Governor (Governor Trilogy 1) Read online

  “What’s wrong, boy?”

  This has felt like a game, in some ways, until now.

  Now, this is…real.

  Terrifyingly real. “What if Mom cuts me off?”

  “Breathe, Owen. That’s your anxiety talking. You have your scholarship, the car is in your name, and you have us.”

  “What if I can’t afford to pay for any of that?”

  Carter stands in front of me and cups my face in his hands. This isn’t the bastard extraordinaire—this is Carter my best friend, my big brother.

  My Master. “What did I tell you when we talked that Saturday after your birthday?”

  I stare at him and try to remember. We’ve talked so much, about so many things, since that morning. It feels more like years instead of weeks ago.

  He leans in and presses his forehead to mine. “What promise did I make you when I asked about what would happen if you stopped texting your mother?”

  I’m struggling to draw in full breaths now because anxiety has a stranglehold on my chest, my lungs. “That I’d always have a place to live, Sir.”

  “And what did I promise you last night when I asked you to choose this and us?”

  Breathing is tricky right now. I feel like I’m not getting enough air. “That you’ll always take care of me.”

  “That I will always take care of you,” he says. “We will take care of you. You belong to us. To me. We’ll put you on my car insurance if I have to, and I’ll take up the slack for you in your budget. So will Susa. This is something else I wanted to talk about today. I guess this is as good a time as any. You will give me all your bills so I can go through them. Your first job is to keep your grades up for your scholarship. Your second job is to take care of us. In that order, boy. Nowhere on that list is worrying about money. You need my permission to buy things, anyway. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Tears roll down my cheeks but I make no move to wipe them away, per his orders.

  I want to be their good boy.

  “Our first priority is to take care of you,” he continues. “As long as you belong to us, we will always take care of our boy.” He gently wipes away my tears with his thumbs before he slants his lips over mine and kisses me. There is so much emotion in that simple gesture that it makes me cry even harder. These are good tears, though. Cleansing tears.

  I want this. As fucked up as it might seem, I want it.

  I need it.

  I need them.

  “The other part of this,” he finally continues, “is if there is something you need, then you tell us. I’ll decide if it’s what you really need. Whether it’s something big, like a transmission for your car, or something small, like a pack of breath mints. I will loosen those restrictions as we go, but for now, unless it specifically relates to your schoolwork or keeping yourself safe, you will default in everything to asking permission or asking for it. The only exception is when you’re out alone, obviously, you don’t need permission to go to the bathroom, or get food with your meal plan, things like that.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Do you want to know why?”

  “Do I need to?”

  He pulls back enough I can see his smile. “I want you to understand you can trust me to take care of you. The more I see that you do trust me, the more I’ll relax restrictions. I need you to internalize the fact that I control your life now. I need to know you completely understand and believe that I will take care of you.”

  “Yes, Sir.” I get it, I guess. Except I already trust him.

  I trust him, and Susa, a hell of a lot more than I’ve ever trusted my mother—which is not at all.

  Especially after talking to Dad.

  “You realize Daddy’s going to want to murder you, Sir, right?” Susa playfully asks.

  Carter laughs. “Your daddy’s going to have to accept you married me without a prenup, pet. Not a damn thing he can do about it, either. The trust owns the house, car, and fund, which I legally can’t touch because they’re pre-marital assets. He doesn’t have to worry about that. By the time he’s figured out a way to murder me without it being traced back to him, we’ll all have passed the bar and be working. Hopefully, by that point, he’ll see that I’m not going anywhere and accept this.”

  “He holds grudges forever.”

  “He’s never met me,” Carter growls back. “I guarantee you, I can and will give him a run for his money there.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  We don’t move us in completely right then. We’re so close to finals and we need to study, plus the end of the semester is coming up soon, anyway. We stay there every night now, but the moving is easier to do in stages, to grab what we need immediately and bring more over every day.

  We start running the sidewalks through Susa’s neighborhood every morning. And morning shower time usually means Carter bending me over and fucking me instead of just jerking me off. Sometimes Susa joins us, but usually she’s already up and moving and out of the house by then.

  Every night we study, and before bed I usually get a spanking, then he makes love to us. Or we make love to him. Not sure how that should be phrased, but the three of us are usually sated and exhausted when we fall asleep every night. Sometimes it’s hard and vicious and sadistic and exactly what we all need, and sometimes it’s playful and tender with only a little bit of bite to it.

  It’s all fantastic.

  Susa has to drive up to Tallahassee to visit her folks the following weekend, meaning Carter and I will be alone together at the house from Friday afternoon until late Sunday night. Her father has tickets to an expensive fundraiser, a thousand dollars a plate, and it was an event already on Susa’s calendar before all of this happened.

  Thursday night, we’re in the kitchen preparing dinner. “Before you reach Tallahassee, pet,” Carter says, “I want you to put your wedding rings on a necklace.”

  She frowns. “Sir?”

  “It’ll be hard to explain them away, obviously, and I don’t want you delivering that news alone. When we have that conversation with them, I want it to be together. All three of us.”

