EIGHT
Aiden
“You slipped in early this morning.” Aiden watched Zack through the bathroom mirror. He snickered and continued shaving. “Couldn’t stay away, I see. I know we’re irresistible.”
“A man can come home and crawl into his bed after spending too many hours in a metal box filled with co-workers.”
He watched him quietly, noticing the way Zack looked less guarded in the dim morning light. There was a weariness that had nothing to do with travel. “We missed you.”
Zack grunted, turning around to stare out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, the city stirring below. “Business was profitable. That’s all that matters.”
“Is that all that matters?”
The question hung in the air, sharp and clean as the scent of Zack’s aftershave. Aiden rinsed his razor, set it aside, and turned to face him fully, leaning back against the marble counter. He wasn’t going to let him retreat into that fortress of silence.
“When are you going to think of me as an equal?” His words held no malice.
“I do.”
“In business, but not your bed.”
Zack paused at Aiden’s words. The realization was clear and he hadn’t seen it in that way.
“I didn’t know.” He stepped closer until Aiden pressed against the wall. Zack’s eyes blazed.
“Watching you dominate our little one is as hot as watching you kneel.” He touched Aiden’s jaw, his thumb digging into the underside of his chin, smudging the shaving cream.
“I only kneel for you,” Aiden vowed, pulling Zack’s tie and crushing his lips against him, hungrily.
Between them, two sets of hands scrambled for flesh. Aiden dug his fingers into Zack’s shirt and pulled roughly, scattering buttons. Zack’s movements stretched the neck of Aiden’s shirt.
“Fuck.” With a growl, he pulled it over Aiden’s head, then shed his own ruined shirt and jacket.
Zack forcefully grabbed Aiden’s wrists, pinning them above their heads. “That’s right, as much as she is ours, you’re mine. You always have been.” Zack kissed him hard, Aiden’s fingers tangling in Zack’s that held him tight.
“I don’t kneel for anyone, Aiden, no matter how much I love you.”
“I nev–” He shot Zack a lopsided grin. “You love me?”
“I do. I’m an asshole, it’s something you should have known.”
Aiden’s eyes darkened, emboldened to be honest. “I love her, Zack. I have tried not to, because it was all supposed to be no strings attached. But here we are, three tangled hearts.”
“Three?”
“Loving her has been the second easiest thing I’ve ever committed to.”
“What was the first?”
“Falling in love with my best friend.”
Sophie
“I can’t wait to see this outfit on you!” Claudia ushered Sophie and Violet into the glass elevator at the club, heading toward the Submissives’ Suite to get ready for the evening.
“I don’t know why we couldn’t get ready at the house. With our own towels to disassociate in.”
“Because between your work, my clutter, and your brother’s growing mountain, there’s no room!” Claudia’s tone was playful even though they were true.
“We made a promise to get together with some of the other girls at the club. Well, wish granted.”
“Don’t make me any more nervous than I already am, okay, Lidia?”
“She remembers we could see her titties across the pit, right?” Violet turned to Claudia and jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Sophie.
“Yes she does.” The elevator doors opened. “Oh, look, we’re here!” Sophie ushered Claudia past them.
Violet led the way down toward their destination, pushing the door open, breaking the hall’s silence.
“Hey! There you are!” Mia called out, sitting at one of the side vanities next to Melody, Wes’ submissive.
Sophie pushed down her nerves and smiled at her growing friend circle.
The suite was a sanctuary, a soft, feminine counterpart to the club’s raw energy. Plush velvet couches in deep jewel tones were arranged around low tables laden with cosmetics, hair tools, and a truly impressive stock of snacks. The lighting was warm and flattering, and the air smelled of hairspray, expensive lotion and champagne.
“So,” Mia began, expertly applying a winged eyeliner in the mirror. “Spill. We heard the Sadist King and the Gentleman Giant officially claimed you. The gossips are working overtime.”
Melody looked up from polishing her nails, a knowing smile on her face. “‘Claimed’ is such a strong word. More like they finally realized what they were missing.”
Sophie felt a blush creeping up her neck. “It’s… new. All of it.”
“New and intense, from the look in Aiden’s eyes when he watches you,” Claudia added, unzipping a garment bag to reveal a slinky, silver dress. “And the look in Zack’s when he’s trying not to watch you.”
“That’s Zack’s ‘I’m contemplating the structural integrity of this building’ face,” Violet supplied, pulling a bottle of rosé from an ice bucket. “It means he’s either about to make a million dollars or fuck somebody against a wall. Sometimes both.”
