Friends With Benefits (28 page)

“When Angela and I first got married, I didn’t think about the makeup of our particular relationship. I didn’t think about it containing two or three people. I just knew I loved my wife. Over time, however, I began to realize I wanted to give her more.”

“But you give me so much already, Tyler. What more could you give me?”

“I can give you Connor.”

Angela whimpered and tried to pull her hands free. “I don’t understand.”

Tears formed in her eyes and Tyler tightened his grip. “It’s not what you think, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere. I love you too much.”

He turned his attention to Connor. “When you told me you were coming to town, it got me thinking about our school days.”

“The days we shared women, you mean?”

Tyler nodded. “You were my best friend. I cared for you like a brother. I loved the feeling I got when we shared women. But more importantly, I knew it made the woman we were with feel extra special. But, I also watched what my mom went through. She experienced ridicule and I watched her cry. I also saw how much my dads loved her and us. She always had somebody to turn to, somebody to look out for her. She was never alone. My sister and I always had one dad or the other there for us when we needed him.”

Tyler let go of Angela and shoved his hands into his pockets. “When I visited with my mom at the beginning of the summer, I talked to her about it, told her what I wanted.”

“And what’s that, Tyler?” Angela had wrapped her arms around her waist.

He searched her eyes. They glistened, but she didn’t seem to harbor any anger toward him. He let himself relax.

“My mom told me the best parts of their relationship far outweighed the negative parts. She never once regretted her decision to commit to two men. I want what my parents had, Angela. My fantasy, in truth, is actually more about you than me. I want you to experience the positive aspects of a ménage relationship. I want you to be so secure in your sexuality you can commit to two men. I want you to experience everything your heart desires at my hand as well as Connor’s. I want you to be loved like few women are.”

Tyler turned to Connor. “I want to know my best friend has my back. And, I want my best friend to experience the unconditional love only the
right
woman can give while knowing his back is covered too. I want us, together, to bring children into this world who will know what a caring, open-minded, and respectful relationship is, regardless of its structure.”

He switched his gaze back to his wife. “That doesn’t mean we couldn’t do the same with only the two of us. I just think it could be so much better, so fulfilling, with the three of us.”

“So you’ve manipulated us this whole summer,” growled Connor.

His harsh words pierced clean through Tyler, opening up a wound he’d had since childhood. Long ago, he had overheard his grandparents telling his mother that if she didn’t leave one of his fathers, they’d disinherit her and take Tyler away. He’d never forget the sound of his mother’s tears when her own father called her a whore, when his mother wouldn’t tell them who Tyler’s biological father was. They’d felt manipulated by her.

Tyler still couldn’t detect how deep his friend’s anger went. “I admit I manipulated that first weekend a bit. But you both knew some of what was going on, you just didn’t have the whole story, or rather, my parents’ story. Would it have changed anything?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I didn’t want to taint our summer with the pros and cons of my upbringing. I wanted us to find out for ourselves if enough existed between the three of us to foster this type of living arrangement. I happen to think there is more than enough.”

Connor straightened. “I would rid this world of narrow-minded people, for the two of you, if I could. But I can’t, Tyler. You’ve already admitted the pain your own mother went through, the secrets your family felt needed to be kept. How can you stand there and say anything’s so different now? How can you so easily put your wife through the same experience your mother went through?”

“I’d like to think the world has changed somewhat since then.” Tyler could feel his best friend shoring up his reserves and slipping away.

“But you’ve seen that it hasn’t.” Connor eyes filled with anguish as he looked first at Angela and then at him. “This is for the best.”

Before he could say another word, Connor turned and strode from the room. Angela’s sobs followed him all the way out the front door, out of their lives.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Angela cried into her pillow, soaking the clean white linen. The bed dipped as Tyler crawled in behind her and curled his body around her. He pulled her hair out of the way and kissed her shoulder.

“Sshh, honey. We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m so sorry, Tyler.” She hiccupped as the tears took control again.