  Her eyebrows arch. “Three?”

  “I want Owen there for ‘emotional support.’” He makes finger quotes around it. “No, we can’t tell them that truth about us, as much as I’d like to, but I want him there, even if only as a silent observer. Isn’t there an event during the break you wanted us all to attend?”

  “Yes, Sir.” She looks nervous. “Two weeks from now. A weekend get-together for college students. The state GOP is putting it on, specifically geared for those in pre-law or in law school. Seminars, networking. I already have the tickets and the hotel suite reserved.”

  “Perfect.” He looks at me. “Coordinate with Susa, and make sure you and I have appropriate clothes to take before then.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  This means the clock is ticking. In two weeks, all hell’s going to break loose, and don’t think I don’t know it.

  I’m not sure if Benchley will hunt down Mom and Austin and bitch to them to make my life hell, but I trust Carter and Susa.

  If they say this will be okay and that they’ll take care of me, then that’s what I’ll count on unless they prove me wrong and screw me over.

  Which will destroy me in ways I don’t even want to contemplate, so I shove all worries like that off to the side.

  Going to bed that evening, Carter lifts all restrictions, and we’re three lovers. Susa ends up in the middle of us, riding me while Carter takes her from behind at the same time, his cock up her ass.

  Her joyful abandon as she climaxes around our cocks reminds me why I’m doing this with them.

  Because it feels right like this. Even as Carter smiles at me over her shoulder as he starts fucking her harder to find his own joy, I’m struggling to hold back my release as long as possible. To prolong this moment and bask in knowing that I have a home.

  I have love.

  I have more than I ever dreamed po
ssible, even though I also understand that it could all be ripped from me.

  For now, I’ll pray I can keep feeling this happy.

  * * * *

  Despite the fact that Carter and I have shared a dorm room for the past couple of months, and a bed for the past week—well, not counting the platonic times we slept together—this upcoming time alone with him feels…different.

  I feel vulnerable in a way I never have before. What does it say about me that, despite my initial unease, I don’t want to stop this?

  I don’t know exactly what Carter has planned for us this weekend. We both need study time with exams coming up. Except I suspect that he is going to put my body to good use without Susa there to slake some of his urges.

  When I arrive home from classes the next afternoon, the Snot Box is parked in the driveway. I park next to it and sit there for a moment with the engine running to think.

  I take deep breaths and try not to let my mind spin out a whirlwind of possibilities that all make my pulse race in simultaneously good and nerve-wracking ways.

  It’s like I didn’t know Carter at all, and now I have to get to know him all over again.

  Of course, it turns out I didn’t really know myself, either, so I suppose that’s fair.

  The sweat covering my body as I shut the car off and get out has nothing to do with the warm, humid air swirling around me. I make my way up to the front door and take a deep breath before letting myself in.

  The first thing that strikes me is the aroma. Carter’s already got something in the oven, and it smells delicious.

  I lock the front door behind me and set my messenger bag on the floor so I can start undressing. I’ve agreed to this new world order. Even without Susa here, I’ll obey.

  I’ll still be her good boy.

  And Carter’s.

  Carter appears at the end of the hall that leads from the entryway. He’s wearing an unreadable expression. I’ve toed off my sneakers already. I’m reaching for the hem of my T-shirt, and while I’m temporarily blinded by pulling it up and over my head, his hands are suddenly on me, all over me, warm against my bare flesh, sliding around to my back, pulling me against him.

  The T-shirt ends up on the floor and he’s already slanting his lips over mine in a crushing kiss I need a breath or two to process before getting into it.

  He grinds against me through our clothes, my cock responding on auto-pilot to the sensation.

  What the hell am I supposed to do with my hands?

  I opt to drape my arms around him, holding him, my thoughts dissolving as I really start to get into this kiss.

  His tongue presses for entry and my lips part for him, his soft groan in reply making my cock twitch.

  The air stills around us, like time freezing, the world disappearing.

  Carter and me.

  This kiss.

  By the time he lifts his mouth from mine, I realize I’ve dipped a little at the knees, bringing me down to his height. Even so, he still felt taller than me.

  It’s at that moment I realize he always has.

  His brown gaze narrows as he stares at me for a long moment. Then he grabs me by the hand and practically drags me through the house without another word.

  The master bedroom.

  He’s been preparing. I’m starting to wonder if maybe he cut his last class of the afternoon or something. The covers are on the floor, and he’s laid out a couple of beach towels over the bed. His gaze bores into mine as his hands reach for my shorts and he unfastens them, shoving them down my legs.

  Planting a hand in the center of my chest, he shoves, hard, and I tumble back onto the bed. Volcanic-worthy fires burn in his brown gaze as he stares down at me.

  After he hooks fingers in my socks and yanks them off, dropping them to the floor as well, he climbs up the bed, kneeling over me with his hands caging my head.

  “I don’t need to tie you up to fuck you right now, do I?” he softly asks.

  I swallow, trying to find the strength to speak. “No, Sir.”

