Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  “I love Minnie. She’s quiet but she’s sweet,” Molly put in.

  “She scares the shit outta me. No woman is that quiet,” Maddox shared, and Molly got up and slapped his abs, harder this time.

  “Brother, I cannot believe that shit just came outta your mouth,” Diesel muttered, sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

  “I can’t either,” Molly hissed.

  Maddox reached out and twirled a lock of her hair. “Baby, when you babble on, it’s all kinds a’ cute. But I’m fuckin’ you, so it would be.”

  Molly looked to D. “Can I cuddle with you?”

  He threw out a long arm. “Always, sweetheart.”

  She got up, taking her beer with her, and stomped to D.

  He wasn’t in the loveseat and it was still hot outside but he also didn’t blink at her curling up in his lap to the point he wrapped both arms around her.

  “Keep bein’ a chauvinist, my man, and I’ll get all the lovin’,” Diesel joked.

  When Molly looked at him, Maddox didn’t appear broken up that he lost her.

  And that didn’t break her up because he looked content to the point of serene, gazing at his man and woman curled up together.

  His expression shifted and his focus did the same, all of it on Diesel.

  “So, this work with Sixx gonna become a regular thing?” Maddox asked.

  Molly looked up at D to see him shrug.

  “Regular. No. But I made it clear if she needed me again, I’m there,” Diesel answered.

  They’d heard about the earbuds and transmitters over barbeque chicken and pasta salad.

  And when they did, it was not lost on either of them that Diesel really enjoyed hanging with Sixx last night.

  Now, they were here.

  And Molly took a sip of her beer, mostly because she didn’t know what to think about this turn of events.

  “You got off on it,” Maddox noted.

  “Yeah,” D replied. “Hard not to. It was the shit.”

  “You know, after that clearout they had, Barclay and Josh are still lookin’ for people they can trust who know what they’re doin’ to be Dungeon Masters at the Bolt,” Maddox announced.

  “Really?” Molly asked.

  “Yeah?” Diesel asked.

  “You’d be good with that,” Mad told D.

  He would.

  But Molly didn’t like it.

  “Yes, and he’d be on a different schedule than us,” she pointed out.

  “I wouldn’t quit my day job, sweetheart,” Diesel told her.

  She looked up at him. “So you’d be away a lot and not getting enough sleep.”

  “Okay, before this discussion runs away from us,” Maddox put in, “I’m just sayin’, D, if you’re not diggin’ what you’re doing, you should find something you dig doing. Do this work with Sixx. Maybe check things out at the Bolt,” his eyes dropped to Molly, “if he wants to give it a shot. Barclay and Josh could use someone decent who gives a shit about the players, not to mention someone who’s in the scene, as head of security, not someone who looks at it as just a job. I don’t even think they got a head of security, but after that shit went down there, they need one. And maybe D, if he got into it, could share that with them.”

  “And if he did, he’d be a different schedule than us, Maddox,” Molly reiterated.

  “And he might be happier with what he’s doin’ and we’d work it, darlin’,” Maddox returned gently.

  “And, uh, just to say, that he you’re talkin’ about is sittin’ right here,” Diesel butted into the conversation about him that was happening without him. “And yeah, I dug workin’ with Sixx. And yeah, I’m totally gonna do it again. And yeah, I’d rock being a DM so I’ll contact Barclay. But no, there’s no reason to get uptight about anything because it’s nothing now but talk and some fun with Sixx every once in a while. We’ll hash out a change if there’s actually a change to hash out. You both with me?”

  “Sure,” Maddox said before taking a tug on his beer.

  Molly looked again at D. “If the work with Sixx isn’t dangerous, then . . . sure too. If it is, you shouldn’t keep that from us.”

  “It wasn’t last night, but if it is, I won’t keep it from you, Mol,” D said softly.

  She stared into his eyes.

  Then she nodded.

  He gave her a grin and a squeeze of his arm.

