Page 59 of Full Mountie

I look at her. “What are you thinking?”

She takes another sip of her wine as she takes in both of us. Her eyes are dancing. “What doyoulike to do, Hugh?”

I tug on the silky strands of her dark hair and think about that question. “That shifts depending who I’m with. I’m always dominant, though. You’ve gotten a taste of that.” Lachlan makes a wounded noise from by the grill and I wave my glass at him. “Settle down. I didn’t do anything inappropriate.”

He stretches to the full extent of his impressive height and gives me a solid glare. I see how he’s a good dungeon monitor. “Maybe we should talk about this over dinner. Lay out some really clear boundaries.”

“Boundaries are so hot,” I say dryly and Beth pokes me in the chest. “Okay, fine.” I rub my fingers against her scalp and she rolls her head into the touch. “Up you get, beautiful. I’ll go set the table and we can talk like grown ups.”

He’s right, of course. I’d followed Beth’s lead and kept our relationship vanilla so far, but if we intend to seriously add in some kink, we’d need to know a lot more about each other to make it work.

Three way kink.

The possibilities are exhilarating.

As I set the salad in the middle of the table, I catch a glimpse through the window of Beth leaning into Lachlan’s side. He kisses the top of her head. It’s sweet.

Protective.

They look good together. His arm slides around her waist, pulling her in tight and her head tips up, her face lighting up as he makes her laugh.

I shove away the discomfort in my chest. This is fine. This is better than fine, because once this is all over, they might find a way to hang on to that—and no matter what, I’d want that for them. A forever kind of happiness, nothing that burns too bright or too hot. Something stable and warm.

Grown up.

Beth comes in first, carrying the wine bottle and their two glasses. Lachlan follows with the steaks.

She waves the bottle. “Who wants a refill?”

I shake my head. “Not if we’re going to play.”

Lachlan sets the meat platter down and reaches for me, his grin big and broad. “Now who’s being Mr. Responsibility?”

“You like that?”

He bumps against me, leaning in for a kiss. “Yeah.”

“Excellent. My seduction plan is working.”

When we break apart, Beth’s eyes are big and she’s squirming. I tug her close. “And I think you likedthat, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she breathes before I cover her mouth with mine.

It’s total hyperbole that I now taste like him, but it feels that way, like each kiss we share gets more complicated and layered as we do this dance around the triangle we’re playing with. The way she kisses me after I kiss him is…hungrier. Dirtier.

I cup her cheek and hold her against me for a moment when we stop. “Okay. Time to eat.”

She drags in a ragged breath, and slides past me into a chair Lachlan’s holding for her.

The steak is a perfect medium rare and I comment as much.

Lachlan grins. “Remember that guy in Moose Lake…what was his name, John? Tom? The one who kept insisting we needed to do a big steak night?”

“The one who always bowed out of poker night halfway through because he didn’t want to buy in another twenty bucks.”

“Yeah.” He turns to Beth. “This guy talked up his new grill like it was a muscle car. So we all bought steaks and beer and went to his place one night. And the asshole turns them to lumps of coal.”

She groans. “What a waste.”

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