by Tara Rose
She could hear the humor in his voice, and she knew he was enjoying this. “This reminds me of that line in Sense and Sensibility where Mrs. Dashwood tells Margaret to restrict her remarks to the weather if she can’t think of something suitable to say.”
Wyatt laughed. “The book or the movie?”
“Well, both actually. But don’t tell me you’re familiar with either? Really?”
“You’re surprised that an attorney would read Jane Austen?”
“No, I’m surprised that a man would.”
“Maybe you haven’t been hanging around with the right men?”
“I have lately. You and Trent both are the right men. At least for me you are. Sir.” Her heart hammered. Had she gone too far? She was only speaking the truth, straight from her heart. So many times during these past couple of weeks the words had been right there, aching to come out. But what if she told them that she loved them, and they didn’t feel the same way? She’d be the worst kind of fool.
“And you are the most delightful woman that either of us has ever met.” The depth of emotion in his voice sent chills up and down her spine.
She cradled the phone closer. “Thank you, Sir.”
“So, do you agree with our plan for tonight? We will, of course, expect you to tell us when you gossiped, and how many minutes. Can you agree to this?”
Ria thought about how many times in the course of one evening at a bar with her friends she had gossiped in the past. The entire time, basically. She could easily end up with three hours or more of time to confess to them. How many swats would three hours be under the temporary rules? She shook her head, trying to imagine taking nine hundred swats. She’d be crying by the time they reached two hundred. It wouldn’t be fun at all. Would they really do that to her?
“Ria? You still there?”
“Yes, Sir. All right. I agree to the temporary rules and guidelines for tonight only.”
“I am so proud of you. I have to get to court, but I’ll text you later.”
* * * *
When Ria showed up at The Black Sparrow, Olivia, Gina, Cherilyn, and Annalise were just getting out of Gina’s SUV. She hadn’t realized how far along Olivia was, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d ever have children. Did Wyatt or Trent even want them? They’d never discussed it, but she was jumping to big conclusions here. They hadn’t discussed anything long term.
As Ria listened to Olivia talk about decorating the baby’s room in the condo she now shared with Storm and Cameron, Marisol’s car pulled into the parking lot, and she and Julie both emerged. Kari and Alexa soon followed, and then the group went inside.
Marisol put an arm across Ria’s shoulder. “I’m so glad they let you come out with us.”
“Me, too. Thank you again for inviting me.”
Marisol lowered her voice. “They all wanted you to come, just so you know.”
“Thank you.”
Once they were seated at a table near the back, where they would have more privacy, a server arrived to take their drink orders. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, and he flirted like crazy with all of them, even Olivia who was obviously quite pregnant. Ria got a kick out of how Kari and Annalise egged him on, even when he teased Olivia about only ordering water with lemon to drink.
When he finally had all their drink orders and left, Kari leaned forward. “We keep this up and we’ll get free drinks tonight.”
The girls laughed, and Ria joined in, feeling more relaxed than she had since last summer. She was part of them now. This proved it, didn’t it? They wouldn’t have asked her to come out with them if they weren’t interested in getting to know her better, or in giving her a second chance.
Annalise, who sat across from her, turned her dark eyes in Ria’s direction. “So, what’s the deal with you, Trent, and Wyatt? We want details.”
“Um, I can’t. I have a no-gossip rule.”
“None at all?” asked Marisol, who sat on her left.
“They altered it somewhat for tonight, otherwise I’d be sitting here saying nothing.”
“How long have you had the rule?” asked Cherilyn.
“About two and a half weeks now.”
“And how’s it going?” asked Julie.
“Very well.”
“So, what’s different about tonight?” asked Gina. “Did they give you free reign?”
Ria smiled and shook her head, then she outlined the changes she’d agreed to. She didn’t think that was gossiping, but suddenly wasn’t sure, and made a mental note to text the guys and ask as soon as possible.