  Then he took a swig of beer.

  She took one too and settled back into him.

  Maddox spread his arm across the back of the loveseat and stared at the two people across from him like he’d be happy watching them for years.

  God, she really loved that man.

  He knew it.

  But it didn’t hurt to remind him.

  So when his eyes rested on her, Molly mouthed, “Love you.”

  “You too,” he said out loud.

  “Jesus, you two are a pain in my ass,” Diesel grumbled.

  Maddox smiled.

  Molly looked again to him. “What? Why?”

  “You’re gooey. It’s disgusting,” he replied.

  She pulled away and slapped his abs, exclaiming, “It is not.”

  “It totally is,” he returned, a teasing twinkle in his eyes.

  “You’re both annoying,” she declared.

  “And you love it,” Diesel returned.

  “Only when you’re annoying while you’re fucking me,” she shot back.

  D aimed his cocky grin at Maddox, lifting his bottle to his mouth and saying before taking a tug, “She does love that.”

  Molly transferred her gaze to Maddox as he replied, “She fuckin’ does, thank fuck.”

  She pushed off Diesel and got to her feet, declaring, “I’m watching TV.

  “Don’t be like that, baby,” Maddox called.

  She fired a glare over her shoulder at him and flounced away.

  It was all show.

  Maddox might read it.

  D might not.

  But Molly wanted them to have time alone and would clutch at anything to give them that time to be normal, sit, relax, unwind, be together—not fucking, not in a scene, not even making love—just two men who loved each other being together.

  “It’s good she’s gone. Now we can talk about how sweet her ass looks when she’s trussed up, her pussy stuffed with one of our cocks,” Diesel remarked.

  “I don’t know, brother, my show mighta been better, her bound and ridin’ your face,” Maddox replied.

  “I see that,” Diesel agreed.

  “You’re both pigs,” Molly decreed as she yanked open the door.

  “Unh-hunh, how many times you come again, baby? A hundred?” Diesel called.

  She whirled at the door and stuck her tongue out at him.

  They both busted out laughing.

  She pranced into the house, giving the door a little slam behind her.

  And she did it smiling.

  But hours later, tangled in her men, mostly asleep, Molly’s eyes shot wide.

  Until my dying breath.

  Why would he say that?

  Why didn’t he just tell her he loved her like he usually did?

  Until my dying breath.

  She listened to the deep male breathing around her, felt the somnolent, hard bodies caging her in.

  Both her boys were asleep.

  “He’s leaving,” she whispered to no one.

  Molly was not fooled by sunflowers and joking on the patio.

  Rebel had a phone conversation with him and was coming down, for goodness sakes.

  Something was wrong.

  And she wasn’t sure with the changes that were happening that it was actually coming right.

  Maybe it was more like a prolonged goodbye.

  As tears filled her eyes, determinedly, she shifted so both men would shift with her, pulling closer, snuggling deeper, into her . . .

  And each other.

  “’Kay?” D asked drowsily.

  So Diesel, even asleep, all
she had to do was move, and he’d ask her if she was okay.

  “Yeah,” she lied.

  “’Kay,” Mad muttered vaguely.

  So Maddox, ascertaining she was okay and only then was he okay.

  Their breathing eased back to sleep.

  Molly stared at the ceiling.

  She couldn’t lie there and cry.

  She couldn’t make her point by making them cuddle when they were mostly asleep.

  She had to do something.

  Because most important of all . . .

  She could not, would not, let them lose Diesel.

  Stop Being Stupid

  Diesel

  “NO, REALLY, PRIME rib sliders are not necessary, Holly. I thought we made this decision when I was down in Tucson,” Molly said into the phone as D put his knee to the bed and leaned into her.

  She was back to the bed, ass facing the pillows, legs raised up straight, ankles crossed, heels resting on the wall over the headboard, phone to her ear.

  This was her Take a Load off While Holly Attempted to Drive Her Nuts position.

