Never Too Late for Love

  A talk that had left Cris doubting every word Sofia had said during her short time with them. The only things Cris could be sure of were that Sofia had wanted her baby to have a good life, and Sofia had been clean when she died. There were no traces of drugs or alcohol in KC’s system when she’d been born, either.

  But the last time Sofia’s friend had seen her was when Sofia was about five months pregnant. She’d run into Sofia while out grocery shopping.

  And Sofia hadn’t acted like a woman in fear of her life that day. She’d been totally alone and had bragged about her boyfriend coming up with a new scam that would put them in the money and away from dealing drugs.

  Maybe, at the end, Sofia had truly been in fear of her life from her boyfriend. Maybe something had happened between that encounter with Sofia’s friend, and when Sofia had called Cris’ cellphone and Tilly had picked up because he’d forgotten his phone in the car.

  Maybe Sofia hadn’t staged her injuries and really was what she’d said she was—a woman in fear for her and her newborn infant’s lives. Maybe the boyfriend Sofia had been with at that time was a different one, because the friend had also said Sofia changed boyfriends more often than her underwear, and there was no true way of knowing who her baby’s father had been.

  Cris never had been sure why, if Sofia had been so scared of her boyfriend, she hadn’t signaled the nurses at the hospital for help when KC had been born. At the time, he hadn’t been completely sure he believed her excuses that there was always someone from the gang with her, preventing her from signaling for help.

  Or, maybe Sofia meeting Typhoon Tilly and realizing she was far outclassed had scared Sofia into a different course of action, ditching the boyfriend and going with the story she’d told Tilly, Cris, and Landry, because she knew her boyfriend was going to go down, since Tilly wasn’t a person to fuck with when the safety of a baby was at stake. Maybe realizing their original plan would never work because of the vast resources available to the triad, Sofia had gone rogue and decided she did want away and didn’t want to share the wealth with her boyfriend.

  That also meant Sofia might have lied, and that KC’s biological father might not really be deceased after all. That was yet another can of worms Cris refused to touch, because the biological father had apparently also been in a gang.

  Sofia’s friend had cautioned Cris that he should watch his back for any possible scams that might be played on him by “long-lost relatives.” Relatives who might be willing to go away if the price was right.

  So far, none had appeared.

  He didn’t want to believe that about his Sofia, but he was also a realist whose own father had thrown him out and sent him to live with an uncle who’d beaten him—Sofia’s father.

  Except if the friend’s story had been accurate, wouldn’t Sofia’s boyfriend have used that as an excuse to try to discredit her and get himself out of jail?

  There was no way to know, because even admitting that much might have been against their “no narcs” gang code. Or if the boyfriend thought Sofia was still with him and it was part of the greater plan to use the baby to extort money from Cris, he would have stayed silent. Maybe they hadn’t expected Tilly, and her calling the cops on the boyfriend skewed the plan and turned him against Sofia, thinking she’d screwed him over, and he’d ordered the hit. Maybe someone else from his gang had taken initiative if they hadn’t known about the plan and ended it all before they could cash in.

  Cris would never know. That was something that ate at him. The truth had died with Sofia in that jail. It had taken Tilly long enough to deal with her guilt and loss in the face of her having her biggest wish granted. Her feelings of failure that she hadn’t been able to keep Sofia safe.

  He refused to upend Tilly’s emotions again. Not again. Especially not over an uncertainty that left them in the same damn place after covering a galaxy’s worth of emotional territory in the process.

  It was easier to weed through the shoebox-sized plastic container of pictures and other things, saving only what he knew KC might want when she was older, pics of her mom, her high school diploma, her graduation photo.

  The rest he shredded and tossed.

  For now, they stayed locked in the bottom drawer of his desk in the LA office. Until Landry thought it was okay to bring them to Florida.

  Most likely by mailing them from LA to their office there, using a fake name and address and a computer-generated note claiming they were a former schoolmate and friend of Sofia’s who wanted to see these given to KC, setting the groundwork of the story so neither Cris nor Landry had to directly lie to Tilly.

  It would speak for itself.

  KC dove under the water, splashing Cris as she kicked. She swam like a dolphin, the swim classes they’d put her in as a baby paying off. She was happy, bright, and had a fantastic future waiting for her to seize it and make it her own.

  As he glanced over at Tilly leaning against Landry on the swing and smiling as she watched them together in the pool, he knew there was no way in hell he was going to ever let her know the full truth about Sofia.

  Especially since he didn’t even know the full truth. It would always and forever be a mystery.

  Maybe that was for the best.

  Chapter Four

  Bob seriously thought he was going to come right there in the kitchen when Landry had, without warning, bumped up the setting on the butt plug. It’d started rolling and humming and nailing him in the sweet spot and Bob literally had to grab the counter for support.

  Then Landry turned it down again. When Bob looked, he spotted the sadist’s playful smile from where he sat in the swing on the lanai with Tilly.

  Landry blew him a kiss, and Bob blew one back.

