Chapter Twenty-Four
ADRIAN
Boston
Several hours later, Isobel nervously paced the small space between my kitchen and my bedroom, and I couldn’t help smiling at her reaction. We’d quickly taken a shower after I’d confirmed our plans for later, and while she’d relaxed a bit with my hands trailing over her soapy curves, as soon as her hair was dry, she was wound up again.
“Is, babe, it’ll be fine.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You know this guy. I do not. I’ve never talked about things like this with someone who’s actually done them. All the adventurous things I’ve been exposed to have been in books.”
Standing up from the couch, my arms wrapped around her waist, her head falling back to my shoulder as I slowly caressed her stomach. “He’s just a normal guy. And what about the last time Chase wrote about this? The book about the Dom. Didn’t she have a consultant or something for that book?”
“Yeah, but I never asked him questions. I was just introduced to him briefly at a book signing.”
“What is it about the thought of talking to this guy that is making you so nervous?”
While she’d calmed down as I held her, I needed to get to the bottom of these nerves now, because once he showed up—and she discovered who I’d been talking about—her nerves were bound to multiply. To be honest, the possessive part of me didn’t want him talking to her either, but I think she needed this.
I knew my past would come up with her eventually, and this scene in particular had made it hard to refrain from telling her everything. It was a completely different situation, but having him here was bound to dredge up secrets we’d both kept for the last twenty years.
“He won’t judge you, Is. You’re curious and he’s coming to help you work through that curiosity.” And I trusted him. Even if things didn’t go as planned, and I knew he’d flirt with her, he’d make sure she felt safe in the conversation.
Two loud raps on my apartment door caused her to stiffen, and I distracted her the only way I knew how.
Spinning her in my arms, I grasped the back of her neck and captured her lips with mine, pouring all my feelings for her into the kiss. The next few hours weren’t ones I could predict the outcome of, but I was going to be here to support her the entire time however she needed.
“He’s here,” I whispered, pulling back and kissing the soft spot behind her ear once before I pulled away.
Reaching back to grasp her hand, I led her behind me to the door, pausing to take a deep breath before I let in the chaos.
“Finally,” he laughed, pushing the door open. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten I was coming.”
“Trust me, bro. No one is going to forget about you.” He stepped past me, and Isobel stiffened at my side, her eyes comically wide as I turned to pull her into my side.
“He’s…” she squeaked while her eyes bounced to him, then back to me, his smile growing obnoxiously large. Much like his ego.
“It’s nice to see you again, Isobel,” he grinned, reaching forward to grasp her hand and bending in close to kiss the back of it. Arrogant idiot.
“He’s…” she stuttered again, and he laughed, stepping back with her hand still in her grasp .
“He’s my dumbass brother,” I filled in, pushing Hutch’s shoulder lightly so he’d step back, dropping Isobel’s hand. It trembled at her side, and I felt a pang of remorse that I’d kept her in the dark about his identity.
It wasn’t every day you found out the guy you’d been sleeping with regularly for the last several months had an identical twin brother who slept with other people’s partners in front of them.
Hutch, clearly reading the room, turned and headed into my kitchen, pulling open the refrigerator and peering inside before he grasped a bottle of beer.
“Should you be…?” I trailed off as Isobel pinched my side.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t drive over here myself, obviously. One beer won’t hurt. The doc took me off the heavy-duty stuff.”
“Adrian,” Isobel hissed, digging her elbow into my side.
“Uh oh. Someone is in trouble,” Hutch laughed while he pulled the bottle opener off the side of the fridge and popped the top off his beer. He stood there, bottle perched at his lips, watching the two of us, clearly enjoying that he still had the ability to make people squirm.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was your brother who…?” she trailed off in a hushed whisper, tugging me toward my bedroom door.
“You don’t need to leave the room on my account,” Hutch laughed, crossing the room and perching himself on the couch, arm casually thrown across the back of the cushion. “Your secrets are safe with me, Bel.”
“Stop,” I scolded, holding my finger in his direction as Isobel tugged me through my bedroom doorway.
“What the hell?!?” she whispered frantically, smacking me in the chest while I tried to school my features so I didn’t laugh. It wasn’t very nice of me to spring it on her this way, but she never would have agreed if I told her who it was. “You’re such a dick.”
“He really is,” Hutch called out from the other room, and I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth to hold in the laugh at the way her eyes flared with embarrassment.
“I can’t believe you. Well, I can believe you’re that much of a dick. But seriously? I’m supposed to ask your brother, who is your fucking identical twin, questions about his sex life? On what planet is that okay?”
“This one, Bel,” he laughed, clearly still shamelessly eavesdropping, but she hadn’t closed the door either. “I’m an open book. Ask me whatever questions you want.”
