The Reluctant Dom

Chapter Fifteen

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Seth and Kaden had half of the light display up. Seth was in a great mood. He’d accompanied Kaden to the doctor two days earlier. Apparently Leah’s rabid insistence on vitamins, supplements, and a healthy diet were paying off. Kaden was still dying, nothing had changed there, but his test results hadn’t declined from the last visit.

The oncologist was still noncommittal concerning a time frame, other than to offer a guesstimate of at least six months, probably longer, and two years wasn’t looking impossible at this rate.

Two years! Seth knew it was stupid to latch on to that, but he did anyway.

He spent several nights a week in their bed. Sometimes Leah came to his room and spent a little alone time with him before going to spend the night with Kaden. As weird as it was, Seth now understood Kaden’s point of view. He rarely felt jealous, and subdued his sometimes envious pangs with the thought that it was only right and fair she spend time alone with Kaden. Sometimes he found himself insisting she spend the time alone with Kade.

Making love to her was beyond description. And even when it was the three of them together, there were plenty of nights it was vanilla—as vanilla as it could be in a ménage.

Leah also seemed to need fewer trips to the playroom, something that greatly relieved Kaden.

Although Seth had to admit he was growing more comfortable taking the leading role in their private scenes. He’d taken Leah to the club twice more, and two more times the three of them went.

Seth was outside with Kaden, trying to set up another set of lighted animals, when Leah walked out with two glasses of iced tea. The men gratefully took a break, sitting in the shade. Even for a Florida November, the day was unusually hot, and they’d quickly shed their shirts as the heat built.

Kaden noticed her look first. “What?”

“Hmm?”

“I know that look, babe. What’s on your mind?”

Leah plopped down in the grass in front of them. She reached out and traced Kaden’s tattoo with her finger. “I was thinking.”

After a minute he shook his head. “Seth, I think we’ll need the singletail to get this out of her.”

She laughed. “No. Okay. Fine.” She took a deep breath and dropped her gaze to the ground. “It’d be nice if you both had one.” Then she lifted her eyes to Seth.

He wasn’t following her. “Huh?”

“I know you said you didn’t want me to get you anything for Christmas, but…” She didn’t finish.

Kaden looked at Seth and laughed. “Ah. I see. She wants a matching set.”

Seth had worried that was what she meant. “Oh.”

“I mean,” she quickly said, “if you don’t want to, I understand. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I’m sorry.” She’d started to stand, but he grabbed her hand.

“I hate needles.”

She looked at him. “I know,” she softly said. “It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

Seth studied her green eyes, finally nodded. “You guys might have to carry me out of there if I faint, but okay. I’ll do it, babe.”

That was how, two days later, Seth found himself seated in a tattoo parlor in Sarasota. It was the same place Leah and Kaden had gotten theirs.

He hoped they kept a barf bucket close by.

Kaden smiled. “I can’t believe you were in the Army and never got a tattoo.”

“I can’t believe you’re an attorney and you aren’t a slimy asshole.”

Leah laughed. “Touché.”

Seth gripped her hand a little tighter as the tattoo artist began inking the design. Seth had learned the circular motif was called a “triskelion” and was the unofficial symbol of BDSM practitioners.

“I do appreciate this, Seth,” Leah whispered.

“Make sure you show me,” he managed through gritted teeth.

“Man up,” Kaden teased. “Don’t be a pussy.”

“Fuck you.”

“Not in your wildest dreams, dude.”

Seth tried not to watch what the tattoo artist did. It hurt like a sonofabitch. He admitted it—while he was good with pain, he sucked with needles, which was why he never got inked before.

Kaden, a smile on his face, sat near the end of the table. “Just be thankful I didn’t let her talk me into the other one she wanted me to have.”

“I don’t want to know.”

He grinned. “No, you don’t.”

Leah pouted. “It would have looked so neat.”

“Hey, I never made you get your clit pierced, so don’t go playing the pouty card on me, little girl.”

Seth tried not to shudder. “You guys are gonna make me faint. If I don’t puke first.”

Kaden used his foot to nudge the garbage can a little closer to Seth.

Several hours later, he had a design identical to Kaden’s. After getting instructions on how to properly care for it while it healed, he turned to Leah. “I wouldn’t have done this for anyone but you.”

She smiled and stood up on her toes and kissed him. “I know. And I love you for it.”

Well, damn. That was more than enough to make the pain worth it.

“Now I have another request,” she said.

Kaden turned. “What’s that, sweetheart?”

“Can I get my masters’ names added to my design?”

Seth couldn’t read Kaden’s expression. After a long moment, his friend nodded. “It’s all right with me.” He looked at Seth.

Seth shrugged. “Okay.”

She told the tattoo artist what she wanted and lay down on the table while he traced a design on her lower back with a pen. She looked at it in the mirror and nodded. “Perfect.”

Seth closed his eyes and didn’t watch. He sat next to Kaden, each of them holding one of her hands. When it was done, she jumped up to look at it in the mirror. Kaden’s name gracefully curved over the top of the triskelion, and Seth’s below it.

“Thank you!” She kissed Kaden, then Seth. She drew them both close and dropped her voice. “Now there will never be a question who my masters are,” she whispered to them.

Despite his queasy stomach, Seth nodded. “All right. Can we go now? Before I barf all over the place?”

“Wuss,” Kaden chided.

“Yeah, and proud of it.”

After the bandage came off later, Leah was after Seth every couple of hours with the moisturizer lotion recommended by the tattoo parlor.

“Gee, Mom. I’m a big boy now,” he playfully groused.

“Shut up. You don’t want to have problems with it.”

He wouldn’t deny she took damn good care of him. He sat on the end of his bed while she finished applying yet another round. He pulled her into his lap. “I meant it when I said I wouldn’t have done this for anyone but you.”

She put her arms around him. “I know.”

He kissed her, enjoying the feel of her body against him. “So the right woman was under my nose all this time, hmm?”

“Yeah.” She ran her fingers through his hair, smoothing it. “I prayed you’d eventually figure it out.”

He captured her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Seriously.” He took a deep breath. “I can’t share you with anyone else but Kaden. I mean that. You know that, right?”

Her smile broadened. “I know. And I’m not sharing you with anyone.”

“You’re okay with that?”

“I’m really okay with that.” Her face saddened a little, but he recognized it as a newer expression she’d worn lately, one that meant she was dealing okay with her emotions and didn’t need a trip to the playroom. “I just wish the three of us could have a lot more time together.”

“I’m sorry I was an idiot for so long.”

That brought her back. She smiled again. “But you’re mine now, and I love you.”