Love Slave for Two: Family Matters
LOVE SLAVE FOR TWO:
FAMILY MATTERS
Tymber Dalton
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
LOVE SLAVE FOR TWO: FAMILY MATTERS
Copyright © 2009 by Tymber Dalton
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-441-2
First E-book Publication: April 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
DEDICATION
Thanks to all the readers who loved Tyler, Nevvie, and Thomas the first time around! I hope you enjoy this one just as much.
LOVE SLAVE FOR TWO:
FAMILY MATTERS
TYMBER DALTON
Copyright © 2009
Chapter One
Mail run. Argh.
Nevvie didn’t mind it so much before the baby, but maybe this chore she’d slough off on Tyler. At least it was on the way home from the pediatrician’s office.
Nevvie pulled into the post office parking lot and parked away from the building, in one of the few shaded spots. The baby still slept. Hopefully he wouldn’t wake up. She’d bought the car seat specifically because it had the detachable base.
After Tyler had, of course, carefully researched to make sure it was safe.
She climbed into the back seat. Carefully unhooking the baby carrier, Nevvie held her breath when baby Adam stirred. After a moment he settled and stayed asleep.
Whew.
She backed out of the Acura with the carrier in her arms, locked the doors and tried not to jostle the baby. Then she grabbed her tote bag from the trunk and headed for the lobby.
Tyler always received a ton of mail. It never failed that somehow fans managed to get the PO Box address to send fan mail directly to him instead of to his publicist or the publishers. She shouldn’t complain too much, she supposed. That was a pitfall of being married to a famous novelist.
Well, married not being the legally correct term. By law, they couldn’t be married. Thomas and Tyler were devoted life-partners for eleven years when Nevvie went to work for them as their cleaning girl. She’d always had the hots for the two cuties, but thinking they were gay, never imagined she’d be more than just friends with them. She jumped at the chance to move in with them as their full-time assistant, and then…
Then they saved her life when her asshole ex-boyfriend attacked her.
When months later the men finally admitted to her how they felt, she’d been happily relieved to find out they were bi-sexual. Even happier to learn they loved her as much as she loved them.
Now, five years after she first moved in, they were parents to a beautiful two week-old baby boy.
She sat Adam’s carrier on the floor in front of her and opened the large PO drawer. Sure enough, mail nearly filled it even though she’d checked it two days earlier. Only a few things for Tommy, bills, a couple of architectural journals, and even fewer for her. Yep, the bulk of today’s take was Tyler’s.
Maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty about asking Tyler to take over this chore. Tommy would back her up.
The contents of the drawer filled the tote bag. She locked the drawer, slung the tote bag over her shoulder, and carefully lifted Adam—still sleeping, thank goodness.
Back in the car with the baby safely buckled in, Nevvie cranked the engine and turned the air up. Florida summers didn’t take long to heat a car, even in the shade. Tommy wanted her to trade the Acura sedan in for a larger car, or even swap him out and drive his Ridgeline truck, but she liked the Acura. The first new car she’d ever owned, the boys—
her
boys—had bought for her when she first moved in with them, before their relationship changed from friends to lovers to family.
* * * *
The drive home was short and the sight of Tommy’s truck still parked in the driveway surprised her. She knew Ty would be home, but Thomas usually worked at his office all day.
She gathered the baby and the mail and walked inside. Thomas stood in the kitchen, was about to head to the back of the house to his home office.
“What are you doing home?” she asked, kissing him.
He leaned over and kissed the baby. “The afternoon meeting got cancelled, client had an emergency. I decided to stay home and bug the crap out of you two today.”
“He’s not kidding, Nev,” Tyler hollered from his study.
“Quiet, you. You’ve got line edits due to your editor in three days, buddy,” she playfully shot back.
Thomas grinned, his sweet brown eyes playfully gleaming. “That’s it, baby girl. Ride his ass. Keep him in line.” At six feet, he stood taller than both her and Tyler. Their sweet Georgia boy, his dark, wavy brown hair barely touched by grey.
Tyler appeared, carrying his coffee mug. “You’re ganging up on me,” he grumped. He kissed the baby, then Nevvie. “It’s not fair, I tell you.” Four years older than Thomas, he looked younger, and his boyish face and British accent never failed to make Nevvie’s heart pleasantly thump.
“Yeah, like you mind,” Nevvie said.
“I didn’t say I minded, pet.” Tyler smiled, his spooky blue eyes drawing her in. God, how she loved these men.
Thomas retreated down the hall. “I’m going to do a little work.”
“I thought you were playing hooky today,” Nevvie said.
“No, I said I was staying home and bugging the crap out of you two,” he playfully called over his shoulder.
Tyler laughed. “How’s the mail haul today, love?”
Nevvie gently poked him. “You’ve got mail duty from now on, sweetie.” She set the carrier on the counter and unfastened Adam’s harness, then carefully picked him up. “Tommy and I only get bills. You get luuuurrrrv letters.”
