Love Slave for Two

Chapter 19

That afternoon, Thomas fiddled with the slip of paper. Tyler had taken Nevvie shopping a few weeks earlier, stopping by a department store jewelry counter on the pretense of looking at watches for himself. He’d nudged her around the counter as he browsed until she saw the display of ruby rings—her birthstone—then he insisted on buying her one.

Now they had her ring size.

Damn, he was good.

Thomas walked into the jewelry store and looked through the displays, afraid the ring he’d seen was gone, but then he found it. It was perfect. Two diamonds on either side, with an unusual arrangement of amethyst, rubies, and emeralds—their three birthstones—circling a central diamond.

It was fate. It must be. Tyler didn’t even ask to see it, trusting Thomas’ judgment.

“I know you would never pick something gauche, Thomas,” he’d said. “You love us. Your heart always does what’s right. If you say it’s perfect, then I know it is.”

It amazed and touched him that Tyler let him do this, but he’d make sure Tyler did the talking. He didn’t want to screw it up.

He caught the clerk’s attention and pulled the slip of paper from his pocket. “I’d like that ring, please. In a size six.”

She took it from the case, looked at the tag, and smiled. “It is a size six.”

He slid his platinum AmEx card across the counter. “Then it’s mine.”

He sat in the truck and opened the box. The stones shimmered and shifted colors in the sunlight. It was beautiful, like their Nevvie. How long until they asked her? He knew it would take Ty at least a week or longer to perfect something. He trusted Tyler to do it right. Look how great everything had been so far, Tyler was right yet again, doing it the way they did. That was one of the many things he loved about Tyler, that he took the time and cared enough to put the effort in. Ty was fantastic at that kind of stuff.

Thank God Tyler’s first two wives were too stupid to appreciate that, or he might never have met him.

Tyler was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Thomas hugged him, kissed the back of his neck.

“Where is she?”

Tyler tipped his head to the backyard. “I made her relax. She spent the morning cleaning, damn near wore herself out.” Nevvie was stretched out on one of the lounges. “Did you get it?”

Thomas slipped the box from his pocket. He watched Tyler’s expression as he opened the box.

Tyler’s jaw dropped, his eyes misting. “Oh, Thomas,” he whispered, “it’s perfect!” Tyler threw his arms around him. “You’re absolutely amazing, lover. It’s simply perfect.”

“Did I do good?”

Tyler kissed him. “You’re brilliant. Now go tuck it away in your office until later.”

He put it in his desk then helped with dinner. Before they called Nevvie in to eat, Tyler swatted his bum. “Go get it.”

“Get what?”

Tyler stopped by the back door and shooed him toward his office. “The ring!” he whispered.

“What?”

“The r-i-n-g. Have you forgotten?”

“Tonight? We’re doing this tonight?”

Tyler glanced out the back door. “Yes, tonight. Do you want to wait?”

“I figured you’d have something all planned out.”

“I do. You’re going to propose to her for us.”

“What? No, I–”

Tyler kissed him. Thomas stopped resisting as his cock stiffened against Tyler’s hip. Tyler stepped back and held his gaze. “Thomas,” he whispered, “any man who can pick a ring that perfect for the woman we love will have absolutely no problem finding the right words. They will be as true and real as any I could ever think up. I have every confidence that you will say the perfectly right thing to her.”

Thomas flushed, simultaneously puffed with pride at Tyler’s confidence in him and scared shitless. “You always do this kind of stuff. You’re good at it. This is your department.”

“Thomas, you are the one who asked me so many years ago if we could make our relationship permanent and exclusive. You are the one who had me in a puddle of tears when you slipped the ring on my hand. I have every confidence if you could melt me like that, you will have no problem with our Nevvie.”

He finally nodded. “I’ll get it. Give me a minute. We’ll do it now. I’ll be a wreck if we wait until after dinner.

“See? You’re a man with a plan.” He stepped to the door to get Nevvie while Thomas went to his office.

With trembling hands he retrieved the ring box and looked at it one more time. It was perfect. He slipped it into his pocket.

Tyler sat on the couch with Nevvie. Thomas took a deep breath and walked over.

She frowned. “What’s wrong, Tom?”

“Nothing. We want to talk to you.” He sat and tried to focus on her eyes and not Tyler’s behind her. He took her hand. “Nevvie, we want you to know how much you mean to us. You are the best thing to ever happen to us. I mean from the first week, we felt you were special.” His eyes flicked to Tyler who nodded, encouraging. He refocused on Nevvie. “The longer we knew you, the more we realized something.”

Her eyes never budged from his. “What?”

“We both love you. We love you as much as we love each other, and we don’t want to lose you. In a perfect world, we’d all be able to stand up in front of everyone and make it legal.” He knelt in front of her on one knee, slipping the ring onto her left hand. “Nevvie,” he said, “we want to love you forever. We want you by our side forever. I know we can’t exactly do it the normal way, but we want to know if you’d be our wife.”

She froze, her eyes shifting from the ring to his face and back again. For a moment he was afraid he’d blown it. Then she sobbed and threw her arms around him. “Yes!”

Tyler hugged her from behind, met Tom’s eyes, and winked.

Tom winked back and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of their arms around him.

Friday morning they rode downtown in Tyler’s Lexus. Tyler sensed Nevvie’s nervousness and tried to calm her.

