Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations)

by Tymber Dalton

  He pulled her into his arms, hugging her. “I’m so sorry.”

  Her hands crept around him, holding him. “You both looked so happy together.” He heard the tears in her soft voice. “And I wanted to hate him. I tried, but I can’t. Because I could finally see what you meant. How different you are with him than you were with me. And Laurel really likes him.”

  “He’s a good man. And he loves Laurel, too. She does really like him.”

  “I know. She told me Friday before you picked her up that she does.”

  “You know I wouldn’t be with someone if I didn’t think they could love Laurel. She always comes first in my life. And if I’d had the slightest bit of doubt about him, he wouldn’t be living with me.”

  She sniffled and he let her go when she stepped back, wiping at her eyes. “I know. I think that’s what finally got through to me yesterday. Because I do know that you always put her first. Even to the exclusion of everyone else. And thank you for letting her invite me yesterday. I’ll admit I sort of wanted to intrude, but it finally made me see the light.”

  Eva wrapped her arms around herself. “She’d come home and talk about you three going to cookouts and stuff with friends, and then I’d call people and chat and no one would say anything. Then I realized she was talking about people I’ve never even met. At first I thought you all were hanging out with our friends and they were just hiding that from me and not inviting me.”

  His heart broke a little more for her, that she had felt like that, her insecurities so close to the surface. “I have friends, Eva,” he gently said. “Jesse does, too. I’ve been getting out and making new friends, not only hanging with old ones. You need to get out and spend time with your friends. You can’t stay cooped up in the house all the time and do nothing but go to work and come home.”

  “I know. I just… Again, I was doing that stupid magic thinking. Trying to make things stay the same when they are changing around me despite my best efforts.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m going to call my attorney this week and tell him to push the divorce forward and quit stalling. To drop all the objections and the motions. It’s going to happen whether I want it to or not, and you’re right. Laurel is the important one. I’m an adult. If I fell in love with you, I can fall in love with someone else, right?”

  He’d long suspected that delaying the divorce had been her plan all along, but to hear her finally outright admit it stunned him. “You will, swee—” He stopped himself. “You will. And maybe when that happens, it’ll be all five of us sitting down and having family dinners together. I want you to find someone who can be everything you need. Someone to make you happy. He’s out there. We just have to find him and rope him for you.” He smiled.

  A sad smile curved her lips. “I hope so. I’m trying to get to a point where I can learn how to just be friends with you without it hurting so much.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that, what wouldn’t heap more pain onto her soul, so he didn’t try. He gently squeezed her shoulder and turned to go.

  “Leo?”

  He stopped and turned. She stood there, arms crossed again, tightly hugging herself. “Did you really love me?”

  He nodded. “I still do, and part of me always will. Unfortunately, I was too young and immature at the time to realize that I was lying to myself about the kind of love I felt for you. But we have Laurel, and I’ll never be sorry about that.”

  “Me, either. Can I have dibs on you if you ever magically turn straight again?” Another faint smile curved her lips.

  It was good to see her smile. This one looked genuine, healing, a step in the right direction.

  “Sure,” he said. “I promise, if I ever want to be with a woman again, I’ll come to you first.”

  Her smile widened, amused. She wasn’t hanging false hope on his words, but finally working her way toward being able to find the humor where she could.

  That was also healing, a step in the right direction.

  “Dibs,” she said.

  He smiled back. “Dibs.”

  He returned to his car. Eva stood on the porch, watching until he pulled out of the driveway and headed down the street.

  As much as he hated having to say good-bye to Laurel, at least when he returned home, he’d have Jesse waiting for him.

  And tonight they could catch up on some long overdue play.

  Leo drove, his mind deep within his sexual fantasies, the things he planned on doing with and to the man now that they were once again a child-free house for the week. Maybe, eventually, they could actually afford a house with a pool of their own. So that when they were alone, they could have fun time in it.

