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  “Can I help with the dishes?”

  “Nope,” Jarred said, speaking before Garrison could. “This has been our pleasure.”

  * * * *

  When they were all settled in the living room again, Em couldn’t help but glance at the urn and the pictures. The woman had been dark blonde with high- and lowlights in her hair, on the thin side, shorter than Jarred by several inches.

  “How did she die? If you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Kidney disease that led to renal failure,” Jarred said. “She was on the waiting list for a transplant, but they couldn’t find one in time. It all happened in about six months from when she was first diagnosed.”

  “So she was your wife?”

  “She had me marry her because of her benefits. She had a life insurance policy and retirement stuff through work. She married me so that we wouldn’t lose it when she died. Well, that was one of the reasons. She wanted us to be able to make decisions for her, legally. She knew we’d be on the same page.”

  She noticed how he twisted the wedding band around his finger as he talked, an unconscious gesture, probably.

  “What did she do?”

  “She was a public information officer for the Sarasota Police Department,” Garrison said with a smirk. “Hence why we had to be discreet about certain aspects of our life.”

  “How did you explain your relationship, though?”

  “The three of us had already moved in together,” Jarred said. “We’d been living together seven years at that point, when we got married. The vanilla friends thought we were three good friends who were roomies. Or maybe that Garrison and I were gay and she was our mutual beard. They never asked. Our other friends, and our families, they knew the truth. Most of the people we hung with were kinky friends, though.”

  “Long story short,” Garrison said, “Jarred and I started going to the Suncoast Society munch dinners about the same time. We became friends and got invited to a private party. That’s where we met Janis. She started playing with us, and we started hanging out together, the three of us. We’d go over to her place after work and clean for her, or cook for her, or to play, or do whatever. And then she admitted to us that she wanted to do more with us.”

  “More?”

  “Sex,” Jarred said. “Which, believe me, we were okay with. No, she wasn’t a pro-Domme, either.”

  Garrison arched an eyebrow at him. “But she also told us we’d have to be okay with it being all three of us, just the three of us. So that left me and Jarred to make an interesting choice.”

  “Interesting…how?”

  Jarred smiled. “I’m bisexual. Garrison isn’t. Wasn’t.”

  Em returned her focus to Garrison, who smiled. “One of the things I loved about Janis was how wickedly persuasive she could be without me even realizing it at the time.”

  Em sensed the guys weren’t hitting on her. Not exactly. Maybe it was the fact that it’d been several years since she’d last been laid, but this discussion was turning her on in a way she hadn’t thought about before.

  Which she felt guilty about, because they were discussing their dead love, a woman they’d obviously been devoted to.

  I’m horrible.

  “Then the three of us were living together, and sharing the same bed and…” Garrison’s smile faded. “We loved her. She formally collared us in front of our friends, we called her Mistress, when we weren’t around vanilla friends and family, of course. And we took care of her until the day she died.”

  “She also worried about us being able to be with her for her medical care,” Jarred said. “She was adamant that she didn’t want anyone in her family trying to take over her care. I married her because my health benefits were a bit better than his. In case we needed to try to tap into those. We never thought we’d lose her. We expected a miracle. I knew she hadn’t been feeling good for a while, several months, at least.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Garrison said.

  “If I’d demanded she go get a checkup, they might have caught it sooner.” Jarred stared at his lap.

  Garrison let out a sad sigh and returned his focus to her. “He blames himself.”

  Em thought about her mom. “When someone’s an adult, they’re responsible for their actions. Don’t take the blame when it’s not yours to take.”

  “But it was my job to take care of her. No, I’m not a doctor, but my gut kept telling me something was wrong, months before we caught it. I should have put my foot down and made her an appointment and took her myself.”

  This whole conversation felt surreal. It’d gone from sexy to sad in the blink of an eye. “I’m sure she wouldn’t blame you.”

  “She never did,” Garrison said, glancing at Jarred. “She flat-out told him that.”

  Jarred shrugged and stared into his glass of iced tea. The silence fell and Em finally had to break it.

  “So you guys stayed together? I think that’s sweet.”

  “We love each other. We take care of each other. She made us promise to get married after she was gone. To stay together.”

  “Then why didn’t you get married?”

  Jarred looked up, smirked, and pointed at Garrison. “Ask him. Not like I haven’t asked him several times.”

  From the way Garrison playfully rolled his eyes, Em knew this was a topic they’d hashed and rehashed. “Because probate of her estate took a while. I didn’t want us to do anything to screw that up. Plus we were both trying to grieve and move forward and we needed to get settled into our new normal without her. I was thinking about planning it when Jarred’s uncle died and we found out he inherited the house. I want to make sure all our legal stuff is proper first. We have powers of attorney for each other, and joint bank accounts. I’m not worried.”

  He directed that last sentence to Jarred.

  Jarred hooked a thumb at his partner. “We’re both switchy, if you couldn’t tell. I think he likes ordering me around a little too much sometimes.”

  “So says the guy who had me scrubbing all the baseboards a couple of weekends ago,” Garrison playfully shot back.