Their server, whose name was Mark, returned, and they told him they needed a few more minutes to look over the menu. He tried to talk them into several appetizers but they declined them all. Ria could tell they wanted to hear more about what she’d just told them, and she was afraid she’d blown it already, so while they were trying to get Mark to leave the table without upsetting him in the process, she sent a quick text to Wyatt and Trent.
It only took a moment for the reply. They both told her not to say anything more about what she did in private with them, or she’d most definitely be crossing the line into gossip. When Mark finally left, Ria picked up her menu and opened it. “So, what’s good here?”
“Not so fast,” said Kari. “You haven’t told us anything yet.”
Ria peered at her over the top. “I can’t.”
“For real?”
“For real. I’ve never been here before. What do you all recommend?”
“Wow,” said Annalise. “If I hadn’t seen and heard this myself, I never would have believed it. Ria, you really have changed.”
This time, Ria put down her menu. “In a good way, though, right?”
Annalise smiled and nodded. “Yes. In a good way.” She picked up her menu. “I think we all should order so he doesn’t come back and try to talk us into eating the furniture or the silverware.”
The girls laughed, and then talk turned to what each of them had eaten there before, and what they liked or didn’t like. Once they’d all decided and Mark had taken their orders, Marisol raised her glass and cut her gaze toward Ria. “To good friends, old and renewed, and to our Doms.”
“Hear, hear.” The women clinked glasses, laughing at some of the reaches that were necessary to do so in so large a group, and then drank their toast. Ria glanced around, close to blinking back tears. She’d waited for this to happen since last summer, and finally realized that the power to make it come true had been in her hands all along. Wyatt had been right. All he and Trent had done was help her make the first move. She’d had the ability to make this happen all along, even without them. But having them help her had made it even sweeter.
She listened to the girls talk about their Doms and knew that no matter what came of this long term, she would never regret the past few weeks with Wyatt and Trent. Not one single second of it. But she also knew she’d by lying if she said she didn’t want what each of the women at this table had. She’d fallen so head over heels in love with both men that it was almost frightening at times. And they didn’t even know it.
Maybe that’s what she should be talking about? Asking their advice? How do you work up the courage to tell two men you’re crazy about them, and want to spend your life with them? Surely asking that wouldn’t be gossiping, would it?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Trent picked up food at Nan’s Place then took it back to the condo he shared with his twin. As they ate, Wyatt asked Trent if Paul would give him shit about checking his text messages all evening.
“Fuck him if he does. I want to watch this play out on my phone. How many minutes do you figure she’ll tell us she gossiped before this is over tonight?”
Wyatt swallowed the food in his mouth. “I’m guessing at least an hour.”
“That’s three hundred swats. She’s taken one hundred from us during a play session, but would you really expect us to give her three times that?”
“Well, the i
dea really isn’t to paddle her until she cries, is it? It’s to make her aware of what comes out of her mouth under extreme social circumstances.”
Trent chuckled. “Yeah. Good label. ‘Extreme social circumstances’. Can’t get more extreme for a girl like Ria than a night out with her friends. You know what I loved? When she let us know they’d asked her to come out with them. I could feel her joy in the text, you know? It made her so happy.”
Wyatt watched him carefully for a few seconds, until Trent began to feel like a bug under a microscope.
“What? What did I say?”
“It’s not what you said. It’s the look in your eyes right now.”
“What’s your point?”
Wyatt picked up his cheeseburger and took a huge bite.
“Answer me. What’s your point? What look do I have in my eyes?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. I know that expression. What’s on your mind?”
“Is this difficult for you? I mean, does sharing her like this dredge up bad memories of Deanna?”
Trent hadn’t been expecting that. They hadn’t discussed Deanna in weeks. And, he didn’t believe that was what had really been on Wyatt’s mind. “No, not at all. This is consensual. That wasn’t. Why? Does it bother you to share her?”
“No, it doesn’t. And yes, that surprises me about myself. But what you said is true. This is consensual, and that’s the difference. However, I’d be lying if I said I don’t sometimes wonder what will happen long term. We should discuss that.”