  He stopped for a stale yellow traffic light and let his mind drift. Yes, he was fourteen years older than Jesse, but the man had an old soul and definitely didn’t act like there was an age difference. Jesse had also perfectly keyed into Leo’s needs as a Dominant. Like he psychically fed energy into Leo’s soul without him even needing to say a thing.

  Not just the sex, either. But the service. Leo knew he had a long way to go in terms of learning implement skills, and Jesse had flat-out stated he’d be patient. It was things like immediately tuning in to how Leo liked his clothes folded and put away, or how he took his coffee.

  Hell, Jesse made him his coffee every morning before he left for work or classes and brought it to him. Presenting it, like it was the greatest honor in the world to serve him.

  This. He’d been as aware as the next person about BDSM, he supposed. But he’d never really connected the dots before Jesse showed him how. Now, it all made sense.

  Everything made sense.

  Spending the rest of his life with Jesse made more sense than anything he’d ever known before. Especially considering how well Jesse got along with Laurel and how much Laurel loved him.

  That was a happy bonus.

  The light changed to green and with a smile he let off the brake and hit the gas, eager to get home to Jesse.

  That was probably why he didn’t notice the driver who’d blown through the red light, his phone up and likely texting, until a split second before the guy plowed into Leo’s front driver-side quarter panel.

  * * * *

  Jesse tried not to be impatient, but he couldn’t help staring at the time on the cable box as the minutes slowly ticked by.

  He knelt in front of the door, wanting to surprise Leo upon his return. Naked, cuffs, and collar, with a riding crop laid out in front of him.

  But ten minutes late turned into twenty, then thirty, and his legs were falling asleep from kneeling there. He didn’t want to play anxious boyfriend and start texting or calling him, but as he kept peeking out the front blinds for any sign of Leo, it turned into the man being an hour later than he said he would, which was totally unlike him. Leo always let Jesse know if he was running more than ten minutes later than he said he would. He was practically obsessive about being on time.

  Finally, ninety minutes into his wait, Jesse texted Leo.

  Sorry, just making sure everything’s ok.

  Another thirty minutes later, he tried calling him and it went to voice mail after a couple of rings.

  “Hey, I’m sorry, but I’m starting to get a little worried, buddy. I thought you said you’d be back sooner than this, and I tried texting you and haven’t heard anything. Let me know what’s going on. Love you.”

  After sending another unanswered text, Jesse called again twenty minutes later. “Leo, seriously. Please call me back. I’m worried, okay? Love you.”

  He was about to break down and call Eva when the phone rang in his hand, Leo’s number on the display.

  Jesse answered, relieved. “Oh, dude, for fuck’s sake, what the hell?” He knew he’d pay for that lack of protocol later and he didn’t even care. “I’ve been worried out of my fuck—”

  A woman’s voice silenced him in midsentence. “Jesse, it’s me.”

  He had to think for a moment because her voice sounded so f
lat and hollow he didn’t even recognize it at first. “Eva? What’s going on? Where’s Leo? What are you doing with his phone?”

  “There’s been an accident.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Tilly, Landry, and Cris only lived fifteen minutes away. Tilly was his first call, because hers was the first number he could dial from memory without looking it up with his trembling fingers, and he didn’t trust himself to talk to anyone else just yet.

  Jesse wasn’t even sure he could walk, much less drive, and he wasn’t too proud to admit it. He was standing outside when Tilly squealed to a stop in her SUV and wearing a baggy T-shirt, no makeup, her hair up in a messy bun, and sporting what looked like Eeyore sleep pants. He ran around to the passenger side and yanked open the door.

  “Are those Crocs?”

  “Get the fuck in and belt up.” She floored it before he even had his seat belt on. “Cris and Landry will meet us there. And they’re bringing me clothes. How is he?”

  “Surgery.”

  She blew through a stale yellow light and hit the horn, swerving around a slow car in the left lane to blast past them as Jesse finally got his seat belt fastened.

  “Landry called Ed,” she told him. “He’ll meet us there. So will Ross and Loren.”

  “Ed? Ed Payne? Why?”