He grinned and kissed her again. “Ah, sweet, you know I only have eyes for you and our dear Thomas.”
“You’d better.” She knew the truth. Neither man would ever cheat on her or each other.
Tyler put his mug in the sink. “I’ll take him for a while, love.” He reached for the baby and she handed him over. While she didn’t find out which man was the father—as far as she was concerned they both were—Adam’s deep, spooky blue eyes were unmistakably Tyler’s.
“Thanks.” Nevvie handed the baby off to Tyler. He returned to his study with the baby while Nevvie dumped the mail on the counter. She really needed a cup of coffee, but knew she should settle for hot tea since she was nursing. While her water heated in the microwave she sorted through the mail and found an envelope from the Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Oh, must be Adam’s birth certificate.
She opened the envelope, glanced at the paper, and then started to lay it on the counter when something caught her eye.
Disbelieving, she screamed. “Tyler, Thomas!”
Both men appeared, worried. She shook the paper in their faces. “What the hell is this shit?”
Tyler, with Adam in his arms, couldn’t grab the paper but suspected what it was. “Nevvie, darling—”
“Don’t you Nevvie darling me. What the hell did you two do?”
Thomas snagged the paper from her flailing hand. He read it. “Sugar, we talked to Bob and—”
“Don’t you sugar me, Tommy! I specifically remember telling y’all I wanted
both
your names on the birth certificate!”
Tyler still hoped to calm her. “Nevvie, Bob told you they couldn’t do that. It either had to be one of us or neither of us.”
Red faced and enraged beyond further speech, Nevvie stalked out of the kitchen. When she slammed their bedroom door it startled the baby. He flinched in Tyler’s arms and woke up crying.
Thomas sighed. “You want me to talk to her?”
“No, I’ll do it. Here, you take him.” Tyler handed off Adam and fortunately Nevvie hadn’t locked the bedroom door. He found her crying face down in the middle of their bed.
He sat next to her and gently placed his hand in the middle of her back. “It’s the way the laws are set up. There’s only so much we can do. You know that. That’s one of the drawbacks of our situation.”
“It fucking sucks! You’re both his father!”
Tyler stretched out next to her and gathered her into his arms. “Technically, no. Biologically, no. In heart and spirit, yes, of course we are.”
She met his gaze and softly asked, “How did your name end up as father?”
“It was Thomas’ suggestion.”
“You didn’t play Odds and Evens, right? Please tell me you didn’t do that.” It was a common way for the men to settle disputes.
Tyler laughed. “No, love. Even we’re not that gauche.” He hesitated. “Thomas said if we have another then we can list him. Age before beauty I think were his words.” That finally drew a smile out of her. He stroked her cheek. “There’s my beautiful angel. Why are you so upset about this?”
“Because you’re both my husbands and it sucks that we can’t do it legally, and it sucks that you can’t both be on the birth certificate.”
“It’s the law as it is. Bob has only so many tricks up his sleeve.” Bob was not only their personal friend but their long-time attorney as well. “We knew if we talked about this with you it would simply upset you.”
“Darn right. Is it too much to ask that I want to be able to marry the men I love?”
“No, sweet. No more than wanting to be able to marry the man—and woman—that I love.”
She snuggled close to his side, drawing comfort from him. “This sucks.”
“It’s just a piece of paper. That’s all.”
“A piece of paper that legally cuts Tommy out of Adam’s life.”
“Bob is working on that. He’s drawing up papers so it’s as legal as we can make it. His name is still Adam Ryan Kinsey-Paulson.”
She fell quiet for several long minutes. “I wish he could grow up and not have to deal with bullshit like this. I wish he could say, ‘This is my mom, and these are my dads.’”
“Maybe one day he will. It doesn’t matter.” He kissed her. “Please don’t be upset about this. We have a good life, do we not?”
“Yes.”
He was about to say something else when the phone rang. Tyler glanced at the bedside table before picking up the handset. “Hello, Mom.” The way he pronounced it sounded like “mum.”
Tyler listened, then smiled and handed the phone to Nevvie. “She’d like to talk to you, love.” He gave her a quick kiss on the nose as Nevvie took the handset.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hello, sugar. How y’all doin’?” Peggy Kinsey was actually Tommy’s mother, but all three of them called her Mom. She still lived in Savannah. Her thick southern accent made Tom’s soft drawl almost sound like a New York native by comparison.
“I’m okay.”
“Y’all don’t sound okay.”
Tyler rose from their bed, leaving the door open behind him as he went to help Tom settle the baby.
“I received Adam’s birth certificate in the mail today and had a little bit of a meltdown. The boys didn’t bother to tell me they listed Ty as his father.”
“Well, sugar, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“It’s the principle.” They chatted for a few minutes before Nevvie found Tommy in the kitchen and swapped him the phone for the baby.
Tyler looked at her. “Are you all right, love?”
She sighed. “I will be.” She spotted the birth certificate on the counter and pointed at it. “Go put that away, please, so I don’t have to look at it.”