“You, discussing a long-term relationship?”
“Yep. I think we need to. Don’t you?”
Trent stared at his twin, and wondered why he hadn’t seen it before. Or, maybe he had, but he’d been so busy marveling at his own feelings, he’d completely missed the fact that Wyatt felt the same way about Ria. She touched a part of him that he thought had died in that house in Indy almost eight months ago. He was wrong. It was alive and well, and Ria had not only touched it, she’d claimed it for life.
Wyatt was watching him carefully again, and they didn’t need to communicate with words to each realize the same thing, at the exact same time. Wyatt started to laugh first, and Trent soon followed. They slapped their knees, wiped at tears, and finally pushed away their uneaten food.
“Holy fuck,” said Wyatt. “You know, I can say this now. Each time two of them—Noah and Adison, Luke and Chase, Maddox and Sean, Chad and Dustin, Rafe and Ellis, Thayer and Evan, Zach and Harrison, and Storm and Cameron—came to the rest of us and said ‘I’m in love,’ I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the poor bastards or shake their hands.”
Trent nodded. He’d missed all that, but Wyatt had kept him informed on the phone.
“And I used to think, ‘better you than me.’ I’m too busy with my job, blah, blah, blah. But that’s not true, is it? I’m so in love with Ria it’s not even funny. And you are, too. Am I right?”
Trent nodded again. “Head over heels crazy in love. But what the fuck do we do about this? I mean seriously? Can we do this?”
Wyatt shrugged. “Why not? The others do. Hell, a few of them didn’t even like each other at first. Noah and Adison practically hated each other. And Maddox and Sean hadn’t spoken more than a few words to each other in years. Rafe thought Ellis was one of the snottiest people he’d ever met.”
“It’s too easy. There has to be a catch.”
Wyatt clapped him on the back. “No. There’s no catch. We’re simply the two luckiest bastards around, that’s all. Should we tell her?”
“Hell no. I mean, what if she doesn’t feel the same way?”
“What if she does?”
Something about the tone of Wyatt’s voice sent shivers up and down his spine, but not in a good way. The last woman he’d said “I love you” to had been Deanna. But this wasn’t the same thing. Ria was not Deanna, and she never would be. But to say it was to have it out there for all eternity. You couldn’t take it back. You could only say you’d changed your mind, or that you didn’t feel that way anymore.
And while Trent believed it was true that people could fall right back out of love, he also knew that what he felt for Ria went far above and beyond anything he’d felt for Deanna. This wasn’t a fluke or a fling. This was the real deal. And there was no going back. If he told her, and she didn’t feel the same way, or outright rejected the entire idea, he’d be crushed. Forever.
“Hey, it’s cool. We don’t have to say anything yet. Let her get over this hurdle tonight and then we can talk about it another time, okay?”
“You want to tell her, don’t you?” Wyatt would want to do that. He wasn’t one to let things fester underneath the surface. He’d want to just say it, have it out in the open, and let the chips fall where they may. But Trent, for all his outward appearance of being so impetuous and spontaneous, was a big chicken when it came to putting his feelings out there.
“Yes, but I won’t say it without you saying it at the same time. That wouldn’t be fair to any of us.”
“I can’t right now. I’m just not ready to put it out there.”
“I know. It’s cool. Really.”
Was it? This would bug the shit out of Wyatt. He knew his twin. He’d never just let this go and wait until Trent felt ready. But right now, he had to get ready for work, so any further discussion would have to wait.
As he waved good night to his twin, he swore the aura surrounding Wyatt was darker than it had been before, and Trent knew he’d be stewing about that all night long.
* * * *
Ria bit into her stuffed mushroom sandwich and made a sound that was too similar to the ones she made when she’d just had an orgasm. They all laughed. “I can’t help it. This is divine. Why can’t I cook like this? You should taste my mother’s food. It’s heaven. Peppi can cook, Teresa can cook, Maggie can cook, and even Rosa puts down her beads once in a while and makes great-tasting food. My brothers are both better cooks than I am.”