  “Good.” A slow smile spreads across his face. “Because I want to fuck you in about twenty different positions before that chicken is ready, and tying you up for every damn one of them will get tedious after a while.”

  He sits up and rips his T-shirt off, then easily slides out of his shorts, too. He’s gone commando, and his cock is rigid, dark with the blood engorging it. I wonder if he’s going to get right to the fucking portion of the activities and make me endure it, except then he does something that surprises me.

  He stretches out on top of me, settling his weight along my body and forcing my thighs apart with his legs. Propped up on his elbows, he stares down at me. Not like I’d had a lot of sexual experiences before all this exploded between the three of us, but it’s odd having the hard planes of his muscles pressed against me. Feeling the coarse rub of hair brushing against my flesh.

  The hot, thick cock alongside mine.

  With his gaze sweeping over my face, down, up again, a smile fills his face. “Wrap your arms around me,” he says.

  I do, trying to swallow back my nerves. My cock lays hard and throbbing between us, twitching unbidden. I can’t help it.

  He slowly grinds against me, just a little, and I try to bite back a needy moan over the friction my now desperate cock is being subjected to.

  “That’s it,” he whispers. “I want you to enjoy it, Owen. This is all us this weekend. You might belong to me, but I want you to understand all the good that’s in it for you. All you have to do is be my good boy and I’m going to show you things you never dreamed possible. Okay?”

  This is Carter. This is the bastard extraordinaire.

  This is my best friend, my roommate.

  The brother I never had.

  He’s now my owner and lover and the husband of the woman I wish was mine.

  As if reading my mind, he arches an eyebrow at me. “She might be mine in name, but she’s yours, too. I meant that.”

  “How do you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Know what I’m thinking?”

  Another slow smile curves those handsome lips that are now a little fuller from the earlier kiss he gave me. “I took the time to study and learn you, Owen. You’re absolutely right about that. Susa and I are twins when it comes to getting what we want.”

  “How long does this last?”

  His gaze narrows and the smile doesn’t leave his lips. “There is no expiration date on this.”

  “But…people are going to talk.”

  “Why?”

  “I mean…the three of us.”

  “My best friend lives with me and my wife. We’re all college students. Later, we’re best friends from college and we work together. Don’t complicate this, Owen. It’s not a big deal unless we make it a big deal.”

  “Work together?”

  “Do you honestly think I’m going to work somewhere if the two of you aren’t there, too? I’m married to Senator Benchley’s daughter. There are law firms who will kill to have that kind of juice. I simply make it a point to tell them when we talk to them that it’s all of us or none of us.”

  Bitterness creeps into my mind despite trying to tamp it back. “Great. So I don’t get a job on my merits.”

  “Fuck merits, Owen. Honestly? Look what happened when our country elected a reality TV star as president. You think he was elected for his merits? Merits mean shit. The three of us are going to make a name for ourselves, and fuck merits in the process. All that matters is our integrity and our results. Throwing Benchley’s name around greases the way. I’m good with that. Why do you want to be an attorney?”

  He knows this, but I also know he expects an answer. “To help people.”

  “To help people. That’s right. You saying you can’t help people better as the bestie to Susa Evans and her husband, over trying to scratch a name for yourself alone?”

  He’s right.

  Damn him.

  Double-damn him
that he’d stopped moving, and now my impatient cock is twitching again. My hips almost involuntarily try to rock against him to resume that sexy, hungry grind.

  “You’re right,” I admit.

  “Of course I’m right. The three of us are a team. Susa’s brains and contacts, my tactical skills and bastardism, and your face and moral compass.”

  “My face?”

  He sits up, and I think it amuses him that I whine to lose that contact against him. “Dude. Do you seriously not understand how hot you are?”

  I honestly don’t know how to process that and stare at him like he just spouted ancient Egyptian or something.

  He props his hands on his hips. “Really? Those light green eyes, that blond hair—you’re a fucking poster boy for pretty. Women will be creaming themselves over you in election ads one day.”

  “You sound like you already have it planned.” The thought of running for office, no matter what I’ve said or how we’ve all talked, fucking terrifies me.

  “Maybe I do.” He reaches down and wraps his fingers around both of our cocks, pressing them together. “Maybe I already have a long-term plan mapped out in my head. Contingent upon us all graduating law school and passing the bar, of course.”

  He slowly pumps both of our cocks and it feels like all the oxygen in the room disappears. “No one left behind, Owen. It’s all of us or none of us, in everything we do. So let me remove any lingering doubts in your mind—this is for life. I’m not letting you go. I’ll never order you to leave, unless you were to do something heinous like cheat on us. As long as you want to stay with us, you are mine.

  “I can’t force you to stay, but if you ever feel a reason to leave, I’d appreciate you giving me a chance to fix whatever it is that’s broken between us first before you do. I’ll even put it in fucking writing for you, if you need it. I’m not saying I’m always going to be easy to live with, or that I won’t have fun inflicting some pretty wicked sadism on you, but I know you’re in love with Susa. I want you to be in love with her, just like I want her to be in love with you.”