They all laughed, the sound easy and genuine, and some of the tension in Sophie’s shoulders eased. This was what she needed. The camaraderie, the unspoken understanding that came from shared experience. They were all navigating the same complex, beautiful, terrifying world, just with different guides.
“Oh, this was left for you.”
Sophie turned to see Melody holding out a stiff, cream-colored envelope. It was expensive, heavy paper, with her name written on the front in a sharp, confident slant that she recognized instantly. Zack. Her heart gave a little lurch.
Her fingers felt clumsy as she took it. The other women’s eyes were on her, a collective, held breath. She slid a nail under the seal and pulled out a heavy card stock. The message was brief, typed, and utterly devoid of warmth.
Second floor. 8 sharp.
There was no signature. There didn’t need to be. The command was a signature in itself.
“The second floor is the private lounge,” Mia said quietly, her tone shifting from playful to serious.
“I’m not one for gossip,” Melody spoke up, her red ponytail swinging as she leaned in closer to Sophie and Mia. “I hear there’s a new Daddy in town.”
Sophie looked away, unable to hide her blush.
“Yes, this girl managed to bag a Daddy and a Sadist.” Claudia teased loudly.
“Don’t worry, Claudia, we’ll find you your Prince of Pain.”
“Okay, okay, but I need to know more.”
“Melody! What would your Daddy think?!”
The redhead stuck her tongue at Mia and pointed her finger. “What our Daddies don’t know won’t hurt our butts! And we’re being friendly. We don’t do spiteful things in this friend group.” Melody’s reasoning was enough to erupt in more laughter while the girls changed into their club gear to meet their partners at the pit.
“Bound between them is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. The noise is gone.”
“Nolan once said that pushing my limits keeps his boundaries in check. The rope work he does takes time.”
“Relax,” Violet said, though her own smile had tightened. “It’s just an invitation. A terrifyingly hot, non-negotiable invitation.”
Sophie took a deep, steadying breath. She could feel the flutter of nerves in her stomach, the familiar, thrilling precursor to the storm. Zack. This was Zack’s arena. Precise. Controlled. Unforgiving. And Aiden… Aiden was the calm eye in that hurricane. She needed to be ready for both.
Kneeling for him might have been the loudest thing she’d done to her body. But it was the quietest for her soul.
She found tranquility at his feet.
And safety in his arms.
*
True to their word, Zack and Aiden were waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs on the second floor. The bass from the club’s main floor was a distant, heartbeat thrumming through the walls as Sophie approached Zack and Aiden, her own heart beating a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
Sophie wrung her hands as she closed the gap. Excitement buzzed just beneath her skin, mixed with a familiar nervousness that made her fingers tremble. She raised her hands, feeling the confident strength of their dominance on their chests. She stretched up, first giving a soft, lingering kiss to Aiden’s lips, tasting his calm reassurance. Zack’s kiss was fueled with urgency and raw need, which he quickly took over, his tongue claiming hers with a possessive growl.
“You are beautiful.” The reverence in his tone reminded her of their quiet moment this morning.
“Thank you, Sir.”
Zack wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his lips against her temple. “I can’t wait to watch you come undone.”
Aiden led her to the play area surrounding the pillory, his hand a steady guide on the small of her back. Zack went to a table laden with toys, his fingers trailing over the implements with appreciation.
“Wes outdid himself,” Zack said, testing the smooth glide of the pulley. “This’ll hold you up nice and pretty, Sophie. Let everyone see what we do to our good little toys.”
Aiden touched the crafted wood and allowed Sophie to inspect it closer. There were six holes in three pairs of varying sizes for wrists, ankles, and what she was nervous to think was appropriate for a submissive’s neck.
“If you notice how the curve of the wood aids in supporting a leather or fur-lined cuff. There’s no amount of detail that man doesn’t cover.”
Sophie offered her wrists, and Aiden guided them to open mid-size circles for capture. He carefully closed the hinge and ran his finger along the edge, ensuring they weren’t too tight against the leather cuffs.
“How does it feel?”
“Good, the wood is heavy.” Sophie couldn’t imagine having a submissive locked with both wrists, holding the full weight without the chain.
He leaned close, his breath warm against her ear. “You’re going to be so perfect for us. Just focus on us. Nothing else exists.” His words were calm, even though they knew the intention was to keep her in a state of sensory overload.