  Tilly didn’t take her eyes off the road as she threaded her way around two more slow cars. “He’s Leo’s attorney. He’ll have all his current paperwork on file.”

  “You don’t think—”

  She slammed on the brakes and swerved, honking at someone who made a right turn into traffic in front of her from a side street. “Motherfuckers! You should be in goddamned bed already!” she screamed at them in the rearview mirror.

  Jesse held onto the oh-shit handle on his side and prayed he didn’t shit himself as she drove.

  “And the phone tree’s already in high gear,” Tilly continued without missing a beat. “We’ll get everyone called and down there. She can try to fuck with you—it’s the fucking long, skinny pedal on the right, you goddamned senile asshole!” she shrieked at a guy slow to take off at a green light.

  Holy fucking shit, she’d never terrified him as much during a scene as he felt right now. It was almost enough to take his mind off Leo.

  Almost. But not quite.

  Ten minutes later and—miraculously—with no moving violation citations, Tilly pulled into the parking lot near the ER entrance, screeching to a stop in a parking space before shutting it down. She grabbed her purse and keys.

  “Sorry I don’t look very professional like this,” she said, “but I was in the middle of giving Landry a blow job. This is what I had on.”

  He climbed out and had to run to follow her. She didn’t even look back as she held her keys up and hit the button on the fob, making the horn chirrup behind them.

  He was glad she knew her way around the hospital because he’d never been here before. She marched right up to the desk.

  “Leonard Cooke,” she said to the desk clerk. “C-O-O-K-E. MVA, brought in a couple of hours ago.”

  The woman typed into the computer. “Family?”

  “Yes,” Tilly said without hesitation. “Sister.” She hooked a thumb at Jesse. “And his domestic partner.”

  The woman gave them a little side-eye but Tilly immediately leaned in. “Hey, gay marriage is legal now,” she warned in a low, threatening tone. “Please don’t make me call Carol Hopkins about you giving his domestic partner a hassle over access. We’re friends who go way back to nursing school. Is he still in surgery? What waiting room?”

  The woman jotted some info down on a paper and handed it over. “I need to see ID for security badges.”

  Tilly dug hers out while Jesse handed his over. Three minutes later, Jesse was again scrambling to keep up with Tilly. How she managed to outwalk him with her shorter legs, he didn’t know.

  “Who is Carol Hopkins?” he asked.

  “Fuck if I know,” Tilly said as she looked up at signs, navigating. “I did an ask Siri question on my iPhone to get me a list of staff for the hospital while I was on my way to your place. She’s listed as one of the nursing admins. First name I remembered. You can never tell now with the all the privacy laws what they will and won’t hassle you about. She might not have messed with us, but I didn’t know what kind of buzz saw we’d be walking into with Eva. I wanted to go in forearmed in case she did something stupid, like made a security request to keep you out.”

  He would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious.

  “What if she did that?”

  Tilly glanced at him, murder in her eyes. “It wouldn’t stand long. Probably not even until Ed got here. Trust me.”

  They reached the waiting room and he hadn’t even spotted Eva yet when from what felt like out of nowhere, Laurel blasted across the room and tackled him around the legs, nearly knocking him over. He scooped her up in his arm as she sobbed, her arms and legs tightly wrapped around him.

  “Uncle Jesse, Aunt Tilly, Daddy’s in surgery.”

  Then he saw Eva stand, her lips pressed together in a thin, hard line. At her feet, a plastic bag of what he recognized were clothes Leo had been wearing when he left the house.

  Trying to soothe the little girl, he headed for Eva.

  “That her?” Tilly whispered.

  “Yeah.”

  Tilly seemed to grow six inches in height and a hundred pounds in the intimidation department despite the Eeyores prancing across her flannel-clad ass and the pink Crocs on her feet. She swooped in, taking Eva’s hand.

  “Eva? I’m Leo and Jesse’s friend, Tilly Cardinal-LaCroux. How is he doing?”