“I’ll drink to that,” said Marisol, raising her glass.
“Amen,” said Alexa. “Luke’s cooking blows me away.”
“So what happened to you?” asked Gina. “Recessive gene or something?”
Ria snorted. “I wish I knew.”
The talk turned to the bar itself, and Ria remembered Alexa, Marisol, Gina, and Kari saying that Cherilyn hadn’t been there since the night of her kidnapping. She hoped it wasn’t gossip to ask Cherilyn the next question “How are you doing tonight? Are you all right being here?”
Cherilyn smiled at her. “That is so sweet of you to ask. Yes, I’m all right now. I was a bit freaked out at first, but this helps.” Cherilyn raised her glass, and as if on cue, Mark returned and asked if they all needed a second round. Each one ordered a second drink, and Ria wasn’t going to, but changed her mind. She was still okay. She knew her own limits, and as long as she stayed in control, she’d be all right.
“You know what does freak me out, though?” asked Cherilyn. The others stopped talking to listen to her. “Has anyone noticed that maroon Jeep SUV or the old white Chevy lately? Thayer and Evan don’t recognize the cars. No one I’ve asked does. And all three of us swore we’ve seen the same two strangers in town lately, but no one knows who they are. They’re both men, but we can’t place either one inside those vehicles. Still, don’t you think it makes sense the SUV and the car belong to them?”
“Zach asked me the other day about those two,” said Gina. “Tall guy with a scruffy beard who wears what I told him looks like a fisherman’s cap from an old movie, and the other one is shorter and stockier, with blue eyes. I only know the color because I almost bumped smack into his chest the other day coming out of Nan’s Place. I practically ran to the warehouse with Zach’s lunch, and then asked him if he’d ever seen the man before. His eyes were cold, you know? Like he was memorizing my face. It was very creepy.”
Ria shivered. “I haven’t seen them or the cars.” Then again, unless they came into Luke’s
Bar, she wouldn’t have seen them. She’d been too busy in bed with Trent and Wyatt.
“Well, I have,” said Olivia. “And Harrison mentioned that tall dude as well.” She cut her gaze toward Kari. “He said you and Alexa said something to Chase about that guy coming into the shop last week, right?”
“Yes, we did,” said Alexa. “I assumed he was on the construction crew for one of the new shops because he had sawdust all over him. I thought maybe he’d wandered in to tell us they had to cut the power to the street or something, and I was about to walk over and ask him what he wanted, but then he left. Chase came home to eat lunch that day, and we both mentioned it to him. He didn’t know who the man was either.”
“This is creepy,” said Olivia. “We don’t need this again.” She cut her gaze toward Gina quickly. “When Steve Remming was hanging around town in that beat-up brown sedan, I knew something was wrong.” Steve Remming was the man arrested last summer for setting fire to the garage next to Olivia’s parents’ home. She, Gina, and Annalise were inside, finalizing plans for their company. They all got out in time, but just barely.
“Harrison told me that he, Sean, and Chad are on this,” said Gina. “We all just need to be aware of our surroundings. It will be okay.”
“Do you think these are the guys who Ned Meyers was involved with?” asked Annalise. “Dustin said he heard some gossip in the clinic that Ned is trying to get his sentenced reduced because he had information on the men who are trying to blackmail Pearl.”
Ria had to bite her lip to keep from smirking. For information that Sean had said he couldn’t discuss, the women sitting at this table seemed to know a lot about it already. As the talk turned to speculation about how involved Pearl and Ned each were, and whether or not Gerry had been working for them, Ria finished her second drink. When one of them said something about Pearl probably setting up the whole thing so she could get a new shop, she felt she had to speak up.
“I know for a fact that isn’t true. Wyatt told me that Pearl regrets ever hiring that firm from Philly, and wants out of the deal.”