One Ring (Suncoast Society #28)(20)

“Thank you.”

“Yeah,” Don added. “What he said. No pressure, ever.”

After she’d pulled herself together and headed to bed, Carl sat there, staring at the TV.

So did Don.

They looked at each other.

“Wow,” Don said. “Thank god she wasn’t abused by that *.”

“Being ignored can be a kind of abuse.”

Don scrubbed his face with his hands. “I’m glad we decided to take this slow.”

“Moving her in after knowing her less than two months isn’t slow.”

“We’re not sleeping with her. We’re just roommates with play bennies. That might be unusual to the vanilla world, but by kinky standards, that’s downright puritanical.” Don dragged himself to his feet. “Regardless, we have plenty of time now to figure out where to go from here. She obviously needs to settle into a new routine, get to know us, we need to get to know her, and the divorce needs to go through.”

“True.”

“Then why do you look so upset?”

Carl glanced down toward the hall before looking up at him and lowering his voice. “I want to go punch her ex. Right in the goddamned nose. For making her cry, if nothing else.”

“You can’t go do that. Not without me.”

“No, we can go do that. We shouldn’t.”

“All right, Tony,” Don joked, turning to head to bed. “We shouldn’t go punch her ex in the snoot, but I agree it sounds like a damned good idea. Except Tilly and Marcia would probably kill us if we didn’t let them come with.”





Chapter Nine


It was a Saturday, two days before her final divorce hearing.

Mel had been living with the guys for four months, and she was ready to have the divorce over with. Mike hadn’t fought it, fortunately.

Don and Carl played exclusively with her and had ever since she moved in.

That didn’t hurt her feelings in the least. She still felt a little guilty that the guys wouldn’t let her reciprocate with them in terms of orgasms, but they assured her that’s the way they wanted it for now.

They also reassured her that if, once her divorce was final, she wanted more, they would be there, patiently waiting for her to instigate that discussion.

But both men were adamant that they wanted her to be able to make whatever decision she did with a clear mind and a clear conscience.

Don and Carl were out in the backyard doing yard work. She’d been dealing with a couple of work emergencies via her laptop when the doorbell rang.

She was shocked to find Mike standing there when she answered the door.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Can I come in and talk to you?”

She’d almost hoped, early on, that Mike would see the divorce papers, panic, and swear to change. Then follow up on the promises with real change.

She’d known that was unrealistic and borderline crazy thinking, but she’d hoped he’d think she was worth trying to fight for.

The longer he’d gone without a personal response, the more she realized the sad reality, that he really, honestly didn’t give a shit. That he’d hired an attorney and didn’t fight the divorce only confirmed it.

And since she’d moved out, he hadn’t even bothered to call her, to check up on her. He’d never even replied to the texts she’d sent about the utility payments being due, so she stopped sending them.

“Talk to me why? About what?”

He held up a sheaf of papers. “About all of this, Amy. Come on, are you seriously going to go through with this nonsense? I’ve put up with it about as long as anyone should reasonably be expected to.”

She blinked, staring at him, positive this had to be a practical joke, and a really bad one. So much so she had to fight not to take a step out and look for hidden cameras.

She’d forgotten how much she hated it when he called her Amy.

“Uh, what?” she asked when she realized he was standing there, awaiting a response.

He shook the papers at her. “I had to waste money getting an attorney, okay, Amy? So did you. Let’s stop this before we f*ck up our finances and credit ratings. Just come home, and I’ll forget all about this. Now listen to me. You’ve had several months to get whatever this is out of your system, and—”

“Mel, you okay?”

She jumped at the sound of Don’s voice.

Correction, it was Don and Carl standing there behind her, both of them shirtless and sweaty and looking, especially compared to Mike…

Yum!

“Um, guys, this is Mike.”

“Your ex?” Carl asked.

“I’m Amy’s husband!” he said, sounding uncharacteristically shrill. Ed’s early warnings to her about Mike being in denial returned to mind.

Don snorted. “Dude, not for much longer.”

“Is this what you really want?” Mike screeched waving the papers at her.

Hell, he hadn’t shown this much emotion over the last several games the Bucs had lost, and those usually got him pretty riled up.

“Don and Carl are my roommates,” she said. “I don’t understand why you care. You didn’t give a shit about me when I was with you and begging you to spend time with me. Hell, I couldn’t get you to have sex with me to save my life! You haven’t even bothered to text me to see if I’m okay. You handled everything through your attorney. Why even pretend you care?”