PART ONE AUGUST- BEFORE
CHAPTER ONE – GABE
As a former medic, Gabe Arthur had been in many tough spots. Gabe thrived on any situation that called for the use of his skills and training. But sitting here, waiting for his brother? He’d rather jump out of a plane.
And flying?Nothis thing.
He squinted in the bright sunshine as he rubbed his temples. Seeing his older brother, Cole, always triggered his migraines.
Glancing at his watch, he wished he was home, waking up Ivy, his submissive. He had just returned from a job that took him away for three days. Ivy had a music gala to attend last night, so they hadn’t had time to reconnect.
He thought of calling her and commanding her to orgasm. How delicious it’d be to start her day that way. For him and her.
As part of their D/s, he controlled her orgasms. When she could come, if she could come, how many times she could come, was all up to him. Her orgasms were his. He’d spent hours edging her, learning her body to get to that point. He’d stop and start her, make her masturbate at set times and trained her to come on his command.
And after all that, he added in a cue word and got her to the point where she could orgasm by hearing the word and his tone of voice. His cock pulsed, thinking about it.
His thumb hovered over her number, but the squealing tires caught his attention as a sleek black Mercedes-Benz AMG S 65 stopped at the curb in front of the café.
His brother, a former superstar defenceman, had arrived.
Cole’s towering frame emerged from the car. He stopped to shake hands with people and pose for pics as he ambled over to Gabe’s table at the back of the patio.
“Hey, Shrimp,” Cole said, taking the chair across from him.
Gabe was six foot one. Cole was six foot three. Gabe snorted, hating the nickname. “Hey. I don’t think you can park there. What do you want?”
“Like they’re going to tow me?” Cole flicked a salt packet at him. “Nice to see you, too. Why so rushed? Have to get back to your video games?”
Gabe shook his head, not bothering to reply to his brother. He couldn’t tell anyone about being an elite private security operative for Axis Management.
His brother and his dad rode him hard about being unemployed.
“I don’t game, Cole, you know that.” And even if he did, so what?
“I saw you had dinner atLe Cerfthe other night. How fancy. Did your cash cow girlfriend pay for that?”
Gabe bit the inside of his cheek, getting to his feet. He didn’t need this. Cole should think better about Ivy. After all, she had made his brother a ton of money through Metric, the PR firm she worked for.
“Gabe, no c’mon. Look, she’s coming to take our order now. I’ll have the California lettuce wrap and an orange juice on ice.” Cole smiled at the server. She blushed and looked at Gabe.
Gabe sighed, the chair scraping on concrete as he sat. “Just a coffee for me.”
“You got it.” The server skipped off.
Cole stared at him and smirked.
Gabe wanted to wipe that expression off his brother’s face. It was the same expression he had when he locked Gabe in the closet when they were kids. Or when he broke their dad’s collectable RC plane and blamed it on Gabe.
“How did you even know about the dinner?”
“She posted about it.”
The pulsing in his temples picked up the tempo. Ivy needed social media for her job, and she loved it. But he hated it, and they had many heated discussions about her tendency to overshare. He didn’t want his life online, and she loved posting all kinds of shit.
The dinner had been a week ago. They had gone with coworkers of Ivy’s to celebrate a new contract Ivy brought to Metric.
“What do you want, Cole?”
