This Moody Bastard

  “There you go,” Max said. “My turn. God, I love feeling your ass coming on my cock like that.” He picked up the pace and Cali stayed where she was, gently licking Sean’s spent cock, not releasing it from her mouth.

  Within a few more thrusts, Max was coming, filling Sean’s ass before he took one last, hard stroke and finished inside him. He folded himself over Sean’s back as she crawled out from under them.

  “Now, isn’t that better?” Max asked him.

  “You cheated,” Sean muttered.

  Max snickered and nibbled the back of his neck. “Cheated, huh?”

  “No fair taking me when I wasn’t ready.”

  “It wasn’t the wasn’t ready part that I got you with, buddy. I was a wrestling champ in high school, don’t forget.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Ahem,” Cali said. “Not to interrupt this, but should I expect a little payback for that, or do I need to go lock myself in the spare bedroom and ride the Sybian and not let either of you two near me for a week?”

  The men turned their heads to look at her, both of them smiling. “And no fair enlisting her to help when it was supposed to be me and you,” Sean said.

  “I can’t help it she’s got a sexy mouth.” Max reached for her, pulling her in to kiss her. “Very sexy.” He still stood pressed against Sean’s ass.

  “You guys aren’t so bad yourselves, but you’re doing absolutely zero for me at the moment.” She headed for the bedroom. “Go get cleaned up and join me.”

  She was almost to the hall when she heard Max let out a yelp. By the time she reached the living room, she heard Sean laughing out on the lanai and the splash after he’d tossed Max into the pool.

  “You might be a wrestling champ,” Sean teased, “but I’m still a little bulkier than—”

  Cali ran up behind him and shoved, hard. He let out a scream as he pinwheeled his arms in midair before hitting the pool.

  Max roared with laughter and swam over to the side of the pool. “Good one, babe!” He held out his hand for a high-five…

  But it was a trick. Instead, he grabbed her wrist and hauled her into the pool with them.

  As she broke the surface, she heard Sean and Max both laughing.

  Fortunately, she’d had her hair pulled back with an elastic band so it wasn’t a tangled mess. “Very funny, guys. Ha, ha.” She headed for the steps.

  “Oh, come on, babe,” Sean called out. “Don’t be mad!”

  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

  “Oh,” Max said. “Oops. Sorry.”

  “Yeah, oops.” She shivered as the breeze had turned into a wind with the front coming through. Hitting the power button to turn the phone off, she struggled against the urge to scream at Max and risk waking the neighbors.

  “Ass. I knew Sean didn’t have a phone on him. You know I nearly always have mine on me.” She headed inside to get it dried off and dump it into a bag with some rice.

  She didn’t know if it’d save it or not, but it was worth trying.

  As she slid the door shut behind her, she turned and locked it, too. Then she stripped her clothes off there and left them on the mat in front of the door so she wouldn’t drip water throughout the house.

  She hesitated in the foyer and locked the front door, too.

  After drying off and pulling on a bathrobe, she returned to the kitchen to hopefully save her phone. Or at least get it dried out and working long enough she could do a full backup on it before having to replace it. This one was less than six months old. Yes, she had the insurance on it, but there’d be a deductible to pay for filing the claim.

  Sean and Max now stood at the sliders, making pitiful faces at her, shivering in the breeze.

  She flipped them off before she started rifling through the pantry to find enough rice. They were almost out of white and brown rice, so she had to mix the two together with a handful of bulgar to make enough material to cover the phone in the zip-top bag.

  Max and Sean could go sit in the damn hot tub if they were cold.

  “Come on, babe,” Sean called out. “We’re sorry.”

  “Guess what? I’m not horny anymore,” she called back. “You can spend the damn night out there. Both of you.”

  Sure, she could take a joke with the best of them.

  But don’t mess with her technology. Especially what she used for work. The thought of having to needlessly spend money—not to mention the time and aggravation to go do it—to replace a nearly brand new phone pissed her off.