  He couldn’t feel too aggravated at the sadist. That the man was paying him attention meant he’d missed Bob and wanted to play. Wasn’t like he could take Bob into the pool house right now and beat his ass with KC awake and in the pool.

  Taking a deep breath, Bob went back to work preparing their lunch. He knew from experience that once KC was inside the house, Landry would shut the butt plug off, not wanting to risk doing anything like that in front of her.

  But while KC was distracted out in the pool…

  Bob suspected at least a couple more instances would happen before he called them all in to eat.

  Then again, a few minutes later, as he finished preparations and walked over to the sliders, he thought maybe Tilly had scolded Landry to ease up, because there hadn’t been any more instances and the butt plug shut off as he’d turned from the sliders after calling them inside.

  Whew!

  After lunch, Bob sat at the table and worked with KC on one of the early learning reading books she was devouring at a scary rate. By the time they put her in school, she’d likely be reading at a second or third grade level. They all took an active role in helping her with her schoolwork, but Landry and Cris were both involved on a conference call with their LA office, and Tilly was also on the phone with someone in London, leaving Bob.

  He didn’t mind. He loved helping her with her schoolwork and spending quality time like this with her. They also had math workbooks they were using, but language seemed her natural calling. As she easily read her way through another section, when she finished she smiled up at him.

  “Père, why don’t you wear a ring?”

  The question threw Bob for a loop. “What do you mean?”

  She pointed to his bare left ring finger. “You don’t wear a ring like Mommy and Daddy and Poppa do.”

  Oh, shit.

  His first instinct was to yell for backup, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t interrupt a work call unless there was blood or broken bones or fire or an imminent zombie invasion.

  The current plan, as he knew it, was at the one-year anniversary of him being officially collared to them, they would then make things “official.” More “official” than they already were with the paperwork they had in place. Including presenting him with a matc
hing wedding band. Maybe even him legally marrying Cris, if that was what the triad wanted him to do.

  Lying was forbidden in this house. Obviously, they kept any explanations age-appropriate, perhaps skirting or diverting around some topics as needed, but never, ever to lie.

  Not even to KC.

  All this flashed through his mind in a heartbeat, and he finally said the only thing he could think of.

  “I have a necklace. See? Exactly like Daddy’s. Poppa, Daddy, and Mommy gave it to me. It’s just as good as a ring.” He showed her.

  She knew about it because how many times had she played with his, or Cris’, while sitting in their laps? She’d even commented once on how they matched, grabbing both and pulling the men by the necklaces to lean in until she could compare them side-by-side. At the time, Landry had smiled and told KC it was because he wanted them to match.

  Through their actions, Bob and Cris and even Tilly, to a certain extent, had shown KC that Landry was the head of their household. That it was his word that ruled. Even to the point of deliberately deferring to Landry when it wasn’t necessary, just to illustrate the point, responding to KC when she asked certain questions with a reply such as, “I don’t know, let’s go ask Poppa.” Asking Landry things like what to have for dinner, or if they could plan a trip to the movies or the beach, or…anything. Just to demonstrate the fact that Landry led their house, and the other three adults in the house were happy with that structure.

  “But you need a ring. You’re married to Mommy and Poppa and Daddy,” she pressed, undeterred. “You’re my dad and need to match and have a ring.”

  Oh, boy.

  She wasn’t diverting as easily as he’d hoped she might.

  He started with what he thought he could best deal with. “Yes, I am married to them.”

  That had been the planned response to KC by the adults as a whole for if or when she asked similar questions. They made no differentiation between Tilly’s legal marriage to Landry, and Cris and Bob’s relationship to each other or them.

  They were all “married” to each other.

  “Then you should have a ring, too. Married people wear rings.”

  He hoped this answer wouldn’t get him punished later. “Not all married people, sweetheart. Besides, that decision’s up to Poppa. I don’t need a ring to know they love me, or to prove how much I love them, and that we’re a family. A ring doesn’t make a family—the people and love do.”

  She still wasn’t satisfied. “I should ask Poppa when he’ll get you one. I want you to match. You should all match.”

  Shit!

  The last thing Bob wanted was the sadist thinking he’d set her up to do that.

  On the other end of the spectrum, he didn’t want Landry giving him a ring simply because Landry could rarely say no to KC. Landry would give her anything to make her happy if the three of them didn’t gang up on the sadist and keep him reined in.

  If Landry gave Bob a ring, Bob wanted it to be because Landry wanted him to have it, not because Landry wanted to make KC happy.

  “Sweetheart, you shouldn’t. That’s Poppa’s decision to make. He might have plans for it to be a surprise, and we wouldn’t want to ruin that, would we?”

  Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “No! I wouldn’t want to ruin Poppa’s surprise!” She placed a finger over her lips. “Shh!”

  Nervously relieved, he burst out laughing. “That’s right.” He mimicked her gesture. “Shh!”

  Tilly chose that moment to walk in, smirking. “What are we shushing about?”

  KC glared at her and shushed her. “Never mind, Mommy.” She nodded her head at Bob.

  Tilly leaned in to ruffle his hair and kiss his ear.

