Mia's Masters [Locks and Chains 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (23 page)

“What led you to make this decision, Dylan? Goddamn you. When I saw Michael fuck up so badly with Grace, I thought it was just some sort of temporary insanity, but now you, too? I can’t believe it. You’re both giving Doms a bad name. What’s it with you Doms and love? As soon as you feel genuine love for something, you turn into righteous dickheads. Well, thank the fuck that’s never going to happen to me.”

How could he have been so goddamn stupid? Craig was right. She didn’t care. She’d been the one to tell the nurse she lived with the three of them. She didn’t want to hide it. She was proud of their family. So what if some people judged them? If they had each other, what would it matter? He had just pushed away the greatest, most beautiful, loving woman on the planet and the love of his life. For what, fear? Fuck, he had to fix this. He had to get Mia back. He needed to put his family back together, forever. “Craig, thanks for coming. I have a lot of things to do.”

“Make sure after you beg Mia to come back, and if you’re lucky enough that she forgives your sorry ass, you invite me to the wedding,” Craig said.

“I’ll do better than that. Book the club for our collaring ceremony this Friday. Then you can come to the vanilla wedding in a few months.”

“How about I pencil that in until you confirm. Or maybe Mia should confirm.”

Dylan opened the door and basically pushed Craig out, slamming the door as he turned and headed for the deck to talk to his boys.

Dylan walked out and saw at the sorry sight of both his boys looking so miserable. How could he have done this to them? It was his job as their Dom to love, protect, and care for them. He had not only failed Mia but also his boys. Should he ask them for forgiveness and kneel at their feet? Or even walk away from them and leave them all to have a happily ever after without him? The answering pain in his chest said he couldn’t live with that. The only answer was to Dom it. He shut the door forcefully, and both Peter and Mathew turned in his direction.

“As your Master, you understand that Mia’s going to marry me. If you both want to make the commitment, then I want her to also be both your wives as well. It may not be legally binding, but it will be a commitment you shouldn’t take lightly. Also with this commitment, you’ll be taking my name as well as your own.”

He then turned to face Peter. “Peter, you would become Peter Burke-Cooper.” He turned to Mathew. “Mathew, you would become Mathew Reed-Cooper. This will give our family consistency, especially when we start having children. But I won’t order you to do this. You must do it of you own free will.” He stood back, waiting for their reactions. He knew he’d shocked them. Only last week he was kicking Mia out the door. Now here he was telling them he and perhaps they were going to marry her.

“Yes, Master. I would love to become a Cooper,” Peter replied, his face lit with happiness and excitement.

“Am I still able to dominate her?” Mathew asked.

“Mathew, you’ve shown great strength in being a dominant. If you wish to further your path, you can also start to dominate Peter as well. I have no problems with that.” Walking up to Mathew, he laid his hand against his cheek.

“However, you will never dominate me.”

“You don’t mind sharing the top?” Mathew questioned.

“Mathew, I’ll be honest with you. I’d love to share the burdens and the pleasures. It’s not all fun and games, and I’m enjoying our time together as fellow Masters.” He leant forward to place a chaste kiss on Mathew’s lips. “You know, having two willful submissives can be a challenge. But I’d ask that, occasionally, I need you to submit to me. Whether it’s alone or with the others, I’ll leave that up to you. But I still need my boy sometimes.” Giving him another kiss and a quick lick of his lips, he let him go and stepped back. He was surprised they held no resentment or anger toward him for what he’d done.

“Dylan, I’ll also cherish the time we have together. I enjoy submitting to you. You can have your sub whenever you want.

With that settled, I would be honored to become a Cooper,” Mathew said with a huge grin.

“Fantastic, so all we have to do now is plan our wedding and of course the honeymoon,” he said to his boys with a matching smile.

“Really, Mia said yes? Thank God. I thought she’d never forgive us and come home,” Peter said with a deep sigh.

Dylan watched as Peter relaxed. Relief radiated from him. He really didn’t want to ruin this moment of peace for him.

“Well, number one, I wouldn’t ask her. And number two, she doesn’t know yet.” The tension instantly returned, and Peter reacted as though he’d been physically slapped.

“You haven’t asked her yet?” Mathew hollered.

“You’re a fool if you think you can just tell her, Dylan,” Peter added.

And there he thought they didn’t hold any anger or resentment toward him.

“Of course, I will kind of ask her. But she’s going to be our wife, not just mine. I had to ensure that you were all happy with my decision and on board. She wears my collar, but she will be our wife.” He wasn’t an idiot. He knew it was going to be a long shot as to whether she would actually accept their proposal. But there was no use walking into this thinking they were going to fail. It would only guarantee failure if he did. Was he being naïve?

Dylan knew Mathew worried that he’d take all the power in the relationship and that he and Peter would be footnotes in his and Mia’s life. He was glad to be able to surprise them and show this really was an equal relationship. They really were going to be her husbands as well. The excitement at the concept of a new era for them slowly etched away the lines of pain that had formed in the past week. He, too, felt this was right. He felt like his entire life, every struggle and every doubt, was to prepare him for this. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that he was forgiven. He knew Mathew and Peter were both still angry with him. But he also knew that once Mia wore his ring and collar, their anger would fade. Mia brought laughter, happiness, and joy to their home.

“What if she says no? What if you can’t order her to marry us? I don’t think you know how upset she is. How hurt and betrayed she felt,” Peter said, worry etched on his face.

“Don’t be pessimistic, Peter. She won’t say no,” he said, taking Peter in his arms. Peter was so distressed, and it upset him that he’d not only failed Mia but also Peter as well.

“Peter, my boy, I have a plan. How could you think I don’t have a plan?”

“You do?”