  Eva looked caught off-guard, glancing between Tilly and Jesse. “He’s in surgery—”

  “I’m a nurse. Can we go talk to the desk and get an update?”

  “A nurse?”

  “Yes.” Tilly started leading her toward a window, while with her other hand behind her, she waved at Jesse to stay put.

  He awkwardly sat with the sobbing child still wrapped around him. All he wanted to do was cry and knew he couldn’t. Not right now, not with Laurel clinging to him.

  He wrapped his arms around her, slowly rocking back and forth. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Aunt Tilly will help us.” He stroked her hair, closing his eyes. “She’s going to help us.”

  “I tried to get Mommy to call you sooner. I wanted to call you and Mommy wouldn’t give me her phone because she kept calling people. I’m sorry, Uncle Jesse.”

  Rage briefly replaced his grief. Then he swallowed hard, knowing exactly how Leo would want him to handle this. “It’s okay, baby. I’m sure she was scared and worried about Daddy, too. She was probably trying to call people.”

  “Mommy called Aunt Ann, but she called Grandma. Then Grandma called Mommy and said she and Grandpa are coming.”

  Terrific. Just what he needed. Well, he had an arsenal of his own, if Eva or her curmudgeon-o-matic family tried to give him any static.

  He spotted a box of tissues on the end table next to where he was sitting and snagged a couple for Laurel, making her sit back enough he could look into her eyes.

  Big mistake.

  Leo’s blue eyes.

  He nearly lost it right there as he helped her blow her nose. “We’ll get through this, sweetie. We don’t even know how bad Daddy is hurt.”

  “I heard them say it’s bad.”

  Why the fuck had the woman brought her child to the hospital with her? More importantly, why had she not called him right away?

  Why the hell had the cops called her and not him?

  A few minutes later, Tilly and Eva returned. Tilly wore a grim expression, her lips pressed into a thin line. She knelt next to them and stroked Laurel’s hair.

  He knew it was bad when Tilly hesitated before speaking.

  “He’s still in surgery,” she finally said. “He’s currently stable, but he’s critical. He had internal injuries and a broken pelvis. There was some bleeding, a
nd a drop in blood pressure, but they got him back and are still working on him. He’s probably going to be in surgery for a while longer. Then he’ll be in recovery until they’re sure they can move him to the surgical ICU.”

  She looked into his eyes, and now she set her purse down, reached up, and with her free hand gently cupped the back of Jesse’s neck.

  The way she used to when they played together.

  He let her strength flow into him. “He’s a strong man with no other health issues,” she slowly said, staring into his eyes. “He’s going to want us all to be strong.” She flicked her eyes toward Laurel, who once again had her head buried against his shoulder, crying, then back to him, arching her eyebrows at him.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he silently mouthed.

  “Good boy,” she silently mouthed back, leaning in to press a kiss to his forehead. A gentle squeeze along the back of his neck, then she hauled herself to her feet just in time for Landry and Cris to hustle into the waiting room, Cris with a bag slung over his shoulder.

  “Oh, bless you, my man,” she said, leaning in to kiss him as she snagged the bag from him. She disappeared into one of the unisex bathrooms.

  Landry and Cris walked over to Jesse, glancing at Eva before sitting down across from him. “How is he?” Landry asked.

  “Let Tilly tell you when she comes back out,” Jesse said, barely able to keep his voice from breaking. “Please.”

  Landry nodded, slowly tipping his head toward Eva. Someone else might not have noticed it.

  Jesse did, giving him a slow blink yes in reply.

  Landry turned and leaned across the space, hand extended. “Landry LaCroux. Tilly’s husband.”

  Eva seemed overwhelmed and Jesse didn’t blame her. She automatically took Landry’s hand. “Eva Cooke. I mean Banks.” A harsh laugh escaped her. “I guess I am still Cooke for now.”

  Jesse took a risk and rose, scooting over a couple of seats to sit next to Eva, Laurel still tightly clinging to him. Maybe when faced with Tilly and the rest of the Suncoast Society, Eva wouldn’t start a war.