Zack approached from behind and wrapped his arm around Sophie’s stomach. Aiden knelt before her and grabbed her ankle, his movements efficient and sure. “One leg free,” he stated, fastening a soft leather cuff around her ankle. He fastened it with a quick-release clip at the base of the stockade, leaving her right leg unbound. The asymmetry was immediately unsettling, making her feel off-balance and even more exposed.
The pulley creaked as they took her wrists and pulled them up, raising her arms high above her head until she was stretched taut, standing on her toes in the high heels.
Zack held her, allowing her body to find a new center of gravity as she adjusted to her bonds. He placed his lips against the nape of her neck. Nipping until she squeaked in protest. When he pulled back, his lips brushed her ear, his voice a low, intimate rumble that was for her alone. “I want to hear the sounds you make when you stop thinking, where all you know is how I make you feel.”
The promise in those words made her clit throb, a sudden, insistent pulse of need.
Aiden returned and pressed Sophie’s body tightly against Zack, their combined body heat searing through the lace of her bodysuit.
He kissed her, hard and demanding, stealing the air from her lungs.
Zack held his hand out in front of them, dangling two silver nipple clamps, connected by a delicate chain, and a smaller, terrifying-looking contraption with a tiny, toothy clamp and a small, silver bell. Aiden took the offered clamps from Zack.
“Such pretty tits,” Zack said, his thumb brushing over one lace-covered nipple, making it peak instantly. “A blank canvas for our marks.” He pinched the taut bud through the fabric, a sharp, bright pain that made her gasp. He continued to manipulate her sensitive skin before cupping the heavy flesh in offering to Aiden, who attached the first clamp. The pressure was immediate and intense, a constant, aching throb. He attached the second, and the chain between them pulled taut, a delicious weight.
Aiden held up a smaller one. “This is for your pretty little clit.” He hooked a finger into the front of her bodysuit, tearing the delicate lace with a soft rip to expose her. The air was cool on her slick, swollen folds. He gently took the sensitive nub between his thumb and forefinger, and her whole body jolted. With practiced ease, he fixed the clamp in place.
“Daddy! Fuck,” she cried, her body warbled between them. Sophie resisted the urge to clamp her knees together, knowing it would only intensify the ache.
The pressure was exquisite, walking the razor’s edge between pleasure and pain. And then she moved, just a slight shift of her hips to alleviate the sensation, and the tiny bell on the clamp tinkled.
Sophie’s cheeks pinked.
Zack’s laugh was a dark, joyful sound. “Oh, fuck yes. Every time you squirm, every time you try to get away, you’ll announce it to the whole club. You’re our little jingle-bell slut, Sophie.”
The humiliation was a hot flood in her veins, and the bell tinkled again as she shuddered.
The scene began in earnest then. Zack picked up a flogger, the falls of soft black leather whispering against the floor. He drew his arm back and brought it forward in a smooth, practiced arc. The first strike landed across her upper thighs, a soft, stinging sensation that bloomed into heat.
“One,” she gasped, the bell on her clit chiming softly. “Thank you, Sir.”
Aiden stood before her, holding her gaze. “You know the rules, Sophie. Eyes on me. Are you a good girl?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then you’ll show us and take it.” He picked up a short, thin paddle from the table.
Zack struck again, a little harder, a little lower. “Two!”
As the number left her lips, Aiden brought the paddle down on the opposite thigh with a sharp crack. The pain was sharper, more focused, and she cried out, the bell jingling madly.
Her vision blurred, her body pulsing with heated need.
“Fuck, listen to that,” Zack groaned, clearly aroused by the sound. They fell into a rhythm, a brutal, beautiful dance of pain. Zack with the flogger, painting broad strokes of fire across her ass and thighs. Aiden with the paddle, adding precise, stinging accents. Then Zack switched to a crop, landing searing lines that made her muscles jump and the bell sing its pathetic, humiliating song.
“Thank you, Sir!” Her body swung with their strikes, unable to avoid their honed attention.
They were edging her mercilessly. Just as the pain threatened to overwhelm her, one of them would stroke her, Aiden tracing a cool finger over her fevered skin, Zack palming the wet spot that had soaked through the torn lace of her bodysuit. “Such a beautiful wet cunt.” He pulled his fingers from between her thighs and quickly silenced her protest when he pressed them against her tongue.
“Dirty fuck bunny, clean up your mess,” he ordered. “Such a greedy cunt, wet and waiting for some sliver of mercy.”
Zack removed his fingers from her mouth, and Sophie gasped, coughing and catching her breath.
“She’s close,” Aiden observed, his voice thick with his own arousal. He was watching her face, reading every flinch, every suppressed moan.