“I do, and you, my boy, are a necessary player in that plan. I just needed time to resolve things in my mind and my heart before I could commit to the future. I know I let Mia down, and I know I hurt her.”

“That’s done now. Right?” Peter questioned.

“What! You think the whole engagement and wife thing didn’t settle it for you?”

“Okay, okay. I just—I don’t know. Now that it’s settled, it’s just… I don’t know. Mia’s not here making these decisions with us,” Peter said worriedly.

“Dylan. Tell us about this plan to get our girl back, kneeling at our feet with our ring on her finger.” Dylan smiled at Mathew’s words. It didn’t take long for his inner Dom to return. He may have felt whipped and beaten in Mia’s absence, but he was never down. He grabbed Peter behind the back of his neck hard but not painfully.

“That, my dear boy, is where you come in,” he said to Peter.

“What?”

“Mathew and I are her Masters, so she won’t let us in. But you, as her lover and fellow sub, will be able to hold her and get back into her heart, preparing the way for us to step in and direct her.” Peter looked inquisitively at him. He could see the wheels turning in Peter’s brain by the looks that passed over his face. Yes, he could get closer to Mia. First of all, they were friends and allies.

“Okay, I’m in. So tell me what to do?”

Dylan outlined his plan. With every detail, he watched as both Peter and Mathew’s features turned predatory. Even Peter’s body language turned dominant. He could see by the looks on their faces that they knew the plan was a good one, and Mia was as good as theirs.

* * * *

Mia stared out at the night sky from her hotel room window. She felt her heart weeping in pain that seared through to her soul. She’d loved them, and she thought they’d loved her, too. What a fool she’d been. She knew the decision for her to leave was mostly Dylan’s. Although, both Peter and Mathew had stood beside him and never questioned what he was doing. They’d never demanded she stay. So what if they fought with Dylan? What would he do, spank them all? Wasn’t she worth a spanking? What was she thinking? Even if they did fight him, it wasn’t like he would suddenly change his mind. They had to make a choice between Dylan and her. They had to choose, and they did. They’d decided they loved and needed Dylan more. In all her time with them, she’d never felt any jealousy until this moment. Now her green-eyed monster was raging. She wanted to slap them. Beat them. She wanted them to see she was worth it. She deserved love. Why couldn’t they love her? Why couldn’t she be needed? The tears streamed down her face. The sobs racked her body as she called out to the universe for fairness and cursed it for letting her love them.

In all the years she’d suffered and survived, she’d thought her emotions were so heavily guarded that nothing or no one could seep through. She’d forgotten what it felt like to love something and someone. She’d forgotten about her heart.

The very same heart the guys had charged in and laid claim to and then left her to forever live with the scars they left behind. How could she ever again find what she’d had with them? She’d had the lover and best friend in Peter. They would watch chick flicks, eating popcorn and ice cream. He would gossip and bitch like a dream girlfriend, and then make love to her when she wanted romance. Mathew was her playboy, the guy who wined and dined her and then got her to take off her panties in public. He was the naughty boy that every girl fantasized about. He got her to be carefree and laugh and to enjoy life and enjoy being naughty. Dylan…well, Dylan was the man from her darkest fantasies. The man who’d made her kneel at his feet and beg to be taken. He delivered every dark fantasy she’d ever had. He made her commit fully to everything she did in life. He pushed her beliefs and limits every day. He owned her, and she wanted to be owned. Pet, he’d always called her. At first she was taken aback by the name, thinking he saw her as an animal. Then she came to crave it. She loved being his beloved pet.

Now she had nothing. She’d experienced loneliness before. She’d been on her own since she was fifteen. She’d struggled and survived, never stopping to let the loneness in and overpower her. She could do this. She could handle this and learn from it. More tears streamed down her cheeks to drop on the floor as the pain lanced her. How could she survive this? She knew she would. There was no other option. If she could find a doctor to cut it out, she would. Any physical pain was better than this.

The knock at the door startled Mia, and she grabbed her robe from the bed and wrapped it round her. She looked through the peephole, but all she saw was a carton, and it looked like her favorite Rocky Road ice cream. “What the…?” Opening the door, she discovered it was her favorite ice cream in the hands of Peter. Before she could hold it back, a sob broke free.

“Ah! Honey…please let me in. We can chat and put some wasteful calories in our bodies.”

“What are you doing here, Peter?”
God, she must look a sight
. She’d been crying for days.

* * * *

“Is that a no, you’re not letting me in, and we’re going to make a scene in the hotel hallway?” Peter said with a determination.

“I’m sorry. Of course, come in.” Walking through the door, he closed it behind him and saw Mia. She was a mess. Her eyes were red and swollen. She’d obviously been crying for a couple of days, by the look of her. Glancing round the room at the mess it was in, it looked like she’d been crying solidly for the past week. She had never looked more beautiful to him. For her to be in this deep valley of pain, she must love them wholeheartedly.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here?”

God, she looked cute when she was trying to be angry. Venomous just wasn’t in her nature.

“I came to see you, of course.” Walking past her, he slumped on the sofa, grabbing the remote from the coffee table on his way.

“I don’t understand,” she said in a small, desolate voice.

“Are you saying we’re not friends? That I mean nothing to you?” he asked with mock hurt, placing his hand over his wounded heart.

“Ah, Peter, of course you mean something to me. More than you know. More than you should,” she whispered.

“Well then. Let’s find a great movie and eat this ice cream.” He flicked to the pay-per-view channel and began scrolling through the available movies.

“Chick flick or sci-fi?”

“Your choice. It’s all about you.” She sulked.

He switched off the TV and threw the remote back toward the coffee table. “Okay, how about we just sit and chat for a while then?”

Mia looked into his eyes, staring at him as if he had lost his mind.
 

“Peter, you know we’re over, right? You were there a week ago when Dylan threw me out.”