“You want us to make the call, Nick?”

  Nick grinned. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

  Cait looked up at Evan. “I like your blond god.”

  Nick laughed, then stood, clapping his hands. “Our uninvested third party judges have made a ruling, if everyone could shut the fuck up for five seconds! Where’s Beccs when you need her? Hey! Shut the hell up!”

  “I’m only going along with this ruling if it means I win!” Lucy called. Bernie, behind her cracked a smile before controlling his face again.

  Evan cleared his throat, letting the pause draw out just a little. “While Cait and I have deep appreciation for the work of—and all impressions deriving from—the recording artist Macklemore—”

  Lucy whooped. “We won! Ha! Damn straight we won!”

  “—We have to agree that the Ghostbusters take the title.”

  The boss glowered. “Do you forget who pays you, punk?”

  Nick hooked an arm around his neck. “Do you forget what happens when we lose? C’mon, Jase. You really would rather see Luce’s ass than mine?”

  “Well…I guess if you put it that way…”

  Hugh sat down on Will’s other side, and Cait shifted to make room on the couch for anyone else who needed to sit. But the real event was Lucy and Bernie facing off, with Nick hanging back a little.

  The boss took a seat on the armchair. “I just think this shit is weird.”

  “What part of this ‘shit’ are you referring to?” Hugh asked.

  He gestured. “This thing, right now, where two people are talking about spanking a third person. In the living room. In front of people. Like, that’s weird. That’s all I’m saying. I mean shit, you and Nick are practically brothers. This isn’t weird to you?”

  “Lucy and Nick have played like this for most of the time we’ve known each other. I suppose it seems…normal. To me.”

  Jason whistled. “Damn, Tru. You and I were hanging out with the wrong kind of people in our misspent youth.”

  “Me too,” Will said. “Until I met Hugh, anyway.”

  Hugh pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You made everything better. In any case, I don’t find this weird. And the fact that the actual siblings aren’t here is the only reason it’s happening at all.”

  “Huh. No Ally, no Adam. I didn’t catch that before.”

  Nick laughed at something Bernie had said, and Lucy shook her head, smiling, like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Dammit, you bastard.”

  “If you didn’t want it used, you should have left it upstairs.”

  “It wasn’t meant to be used on me, since I won.”

  “Yeah, Luce,” Nick said. “But think of how hot the rest of your night will be if you have marks on your ass.”

  “Let me do you, too, and we’ll match, baby.”

  “Call the costume contest a draw and I will.”

  “Oh, I see where this is going. You don’t want to lose the tie score.”

  Nick shrugged. “I just think a little caning between friends is kind of hot.”

  “You hate canes, Nicky.”

  “Yeah. But Bern’ll make it up to me later.”

  Lucy laughed. “Okay. Deal. Six each, brace on the ladder.” She withdrew her cane again and held it out. “You want to do the honors first?”

  He took it. “It’s been a while. You sure you trust me?”

  “Oh, I trust you, baby. Eddie?”

  Eddie, slipping the straps of his pack from his shoulders, knelt at her side.

  She traced one of his ears. “This good for you?”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  “Stand with Bernie.”

  He nodded.

  Evan didn’t understand all the things that were going on, but he wasn’t totally shocked when Leo shucked his pack with Eddie’s and took Lucy’s too. Or when he kissed her, deeply, while also unzipping her jumpsuit.

  Trust Lucy to be wearing absolutely nothing underneath, and to luxuriate in her nudity. She stretched, hands over head, and Evan wasn’t the only one catching his breath.

  “My heart’s gonna give out,” Cait murmured.

  “Not before tonight I hope,” Lucy replied. She turned and presented her ass, hooking her hands on a rung that was low enough so she could bend over. “I’m ready for my punishment, headmaster.”

  Nick grinned. “You’re a very bad girl, aren’t you?”

  “You have no idea.”

  He played with the cane a little, swiping it through the air, running it up and down her thighs. “This is a cane for people with short arms.”

