The Initiation Was Complete

Toby

“OOF! WHAT THE . . . ?”

Toby woke, groggy, and saw nothing but Brooklyn’s face.

“Dodo!” he shouted, then bonked Toby with his head either trying to give him a hug, a kiss, or chew on his beard.

When he did, beyond her boy, he saw Addie and all her hair.

“Up and at ’em, Talon,” she ordered. “It’s Christmas!”

Her face disappeared but he did an ab curl, located her, kept hold of her son in one arm, body slammed her to her back on the mattress using his other one and rolled on top of her.

He then kissed her.

Wet and hard.

“Dodo. Mama. Booboo. Dada. Bray. Jaja,” Brooklyn babbled as he escaped Toby’s hold and crawled up on Toby’s back.

He collapsed and slammed his chin into the back of Toby’s head.

“Glah!” he shouted, then started laughing.

Tobe broke the kiss reaching behind him to drag Brooks around.

He set him on Addie’s chest and her arm went from around Toby to put a hand to Brooks’s diapered ass.

Brooks pushed up with a hand in Addie’s throat, reached to Toby and yanked hard on his beard.

Toby ignored it and looked into Addie’s eyes.

“Merry Christmas, Lollipop.”

Her eyes warmed.

“Sissis!” Brooks yelled then pushed up and tried to rearrange Toby’s facial hair, planting it in the back of his head.

He wrapped both arms around his kid, fell to his back, and Brooklyn bounced on his chest but fortunately let go of his beard.

He also giggled.

“Merry Christmas, Brooklyn,” he said.

“Sissis!” Brooklyn repeated, looked left, reached left and shouted, “Dada!”

“C’mon, boy,” Addie called.

And with that, Dapper Dan was on the bed, excitedly snuffling and licking everything he could get to.

“Dada! Dada!” Brooks cried then started giggling and rolling all over trying to get to Dapper Dan while also trying to get away from his wet tongue.

Toby felt Addie move, so he tipped his head back to see she’d pushed up to sit in bed, her back to pillows at the headboard, a smile quirking her mouth, her eyes on the action happening mostly in her lap and around her legs.

Those eyes shifted to him.

She reached right out, and using her fingers, pulled the hair out of his eye.

“You could be as broke as me, and if you gave me a version of this every day for the rest of our lives, I’d be happy,” she said softly.

Jesus Christ.

He caught her around her thighs, yanked her to her back in the bed, dislodged their dog but not their kid, and made out with her as Brooklyn grunted and tried to force his way out from between them, chanting, “Broke, broke, broke, broke, broke.”

Toby lifted his head and they both look down at Brooklyn.

“Broke, broke, sissis! Dada!”

With Tobe going up, now free, Brooks made a lunge for the dog.

Dapper Dan scuttled away and dropped with a sigh on Addie’s and Toby’s legs.

“I think he just said his first full word,” Addie breathed. “And it was ‘broke.’”

Then she snatched her kid to her, shoved her face into his neck while he squirmed to get to his dog, and busted out laughing.

Toby had found out yesterday that it was a very real possibility that Margot would not make it to next Christmas.

And this morning was already the best Christmas he’d ever had.

Because Addie dumped her son on him to wake him up and invited her dog into the bed.

And she was Addie.

He was glad he was rich as fuck.

He still knew all he’d ever need was her.

Pain would come and go. Life would do its damnedest to fuck them up.

But she’d be Addie.

And she’d be his.

So no matter what . . .

He’d be all right.

And he needed to know that, which was precisely the reason she’d woken him up this way.

Because they both knew, Addie more than he, that the next few months were going to be a bitch.

Brooklyn screeched.

“Shh, baby,” Addie shushed him. “Hopefully Aunt Izzy is getting some so you need to quiet down so Uncle Johnny can concentrate.”

“Uncle Johnny concentrated just fine,” Johnny announced as he strolled in wearing pajama bottoms, a Henley and socks, which was a lot like what Toby was wearing (but with a thermal).

Toby was also leaning against the sink with his coffee while Addie was feeding Brooks.

“You shouldn’t say those things, Addie,” Izzy, hair a bedhead, sexhead mess, expression dreamy (which meant Johnny really did have no trouble concentrating), wandered in behind Johnny, as well as attached to him by their hands. “He’s picking things up a lot now.”

“I know. He said his first full word this morning,” Addie told her. “It was broke.”

