Sanctuary in Submission [Sanctuary, Montana 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Lara Valentine

  The look in Aaron’s eyes was a little sad as he gazed at his son. Aubrey had seen that look before. He was thinking about Kelly. They’d had so little time together before she was suddenly gone. She didn’t want that for her and her men. They’d wasted too much time already.

  “I’m not going to lose my battle either. We’ll both be winners.”

  * * * *

  “I love Aubrey, but shit, marriage is a big damn deal, bro. Can’t we take this one step at a time?”

  Riley popped a fry into his mouth. He and Noah were having dinner at the Valley View Cafe since Aubrey was eating with her dad and stepmom tonight. Noah was bugging the shit out of him about proposing to Aubrey and was making Riley’s stomach twist into knots.

  “We’ve been dating for ten years. She’s not going to wait forever. She wants to get married and have kids. So do I. Don’t you want a family?”

  “Sure I do.”

  Riley did. He simply didn’t know when he wanted to have a family. Up until a few weeks ago, his biggest responsibility after a long day working the ranch was if he was the designated driver. Now he was abstaining from boozing and gambling with his boys. What was next? Diaper duty? He ought to just rip up his man card right now.

  Noah shook his head. “What in the hell is your problem? I’ve never understood your issue. Aubrey’s the best thing that has ever happened, fuck, ever will happen, and you’re looking for reasons not to seal the deal with her. Think you’ll find anyone better?”

  “No way. You know I love her. It’s just that marriage is for grown-ups.”

  Noah took a long swallow of his iced tea. “News flash. We are grown up. We’re over thirty. Don’t be that guy, bro.”

  Riley frowned. “What guy?”

  “You know, the guy who talks about high school years after he graduated. Those weren’t our glory days. The future is only going to get better.”

  “Holy shit, bro, next you’ll be singing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings.’” He shook a french fry at his brother. “And I’m not that guy. I just want things to happen, you know, organically.”

  Noah looked like he wanted to burst into laughter. Riley wasn’t amused.

  “Organically? Brother, I don’t even know what that means. Are you saying you just want to drift into marriage when the moment seems right?”

  Riley shrugged, wanting to change the subject. “I just don’t feel like planning out every moment of my damn life, that’s all. We’ll marry Aubrey, don’t worry.”

  “When?” His brother raised an eyebrow.

  “Soon,” Riley answered, feeling defensive as hell. He didn’t like it one bit.

  Noah pushed his plate away and patted his stomach. “Hopefully, she’ll wait around for it to happen organically.”

  The thought of Aubrey with another guy made Riley hot under the collar. She was his woman, dammit.

  “She loves us. She’ll wait.”

  Noah got to his feet. “She loves us, but she won’t wait. Can’t you see she’s changed? She’s not going to take any of our shit anymore. And can I say it’s about damn time? She put up with too much from us. I love her even more now that she’s kicked our asses good.”

  Riley hated to admit it but he did, too. “Where the hell are you going? I haven’t finished eating.”

  Noah plopped his hat on his head. “Going next door to Sarah’s to pick out a few things to surprise Aubrey with at the club this weekend. I’ll be back in a few.”

  Noah strolled out whistling the wedding march, making Riley shudder. All this talk about marriage was making it hard to breathe and ruining his appetite. He was about to give up on his own dinner when a familiar figure walked into the cafe, placing an order at the take-out counter. He waved to his old friend.

  “Craig! Man, what the hell are you doing here? It’s great to see you.”

  Riley and Craig had been best friends in high school. Craig had been set to go to college on a football scholarship but had found out his girlfriend was pregnant right before graduation. He’d married Carla instead and signed up for the Marines. Riley rarely saw him as Craig moved around the country and had also been deployed overseas.

  Craig’s face lit up, and they slapped each other on the back. Craig sat down where Noah had been sitting, a big grin on his face.

  “I was planning on calling you. Carla and I just got into town yesterday. I only came in here to get some takeout so she doesn’t have to cook.”

  Riley laughed. “Carla’s cooking pretty bad?”