“I hate you,” she hissed at me as I pulled her into a hug, sighing in relief when her arms wrapped around my back, squeezing tightly.
“Pretty sure you don’t,” I exhaled into her hair, my lips grazing her forehead.
“You two ready to stop whispering about me?” Hutch yelled, drawing a soft laugh from Isobel.
“He’s here for you,” I whispered as she pulled back, gazing up at me with wariness in her eyes, but also a bit of trust. “I wouldn’t have asked him to do this otherwise. You need answers to feel comfortable with this manuscript and he can help with that.”
“Fine,” she growled, but it didn’t hold any conviction. “But you’re getting punished for this later.”
“And I’ll look forward to that, Madame Isobel .“ Her lip curled up in one corner, a soft smile forming while she looked up at me.
Hutch’s big mouth once again ruined the playful moment, calling out, “I’ve got some ideas for things you can do to him.”
Isobel’s nerves dissipated, her grin growing as she walked around me and back into the living room. “Let’s start with that.”
Hutch’s laid-back nature made it easy for Isobel to relax, and he carried the conversation while we waited for dinner to be delivered. Once it came, none of us seemed to know what to say, focusing on our meals.
Temporarily sated, the three of us were lounging in the living room after we’d eaten our fill of pasta from the place Isobel loved down the street.
“Adrian’s always had a thing for blondes. Although you seem to have something the ones he went after in high school did not.”
“And what is that?” Isobel laughed while she sat on my lap in the armchair across from where my brother had manspread across my couch.
“Brains. Most of them only had big—“
“Fuck you,” I laughed, kicking forward, my toe stinging as my shoe contacted his shin. “Not all of them were airheads. I was the nerdy one, remember? You were the one who chased after everyone who’d open their legs for you. I guess not much has changed since then.”
“Ouch, you fuck. At least kick the bionic one. And I don’t chase anyone. They find me.”
“You’re not the Million-dollar Man, “ I scoffed while Isobel looked between the two of us. She knew Hutch had a prosthetic, but she hadn’t pried past the one time I’d talked to her about it. “Maybe it’s time for you to tell Isobel about your new weekend hobby.”
“That is why you brought me here, isn’t it?” he grinned, raising an eyebrow. “Go ahead, Isobel. Ask away.”
“The scene with the client. Is that really a thing? The cuckold scene?”
Hutch sat back, rubbing his fingers along the edge of his jaw, and I watched it clench as he tried to formulate a response. I knew my brother had always been the more adventurous of the two of us. Since his marriage ended, he’d sworn off monogamy, but I didn’t exactly ask him to divulge all the information about the changes to his sex life. I just knew that he had been exploring the local kink scene and dabbling in fulfilling cuckold fantasies, and mine was stagnant until a certain blonde blew up my carefully constructed professional fa?ade.
“Cuckolding is a very real kink.” His voice was low while he looked straight at her, studying her tense posture and the way she kept nervously darting her eyes away from him. “I know it’s frowned upon by mainstream society, but as long as all the parties agree, watching your partner being pleasured by someone else is intense, and it turns lots of people on.”
There were things my brother and I had done as teenagers before he’d been deployed the first time that I’d written off as reckless things you did in your youth, but watching your brother have sex with the girl you were casually dating wasn’t something I talked about.
We’d only done it a few times, and once I got over the fact that I had to see my brother’s naked ass on display, I’d enjoyed watching the girl’s expressions when we’d done it. Seeing her come and knowing I wasn’t the one providing it was a weird experience, but she’d been into it. Hutch loved it, suggesting it two more times before he met Lena and then he stopped screwing around, but it stuck with me. All these years later, I could still remember making eye contact with my girlfriend at the time while she rode my brother’s cock.
But the thought of Isobel doing the same thing made me feel a little ferally possessive.
“So, it’s something that you think Frances would provide as a dominatrix?”
“I think there are a lot of men and women who provide the same service without payment, and all parties involved really fuckin’ enjoy it.”
Hutch’s eyes darted over to me as Isobel shifted, clearly not expecting that answer. I knew she grew up in a conservative environment on her small Iowa farm, where I doubted that sharing was a widely accepted practice. When I’d read that scene in the manuscript, I hadn’t been surprised that kink was included, but clearly Isobel still was.
“And you’ve done this?” Isobel asked, tilting her head, her eyes nervously finding mine as Hutch’s grin spread.
“Yes, sweetheart, I have fucked another man’s wife while he watched, or she. Sometimes lesbians enjoy watching their partner get railed. Adds a little spice to it when she comes extra hard on my cock.”
She was quiet, intently listening while she sat on my lap.