  “When you said you were a masochist earlier today, you really meant it,” she noted.

  Garrison sent him a glare, but Jarred shrugged it off. “I was in a lot of freaking pain,” he said. “I’m not responsible for whatever I said.” He offered her a grin. “Unless it was really nice. Then I meant every word.”

  Garrison picked up the narrative thread again. “So we sort of take turns taking care of each other. We’d played with a few other Dommes before we fell for Janis, but right now no one’s available we…trust or feel a connection with.”

  “Vanilla dating really isn’t our thing,” Jarred added.

  “I guess,” she muttered before realizing it sounded completely different—and far worse—than she’d meant it. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “Circling back around again,” Garrison said, “we’re not trying to make you uncomfortable. We just don’t want you to be shocked later on, or feel like we were hiding stuff from you.”

  “No, I get it. Thank you. I mean, what you do in your bedroom isn’t any of my business.”

  Jarred touched Garrison’s arm. “You know, you said Tony said we could bring a plus-one on Sunday night.”

  The men exchanged a long glance, obviously full of meaning to them.

  “I’ll verify it with Tony,” Garrison said, “but I’m sure it’ll be okay. Ask her. You brought it up.”

  Jarred was practically vibrating in place as he turned to look at her. “Are you busy Sunday evening?”

  “No, why?”

  “Want to come to a dinner party? Just dinner. Nothing kinky. Jeans, shorts, casual. At a friend’s house.”

  He sounded so hopeful, even if she had been busy she would have cancelled her plans so she could tell him yes.

  “Sure,” she said. “It’ll get me away from my mom.”

  A handsome, playful smirk curved Garrison’s lips. �
��Don’t be shocked if some of our friends try to play matchmaker with you, though. They’ve sort of got a pretty good track record.”

  She let out a snort. “Frankly? If they can find a guy who’ll put up with my mother? I might be willing to let them.” She opted to try to lighten the conversational tone a little. “She told one guy I brought home that he needed to wax his back.”

  “No!” the men gasped.

  “Yeah. I wish I was making that up.”

  “Did he need to?” Jarred asked while Garrison playfully swatted at him. “What? It’s a valid question.”

  “No, he didn’t need to wax his back.”

  Jarred stuck his tongue out at Garrison. “See? That makes it even worse, what her mom did.”

  “I’m halfway tempted to ask you guys to play my boyfriends just to freak my mom out. Maybe it’d make her want to move out voluntarily. Or at least regret sticking her nose into my business.”

  The men exchanged a glance and nodded before turning back to her. “Sure,” they said.

  Chapter Nine

  Em drove home, deep in thought. Their conversational meanderings had gone far afield of the usual friendly chit-chat one expected at a first-time dinner with new friends.

  While her initial joke about having the men pose as her boyfriends had seemed like a bad TV sitcom idea at first, the more she thought about it, the better she liked it.

  Why the hell not?

  If she wasn’t getting any real sex while her mother was living under her roof, at least she could exact a little retribution for the potential romances her mom had already helped nuke from orbit.

  On the other hand, Em hoped she’d get home and find her mom was still actually alive. The fact that her mom hadn’t called even once meant either her father had physically restrained her from calling, or she might have dropped dead.

  Em pulled into her driveway and shut the car off, sitting there for a moment to gather her thoughts. No, once she’d gotten past the initial surprise of the men’s revelation, she hadn’t even been shocked about it. Between her extensive Kindle library, and her real-life friends and acquaintances with non-traditional relationships, it wasn’t like it was a big deal. As long as everyone was an adult, who cared?

  Lucky woman. Garrison and Jarred seemed like super-sweet guys. They’d obviously loved Janis very much. To have not one but two hunky guys devoted to her? Janis had been very blessed, indeed.

  Operation Freak Mom Out would begin from the next time Em saw the guys. Frankly, she was looking forward to spending more time with them. They were nice guys, had great senses of humor, and with similar tastes in movies and books as she had.

  Being friends with them wouldn’t be a hardship. Especially if their future time together would be a fraction as fun and relaxing as tonight had been. It was difficult not to feel guilty that they wouldn’t even let her help with the dishes, despite their assurances that it was kind of the whole point.

  She’d never really thought about it before but had always assumed “submissive” guys were just wimpy momma’s boys who wanted to be bossed around. The last adjective she’d use to describe either of the guys was wimpy. They were definitely Alphas as well.

  Didn’t a lot of women bitch that they wanted a guy who’d do what she said?

  Well, here were two guys who wanted to do just that for the same woman.

  How is this a bad thing?

  It wasn’t, that she could see.

  Then again, that was putting the cart before the horse. For now they were friends who were going to play at being in a relationship. Who knew if the guys would even want to pursue a real relationship with her?

  Still, she’d never turn down a chance to make new friends.

  Especially two hunks who would be living next door to her.

  Okay, moving out and leaving Mom and Dad the house is looking to be a bad idea.

  Why should she have to move, anyway? It was her freaking house.

  I hope Dad comes through like he said he would.