“She knows the reward waiting for her,” Zack said, circling her like a shark. He stopped behind her, his voice dropping. “Soon she will be begging us to fuck her.”
The words were a promise that coiled tight in her belly. The mix of stinging pain and the relentless, throbbing ache from the clamps was pushing her toward a precipice she wasn’t given permission to jump from.
Aiden moved in front of her again, his expression shifting, the softness hardening into something more aggressive, more demanding. It was a side of him she saw less often, and it made her breath catch. “Open.”
“Daddy?”
“Show us how wet you are. Be our good girl.” She shuddered, whining her need. He knew how to pull all the right notes from her heart.
Trembling, the bell on her clit giving a frantic little ring, she bent her free knee, shifting her weight. She tilted her hips forward, pushing them out toward where Zack stood, making her swollen, soaked folds, barely covered by torn lace, the center of attention. The movement stretched her torso, pulling at the clamps on her nipples, and she let out a broken sob that was pure need.
“Please,” she whispered, the word directed at Zack, her eyes locked on Aiden’s. “It’s… I’m yours. I need you to use me in a way only you know how.”
“That’s right. You come harder when you bend beneath us.” Zack landed his palm on her exposed pussy, hitting her swollen sex and tugging the clamp.
“Thank you, Sir!”
Aiden stood in front of Sophie, tugging the chain to the nipple clamps while Zack moved behind her and continued to open palm smack between her thighs.
Her chest heaved, swirling in euphoria and pain. She began a soft, whispered mantra for mercy. “I’m going to come, p-please, Sir! Daddy! Please.”
They circled her, trailing their fingers over the heated marks on her skin.
“Please, what, Sophie?”
“I need you inside me.”
“Good girl, better fuck toy.” Zack’s heated words rolled through her. “If I weren’t such a selfish bastard, I would have Madame Scarlett put you in the Dollhouse until your ass and back were full of tally marks.”
He roughly kissed her, sinking his fingers into her hair, tugging and anchoring her to him. Zack’s kiss was a possession deep in her core.
“You’ve slipped in and entangled yourself in my bones.” His whispered words were lost against the sigh of her lips. “You belong to me, to us.”
“Yours,” she sobbed. Her entire world had narrowed to the three of them, to the space between aching blows and grounding touches. The sounds of the club, the distant music, the murmur of other scenes—it had all faded into a distant roar, like being underwater. All that was real was the sharp sting of Zack’s palm, the solid presence of Aiden’s gaze, and the relentless, humiliating jingle of the bell with every shudder that wracked her body.
Zack moved behind her again, and she braced for the impact, the familiar, welcome shock of pain that would push her higher. But as he raised his hand, a different sound cut through the haze of her focus. A crash, not of leather on skin, but of glass on hardwood. It was followed by a collective gasp from across the room, a sudden, sharp intake of breath that was out of place in the club’s controlled atmosphere.
Zack’s hand froze in mid-air. Aiden’s head snapped toward the sound.
Sophie’s own body went rigid, her trance broken. The world rushed back in all its jarring, chaotic detail. The thumping bass of the music was no longer a heartbeat but a jarring, external noise. The lights were too bright. The scent of sweat and perfume was suddenly acrid in her nose.
The euphoria that had been building in her, the precious, fragile thing, shattered like the glass on the floor. The heat in her veins turned to ice. The pain was no longer a gateway to pleasure; it was just pain.
Her breath hitched. The bell on her clit, which had been a symbol of her delicious submission, now felt like a brand of public shame. Every minute twitch, every shiver of her overstimulated body, was a tattletale. Her safe word, a word she’d only ever practiced in her head, rose to her lips, a life raft in a sea of rising panic.
“Red.”
It wasn’t a shout. It was a broken, choked whisper, barely audible over the thrum of the club. But for Zack and Aiden, it was a gunshot in a cathedral.
The change in them was instantaneous and absolute.
Zack’s hand, which had been raised to strike again, dropped to his side. His entire demeanor shifted, the dominant, predatory energy dissolving in an instant, replaced by a focused, protective stillness that was, in its own way, just as formidable. Aiden, who had been watching her with an intensity that bordered on reverence, was moving before the last syllable had fully left her lips.
“The chain, Zack, now,” Aiden’s voice was clipped, all business.
In a single, fluid motion, Zack unclipped the pulley, and the sudden release of tension made Sophie’s arms fall like stones. Aiden was there, catching her, supporting her weight as her knees buckled. He worked the stocks, the hinges clicking open with a speed that spoke of muscle memory. Her wrists, then her ankle, were free.
