Chains (7 page)

“You know, maybe next week, when I’m back down here, we could…do something together.”

Both men seemed to perk up. “Dinner?” Toby asked. “Or…more?”

“I’m thinking more. If you guys want to.”

They exchanged a glance before nodding.

“Maybe not…play…yet. But…” Hell, she could do this. She was a big girl. “Maybe just hanging out to start with and see where it goes from there? I’m going to need some time to get back into play. And I won’t be able to go to the club yet, anyway, since I won’t be here when it’s open.” She’d heard a lot of good things about the club, even though she hadn’t been there yet.

It would be nice to finally get to meet some of the people she’d heard about from Eliza, or with whom she’d e-mailed about her pieces.

“We’re good with that,” Logan said. “Slow is good.”

She sat back, relaxing. “That will make Eliza happy, at least. Not that I’m not happy, because I am. About…this.”

“No explanations necessary,” Toby said. “We like you, too. And we’re good with taking our time, too. We’re not dating anyone.”

The rest of the evening seemed ridiculously easy after that. They talked about a lot of different topics, including her jewelry and their personal likes and dislikes in bed and in BDSM.

By the time they returned her to Eliza and Rusty’s house, she felt like the evening had slipped through her fingers.

They walked her to the front door, each of them giving her a hug and a kiss before she headed inside.

Eliza met her at the door, holding Chewi. In her “Chewi voice,” Eliza said, “I think I like those guys, Mom.”

She took the dog from her and snuggled him against her. “I think I like those guys, too, buddy.”

Back in South Carolina on Saturday night, when Rebecca was preparing for bed after an exhausting day working her booth at the fair, she found herself wondering what Logan and Toby were doing, if they were out and about.

Were they thinking about her the way she was thinking about them?

She’d decided she would leave tomorrow once the Ren fair closed for the day. She could come back here, shower, grab her clothes, and go, without having to unpack and repack the Toad yet again. All her jewelry and stuff would already be in it.

She wouldn’t deny she couldn’t wait to see the guys again.

When her phone buzzed with a text message, she was glad to see it was from Logan.

Still coming back tomorrow?

The question thrilled her and she wouldn’t deny it.

That’s still the plan.

He responded.
You can stay here, if you want.

She stared at Chewi. “Logan says I can stay there.”

He sniffed at her as if to say,
What about
me
?

She pondered her reply.
And the Chewmonster?

Of course.

Okay, so that blew an objection out of the water.

She knew if she texted Eliza that the men were offering to let her stay with them that Eliza would change her locks just to force Rebecca to go stay with the men. It also made logical sense. After all, they did live next door to her uncle’s property.

Now
her
property.

Logical. Right?

It’ll be the wee hours of the morning when I get there.

That’s fine. Keep us posted on your progress.

You can track me on the Waze app.

That led to a back-and-forth as she had to explain what it was to him, he and Toby both downloaded it to their phones, and she got them added as friends on the app. It was how she kept track of some of her Ren fair friends, too.

And it was one more way for Eliza to locate Rebecca should she suddenly drop off the face of the planet. Not much of a safety net, but at least something.

Although it would be faster for Eliza to simply log into Rebecca’s cell phone account and activate the family tracker on her phone. Eliza was the only other person who had access to Rebecca’s cell account, for obvious reasons. But Rebecca also used Waze on her tablet, and it would still run under Wi-Fi even if she turned off the cellular function.

While texting with the men, an hour passed before she realized it.

Ok have to go to sleep. See you tomorrow night.

Logan responded.
Text us when you get on the road. We’ll track you. Is that creepy?

She smiled.
Not when I like who’s doing the tracking.

And no, she definitely didn’t find it creepy. They were concerned about her. Understandable, because they’d only known her for a week and didn’t quite grasp she had this routine covered.

It was nice to have someone concerned about her for a change, besides Eliza and Rusty.

* * * *

Logan smacked Toby’s arm. “Yes! She’s going to stay here.”

“I told you she would. If she hadn’t agreed, I would have sicced Eliza on her.”

Logan’s smile faded. “Are we getting in over our heads?”