“Relax, dear, it’s only paperwork.”

“Lawyers make me nervous, I’m sorry. After everything I went through, I can’t help it.”

Tyler patted her knee. “It’s okay, love. We’ve known Bob Campbell for years. He handles all our paperwork, and he goes through my contracts.”

“He’s a nice guy,” Thomas echoed from the back seat. “Don’t worry.”

She nervously twisted the ring on her left hand all the way up in the elevator. This wasn’t exactly a normal situation. The office door opened and a tall, lanky man with short, curly red hair waved them in.

“Ty, Tom, nice to see you.” He shook hands with them and Thomas introduced her.

“Bob, this is Nevaeh.”

Bob smiled and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.” The attorney closed the door and motioned them to chairs in front of his desk. “What brings you here today?”

Nevvie studied her hands while Thomas and Tyler exchanged looks. Tyler cleared his throat. “Uh, well, we have an interesting situation for you, Bob.”

“Hey, it’s just billable hours.”

Tyler laughed. “Right. Well, in a nutshell, we need you to add Nevvie to everything.”

She noticed a picture on a shelf behind the desk, the attorney and another man, both in matching tuxes, holding hands and looking at each other in an intimate way. Wedding picture? Maybe he would understand.

“What do you mean, ‘add her to everything?’”

Thomas finally spoke. “Add her. To everything. Make her our partner. We’ll need whatever paperwork you did on us for her, too. You know, bank accounts, medical power of attorney, update the trusts, wills, insurance beneficiaries, etc. Everything.”

Bob looked from Thomas, to Tyler, then to Nevvie. “What?”

Tyler, sitting on Nevvie’s left, took her hand and held it up, showing him the ring. “We’re complicating your life, Bob. As you said, it’s just billable hours.”

Bob tried to wrap his head around it. “What?”

“We’re turning our gruesome twosome into a gleesome threesome,” Thomas joked.

The attorney finally grasped the complexity of the situation. “You’re marrying her?”

“Well,” Tyler snarked, “not according to the state of Florida. Are there any laws on how many domestic partners you can have at one time?”

Bob closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “You guys are going to be the death of me yet.” He looked at the men. “Can I speak to her alone for a moment?”

The men looked at Nevvie, waiting for her consent. “I guess,” she said. Thomas and Tyler left the room and she nervously stared at the attorney.

“I’ve been handling their paperwork for years. I consider them friends.”

“I love them.”

“I didn’t know they would love someone like you.”

She scowled. “What do you mean by that?”

“Relax. I meant a woman. I knew Ty had a thing for the ladies, I handled his divorces. I didn’t think Tom did.” He studied her. “Why do you want to do this?”

She forced herself to stare down the attorney. “I love them.”

“You do realize I’ll insist they draw up a prenup, so to speak. So if your little arrangement ends they are protected financially.”

“Okay.”

The attorney eyed her. “Just like that? No negotiations?”

She shrugged. “If it’s what I have to sign to be with them, whatever. Give it to me.”

He contemplated her. “You do realize they’re worth a lot of money, don’t you? You’re willing to walk away from it?”

“I don’t know how much they’re worth. I don’t care. I had nothing except the clothes on my back when I moved in with them. Before that I’d lost everything in Katrina. I’m not a stranger to starting over, Mr. Campbell.”

“You don’t know how much they’re worth?”

“I don’t ask stuff like that. It’s not my business.”

“Yet.”

“I told Tyler I don’t want to be involved in that. If I need to buy groceries or stuff, I ask him how much I can spend and how to pay for it, he gives me a credit card or cash, and I give him receipts for his records.”

“You have to get permission to buy groceries?”

“No, it’s not like that.” She gathered her thoughts. “Look, they still pay me for working, and I help out at Tom’s office. They won’t let me pay for stuff at the house, won’t let me spend my money, they insist on paying for everything. I tried to get them to keep my pay for food and expenses and they won’t. They made me open a savings account so I put it in there.”

He slid a legal pad and pen across the desk. “Write your full, legal name, social, and date of birth.”

She did while he watched.

He took it and turned to his computer, typed for a few minutes. The printer hummed to life and he retrieved the sheet of paper, looking at her. “They’re worth over twenty million dollars between them. Some of that’s real estate, of course, and Thomas’ business, and the retirement investment portfolio. You sign this, it means you get absolutely nothing if you leave, only the clothes on your back and your car and whatever money is in your savings account. You’re willing to sign away the right to be a part of what they’re worth without negotiating?”

She grabbed the pen and reached for the paper. “Is this what I sign?”

He handed it to her. She started to sign when he snatched it back. “Aren’t you going to read it?”

“No. Why?”

He stared at her for a long moment in disbelief. “Why? You have no idea what you’re signing! Don’t you know you never sign something without reading it? This could be obligating you to be their slave or something!”

A wry smile curled her lips. “That’s a bad thing?”

“Why do you want to be with them?”

“Because I love them, and they love me. Yeah, I know it’s not ‘normal.’ I know it makes life complicated. We’re happy. We’re all adults and no one is being forced to do anything. Isn’t that enough?”

He stood and dropped the pre-nup into a shredder on the floor by his desk. “I guess it should be.” He started for the door. “Why don’t you marry one of them? Legally it would protect you.”

“If I can’t marry both of them, then I can’t marry one of them. They are both my husbands. I refuse to choose.”