  “That’s always the problem with borrowing Luce’s stuff,” Hugh agreed.

  She snorted. “Says the man who stands exactly an inch and a half taller than me.”

  “I’m taller in my head than you are,” he shot back. “Nick, would you get on with it? I’m hungry.”

  “Nah. I’m gonna enjoy myself.” Then, without any warning at all, he brought the cane down in the center of Lucy’s ass.

  She jumped. “Mmm, nice, Nicky.”

  He did it again, just slightly lower, and even from the couch, Evan could see the crisp lines.

  “That’s two,” Leo said.

  Nick dragged the cane up and down over the marks before delivering a third. This time he reached out to use his hand and she pushed back at him. “Luce, I swear, you’re actually hotter now than you were when we were twenty.”

  “Because you don’t idolize youth, baby. Nothing to do with me.”

  “It’s got at least something to do with you.” He stepped back and delivered four and five quickly, before she could take a breath between them. Her muscles tightened and held that way, which probably made it hurt even more, but damn, it was sexy as fuck, Lucy stretched out like that, all brown skin and swagger, taking six from the cane.

  Leo’s gaze was focused intently on Lucy’s ass. “That’s five.”

  Hugh cleared his throat. “Lucy at twenty would have never done this. Not without fighting and making sure everyone knew she was the bigger badass.”

  She groaned. “Finish it, Nick. Before he decides to keep us here all night for therapy.”

  “Yeah, remember I was merciful when he does it to me.” He laid the sixth down over the others and she really moaned that time, muscles bunching, breath hitching. He handed the cane off to Bernie without looking and ran his palm over the marks. “How’s that feel, Luce?”

  “Burns, baby. Burns real good.”

  It was Leo who touched her fingers until they released the ladder and turned her for another kiss, his own hands gripping her ass none too tenderly. She gasped into his mouth.

  Evan shifted in his seat. This was probably the kind of group where you could literally stick your hand in your pants and no one would notice. Not that he planned to, just that he could.

  Cait whistled low. “Babe. This is the best party we’ve ever been to.”

  “Glad you’re here.”

  “You know I am, too.”

  The tableau altered, and this time Lucy—still naked—stood behind Nick as he shoved his slacks down and bent over. She folded his shirt under so she could better see his ass.

  “Oh. I’m not the first to get here today, am I?”

  This time the boss was the one shifting in the armchair, and Evan shot an undercover glance at him. It was seriously weird to see the boss blush.

  “Jase learned how to paddle this morning,” Nick said lightly. “It was totally adorable.”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “Awwww!” Will leaned over to look at Jason. “The beach house is totally educational, right? Every year I learn something new—”

  Nick cleared his throat. “We can demonstrate you with a ginger plug later, Willie. I’m working on a thing right now.”

  “We’re definitely not demonstrating that,” Hugh said. “At least, not in the living room.”

  “Unless we’re alone,” Truman added. Will buried his face in Truman’s neck and said something. Truman petted his hair. “To be fair, you did bring it up, love.”

  “Anyway.” Lucy played with her cane a little, clearly showing off. “Six it is. While mine are still fresh.” She looked over at Bernie. “May I touch?”

  He hesitated. “You may.”

  “Thanks.” Then she rubbed up against Nick’s ass, trimmed bush against skin.

  Bernie made a growling sound and Lucy laughed, but stepped back.

  The first two were fast. She took her time playing with them, pinching Nick, making him groan. Then two more, not as fast, with plenty of time in between for him to breathe. For him to wait, which was what he did, untouched, while no one spoke.

  It was a game, and it was play, but Lucy, too, was waiting for something. Nick took a deep breath, almost shuddering, and settled back into his body.

  She laid down the fifth harder than the others and he jolted with it, leaning his head into a rung. “God, I hate canes.”

  “I know.” She rested a hand over his skin and left it there.

  “Reynolds? You gonna share your theory on why I agreed to this dumb idea?”

  Hugh glanced at Lucy before addressing Nick’s back. “You were tweaking Bernie’s possessiveness. You forgot just how much you hate canes.”

