Liability (Suncoast Society #33)(65)

Cole shook his head. “I’m not bailing,” he quietly said. “Neither of us. I love him. We both do, me and Kim. He’s my boyfriend, and he’s her Master.”

The older man seemed to be pondering that. “He meet her first?”

“Kim and I were together for two years when we met Mason. He started teaching us about BDSM. She’d wanted to try it. It’s not really my thing, so I gave them permission to play, and then things got…”

“Complicated,” Corbin said.

This whole time, Tilly stood there, quiet, arms crossed over her chest, listening.

“Yeah. Really complicated. Stop me if I’m giving you too many details.”

“Did I say stop? I want to know who the hell you two are to my son. Keep going.”

Cole took a deep breath. “I gave them permission to do more…things, because, frankly, I kind of liked watching them. Both of them. And Mason and I started talking and I was…curious. Then he and I got involved romantically. So now we’re boyfriends, Kim’s my girlfriend, and Mason is Kim’s Master.”

“Two years with her, huh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How long you all been with Mason, then?”

“Mason and Kim have been play partners for about two months. Mason and I have been lovers for about a month. A little over. As have Mason and Kim.”

Corbin sat back in the chair. “After a month, only a freakin’ month, you’re ready to take care of a guy?”

“I don’t expect you to under—”

“It was a simple question. Yes or no?”

“Yes. We were supposed to start talking this weekend about the future. Mason said he wanted to talk about the future. A future with all three of us. This changes nothing for me. I love Mason. I still love him, I’m going to love him. And if you try to fight me and Kim about this, we’ve got a couple of friends who are attorneys who will keep you busy until Mason’s awake enough to tell you himself how he feels about us. I don’t care if he’s back to his old self or he never gets out of that bed. I love him. I know he loves us. That’s all I need to know, because I know if I was the one in that bed, he’d be fighting this hard for me, too.”

The man went quiet for a long time, staring at Mason before swinging his gaze onto Cole once more. When he spoke again, the man’s voice sounded choked, breaking.

“When Mase and I…went to dinner…last week, two weeks ago, whenever it was…” He paused, wiping at his eyes. “I always tease him a little. Ask him if he’s met anyone.”

He reached out and stroked Mason’s hand again. “Usually he laughs it off.” His fingers rested on top of Mason’s hand. “Every time. Changes the subject.” He patted his son’s hand. “Not that night.”

Corbin blew his nose and looked up at Cole. “He said, ‘Dad, I met a guy. Name’s Cole. Long story. Kind of complicated.’ I asked complicated how, and he wouldn’t tell me. But he had this look in his eyes. He smiled in a way I ain’t seen him smile since he was a kid. Said, ‘Mom’s gonna shit a brick.’ Which, of course, made me laugh. I said well, lots of stuff can do that, son. He said, ‘No, this is different. But I’m happy. And I hope when I can introduce them to you, you’ll be happy for us.’ Now, at the time, I thought I misheard him. Or some frickin’ royal ‘them’ he meant, meaning you. One guy. So I says, ‘You in love with this Cole?’ And…”

His voice broke. Tilly handed him a couple more tissues. Cole realized he’d been holding his breath and had to suck in a lungful of air or pass out.

Finally, Corbin could continue. “And he’s wearin’ this smile, right? This whole time, he’s got this gorgeous smile. He says, ‘Yeah, I’m in love, Dad. I think this is it.’”

He finally looked at Cole. “So if you gonna abandon my son, treat him like some sort of liability, do it now, while he’s unconscious and don’t know any better, and me and his mom and stepdad, we’ll take the blame for running the two of you off. You say you’re gonna stay by his side, then you better live up to your word, or I’ll be sitting in the county jail with that little f*cker after I run over you.”

Cole’s vision blurred and he wiped at his eyes. “I love him, sir. I love him as much as I love Kim. And she loves him. I promise you, we won’t let you or him down. Whatever it takes, whatever he needs, whatever we have to do, we’re here for the long haul.”

“Okay.” Corbin slowly nodded and had trouble getting up from the chair. There wasn’t room for both Cole and Tilly there, and since she was already there, Cole let her help the man up.

Corbin walked down to the end of the bed and opened his arms to Cole for a hug.

Cole didn’t care that he was crying now as he hugged the man. “I love him so damn much, sir. I don’t want to lose him.”

“My son’s got a stubborn streak in him,” he said, patting Cole on the back. “Every bit as big as the one I got. Anyone can fight back from this, he can.” He stepped back and Tilly handed out another round of tissues. “Your parents know about all this?”

“Not yet. They’ve met Mase, but it was before he and I were involved. They think he’s a good friend of ours.”