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The three hours on the road didn’t bother me. I was a multitasker with a headset, and I could get shit done on my way to work. I could talk to Ma, my sisters-in-law, my nieces and nephews—and I liked listening to the radio.

When Cullen was overseas, I was Peyton’s emotional support animal. We talked a lot. Despite that she was a vegan. Out of my two sisters-in-law, she was in the top two.

“Another thing you might want to ask yourself,” Lucian continued. “If this is the type of home you want, do you think you can get something similar nearby?”

“Sure,” I answered. “If I become someone with a high-paying job and sell my soul to a bank. I’ll need to steal a rich guy’s credit score too.”

He grinned ruefully. “It’s only getting worse, to boot. This is an expensive area to live in.”

He didn’t have to tell me. Ben was currently trying to find a condo with his pregnant girlfriend, and they’d already expanded their search field. The listings he’d sent me were insane.

“Then maybe Winchester’s where it’s at for me.” I raked my teeth across my bottom lip and eyed the screen. “I’ll leave it up to faith. If the house is still on the market when I get back from Florida, I’ll reach out to the listing agent.”

“Don’t wait too long,” he advised. “Even the fixer-uppers get snatched up eventually.”

It sure as fuck wasn’t true in my case. Nobody had snatched me up.

“Does that apply to mentally banged-up jarheads too?” I asked.

He laughed. “Do you need an ego boost?”

I mean…

“From you? Sure.”

He shook his head in amusement. “Are all Marines flirts?”

“Yes. It’s in our creed.”

He found that funny too. I was a funny guy.

I checked my watch. “They should be here any minute.”

But in my world, the Tenley twins were late. We were supposed to meet up soon.

“Let’s wait inside. I’m freezin’ my balls off out hea.” I walked over to the door and opened it, letting him enter first.

I was fairly certain he and the Tenleys would get along. That was my plan with introducing them, to have a group of buddies to meet up with whenever I was in town. Which, let’s be honest, looked like it was going to become a permanent situation soon enough.

I’d texted Lucas too, but he was working late. Something about a promo campaign for his old man’s business.

* * *

By the time River and Reese showed up in matching leather jackets and black eyes, Lucian and I had been seated in our booth, and we had received our first beers.

“What the hell, boys? Did you get mugged on the way over?”

River— No, wait. That was Reese. Reese snorted and shrugged out of his jacket. “A mugging would’ve been entertaining, at least. We got beat up by a Krav Maga whiz the other day.”

Ah. I’d heard they were into martial arts, but I wasn’t convinced it was just a hobby of theirs. Reese had a way about him, and not just from when he’d saved my ass from embarrassing myself at a Christmas party in the middle of summer.

“At least you’re here—even if you’re late,” I said.

River checked the time and furrowed his brow. “Five minutes late. That’s nothin’.”

“It’s twenty minutes,” I told him. Then I proceeded with intros before anyone could correct me. “This is Lucian. Lucian, River and Reese.”

Lucian cocked his head.

“Reese has more ink if you need somethin’ to tell ’em apart.” I threw that out there.

“No, that’s… I recognize you,” Lucian said to them. “Have we met before?”

Reese looked like he was trying to solve a painful math problem.

River beat him to it. “It’s the vampire,” he blurted out.

I lifted my brows.

“Pardon?” Lucian cocked his brows too.

“Yeah, we stood in line at some club together.” River snapped his fingers, seemingly pleased he’d figured it out, and he sat down next to me. “I think it was your name—what’s your last name? It made you sound like a vampire.”

Oh—I figured it out, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. His last name was Leroux, right? That was the last name I’d seen on his corporate credit card. Goddamn, River had a point.

“Leroux,” Lucian responded, a little miffed. “I remember now too. Your brother seemed nice, and you had your face buried in your phone.”

River smiled. “That’s me. I use it to avoid talkin’ to people. It’s effective.”

I snorted.

Reese sat down next to Lucian and eyed him. “Okay, it rings a bell. Not the vampire shit, but I think I remember you.”

“Let’s not dismiss my theory so fast,” River said. “We’ve only ever seen this guy after dark.”

I cracked up.

Lucian’s mouth twitched, though he held on to his look of disgruntled…ness. “If you wish to get bitten, just say the word.”

Reese found that funny, but he was soon distracted by his phone.

River was just pleased. “Have at it. As luck would have it, I had a shit-ton of garlic in my spaghetti for lunch.”

That earned me a look from Lucian that practically screamed, “And you thought it was a good idea for me to meet these people?”

My bad.