“For what, sweetheart?”

“For falling in love with another man.”

Tyler’s husky chuckle vibrated against her back. “Babe, you have nothing to apologize for. I want you to love Connor.”

She rolled around to face him, wiping her eyes as he adjusted his position so he held her in his arms. He lips brushed the end of her nose. “How can you mean that?”

“Did you not hear everything I said downstairs?”

“Yes, but—”

“Listen to me. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you a long time ago about how I grew up. I had no idea what you’d think and I didn’t want to hurt my parents any more than they’d already been hurt in their lives. My grandparents turned their backs on us. For a long time, I didn’t think I wanted to have the same life for you and me as my parents had. I know the pain my mother lived with. It’s only been over the last year that I acknowledged the love she also experienced.

“When I visited her, and told her what I wanted, she cautioned me, Angela. She told me to take it slow, to find out how you felt about the lifestyle before I made the suggestion. I admit,” his eyes dropped and his cheeks flushed sheepishly, “she didn’t approve of my plan, but she knew I had good intentions. The one thing she made sure I understood however, was that the only way this would work, the one thing that must be there, is love between you and Connor. If you can’t love Connor or he can’t love you, it ends right now. I don’t, under any circumstances, want you to feel like a toy being shared between two boys.”

“I’ve never felt that way. But, Tyler, I don’t want you to think I love him more than I do you.”

“I’m a big boy, Angie, and I’m not stupid. I know how you feel about me. There are different kinds of love, different depths. My mother loves each of my fathers in different ways, it’s not that she loves one more than the other. Although, some days she may want to beat one harder than the other when they misbehave.”

Angela couldn’t stop the giggle from bursting out. She’d seen how those two big men kowtowed to his mother. She’d always assumed they were brothers, and therefore, one Tyler’s uncle. Their looks were similar enough nobody would think otherwise.

“What are we going to do, Tyler?”

“That depends. Do you want Connor to be a part of our lives?”

She paused for a mere second. “Yes, I do.”

He hugged her closed. “Me too. I’ll find him, and talk to him.”

* * *

Connor stormed into Tormonte’s office without knocking. The man seemed nonplussed about the intrusion. He finished writing his notes before raising his head.

After a two-minute silence, in which Connor contemplated his options—or at least those that wouldn’t land him in jail—the man finally acknowledged him.

“Jones, I’m glad you could make it.” He laid his pen down on the expensive slate-topped desk and leaned back in his executive chair, clasping his hands together over his paunch. “Though you’re about twenty minutes late.”

“Call off your daughter.”

“Now why would I do that? You’d make a stunning couple.”

“I have no intention of marrying her. I don’t love her,” Connor growled. “I told you that a year ago when you thought you would have to force me to take this job.”

“Who said anything about love? She needs a man who can keep her under control and give her the things she’s been accustomed to getting.”

“And you think I’m that man? You certainly didn’t think that last year.” Connor laughed without mirth. “Besides, I don’t have your income, Tormonte.”

“Last year I didn’t know your plans, didn’t know you had big dreams. But you will, especially after this project is finished. And you’ll have my backing.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I’m out.”

“You can’t do that, son. We have a contract.”

“I’m not your son. I’ll never be your son. And I’ll deal with the termination clauses.” It would bankrupt him, but he’d been there before. He’d have to start over one more time. But at least this time his girlfriend wouldn’t be fucking his business partner, while pulling the rug out from under him at the same time. “I had hoped that you and I could have a civilized working relationship, at least while you’re in town. I’d hoped you wouldn’t allow your daughter to influence you.”

The man waved his hand as though swatting a fly. “Every father looks after his daughter, Jones. But, frankly, I just need her to stop showing up on my doorstep, regardless of what city I happen to be in, whining in my ear. If marrying her off to you will do it, then it fixes my problem.”

Is that all she was to him, a problem to be fixed? “Then why threaten the O’Neil’s? What did she tell you?”

The man rolled his eye. “She went on about some friends of yours. Said something about these friends trying to talk you out of this project. Why?”

