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“Absolutely not!” Liam pounded his fist on the bar.
“The whole idea is bullshit,” Hammer agreed.
“Congratulations. So far, you’ve both scored a hundred percent on the quiz. ”
“Quiz?” Liam blinked, then looked at Hammer, his eyes wide. “Shit, we didn’t study, mate. ”
“If Seth is giving the quiz, we’re good. He can’t be smarter than us,” Hammer said in a stage whisper.
“Spare me sloppy drunks. ” Seth shook his head in disgust. “This will wait until tomorrow. ”
“Nah, this might help. ” Beck set down two steaming mugs of coffee.
Hammer pounced on it and took a sip, moaning long and loud. “Son of a bitch! You know how to make good coffee?”
Beck scowled at Hammer. “You’re so helpless that you don’t?”
“I used to like you,” he muttered.
He and Liam sipped their steaming brews as fast as they could. When they’d drained their mugs, Beck refilled them. Staring at his watch, Seth waited impatiently.
Before long, Hammer’s thoughts turned right-side up. The glazed look in Liam’s eyes began to dissipate.
“We’re sober enough. Get on with it,” Hammer demanded.
“Finally… Here’s the deal,” Seth said, staring first at Hammer, then Liam. “Like I said, Raine is in love with you both. If her heart is torn in two, how do you expect her to heal with just one of you?”
Hammer froze. Share Raine? That’s what Seth was suggesting. Beck had, too. It wasn’t a foreign concept. Hell, he’d had a woman between himself and Liam. But the thought of sharing Raine… Hell no. The possessive caveman in him wanted to drag her off by the hair and keep her for himself.
Then again, Seth asked a really good question, and there seemed to be only one answer. He turned to look at Liam.
“We have to work together?” His old pal grimaced.
“You don’t have to like it, but yes,” Seth answered. “I came because you asked me to help you reach the girl. I think this is the only way it will work. If you can’t handle that, take your bottle and stumble on down to your room. I’ll help him instead. ”
“The hell you will!” Fury thundered across Liam’s face.
Hammer couldn’t stand the thought of being shut out of her recovery either. No way would he roll over and play dead.
“Then fucking agree and get along already,” Seth insisted. “It’s what she wants. You’ll have to figure out specifics, but if you would stop thinking with your pride—” he glared at Hammer “—and your jealousy—” he shot Liam a pointed look “—you’d know I’m right. ” Seth rolled his eyes. “I told you this shit a month ago. ”
“Exactly. I talked to Raine about this, too” Beck said. “She didn’t hate the idea at all. So stop pissing on her like she’s a damn hydrant and do what real Dominants do. Help her. ”
“It’s up to you. ” Seth rose. “But if you don’t, she’s a pretty girl. She won’t be alone for long. In fact, feel free to keep fucking this up. Once she leaves your sorry asses, I’d be so happy to tap that. ”
Chapter 12
If Liam hadn’t felt exactly sober ten minutes ago, he did now. Work with Hammer to heal Raine? After a month of arguing, it boggled the mind, really. Hammer had been part of the problem for so bloody long, crushing her fragile spirit with his indifference, then dragging her to his bed and fucking her within an inch of her life. Liam didn’t see this working.
But nothing else he’d tried had helped, either. Though he hated to admit it, no one knew her background, habits, and tendencies better than Hammer. After nearly a month with Raine as her Dom and her lover, Liam knew her better sexually, maybe even emotionally in some ways. More importantly, together they knew her inside and out. And they probably needed every bit of knowledge to reach her because he feared Seth had a point that a heart divided couldn’t heal without both parts.
Beck and Seth’s conversation drifted through the bar, becoming more faint as they headed out of the room. The meddling fucks had left him alone with Hammer. Seth, the last of his good friends, had thrown him to the enemy. Or it felt that way. He sighed.
“They’re right,” Hammer said into the solemn silence.
“About what?”
“Everything. She only wants a Domme because we’re too stubborn to get along. ”
Yes. Because Raine wanted them to be friends again, she had given up on the sort of Dom she needed. It was his duty to put her needs first.
Fuck.
“Our bickering has torn her apart,” Liam conceded.
“Yep. ” Hammer tapped the rim of his coffee cup. “All we’ve done is put her between us in all the wrong ways and made her life difficult. ”
“I don’t like this idea. ”
“I don’t, either,” Macen agreed. “The other thing to consider is, if we don’t offer her a choice between us and a Domme, we’re not being fair. And she might dig in her heels. ”
“A choice? Who could we bloody offer to give her to? And what if Raine picks that option?”
“It’s a chance we have to take,” Hammer pointed out. “She’ll only do the work with us if she chooses to. Seth says that’s what she wants…and I believe he’s right. ”
“Finally! First smart thing you’ve said all night,” Beck called back, peeking around the corner with a grin.
“Fuck off!” he and Hammer both shouted in unison.
Liam waited until Beck disappeared again, then turned back to Hammer. “I don’t suppose helping her together could be any worse than what we’ve already done to her separately. ”
“Well, I don’t know about that. ” Hammer sighed heavily.