“Broke?” Izzy asked, standing behind Brooks’s high chair.

“Zee! Zee! Zee!” Brooks yelled and twisted, calling up to his aunt.

Iz bent to her nephew and kissed his head.

He patted her face.

She straightened, and Addie tried to force some cereal in his mouth.

He tore the spoon from her hand and instantly got a determined expression on his face as he attempted to shove it into the cereal bowl on his tray.

“Told Tobe he could be broke, and all I needed was this little guy, our dog, and him and I’m cool,” Addie said distractedly, watching her son with fascination.

Toby felt his brother’s attention and looked that way.

“He picked up on broke,” Addie finished.

Toby and Johnny stared at each other.

Toby now knew the pictures were true.

Their mother was beautiful.

Addie could get a face full of acid, and after she recovered this would be their morning.

He knew what beauty was.

And you couldn’t see it.

He knew Johnny knew the same thing.

But Margot knew it before both of them.

And that was why she hated Sierra.

But she loved the Forrester Girls.

“Want coffee?” Toby asked.

“Yeah,” Johnny replied.

“Iz?” Toby called.

“I can get it,” she said.

“Grab a stool,” he ordered.

“Okay, Toby,” she murmured, then slid on a stool by her sister.

He got them coffee.

“I should start on the cinnamon rolls. You got the stuff for the cinnamon rolls, right?” Izzy asked.

“Totally. Well, Toby got it. But I wanna help you do them. Brooklyn’s almost done and then we’ll get on it.”

Cereal on a spoon Brooks was wielding went flying by Addie’s side, splatting on the floor.

Dapper Dan rushed to clean-up duty.

Addie leaned into Izzy and both sisters started giggling.

Their heads were close. Another man might not be able to tell the difference between their hair.

Toby could.

Johnny undoubtedly could too.

His brother settled beside him with his hips to the counter, his mug held up in front of him, and then Toby felt Johnny’s hand at the back of his neck squeezing.

He turned his head and looked in Johnny’s eyes.

“Merry Christmas, Tobe.”

Toby lifted a hand and thumped his fist against Johnny’s heart before he dropped it and replied, “Merry Christmas, brother.”

Johnny gave him one final squeeze before he took his hand from Toby’s neck.

And they watched two beautiful sisters gabbing and fussing over a little boy before they got out of their way so they could make cinnamon rolls.

“You’re a loser! I love you!”

After saying that, Addie threw herself at him and gave him a hard, closed-mouth kiss.

He took note a five-hundred-dollar Sephora card bought him a weird thank you.

And a kiss.

So next time he’d go for a thousand.

She ended the kiss, smiled huge close to his face then pulled away.

“Now my presents for everybody, because I couldn’t do much and everyone’s being so generous so I wanna get it over with,” she declared, dropping to her knees and crawling under the tree.

She dug around with Brooklyn motoring all over the presents and through the spent wrapping paper.

With him was Dapper Dan, Ranger and Dempsey (Johnny and Izzy’s dogs who Johnny had gone in his pajamas to get that morning while the cinnamon rolls were rising, along with their other dog, Swirl). Swirl, more mature than the other three, had had his fill of the excitement and was crashed flat out on a bed of paper and bows.

Eventually Addie turned, shouted, “Coming in hot!” and threw a package to Johnny, which he caught.

She turned back to the tree.

And again around, “Iz,” she called, then tossed a much smaller package to Izzy.

She then plopped on her ass, grabbed her kid, sat him in her lap and looked to Toby.

“Yours you can’t open in public,” she declared.

Brilliant.

He grinned at her.

She grinned back then dropped her head to Brooklyn’s ear and said, “Auntie Iz and Uncle Johnny are opening presents.” She lifted an arm and pointed to where Iz was sitting between Johnny’s legs on the floor in front of the armchair. “Watch, honey.”

Brooklyn looked Iz and Johnny’s way.

Then he pushed off and started crawling their way.

“Oh no. Stop. No.”

At the hitch, Toby turned to Izzy to see her head bent, her hair curtaining her face, a cheap white jewelry box in her hand.

She lifted her head to look at her sister, and Toby saw her face was red.

He’d learned the day before she was almost as pretty of a crier as Addie.

But not quite.

“No,” she said in a choked voice.

“When I become a legal secretary and I’ve got buckets of cash, I’m gonna redo it with real stones. Those are fake,” Addie told her.