  When she finally went inside, she’d honestly expected to find her mom sitting on the couch and waiting to pounce and question her, but no, nothing.

  She quietly made her way to the master bedroom and locked herself in, relieved that she wouldn’t have to verbally joust with her mom.

  What she wanted to do was engage in some fantasies—really naughty ones—about having two hunky guys all to herself and not having to choose between them.

  * * * *

  “So, what do you think?” Jarred asked as they cleared the table.

  “She didn’t run away screaming,” Garrison joked.

  “I’m serious.”

  “So am I.” He turned to Jarred. “Remember, we’re not going to overwhelm her.”

  “I really like her.”

  “I do, too. Let’s take it slow. She might decide she doesn’t want anything to do with BDSM or being a Dominant.”

  “She asked us to pretend to be her boyfriends.”

  “Yeah, in a halfway joking way, and to mess with her mom’s mind. I get it. But that’s not a lifetime commitment.” Garrison started rinsing the plates before putting them in the dishwasher. “I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”

  “What about you?”

  “I don’t want to get my hopes up, either. That’s not a one-way warning.” He turned to Jarred again. “Let’s see how Sunday night goes. Janis was already kinky when we met her. She already knew what she wanted. We have to teach Em the way Janis taught us. Let her decide what’s right for her.”

  “Now I want to get the house done super fast and get moved in.”

  “Again, that’s not healthy. We have a lot of stuff to do. What about the kitchen?”

  “I could live with it the way it is. Just a new fridge and stove.”

  Garrison crossed his arms over his chest and looked down his nose at Jarred.

  “What?”

  “You know what, Jare,” he said, returning his focus to the dishes. “Stick to the plan. It’ll be easier to deal with a kitchen reno if we’re living here, with a functional kitchen, versus living there and trying to wash dishes in the bathtub.”

  “Fine,” Jarred grumbled.

  * * * *

  Em left her house early the next morning. Her father had already been awake with her mom, and he interceded when her mom tried to play interrogators and spies over toasted bagels in the kitchen.

  Thank goodness it was Friday, and this weekend, Em didn’t have to work.

  But as she drove to work, she realized that might not be a good thing. It meant nothing to do to keep her away from her mom for two whole days.

  Dammit, I hate feeling like this about her.

  When she arrived at work, she wasn’t in her office more than a minute before Mitchell followed her in and closed the door behind him. When she looked up, he wore a catbird grin.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “Well, what?”

  “Dinner last night with the cuties. How’d it go?”

  She leaned back in her chair. “Okay, for starters, how do you even know they’re cute?”

  “Because you said so.” He plopped down into a chair in front of her desk. He was fifty-eight but acted and appeared more than ten years younger. “I trust your judgment about men, honey.” He waggled his fingers at her. “Make with the deets. Are they good cooks? Good housekeepers?” He arched an eyebrow. “Good in bed?”

  “Okay, stop. I didn’t sleep with them. Although don’t be surprised if you see them playing my boyfriends.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  She explained it and he laughed. “Okay, driving your mom into a heart attack or stroke is admittedly a devious way to get her out of the house, but I can’t say as I blame you since I’ve met the woman.”

  “I’m a horrible daughter.”

  “No, sweetie, you’re too kind for your own good, is what you are. If you were a horrible daughter, you would have turned the moving truck around and made them sleep at a Holi
day Inn until they found another place to live. You wouldn’t have been hiding in your bedroom and in tears on the phone to me, while I was asking to come over there and run them off for you.”

  “I should have let you.”

  “Damn right, you should have. I begged you, if you’ll recall.”

  “I know.”

  “So they’re subby boys. I think that’s adorable. You need a little TLC in your personal life, sugar.” He pointed a finger at her. “When do I get to meet them, is the question. You know if Brent and I don’t sign off on them, nothing else needs to happen.”

  “Follow me home after work so I can drop my car off, and you and Brent and I can grab dinner. I’ll ride with you. If they’re next door, I’ll introduce you then.”

  “Direct. I like it.”

  “And a chance to get me out of the house again.”

  “You shouldn’t be running away from your own home.”

  “Tell me about it. I feel like I’m running away from my whole life.”

  * * * *

  When Em’s dad called her at lunch, Em hesitated before finally taking the call. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”

  “Add me to your mom’s shit list.” He let out a chuckle. “But I think I found a couple of good places for us today.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. She hated them, of course, but that’s not the point. She’s going to hate anything that she hasn’t decided on herself. And if I leave it up to her, she won’t decide, so she’ll just have to deal with it.”

  “Any more threats from her?”

  “No. Blessed silence, glares, and at one stop she refused to get out of the car, so I told her fine, she could sit there without the keys, in the heat and no radio, until I finished looking around. That got her moving.”

  “No kidding?”

  “I’m done playing around. I’ve let her strong-arm me for our entire marriage. It’s time for her to see what it feels like for a change.” He let out a sad sounding sigh. “Sorry it took this for me to finally find my balls, sweetheart.”

  That made her feel…worse.