“Look,” Toby said. “She’s independent. She owns her own home. Doesn’t matter that it’s an RV. She’s got a life, a business. She’s self-sufficient. If there’s any better person to think about playing with, then show me.”

“Sorry. I’m gun-shy.”

“So am I, but we know enough about her to take a chance. If we don’t take a chance, who’s to say she won’t just empty the place out, sell it, and leave again?”

“We still don’t know she won’t do that,” Logan pointed out.

“Then we get to know her better and give her reasons to want to hang around.”

“We need more dog treats,” Logan said.

“I love that dog. He’s hysterical.”

“We’re not making a mistake, are we?” Logan asked.

“I don’t think so.” Toby smiled. “Quit being a wussy Dom.”

“I’m not a wussy Dom. Asshole. I just don’t want a repeat of what we went through.”

“She’s not Julie,” Toby reminded him. “She’s also older than Julie was. More life experiences. It’s time we quit being afraid and take a chance.”

“I noticed we haven’t talked about counseling again.”

Toby stared at him for a long minute. “Do you want to go to counseling? I thought we’d made a lot of progress just in the past week or so.”

Logan pulled him in for a long, tender kiss. “I’ll leave it up to you. If you decide you want us to go, we’ll go.”

Toby stroked his partner’s cheek. “As long as the man I fell in love with doesn’t disappear again, then I’m good.”

* * * *

A line of thunderstorms racing through the area late Sunday morning actually changed Rebecca’s timeline. She’d been waffling, watching the weather radar feeds on her tablet ever since she’d gotten up that morning, and suspected her day would be drastically shortened.

As officials started to clear people from the grounds because of the threat of lightning, she packed her stuff, including her tent and tables, and boogied. Several other smaller vendors were following suit, leaving larger ones to stay behind, hold down the fort, and hope their huge set-ups didn’t get blown away.

This wasn’t the first time she’d had to pack up and leave with everything. It happened a couple of times a year. Her tent, fortunately, was easy for her to set up and take down by herself, a standard picnic tent for which she’d had custom canvas made to look medieval.

But it was dry when faced with the average rain shower, the sides keeping rain from blowing in.

Thunderstorms, however, she didn’t mess with. Not when the dang frame was metal to start with.

She was able to get everything loaded in two trips, Chewi keeping up with her on his leash and making none of his usual attempts to dawdle, either.

She suspected his canine nose sensed the weather coming.

Back at the RV, she got the tent and tables stored in her locking storage compartments before the rain hit. That left her time to shower, pack her clothes, and eat. By the time the storms tapered around three, she was ready to leave.

Music to the men’s ears. After starting her Waze app on her tablet, she sent the men a note through the app that she was on the way, hooked the tablet into the Toad’s windshield holder for it, as well as plugging it into the power cord, and she and Chewi got on the road.

* * * *

Other than some rain, it was a fairly easy drive. She made a detour around a construction zone that had traffic jacked up miles in both directions and saved an hour’s wait, losing only twenty minutes.

She thought she was being quiet when she pulled into their driveway around three the next morning, but then Toby walked out, smiling.

She felt like falling into his arms to hug him.

Fortunately, he hugged her first. “Glad to see you here safe and sound.” Chewi put his front paws up on Toby’s leg, his tail rapid-fire wagging in joy. “Hey, buddy. No other minuns recruited yet, sorry.”

“So, did you track us?”

“Actually, I did. Logan took the first shift, and I had the second. Wanted to make sure you got here all right.”

That made her feel good, and not the slightest bit creeped out. They cared.

It’d been…well, only her parents and Eliza and Rusty worried about her reaching a destination safely and on time.

It felt good to have someone else—someones—also looking out for her.

Toby helped her get her bags inside. She’d bring the jewelry stuff in later. He showed her to the guest room. “I put towels and stuff in the bathroom. If you need anything, let us know.”

“Thanks. I’ll get a shower in the morning. I had one before I left up there. Rain shortened the day.”

“That sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

He seemed to want to say something else. Finally, “Look, we don’t want to creep you out or anything, but we meant it before. If you get to the point where you want to play, we’re open to that. We really like you. And you can talk to anyone you want about us for references.”

