Tied with Me

“And now for the gifts!” Jules announces and claps her hands.

Dom steps forward with a grin. It’s still surreal to look at him and know that he’s my brother. Where the rest of us are all fair, with blond to dark blond hair, Dom is dark, with black hair. But he shares our blue eyes.

“You know that I own a villa in Tuscany,” he begins. Brynna’s eyes widen, and Caleb laughs. “I’d like for you to spend two weeks there. Enjoy it. You’ll have Maria, who will come in to cook your meals, but other than that, it’ll just be the two of you.”

“We’re keeping the kids!” Bryn’s dad calls out.

“Is Maria a good cook?” Will asks, earning a punch in the arm by Meg. “What? Maybe we should go there, too.”

“Thank you so much,” Brynna replies and blushes when Dom plants a kiss on her cheek, earning a growl from Caleb.

“That’s not all,” Luke adds. “You’re going to need to get there. We,” he gestures to the rest of the siblings, “have all pitched in to charter a private jet, so you can go whenever it’s convenient for you.”

“You don’t have to—” Caleb begins, but Nate interrupts.

“One thing you know about us, we don’t do anything we don’t want to. We want to.”

“So you just decide when you want to go, and it’s yours,” Dom informs them.

“But until then,” Natalie joins in, a wide smile on her beautiful face, “we’ve reserved a room for you at a bed-and-breakfast at the beach. You can go have as much sex as you want over the next four days.”

“Thank you all, so much,” Brynna replies with tears in her eyes, hugging everyone in turn.

“Let’s dance, sweetheart.” I hold my hand out to her and lead her to the grass where the music has started again. Need You Now by Lady Antebellum.

Appropriate.

I pull Brynna into my arms, and we begin to sway with the music.

“How are you feeling?” I ask her.

“Happy,” she replies with a grin.

“That’s not what I mean,” I respond, and she nods. She knows I’m referring to the injuries she sustained in the car accident a few weeks ago.

“I’m good, Matt. Much better.”

“Good.”

“Are you going to tell me about her?” Brynna asks with a knowing smile.

I don’t even bother pretending that I don’t know what she’s talking about.

“I hardly know her.”

“Didn’t seem that way to me.”

“It’s true.” I look over her shoulder when Nate swings Maddie up onto his back and runs around the yard with her, making her giggle incessantly.

“She’s a really sweet woman. I like her. Do you want her number?”

“I have it,” I reply and smile at her warmly. I never got around to getting it from Nic when I ran out of her apartment two weeks ago, but it wasn’t hard to track her down, since I know where she lives.

“You know where she works now,” she reminds me.

“I’m not going to stalk her at her job.”

“So you’ll just stalk her during her private time?” Brynna asks with an innocent smile.

“Doesn’t Caleb ever spank you?” I ask.

“Yeah”—she sighs and grins over at her husband—“he does.”

“You’ve had your hands on my wife long enough,” Caleb informs me as he cuts in.

“Possessive much?” I ask as I back away.

“Like you’d be any different.”

I smirk, but he’s right. If I found a woman I wanted to spend my life with, I’d be damn possessive.

“Thanks for the dance, sweetheart.”

“Good luck.” She winks at me just before Caleb twirls her away and into his arms.

***

I’m restless.

The reception wrapped up awhile ago. Caleb and Brynna are off to their weekend away on the coast, and everyone has gone home. I’m sitting in my Belltown apartment, watching the lights of my city.

And I can’t seem to get a certain dark-haired pixie out of my head.

I’m not sure what it is about her, exactly, that has me so interested. I’ve fucked my share of beautiful women. Tied them up, had my way with them, and moved on with my life.

Her insisting that she’s not my type should be a flashing neon warning sign that I should just stay away.

No means no, after all.

But she’s wrong. She may not be submissive all the time, but she is beautifully submissive in the bedroom.

And damn if I don’t want to show her how life-changing it can be.

Fuck it.

I yank my phone out of my pocket and dial her number. She answers on the third ring, sounding out of breath, and my cock immediately stirs to life.

All she did was breathe, for Christ sake.

“Hello?”

“Hello, little one,” I murmur and smile when I hear her gasp.

“How did you get my number?”

“You made a cake for my brother, Nic,” I lie, not wanting to admit that I’ve had her number for well over a week now but was too consumed with my family to call her. “It wasn’t hard.”

“You are tenacious, I’ll give you that.”

“Look,” I begin and shove a hand through my hair, “I think we got off on the wrong foot today. I’d like to talk with you.”

“I like you, Matt.” She sighs before she continues. “And, honestly, I’m flattered. You seem like a really good guy. But I wasn’t kidding when I said that I’m not your type.”