Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  “Mol,” Mad called.

  “You know, I wanted a white picket fence,” she said wistfully.

  That was when D’s gut got straight-up tight, so much, he thought he’d puke, and Maddox’s eyes shot to him.

  “A husband,” she said. “Babies.”

  “Molly.” Her name out of D’s mouth came strangled.

  “Birthday parties and high school graduations and finding the perfect mother of the bride, or groom, or whatever outfit for their weddings,” she went on.

  D and Mad stared at her and didn’t say a word.

  She reached to the beer Diesel set beside her and they watched as she lifted it to her mouth, took a pull, set it back down to the deck and kept her eyes aimed away, face tipped to the sun.

  “I had a boyfriend who tied me up, and I liked it,” she shared.

  D felt the growl roll up his throat and realized it wasn’t just his own sound he was hearing. The same was coming from Maddox.

  They, neither one of them, were fans of anyone touching their Molly, even if it was in the past. It was just how they were, who they were, and who she was to them.

  “I started, you know, looking into it, I liked it so much,” she continued. “Got some porn. Erotic comic books. Regular books. Erotica. Found out about the Bolt, went there, didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “Baby,” Maddox whispered.

  She kept her gaze aimed away and took another drag from her beer.

  “I was too scared,” she carried on after she’d sucked back her brew. “Doms would approach. I was just . . . scared. I never let any of them work me. But I hung out. I watched. I talked to other subs. And everyone, all the female subs, all of them . . . all they could talk about was the mother lode. Getting chosen by Mad and D. And then, the first time I saw you two, I knew why you were the ones everyone wanted.”

  “Fuck,” Diesel muttered.

  She turned her head then, caught both of them with a glance of her eyes. “I watched you work a girl.”

  “Sweetheart,” Diesel said gently.

  “I wanted her to be me.”

  Diesel swallowed.

  “You were so beautiful, working her, but just being you.” Her gaze lighted on D. “Your grin, DD. So cocky. So cute. I wanted so bad for you to tie me up. Tie me up and do dirty things to me, smiling that smile.” She turned her attention to Maddox. “You were so dark and scary and handsome. I’d get the shivers, just thinking about you touching me. And you know, I counted. You came to the Bolt nine times before either of you even looked at me. But it was on the twelfth time you were there when I was there that you asked me back to the playrooms.”

  “Darlin’,” Maddox murmured.

  “The first Doms I took were you two,” she shared.

  “We know, baby,” Maddox rumbled quietly.

  And they did know. They’d had a long conversation before they took her back, starting with safe words and hard limits and finding out they were her firsts.

  They’d broken her in gently.

  It was the best m/m/f play they’d ever had.

  But that was only a small part of the reason why Molly Singer was sitting right there at the edge of the pool her two men had built for her.

  She nodded and kept going.

  “The first time you worked me, it was so beautiful. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was with you two, the way you were with me, to fall into it. I felt totally safe with you. You were all about me. All about each other. We were the only three people in the whole, wide world. Just us. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever experienced. So I went home and I prayed. I actually prayed you’d pick me again.”

  Her gaze honed in on Maddox and she carried on.

  “And then you called, Maddox. The very next morning. You called and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with you guys. You didn’t call and ask me to meet you at the Bolt. You asked me out for a date. After that it wasn’t about white picket fences. Then I had dreams no girl ever dreams because no girl could ever think in reality she’d be that lucky. I dreamed you’d make me a part of you two forever and ever.”

  “And we got that, Molly,” Diesel reminded her, now feeling his stomach sink, pissed as shit at himself with what he put his girl, his man, through. “It’s all good.”

  “Rebel told me your mother is gonna call and ask you and me to Thanksgiving,” she announced.

  D felt his mouth get tight.

  He also felt Maddox’s eyes cut to him.

  “I’ll take care of it when she does,” Diesel promised.

  She sat up, twisted, put both her feet and calves in the water, and looked right in his eyes.

  “I do not like them,” she declared.

  D stared at her because that was so not Molly.