“Never. Never. I don’t want a different one ever, Addie.”

Toby looked to his brother to see Johnny had leaned forward to catch what was in the box, but now his head was tipped back and a warm look was on his face, but his eyes were on Addie.

“Jesus, what is it?” he asked.

Izzy shoved it his way where he was sitting in the corner of the couch, and he just caught it before she rolled to her hands and knees and hustled in a crawl to Addie to grab her into a hug.

He looked down at the box.

“Those are our birthstones,” Johnny muttered. “And they used to give their mom charms.”

That explained the sizeable gold charm shaped like a heart with two stones embedded in it, some stars printed on it, and the tiny words Sometimes you gotta fall before you fly.

“Now you,” Addie ordered, and Toby looked her way to see her and Izzy cuddled cross-legged together under the tree looking at Johnny.

Brooklyn used Johnny’s knee to pull himself up to his feet and he banged on Johnny’s present.

Johnny tore into it.

He separated the box, shook out a long-sleeved tee, looked at the front then threw back his head with a bark of laughter.

“Let’s see!” Izzy cried.

He turned it around.

It read,

 

OFFICIAL MEMBER OF

THE FORRESTER GIRLS CLUB

(THE ONE WITH THE DICK)

 

“You can just wear it around the mill. I won’t be offended,” Addie assured him.

“Thanks, darlin’,” Johnny replied.

“Okay, for right now, just one thing for you,” Addie said, and Toby turned his attention to her to see a small box sailing his way.

He caught it just in time.

“This doesn’t look like an awesome Forrester Girls Club tee,” he muttered.

“You’ll get the one that says, ‘the other one with the dick’ from me on your birthday,” Izzy told him, sounding like she was laughing.

“Obliged,” he muttered, opening his present.

It was another cheap, white jewelry box.

But he was thinking, with Addie, the best shit came in those.

He opened it.

And he was right.

The best shit came in those.

At first, he thought it was a kickass, narrow, brown leather man’s bracelet.

But when he pulled it out, he saw inside it was tooled with the words, She’s Mine.

So far, from him, she’d opened his Sephora gift card and a pair of high-heeled boots he’d seen in the city when he and Johnny were shopping for Izzy that he thought were kickass, and he’d called Iz to find out her sister’s size.

There were two more gift cards under the tree from him to her.

One, considering she’d been looking for office work and had mentioned she didn’t have the wardrobe for it, was for a thousand bucks at Nordstrom. And one was kind of a joke, kind of not, considering they’d be setting up house soon and he wanted her to make it her own—another five-hundred-dollars, this at Crate and Barrel.

Her real present, Johnny and Izzy were supposed to bring over that morning, but with the change of plans, it was now at Margot and Dave’s.

None of that shit was as good as that bracelet.

Except maybe the real one.

His eyes moved to her.

“I kinda dig you, Talon,” she said, grinning sassily at him.

Jesus, shit, he needed to fuck her.

“Do I get time to concentrate today?” he asked.

Her expression changed, and the way it did, he needed to fuck her even more.

“Not until after presents, at least.”

“Right, before you two go at each other through the wrapping paper, let’s get back to it,” Johnny said. “One for Brooks.”

And he got up from his chair to find a present for Brooklyn.

“Come here, Lollipop,” Toby ordered.

She came there.

And when she got to her knees between his legs, his kiss wasn’t closed-mouthed.

After he ended it, she asked, “You like it?”

“Love it, baby.”

She grinned at him and that wasn’t an I-own-your-dick grin.

It was just sweet.

“How much more generous are you gonna be to me and Brooklyn?” she asked quietly.

She’d gotten her Sephora gift card, and the rest was waiting for her, but he’d partially lost his mind at a baby store in Bellevue that had the baddest ass little boy’s clothes he’d ever seen.

So Brooklyn had five new outfits.

And on top of that, Eliza and Margot had given him a Brooklyn List. So there were onesies, socks, jammies, baby bowls, forks and spoons, a bucket with shapes cut out at the top and matching blocks to shove in and a stool with things to roll, open and slide and buttons to push, which played music that eventually would probably drive him and Addie insane.

Only maybe half of this she and Brooks had already opened.

“Moderately generous,” he answered.

“Considering your brother built my sister a stable and bought her an engagement ring that costs as much as a car, I’m not sure the Gamble Men have the same definition of ‘moderate’ as the rest of Earth’s population do,” she replied.

