she even had her old gaming books, modules, notes, and a bag of dice, tucked away with her high school yearbooks and other mementos.

  Corey’s phone buzzed with a text message. He picked it up, grinning. “Hey, speak of the devil, they’re here.” He replied to the text, then turned in his chair, looking toward the restaurant’s entrance.

  A moment later, he waved as two men appeared.

  Susan’s heart skipped a beat, or so it felt like.

  Ironic, because she thought it’d died that day two years ago, along with John.

  * * * *

  Grant spotted Corey and his wife right away. Hard not to when their friend was waving at them. And was that…

  It couldn’t be, but it was.

  She looked older, careworn, and her brown hair was now a gorgeous light reddish auburn that looked perfect with her green eyes, and long, down past her shoulders.

  As they drew closer, his heart sank to see the wedding rings on her left hand.

  The three stood as Grant and Darryl approached. Corey reached out to hug them first. Grant had already given Darryl a standing order for the weekend that he could hug anyone he chose to without needing permission first.

  But standing face-to-face with Susie, Grant realized she didn’t just look careworn.

  He’d swear she looked heartbroken.

  That’s when he spotted the bracelet on her right wrist.

  “Susie, my god, it’s good to see you,” Grant said, not really wanting to let go of her.

  “I’m glad to see you guys, too.”

  He couldn’t begin to count how many times he’d whacked off to thoughts of her in high school. Of the things he’d like to do to her, things he didn’t realize at the time weren’t sick or twisted.

  Now, it would seem, she had found her way there all on her own. Or with someone else. If that wasn’t a day collar on her right wrist, he’d eat his shoes.

  Darryl had one of his own he was wearing on his right wrist, only his was brushed stainless, not niobium. Probably made by the same company, if Grant were forced to guess. There weren’t many places that made that style of bracelet and collar.

  Susie’s smile looked practiced, not easy, as if she didn’t smile easily anymore.

  Stomping back a wave of protective fury that washed through him at the thought that she might be in an abusive relationship, he was reluctant to let go of her hands, which had found their way into his. He knew Darryl wanted a chance to hug her, too, and he’d give him that chance in a moment.

  But first, he had to know. “So, is your husband here with you this weekend?”

  Corey and Marcy both coughed, and now Susie’s smile looked a little less forced. “It’s okay,” she said to them before returning her attention to Grant. “I’m widowed,” she said.

  A ton of puzzle pieces righted themselves and snapped into place. That explained a lot.

  Including the sad, invisible cloak around her. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.”

  “It’s okay. It was two years ago.”

  “So you’re here solo?” He hoped he didn’t sound too hopeful.

  “Can I get a hug from her?” Darryl asked, sounding a little on the testy side.

  “Hold your horses,” Grant said, mentally noting that would be five cane strokes for him later. “I’m not done with her yet.”

  She smiled again, a little easier this time. “I’m here alone. No one in my life.”

  He didn’t mention her bracelet even though his heart now pounded, an idea—probably a very bad one—quickly forming in his brain. “Did you fly in?”

  “I’m local. I live over east of 75, not far off of Bee Ridge.”

  Holy. Shit.

  She was local, and yet he’d never seen her at Venture or at any of the munch groups. Hell, she lived near Shayla and Tony. “We’re just off Clark. Who knew we lived in the same area?”

  He stepped aside so Darryl could finally get in and hug her while he and Corey grabbed two more chairs and pulled them over.

  Grant’s pulse pounded.

  She’s single.

  She’s probably kinky.

  And she’s local.

  He was more bi than gay, even though Darryl ran closer to the gay side of the spectrum. He’d sort of tricked Darryl into finally admitting it when he brought a kinky woman home one night and, with her pre-warned knowledge, she helped him coax Darryl’s deeply closeted subby and kinky bisexual side out into the light.

  Once that happened, there was no going back either, lucky for him. They’d shared women several times in the past couple of years they’d been together, people they’d played with at the club, but nothing permanent. Darryl had even admitted that, back in high school, he’d had fantasies he hadn’t understood then, of the three of them together.

  How many times did you get a second chance to make a dream come true? All he’d have to do was to take the initiative and hope he didn’t roll a critical fumble in the process.

  They all settled around the table, Susie ending up between them with Grant on her right side. As they talked and got caught up, he watched her. Watched the way she touched her bracelet with her left hand, much in the way Darryl did.

  In fact, he was surprised she hadn’t seemed to notice Darryl’s bracelet yet. Maybe she was just too nervous.

  He damn sure knew he was.

  * * * *

  The men looked good, better than Susan imagined they would. Grant was still an inch shorter than Darryl, and his ice-blue eyes and blond hair still sent flutters through her the way they did when she was a kid. Darryl’s brooding brown eyes seemed to hold silent pain, and his black hair showed traces of grey here and there.

