Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(50)

Kenny got up and rounded the table. She turned, Nolan next to her, Kenny now kneeling in front of her. “If you’re going to do this, then I want a change,” Kenny said.

“What?”

He pointed to her necklace. “That now becomes a collar of protection. Our collar on you. And we’ll honor it and our commitment to you as long as you do, too.”

“And we won’t force you to wear it,” Nolan said. “And, obviously, it’s symbolic, not like if you’re taking it off for class or whatever. And if you ask us to end this, we part as friends and do so amicably. Because it would break my heart to lose you as my friend.”

She hugged him. “Me, too.” She hugged Kenny. “Yes, I accept it as a collar from you both, a collar of protection.”

His gaze looked intense, hungry. “Hard limits?”

“Yeah,” she said. “We need to talk about those.”

“Kissing?”

“What?”

“Kissing. Is that a hard limit, or can we kiss you?”

They’d kissed her and she’d kissed them plenty of times, but as she processed the desire in his expression, she realized he meant more than just the chaste cheek-pecks, or quick brushes in passing of lips over lips.

“Kissing’s allowed.”

Kenny reached out, grabbed her, and laid a soul-searing kiss on her that nearly made her come right there. Long, volcanic, a kiss better than any she’d ever had in her entire life.

When he released her she’d barely had time to draw in a breath when Nolan grabbed her. His kiss was different than Kenny’s and equally as good. If they could kiss this damn good, she suspected the future held even better things for her.

When Nolan finally released her, she felt shaky in a good way.

Kenny wore a playful smirk. “We won’t ever order you to stay with us,” he said. “But in the interest of honesty, we’re not above playing a little dirty to make sure you understand exactly how we feel about you and how much we want you to be part of our lives.”





The rest of the morning was spent with Betsy in a sexual haze and pleased to see the men’s shorts were tented, too, as they discussed in great details hard and soft limits.

For play and sex.

Now having health insurance again, she’d gotten herself to the doctor and tested and back on birth control pills. She’d need another test again in a few months just to make sure, but it was one more relief.

And for now, they’d use condoms.

For play.

And for sex.

Of which if they kept talking about it as in-depth as they were, she was likely to beg them to skip the play and go straight to the sex right now.

But she knew that couldn’t happen yet, either. They needed to have these conversations before anything could happen, play or sex.

She agreed that, for the purpose of play and sex, she would be their submissive. Outside of the bedroom or dungeon—or outside of play or sex in general—the rest of her life was absolutely and completely hers to rule and command, as long as it didn’t involve her getting involved with anyone but the men. If she found herself in that position, it would put a full stop to everything so they could sit down and discuss it.

She didn’t think that would be a problem. For starters, these were the only men she wanted. Her heart already belonged to them.

Getting herself over her fear, her worry about making bad choices? That had nothing to do with what she felt for them and everything to do with knowing to have a successful relationship with them she had to do this self-work.

Tilly called and they took a break as Betsy closed herself in her bedroom to talk to her friend on the phone.

“So what’s up for today?” Tilly asked.

Betsy hoped Tilly didn’t blow up. “A couple of things.” She told her about talking to Kel about the apartment.

Then she revealed what she and the men had been discussing that morning.

Betsy had to look to make sure the call was still connected. “Tilly?”

Her friend’s sigh made it all the way from LA. “I’m really proud of you,” she said. “No, I can’t find fault with your logic.”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

“You love them, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’ll be pursuing a relationship with them?”

“Yeah. But I want to make sure I don’t end up on the same vicious carousel I was on before when I dated vanilla guys. And I damn sure don’t want to end up with another Jack.”

“They aren’t Jack,” Tilly said.

“You know what I mean.”

“Then I guess you’d better make sure you do what you need to do. But I’ll give you the same warning I gave them—don’t f*ck up or f*ck them over. Don’t spend so much time trying to make up your mind that you lose them anyway. Life’s too short to play games or waste time.”

“I won’t do that. I promise. I’ve wasted enough time in my life. That’s why I want to do this, so I can move forward. Hopefully, with them.”





Chapter Seventeen


By the time they were ready to head for the club that night, they’d ironed out all the hard and soft limits. Yes to sex, across the board. For play, they would start slow and build up. She worried if they restrained her with anything other than their hands that she might panic, memories of what Jack had done to her fresh in her mind. She wanted to be able to build new memories, new trust, and not trigger in a bad way.