Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(13)

Which, of course, he wouldn’t be an * about. There’d always been a pleasant kind of tension between the three of them. However, that was twenty years ago, and all three of them had done a lot of growing and maturing since then.

If there was even a chance he was right, he didn’t want her to slip through their fingers again.

She wasn’t down there when they reached the pool deck, which was already bustling with people. Some of them they vaguely remembered, most they didn’t, or hadn’t even known back then.

Or worse, they’d avoided them back then because they’d been bullied by them.

Corey and Marcy arrived next and the four of them ended up at a table off to one side with drinks in front of them. Grant almost missed it when Susie entered the pool area. Her long hair was now pulled back into a braid, and the vision of him wrapping it around his fist as he f*cked her mouth threatened to stir his cock before he shoved it out of his mind.

He waved to her, hating the excitement coursing through him. He was likely setting himself up—and worse, maybe Darryl, too—for disappointment, but he couldn’t help it.

It was like Fate had given them both a second chance, one he damn sure wouldn’t let slip through his fingers again.

Not when she was so beautifully close.

She smiled when she saw them and rounded the pool, heading their way. She wore a simple black one-piece suit with a purple sarong tied across her hips.

He hoped he could keep his cock under control until he was seated again so she didn’t spot the pup tent in his swim trunks.

They’d pulled a chair over for her already, and Darryl found out what she wanted to drink and went to get it for her from the bar. She looked good, even better than she had earlier.

“Oh,” Marcy said. “That’s an interesting bracelet.”

Grant silently thanked his friend’s wife as he watched while Susie nearly imperceptibly flinched.

But he spotted her reaction. He’d learned years ago to what great lengths his friend would go to try to keep her emotions under wraps. Her tells remained the same, it was interesting to see.

“My husband gave it to me,” she finally said. “It’s very sentimental to me.”

Corey unknowingly added to the fun. “Kind of looks like that one Darryl wears.”

Grant had his gaze focused on Susie’s face when she turned, surprise registering on her features as her eyes found his.

He didn’t blink. “It does look a lot like the one I gave Darryl,” he said, narrowing his gaze and intentionally dropping down into what Darryl liked to call his Dom tone. “Isn’t that a funny coincidence?”

He felt himself harden as he watched her throat work when she nervously swallowed.

Game.

On.





Holy…crap.

There was a time in Susan’s life, when she was a teenager, when she would have killed for the look Grant was giving her right that moment.

The look.

A look John could melt her panties off her with—when he let her wear them.

A look she hadn’t seen in two years.

A look she craved, and a look that nearly made her burst into relieved tears to see on Grant’s face.

And the tone of voice he’d used.

Okay, so they were gay. Maybe when the three of them could sit down, alone, and talk, she could ask them about Darryl’s bracelet. If it had the same meaning as hers, maybe, as old friends, they’d let her curl up in their laps for a little while, give her a little bit of structure in their spare time, trusting that they wouldn’t f*ck her over or treat her badly.

This was Grant and Darryl. They’d proven themselves to her as kids. They’d protected her. They’d saved her ass against bullies. She refused to believe they’d turn out to be royal shits, even this many years and a lifetime later.

Darryl turned from the bar with her margarita in his hand.

Then she spotted his bracelet, on his right wrist.

When she glanced back at Grant, the corner of his mouth had curled in an amused smirk she knew all too well. She’d sat through countless games watching him make that same expression when he knew he had the upper hand and he was simply biding his time. Especially when he was in the DM seat.

But…they’re gay…

Aren’t they?

Darryl smiled as he handed her the large glass, and she immediately sucked down several swallows of the frozen drink.

Susan had a strong suspicion she’d need a couple more of them to calm her nerves. She wasn’t a big drinker. In fact, it’d been…well, two years since she’d last had anything to drink.

If the playful smirk on Grant’s face was any indication, the two men had progressed from Dungeons and Dragons to a more advanced level of dungeoneering.

A far sexier one.

“Look, D,” Grant said, gently taking her right wrist in his hand but not touching the bracelet. “Funny coincidence, huh? Looks a lot like yours, doesn’t it? Her husband gave it to her. Isn’t that sweet?”

She struggled to breathe as Darryl’s smile spread, quirking his lips as his sweet brown gaze narrowed. “Don’t see many of those around. It’s beautiful.”

She nodded, well aware that Corey and Marcy were—she assumed—clueless vanillas.

It felt like she’d been dropped back into high school, the night of senior prom where the two men had escorted her to the dance. No one else had asked her, and she was going to skip it when the men found out. It wasn’t like her parents had the money to spend on her prom dress anyway when they were in the middle of duking it out in divorce court by that time.