Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(19)

She stuck her tongue out at Cris. “No, he won’t. Because he lurrrrves me.” She blew Landry a kiss.

Nolan was relieved to see Betsy attempt a smile. “I hope my appearance doesn’t scare the crap out of your mom,” she said. “I look horrible.”

“This might sound wrong,” Kenny said, “but I’m going to put it out there anyway. I’m honestly hoping she feels so badly for you that she sort of glosses over the whole BDSM revelation. That, and that we’re sometimes poly with a woman.”

Tilly gasped. “You two sometimes partner up with women?” she said, sounding totally surprised. “I had no idea.”

Now Betsy laughed. She patted Tilly on the leg. “Tilly, please. Lying doesn’t suit you. I swear that I will not get involved in any other relationship unless you and-or Eliza have signed off on it first. But it’s way too soon for you to try matchmaking, okay? I don’t even have a damn car. I just want my life back first.”

“Well, can’t blame a Domme for trying, can you?”

“No, and I love you for it.”

“Oh, she has a phone,” Kenny said, getting up to retrieve it from where he’d left it charging in their bedroom.

“She does?” Tilly whipped hers out. “Cool, what’s the number?”

“I do?” Betsy asked.

“I bought you one,” Kenny called over his shoulder.

“What?”

Nolan caught the hint of fear in her voice and called him back. “Kenny, wait.” Nolan arched an eyebrow at her. “It’s not an expensive phone or an expensive plan. But we’re doing this for you for two reasons. One, you need a phone of your own. Consider the phone and the first two months a gift. Hopefully by that point you’ll be able to afford to pay for it yourself. If not, we’ll give you two more months as an early Christmas gift.”

Her left eye closed, a tear squeezing out from under the lid as she nodded.

Tilly’s voice dropped, her tone tender. “Betsy, you’re not the first woman to end up in this situation. The difference here is you have people who love you and want to help you. Let us help you. Please?”

Betsy nodded again. “Thank you.”

Nolan nodded for Kenny to get the phone. He brought it back, showing her how to use it. Tilly immediately set to work programming a bunch of numbers into it for her, including hers and her men’s numbers, Eliza, Tony, Shayla, Ross and Loren, Ed—everyone. Kenny had already programmed his and Nolan’s cell and work numbers into it for her to have.

After Tilly returned it to her, Betsy stared at it for a long moment, then handed it to Tilly. “Take a picture of me,” she quietly said.

Tilly’s brow furrowed. “Uh, why?”

“Because I never want to forget this. I want a picture of how I look right now, so if I ever start to do something stupid again, even after I’ve forgotten how badly this hurts, even after I’ve moved on and have my life and independence back, I want to be able to look at my face and remember why I can’t f*ck up this badly ever again.”





Chapter Seven


Kenny wasn’t the least bit surprised when he heard a car door shut two minutes before six and glanced out the front window to see his mom walking up their driveway.

Alone.

He already had the front door open when she stepped onto the porch. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi, sweetie. Extra guests for dinner?”

He took the red velvet cake she’d made from her. “Yeah, that’s…complicated.”

“Compli—” Her jaw snapped shut when she spotted Betsy sitting on the couch.

“Mom, it’s a long story, and I promise you, you’ll get all of it.” He made a quick round of introductions while Nolan came and took the cake from him.

His mom walked around the coffee table to sit on the other end of the couch next to Betsy. “I hope the son of a bitch who did this to you is in jail!”

“He is, Mom,” Kenny assured her.

He started with the quick version, that Betsy called Tilly for help, and a bunch of them rushed in to provide said help.

When he finished that part, his mom glanced at Tilly, her men, then back to him. “Okay. So what aren’t you telling me?”

Nolan had joined them out in the living room. “You know how that one night after dinner we had the TV on, and one of those commercials for the Fifty Shades movie played?” Kenny asked her.

“Yeah?”

“We all live it in real life.”

The room went tomb-silent.

Kenny watched his mom as her gaze swiveled from him, to Betsy, to Nolan, then to Tilly and her guys. “So you three,” she said, using a finger to indicate Tilly, Landry, and Cris, “are a…group?”

“Triad,” Landry offered. “We’re a poly triad. Tilly is my wife, and Cris is my slave, and we’re all partners.”

“And it’s really complicated if we explain more than that,” Tilly added, this time without any of her characteristic snark added for conversational flavor.

His mom nodded, then looked back at Kenny. “So, some of those women you and Nolan brought around before?”

He nodded. “They were women we were dating or playing with,” he admitted.