“That’s not luck,” Reese muttered, eyes glued to his phone. “It’s laziness and lack of knowledge of other flavors.”

“Fuck off, it’s brilliant,” River swore. “Spaghetti, butter, and garlic.” He thought that deserved a chef’s kiss, and I was inclined to agree. It sounded great. Throw some meatballs and sausage in there, too.

“Yeah, whatever.” Reese pocketed his phone again. “West sent us his love. He doesn’t want us to have too much fun without him.”

West, as in… “As in, Lucas?” I asked, to which he nodded. “I invited him. He seems like a social butterfly.”

“Yeah, he’s great. Way better at icebreakers than my brother, that’s for sure.” He nodded at River.

I chuckled. “Maybe Lucian can prove he’s not a vampire. I’m sure they serve somethin’ with garlic in this joint.” I nudged River with my elbow. “What else is there? A vampire can’t enter your home without an invitation, right?”

River sucked his teeth.

“Perhaps you’d rather see my crypt,” Lucian said. “It has a poker table.”

What a fantastic segue.

“I vote for that,” I said. “We actually talked about this earlier. Instead of wasting our money at a bar all evening, are you boys up for a night in? Frankly, I’m reaching my limit of loud places for one week.”

The twins looked at each other and shrugged.

“Sounds great to me,” Reese said. “I like poker.”

“And I’ve reached my limit of loud places for all eternity,” River added. “I’m in.”

Thank fuck. I was suddenly looking forward to this evening even more.

It’d been a long week, and socializing was starting to feel like a chore when all you did was introduce yourself to new people and hope you had something in common with them, all while struggling to hear them over the music and a mild case of tinnitus.

* * *

Around the time our food arrived, Lucian and the twin brothers had covered the basics. Profession, which side of the river they lived on, small talk about current events, and whether they were part of any community here.

None of us was.

“Yeah, West tried to recruit us to his new community, but…” Reese shook his head and bit into a sauce-drenched wing. “We met precisely two people there that we liked—who just attended as guests, by the way. Plus, there’s very little sadism going on.”

“You mean Max and Reid?” River asked, seemingly to make sure.

Reese nodded in confirmation and reached for the wing sauce. He evidently wanted more.

I was ready to get a hotel room with my steak. An actual hotel room, like three or four stars. Even the butter-soaked, roasted green beans were incredible.

“So, is M/s your whole thing, or do you have other core kinks?” Reese asked Lucian.

Lucian had ordered the same steak, but he’d opted for the baked potato, and I was trying to keep my envy to myself.

He didn’t have water quals and a combat diving course to dread. I did.

“That’s pretty much it,” he replied. “I love sensation play too, though. Particularly temperature play and wax play.”

Reese looked interested. “I saw a wax play demo once. Beautiful as fuck—but who has the patience? Those wax melts didn’t get very hot either. I held one in my hand, and that almost did the trick.”

“Well, there are different kinds,” Lucian reasoned. “I’ll have to add that I do possess that patience.” He smirked a little. “I’ll happily start with melts that only require body temperature—and then work my way up to the candles that sting and burn when you pour the wax.”

I chewed and swallowed. “That’s how I feel about bondage. The artsy kind. Yeah, it’s stunning to see the final result, but I once wasted four hours watching a couple tie up their sub, who fucking fell asleep onstage.”

I’d seen other kinds too, of course. Most of them were an impressive workout, especially for the rope bottom.

Lucian smiled and reached for his beer. “What do you have patience for, then?”

“Torture,” River responded, almost as if he had no control of his answer. Like it just fell out. “All kinds of mental torture. Mental sadism, mindfucks, behavioral conditioning, fear play…”

The guy spoke my language.

“What River said,” I replied, cutting another piece of my steak. “I reckon what it boils down to for me is… I want my partner to be my toy. I don’t care much for playrooms filled with implements and kink furniture. With some exceptions, of course. They offer a nice extra spice every now and then.”

Lucian nodded slowly, pensive. “I suppose that’s how I separate the lifestyle from specific playtime. It’s my hope to enter a twenty-four-seven kind of dynamic one day, and it’s not as if I’m interested in using toys every hour of the day. They’d be like extra hobbies.”

My mouth was full of food, so I could only nod and point my fork at him, ’cause he was dead-on. That was how I viewed it too.

“I’m not sure we’re the lifestyle kind of guys,” Reese said thoughtfully. He was watching his brother. “Granted, our jobs don’t allow for any deeper relationships—we travel too much—but it’s mostly been one session after another, nothing that bleeds into everyday life.”