  It was also her Take a Load off While Gabbing with Her Mother for Two Hours position.

  When he got in her face, she rolled her eyes at him.

  He memorized that second. That heartbeat of life. That overload of cuteness. That beautiful piece of Molly.

  And he did it as he grinned at her in an effort to hide where his thoughts were really at, then bent in and touched his mouth to hers.

  He pulled back.

  She gave him her own grin then her eyes unfocused as they narrowed.

  “Holly, no,” she said into the phone. “No backtracking. That’s eight hundred dollars-worth of food and you’re having a banquet. You don’t need people stuffed full of hors d’oeuvres right before they have dinner. It’s a total waste of money.”

  Seeing as he had something pressing to do, and sadly no hope of saving her from her situation, Diesel left her to it, pushed off the bed and moved down the hall, through the great room, to the back hall and into the workout room.

  He stopped in the door and took in the view.

  Maddox was in full quiver where D had left him, squatting over the weight bench he was straddling, bare plugged ass tipped, back arched, head back, wrists tied to the bar supports. He had his black leather belt tight around his waist. Buckled at the small of his back was a strap going down between his ass checks, holding in the vibrating plug. The end of it looped around a ring that was banding his balls.

  Topping that, his balls were weighted down with his heavy, thick, steel weight band.

  He had to be in agony, his balls weighted like that, his quads burning in the squat, not to mention his ass red from the spanking he’d taken earlier.

  D had left him like that for ten minutes. Any more would not only be torture, it’d be uncool.

  But he was holding.

  That was Maddox. He’d endure anything because he liked it like that.

  And because D liked dishing it out.

  Diesel moved into the room, right to the bench and enjoyed watching Maddox’s entire body jump powerfully when D touched his ass lightly. Enjoyed the groan of pained pleasure that accompanied it when those weighted balls swayed.

  D ran his hand up his back, his shoulder, his arm as he walked around to his front.

  Mad’s head tipped back, agony and ecstasy carved in that harsh, handsome face.

  Diesel could stare at that face looking like that for ages.

  He could stare at it in sleep, while he was watching TV, while he was smiling at Molly, while Mad was driving his truck.

  He’d never get sick of that face.

  “All right, brother?” he asked.

  “Gotta come, D,” Maddox gritted.

  That’d be the pain Mad so got off on, accompanied by the position. He liked being physically challenged. Not to mention that big plug thumping relentless up his ass.

  “Mm,” D murmured and slid his fingers through Mad’s thick beard, watching his hand move, feeling the soft bristles against his skin.

  He cupped the underside of Mad’s jaw, put a knee to the bench and yanked his workout shorts down to expose his cock.

  “Open up, buddy,” he whispered.

  Maddox immediately opened his mouth.

  D fed his cock in and watched Maddox’s cheeks under that beard hollow as he sucked hard.

  Fuck, his man had a mean draw.

  Goddamned heaven.

  It was Diesel’s turn to groan, his head falling back.

  He started to face fuck his boy, tipping his chin back down, watching Maddox’s mouth take him, the focus in his expression.

  The pain was gone.

  His position didn’t factor.

  He was all about sucking Diesel’s cock.

  D ran his hand gently over Maddox’s hair and those black eyes opened, shifted up, and what Diesel saw shining there . . .

  He slipped his dick out, bent in and took Maddox’s mouth with his own. He drank deep, taking his time, and Maddox gave it all up.

  All of it.

  Everything.

  D broke the kiss, opened his eyes and saw Maddox gazing at him, not hiding the need that lay stark right there.

  “Fuck me, baby,” Mad whispered.

  Diesel didn’t mess around with unfastening the ball weight and letting it drop. Removing the belt, plug and ring.

  But Maddox held position, squatted over the bench, as D lubed, moved in, and took his ass.

  The minute he drove home, Maddox’s body jerked spasmodically, head shafting back, his cum jetting all over the bench.

  Oh yeah, he got off on the pain.