  “I really did. Fuck it. Luce?”

  “Last one, baby.”

  Evan didn’t know much about canes. He’d never used one on a person. Wanted to, yes, but hadn’t quite had the opportunity. But even so, he thought the sixth was the hardest yet, and that it hurt more deeply than skin and nerves.

  Bernie stepped forward immediately and redressed Nick while he stood there, still facing away from them, but it was Eddie who went around the ladder and kissed him. Eddie, whose cheek Nick cradled in one palm for another kiss, while Bernie stood close behind him.

  Suddenly it was intrusive to watch. Evan cast about for something to say, but Truman beat him to it.

  “I liked the new Ghostbusters. I’m still not sure why people were so upset about it.”

  “Other than misogyny?” Cait asked.

  “I think I got hung up on how…awful the old movies were. Not that I don’t love them, for sentimental reasons, but it’s hard for me to imagine why they need to be defended when they were so bad to start with.”

  “Men, in my experience, aren’t all that good at sorting out the things that make them personally uncomfortable with the things they deem morally wrong.”

  He smiled. “I completely agree. You don’t watch Doctor Who, do you?”

  “Oh, the female Doctor is gonna happen. It’s just a matter of time.”

  Evan got comfortable, listening to a variation on a conversation he’d heard at least two dozen times before, and watching Nick come back to himself in relative privacy, still kissing Eddie while Bernie and Lucy talked in voices too low to overhear.

  So much of family was performance. And so much of good family was mercy, small mercies, like this one.

  Chapter Ten

  Dinner was a rolling event, taking them through the next few hours. Will gave a little speech, and by the good natured teasing, Evan gathered that this was an annual tradition. He didn’t pay much attention. He was too busy tracing over Cait’s hand, where she rested it on his leg.

  She was going home. They had to leave for the airport around noon on New Year’s Day to make sure she got there in time for her flight. Too soon, way too soon. But he couldn’t help it, so he tried to concentrate on her scent, on her skin, on the way her voice seemed to fit into some spot his brain always held for her, a perfect Cait-shaped space in his aural universe.

  There was music, and dancing, and ice cream that melted as they counted down to midnight. “This is like getting three extra hours of the year,” Cait said, laughing in his arms.

  The party, clearly, would continue longer than they planned to stay. When they quietly removed themselves Will was dancing with Hugh, the boss was dancing with Truman, Eddie was leaning deep into Leo, and Nick and Bernie were sitting at the table, talking, occasionally laughing.

  Lucy caught them at the top of the stairs. “Turning in so soon?”

  “I’m tired, lady,” Cait said, leaning against Evan. “Too tired for any funny business you might be planning.”

  “Who, me?” Lucy laughed. “I’m just saying goodnight. And Happy New Year.” She kissed Cait first, then Evan, and laughed again as she made her way back to the dance floor.

  Cait sighed as she collapsed on the bed. “I really am tired. It feels like a waste of time to sleep, but I can barely keep my eyes open.”

  “Really not a waste of time.” Evan lay beside her, one leg tossed over her legs. “I miss sleeping with you. Hearing you breathe in the middle of the night.”

  “You too. More than I thought I would.”

  He leaned closer, kissing her forehead. “Thought you’d be happy to be rid of me?”

  “Now you’re just fishing for rampant adoration. And no. Not that. But I didn’t realize how…used to us I am. It all seemed so natural, getting together, moving in. Because we were friends and we knew we got along. And then…” She trailed off, her eyes tracing lines all over his face.

  “Yeah. I think I sort of took it for granted a little. Watching everyone here kind of reminds me how much I miss being with you. But also, it sort of makes me…excited.”

  “Excited?” Her lips curled up. “Excited for fucking Mistress Lucy and being blown by the blond god?”

  He shoved her lightly. “No. Jerk. Excited for the future. Like they’ve all been around each other for a long time, and look at them, you know? They keep laughing, and playing, and messing with each other.”

  “And having a whole lot of scalding sex,” she suggested.

