Chapter 2

 

Hunter elbowed the front door open, Hayden, wrapped in his favorite blue-striped blanket, cradled in his arms.

Troy set his coffee down, pushing his chair back from the kitchen table. “Hunt—”

Hunter put a long finger up against his lips, his dark eyebrows raised. “Just got him to sleep in the car on the way over.”

Troy lowered his voice to a whisper. “Where’s Sara?”

His friend didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to — the roll of his eyes and the tightness at his jaw spoke volumes.

As if on cue, Sara sauntered in, the pale tan of her skirt clinging to her hips, her phone at her ear. Rather than hang up, she simply nodded at Troy, giving him a wan smile, and a little wiggle of her fingers in greeting. Without a single word, she walked out to the living room, dropping onto the couch, one leg folded under her, the woman’s voice barely audible.

Apparently, her conversation was more important than actually having manners.

Troy tipped his head toward the kitchen, and Hunter followed, bringing little sleeping Hayden with him.

Taking a seat at the table, Hunter handed over the bundled baby. “I hate to do it. Damn kid’s gonna make me want one of my own.”

Troy flicked a pointed look toward the living room as he sat down, his boy safe in his arms once again. “Be careful who you say that around.”

“Nah, she says she’ll wait until I’m ready.”

Troy lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “They say that, until the rubber mysteriously fails — or they forget to take their pill for a day. Or a week.”

“Jesus, Troy, she’s not that bad.”

Troy shrugged. “They never are — until that’s not true anymore.”

“Besides, we’d have to be fucking for that to be an issue, wouldn’t we?” Hunter took the mug of coffee Troy set out for him, spinning it on the battered plane of the table, looking over his shoulder toward his wife.

The woman was still engrossed in her conversation, gesticulating with her hand, lost to everyone around her, apparently.

“Wait a minute… you two aren’t fucking? What happened? Christ, when you two first met, she couldn’t keep her hands off of you. It was disgusting.”

“Thanks, asshole.” Hunter frowned, shaking his head as he looked down at his coffee. “I don’t know what happened. Drifted apart? Fuck, that’s so cliché.”

“You sound like a chick.”

Hunter held up his middle finger, but he grinned nonetheless.

Hayden stirred in Troy’s arms and he rocked him gently, giving Hunter a sheepish look. “We probably shouldn’t be cussing around him anyway — not that he can understand a word we’re saying.”

“The principle of the thing,” Hunter said, nodding, holding up his cup. “Agreed, my friend.”

They both looked out toward the living room then, Sara now reclined back against the couch, a long arm draped over the back, the position pulling her soft cable knit sweater tight across her breasts. Diamonds sparkled at the blonde’s ears, their lack of subtlety not quite matched by the giant rock on her finger.

He’d tried to warn Hunt about her. Troy had never had a good feeling about Sara. Beautiful, she might have been, but the woman was all about one thing.

And that one thing was Sara.

“Where is little guy’s mom, anyway?” Hunter smiled when he said the word.

Troy noticed his friend did that a lot when the subject was Lacey.

Looking up, Troy shifted Hayden to his shoulder, gently patting him on the back. The kid was still moving a little, but he was very close to nodding off once more. Sleeping baby was a lot easier for Dad to handle than screaming baby was. “She’s upstairs. Should be down in a minute.”

“Good.” Hunter sipped from his coffee, the steam wafting. “Wanted to ask you something — without the girls around.”

“The answer is no. I don’t like dudes.”

Hunter sneered. “Don’t flatter yourself, Sergeant.”

Troy chuckled softly, careful not to wake Hayden. “All right, what is it?”

“I… I want to tell her.”

“Tell her what? That you’re leaving her? That you like show tunes?”

It was Hunter’s turn to laugh. “Dick.”

Troy tipped his cup. “Pretty much.”

“I know that, what you two do? That’s… what I need.” Hunter breathed in slowly. “It’s what I am. I need to tell her. I want to tell her. See how she reacts, you know?”

“She kinky?”

Troy doubted it. He’d be shocked if Sara could peel herself away from the mirror long enough to try something adventurous.

“She’s vanilla, but maybe… if I tell her, maybe she’ll be curious. You know?”

His friend had been agonizing over it for months. Hell, he’d probably been thinking about it ever since Troy and Lacey admitted what it was they got up to every Friday night without fail.

It had been Lacey’s idea to tell their friend — for she was as much Hunter’s friend now as Troy was. At first, he wasn’t sure he was comfortable with it. There was something subversive, something appealing to keeping a little mystery about the fact he and Lacey were kinky.

Really fucking kinky.

“How did you guys do it? Did you both just… know?” Hunter watched intently. This meant something. It was no time to pitch him more shit.

There’d be plenty of time for that later.

“Lacey wasn’t sure what to think when I first told her what I wanted, what I expected. She just sort of shrugged and said okay.” Troy paused to glance out at the living room, needing to make sure Sara didn’t decide to walk in. This was information the woman did not need to know.

“We were always into the, ah, rough stuff anyway.” Troy kept his voice low, little more than a whisper. “Lacey loved the hair pulling, dirty talk, ass smacking stuff anyway. So, I guess it was a progression.”

