A Crafty Ever After [Suncoast Society] Read online

  Inch by slow inch, Sean’s breathing came in ragged gasps as he forced himself to hold back and take his time. Finally, when he was seated all the way in, he let out a grunt.

  “Dude, I will not last. Let’s make this fast.”

  Sean removed her blindfold and she found herself staring down into Max’s gorgeous, sexy smile.

  “Loren, the fast version, please,” he said, his gaze never wavering from Cali’s.

  “Roger roger. Marriage is an institution, yadda-yadda, love is patient and kind and tolerates a lot of bullshit. Cali, do you take Max to be your lawfully wedded husband, promise not to kill each other, all of that?”

  “I do.”

  “Max, do you promise to take Cali as your lawfully wedded wife, et cetera, et cetera?”

  He smiled. “I do.”

  “Sean, do you take Cali for all that same stuff?”

  He nuzzled the back of Cali’s neck. “I do.”

  “Cali, do you take Sean?”

  “I do.”

  “Max, do you take Sean?”

  “I sure as hell do.”

  “Sean? You want Max?”

  Sean laughed. “I do, for the rest of my life.”

  “Insert obligatory Gilo aside here,” Ross said. “Then again, you boys have already done the inserting.”

  Loren laughed. “By the powers vested in me by the state of Florida, I do declare this is by far the weirdest ceremony I’ve performed to date—not that I’d expect any less of you three—and pronounce two of you legally married, and all three of you husbands and wife. Go ahead and fuck your bride, gentlemen.”

  Max flipped the vibrator over to high as he and Sean started fucking Cali.

  Cali’s eyes dropped closed as the orgasm slammed into her. With her pussy clamping down on both their cocks, it made it even more intense and rolled through her like a tsunami.

  “Fuck, yeah!” Sean gasped, coming after only a few strokes. Max wasn’t far behind him and let go of the vibrator to hold on to her hips with both hands and finish inside her.

  “There,” Max whispered. He kissed her. “You’re legally ours.”

  Sean nipped the back of her left shoulder. “Ours.”

  It was Sean who pulled out first. Apparently Loren and Ross had stepped out after she’d pronounced them wed, because Sean pulled on a robe and she heard him talking with them out in the living room but couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying.

  Max kept Cali tightly snuggled against him as he gently rolled them onto their sides. “Now, see how easy that was?”

  She didn’t want to open her eyes. “Thank you.”

  He nuzzled the top of her head. “You’re welcome. Now you’re never getting away from us.”

  She gently nipped his nipple, which was right by her mouth, making him flinch. “Wasn’t planning on getting away anyway.”

  “Good.” It was like he’d…relaxed now. More than just the usual post-coital zen.

  Like all the tension and worry had bled from him.

  She heard the front door open and close, then Sean returned moments later, shed the robe, and carefully snuggled behind her, along her back, draping his leg between hers so he could also touch Max’s.

  “So what was plan B?” she asked.

  Sean chuckled. “If you couldn’t take us both on such short notice like that, we were going to resort to standard DP.”

  “Ah. Out of curiosity, why was that so important to you guys?”

  Sean deferred to Max. “Both of us at the same time,” he said. “No difference. All three of us together as one. Literally and metaphorically. Just a nice bit of symbolism.”

  He laced fingers with her, his left hand twined with hers. Sean slipped his left hand under hers, all three of their wedding bands together.

  “This is us,” Sean said, gently squeezing both their hands in his. “The way it has been since we got together. When we wake up tomorrow, there’s nothing different.”

  “Ross will go with you and Essie on Monday to file the papers and walk you through getting your new license,” Max said.

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Or should I ask what about Sean?”

  Sean laughed. “Oh, no, you don’t. We’ll hit the DMV later next week. Together.”

  “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

  “I think I would have been worried about you if you hadn’t tried,” Max said. “But you promised six months.”

  She sighed. “I know.” She tipped her head back to look into Sean’s blue gaze. “Love you.”

  He kissed her. “Love you, too, baby.” Then he kissed Max. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too, buddy.” Max kissed her. “Love you, baby.”

  “Love you, too, you crafty bastard.”

  Sean snorted. “He’s definitely crafty. He’s managed to keep me in line all these years.”

  They untangled and helped her clean up in the shower, then got her settled on the couch in one of Max’s T-shirts while they fixed dinner for her.

  As she lay there and processed the good kinds of aches and pains currently clammoring for her attention, she smiled and knew it didn’t matter which guy it’d been.

  She’d already been married to both of them, the same way they’d already been married to each other, and her.

  That was good enough for her.

  Chapter Seven

  Six weeks later…

  Cali leaned back in her office chair and stretched, feeling joints creak and pop from spending the morning hunched over her computer.

  Damn, it’s great to be able to type with all ten fingers.

  At her movement, Baxter, who’d been lying curled on the end of her desk, lifted his head.

  “Maow.”

  She reached over and scratched him with her right hand.

  A hand she was glad wasn’t Frankenhand any longer.

  I’ll never take it for granted again.

