Chapter 1
Chapter One
Michelle
Bracing my arm on the top of the fridge door and planting my other hand on my hip, I leaned in, perusing my lunch options.
There was leftover lasagna, which I’d brought in from dinner the night before.
I screwed my nose up. Nah, I wasn’t feeling lasagna again.
We had the stuff to make a sandwich, but I didn’t really want a sandwich either.
The prepackaged salad looked good, but I knew I’d be hungry again in an hour if I ate that.
I knew a sandwich was the more logical choice so I could jump back into working quicker, but I wanted a sandwich even less than I wanted leftover lasagna.
Sighing, I shut the fridge. Kip, my husband and best friend, chuckled from behind me.
“Ordering out today?” he asked, setting an order form for a part on the desk.
Kip was Japanese-American with beige skin that had a slightly golden undertone, ink-black hair he kept long enough to pull back into a half-bun, and warm brown eyes.
To others in our kink community, we didn’t really work on paper.
He was a Daddy Dom through and through, and I was a Mommy Domme, though I liked to switch for the right person—Kip being that person.
I trusted him wholly, but the Daddy kink just wasn’t something I was into.
We made it work by sometimes taking in a third to play for a night.
Sometimes, we even decided to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend for a while, but they never fit one hundred percent with us, usually because they were into having a Daddy but not a Mommy.
Kip pulled his towel from the back pocket of his grease-stained, dirty jeans and began wiping his hands somewhat clean.
I stared at the veins in his arms, wishing so badly we weren’t swamped with work, so he could just bend me over the desk and have me for lunch.
But alas, we were adults with a booming business, and sometimes, that took priority over a lunch quickie.
“Probably,” I told him. “I want a salad, but I’ll be starving in—”
I was cut off by the office phone ringing. Sighing, I grabbed it off the desk and answered it. Kip smirked at my annoyed face, then kissed the side of my head and headed back out into the workshop.
“Thank you for calling Tanaka Motors. How can I help you?”
“Yeah, um, I need a tow?” The guy formed it as more of a question than a statement. “My car suddenly lost speed, and the temp began rising. I’m on the side of the road.”
“What road?” I asked, already reaching for the tow-truck keys, which we kept on a hook on the wall near the door.
“Gwinnett Road,” he told me.
“Hang tight. I’ll be there in about ten minutes. The tow will be a hundred. That doable?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll see you in about ten minutes. Thanks.”
“Sure thing.” I ended the call then walked out into the bay, where Kip leaned over the engine of a truck once more, clearly putting off lunch for a little while longer.
Sensing my presence, he glanced over at me, arching a brow. “What’s up?”
I set the phone on his toolbox, so he’d hear it if someone called. “Got a call for a tow.” Leaning in, I kissed him. “Order a pizza or something, and I’ll eat when I get back.”
“You better,” he warned. “No jumping straight into work without eating, tsuma.” And just like always, hearing him call me his wife in Japanese made my fucking heart melt. He rarely spoke the language, but he liked using that as his term of endearment for me. And I was a sucker for it.
“Promise.”
He snorted then waved me off. “Drive safe.”
I blew him a kiss then headed for the garage doors, so I could go rescue this guy and his car from the side of the road and add yet another thing to our already endless list of tasks.
The guy sitting on the trunk of his car was goddamn gorgeous.
With black hair and pale skin, he stood out like a beacon in a state like Florida.
He wore shorts and a pair of loafers with a black button-up thin-linen shirt that was only fastened halfway, revealing strong pectoral muscles and even more of that pale skin that was surprisingly enticing.
And as I drew closer to him in the truck, I was surprised to see a hint of black ink on his chest as the wind blew his shirt to the side just a tiny bit.
I was officially intrigued by the younger guy.
He lifted his gaze, and just like when I’d met Kip all those fucking years ago when we were just kids in high school, the breath was stolen from my lungs.
The boy’s eyes were pale blue and haunted.
So beautifully haunted. Dark bags rested beneath them, showing a lack of rest or sleep—maybe even a combination of both.
His jawline was sharp, his lips full, and a silver stud glinted on the side of his nose.
He was perfect for me and Kip. And the only time I’d ever been more certain of something in my life was when I knew Kip was meant to be mine.
I stepped from the truck and smiled, holding out my tatted hand for him to shake as he slid off the trunk of his expensive BMW.
“Michelle,” I introduced myself. “You called for a tow?”
He nodded. “Thanks for coming so quickly. It’s hot as fucking balls out here, and it’s making me just as goddamn sweaty.”
I laughed because he wasn’t wrong. Florida summers were brutal.
“Keys?” I asked. He handed them to me, and I made my way around to the driver’s side door to shift the car into neutral. “You can go ahead and hop into the truck,” I told him. “There’s air conditioning and water.”
“A fucking guardian angel,” he drawled. “Thanks.”
I smirked and watched him go for a moment, admiring the way his shorts hugged his tight ass. Christ, he really was beautiful. And a little snarky. I loved it. And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Kip would fucking love him, too.
After getting his car into neutral, I headed to the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat before pulling to the front of his car and backing up so I could get it onto the flatbed. “Need help?” he asked when I pushed open my door.
“Nah. You sit there and look pretty for me.”
I winked, and he smirked, not taken aback in the slightest. Like he knew how good he looked—and fuck, he was definitely hot enough to be cocky about it—he brushed his hand down his sweaty, bare chest, his eyes staying level with mine.
“If you like what you see…” he practically purred, leaving the rest to my imagination. And the way he was looking at me? Yeah, no way to interpret his meaning incorrectly.
I grinned. “We’ll see, bub.”
And with that, I shut the door then headed to the back of the tow truck. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I shot a quick text off to Kip.
Michelle:
I think I found the one for us. He’s fucking perfect, baby.
Then, I shoved my phone back into my pocket and got to work, so I could get this boy back to the shop as quickly as possible and show him off to my husband. The boy was everything I’d been searching for, and I knew Kip would feel the same.
Maybe, just maybe, we could finally add a permanent third into our marriage who wanted both of us and what we had to offer.