Page 43 of Lesson In Honesty

“Wait a minute, wait a hot damn minute. Are you telling me I paid through the fucking nose to get you a cabin there, and instead of waking up your inner Dom from his ridiculously long hibernation, you’ve chosen to become a walking, talking dildo for some couple?” Tristan snorted derisively. “At least tell me the sub’s barely legal and her Dom is too old to get it up.”

“Liam’s about my age, and Sierra’s a few years younger.”

“Idiot. All my years of tutelage gone to waste,” he muttered. “That settles it, I’m coming out there and knocking your head into the closest wall until you regain some of that sense you’re renowned for, brother. It’s the humane thing to do.”

“Like hell you are.”

“Come on, Mack. You’re better than being someone’sthird, for fuck’s sake. When we talked about you going there for a vacation, you were ready to get back on the horse, find your own sub—even if it was just for the month. Goddamn it, Mack, you wereeagerto start learning the ropes again.” Vehement in his response, Tristan’s earnestness lessened some of Mack’sirritation. “For argument’s sake, let’s say you hit it off with this couple. Maybe he gives you some control over his sub, but chances are it’ll be very limited. No independent thought processes or acting outside his rules. After all that, at the end of the four weeks, what are you coming home with? Damn sure won’t be the girl.”

No, he wouldn’t. Sierra’s love for Liam trumped all else as far as Mack could see, and in all honesty, he wouldn’t want to be the reason anything happened to their relationship. If being their third was all they offered, he’d take it because sometimes life wasn’t about getting the girl.

Making friends and memories were often all anyone came away with at the end.

“Maybe not,” Mack admitted slowly, taking a sip of tartness, “but I’m starting to think this is what I need right now. An opportunity to destress and play without the full responsibility of caring for a sub. Or worse, having to learn a new sub’s limits and likes every night. I like the idea of sharing the weight, relearning my own skills without added pressure.”

“Hmmpf.”

“I’m not you, Tris; it’s why we get on so well as friends. I think things through; you’re impulsive. My roots come from the dirt; yours are fertilized in so much money, your blood’s green. I like the closeness and connection of sex with one woman, and you—”

“I’m a self-confessed, unapologetic womanizer.”

“Precisely.”

“Don’t rush to disagree.” Tristan ended a robust laugh with a defeated sigh. “Fine, you’re a big boy now, all grown up and capable of making your own decisions. Blah, blah, blah. So, what’s the girl like?”

That was a question and then some, Mack thought. His gaze roamed over her, enjoying her every bit as much asleep as when she was awake. “Not your type.”

A snort. “Everywoman’s my type.”

“She’s sweet, for starters. Soft and sweet. Compassionate, shy. She’s a Little, just finding her feet, so it’s like watching a fawn trying to stand. Testing herself, exploring her limits. When she has a tantrum, she’s fucking adorable.” Mack’s mouth curved into a smile. “The feeling I get when she trusts me is like a shot of whiskey hitting my stomach, the heat spreading out through my veins. She’s special.”

“I think all that mountain air is messing with you.”

“Maybe it woke me up to what I’ve been missing,” Mack corrected. “It’s fucking cold up here when it wants to be. Beautiful, but by God, it’s brutal. I’ve spent so long being a businessman, I forgot what it’s like to be around people without being a boss.”

“Wait until a shitload of money lands in your account and you can do what the fuck you want, when you want. Honest to Christ, Mack, I’ve never known anyone bust their ass the way you have since college. I know selling is a sore point with you, but you deserve the freedom that’s going to come from all the goddamn labor you’ve put in.”

That didn’t fill Mack with the joy it should. Sure, the pace he’d set over the last decade and change was brutal; he’d pushed himself and his team to the limit as ideas sprang to the forefront of his brain, but they’d created something ultimately more satisfactory. Through the hundreds of hours of living in each other’s laps, the three a.m. pizza runs, the stress and strains of balancing everything around product development and deadlines, they’d hadfun.

The team was as much his family as his parents, his brother, his three sisters.

Once news of the sale broke, Mack imagined his relations would crawl out of the woodwork, hands held out, expecting pieces of the pie his blood, sweat, and tears had made. Not thatthey’d get so much as a crumb; he’d offered them all the chance to be part of the team, to grow the business from the ground up, and been laughed at every time.

He loved them, but he rewarded those who earned it, not those who demanded it because they thought they were entitled.

“Listen, I’ve got to go. I’m scheduled for a massage in ten minutes and I really need a shower before my masseuse arrives. She likes a clean slate to work with and, right now, clean is far from—”

“I neither want or need to know,” Mack interjected, shuddering at just howuncleanhis friend was in this moment in time. “Go, shower off last night so you score with your massage therapist, Tristan.”

“Masseuse.”

“You do know that most masseuses don’t actually like that term, right? They prefer to be called a massage therapist.”

“Iprefer to be called Master, my Master, but it’s usually hard for her to say anything with my dick down her throat.” Cackling, Tristan ended the call.

“Jesus, Tris, youarethe dick sometimes.” Setting his phone down, Mack chugged the rest of his orange juice, the slightly sour aftertaste stinging his tastebuds. “Best friends or not, you can be a giant dick.”

The thing was, Tristan knew exactly what he was—as he’d said, he was a self-confessed and absolutely unapologetic womanizer. He didn’t think twice about changing the women in his evenings as often as the condoms; he’d been known to fuck a woman in a club bathroom, take a swing on the dancefloor with another as a cleanser, then select three or four buxom beauties to take home for the night.

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