Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(48)

Grant cupped his hand around the back of Darryl’s neck. “Thank you,” he said.

Then Grant took the collar from the velvet bag it was in, showing it to her. “You have been through so much more than most people could deal with, and you kept your head high, and you survived. I don’t ever want you to forget John. I don’t want to replace him—neither of us do. That’s why I want your right cuff to still be the one you wear, the one he gave you. Because I think it should be. If it wasn’t for you meeting him, you might never have found your way back to us. Or you might not have been able to accept us for who we are now.

“Everything that happened led to us coming together. I will always be thankful to him for protecting you, taking care of you, loving you. Even though I never got to meet him, he will always have a place of love and honor in my heart. Because if he loved you, and you loved him, he had to be pretty damn special.

“I’m offering you this collar because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, loving you, taking care of you, protecting you, cherishing you. I love you every bit as much as I love Darryl, and I can’t imagine a better life than for the three of us to spend it together. So will you please accept this collar as a token of not just my love, but our love? And as a symbol of our promise to you to try to make you smile every day? With, you know, whips and chains and stuff.”

Darryl laughed with everyone else. How could he not? Especially not when Grant looked at him and winked.

“Yes, Sir,” she said. “Please.”

Grant fastened the collar around her neck, then produced the charm bracelet. “This is our day collar to you. And I say our, even though I am Master to both of you, because Darryl helped me pick things out.”

Darryl watched as Grant explained to her why they’d picked each charm, leaving the birthstones for last.

When she broke down crying at the one for John, he felt a nudge and looked to see Loren handing him a box of tissues. She looked like she was crying too, and he gratefully pulled several from the box, passing some to Susie before blowing his own nose.

Susie nodded and held up her right wrist for Grant to fasten the charm bracelet. He knelt, putting it on her lower than her cuff before kissing her.

When Grant helped her to her feet, he pulled Darryl and her both in for a long hug. “I love you both,” Grant said, sounding choked up. “And I mean it. This is, as far as I’m concerned, for life.”

“Thank you, Master,” they both said, laughing and hugging him even harder.





Grant gave Susie a couple of minutes to get hugs and talk with friends before he called her over to one of the benches, where he’d already laid out a towel.

This was the part she was really nervous about. She’d agreed to ten cane strokes, hard ones, but she wasn’t sure how well she’d do.

She still wasn’t a fan of the cane even though the few times he’d used it on her, she’d found herself getting wet from the pain as if it was a bare-handed spanking or some less severe implement.

After she stripped, she laid down on the bench. She wouldn’t be tied down for this, because Grant wanted her willingly submitting to the cane strokes, not restrained and forced to take them.

It had to be her choice.

She closed her eyes and felt Darryl’s comforting presence hovering next to her. When Grant touched the cane to her ass, laying it across both ass cheeks, she flinched.

“You agreed to ten, sweetheart,” he said in Dom tone.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Count them.” That was the only warning he gave her before the first one sliced into her.

She gasped as the pain took a second to catch up with the actual impact. “One, Sir…”

He took his time, letting her recover between them, Darryl softly whispering encouragement to her, telling her what a good girl she was.

By the time the tenth was over and she counted, she was ready for a good, hard cry—

Except one of her men then pressed a vibrator against her clit and flipped the switch.

In an instant, her gasps of pain turned into deep moans of pleasure as an orgasm slammed into her. The men kept her coming for what felt like forever until she finally had trouble catching her breath and called yellow.

The men immediately shut the vibrator off, swaddling her in a blanket. Grant scooped her up and carried her to one of the couches while Darryl gathered their stuff, joining them moments later.

As she surfed her subspace high while stretched out across both men’s laps, she knew she would ask for the cane more often.

Because she also knew that she’d be feeling this for several days, and she’d think of her men every time she did.

Grant smiled down at her. “How do you feel, sweetheart?”

“Like I’ve been given a second chance at life and I don’t want to waste it.”





Chapter Sixteen


Grant wasn’t sure what to expect when he went to Ed’s office late Wednesday afternoon. Ed apparently didn’t know the content of the letter, but when he’d said it might be better if Grant read it alone, that told Grant the man had an inkling of its message.

The office was completely deserted when he arrived, except for Ed, who let him in and locked the front door behind him.

“Why do I get a bad feeling about this?”

“I doubt it’s bad,” Ed said, “but when John gave me the letters, it wasn’t long after we lost Kaden. He knew about it because we were John’s attorneys, and we notified all our clients of Kaden’s death.” He stopped and turned to Grant. “You know who Kaden was, right?”