  As he always had in high school, Grant captivated her with his gaze, holding hers, seeming to pierce right through her. Countless times she’d wished she could admit to the guys how she felt about them, but knew that would end in pain for all of them. She never could have chosen between the two of them.

  In retrospect, if they were a couple, it effectively settled the point anyway.

  Not that she was in the market for someone, but her fantasies about the two men could now be updated and upgraded to a more adult version.

  “If you wanted to start gaming with us,” Grant said, “there are several NPC characters I know Axel would let you pick from. Or we could roll you up a new one and he could work you into the campaign.”

  “Axel?”

  “He’s our DM. Rusty’s still playing, too, or did Corey tell you?”

  “He told me.” She thought about it. “When do you play?”

  “Every Wednesday night. We rotate different places, but you wouldn’t have to host us if you didn’t want to,” he quickly added. “It’s not a requirement or anything.”

  “We’d love to have you join us,” Darryl added in his soft voice.

  She studied Darryl. Yes, he’d played keyboard in a band in high school, kids messing around, but his skil
ls obviously better than some. It didn’t surprise her, with his long, graceful fingers, that he now played professionally for a living.

  “I’d like that,” she said. “So…a church, huh?”

  Darryl’s bashful smile also twisted her heart. Some things never changed, like that sweet expression of his. “Yeah, long story.” He held a finger to his lips. “Shh. Don’t tell them I’m an atheist and live ‘in sin’ with him.”

  “You really think they’d fire you?” She tried to stifle her outrage on his behalf.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know for sure and don’t want to find out. Very likely. They know we’re roommates. Hell, they know what I make for a living, so if they want to hassle me about my living arrangements, I’ll come back at them for a raise. Which they can’t afford. So at least it’s been easy to keep a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of game going there.”

  After another thirty minutes of sitting and talking, as Grant and Darryl ate cheeseburgers they’d ordered, Susan realized none of them had checked in yet with the reunion committee.

  “They’re probably open by now,” she said. “Are you guys going to the pool party later?” She already knew Corey and his wife were.

  “Sure are,” Grant said. “See you there soon?”

  Dammit, she almost felt like the high school girl again. “Yeah. I’m going to check in, then run upstairs and change.”

  “We won’t be far behind you,” Grant said. “We’ll just finish our burgers.”

  “What room are you guys in?” Corey asked the men, which led to another quick round of everyone exchanging phone numbers via texting back and forth.

  Susan made sure to save everyone in her contacts list. This time, she damn sure wouldn’t lose touch with the men.

  Right now, she knew she could use every last friend she had.

  Maybe this was a good idea after all.

  Chapter Four

  When they returned to their room, Darryl couldn’t help that his thoughts kept wandering back to Susie. She looked good.

  Damned good.

  Well, especially under the circumstances.

  Did it make him an asshole that he still longed for her the way he had in high school? When he was too young and dumb and scared to make a move for fear of it scaring her away for good?

  Add to the fact that he knew Grant had liked her, too, and he hadn’t wanted to piss off his best friend.

  Twenty years later, they were more than just best friends…

  And sharing a woman had led to some of the hottest times of their lives. Just because they were in love with and devoted to each other, and planned on spending the rest of their lives together, didn’t mean they couldn’t have some consensual fun with a third on occasion.

  They had rules. It had to be someone they were both into, who was into both of them, too. Someone safe, who wasn’t five gallons of crazy in a two-gallon bucket.

  This was Susie.

  He longed to take the pain away from her, to make her smile, keep her laughing, the way the two of them used to be able to do back in high school.

  “Did you notice her bracelet?” Grant asked as Darryl rooted through the suitcase for his bathing suit.

  “Huh?”

  Grant pointed at Darryl’s right wrist, where his day collar bracelet was fastened. The round brushed stainless rod locked around his wrist with a special hex screw.

  He didn’t wear it at work because he couldn’t take the risk. Normally, during the week, he wore a small silver dragon pendant on a chain that Grant had given to him as his work day collar. Innocuous, but with several personal meanings to them both. Not something that would draw any untoward or uncomfortable attention. Something easily explained away.

  Darryl looked at his bracelet and then back to Grant. “I honestly wasn’t even paying attention. It was just so good to see her again.”

  Grant walked over to him and took Darryl’s hands in his. “She’s widowed and said she’s alone. I’d be willing to bet that’s a day collar she had on. So I still don’t know if that means there’s someone in her life for sure or not. But I have a proposal for—”

  “Yes.”

  Grant arched an eyebrow at him, nearly thickening Darryl’s cock right there. “You haven’t heard my proposal yet.”

  “Does it involve Susie?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I don’t have to hear it. Yes.”