Zack wrapped her in his jacket, the heaviness swallowing her, a dark, protective shell against the world’s prying eyes. He lifted her, one arm under her knees, the other supporting her back, cradling her against his chest. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, the familiar scent of him, all sandalwood and clean skin, a desperate anchor. She could hear the frantic, uneven rhythm of her own heartbeat, a panicked drum solo against his steady pulse.
Aiden was a blur of motion beside them. “Private room. Now.” His tone was a steel command directed at one of the DMs. To Sophie, it was a gentle, grounding murmur. “I’m right here, little star. I’ve got you.”
“I’ve got to go see what that was,” Zack said, his lips pressed to her temple as they moved quickly through the crowd. “Aiden will take care of you. I’ll be right back.”
Zack
The anger was a cold, clean fire in his veins. Every possessive instinct he had was screaming, a primal fury that someone, something, had breached the sanctuary of their scene and shattered what they’d so carefully built. His world, which for the past hour had been the diameter of Sophie’s pupils, the frantic jingle of a bell, the crimson bloom of a welt on her skin, had just been forcibly invaded.
Zack moved through the club with a purpose that parted the crowd before him. The music seemed to recede, the laughter and conversations fading into a dull hum. All he could hear was the echo of Sophie’s whispered “Red” and the roaring of his own ears.
The disturbance was centered in the back corner near the auxiliary bar, an area usually reserved for quieter negotiations or post-scene decompression.
Dungeon monitors were forming a loose perimeter, their faces grim. Colton had a firm grip on Claudia’s arm, physically restraining her as she tried to lunge forward again. Her face was a thundercloud of fury, her usually immaculate hair disheveled. Across from her, a woman who looked vaguely familiar was being escorted out by Violet, her steps unsteady, her face a mask of sullen defiance.
“What the fuck?” The words were torn from Zack, a low growl that cut through the ambient noise.
Noah turned from the group, his expression unreadable, but his eyes held a weary resignation. He stepped toward him, creating a buffer between his raw rage and the simmering incident.
“Zack. Take a breath,” he said, his voice low and steady, the tone he used when a scene was about to spin out.
“Don’t tell me to take a fucking breath, Noah. This is my club and there’s no place for this. That was our scene,” Zack snarled, gesturing back toward the empty pillory. “That was Sophie. She’s in a private room right now, shattered, because of whatever this shitshow is.”
“I know. And that’s why you need to be calm when you hear this. Reacting hot won’t fix it.”
Noah’s placid calm was usually a balm. Tonight, it was gasoline. Zack got right in his face, his hands fisted at my sides. “Talk.”
Noah’s gaze flickered past him toward Violet, who was now pushing the other woman through a staff-only door. The woman was stumbling, her mouth open in a stream of what were clearly insults, though the words were lost to the club’s bass. The click of the lock behind them was a definitive, final sound.
“Cora was running her mouth,” Noah explained, his arms crossing over his chest, a wall of information. “According to Colton, Cora made a comment. Something along the lines of, ‘Must be a slow night if the owners are wasting their talents on a cheap little sub who can’t even take a proper scene.’”
A white-hot surge of protectiveness, violent and absolute, washed through Zack. It wasn’t for himself. It was for Sophie. For the raw, breathtaking way she gave herself over, the trust she placed in them. Cheap. The word was an insect, crawling under his skin.
“Claudia was at the bar. She heard it,” Noah continued. “Colton said she didn’t even hesitate. Walked right over, picked up Cora’s glass of whiskey, and threw it in her face.”
Zack’s gaze darted to Colton, who had finally released Claudia. She was standing there, shaking with fury, her knuckles white where she gripped the bar. Her mascara was running in two dark tracks down her cheeks, but her chin was held high, defiant. A warrior.
“Cora then decided it would be a brilliant idea to lunge for Claudia,” Noah said, his own voice dropping a degree, the calm veneer cracking to show the steel beneath. “That’s when Violet and I intervened. We’re handling it, Zack. Cora is out. Banned. Claudia is… she’s going to face a consequence from the club for breaking protocol. She knows that.”
But Sophie. The image of her terrified, whispered “Red” pushed everything else aside. The glass, the argument, Cora’s ugly words—they were all secondary. The primary wound was on Sophie, in the private room, feeling the fallout from a battle she hadn’t even known she was in.
“Fine,” Zack bit out, the word tasting like ash.
