The Shepherd (The Game 6)

“It’s settled.” I kissed Archie’s temple and stroked his chest. “We’ll spend the night in my cabin.”

Sloan chuckled under his breath and chugged from his beer.

About time he got laid. And it would be with me. Fuck. Kinda hard to get rid of the images in my head now. Because after we’d played with Archie in the big house, I wanted Sloan underneath me in my bed. While Archie sucked him off.

When Sloan glanced my way, I bet he could read my mind again.

He shook his head, amused.

I grinned.

For some reason, I knew we’d be fucking fantastic in the sack, because he was different with me. Always stubborn, always the mediator, and usually the voice of reason—when it wasn’t about where he would live. But for fifteen years, he’d been the one calming me down if I got too heated. The one who got through to me. And with me, he reeled back his dominance so long as I respected his stance on things. He knew how to put his foot down; he just didn’t do it unnecessarily. He put up with me and my ways. He let me run the show.

I had a feeling we would engage in an intoxicating push and pull, where I would take as much as I could until he roared back and told me to behave.

It was gonna be good to see him get back into kink, even more so now when I’d be right there with him.

Archie was chatty tonight. Two Moscow mules and halfway into dinner, he’d essentially given me a word-for-word recap of his day with Sloan. My boy was mainly impressed by Sloan’s skills as a tattoo artist, and for that I could hardly blame him. I missed the days when I walked out on the porch and saw Sloan with a sketchbook and black fingertips from his charcoal drawing.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve told him to get his own Instagram account,” I said, cutting another piece of my steak. “That’s how you get visibility today.”

Hell, even my company had an account. Ben and one of Cullen and Angus’s employees ran it.

“I get plenty visibility through the shop’s account,” Sloan insisted.

I shook my head. “What if you ventured off on your own? Opened your own shop in Winchester or Fairfax?” Tysons worked too. Hell, even Mclean.

“It’s something to think about, Sir,” Archie said pointedly to Sloan. “And you know…? It doesn’t have to be only for tattoos. The first thing I thought when I saw one of your designs was if it was too soon to ask you to draw my daughter. Parents pay for all kinds of stuff for their kids.”

I side-eyed him with a grin.

“You’re just full of ideas, aren’t you, subbie?” Sloan narrowed his eyes at Archie.

I was a fan of this. They’d had a good day together. They’d started getting to know each other, they’d taken Kyla and Loki to the park, and they’d had some good-natured fun at my expense when complaining about my general impatience to bring everyone together. I couldn’t ask for more.

I’d learned that Archie had also filled Sloan in on my Corey-related concerns, and I wanted his two cents later. I already had Archie’s. He’d been…surprisingly bothered for never having met the guy. I mean, neither had Sloan, but I wanted his Daddy Dom perspective.

On the other hand, Archie had his own perspective that put him in Corey’s shoes. As a consensual slave, he knew firsthand how easy it was to prey on certain minds.

“At the risk of interruptin’ your flirtin’, I would like to make a toast,” I said, holding up my beer. Sloan chuckled and smirked at what I’d said, and Archie got uncharacteristically shy and hugged my bicep. I pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “I’m not one to believe in soul mates, but when I look back on our journeys and how we’ve ended up here tonight, I want to believe our dreams are three parts of a whole.” I cleared my throat and felt a little…exposed, I guess was the right word. “Maybe that’s why I haven’t been able to pace myself,” I reflected. “Because I finally have faith again, and I want these three parts fused together. They’re what makes us a big, rambunctious family—and it’s how you two give me the future I’d pretty much given up on.”

Archie squeezed my arm and dropped his chin to my shoulder. I kissed him on his forehead and caught the warm intensity of Sloan’s gaze. He was still…I didn’t wanna say he was in disbelief, but perhaps a pinch of it. And I got it. I felt it too, but all this was even newer to him, and the hole he was crawling out of was much deeper than mine. He was learning how to breathe again.