The idea of having them both go nuts on me…
Jesus Christ.
No one needed to explain why there was a parade of masochists dreaming of playing with them. Hell, there was an entire fucking group on our online platform dedicated to their play, and I’d never once seen River and Reese in there. It was just their own little following that loved to brag about having gotten the chance to play with them. As far as I knew, no one had been in an actual relationship with them. But men—and women—definitely lined up to try. I’d seen them in action a couple times, once with Ivy, a friend in the community. She was close to them and often volunteered when they wanted someone to demonstrate on.
It was through the grapevine I’d learned they were gay, but their public sessions were typically nonsexual. They were in it for the pain.
I wondered if they were fuck—
“Oh, Santiago’s here!” Isela pointed. “The man in the blue button-down.”
Everything was blue under these lights.
I followed her gaze to a tall, broad-shouldered man near the corner. Definitely smoking hot. He had more salt than pepper in his hair and trimmed beard. Talk about Daddy material.
“Is he from there, or…?” I couldn’t tell in the darkness.
Isela responded, but I couldn’t hear her over the music, so I leaned down and asked her to repeat that.
“He grew up there,” she said, louder this time. “His mama is from Chile, but his father is American. His real name is Joshua Jones.” Her dreamy sigh got lost in the music, but I’d recognize that look in her eyes anywhere. “I would so snatch him up if he were at least bisexual.”
Hmm.
“But you know what?” Isela spun on me and faced me dead on with a smirk. “You should ask River and Reese before you try Santiago. They are your perfect fit. With Santiago—you never know.” She tapped her temple. “He works in law enforcement, yes? He’s always digging.”
She should’ve led with that. Santiago was out.
I slid a hesitant look to the Tenleys. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to get them out the way by approaching them and having my suspicions confirmed. Then I could move on to someone else.
“Asking them won’t kill me,” I decided. “Wish me luck.”
“I don’t think you need it!” She grinned and gestured for me to go already. “How can they resist a gorgeous maso like you?”
I chuckled and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before I left her behind.
The familiar question rolled forward and settled on my tongue. The same question I asked all Sadists, the one that would weed out the good ones and let me know who was bad enough to make me suffer properly.
There was a beeping sound effect in the song blaring through the room that shoved two-year-old memories to the forefront of my mind, causing my chest to constrict uncomfortably. Whenever I blinked, I saw Myah in a hospital bed with a machine that breathed for her. I’d been there when her heart rate had weakened to eventually give up. I’d heard the suffocating silence when the machine let me know I would have to tell TJ and Levi she hadn’t made it.
I swallowed hard and shifted the lollipop to the other side again. I didn’t want it anymore. I wanted to throw up, and my stomach felt more unsettled now.
The strobe lights hit me as I reached their table, and one of the brothers tilted his head at me.
In the bright flash of the light, all I saw were piercing moss-green eyes and copper-colored hair.
Just as quickly, the lights rolled away.
I planted my palms on the table and gave them my most assertive look. “Are you looking for play partners?”
“Not really,” he said. “But we don’t throw away winning tickets either.”
I wasn’t a winning ticket, but whatever.
I asked my question. “Will you beat me without knowing the reason?”
The two gave me a once-over, one a bit more stone-cold than the other. It was impossible to tell them apart, except for the menacing-looking tattoo one of them had on the side of his neck. There was a longhorn skull and some other shit.
He was the one who replied again. “Sure. It’s your funeral.”
Fucking really?
These two? After the shit I’d gotten from that Penelope chick they ran the community with?
The twin with the tattoo on his neck kicked out the available chair on the other side of the small table. “Tell us what pain you’re looking for.”
Oh, I could do that. I could definitely do that.
I sat down across from them and took out my lollipop, gesturing it between them. “Who’s River, and who’s Reese?”
Neck Tattoo was clearly the talker. “I’m Reese.”
Reese, all right. Christ, they were hot. Hotter up close.
“Do you recognize me?” I had to ask. No matter how “exclusive” they liked to call their own group of kinksters, they still had nearly 150 members.