“Lucky man.”

“Yeah, well, we sort of fell into it. One day, I just told her I was going to start running the show. I always had, but it was more just making a point of verbalizing it. Getting it out there. Head of Household, that kind of thing.”

“But you two… you’ve got a lot more going than that.”

“Perv.”

Hunter shook his head, his laconic grin showing he wasn’t buying the bullshit Troy was shoveling out.

Troy didn’t really mean it. Oddly, neither he nor Lacey had ever felt sheepish or weird letting Hunter in on their little domestic secret. It was actually better in a way — it gave them both someone else to talk about it with.

Troy knew full well what Lacey and Hunter talked about. Which was pretty much anything.

Any other man, and Troy would have put a stop to such a thing — and quickly. Intimate confidences led too often to… other sorts of intimacies.

But he trusted Hunter with his life — and vice versa. They’d been in the shit together. They both literally owed their lives to each other, several times over.

If he didn’t know better though, Troy suspected Lacey had a reason for urging Hunter to tell his wife about what he truly needed.

Which was odd, because if anything, Lacey seemed even more dead-set against Sara being the right girl for Hunter. He’d seen the eye-rolls, heard the snide comments under her breath as Sara held court, boasting and droning on about her latest corporate conquest.

To Lacey’s way of thinking, a guy like Hunter, a rough around the edges ex-Ranger and a silver spoon up her ass corporate lawyer like Sara matched about as well as oil and water.

Troy was always one to give people a chance though, and in the end, he just wanted his friend to be happy.

But he’d be a liar if he said he wasn’t beginning to come around to his wife’s outlook on the whole thing.

“Seriously, things just kind of… evolved. I don’t think we even discussed things until I wanted to institute Maintenance Nights.” Troy winked. “She was a lot more eager to explore than I guessed.”

“Maybe Sara will be too?” Hunter’s brow quirked as he looked off toward the living room. “All I can do is try.”

You could try and divorce her ass too.

Before Troy could say anything, Lacey came bounding down the stairs, tying back her dark hair as she padded into the kitchen. Her gray t-shirt was a size too small, the University of Washington logo stretched over her full breasts. Her eyes met his, and his heart began a slow gallop, the heat in her gaze still quite evident.

When Hunter turned toward her, Lacey grinned, squeezing his shoulder. “Hayden wear you guys out?”

“Nah, kid’s an angel.” Hunter nodded toward Troy. “Your husband on the other hand. He appears to be stressed simply holding him. Better rescue the poor bastard.”

Lacey scooped Hayden up, bending down to press her lips to Troy’s cheek. She paused a moment to whisper into his ear. “Nothing sexier than a man holding his child.”

Her teeth nipped him, and his cock instantly sprang back to life.

Lacey’s eyes flickered as she saw who was sitting in the living room. “She been on that thing the whole time?”

“Yep, important call, I guess.” Hunter winced as he said it.

“Hmm, leaving her man to wait for her.” Her voice took on a quiet sing-song tone. “Not good!” Pursing her lips, she padded out to the living room, standing in Sara’s field of vision to get her attention. She waved, giving Sara a saccharine smile as radiant as it was forced.

The bewitching Lacey sauntered back toward them, her expression carefully neutral.

“She needs to learn how to take care of her man,” Lacey whispered as she passed by. “I’ll go up and tuck the little guy in. If I don’t come back down, it means he was hungry.” She waggled her eyebrows at Hunter as she fingered the neckline of her top.

Troy chuckled at his friend’s blush.

She was wearing black yoga pants, and both men shamelessly watched her go. Troy was certain she’d intentionally put an extra sway in her hips as she walked toward the stairs.

My good girl.

“Ready to go, honey?” Sara stood at the threshold to the kitchen, tapping her phone with one long painted fingernail.

Hunter’s head snapped around, and he cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, sure.” Standing, he cocked a thumb at Troy. “You up for a beer tomorrow after work?”

“Can’t — meeting up with an old buddy from the service. How ‘bout later this week?”

“That works.”

“You men and your beer. I’ll be in the car.” Sara strode toward the door, then she glanced back at them. “Nice to see you again, Troy.”

He tried not to grind his teeth. “Bye, Sara. Thanks again.”

Waiting until the door closed behind her, Hunter sighed. “Maybe I’ll, uh, hold off on my little idea. I don’t think she’s ready.”

“Too engrossed in work?”

“Among other things.”

Only through Herculean effort was Troy able to suppress a scowl. The woman was hardly ever home, and her husband was agonizing over something that might change everything about their marriage.

Or blow it apart.

Hunter smacked him on the shoulder, winking. “Thanks for letting us watch the kiddo. Love that little guy. See ya.”

Troy watched Hunter’s truck pull out of the driveway, then he closed the front door. He could sense his silent wife at the top of the stairs.

“There’s something wrong there. I wish Hunter could see it.”

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, still facing the door. “And what’s that?”

Troy was certain he could gather quite a comprehensive list, but it wasn’t his place. His job was to support his best friend.

A tinge of anger could be heard in Lacey’s voice. “She’s not right for him.”