“This is probably an accurate assessment,” he muttered, watching her closely and hoping this wasn’t going to devolve into a thing.

But she just grinned at him and said, “You Gamble Brothers, you love someone, you just can’t help yourself, can you?”

He relaxed, pulled some of her hair over her shoulder, grinned back and replied, “Nope.”

She pushed up and gave him a light kiss then pulled back, turned and sat between his legs on the floor as Brooks chanted, “Jaja, Jaja, praza, foo, foo, foo,” at Johnny.

Brooklyn could say “broke” but he couldn’t say “Christmas” or “present.”

Though he was trying.

Addie had the same train of thought.

“We should probably stop cussing in front of him. He’s talking all the time now and soaking everything in,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Toby agreed.

She settled back into him as Johnny dropped to the floor, pulled Brooklyn into his lap and helped him open his shapes bucket.

Johnny then yanked open the box and pulled away the packing material, handing Brooklyn a shape.

Brooks looked at it then threw it across the room.

Dapper Dan immediately retrieved it for him.

“Well, if that’s meant to train him for the major leagues, it works a charm,” Addie remarked.

Toby chuckled.

She rested an arm on his thigh then her head on his knee, attention pointed to the action, as Izzy decided, “Another one for Brooks. He’s got about a thousand to get through,” and she said this handing another package to Johnny.

At that, Toby reached for his phone because he had a feeling with Perry’s cell out of service and the fact he hadn’t contacted Addie to give her that heads up or info on an alternate way to get in touch with him that the asshole was history.

So the adults would remember this, but Brooklyn wouldn’t, and there might come a time when he would need all the evidence he could get that his biological father might not have given a shit, but everyone else in his life did.

Though, Toby doubted that.

But he took pictures anyway.

And by the end of the day the selfie he took of him, Addie and Brooks, with her still between his legs, him bent to her, and Brooklyn in her arms landing a sloppy kiss on her jaw, was the wallpaper on his phone.

And by the end of the next week, the shot Izzy took with her selfie stick of all five of them (plus Dapper Dan, Ranger, Dempsey and Swirl) huddled together in front of the tree was blown up and framed, twice.

One was set on the side table by Johnny’s reading chair at the mill.

And one was set on the mantle in Addie’s family room.

For a few of months . . .

Then it was on the mantle at Toby’s.

“You didn’t! I hate you! I love you!” Addie cried, turned to him, threw her arm around him to give him a tight hug and kissed the side of his neck before she disengaged, dumped Brooks, who had been on her hip, in his arms, and rushed forward.

Toward the ginger and white, six-month-old kitten that Margot was holding.

Her real present.

Toby adjusted Brooklyn to his own hip and watched Addie take hold of the new member of her family and cuddle her to her neck.

Feeling her eyes, Toby tore his from his woman who was all about her new cat to look at Margot.

Pride.

He never got anything but that from his girl.

Not ever.

“Dang, I wanna name you Chuck Norris,” Addie declared, and Toby looked back at her to see she was holding the cat away and inspecting things. She cuddled her close again. “But that appears to be out.” Her attention came to him and she cried triumphantly, “Barbarella!”

“Lord God,” Margot, who had moved to his side, murmured.

Toby slid his arm along her shoulders.

She slid hers along his waist.

He took a moment to memorize the feel of her, her touch.

And then she spoke.

“You should probably introduce your woman to your older brothers.”

“Give her a minute,” he replied.

She gave it only about a second before she spoke again.

“That pendant Eliza is wearing is very attractive,” she remarked.

“It comes with matching earrings. She showed in the kitchen wearing both this morning. Didn’t notice at first. But that probably explained some of her dreamy look, that and the fact Johnny gave her some, or got himself some after giving her diamonds.”

Margot gave him a reprimanding squeeze and snapped, “Tobias.”

He grinned.

“Will Adeline be getting diamonds anytime soon?” she asked leadingly.

He turned and kissed the side of her head then looked back to his woman. “I’ll need you to help me with that.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

He pulled her closer and held her there.

Then she let him go, so he let her go, and he felt the loss of her touch in the depths of his heart.

He ignored it and moved himself and Brooks forward, calling, “Babe, probably should introduce you to the rest of my family.”

Addie aimed a stunning smile his way.

The ache in his heart didn’t go away.

But in that instant, seeing that smile, it didn’t hurt so bad.

And in the next instant, when Brooks reached out with gentle wonder to Barbarella, it hurt a little less.