  Checking the time, she realized the mail had probably arrived, and it was past time to stretch her legs anyway. She carried her coffee mug out to the kitchen sink, Baxter on her heels, and then stepped outside to walk down to the mailbox.

  Sure enough, the mail was in. She sorted through everything, pausing at an envelope addressed to her, from the health insurance company.

  Not her old one—the one Sean and Max had through work.

  She returned to the house, to her office, and opened it.

  Inside, she found a cover letter and her new insurance card. Except…

  Cali smiled, tracing her finger over the policy holder name also printed on the card, along with the policy number and other info.

  She giggled, shaking her head. “Dumbasses.”

  After peeling the card off the blob of adhesive holding it stuck to the cover letter, she added it to her wallet and removed the old one.

  And those two engineers think they’re so fucking smart sometimes.

  Boy, how she loved them. At least it’d proved her intuition correct yet again when it came to Sean and Max.

  She’d guessed right.

  * * * *

  Later that night, Cali was out in the workshop packing orders before heading to bed. Sean had laid down a little while earlier and was likely close to falling asleep in front of their bedroom TV.

  Max poked his head into the garage. “You coming to bed, babe?”

  “In a few. I want to finish pulling these first.”

  He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “Need any help?”

  “I wouldn’t say no if you want to join me.”

  He picked up an invoice and started pulling merchandise for her.

  As good a time as any.

  “By the way, I’m curious why you ordered Sean to marry me instead of you doing it.”

  His head snapped around. “What?”

  She couldn’t help but smirk at the unmistakeable shock on his face. “You heard me.”

  He knew that she knew he knew he’d been
found out. She could see it on his face.

  Resigned, he sighed. “I thought you promised not to look it up.”

  “I didn’t look it up. I didn’t have to look it up. The proof came to me.”

  “Huh?”

  “My new insurance card arrived in the mail today. Sean’s the policyholder, so his name’s on it, too, brainiac.”

  His eyes dropped closed and he tipped his head back. “Sonofabitch,” he muttered.

  It made her giggle. “So, Mr. Maximilian Roscoe Engineer Sadistic Genius Type Trendle, again I ask, why?”

  Another sigh, and he set the invoice aside to turn to face her. “Does it matter?”

  “So you did make it an order?”

  He nodded. “How’d you know it was an order?”

  “Because you two didn’t accidentally kill each other going through some jackass battle of wills to work it out between you. When you gave me the ultimatum, Sean said you two had already settled it. To be honest, I’d already figured that’s what you did. One of you had to order the other one to do it. Under the circumstances, I cannot see our Sean going Dom on you to do that. That meant it had to be you Domming up on him. And when did this happen? Where the hell was I when this was getting hashed out?”

  He leaned against the workbench. “The night before we gave you the ultimatum. We were having pool sex after you fell asleep.”

  She smirked. “Ah, pool sex. I should have known. He’s always a sucker for that.”

  “Are you upset?”

  “No. I just wanted to know why you did it. Out of curiosity. Your thought processes.”

  “For starters, his insurance is a little cheaper. Not much. In retrospect I realized it probably wouldn’t have mattered because they would have given me a price for you based on your age, not mine. Secondly, he’s Sean. You saw how he was after Lydia was murdered, and he hated her guts. He’s a goofball, but inside, he’s a marshmallow. Shit hits him hard. Good shit and bad shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Almost losing you nearly killed him.” His tone grew soft, serious. “You weren’t the one in the waiting room with him, watching the grief on his face. You weren’t the one who had to help him up off the floor in the ICU after they finally let us back to see you, when he collapsed and cried in my arms.”

  They hadn’t told her all this. The thought of putting her men through that made her heart ache in bad ways. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not trying to get an apology from you for it, babe. I’m not guilt-tripping you. It was a stupid fucking accident.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “I also know he wanted to be the one, but he would have let me do it, if I’d told him I wanted to be the one. I think he’s happier this way, though. I think he feels more secure.”

  “Probably. But I also know how stubborn he can be. I do think he’d hoped one day to marry you.”

  “He did.” He walked over and draped his arms around her. “I told him the truth—that either he trusted me and my feelings for him and you, or he didn’t. That he should know I wasn’t going anywhere, in the same way I trusted him and knew he wouldn’t use a piece of paper between you two against me.”

  “Aww. That’s sweet.”

  He rested his forehead against hers. “I told him that I loved him, and you. That he could either fight me on it, or he could admit how much he loved and trusted me—and show me how much he really wanted to submit to me—by doing what I asked and by taking my name.”

  “Ah, so you didn’t change your name.”

  “I will, eventually. Ed’s working on the papers. But it’s a drawn-out process when it’s not part of a marriage or divorce. I told Sean that him taking my name, right now, was all the proof I needed about what he felt for you and me both.”

  “That mean you’ve shook out in the pecking order as top dog between you two?”

  He smiled. “I guess so.”

  “That mean I don’t get to spank your ass on occasion anymore, Sir?” Just a hint of teasing snark.

  His smile widened. “Now that’s just crazy talk, babe. Me owning him and you doesn’t mean I can’t let you both spank my ass when the mood strikes me.”

  “I don’t get a vote in this, then?”