  Craig looked shocked. “Hell no. Carla’s a fantastic cook. I’m trying to give her a break. She’s exhausted.” Craig grinned. “We’re having twins. Two boys. They’re due in a couple of months. That’s why we came back to Sanctuary, so our parents can help us out when the babies arrive. We’ve been talking about moving back permanently now that I’ve left active duty.”

  Riley shook his head in disbelief. “How many does that make?”

  Craig laughed, two streaks of color reddening his cheeks. “The twins will make five. What can I say? I can’t keep my hands off my sexy wife. She drives me crazy.”

  “Wow, that’s great. For you, I mean.”

  Craig nodded. “It is. The oldest is fourteen now. Can you believe it? She’s going to put me into an early grave. Looks just like her mother. Beautiful. The boys are following her around like she’s a damn rock star. I’m going to need to keep a shotgun loaded next to the door. Hell, you and I both know a teenage boy only thinks about one thing.”

  “Holy Christ, has it been that long? Fifteen years since you left Sanctuary. Just not in the way you planned.”

  Craig gave him a strange look. “It was exactly as I planned. I always planned to marry Carla and join the military. I told you that, remember?”

  Riley took a gulp of his iced tea. “Did we talk about the future? I don’t remember. We were just a couple of dumb teenagers anyway. What I meant was you were planning to leave Sanctuary but with a football scholarship. You were going to be a big football star.”

  “That was Dad’s plan, not mine.” Craig shook his head. “I never wanted that. I only played football to make him happy. The truth is, I stopped wearing condoms at Christmas break. I wanted Carla to get pregnant. I wanted a family and I wanted to serve my country. Thank God she got pregnant right before graduation.”

  Riley couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You never wanted the scholarship? You never told me that. I would have remembered that.”

  Craig nodded. “I was ashamed, I guess. I had trouble standing up to my old man back then. Even if I did tell you, would you have understood? You were almost as pushy as my dad was about that damn scholarship.”

  “It was a great opportunity for you.”

  “For someone. Not me. I hated the muscle factory. High school was bad enough, college would have been worse. Marrying Carla was the best thing I’ve ever done. It made a man out of me.”

  “I’m sure the Marines did that.”

  Craig chuckled and stole a fry from Riley’s plate. “The Marines helped, but it was really being a husband and a father that made me the man I am. It was the making of me. Fuck, we were just two selfish little shits back in high school. Now, well, I have a wife and a family. They love me and I love them. I have responsibilities. They need me.”

  Riley was trying to wrap his mind around the conversation. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”

  “It is. I like that I’m the man of the family. I like having my kids look up to me like I’m a hero.”

  “You are a hero. You’re a soldier.”

  Craig shook his head. “Not that kind of hero. A different kind. Like when I help my youngest son build a tree house or help my daughter with her math homework. They look up to me. Hell, I even like killing spiders for Carla.”

  Riley had to admit he liked killing spiders for Aubrey as well. He loved that he could take care of her even in that small way. Aftercare was his favorite part of their Dominant-submissive relationship. He loved being
able to hold her and make her feel safe and cared for.

  “I thought—I thought you’d got the shaft when Carla got pregnant. That you’d lost your freedom. You never got to be young and have fun. You had adult responsibilities when you were still a kid.”

  “Do you think I would have been free on a football scholarship? That school would have owned my ass. Sure, Uncle Sam owned my ass for years, but it was something I wanted. And I have had fun. We did nothing but raise hell for four years in high school. I thought your old man or my old man was going to kill us both more times than I could count. Besides, I shared those so-called adult responsibilities with Carla. They didn’t seem like much of a burden when I was with her.”

  Riley looked at Craig with new respect. He’d read everything all wrong. Craig had always been in control of his destiny.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  Craig snagged another fry. “Sure, shoot.”

  “Did Noah ask you to come talk to me?”

  Craig’s slow smile gave him away. “I might have run into your brother in the bank yesterday afternoon. You mad?”