  No, she wouldn’t make them spend the whole night out there, but she was tempted to.

  But no, she really wasn’t horny anymore. And that pissed her off, too.

  She grabbed her tablet and Googled how long she’d need to leave it in the bag with the rice. Then she added brown rice, white rice, and bulgar to her shopping list.

  All the while ignoring Sean and Max.

  Max eventually gave up and headed to the hot tub, but Sean stood there, blowing fish faces against the glass, pleading with her, trying to look pitiful.

  Finally, she walked over to the sliders, smiled…and pulled the vertical blinds closed.

  “Okay, I’m sensing you’re still mad at us, babe.”

  “Fuck you, Sean.”

  She headed for the bedroom after letting Baxter out of the spare bedroom and getting her wet clothes dumped into the washer. On the way through, she unlocked the front door and wondered how long until either of the dumbasses thought to walk around and check it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dejected, Sean walked over to the hot tub and climbed in with Max, sinking into the water up to his neck.

  “Remind me to add extra chlorine to this tomorrow,” Max said. “I think at least four couples and triads fucked in here tonight.”

  “I think she’s mad. Why is she mad at me? You’re the one who pulled her in. She shoved me in.”

  “Because you’ve been a moody damn bastard the past few weeks.” He let out a sigh. “We both have. She probably unlocked the front door for us, but I want to finish thawing out first. Then I’ll go apologize to her.”

  “And try to make her come?”

  “Uh, not now, no. I fucked up. I try to get cozy with her, she’s liable to neuter me with her bare hands. I already had one vasectomy, thank you very much.”

  “Oh.” Sean stretched out along the lounger seat. “I guess we have been kind of moody.”

  “Yeah,” He sighed. “I was hoping once the party happened it’d cheer her and us up.”

  “I was doing pretty good until I saw Kel and Mal and remembered how upset he was that day when he told us they lost the baby. It doesn’t help how bad she looked.”

  “Me, too.” Max yawned. “I don’t regret this. Seriously, I don’t. A little late for regrets, anyway. In another few years, we’ll be fifty, and the more I think about it, the more I know this was the right decision for us.” He told Sean what Chelbie had revealed about Mal.

  “I hope she comes through this okay,” Sean said. “She’s such a sweetheart.”

  “But Kel and Mal losing the baby was sort of a reminder to me of how fragile life is,” Max continued. “Mortality. Losing Kaden was bad, and Basco. But those were…incidents. You know? We’re not yet at that age where people we know will start dropping dead on a regular basis. But we’re coasting along that sweet spot where we’re old enough to be secure enough to do what we want, and not that many years left to do it, you know?”

  “Yeah,” Sean quietly said. “That. Exactly that.”

  “I’m not trying to be a buzzkill.” Max ran a hand through his wet hair. “I try not to get into these moods too often, but sometimes one hits me from behind and there I am.” He snorted. “This moody bastard isn’t too proud to admit he gets scared sometimes.”

  Sean slid over to sit next to him. “Why? Scared of what?”

  “Of fucking us up.”

  “She’s not going to leave us over a damn cell phone, Max. What is wro
ng with you?”

  He arched an eyebrow at him. “I know that. That’s not what I meant. Can I continue?”

  “Oh. Sorry. Carry on.”

  “I meant us. The three of us. You and I have been working our asses off. How much vacation time do we have accrued?”

  “A couple of weeks each, I think.”

  “We work on weekends making stuff, sometimes. Or in the evenings. But you and I, we usually take at least one day off a week where we don’t work. We relax. She’s working her ass off. That’s why she’s pissed about the phone, if I’m not mistaken. She lives and breathes and works at our business. She does this all day. That’s why I’m okay with her going to the whip workshop. It’s like we drop in and drop out, but she’s doing it all day, every day. She’s even started working on the manufacturing end of things. She takes care of us and the house and everything for us. And Shane showing back up again threw her for an emotional loop, I think.”