“Don’t even try to kick me out ’cause I’m helpin’, no matter what you say,” Toby declared, walking into Margot’s kitchen.

She was at the sink, piles of Christmas dishes all around her.

Fifteen people in that house old enough to help her, she’d shooed them all to her family room with bourbon, brandy, spiked eggnog, unspiked eggnog, hot chocolate and iced Amaretto, depending on who was drinking, and disappeared in the kitchen.

It had changed since he was a kid, though she and Dave had never done a full overhaul. Margot had updated it bit by bit. New countertops. New hardware. New flooring. New curtains. New kitchen table. New sink. New fridge, stove and microwave.

So eventually, it all just looked new.

“I’ll rinse,” he said, gently moving her out of the way. “You load. You’re weird about that.”

“I’m not weird, Tobias,” she retorted. “It just takes less time to put away and makes more sense to have all the plates in a row, the little forks in the same compartment in the silverware holder, the spoons in their own. Same for the rest of the cutlery. And the bowls. Etcetera.”

“Whatever,” he muttered.

She adjusted from the sink without argument.

A win.

He picked up a plate and put it under the running faucet.

Toby gave it a minute.

Then, after handing her a couple of rinsed plates, he said, “You need me, I’m there.”

“I know, Tobias,” she replied gently.

“Dave needs me, I’m there.”

“I know, darlin’. So does he.”

“You don’t need me, I’m still there.”

Her yellow-plastic-gloved hand came into the sink and her fingers curled around the wrist above the plate he was rinsing.

He looked her way.

“I know, my beautiful boy,” she whispered and shifted closer. “Honey, I can’t live forever.”

He wanted to be strong for her.

But he couldn’t.

Not yet.

He’d get there.

But not yet.

“Stop talking,” he ordered.

“You know I can’t. No one does.”

“Margot—”

“I’m not young.”

“You’re not old.”

She gave him a small smile. “I’m seventy-two, Tobias.”

“You’re not old.”

She let him go, tugged off her glove, then lifted her hand and laid it on the side of his face.

He memorized that too.

“Whatever happens, I’m at peace.”

“Really, stop talking,” he growled.

“I slept beside the love of my life for decades. We raised three beautiful boys then had the honor of helping to raise two more. They all found wonderful women.” She tipped her head to the side and her beautiful, warm face got warmer, so it also got more beautiful. “My grandchildren know their grandmother loves them.”

Her hand slid to the side of his neck and there it latched on.

So Toby braced.

“You need to look after David,” she said.

“You know we will.”

“He’s going to be lost.”

“You’re not. You’re gonna beat this so stop talking about that.”

“Just in case, I need to know you’ll watch out for him.”

“Even if I didn’t promise that, which you don’t even have to ask, Adeline and Eliza will be all over it.”

She got a wistful expression on her face and her hand slid away.

“Too true,” she murmured.

He shut the water off and turned to her.

“I won’t ever be ready to lose you, it happens now, or you beat this shit and it happens in twenty years. But if Dave is left behind, we got him. Just like if, God forbid, something happened to Dave and you were left behind, we’d have you. You’re not gonna be able to stop worrying about that, but you gotta focus on the battle at hand, so I want you to try.”

“I will, Tobias.”

He made sure she wasn’t lying by staring hard at her face.

When he got that from her, he turned back to the sink and started the water again.

He’d handed her two rinsed plates when she changed the subject.

“We need to talk about Sierra.”

“We really don’t,” he muttered.

He was not surprised she ignored him.

“Although after Adeline got done with her, I have my doubts . . .”

His head jerked her way.

She was shoving a plate in, not looking at him, and still talking, “ . . . she’ll make another approach. But if she does—”

“After Addie got done with her?”

Margot looked to him. “Yes. At Matlock Mart. In the parking lot yesterday.”

He stared at her.

Then he looked over his shoulder and stared at the kitchen door.

“She didn’t tell you,” Margot murmured.

Toby turned back to the plates. “Shit got real when she got home. And then it was Christmas.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“What’d you hear?” he asked.

“Well, Francine was parked two cars down. So . . . everything.”

Francine had the biggest mouth in Matlock. Nice lady. But she was like the Matlock AP wire.

“I’m sure she targeted Adeline as she’s a mother and thinks Adeline will have some pity on her,” Margot noted.

“I’m sure she did,” Toby bit out and handed her another plate.

