JORDAN
Hookups have always been my thing, and exploring new ways of playing has me…curious. The idea of submitting to someone’s total domination and care? It feels right when not much else in my life has.
DAVID
Dominance and submission have always been things I need in my life, even when it made me lose someone I loved. It’s a thrilling, fulfilling spark when a submissive hands control over to me. And, for the right man, at the right time, maybe I need to be the one forced to my knees.
IAN
I’ve never understood the need to be submissive—or Dominant, for that matter. Trust doesn’t come easily for me. But there was that one time when I watched my best friend with his Sir, and it roused something in me I don’t want to admit. Just like I can’t acknowledge out loud how alone I feel.
Then my friend Jordan decides to play with David, a Dominant we both know, and I think I’m jealous. They intrigue me separately, but together, Jordan and David make my interest even more explosive. Maybe I want to let go, to let someone else take the reins, so I can just be. When the three of us decide to explore together, I realize how good it can feel to be submissive, but I like the other side of it too. Discovering both my submissive and my dominant sides with them is just playing. I don’t have it in me to fall in love with one person, so how can I risk the pain of loving two?
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CHAPTER ONE
Ian
The sun glinted off the pool, giving it a shimmering look. Pop music played through the speakers Aidan had installed in the backyard after my best friend, Finley, had mentioned it offhandedly one day. That was the way things always seemed to go. Aidan, Finley’s partner, spoiled Fin like crazy. There was a time when I was maybe a little jealous—not that I would ever tell Finley that—but then I remembered that he crawled around the house for Aidan, called him Sir, got punished, and served Aidan, and that jealousy evaporated right the hell up real quickly.
Finley loved that shit. It was what he wanted, what he’d always wanted, even before Aidan. I would lose my damn mind if I did the stuff Finley did, so yeah, he might have a wonderful Sir who loved him, who would do anything for him, and lived in a big, beautiful home, but I wasn’t jealous. I didn’t think I was, at least. Sometimes I might have wondered a bit, then reminded myself that wasn’t me. The kind of trust you had to have to do what they did…that was something I didn’t have to give.
“I’m so glad it’s summer,” Finley said from the chaise lounge to my left. Our friend Jordan sat to my right.
Fin and I had met in a foster home. The parents hadn’t cared about us—we were a paycheck for them—but then they caught us kissing, and they cared a whole hell of a lot. I turned eighteen right after, so Finley and I took off. He was seventeen at the time, and I’m not gonna lie and say it was easy. LA wasn’t for the faint of heart, but I’d loved him like a brother and would have done anything to take care of him…I’d done things to take care of him, when one or both of us couldn’t find a job or a place to live. Fin didn’t know about some of the things I’d done to keep us afloat.
Jordan had come around more recently. He and Finley had met at school, and Jordan had hit on him. It didn’t go anywhere, since Finley was crazy about Aidan, and, well, he and Jordan wouldn’t be compatible sexually. But we’d all become good friends. That had been a little over two years ago.
“Me too. I love summer,” Jordan replied. “I swear, it feels like I’ll never graduate. I can’t afford to take more than a couple of classes at a time. Sometimes I feel like I should just drop out. What’s the point?”
They were both attending a local community college. I didn’t get it, myself, but I was proud of them for getting shit done.
“I could help…” Finley offered tentatively. “I have the money from my inheritance, and I know Aidan would—”
“No. Hell no. I told you I wanted a sugar daddy, but I don’t want to take money from my best friend or his Sir.” Jordan winked as if he was joking about the sugar daddy thing, but I wasn’t sure if he really was.
“Well, the offer stands.”
Such a Finley thing to say or do. He tried to give me money all the time too, but I never took it. Finley was the only person I ever truly let in. I wouldn’t be his charity case. And he only had money outside of Aidan now because Aidan had looked into finding Fin’s family. He had an aunt, uncle, and nieces in Texas, and his aunt had given him his mom’s share of what she’d inherited.
A timer went off on Finley’s phone. “I need to put Aidan’s clothes in the dryer.” He smiled. I couldn’t make sense of it, but this was Finley and I loved him, which was all that mattered. I just…couldn’t wrap my brain around wanting to serve someone like he did—doing his laundry, chores, cooking. It was all so foreign to me.
“You are so weird,” I teased.
“Be nice.” He swatted me. “I like to take care of him…need to take care of him. Serving Aidan makes me feel complete in ways I would never have without it.”
“I know. I was playing around.”
Jordan piped in, “I mean, the sex part wouldn’t be bad, but I’m not sure about the rest of it.”
“Hold that thought,” Finley said. “I’ll be right back.”
Jordan and I chatted for a few minutes while Fin took care of laundry. When he came back, Jordan twisted around so he sat sideways on the chair, facing us, with his legs folded beneath him. “I’m thinking about hooking up with David.”
My pulse jumped, beating a rapid rhythm against my skin, just as Finley said, “Wait. What?”
David was Aidan’s best friend. They were both surgeons—Aidan trauma and David in orthopedics. He was a Dominant like Aidan, or…a switch, I thought they’d called it. From what Finley said, he was a Dominant most of the time but would submit for the right guy. He used to do it for Aidan sometimes.
Jordan ran a hand through his brown hair, a familiar gleam in his green eyes. “I haven’t decided yet, but you know I’ve always been interested in the lifestyle. I’ve had a lot of sex and done a lot of things, but not that, and I figure, who better than David? He’s a Dom, I trust him, he’s hot. He would be perfect for me to test the waters with.”
I shifted uncomfortably, my stomach knotting up, but I wasn’t quite sure why. David was around with Aidan a lot, Jordan and I with Finley, so it made sense. David was…a friend in some ways, though I couldn’t imagine he would really want to be friends with me. He was eighteen years older than me, smart, responsible, wealthy. But I was positive he would want to fuck Jordan and do…whatever it was he did with people. Jordan was gorgeous, outgoing and all that.
“Oh my God!” Finley exclaimed. “What if you and David end up together? It would be perfect. He deserves someone. I want him to be happy.” He started fidgeting. Finley got excited by things like this, and of course his mind went straight from fucking to a relationship.