  “Then why did she agree to let them unban him? They gave her the option not to.”

  “Because Cali was right. And it was a way for her to prove to herself that she was strong enough to risk facing him. Which she did admirably. Never been so damn proud of her as I was that night.”

  “How does this all loop around to letting her be until morning and your own mortality and everything?”

  Max sighed. “I’m tired. Really, really tired. I know it’s just from the party and everything, but…when I get like this, I think about Kaden. He thought they had forever together. And then they didn’t. Basco never thought he’d die so young. I don’t want to leave Cali thinking I don’t cherish her.” His brown eyes focused on Sean’s. “Or you. I love you.”

  Sean kissed him, cupping a hand behind his neck to hold him in place. A slow, sweet kiss, ending with their foreheads touching. “Love you, too.” He sighed. “I still say I could take you in a fair fight.”

  Max snorted. “In your dreams, buddy.”

  * * * *

  Cali had almost fallen asleep when she heard the front door open. From the whispered voices and the sound of them going out to the garage, she knew it was Max and Sean.

  Baxter had fallen asleep curled up against the small of her back in the middle of the bed. The men were going to have to either settle for a smaller slice of real estate without complaint on either side of her, or go share the guest bedroom.

  She heard the shower run briefly, then the feel of the mattress dip on either side of her. When whoever was behind her realized Baxter was there, he didn’t try to move him.

  She realized it was Max.

  Good.

  She was still pissed off at him, and it meant he had less bed than Sean.

  She wondered if they were going to try to seduce her, but before long, both of them sounded asleep, their breathing deep and long.

  Must be nice.

  She was tempted to smack both of them, wake them up, and chew them out. Here she was, trying to run a goddamned business, their business, which had now become her business, and now she’d have to take time out of her busiest shipping day of the freaking week to go replace her cell phone—

  Jeez, why am I such a bitch all of a sudden?

  Now wide awake, she lay there trying to figure it out. Okay, yeah, Max fucked up. He hadn’t meant to. Stupid man mistake. They had agreed she could go to Arizona to the whip workshop, even though they wouldn’t be going with her.

  No way she ever would have gotten Shane to agree to something like—

  Shane.

  Why the fuck didn’t I punch his goddamned lights out that night?

  That had been simmering in her brain for a while. She’d been an “adult” and not punched the fucker.

  Although punching him would have possibly resulted in her going to jail, if he decided to press charges. At the very least she should have chewed him out a lot worse than she had, gone totally Tilly on him, but she’d…

  Adulted.

  Been the bigger person.

  Sort of.

  Smiled and pretended she didn’t want to open his jugular vein with a ball point pen and then shove it up the hole in the end of his cock.

  Sideways.

  Why was she so…fucking moody? They had an arguably perfect life. The guys got snipped, so in a few months, they’d be able to not worry about that anymore. She could get off the pill, which would save her some money every month and leave her feeling a little better, anyway.

  Her mind suddenly swiveled and focused on Kel and Mal.

  Oh.

  How…haunted she’d looked tonight. How hard she’d tried to smile and be strong for them, even in the face of what she’d gone through.

  How Mal had loved them all enough to try to come out for a little while and…people.

  And here I am bitching over losing a damn phone, when she lost a baby.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to go to sleep.

  * * * *

  Max felt Sean get up but sensed Cali was still in bed. When he cracked open an eye, he spotted her almost in the exact same spot she’d been in the night before when they’d come to bed.

  Not how he’d planned on ending the evening, to be sure, but he didn’t blame her.

  Baxter still remained curled up behind her.

  Cat-blocked.

  Eventually, as the smell of coffee started filtering through to the bedroom, he heard Sean shake Baxter’s plastic kibble container out in the kitchen.

  Like a rocket, the cat was up and off the bed and out the door.

  But at least it allowed him to—

  “Cuddle with me at your peril,” she muttered.

  Answers that question.