  “Nice save, sweetie,” she breathed, and he realized she must have overheard their conversation.

  Usually, he was pretty good about tracking people in the house, but KC’s left-field question had so focused him he hadn’t even heard the master bedroom door open where Tilly had been having her phone conversation, since Landry and Cris were closed up in the office on theirs. And since she was barefoot, she’d made no noise on the tile floors as she’d approached.

  * * * *

  Tilly went to pour herself a glass of iced tea and tried not to laugh. She’d stopped at the end of the hallway, listening, when she’d heard KC ask Bob about the ring.

  Frankly, she’d been curious to hear his response.

  Once she knew she wasn’t going to burst into happy tears like an idiot at how he’d answered KC—and that he’d obviously been deftly trying to defer to Landry and figure out a way to get KC to drop the subject, his response both touched and tickled her.

  He considered himself married to them.

  They considered themselves married to him, too.

  Why, exactly, am I waiting?

  The more she thought about it, the more she knew damn well it wasn’t likely she’d make it the full year, Landry’s interventions or not.

  She didn’t want to wait the full year if she was honest with herself. Hell, she was still kicking herself in the ass that she had introduced Bob to Kim and Kylee in the first place. Maybe if she’d done what she’d really wanted to do at the time—tell Landry she’d like to collar Bob to them permanently—they’d be long past that stage already.

  At the time, she’d been too caught up in the fact that Landry had reached a secure place in his cancer recovery, and they were still getting their mojo together as a triad. Both she and Cris had put their feet down with Landry about three being the maximum capacity their crazy funhouse ride of a life could support.

  And there was the fact that Bob and Cris weren’t exactly best buds at the time.

  Still, that was past, and nothing could be done about it except put it behind them.

  But she did want time with Bob first, more time alone. Without Landry and Cris around. Just to make sure.

  She’d lived years with Cris before he’d left her. They’d been together nearly six years at that point, between dating and living together.

  She’d been married to Landry for several years already.

  Tilly wanted time with Bob before crossing that last borderline with him. Even though she knew what her heart wanted, and she knew what Bob wanted. Even if she never let that restriction drop, she knew Bob would stay, because Bob loved her, was in love with her, and had fallen in love with the sadist and Cris in the process.

  Tilly also wanted something special with Bob for a little while. To have him all to herself without Cris or Landry around.

  A short period of time to figure themselves out, what their dynamic would be without the others involved or any trappings of BDSM.

  Just Tilly and Bob.

  But she also wasn’t sure how fair that was to Cris and Landry—or even to Bob—or if the men might have an issue with that plan. She didn’t want to demand alone time with Bob, because she knew they’d agree because she’d demanded it.

  She didn’t want that, either.

  And Tilly knew Bob was just as eager to be fucked—and to be able to fuck—the two men as they were to fuck and be fucked by Bob. So it wasn’t only her feelings in play. She couldn’t say, “Yeah, I get to fuck him, you guys don’t.”

  Well, she could say it, and no doubt the men would agree to it, but again, she didn’t want to be like that.

  It was a topic over which she was still trying to sort her own feelings, much less be at a place where she was ready to discuss it with the two men yet. And Bob.

  Add the fact that if she did bring it up right now, no doubt the sadist would go into hyperdrive trying to find sneaky loopholes to help her make up her mind.

  She didn’t want that, either.

  Sex didn’t make them “married,” though. And it soothed her soul to hear Bob explain things to KC like that. Because it emphasized that he was really all in, not just involved with the men because he thought he had to be to have Tilly as part of the deal.

  He had accepted his place in their f
amily and understood they all loved him.

  Let me get through the next few months of craziness at work so I can think. Maybe Bob and I can take a long vacation alone in Europe while Cris comes and gets KC and takes her home to Florida. Two or three weeks alone somewhere quiet for us to have our “honeymoon.” Then I can turn him over to Cris and Landry so they can do the same.

  That was a plan she could get behind.

  Whether or not her other two men would support it remained to be seen.

  And she needed to figure out how to approach it in such a way as to not make them think they were forced into agreeing just because.

  It’s not like Bob’s going anywhere. He’s here for life, regardless. We’ve got all the time in the world. I’d rather do it right than rush it and have someone resent it later.

  Chapter Five

  “So, Bob, huh?” Loren smirked at Tilly over her glass of iced tea during their lunch the next day. “How’s it going with him? You’ve been so busy lately we’ve rarely seen each other outside of Facebook.”

  Tilly had built time into her schedule this period back in Florida to visit with Loren. She missed her bestie. While they texted nearly every day, and exchanged PMs on Facebook even more often, it wasn’t the same.

  This woman had seen Tilly at her worst more than once, and had always had Tilly’s back. Her and Ross, both.

  If it hadn’t been for Loren and Ross taking care of her, Tilly knew she likely would have died after Cris left her. They’d picked her up and kept her going. Them, but also Kaden, and Tony, and others. Everyone who’d stood watch over Tilly at the hospital during those first critical days, talking to her, letting her cry on them. Later, mentoring and guiding her when she told them she wanted to be a Dominant.