  Riley scraped a hand down his face. “No. I thought I had everything figured out, and now I realize I don’t. You were always in the back of my mind. You know, what happened to you. I didn’t want to end up like that.”

  “You should be so lucky. How do you want to end up?”

  Riley snorted. “That’s my damn problem. I don’t know.”

  Craig got up from the booth. “Time to cowboy up, Riley. It ain’t fair to keep stringing a woman along if you don’t intend to put down roots with her. That’s not something a man with integrity does.”

  “You sound like Noah. And my dad. And my mom.”

  Craig took the large bag of takeout from the waitress. “Don’t you hate when our parents turn out to be right? Get used to it. Give me a call and we’ll have a beer, okay?”

  “We will. Next time you buy the fries.”

  Craig left and Riley sagged in the booth, unsure how he felt about the revelations. It turned everything he’d always believed upside down. It was something to think about, if Noah would give him some damn time to think. He threw some money down on the table and headed next door to Sarah’s to help Noah pick out something special for Aubrey.

  He’d think about marriage tomorrow. Toys tonight.

  Chapter Six

  “Mom, calm down. I don’t think you’re going to die from having talked to Dad.”

  Aubrey sighed and leaned against the side of her practical, compact car. She was parked outside of the cafe, heading in to meet Tatum Baldwin for a leisurely lunch before going to the club with her men tonight. Her mother had called half hysterical as Aubrey was trying to parallel park.

  “I don’t understand why you couldn’t just give me his message. I had to speak to him.”

  Aubrey hefted her handbag onto her shoulder. “That’s what being a grown-up means—doing shit you don’t want to do.”

  “Watch your language.”

  Aubrey felt her temper start to simmer. “As long as you’re acting like the child and forcing me to be the parent, Mom, I think I’ll use any damn language I want.”

  She heard a strangled gasp on the other end of the phone. Hopefully, she hadn’t sent her histrionic mother into cardiac arrest.

  “That’s a terrible way to speak to your mother. I brought you up better than that. It’s those McLean boys. They’re a bad influence.”

  You have no idea, Mother.

  “I’m sorry you feel that way, Mom. I’m simply standing up to both you and Daddy. If you need to work something out, you need to talk to each other. I won’t be caught in the middle of this family feud any longer. It’s not fair, and it’s not right, to put me there.”

  There was a long silence before her mother spoke. “That wasn’t my intention, Aubrey.”

  “I’m not questioning your intentions, Mom. I’m questioning the results. The fact is you and Dad have been wedging me into your marital and divorce issues since I was a kid. No child should have to deal with something like that. It’s amazing I don’t need therapy.”

  “I suppose you’d tell the therapist it’s all your mother’s fault.”

  Aubrey sagged against the car and looked up at the cloudless blue sky. Somehow, her mother had turned everything around so she was the victim. Again.

  Aubrey was close to losing her temper. “You and Daddy would be a photo finish.”

  Her mother sucked in a breath. “That’s a mean thing to say.”

  “It’s a mean way to grow up. I’m not going to be around for awhile, Mom. I think we all need some time apart. Until you and Daddy can treat me with respect and not violate the boundaries I’m setting, well, then we don’t have much to say. I won’t be pulled into your and Dad’s hate festival.”

  “If that’s how you feel.” Her mother’s voice was stiff. “Call me when you’re feeling more reasonable.”

  Her mother hung up, and Aubrey heaved a sigh of relief and tried to let some of her anger drain out of her body. She’d never stood up to her mother before, and as lousy as it felt, it also felt damn good. Her parents loved to play the martyrs. It was time they took out their own trash, so to speak. She wasn’t going to be their lackey any longer. They were her parents, but they sure as hell hadn’t been acting like it.

  She pushed open the door and waved to one of her best friends, Tatum Baldwin. As usual, Tatum was sitting at her favorite table by the large front window.

  “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” Aubrey held up her phone. “I was talking to Mom. The you-know-what has really hit the fan.”

  Tatum’s eyes went wide. “You really did it? You finally stood up to them? Good for you!” Tatum punched the speaker function then held up her own phone. “I’m talking to Farah. Say hello.”