Zack nodded to Wes. “Think you can handle this?”
“Sure thing, boss. Go take care of your submissive.” There wasn’t a need to correct him anymore.
“Yes. I’ll see you Tuesday about those new plans.” Zack turned on his heel and strode away, the cold fury in his veins demanding a single, solitary focus.
Zack made his way to the aftercare room, where he left Aiden to tend to Sophie.
The secluded room behind the staffing area was specifically designed for emergencies. Whether from the submissive’s dominant or their aftercare staff.
He stopped in the threshold, a shadow in the hallway, and just watched.
“Are you with me, Sophie?” Aiden’s tone was hushed.
“Yes. That was… a lot.”
“You were incredible, little star. We’re so proud of you. You took everything we gave you.” He kissed her forehead.
“I’m not the flavor of the week anymore, am I?” Zack noticed the tears that clung to her lashes. “This, us, it’s not just a scene. For him. It’s more.”
“Sophie.”
“I love you,” her blurted admission splintered into his heart. “I love you both, I don’t want you to choose. I don’t want him to either. I won’t be something that ruins a friendship.”
“What are you saying?”
“He’s made it clear, I know what this is for Zack.” Pain sliced through her words. “The ultimate challenge, a submissive to break and remake. But for you, for me, it’s real. And I won’t be the thing that comes between you.” Her voice lowered. “I couldn’t bear for my Daddy to lose Sir.”
The more she cried, the fuller his heart became. She bent herself for him. To please Zack.
Instead of only making his cock throb, Sophie fixed a part of him. She embraced his darkness and filled it with her light. Zack’s obsession with her pain had waned, and he’d begun to crave her solace more than her tears. He didn’t know what his life was like before her, but he would make sure he never knew what it was like after.
Unable to tolerate the words she spoke, he entered the room, making his presence known. He stalked them like a predator, standing in front of them. His presence sucked the oxygen from the space.
Zack looked down at her; her tear-streaked face didn’t pull him in the same way it did when she knelt before them.
“You will wear my bruises for a month if you ever say that again.”
Sophie turned to him, surprised, and shrank back, confusion filling her eyes.
Zack dropped to his knees and gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him. His eyes blazed. “You think this is a game to me? You think what I do to you, what I take from you isn’t held with regard?”
“Zack,” Aiden cautioned.
“No. She needs to hear this.” Zack’s gaze burned into her. “You don’t think I feel? I’m not a machine.” His thumb stroked her jaw, a subtle show of calm that countered the fury in his eyes. “I feel it every time you clench around my cock. Every time you gasp my name. It’s the sweetest vow that I’ve never earned. I see it every time you look at me like I’m your whole fucking world even as we make you come apart.”
Zack leaned in closer. “You are mine. Not for a week. Not for a month.” He studied her face, observing the aftermath of their scene. Swollen lips, flushed cheeks, and her green eyes looked right through him.
She was devastatingly beautiful.
“I’ve fallen for you, little star. I’ve tried not to, but I can’t help it.” Zack’s face softened, and he held her gaze. “I am yours if you’ll have me.” He turned to Aiden. “And yours.”
“We’re not asking you to choose.”
“I already have, Daddy.”
“Oh.”
“I choose to be in it with you both in and out of the bedroom. I choose the ups and downs. I choose to embrace this unconventional dynamic. I choose love.”
“You’ve taught us so much.” Zack’s words caught their attention. “I want to learn.”
“Zack?”
“How to love you the right way. The way you need, how you deserve.”
“I never thought that love and pain would be mutually exclusive. That they’d coexist in the same…” Zack paused, his gaze turning from Sophie to Aiden.
“Dynamic?” Aiden offered.
“The same love.”
“You’ve been my best friend, my brother. I don’t know when it changed…”
“Changed?”
“When sharing subs didn’t feel right anymore. I don’t know how to put it into words. It always felt like it was either or. Then there was you.” Zack cupped her face. “You,” he accused, “changed everything, my little club bunny.”
Zack’s warm smile reached his eyes. “You make me want to be happy, Sophie. I realized that I have everything in the world I could want, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything if I don’t have you to share it with. You and Aiden are my everything.”
Zack leaned in and pressed his lips solidly to Aiden’s. A silent vow and wish of what’s to come. He pulled back and met Aiden’s gaze. “I want you both. In my life, my work, my bed.”
Aiden’s eyes sparkled, and he touched Zack’s cheek. “I think we’ll need a bigger bed for the three of us.”
“Consider it done.”