“Though, it’s my understanding Adeline disabused her of that notion.”

“I’m sure she did,” Toby repeated, though that wasn’t angry. He suddenly wanted to laugh.

Christ, he would have liked to have been there for that.

He handed her another rinsed plate.

She shoved it in, saying, “You boys should listen to what she has to say.”

That got her Toby’s full attention. “Say what?”

Her gaze lifted to his. “You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“You hate her.”

She reached and gently took the plate Tobe was holding under the faucet and turned back to the dishwasher. “Perhaps I did, in the beginning, witnessing Lance’s pain, you boys’ confusion. Then I felt sorry for her, getting to watch you boys grow up and all she was missing.” She lifted her eyes to him again. “And now she sees it too.”

“I don’t want her a part of my life, Addie’s life, Brooklyn’s life. I want you a part of it.”

“I’m not saying you should forgive her, Tobias. I’m saying I know you. I know Johnathon. And I know if you boys don’t sit down and hear her out, you’ll regret it. If you do and what she has to say doesn’t move you,” she shrugged, “then that’s her lot. I’m not worried about her lot. I’m worried about your lots. And I don’t want my boys to regret anything.”

He shifted his attention back to rinsing plates, muttering, “You know, it’s always sucked, ever since I was a kid, that you knew everything.”

He heard her soft laughter.

“I’ll talk to Johnny,” he told her.

“Good.”

They got the plates out of the way and started on the silverware.

He was rinsing glasses when she said quietly, “You could decide to go to the ends of the earth, and she’d strap Brooks into his stroller and go with you.”

“I know,” he replied in her tone.

“I’m so pleased you two finally opened yourselves to one another. Pleased Johnathon stopped making it hard on you. So very pleased, Tobias, that you and Johnathon are both so happy.”

He turned his head again to her. “Me too, honey.”

She gave him a smile.

He smiled back.

They finished with the glasses and she started putting away food while he rinsed out the serving shit and shoved it in with the rest.

After that, he started the washer and they got down to hand washing wineglasses and pots and pans.

There was only one pan soaking in the sink when they left, the rest of the kitchen spic and span.

And Tobias was good.

Because that was how Margot needed to leave her kitchen.

And Tobias needed to give his girl what she needed.

For as long as he could.

Toby tossed his watch on the nightstand.

“Babe,” he called.

Addie was in the bathroom.

Brooks was down.

Barbarella was quarantined in the kitchen with food and a litter tray, safe from Dapper Dan, who was excited to have her but not used to her yet, and she wasn’t used to the house yet.

So Dapper Dan was crashed out at the foot of the bed.

“What?” she called back.

“We gotta talk,” he told her, pulling off his sweater.

“Out in a sec,” she said.

He yanked off his thin Henley and it caught on the leather bracelet at his wrist.

He looked at it.

And decided to leave it on.

He sat on the bed and tugged his boots off. Then his socks.

“Yo.”

At the word, he twisted to look toward the bathroom.

Then he froze.

That was, most of his body froze.

His cock came to attention.

Addie was standing there with her hands on her hips wearing a skintight black dress that barely covered her ass. It had short sleeves and a collar. The front came down low to expose serious cleavage at her pushed-together tits. A black belt hung low on her hips.

And there was a shiny silver badge tacked over her right breast.

She was also twirling a pair of handcuffs on a finger.

“Not sure how sweet Christmas is in the big house, felon,” she drawled, grinning.

Jesus.

His Addie.

Toby got up but only to crawl over the bed, swing his legs around and sit on the edge at her side.

“Come here, baby,” he murmured.

“Hands behind your back,” she retorted.

He grinned and repeated, “Come here.”

“Oh no you don’t, big guy. Assume the position.”

He lunged forward darting his arm out, and he nabbed the handcuffs.

“Dammit!” she snapped. “And I was even ready for that.”

He tossed the cuffs to the bed, lunged forward again and nabbed his Addie.

Arm around her waist, he pulled her with him as he sat on the bed, so she was straddling his lap.

He wrapped his hands around her hips and tipped his head back to look up at her.

“Is this my Christmas present?” he asked.

“Partially. I look dorky in the cap, so I nixed that. And I wanted some sexy boots, but they’re scheduled to arrive on December twenty-seventh, which was disappointing. But at least it’s something.”

“I like it,” he told her.

“Of course you do. I’m hot in this getup. And you haven’t even discovered I’m not wearing any panties yet.”