  “And that, yeah. Not that I was worried we wouldn’t have that. But I don’t really know anyone who stays together longer than a year, maybe two. And it always seems like they get six really good months, and the rest is waiting to break up.”

  She lifted her head to kiss him before flopping back on the pillow. “We’ve already done better than that.”

  “I know. That’s my point. We’re already beyond anything I really…know. And all these people do.”

  “We could definitely do worse than to end up like any of them. Seriously, Ev, Lucy turns me on.”

  “God, I know. Like I wish we could reenact sand wrestling for you, except I’m not up for how fucking itchy it was. But you would have gotten off right there watching us.”

  She grinned. “I’ll have to use my imagination. You wanna cuddle?”

  “Fuck yes. Naked, though, right?”

  Cait pretended to think about it. “Are you sure we’ll be warm enough? I wouldn’t want to catch a chill—”

  He was already pulling off her sweats, and made his voice drop to a jokey baritone to say, “I’ll keep you warm, baby.”

  They probably should have had sex, but they didn’t. They curled up, and Evan shared more stories of his time in California, and she told him more about work, and even though they kept in close touch, it was different. Talking on the phone was good. Cuddling and murmuring to one another beneath a pile of blankets added levels of depth and feeling to their words, and maybe that’s what both of them needed more than anything else.

  When he was finally drifting off, he whispered, “Happy New Year.”

  She kissed his cheek, where her lips happened to be resting. “Happy New Year, Ev.”

  This was right. So very, very right. Evan closed his eyes and fell asleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  Evan slept in somehow, even though it was Cait’s last morning, even though he should have been up and savoring the seconds with her. He woke up to the sound of…giggling. Almost certainly giggling.

  “Babe?” He blinked, rubbing his eyes.

  Not just Cait. Cait and Lucy.

  Evan rubbed a little harder and blinked again. “Um?”

  They giggled again.

  He couldn’t help smiling. “What’s…going on?”

  “We’re seducing you, kiddo.” Lucy nudged Cait. “Right?”

  Cait was still smiling, but something in her expression made him sit up in bed to look at her a little better. “Yeah. We’re seducing you, Ev.”

  “Um. ’Kay. Sounds…good.”

  “You down for fucking me?” Lucy asked, with a dramatic waggle of her eyebrows.

  Yes. He looked at Cait. Maybe he should ask Lucy to leave so they could talk, except Lucy and Cait had already talked, and he didn’t get a I don’t feel safe in this company vibe from her. If Cait had a problem, she’d say something. But still. Something was going on.

  So he said, “What’s up?”

  “You okay seeing me and Lucy together?”

  “Oh. Fuck yes. Jeez, uh, yeah, that’d be hot. Did you think I wouldn’t be okay with that?”

  Cait sat on the bed, kissing him lightly. “Well, between us, I’m the one who explicitly loves it when you get together with other people. Where you more love that I get off on having sex, with whoever. Not so much the sex itself. So we don’t have to. I’m more than happy to watch.”

  “Oh, no. No, I mean, you’re right, yeah, that I don’t get off on the same things. But this is…Lucy. And I’m here. I definitely like watching you when I’m, like, in the room.”

  “We’ve never actually done that before.”

  “Well, like, not while we were together. But I saw you playing with that boy before we hooked up, remember?” Blushing again. He didn’t dare look at Lucy. “And that was super hot. I’m pretty sure this works for me.”

  Cait laughed. “God, I forgot about that! I so wanted that to be a sex party so I could approach you, but it was more a party with one or two spectacles.”

  “Mmm.” Lucy sank into the comfy chair, throwing one of her legs over an arm. “I love being a spectacle.”

  “I just bet you do.” Cait dragged her fingers up Evan’s cheek. “Lucy wants to eat me out while you fuck her.”

  “Oh shit. Um.” Heat surged across his skin at the idea. “Oh fuck me. Yeah. Let’s do that.”

  Lucy, gaze dark, surveyed them. “Do me hard. I want it intense today, baby.”

 

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