“Switch?” he asked, brows up, mouth twitching.
“Fuck you,” Diesel muttered.
Maddox chuckled and it was as rough as his voice.
So of course that went right to his dick.
“You try to hold that door open for me, I’m gonna punch you in the throat,” D warned.
At that, Maddox let out a deep, harsh belly laugh that made Diesel wonder how his fly was holding in his junk, he was now so hard, it was a miracle his dick didn’t punch through the zipper.
Maddox walked through the door two steps before Diesel made it to him.
D lifted a hand and caught it before it closed and he walked in behind Mad.
It was fucked, but without hesitation, he followed Maddox to the bedroom, hoping he’d earned the switch.
He had.
Maddox
On bare feet, Maddox walked down the hall to their bedroom silently.
He stopped in the door.
The room was dark. The sun had gone down after he’d left earlier. But the Edison bulbs outside along with some muted moonlight coming in the big window that had a view to their pool illuminated Diesel’s big body in the bed.
Naked, on his stomach but shifted slightly to his side, back turned to the door, sheets tangled around his calves, one long leg partly hitched, flesh so raw, Maddox could see the welts in the shadows, plug snug up his ass.
D was out.
He would be.
They’d had a marathon session where Maddox had forced three out of him, to Maddox’s one.
Another man or another time, he’d walk into that room for more together time that might not include fucking, instead of walking away from it alone.
But he walked away from it, pulling his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans.
He hit the kitchen, nabbed a beer, popped the cap and headed out to the back patio.
It was August. The heat was definitely still on the Valley and would keep it in its grip for another two months, at least.
Maddox had grown up in Phoenix. Unlike ninety-five percent of the population, he was comfortable in what he was wearing at that time of the year. Jeans and a tee.
It wasn’t like he didn’t feel it. It was just that he not only didn’t mind it, he loved it.
He’d been other places. The minute the temperature dipped below seventy, he hated it.
Lower than that? Trussed up in parkas and scarves and gloves and shit?
Not his bag.
He sat on a slider that had a view to the French doors, put his feet up on the ottoman, engaged his phone and muttered to it, “Call Molly.”
He put it to his ear.
“Hey, Mady,” she greeted on ring two, sounding sleepy.
He was surprised.
It wasn’t late. Maybe seven thirty, latest eight.
Shit, that sister of hers was running her ragged.
“Did I wake you?”
“No, it’s just been a big day.”
“Tell me about it,” he urged.
“Is D there?”
“He’s passed out.”
He heard her soft, sweet laughter then her quiet, “You so totally aren’t saving any for me.”
Maddox grinned.
“I’ll share in total tomorrow when I come home,” she went on. “If I tell you, I’ll have to tell Diesel or you’ll have to tell him and I might as well tell you both. But we’ll just say, the dress works, but cutting seven thousand dollars from a wedding spend is hard work to the point it might be impossible.”
“Sorry, baby,” Maddox murmured.
She was Molly, so she switched in right away and her tone was different when she asked, “You okay?”
As always with his Molly, he didn’t beat around the bush.
“You know Tommy Barnes?” he asked. “D’s Tommy?”
Her tone was vastly different, the alarmed variety, when she repeated, “D’s Tommy?”
“His first dude, started it all for him. Back in high school.”
She was silent.
Totally.
“You know him,” Maddox said, not knowing what that made him feel but he did know it wasn’t good. “He told you.”
“I’ve never heard that name in my life,” she replied. “He’s never mentioned him. He’s never mentioned his girls. That’s not true. He did once, saw it bugged me, so he hasn’t done it again.”
That was D. All about Molly.
“And none of the guys?” Maddox asked.
“Nope,” she answered in a way he knew she was also shaking her head. “But he shared with you?”
“Just came right out with it in the truck on the way home from a movie this afternoon.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s Holly and Dylan and the wedding,” she decided.
Maybe.
More like Sixx and knowing she witnessed that kiss Maddox laid on him during their scene.
“And Sixx,” Molly went on.
Maddox grinned again, reminded like he frequently was of one of the many reasons he loved their girl.
And then she gave him more.
“You guys aren’t right,” she declared.
“I’m tryin’ to make headway with that,” Maddox told her.
“Knew you would, honey,” she whispered.
Yup.
Totally loved her.
And total pressure.
Because it was on him to do more than make headway with Diesel.
“Is it working or are you trying to do that simply by fucking our D until he passes out?” she asked.
“Seein’ as he gave me his trip down memory lane with that Tommy guy, I’m thinking it’s working.”
“Of course, and that’s good, so maybe . . . baby steps?” she said tentatively.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Though I get the feeling from him it was a giant leap, not a baby step. So I’m gonna let it go and lay off for a while.”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured.
“Couldn’t read that, baby,” he told her. “Give me more.”
“I don’t know, Maddox. I mean, we’ve never pushed him, except that once, when you suggested letting that Dom work you, and that didn’t go too good.”
That was an understatement.
“But, I think he’s been opened up now,” she continued. “I think that’s what’s behind the change in him these past few weeks. And I don’t know if it’s in a good way where we can get in there, or a bad way, where if we try to push, he’ll shut down.”
“I’m where you are, Mol,” Maddox agreed.
“Did you hear what Sixx said to him?” she asked.
“When?”
“After that scene, after you guys brought those baddies down at the Bolt. When we were saying goodbye in the parking lot. Did you hear her tell him that the scene you two had was beautiful?”
Maddox lifted the forgotten beer he was holding between two fingers to his mouth and took a draw, his eyes moving from the doors to the pool.
He should turn on the light. When that pool was glowing, it looked the shit.
“Mady, did you hear me?”
He swallowed. “I heard you, baby. And yeah, I heard her.”
“I think . . . he was . . .” He listened to her pull in a breath. “I think he took that in. Like, she’s a . . . I don’t know. Like a counselor. Like an objective observer. Something like that.”
“You think we should get Sixx to observe again?”
The way she spoke next, he knew she was shaking her head. “I don’t know. But he respects her. He likes her. She was like, one of us almost immediately, not, you know one of us, one of us. But she got us. She felt natural being there. I think he felt that too.”