Juliet. Of course that tragedy would plague Macen’s thoughts. It had for over eight years. “I think I do. She loves us both, according to Seth, but is eaten up with guilt. If we took that off her shoulders and focused on her…”
Nodding, Hammer stared into his coffee. “At least she wouldn’t have to worry about us anymore. ”
Liam couldn’t dispute that. Still, Hammer had been twenty kinds of asshole over the past month. He knew why now…but that didn’t make this idea more palatable. His old friend could be a damn good Dom, but Hammer had never been a demonstrative partner with his wife. Sexually, yes. Where his heart was concerned? Liam couldn’t remember more than a handful of occasions when the man had told Juliet that he loved her. Raine needed those words. She needed a man who would both show her and tell her how he felt. When Hammer didn’t, she would likely distance herself from him.
And Liam would have her all to himself again—the way it should be.
He smiled, rather liking that plan.
Of course, they had to fulfill her needs and heal her first.
“I can’t disagree. ” Liam nodded the other man’s way. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that we intended to work on helping her together. ”
Hammer leveled him a stare. “All right. Let’s do that. ”
“What do you think are her most pressing issues? We can’t overwhelm her too quickly with too much. If you had to pick a few of her worst habits to focus on, tell me what you’d choose. ”
“I’m sure you have ideas, too. But one thing I know—that we’ve just seen in the past few days—is the way she retreats into her head. She doesn’t share what she’s thinking. If we’d known, I wouldn’t have had to pry from her how late her period was. You would have known about her migraines. I don’t think she would have ever left home if she’d been able to talk through her problems with one or both of us. ”
“I agree. Raine not only has difficulty saying how she feels, she’s not always honest. She’s given me a lot of half-truths. She’s quite good at telling me what she thinks I want to hear. ”
“Or what will keep her ass out of trouble. ”
Liam sent him a reluctant grin. “She’s good at that, as well. ”
“That has to stop,” Hammer insisted.
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“It does. One of her biggest problems has been that she can’t purge her hurt, share her fears, or tell me what she bloody wants. I’ve been trying to drag it out of her and guess along the way. Raine is afraid I’m going to tell her that she’s too much trouble or something. ”
“She’s also afraid to be too vulnerable with anyone, and it didn’t help that I turned her away the one time she worked up the courage to be honest about her feelings. ”
No, it hadn’t fucking helped at all, but taking out his irritation on Hammer now, while satisfying, would be pointless.
“So we’re agreed?” Liam asked. “Communication and honesty. But I think there’s more. ”
“No question. Raine has other issues. ”
“The biggest must be trust. ” Liam hated to say it, worried that Hammer would see it as an indication of the weakness in his relationship with her. “You may not agree. ” The other man probably didn’t have half the problem with earning Raine’s trust since she’d been there for six years. But after barely a handful of weeks with her, Liam was struggling to catch up. “But I know it’s true. ”
Hammer didn’t hesitate. He simply nodded. “I think she probably trusts me more than about anyone, but there are chunks of her past and her feelings that she still won’t share. I’ve asked, pressed, insisted, demanded, threatened. Nothing. ”
That made sense. All the way until her last moment as his submissive, Raine had never trusted that he meant to stay. To hear that she lacked trust in everyone, even Hammer, set him back on his heels.
“Do you think she’s really ready for this?” Liam asked.
“Yeah. I could hear it in her voice. ”
Liam shrugged. “I’ve heard that before. Her resolve doesn’t always last. The minute she gets scared…”
“We won’t let her falter or hide. ”
“We can’t, I know. But what if she quits on us?” Liam hated to voice the question, but that possibility was too real to ignore.
“That’s another chance we take. We’ll have to monitor her constantly. ”
“True. ” He looked Hammer’s way to find the man staring back at him.
“So we’re on the same page. Communication, honesty, and trust?” Macen asked.
“If I had to pick three, yes. I think they feed into most other issues she’s struggling with. ”
“Absolutely. ”
And hadn’t that agreement come easily? They’d never quarreled as fiercely as they had since Liam had taken Raine for his own. But now? It felt like old times…but better.
Liam stood and paced from one end of the room to the other. Why was that?
“Would you sit down?” Hammer complained.
“I’m thinking. ” He traveled the length of the bar a few more times. “You know, we never talked about what Juliet needed this way. ”
“You hadn’t been with Juliet as long as I had. ”
“I haven’t been with Raine as long as you, either. ”
Hammer shrugged. “You were young, still in your early twenties and having fun. ”
“Give me a break, Hammer. I’m only five years younger. And I wasn’t immature or stupid. ”
“No, you weren’t. I guess…I didn’t want to burden you. ”
“I didn’t want to step on your toes. ”
“I thought I had it all under control,” Hammer admitted. “I probably would have resented your suggestions at the time. Besides, I knew you didn’t love her. ”
He’d enjoyed her, sure. And he would never have told Juliet that truth. Her spirit had been too breakable to hear it. He’d wondered now and again if she’d known and that was part of the reason she’d committed suicide.
“I still wanted to give her something she needed,” Liam said. “I just didn’t know what that was. ”
“In retrospect…” Hammer sighed heavily. “Neither did I. If I had, she would never have chosen the silent way out. ”
“But Raine isn’t Juliet. Granted, she may have one or two issues, but surely, if we put our shit aside for a bit and do what we should, they’re nothing too difficult to handle. ”
“The question is, can we put our shit aside?” Hammer asked with brutal honesty. “We haven’t done a good job of that for a while. ”
Liam couldn’t disagree. If someone would have told him on his flight from New York to Los Angeles that he and his best friend would soon be at one another’s throats, he would have laughed himself silly. Looking back over the past month, they’d said—and done—things to hurt the other. He regretted the sad state their friendship had fallen into. Hammer must also or else the man would have simply ceased speaking to him altogether.