Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(54)

Two handsome, hunky, sexy Doms, yes.

Two Doms she absolutely trusted, yes.

Two Doms who came Tilly-approved, yes.

But this was for her, to prove she wasn’t making a mistake.

Under the same roof with them, romantically, for now, she’d always be second-guessing herself. This way, she could be as crazy as she wanted with them and still have her own sanctuary to which she could retreat.

Would she one day move from here back to their house?

Signs point to yes.

Then again, she might save up a little, get a regular apartment somewhere, and live there for a year first.

But the point being she had a job. She had a life again. She had a car.

She had hope and freedom, and giving all of that up this soon wasn’t something she thought was very smart.

Taking to heart what Tilly and Ted had both said, she’d devoured the self-help books on the Kindle. That was another point, while she didn’t have people to pay back financially, she needed to make sure she took steps to make them proud.

Not for their sake, but for hers. To pay them back in the only way they would let her pay them back, living proof that their faith in her, their trust in her, hadn’t been misplaced. That she wasn’t some emotional wreck just bouncing from harbor to harbor once she’d been torn free from her secure moorings by the hurricane that had been Jack Bourke.

Tonight, in her apartment, she’d be cooking dinner for Eliza, June, Gabe, Laura, Brooke, and Loren. Tilly would be joining them from California via Skype. Not quite the same thing, but close.

She wanted tonight to be about her being able to personally thank these women. Her tribe, her band of adopted sisters who’d not just given her help, but strength and hope as well.

And first, to do that, she needed to go grocery shopping.





Nolan didn’t speak much after they got home. The house felt lonely, empty without her there, when before her arrival he’d never noticed the gaping voids of quiet before.

He didn’t feel like cooking dinner, and neither did Kenny. They both scrounged for themselves, sitting in front of the TV and eating without talking.

Loneliness.

Yes, they had each other.

But it felt like part of them was now gone, even if they were getting more of her back in the process.

She wasn’t here.

“What if she decides she doesn’t want to come back?” Nolan asked. “What if she decides she likes it better on her own?”

“That’s a chance we have to take. She knows how we feel about her. We have to trust her that she’s telling us the truth about how she feels about us. We can’t force her to stay with us.”

He set his plate on the coffee table and laid over, his head in Kenny’s lap. “Please tell me this is going to work out all right.”

Kenny set his plate on the coffee table, too, and stroked Nolan’s hair. “It’s going to work out all right.”

Nolan laced fingers with him. “Please tell me she’s still going to want us when she figures out what it is she needs.”

Kenny looked down into his eyes, those sweet, deep mocha eyes of his. “She’s still going to want us, because we’re still going to want her. This is only temporary. And we’ll be spending tomorrow night with her.”

“It’s not the same. She’s not here.”





Kenny knew he had to keep it together for Nolan’s sake. Honestly? All he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. Logically, yes, he knew she wasn’t “gone.”

But like Nolan had said, she wasn’t “here,” either.

And despite what he’d assured Nolan, no, he had no crystal ball. All he could count on was their promise from her not to lie to them.

And if she was telling them the truth, then this was just a temporary transition she needed to make to be healthy and happy with them later.

She still was “theirs.” Their submissive. Kenny kept his hopes high that she would return to them permanently. And if she did, he’d ask her if she’d become their slave, a commitment to them, their commitment to her.

He stroked Nolan’s cheek. The man hadn’t shaved that day, and a light spray of stubble covered his face. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Kenny leaned in and kissed him. It reminded him of the early days, when they were still exploring, still learning each other, what they liked, what turned the other’s crank. After a few minutes, Nolan rolled over and Kenny helped him open the front of his shorts. Nolan fished Kenny’s cock out and started sucking it while Kenny stroked the back of his head.

Closing his eyes, he focused on the feel of Nolan’s mouth on his cock, sucking, licking, trying not to compare and contrast him to Betsy’s soft skin, smooth cheeks, silky mouth.

“Don’t get me all the way off, buddy,” Kenny said as he reached down Nolan’s body and squeezed his cock through his shorts. “Just get me hard enough to f*ck you.”

Nolan let out a soft groan as Kenny squeezed his cock again. It grew harder under his fingers. “Yeah, right here,” Kenny said. “Gonna f*ck you right here. Have you sit on my cock and f*ck your sweet ass on it while I stroke your cock.”

Another groan from Nolan, this one deeper, more throaty. Yes, Nolan was in the zone.

He tried not to think about how the only thing better would be Betsy sitting on his other side, kissing him right now.