  She liked everybody.

  She was not done shocking the shit out of him.

  “I talked to my mother about it and she said that you need to learn that love and loyalty should be rewarded with love and loyalty. If you don’t get it, you shouldn’t give it. They may think they love you, but they are not loyal to you, so they really don’t. Until they can love you as you, I don’t want them in my life. I don’t want them interfering with my family. I don’t want them getting the opportunity to harm you.”

  “You don’t want that, Molly, then I’ll make that happen,” Diesel replied.

  It was then, Molly stared at him.

  Neither man broke the silence.

  Eventually, Molly did.

  “There will always be people in our lives who don’t get us, what we have, and they never will. If you told me this was what I’d have, what I’d want, what I’d work to keep strong and good and happy, what I’d cherish, just three years ago, I would have told you you were crazy. What a mess, two men, one woman. How do you raise kids with that? How do you balance it out so there’s no jealousy? Where one doesn’t feel left out? How do you make love split into three and make it equal? And then we happened and we’re a miracle. We’re so beautiful, we’re a miracle. We’re everything. We have so much to give to each other, it spills over, so our children are going to be so lucky. Just like us. So . . . fucking . . . lucky.”

  Her voice broke on the word “fucking” which meant Maddox called out, soft but firm, “Come here now, baby.”

  She slid into the water and did a stroke to make it to him, but he’d reached out an arm and hooked it around her waist, gliding her through the water as Diesel shifted positions from his bench to the one Maddox was sitting on.

  Mad arranged her in his arms in his lap and Diesel leaned into her, wrapping her legs around his middle.

  Diesel laid his hand on her chest. “My shit’s done, baby. I’m here with you. I’m not goin’ anywhere. I promise that. Promise it, Mol. I know how lucky we are. I know how lucky I am and I’m not gonna do anything to fuck that up. Swear it, sweetheart.”

  “Th-they mess with your head,” Molly said.

  “Yeah, they did,” D admitted. “But if you guys can ride that with me, then I can ride it too.”

  “Promise that as well, DD,” she demanded brokenly, and fuck him. He put her through the wringer. “Promise that to both of us too.”

  “Shit, I put you through too much,” Diesel bit off.

  “Stop it, D, and just promise her, yeah?” Maddox rumbled.

  Diesel looked at him, nodded. He looked at their Molly, and nodded.

  “Promise, baby,” he said, eyes back to Mad. “Promise, bud. I’m with you. I’m here, with you. And I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I love you, DD,” Molly blubbered.

  He grinned at her, leaning deeper into her and sliding his hand up to curl it around the side of her neck. “I know, and that’s good since I love you too.”

  She bent forward and kissed him, going hard, tangling her tongue to his.

  She broke the kiss and turned her head, taking Mad’s mouth, giving him the same.

  When she broke it off, she whispered, “Now you two.”

&
nbsp; Their girl, testing him.

  Diesel didn’t hesitate.

  He moved into Mad, who met him halfway. Connection, a stroke of the tongue, but when it ended, Diesel pressed his forehead hard into Mad’s before he broke away.

  “Happy?” he asked Molly.

  She still had bright in her eyes and her smile was kinda wobbly, but it was there.

  “Yeah,” she answered.

  “Anything else you wanna let out after that?” D invited. “And, of course, you reaming Mad about his workout clothes. We leaving the toilet seat up? Does Mad drinking straight out of the juice carton piss you off?”

  Her eyes got big and she looked at Maddox. “You drink out of the juice carton?”

  “Motherfucker,” Mad growled, scowling at Diesel.

  D grinned, sat back and massaged Molly’s calf. “It’s sick, Mad. No one wants your backwash.”

  “You don’t even drink juice,” Maddox returned.

  “I do,” Molly declared.

  Maddox looked to her. “Baby, you suck my dick, take my tongue and swallow my cum.”

  “Backwash is still gross,” she replied, and his brows hiked up.

  “How?” he asked.

  “It just is,” she mumbled and gave Diesel big eyes.

