Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“I’m so sorry, Ash.”
“Yeah, me too.” He chugged his beer.
I glanced across the pool at Colt and Kit, and Lucas was on his way to join them.
Colt and Lucas had once faced similar problems, in that they were both Doms. They’d been together for nearly a decade before Kit had completed their dynamic, though Colt and Lucas had tried before. No one had gotten close. Colt and Lucas had constantly put each other first, mending every cut before it could get infected.
For Ash and Nathan… Things hadn’t worked out that way. But they had kids, and including another man in that way of life wasn’t the same. Even less so because they didn’t really consider themselves poly.
“Hey, isn’t that the Swedish girl who’s got a crush on you?”
Goddammit. I followed his gaze, immediately knowing he’d spotted Nora somewhere. Sure enough, she’d just joined Ty and Lane at a table on the deck.
I knitted my brows together and eyed Ash. “How do you know about her?”
“Reese mentioned her on the cruise when I asked who Shay was close with,” he said. “We were discussing the brats’ ongoing scheming, but we ruled out most brats who weren’t there.” He tipped his bottle toward Nora. “I heard she’s new here and joined partly because of you.”
I sighed, wishing we could circle back to the previous topic. “She doesn’t know what she wants. She’s young.”
She’d sent me a friend request online after she’d joined us, and I’d declined it. In my defense, I only befriended people in our forum if I already knew them from having interacted with them in real life.
Two friends, Reese and Santiago, had given me a heads-up about her so-called crush.
NoraOfTheNorth was her username. She looked like a petite goth girl, maybe an inch or so shorter than my own five-four. According to her profile, she was a primal brat and submissive, “strictly lesbian, no DMs from dudes about play,” with approximately fourteen exclamation points.
She was fucking adorable. And beautiful. Very much so. But she was barking up the wrong tree. If she wanted a night of casual play, fine by me. No more than that. I was done with relationships.
“How young?” Ash asked.
“Twenty-four, I think.”
He snorted. “So she’s the same age as pretty much all the partners of our cradle-robbin’ friends.”
I grinned, unable to help it. He had me there. Most of us founding members were around forty, except for Macklin. He was in his early thirties—his hubby was, however, older. The rest of them had found younger men in their early- to mid-twenties.
Ash turned to me. “What were you doing when you were twenty-four?”
I bit off a chunk of crust and scowled at him.
He smiled. “You could vote, drink, decide what you were gonna do for the rest of your life, but you couldn’t possibly be trusted with a girlfriend?”
“Shut up,” I said.
In reality, she wasn’t too young. I was too old. I turned forty in less than two months, and I wished I could go back in time and redo the last ten. And completely erase Ella.
My phone buzzed, and I swiped it from the side table and saw I had an update about my delivery. “Fuck.” They were almost here. “Excuse me, I gotta engage in brat labor.” I wiped pizza grease off my fingers and then stood up on the lounger.
“Huh?” Ash was confused.
“PSA to all brats!” I called out over the pool area. I immediately had about fifteen heads snapping my way. “I have a furniture delivery in about twenty minutes! Everyone who helps me carry the stuff into my cabin will be bribed with a ton of sugar and free drinks at the bar tonight!”
Kit gasped and stood up. “It’s true! I saw one of the bags she brought earlier, and it was full of donuts and candy!”
“I’m in!” Noa yelled. “I’m super strong—punch me as hard as you can in the abs. You’ll see!”
I laughed and blew him a kiss. “Maybe I’ll punch you later, sweetheart.”
He grinned like a dope.
In the end, I had seven volunteers. Kit, Noa, Shay, Lane, Cam, Tate, and…Nora.
CHAPTER TWO
Nora Lilja
Of course Lane had to make a comment to the Tops who helped Penelope.
“Sirs, do you identify as brats?” he teased.
Colt, Kingsley, Ash, and Ty gave him appropriate looks of “Watch it, brat.”
“Or, our mamas raised us up right,” Colt retorted.
“Also, don’t cut off the hand that carries the couch, wild fry,” Ty told his boy.
I snickered under my breath and picked up another box. Judging by the illustration on the cardboard, this was going to be a floor lamp once assembled.
The delivery guys had just left everything by the carport out front, so it was a long trek with each box. On grass. The Mclean property was huge, a stark contrast to what I was used to in my previous community. We’d had a loft space in Alexandria, and thirty people had filled the room.