  Aubrey settled herself in a chair and leaned toward the phone. “Hey, girl. How’ve you been? Saving the world from the dark criminal element?”

  Farah laughed. “Single-handedly, thank you very much. Did I overhear that you stood up to Mommy Dearest? About damn time. Did she take it well?”

  Aubrey snorted. “Um, no. She got all pissy and made herself the victim. Dad did pretty well once he got over the shock. Mom may decide I’m dead to her.”

  Tatum put her hand on Aubrey’s. “Our family will adopt you. Mom and Dad adore you.”

  The waitress set an iced tea in front of Aubrey. “I doubt they’d adopt me if I was marrying a McLean.”

  Tatum patted Aubrey’s left hand. “They love you, but you’re right, marrying into the McLean family might make them think twice. They’d love to have you marry into our family, though. I don’t see a ring. Did they propose? Finally?”

  “Not yet. I’ve laid down the law with them, and I think they get the idea. They’re starting to act like the men I always knew they could be.”

  Farah giggled. “How the mighty have fallen. Riley and Noah McLean are legends in their own time. They’re known in a two-hundred mile radius as the life of the party. Bar owners must be shrouding their windows in black curtains and laying off employees.”

  Aubrey rolled her eyes. “I’m well aware. They get phone calls all day and all night from their so-called buddies wanting one thing or another. Mostly, they want them to come and pay for the beers. So far, my boys have resisted temptation.”

  Tatum handed Aubrey a menu. “Pick out what you want. I’m starving. So, Farah, when are you coming for a visit? We haven’t seen you in months.”

  “I’m on a big case so it won’t be for awhile. Shit, look at the time. I have to go. I’ll call you in a few days. Aubrey, hang in there. Mommy and Daddy will come around eventually. And don’t give my brothers any slack leash. I’m dying for you to become my sister-in-law. Ta-ta.” Just like that Farah was gone. She was a veritable tornado.

  “She’s exhausting,” Aubrey said. “I wish I had her energy.”

  The waitress came and took their orders. Tatum gave her an appraising look.
“Is it really going okay? You do look happy.”

  “I am happy. They’re behaving. They haven’t even started a fight with a Baldwin in a couple of weeks.”

  Tatum shook her head in disgust. “My brothers need to get a fucking life. You’d think everything evil in the world started and ended with the McLean family. They’re only people, not the devil. You know, just because they’re not beating the shit out of each other doesn’t mean they hate each other any less.”

  “I know, but it’s a start. Maybe they’ll get out of the habit of bashing each other’s heads in. It’s a major improvement. Sort of a cease fire.” Aubrey raised her iced tea glass. “Let’s drink to detente. After all, if the McLeans and Baldwins ever put the feud behind them, well, then maybe you can finally get together with Will and Josh.”

  Tatum turned a deep shade of red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She leaned closer. “Will you keep your voice down? You don’t know who might be listening.”

  “Right. No idea. We’ll leave it at that. But, Will and Josh sure are nice guys. And boy howdy, do they have the McLean good looks.”

  “All the McLean men are handsome. And sexy as hell.” Tatum spread butter on the piping hot bread the waitress had placed on the table seconds before. “Damn, I love the bread here. I only wish my hips did, too.”

  “You look gorgeous. If I thought Aaron was ready to date I’d set you up with him.”

  “How is Mr. Hottie? Still trying to tell you what to do?”

  Aubrey finally gave in to the siren call of the freshly baked bread. They really did make great bread here.

  “He can’t help it, he’s a Dom. So, I guess the answer is yes. He was all over me about telling the principal about those gifts I’ve been getting.”

  “He’s right. Did you tell Martin?”

  The butter melted on her tongue, and Aubrey closed her eyes in carb heaven. “I did. He’s going to check the security tapes. In fact, I left a message for him to find out what he saw, but I haven’t heard from him. I know he’s busy. This is his first year as a principal. He was a history teacher in Denver before he came here.”