“So this has nothing to do with me and how I live?”

“Why would I care how you live? I only care about getting my condos built.”

“Then why are you pushing me to marry Cindy?”

The man rolled his eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Because while I want her married to an executive, her mother wants her married to a man who’s made something of himself.” He shrugged. “You fit the bill. Regardless of what I thought before, you’ve managed to build a solid reputation in the construction business and the general contractors speak highly of you.”

“So if I refuse to marry your daughter, will you cut me loose and blackball me in the field?”

“You’re a good project manager, Jones. Whether you work directly for me or I hire you, I know you’ll get the job done. As long as you’re committed to it.”

“Will you give me the references I need when I go out on my own?”

The man sighed. “As long as you finish this job, on time and within budget, of course.”

“Will you get your daughter off my back?” The man stared at him across the big desk. “Mr. Tormonte, I don’t love Cindy. I cared for her at one time, but, I’m sorry, sir, she’s not the woman I want. When I get married, if I ever get married, it will be to a woman I love, one I can’t see myself living without. That woman is not, nor will it ever be, your daughter.”

The older man grimaced. “I’ll see what I can do. There must be some poor sod down in accounting looking for advancement who can keep her entertained.”

Connor leaned over Tormonte’s desk and looked him square in the eye. “If she doesn’t stop calling me and harassing me, or my friends, I will pull out of this project, sir. I’m dead serious on that. And remember, I have friends among the contractors.”

The look Connor received conveyed his client’s dislike of being threatened. Cindy’s father stood and walked around the desk. Connor straightened.

“I’ll talk to her.” Tormonte said. “I will make it clear I expect her to behave. You have my word.” He wiped his hands together as though he’d swept a problem under the rug. “Now, when can I expect the exterior of the building to be completed?”

* * *

Tyler found Connor at his rental. His friend sat slouched in a chair, staring unseeing at a small television blaring on a stand across the room. Tyler crossed the room and flicked it off.

“I was watching that.”

“Sure you were.”

“What do you want, Tyler?”

“I came here to find out if you want to join me and Angela at The Vault tonight.”

Connor’s eyes snapped up to his. “Why?”

Tyler shrugged. “Why not? Would you rather I pick up another guy when I get there.”

Connor growled at him and sneered.

Tyler laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He dropped into the only other chair in the sparsely furnished room. “Look, man, we don’t want you to go.”

“Tyler, I’m in love with your wife.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. I’m cool with it even.”

Connor jumped up and marched across the room. He spun, paced back and stopped directly in front of Tyler, hands on his hips, glaring. “How could you be? I don’t get that, Tyler. How could you be ‘cool’ with another man loving your wife? It’s one thing,
maybe
, to be cool with another man fucking your wife, but how can you be ‘cool’ with me loving her? With me willing to do anything to see that smile on her face? With me willing to beat the crap out of any asshole who has the nerve to look at her funny, or God forbid, call her a slut for living with two men? I don’t get that, Tyler.”

“Are you okay with
me
loving her?”

“Fuck yeah, but she’s your wife.”

“Have you been okay with the three of us together all this time? Have you ever felt jealous of me?”

“Only that she’s married to you.”

“What would you do if I pissed her off somehow or hurt her in any way?”

“I’d kick your fucking ass to hell and back.” Connor snarled.

Tyler smiled. “
That’s
why I’m OK with it.”

Tyler laughed at the
duh
look on his friend’s face. “Connor, Angela loves you, and you love her. The only way this
wouldn’t
work was if you didn’t. I want you to love and care for each other. I want to know my wife is looked after when I’m not around.”

Connor dropped back into his chair as Tyler continued.

“I meant what I said earlier. This is the lifestyle I grew up in. I’m well aware of the ups and downs, but I do believe, strongly, the good far outweighs the bad. I want the three of us to experience the good side of a ménage, Connor. The benefits are awesome.” He winked, hoping to lighten the mood.