  Grant squeezed his hands. “I’ve missed her. I didn’t realize how damn much until tonight.”

  “I know. Me, too. Why did we ever let her get away?”

  “Because we were dumb kids, that’s why. We didn’t know any better. We didn’t know this was a thing. Or that it was a thing we could actually do.” He pulled Darryl in for a hug. “Same rules apply. She has to be into both of us and want this.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Will you be okay seeing me top her?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “This is different. We’ve both held a torch for her for a lot of years.”

  “You don’t think she’ll be freaked out?”

  Grant smiled at him. “I hope to hell not, because I have twenty-plus years of fantasies about her and you both that I want to get out of my head and into a bed.”

  * * * *

  Now Susan kicked herself in the ass. Why hadn’t she brought a bikini with her?

  Oh, right. Not in the market.

  And…what the hell? For the first time in two years, she actually felt…happy. It’d been so damn long since she’d experienced it that she didn’t recognize the emotion at first.

  Happy.

  Her two best friends back in her life. Okay, so they were gay, but still…

  Maybe it was better she didn’t have a bikini. No use stupidly throwing herself at two gay guys who wouldn’t have any interest in her in that way.

  But…friends. How many times in high school had she cried on their shoulders, literally, over shit going on at home? How many times had one or the other of them taken her home with them to hang out and do homework because she didn’t want to go home to whatever hurricane was brewing between her parents at the time?

  How sad was it that her parents rarely, if ever, questioned where she was or who she was with as long as she was home on time?

  Was it any wonder she’d fallen hard for John in college? She’d just been lucky that, despite him being ten years older than her, he’d had a good heart and had been able to take care of her and teach her how to be happy.

  And she still felt that similar protective spirit from Darryl and Grant, the way they bookended her at the table, one on either side, just like when they were kids. At the movies, during gaming, or watching a sporting event at school, even at lunch, they’d always sat like that.

  Changing into her bathing suit, she tied the sarong around her hips and studied herself in the full-length mirror. She wasn’t bad for her age, she guessed. Thirty-eight had been hard more on her heart and soul than anything. She still hadn’t gained back the weight that she’d lost—although that wasn’t a diet she’d recommend to anyone. Still a few pounds over where her five six frame should be, mostly in the ass and thighs.

  John used to love her ass, joked that he liked having a bigger target.

  She’d never felt fat with him. He’d loved her for who she was and refused to let her obsess over her weight as long as she was healthy.

  Now she looked at herself with a jaded eye. The sarong hid the slightly rounded tummy bulge and the jiggly ass.

  It’d have to do.

  Okay, so the one-piece was the right call after all.

  Not that Darryl and Grant would care one way or the other. For starters, they were her friends.

  Secondly, they were gay.

  Duh.

  She put on her name tag badge lanyard the reunion committee had given her, tucked her room key card and a credit card into it, and headed downstairs. Tonight, she would do her best to live in the distant past and not the recent, more painful
one.

  Have fun.

  The way she used to be able to have fun with the two men. The way they could make her laugh and take her mind off her troubles.

  But compared to her current life, parents on the verge of divorce would seem like a happy camping trip.

  She touched the bracelet on her wrist. It would remain there all weekend, until she got home and could wear her leather collar and cuffs again. Her tether to sanity.

  * * * *

  Grant was eager to get downstairs to the pool party. To see Susie again. Now that he knew Darryl was in agreement with him, he really wanted to talk to her.

  Maybe he was one hundred and eighty degrees off in his assumptions. Maybe it wasn’t a day collar. Maybe it was a day collar but she wasn’t as single as she let on for fear of “scaring the ‘nillas.” He knew he lived that every day, both at work and with Darryl, trying to keep their private lives private.

  But if he was right and if that was her husband’s collar…

  If she was open to maybe being with them…

  Which, of course, he wouldn’t be an asshole about. There’d always been a pleasant kind of tension between the three of them. However, that was twenty years ago, and all three of them had done a lot of growing and maturing since then.

  If there was even a chance he was right, he didn’t want her to slip through their fingers again.

  She wasn’t down there when they reached the pool deck, which was already bustling with people. Some of them they vaguely remembered, most they didn’t, or hadn’t even known back then.

  Or worse, they’d avoided them back then because they’d been bullied by them.

  Corey and Marcy arrived next and the four of them ended up at a table off to one side with drinks in front of them. Grant almost missed it when Susie entered the pool area. Her long hair was now pulled back into a braid, and the vision of him wrapping it around his fist as he fucked her mouth threatened to stir his cock before he shoved it out of his mind.

  He waved to her, hating the excitement coursing through him. He was likely setting himself up—and worse, maybe Darryl, too—for disappointment, but he couldn’t help it.