  “I’m sorry about your phone,” he said. “I know how hard you work around here, and that it was a nearly new phone. I’ll go first thing tomorrow morning before work and get it replaced for you and bring it back here so you don’t have to. Sean and I can drive in separate cars. I’ll deduct the money it costs from my monthly fun funds and lunch allowance and put it toward that. I’ll pack my lunches.”

  He wasn’t sure she’d heard him at first, because she didn’t move. Then she slowly turned her head to stare at him.

  “I’m sorry I locked you out,” she finally said.

  “Well, you left the front door unlocked, so technically you didn’t lock us out. But it’s okay.” He took a deep breath before admitting it. “I know Sean and I haven’t been easy to live with lately. It’s not because of the vasectomies. It’s…I think we need a vacation. All three of us together.”

  “We can’t afford one if I’m going to the workshop.”

  But she’d rolled onto her back now.

  Progress.

  “We don’t have to go anywhere. Put a note on the website that says orders will be shipped when we get back, turn off the computers, and chill. We can go hiking over at Myakka River State Park. Or go rent kayaks down in Placida. Take the bikes and ride the old railroad trail. Just the three of us. You’ve been working your ass off for the past several months, and I don’t think you’ve taken a day off at all from it.”

  Her voice sounded quieter than he was used to. “I hadn’t even hit the water yet when I was already screaming at you in my head that why couldn’t you remember something as simple as the deal we had to ask if I had my phone on me before you toss me in the pool? The way I wished I’d screamed at Shane at the club that night.” She sighed. “Or punched him. I really wish I’d punched him.”

  “You were awesome that night, honey. You cut him down into bite-sized bits with a smile and a few well-placed words. I doubt he’ll be back. He knows he’s not welcome now.”

  “That’s not the point. I’ve fantasized about what I’d say to the fucker one day if I had the chance. After all the hard work and time and years I gave him, I got thrown away. Aaannnd then everything got mixed up in my head and I blew a fuse last night.” She sighed. “And then Mal and Kel.” She admitted to him what she’d been thinking.

  “It’s okay.” He told her about hi
s conversation with Sean in the hot tub. “That’s why I think we need a vacation. A hard reset. We haven’t gotten anywhere near a point of no-return for the three of us. We need to make sure we don’t get to that point.”

  “I really don’t think we need to take a long vacation right now. Especially if we’re not going anywhere. Why waste that paid time off? You won’t lose it.”

  “How about some well-placed three- and four-day weekends?”

  He suspected the truth was closer to the fact that she didn’t know how to relax and take the time off.

  “Okay,” she finally said.

  “Who wants coffee blowjobs?” Sean said as he sailed through the door with a tray and three mugs on it.

  The coffees all had swirls of whipped cream on top, and a splash of dark chocolate sauce.

  Baxter followed on his heels.

  “As always, buddy, your timing is atrocious,” Max said as he sat up.

  “My timing is fucking perfect. I was coming back and heard you talking. I knew you were awake, so I went back and made your coffee. You’re welcome.”

  He set the tray on the dresser and handed out the mugs, perfectly prepared, to the intended recipient, Max’s a little less sweet than Cali’s. He picked his up and sat on the end of the bed. He’d pulled on a bathrobe, but was barefoot.

  “If we’re discussing time off, I should be in on that convo, no?” Sean sipped at his coffee, ending up with a whipped cream mustache.

  Which Max realized he’d done on purpose when he saw how Sean was eyeing Cali’s reaction.

  She finally rewarded them with a smile.

  “You know, Max, the cell phone store’s open today,” Sean helpfully said. “While you’re out, you could bring us back some dooonuts.”

  “It will wait until tomorrow.” Max knew exactly what Sean was trying to do, thinking by getting her alone he could help defuse her ire. “We’re okay. I think.”

  She eventually smiled and nodded. “Yeah. I think I need to take the day off today anyway.”

  “Plus she needs to try to back up her phone before she hands it in.”