Page 80 of The Dom with the Kink Monsters

Winter moved her mouth against Saya’s, reveling in the softness.

“I had no plans of looking for more partners. The three of you are more than I can handle. I agree, for now.”

“For now?”

“Well –” Winter tried to gather her thoughts well enough to have such a serious discussion. Her throbbing bits were still commanding part of her attention. “I’m good with our arrangement for now. Ramsay and I still need to iron out some details, but I think we’ll manage. When circumstances change, though, we’ll have to reassess. There are certain things that are relationship deal breakers for me, and they’re hard limits.”

“Like?”

“Drugs, excessive drinking, cheating, breeding, for starters.”

“Breeding?”

“I’m not interested in parenting. Never have been. I know you two are planning on having children at some point, and I’m not interested in being a significant other in that relationship. Mack and I went into our relationship with the same rules.”

Saya stared at her for a moment, aghast. “So eventually we’ll have to decide between you and having children?” Her eyes shone, but no tears came. “I do want babies some day, but I’m not ready to walk away from this right now.”

“So this arrangement is fun and exclusive, but temporary. Does anyone have other stipulations they’d like to add?”

A tinny rumble filled the room.

“What on earth is that?” Winter tried to crane her neck, but she was pinned.

“Spider.” Saya laughed. “We can hear him through the baby monitor. He’s snoring.”

Chapter Fourteen

Tracking Bronwyn down in Paris wasn’t a cakewalk. Ramsay had called their mother to see if she had the hotel name, at least, but that hadn’t panned out. Mother was only interested in discussing her own current beau, so he kept having to remind her that he wanted to talk about Bronwyn. At one point he considered putting the phone down and walking away to see if she’d even notice. She’d had Bron’s company name, at least, and he’d called California to see if her employer had the information.

Only when he’d explained to the secretary that he’d been watching Bron’s boy, and that they’d expected her back weeks ago, had she finally relented. Bronwyn was still somewhere in France with some guy named Charles. Things had gotten complicated there and the secretary, Adrienne, wasn’t sure when they were expected back. She offered to pass along a message.

Another few weeks passed. He and Adrienne became phone buddies. Apparently she wasn’t allowed to disclose where Bronwyn was, but she assured Ramsay she was getting his messages.

He and Saya had become pathological liars, feeding Spider platitudes about how she was probably busy and didn’t have time to call.

The only person who wasn’t upset was Spider. He played with them, ate fruit, enjoyed outings to the park, story time, visits to Mack and Winter’s, and got lots of cuddles from Auntie and Uncle.

They got him into a co-op preschool around the time they moved to take over the upstairs apartment. Ramsay had to sweet talk the moms because they were worried about them not having legal custody of the boy.

When Spider turned four they threw him a party at the tiny bowling alley in Cobalt Harbor. No gift came for him in the mail, although with all of the other presents he received, he didn’t seem to notice. The phone didn’t ring.

*

“Your website kicks ass!” Luther grinned when they walked in the door at Sprawl. “It’s about time.”

“The logo is perfect.” Law slapped Mack on the back. “Good job, old man.”

Ramsay had thought the green monster wearing a fetish collar was a little much, but he’d been outvoted. The lettering was creepy too, but at leastitdidn’t have a dangling eyeball. He was afraid it would scare Spider, but the boy had just laughed and said it was gross. Winter had been teaching him “words metalheads need to know.” She’d managed to keep it Rated G.

“Can you play a full set? The Cannibal Death Hippos called to say they were having trouble with their van, so they can’t make it in, but I’m guessing it was more that they didn’t want you guys upstaging them again.”

“Sure,” Ramsay said, not looking at the others. They had enough music, it was just a matter of calling Uncle Donny and Aunt Emma to let them know they’d be later than expected. To let Spider know, really. He still didn’t like it when they left, and sometimes panicked and thought they wouldn’t come back for him.

Fucking Bronwyn. They’d finally contacted a lawyer and child services the day before. Enough was enough.

“We’re expecting a full house tonight. You haven’t played in a couple of weeks and people have been calling to nag at us. If you ever go on tour we might have a riot on our hands.” Law shook his head. “It’s a good thing you bring in money or I might resent being your unpaid answering service.”

Luther pointed at a bunch of big guys sitting at a table playing cards. “Hired extra security to keep Little Red safe. We’ll make sure no one interrupts your teambuilding activities in the green room, too.”

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