  D chuckled.

  Maddox scowled at him again. “And you’re perfect.”

  “I didn’t think so. I thought I was a pain in your asses. But apparently, I’m amazing,” D retorted.

  “Just to say, you’re not amazing right now. Right now you’re a pain in my ass,” Maddox shot back.

  “Let’s not fight,” Molly put in.

  “We’re not fighting, sweetheart,” Diesel told her. “We’re busting Maddox’s chops.”

  “Let’s not do that either,” Maddox suggested.

  Diesel shrugged.

  “Text Sixx, tell her Rebel’s in town and if she’d down with that, we’re all coming for dinner,” Molly ordered.

  “Will do, Mol,” D muttered, reaching a long arm out to nab his beer.

  “Get Mol’s beer while you’re reaching, asshole,” Maddox commanded.

  “He’s so bossy,” Molly murmured in a tease as D disengaged from her legs to do that.

  “Don’t complain, darlin’, or I might stop being bossy when you like me bossy,” Mad warned.

  “Forget I said anything,” Molly replied quickly.

  Maddox chuckled.

  D grabbed her beer and went back to his people.

  They wound up in each other again, sitting in their pool, drinking beer, shooting the shit, being together.

  Diesel did not look forward to the time his mother drew up her courage to make her phone call.

  But for the first time since . . . well, fuck—since forever, he wasn’t beat down by the idea of what he’d have to face, and worse, what they would, his man and his woman, when he made shit clear.

  It wouldn’t be fun.

  It would be ugly.

  But they’d make it through to the other side.

  Together.

  And it would never just be this, the three of them, knowing it was right, getting why it was right, having it all. Other people’s shit would always try to press in.

  But now Diesel understood.

  For them, the ones who mattered, it would always only be just this.

  Their three, knowing what they had was right.

  Getting why.

  And having it all.

  Unfortunately, Diesel didn’t have to wait a lot longer for his mother to draw up the courage to make her call.

  It was late the next afternoon, twenty minutes after he got home, when he was out of the shower, washing the day’s dirt, road, and sweat off him. He was in cutoff sweats, a loose tee, hitting the kitchen, about to pop a beer and wait for Mad and Mol to get home, which would be imminently.

  The jacked-up coward in him saw the name Mom on his phone and he honest to Christ wanted to let it go to voicemail.

  He didn’t.

  He had no idea how this was going to go. He’d never let his mind wander to that place of how he would want to do this. Not the dream of sitting his parents down, sharing a few truths, working them through their issues and accepting their hugs and declarations of, “We love you no matter what.” Not the nightmare of sitting them down, giving it to them straight, and eating their shit.

  But it was going to happen. He knew it even before Tommy was outed. And he’d dreaded it after Tommy was outed.

  It had always just been a matter of time.

  He couldn’t run from it anymore.

  He had a ring to buy.

  (Or, half of one.)

  “Yo, Ma,” he answered.

  “Hey, sweetie, uh . . . how are you?”

  She was always hesitant when she asked that question, and a lot of other times besides, which drove him up the wall.

  He was her son, for fuck’s sake. He wasn’t going to say, “I’m great, Mom, the bi-life is awesome. Maddox jacked me off in the shower this morning, fingering Molly until she came with me. I returned the favor by dropping to my knees on the tile and sucking him off while Mol made out with him. It was spectacular. Wassup with you?”

  “Good, Mom. Great. Everything’s awesome. How are you?”

  “Your dad and I are doing well. Your dad’s looking forward to retirement. Only eight months to go now,” she answered.

  “Cool,” D muttered, opening the fridge and grabbing a beer.

  “And, uh, well, Gunner’s not doing too good. He lost another job,” she shared.

  Not a surprise.

  Gunner got canned on a regular basis, mostly because he hadn’t learned yet that not everyone was going to put up with him running his mouth.

  The man was thirty-four years old.

  And Diesel was realizing he’d never learn.

  “He’ll find something, though,” his mom said hurriedly. “He always does.”