If his cock wasn’t already hard, that would have done it.

But it was already hard, so it just made it harder.

He removed her belt.

She warned, “I think assaulting an officer is a felony.”

He laughed softly, dropped the belt and slid his hands over her ass.

She put hers to his neck.

“Sierra cornered you in the parking lot of the Mart?” he asked.

“Fuck,” she muttered, settling in on his thighs. “Who told you?”

“Margot heard.”

She looked to his ear and kept muttering. “Fabulous.”

“Babe—”

Her eyes came to his. “More important things were happening. And then I didn’t want to ruin Christmas by telling you. Or, say, ruin it more than it already was. She could wait.”

“Christmas wasn’t ruined.”

She slid one hand to his jaw and her eyes got soft. “Honey.”

“It was the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”

She studied him.

Then she said shortly, “That sucks.”

“It doesn’t. It was awesome. I had you and Brooks and Eliza. It was awesome that Margot had all her family around her. And it was awesome to know that Margot knew Johnny and me had you, Eliza and Brooks.” He slid his hands up her back. “It was perfect.”

She relaxed into him. “Okay.”

“I’m gonna talk to Johnny, and if she approaches us again, we’re gonna sit down and talk to her,” he shared.

Her eyes got round. “What?”

“Margot wants us to.”

Her eyes went normal. “Oh.”

“So we can go over what you two talked about later,” he told her, smoothing his hands back down, hooking his fingers into the hem of her dress and starting to shift the stretchy skirt over her ass. “And I’ll handcuff you another time—”

“I’m totally handcuffing you, Talon.”

He grinned and pulled the dress to her waist.

Her eyes got lazy.

“Now I’m just gonna do you,” he whispered, the dress now up to her ribs.

“Good, since I wanna do you too,” she whispered back.

It caught under her tits and he stopped there.

“Oh no, Addie. It’s just gonna be me doin’ you.”

“Toby—”

He wrapped his fingers tight around her ribs.

“She’s mine,” he said.

She slid her hands back and up into his hair and put her mouth to his. “Okay, baby.”

He dragged the dress up, she went up, her arms went up, and the dress was gone.

Then he curved an arm around her waist, surged to his feet, turned, planted a knee in the bed then his woman in it.

He covered her and kissed her.

Addie kissed him back.

Toby broke the kiss, angled away and looked down at her.

Naked.

Beautiful.

He shifted down and tugged one of her nipples in his mouth.

It budded immediately.

She liked his taste.

He liked hers too.

But he fucking loved how her body responded to him.

Immediately.

Her fingers slid back into his hair and she arched up into his draw.

He lifted his head and looked up at her.

“Arms over your head.”

She looked down at him. “Tobe.”

“Arms over your head, Addie.”

They held each other’s eyes.

Slowly, she lifted her arms over her head.

Fuck yeah.

He bent back to her nipple.

He gave them both attention and had her squirming before he traced a hand down her side, over her belly, down to the curls between her legs and glided light over her clit.

Her hips twitched, and she sighed, opening her legs wider.

He liked that invitation, but he didn’t take it.

He went up, taking her mouth, kissing her deep, before he pulled away, took his feet and got rid of his jeans.

He wanted to jack his cock, seeing her spread out for him, her hair everywhere, her arms over a head that was up, her gaze hungry and roaming over his chest down to his dick.

So he did and made her watch.

“Can I move?” she asked breathily.

“No,” he answered.

“Ugh,” she grunted, her eyes now glued to his dick.

He grinned, tortured her a little while then stopped stroking and moved back into the bed, covering her and kissing her, trailing a hand up her arm, to her wrist, her hand . . . then he pulled it down to her hip, over, and in.

With two of his fingers guiding two of hers, he slid them inside.

She sucked hard at his tongue.

He drew it away, ran it along her lower lip, and gently thrusting with both their fingers, ordered, “Keep them there,” before he pulled his out.

“Toby,” she breathed, face flushed, eyelids heavy.

“You hot?” he asked unnecessarily.

He saw it in her eyes.

He also felt it with her wet.

“Yeah,” she answered.

He took hold of his cock and rubbed the head against her clit.

Her neck arced.

“Hotter?” he pushed.

She righted her head and her fiery eyes caught his with difficulty, her hips moving to press against his touch. “Yeah, baby. Don’t stop.”

He stopped.

“Baby,” she begged.

