“Am I thrilled about it? No. But we’re Doms. Though we may not have been acting like it lately, we both know the needs of the sub come first.”
“Sure, but Heavenly doesn’t even know she’s a sub. Hell, I deeply suspect she is, but we have no proof—”
“Actually, I do.”
Seth tensed. What had the doctor done to her? What had Heavenly let him do? “Oh?”
“Before you snarl like a damn dog, no, I didn’t tie her to a spanking bench and beat her ass. I’ve been a good boy.” He grinned. “Mostly. But I did take her to an exhibit of BDSM art.”
He had to give the doctor credit; that idea was fucking brilliant. “Really?”
“She’s interested.”
Seth filed that information in the oh, hell yes drawer. But he couldn’t let his dick take him off on a bunny—or rather, a kitty—trail right now. “Good to know…but even if the needs of the sub come first, you and I both know we can’t force her to accept us or our help.”
“Last night, she reached her breaking point. She’s out of options and she knows it.”
“Still, she’s going to come out fighting.” Seth shook his head. “She may have abandonment issues, but she’s used to doing everything alone. And that girl has lots of pride.”
“She does. I didn’t say it would be easy to convince her to let us do the heavy lifting. I simply said we had to, for her sake.”
“You know, we could—in theory—help her together, make sure she has three meals a day, a safe roof over her head, new clothes, and a secure future on the horizon… Speaking of which, I tucked this away last night.” He handed the piece of paper to Beck. “Apparently, her fall tuition is past due. I’ll call and take care of it in the morning. I assume no one’s there on a Sunday.”
Beck scanned the page. “Son of a bitch. She didn’t intend to tell us about this, either.”
“No. Remember, she tried to keep me out of her papers.” Seth slanted a sideways glance at the doctor. “Anyway, I’m saying we could give her the encouragement and support she needs until she’s feeling steady without ever laying a finger on her. After all, we did that on a smaller scale for Raine when Liam and Hammer asked for our help. That turned out all right.”
Beck scoffed. “Tell me lying next to Heavenly last night wasn’t absolute torture and it didn’t take you right to the edge of your control. Go on,” he prompted. “I’ll wait while you find the balls to tell me that whopper.”
“It did. I said ‘in theory.’”
“Uh-huh. Realistically, there’s no way we both keep our hands off her for weeks or months… And just like the care we give her, if we touch her, we have to do it together.”
A couple of big objections screamed through Seth’s brain. “Logically, I suppose you’re right. But I still don’t know how the hell I’m going to handle watching you put your hands on her.”
“How about my hands on her while you’ve got your mouth over hers, swallowing down her moans?” Beck challenged. “Remember, last night in Raine’s kitchen, you were tugging on Heavenly’s hair and looking into her eyes while I damn near dragged my lips up her neck. You didn’t look like you gave two shits what I was doing, just that she was engaged and aroused.”
Seth froze and replayed the moment in his head. Beck was right. In fact, he’d thought even then that he and the good doctor would most likely be fucking her together soon. And that hadn’t bothered him at all.
“Holy shit,” he muttered.
“Exactly. If we both have her naked and screaming in pleasure, I doubt you’ll be thinking about anything else.” He sighed. “Think about it, man. We’re too smart not to have learned something from Hammer and Liam. We have to put our petty jealousy aside.”
“Of course they got on the same page. They’ve been friends for a decade. They’d shared a woman before. Granted, it didn’t end well…but they knew each other better than anyone on the planet. You and I don’t have that going for us.”
“We don’t, but Liam and Hammer’s friendship started over a woman, right? I’m not saying we’ll find it easy, but we’re doing all right at the moment. The truth is, if we’re serious about helping Heavenly, then we have to keep the focus on her feelings, not ours. If we can’t do that, we’ll lose her for good.”
Yeah, Seth had been there when Raine threatened to walk forever if Liam and Hammer didn’t stop snarling like a pair of dogs fighting over her as if she were a juicy bone. He still wasn’t entirely sure why Heavenly thought she couldn’t have a future with them, but he did know that Zelda and the dead body pranks had pissed her off enough to put on her clothes and walk out his door.
“You make valid points. But I still may end up punching you at some point.”
“And I could suture your mouth closed in your sleep. It might make me feel better for a minute or two, but that won’t make Heavenly happy.”
Fuck. Beck was right. Again. Even so, that didn’t help Seth’s other major objection to this cozy plan. “All right, look. I don’t know if I can do the ménage thing. Back in New York, not long after Liam separated from his ex, he and I found this sub one night…and tried it. Like I told you, I’m not a fan of swinging junk. It was awkward as hell.”
“Hammer and Liam’s first attempt at sharing was a disaster, and they both say it’s because they had the wrong woman between them.”
“Juliet was a fucking head case, definitely wrong for them both.”
“Maybe…you weren’t meant to sandwich a random sub between you and your Irish pal. Maybe it would be better if you had a different