  “A vote in what?”

  “You being top Dom?”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “You really want to go there, sweetheart?” he quietly asked. “Because I’ll be happy to show you who’s in charge, right now.”

  She studied his expression and sighed. “Yeah, no. Who the hell am I kidding? Long as I get to play Top when I want to play one, you crafty bastard.”

  He chuckled. “Absolutely. You know I love that.”

  She snuggled closer. “I’m kind of glad you’re the top dog.”

  “Yeah? Why’s that?”

  “Because you’re the really crafty bastard between the two of you. Things are a bit more interesting for all of us when you’re in charge.” She kissed him. “I think he’s happier that way, too.”

  “I know he is. That’s another reason why I did it. And here I thought we’d get at least a few more months out of the mystery before you learned the truth.”

  “Then you should have ordered me not to open any mail. Except I’d have seen it the next time when I went to the doctor’s office.”

  His brown gaze studied her for a long, quiet moment. “Thank you, babe.”

  “For what?”

  “For going along with this. For giving yourself to us. For letting us take care of you. For taking a chance on us in the first place and taking that bet.” He smiled. “For being a damned good sport when we won.”

  “Yeah, well, the two of you kind of snuck right into my heart way back then. Not that I’m complaining, because you know I’m not.”

  He grinned. “We are sneaky bastards, aren’t we?”

  “You can say that again.”

  Max’s hands settled on her ass and he squeezed hard. “Do you really have to pack all these tonight?” He ground his hips against her and she felt his erection grow.

  “Why?” she teased. “You have a better offer for me, Sir?”

  “I think I do, baby.” He leaned in and grazed his teeth along the side of her neck, under her ear. “We could go tag-team Sean. Wake his ass up, slap him in a chastity cage, and leave him horny until tomorrow night while you ride his face and I fuck his ass.”

  “Mmm. That might earn you a spanking from him when he flips up next time.”

  “I know it will. If I’m lucky.” He bit her, hard, just below the curve of her neck, on top of her shoulder. A delicious shiver rippled through her as he sucked to leave a mark.

  His mark.

  A soft, deep rumble escaped him and she felt her clit throb in harmony, her nerves on fire.

  Her eyes fluttered closed and now she was holding on to him to remain upright.

  These were the times she loved best. These sweet moments when one or both of her men could unplug her brain and run their souls up and down hers, like talented fingers across a keyboard, making a melody only their mutual demons could hear and dance to.

  This was them. This was what brought them together in the first place. What made them so damn good together.

  He lightly stroked his fingers up her arms, down again, soothing the bite with tender licks as he laced fingers with her.

  Max and Sean didn’t code as kinky freaks when they were in work mode. Khakis or jeans, button-up shirts or pull-over collared shirts with the Sarton logo on them. Two engineers, nice guys. Nothing that would signal anyone that they had deep wells within them, filled with beautifully dark and dangerous ideas.

  Only she got to see this primal side of both men. Sides even their friends didn’t get to see. Sometimes others got a glimpse of them, but only the most fleeting of glimpses.

  He kissed his way back up to her ear. When he spoke, it was the low, shadowy tone of the Dom. “Maybe I should wake him up and the two of us should fill that sweet pussy of yours with our cocks and not let you come, hmm?”


  She knew the whimper escaped her, but she was helpless to hold it back.

  He knew as well as she did that if he dropped her deep enough, she was as helpless against him like this as Sean was, willingly picked up and tossed along on the rapids of his sadistic glee.

  Nothing wrong with that, because their demons loved to play with each other, and fun was always had by all.

  Cali wasn’t expecting it when he spun her around, her back pressed against his body, his left hand clamped around her throat just tightly enough to remind her who was in charge, and his right slipped down the front of her shorts, inside her panties, unerringly finding her clit.

  She ground against his hand and against the rock-hard cock now pressing against her ass through their clothes.

  “That’s what you really want, isn’t it?” he whispered. “You want both our cocks filling that sweet cunt.” His hand slid farther down, two fingers easily gliding over her clit and into her pussy. “Look how wet you are for me, baby.” He nibbled on the shell of her ear. “Tell Sir what you want.”

  “Please let me come, Sir.”

  “Aw, you beg so nicely. But shouldn’t someone have to suffer today? It’s not sadism if I’m not making one of you suffer, right? And if you want our cocks fucking you, that means I should let Sean come. I know I’m not stopping once my cock’s wedged up in there. So that leaves you.”

  Sure she could safeword.

  What was the fun in that?

  He obviously had a goal in mind or he wouldn’t be dangling negotiations over her head like some dick-shaped, vein-covered, realistically flesh-toned Sword of Dildocles.

  Max chuckled. “You are just trying to grind one out of me like this, aren’t you?” He pulled her body more firmly against his. “My poor girl. So horny.” He slid the two fingers all the way inside her pussy. “So needy.”

  He pulled the fingers from her, out of her shorts, and held them up to her mouth where she eagerly sucked them down, swirling her tongue around them.

  She knew this game. He was going to make her work for it.

  She was good with that.

  Game on, motherfucker.

  Chapter Eight