“Is she mine?” he asked.

“Oh God,” she moaned, rocking desperately against the head of his dick.

“Is she mine, Adeline?”

“Yes, Toby. Yes.”

He moved up over her, positioned, his neck bowed, and with his hand he skimmed the head of his cock across her lips as he watched.

The tip of her tongue appeared.

He put pressure on, her lips opened, and she took him.

Christ, Addie’s mouth.

“Fuck yeah,” he groaned, moving, watching his cock sink into her mouth, and again, again, again, her cheeks sculpting in, her suction forcing him from slow to faster and faster.

Yeah.

She was his.

When her other hand went from above her head to his back, her nails scoring down his spine and digging into his ass, Toby looked beyond Addie taking his face fucking to see her hips writhing.

“You at your clit?” he asked gruffly.

She nodded, still sucking.

He pulled out, moved down, grasped hold, rolled over, and tugged her on his face.

She bore down like a champ.

He gave up her reward and ate her.

Yeah.

He liked her taste too.

She leaned back, planting both hands in his abs and rode his face.

“God, God, God, God,” she chanted, rocking against him.

Using her hips, he pulsed her into his mouth, and when the noises she was making made his throbbing cock start to twitch, his heavy balls draw up, and he knew she was almost there, he yanked her off.

She landed on her back.

He covered her, opened her legs with his hands at the backs of her thighs and drove in.

Her mouth, awesome.

Addie’s pussy, fucking heaven.

He’d been right.

She was there.

He knew this when she instantly rounded him with her limbs, arched into his body, fisted her hands in his hair and cried out with her orgasm.

Fuck yeah, she was his.

“Is she mine?” he asked.

“She’s yours,” she panted.

“Look at me.”

“Tobe,” she pleaded, her pussy clamped around his dick, her fingers tugging his hair, her body lurching with his thrusts.

“Look at me, Adeline.”

She forced her gaze to him.

“Is she mine?”

“Yes, honey.”

“Good.” He put his lips to hers. “Because he’s hers.”

“Tobias,” she whispered.

He kissed her.

The second he tasted her, Toby blew up her pussy and groaned down her throat.

Right.

Heaven.

He wasn’t even down yet when he put his mouth to her ear. “I wanna take your ass.”

“You got lube, it’s yours.”

Yeah it was.

“Want my cum down your throat, in your cunt, up your ass.”

She held him tight. “Whenever you want, that’s yours.”

“This bracelet, I wanna know where you got it. You need one too.”

“I’ll show you tomorrow.”

“I love you, Addie.”

“I love you too, Toby.”

He pulled out.

She gasped.

She did it again when he angled off, rolled her to her belly, nabbed the handcuffs that were still on the bed and dragged her around, capturing her wrists and cuffing her to the iron headboard.

“Oh shit,” she whispered, head back, staring at her restrained wrists.

He settled with his body on her back, weight in a forearm, beard to her neck, lips to her ear.

“She’s mine,” he whispered.

She turned her head, caught his eyes. “I get my turn.”

He grinned at her. “We’ll see.”

She opened her mouth to say something.

Toby kissed her.

An hour and a half later, the fingers of one hand wrapped around the fingers of both of hers that were holding onto the headboard, his other hand between her legs, her head pressed back into his shoulder, Addie had come about thirty seconds before, greased with lube to the hilt, Toby arched into his woman and filled her hot, tight ass with his cock and his cum.

It went without saying, she was officially his before.

But now the initiation was complete.

And she knew it.

This was why she didn’t let him clean her up after he uncuffed her.

She just snuggled into him after he rolled them back and forth until he got the covers over them and the lamps out.

The Christmas lights were illuminating the room and Dapper Dan could be heard softly snoring when Addie mumbled, “It actually was a merry Christmas.”

He pulled her closer. “Yeah.”

She melted into him but only for a few beats before her body started shaking.

“What?” he asked.

Her body started shaking more.

So he repeated, “Adeline, what?”

She lifted her head and looked at him through the glow of outside lights.

“Face fucking, normal fucking, ass fucking. Christmas Toby and Addie style,” she forced out, then shoved her face in his chest and started giggling.

He sifted his fingers in her hair and smiled at the ceiling.

By noon the next day, her bracelet was ordered.

He paid for expedited shipping.

This meant his woman was wearing it before the new year.

So really it was then the initiation was complete.

She was his.

And he was hers.