For a moment, she wondered about crawling into bed with them right then. Well, to sleep, not to fool around. She felt too exhausted to fool around.

“I might take you up on that at some point in the future. I’m not too proud to admit it’s been a long, long time since I’ve gotten what I needed, and I’m not afraid to speak my mind. And if Eliza’s trying to play matchmaker, I’m sure she’s probably already done the homework for me.”

Toby smiled. “Good. Just wanted to put that out there.”

* * * *

Someone knocking on the bedroom door woke her up. Then, it opened.

“Get your ass up, girl. Time to work.”

Rebecca lobbed a pillow in the general direction of Eliza’s voice. “Go away. I’m sleeping.”

“Not anymore, you aren’t. It’s nine o’clock. Chop-chop.” Eliza walked in and lobbed the pillow back at her.

“Then at least walk the beast for me, minun.”

Eliza laughed. “Come here, tough guy.”

Rebecca peeled open an eye to spot a wagging Chewi licking Eliza’s chin. “He’s a traitor, you know. He’ll turn on you in an instant if someone gives him better nommies.”

“Is that why I saw the primo dog cookies on their kitchen counter?”

“What?” Now she rolled over.

“Yeah. And I don’t recognize that set of doggy dishes in the kitchen.” She tucked Chewi against her chest as she scratched him between his front legs. “I think someone likes you. They don’t have any animals, and those dishes weren’t here before.”

Okay, that was enough to get her up and moving. After using the bathroom, she went to look. Sure enough, there they were. She turned, startled to see a sleepy-looking Toby standing there.

“Um, hi,” she lamely said.

He smiled. “Yes, we’re applying to be Chewi’s minuns.”

For a moment, she was sorely tempted to drag him back to bed. Shirtless, he wore shorts, and for a man of forty-two he had a damn nice body.

Yum!

“I’m sure he’ll hire you,” she said. “Didn’t you have work today?”

“I took the day off. Put in for it last week. I wanted to pitch in next door.”

“Thanks.”

“Logan was going to, but someone else in his department already had the day off today.”

“Oh, no worries.” She didn’t know how to say it without making it weird. “Thanks for being here today.”

“I’m happy to do it. How about I make us some breakfast?”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Eliza returned at that moment with Chewi. “He was—hellooo.”

“You’re married,” Rebecca said as she headed over to the coffeemaker, where a clean mug had been set out.

“I can still look. Why do you think I’m so anxious to get you three together? You’re perfect for each other.”

“We’re not a science experiment,” she told Eliza. She addressed her next comment to Toby. “Sorry about my friend. She’s a little pushy.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“Ha! See?” Eliza crowed.

Rebecca took her coffee into the bathroom with her while she grabbed a quick wake-up shower without washing her hair. When she emerged ten minutes later in shorts and a T-shirt, she smelled bacon frying.

Eliza was chatting with Toby in the kitchen. “I thought you were rousting me. Why aren’t you back over there?”

Eliza grinned. “Because they’re not getting started until ten today.” She stuck her tongue out at Rebecca.

“Did you work out the cost of my dowry yet?” Rebecca asked. “Or do you just have to pay them in a couple of goats?”

“Becca, honey, I’m telling you, Toby and Logan are great guys. I already did the snoopwork so you don’t have to. I have just about everything but their pecker lengths.”

Rebecca gasped. “Eliza!”

Toby let out a howling laugh. “You called that one right, Rebecca. And just for your information, I’m a grower, not a shower.”

Rebecca knew her face had to be flaming red. “Okay, bestie. That’s enough. We’ve talked and we’re taking things slowly. Just stop.”

Eliza grinned. “Hey, I’m adding insurance to the situation, all right?”

* * * *

Rebecca wouldn’t deny it was fun—despite the depressing circumstances—getting to spend time with Toby. They talked and flirted all throughout the morning. He even held and soothed her while she had a mini-meltdown at lunchtime, when she stumbled across a picture of her and her uncle, taken when she was maybe twelve or thirteen.