  And D’s cock hitting home.

  It didn’t take long for D to shoot inside him.

  Still coming down, Diesel sat on the bench, pulling Maddox down to sit on his cock, and he rested his forehead at the back of Mad’s neck.

  “Love you, buddy,” D whispered.

  Mad went entirely still, his ass clenching so tight around D’s still hard dick, it milked an aftershock of cum out along with a grunt.

  “Untie me,” Maddox ordered, his rough voice thick and throaty.

  “We’re done,” Diesel told him.

  “Untie me, D,” Maddox commanded.

  Diesel pushed him up and off his cock. Reaching out, he untied one wrist.

  “Last part of your service is to clean up,” Diesel told him.

  Then he moved away, left Maddox to untie himself from the other support, and walked out of the room, straightening his shorts.

  He went back to the bedroom and hit it in time to see Molly rolling off the bed.

  She looked to him.

  “I’m going for a run,” he announced.

  She blinked then looked concerned. “Did I miss it? I mean, you’re not leaving Mad like that—”

  “I finished him off,” Diesel told her, ignoring the surprise he felt from her as he walked into the closet.

  He grabbed his running shoes, socks and a tee. He pulled the tee on and went out to sit on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and shoes.

  Molly was still there but D didn’t look at her.

  “So you guys are done?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Stupid Holly,” she muttered, and he felt her attention remain on him. “Now you’re running? In the heat of the day?”

  He glanced at her to see she didn’t look any less concerned but now also looked perplexed.

  He went back to his shoes. “Yeah.”

  “After doing Mady?” she pushed.

  “Yeah.”

  He finished tying his shoes and straightened, beginning to move to the door as Mad walked in wearing a pair of cutoff sweats, his eyes on D.

  He looked concerned too.

  His gaze swept Diesel top to toe.

  “Goin’ for a run,” Diesel told him before he could ask.

  “You’re . . . what?” Maddox asked anyway.

  D walked to him and stop
ped.

  “A run, buddy,” he said quietly, lifted a hand and wrapped it around the side of Mad’s neck. “You good?” he queried, running his thumb through the beard at Mad’s jaw.

  “Yeah,” Maddox answered, brows drawn, eyes studying Diesel. “Are you?”

  D nodded, his gaze dropping to Mad’s mouth as he pulled his man to him.

  He took his mouth, quicker this time than when he had him positioned for him, but he still got a good taste in with his tongue.

  He let him go, ignored the surprise on Maddox’s face and didn’t look at Molly altogether as he muttered, “Later.”

  With that, he walked down the hall, out the front door, down the walk, to the road.

  He let himself feel the heat as he pounded out the miles, focused on it entirely, the oppression, the discomfort, the sweat pouring off his body.

  But even the Phoenician sun in summer couldn’t take Diesel’s mind off where he was at and what he was intent on doing.

  A good hunk of time. Giving it all. Getting it all.

  Having Rebel there with them that weekend.

  And then, after she was gone, the weekend after that . . .

  This had to end. He had to stop wasting their time. He had to make the cut so they could heal and move on.

  So he was going to give it all to them.

  He was going to get it all while doing that.

  And then he was taking all his baggage, all his damage, all his bullshit . . .

  And he was leaving.

  Maddox

  Molly was in the kitchen cooking their “special dinner.”

  Diesel was flat out on the couch watching TV.

  Maddox was in their bedroom, his phone in his hand, trying to decide if he should make a call, and if he made it, who he should call.

  Rebel?

  Or Sixx.

  He had not made up his mind when movement at the door caught his eye and he saw D walk through.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Yo,” Diesel greeted, his hand in his front jeans pocket.

  He walked up to where Maddox was standing in the middle of the room, stopped, opened his mouth, shut it and looked around.

  Then he looked at Mad.

  “What’re you doin’ standin’ in the bedroom?”

  Fuck.

  Maddox didn’t have an answer for that.