  “Yeah,” D replied, popping the cap just as he heard the back door open.

  The garage door hadn’t gone up.

  That meant Maddox.

  His eyes went to the mouth of the hall as he put his beer to his lips.

  “So, you and Molly haven’t been out to visit in a while,” she noted carefully.

  Maddox rounded the corner and the instant he saw D, he grinned and jerked his chin up.

  “Mom,” he said into the phone, and Maddox stopped dead, his brows popping before they dropped and his eyes narrowed.

  Fuck, just that, he looked capable of killing somebody.

  It was insanely hot.

  “Molly’s never been out there,” Diesel went on.

  And she hadn’t. The only times Molly had met his parents were when they’d come out to Phoenix for a bike rally and Molly, Mad and him had been dating and another time after they’d moved in together and his folks had come out for the same rally.

  His dad was a biker.

  Gunner was a biker.

  Maddox and Diesel would both have bikes if, first, they weren’t all in to fix up the house, and second, if Molly didn’t lose her mind at the mention of them buying “death on two wheels” (her words).

  “Well then,” he could actually hear her pulling herself together, forcing her voice stronger, “it’s high time she came out. You two have been living together for a while so it’s clear where this is going. And Thanksgiving is the only day of the year dedicated to family so that’s the perfect opportunity for us all to get together and have the chance to get to know her better.”

  He could argue about Thanksgiving being the only day of the year dedicated to family, but he didn’t get into that. He watched Mad get close and lean a hip against the counter by D.

  “Mom—” D started.

  “No excuses, Diesel,” she cut in. “There’s plenty of time for you both to ask for vacation and buy tickets. And you should have a word with your sister. She’s hemming and hawing and I want her at my table too. All my babies all together. It’ll be the first time in years.
”

  Diesel looked in Maddox’s eyes.

  “Mom—” he said low, trying again, but that was as far as she got.

  “You can do that for me. You can do that for your father. And Diesel, you should.”

  Diesel lifted a hand, curled it around the front of Maddox’s throat, watched Mad’s eyes flare, go warm, a muscle flex up his jaw, a crush of feeling pour out of him.

  He’d take this for me. He’d do this for me. If it was at all in his power, he’d save me from this.

  Diesel dropped his hand.

  “Molly and I aren’t coming without Maddox,” he announced.

  Maddox fisted his hand in D’s tee at his stomach and murmured, “Buddy.”

  Diesel kept staring in his eyes.

  Verna Stapleton was deathly silent.

  “Do you get me, Ma?” Diesel asked.

  “I cannot understand why you’d want your roommate to—”

  “He’s not our roommate, Mom, and you know it,” Diesel said gently.

  “He’s—”

  Before she could say shit that might make his head explode or take this to a place neither of them could pull back from, he interrupted her. “I come with Molly and Maddox or I’m not there at all. You think on that, Mom. You talk to Dad. Unless they’re both invited, and welcome, with no bullshit, no asshole remarks, none of that crap, we’re not there. Are you understanding what I’m saying?”

  “I absolutely am not, Diesel Joshua,” she snapped.

  “Then I’ll share this. Maddox and I are buying a ring for Molly. We’ll be having a commitment ceremony in front of our family and our friends. And we’ll be together, building a family together, the three of us, until we die,” he stated, then gentled his tone. “I’m sorry to do this over the phone, Ma, but you’re most a continent away and it shoulda been said four years ago. Even earlier. There’s never gonna be a good time to—”

  “That’s not even legal,” she spat.

  “No, it isn’t. And that doesn’t matter.”

  “It does in the eyes of God.”

  “Maybe your God. Mine digs what He gave us and it’s all cool.”

  “All cool with what? What is He all cool with, Diesel?” she demanded.

  “You know, Mom.”

  “I do not.”

  “Ma, I’m bi. Maddox is not my roommate. He’s my man like Molly’s my woman. We’re together, all of us, together. All three. We’re in love, living together, building a life together, committing to each other and making a family together.”