“I’ve fucked my brother’s girlfriend while he watched, so trust me, this kink isn’t something new to me. Or him. And it’s certainly not something uncommon either.”
Her eyes widened as she turned to face me, studying my passive expression. I wasn’t ashamed of my behavior. And I wasn’t sorry that I’d enjoyed it, but I still had to fight the urge to shift beneath her in my seat at her blatant shock.
“You two…?” her voice trailed off, looking between us. Hutch’s casual shrug and wide grin were a stark contrast to my tight nod and heavy swallow. “Like, recently?”
“No,” Hutch laughed, shaking his head. “We were seventeen the first time, and it’s been a long time since that happened. Don’t worry, Adrian won’t try to share you.” But now I was thinking about it. “At least not unless you’re wanting to be shared.”
“Not gonna happen, Hutch,” I interrupted.
Isobel’s body language shifted, and she was squirming on my lap, and glancing at me out of the corner of her eye as Hutch changed the subject to another chapter in the book. Despite knowing it violated so many different provisions of my contract, I’d sent Hutch a copy of the manuscript not long after we’d received it a few days ago, having questions of my own about the content.
He’d been impressed with the nature of Evan and Chase’s manuscript, only pointing out a few things he saw as not true to his experiences in the local kink community .
I knew Chase had researched a few of her other books with a local Dom, but as far as I knew, Evan had never shown an inclination toward the kinkier side of life. Isobel had her theories about exactly how close our authors had gotten when they’d gone off the grid, but whatever was going on, the words they created together were magic.
This book blended our two genres perfectly, a strong romantic thriller plot that wove in elements of mystery and BDSM in a way that was seamless. I may have made a few jokes to Sam about it being fucking hot, but the plot and the characters were solid.
Evan had leveled up with this book, and Chase had broken out of the mold I knew Isobel hated that was forced upon the contemporary romance authors.
“I don’t think he’s paying attention to us,” Hutch chuckled, scooting sideways and patting the cushion next to him, encouraging Isobel to join him on the couch. “Should we make out and see if that gets his attention? He seemed a little possessive when the kiss cam stopped on us.”
Isobel laughed, surprisingly not disagreeing with him, and her hand briefly pressed against my thigh as she rose from my lap. “I have always wondered what it was like to kiss a man with a beard.”
What?
“Ah, so is that your fantasy then, Bel?” Hutch laughed, pressing his shoulder into hers briefly while she perched herself on the cushion next to him. “Being taken by a roguish bearded man?”
“Not exactly.” The shyness in her voice attracted my attention, and I sat up straighter, watching her expression better as she glanced at my twin out of the corner of her eye.
“Oh, sounds like there’s something you’re hiding. Maybe there are a few kinky fantasies in there, huh?”
“Maybe. ”
“So, you’ve never kissed a bearded man…” Hutch mused before he lifted his hand to her face, his thumb tracing her bottom lip. Isobel hesitated, freezing when her eyes found mine over his shoulder. I knew I should put a stop to his flirting, but she didn’t look uncomfortable with his touch. “What other fantasies do you have? What have you always wanted to try but never had the opportunity to ask for?”
Isobel continued to stare at me over his shoulder, her eyes darting across my face while she licked her lips.
“Tell him,” I commented quietly, wanting to know what she desired. “I’d like to know too.”
“I’ve…” Her neck flexed as she swallowed, licking her lips again quickly before her eyes slipped closed. “I’ve fantasized about what it’d feel like to be with two men. About being watched.”
“Now we’re talking,” Hutch laughed, his voice laced with amusement. “I think I need to hear more about this fantasy of two men. What about you, Ad? Do you want to know more?”
I did.
Rising from the chair, I walked around the end of the couch, taking a seat on the other side of Isobel.
I could sense she was nervous, but with the way she’d kept glancing at me with wide eyes, and then darting back toward Hutch, I knew she was thinking hard about something.
An irrational flare of jealousy tore through me at the thought of another man running his hands along the curves of her body. But if she wanted to fantasize about it, who was I to deny her?
“Are you comfortable sharing this with us?” Hutch asked as I placed my hand on Isobel’s thigh, hers immediately covering mine. She hesitated for a moment. “It’s fine if you don’t want to, but I think you have both of us intrigued by your little confession.”
“I’m just curious about the fantasy of it all. I don’t think I could ever do it in real life, but thinking about it…” Isobel shifted, turned toward me, and looked up into my eyes. I still couldn’t get over the fact that this fiercely independent—sexy as hell—woman wanted me. That she’d welcomed me into her life, and her mind and her body…and I hoped her heart. “Thinking about it excites me.”
“What about it excites you?” he asked again. “We don’t have to talk about specifics, but I can give you an idea of how fantasy play is a big part of the lifestyle. You up for that?”