Invitation to Play

By Zoë Mullins

Deacon has never been the jealous type. Sharing his sub was an integral part of their relationship, especially before they were married. It’s been a year since they’ve invited another to play with them, but then Deacon and Sherri meet Kai, the intriguing ex-Air Force Captain turned tattoo artist.

Kai didn’t care if people thought he was gay, but having his father – the Colonel – shame him publicly for it was more than Kai could take. He moved across the country to start an honest life. He didn’t expect that life would include a new relationship.

Kai isn’t sure where he fits into Deacon and Sherri’s relationship. They didn’t need a bisexual Dom with a chip on his shoulder... or did they?

Reader Advisory: Grab a glass of wine, sit back and relax. This story has two hot Doms and their pampered sub -tonight no one is going to bed unsatisfied. Graphic sexual language and scenes are to be expected. (BDSM, MMF and MM scenes)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zoë Mullins
• Release date: Jun 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9780995800540

Zoë Mullins

A prolific writer, even in elementary school, Zoë was forever jotting down poems and stories whenever she had the chance - usually during math class. After years of working in corporate communications, she decided to refocus on the kind of writing she loves – sexy, hot romances with quirky heroines, hunky heroes and of course, happily-ever-after endings. She and her husband of nearly 20 years live in Atlantic Canada with their fur-babies (two dogs - Moxie and Karma). When not at her desk you can find her at her favorite yoga studio, camping by the lake or renovating their money-pit of a house.

Book preview

Invitation Play

Book Two in the Men of Steele Novella Series

Copyright © 2017 Zoë Mullins

Published by: Zoë Mullins

ISBN: 978-0-9958005-4-0

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [e-mail]

All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Note: this book was updated with minor changes/additions in January 2019

Dedication

To my friends and family who give their unfailing support. And to the early readers of the Men of Steele series – I think you’ll like this one (wink, wink).

This book is the first book in the Men of Steele Novella series. The books are companions not serials, meaning the backstory, secondary characters and other elements may be easier to relate to if you read the series in order, but the main romance in each book is a stand-alone. You will surely have a pleasurable reading experience even if you don’t read the series in its entirety. HEA is also guaranteed!

MEN OF STEELE SERIES

Book One – Winning Cait

Book Two – Tempting Sophie

Book Three – Finding Dani

MEN OF STEELE NOVELLA SERIES

Book One – Invitation to Play

Book Two – Playing It Cool

Book Three – Playing for Keeps (coming in 2019)

OTHER ‘STANDALONE’ BOOKS

Eighty-One Days

A Risk Worth Taking

Bound to Happen

Inclined to Scandal

Chapter One

May 2016

The last thing Kai expected was for his lover to be placing their infant son in his arms. A husband. A father. These were not the things he’d grown up expecting to be. It was everything he had been told he couldn’t have, and therefore had determined he didn’t need.

He had carefully cultivated the persona he showed the world. Inked, bad boy. Former soldier. Fearsome Dom. Good with a whip and probably chains.

When did I let the façade slip? he wondered. When did I go from being the outcast to being one of the family? To starting a family, for Christ’s sake? How had that happened?

He reflexively clenched his fists by his side as he paced the breezeway that joined the renovated maternity unit to the main hospital. Their kid took after him, a night owl. He’d been born at ten past two in the morning. It was a little past five now. He knew that morning they would be inundated with family, wanting to see the baby, offer their support and congratulations. He needed to get his head together if he had any hope of dealing with them.

Not that they were his family. His parents weren’t going to make the trip. He wondered if he should even call them and let them know that they were grandparents.

They had their chance, he thought. They had it and they blew because they didn’t want to see me for who I am. And when they did, they couldn’t deal.

You’re really up in your head right now.

Kai jumped. Startled to see Deacon leaning by the doors. God, but he’s a stealthy bastard.

Kai cocked his head at him. He hated how perceptive Deacon was. He’d blame his legal training, but he’d heard that Deacon had always been very good at reading body language and picking up signals. He’d also majored in psychology before going to law school. Hiding your feelings from Deacon was not an option.

Kai sighed, ready to apologize, but Deacon gave him a stern look. Turn around and put your hands on the glass.

Kai liked to think he knew better than to argue with Deacon, so he turned toward the glass as instructed. They were six floors up, and the lights of the city lay in the distance. Deacon’s slid his hand slowly over his shoulders until he cupped his neck. He squeezed, just enough to make Kai hiss, even as Deacon pressed his chest against his back.

Look out there, Deacon instructed. Look at all that darkness and those tiny little lights in the distance.

Kai’s shoulders tensed. That was my analogy, he reminded Deacon.

He had described his loneliness once to Deacon. What it had been like before he’d found Sherri and Deacon. I was in the dark, but I could see you out there. I knew you were there, but I didn’t know how to reach you. They were his light, his beacon.

Then you know that you’re not in the dark any more, he said gently. Our family. Our friends. Mama Rosa who thinks of you like one of her own grandchildren, even if you did break my heart by cutting your hair and dying it back to it’s natural color.

She told me you like blonds. It must be a real disappointment to you that Sherri and I are natural brunettes.

Deacon shrugged. She only thinks that’s what I prefer because I dated so many. But that was before. What I like is you and Sherri, and it has nothing to do with what your hair color.

Good, because you also hated how the bleaching affected the texture of my hair.

True but stop interrupting. You do that when you don’t want to have the conversation we need to have. Deacon admonished. Tonight our wife gave us the biggest, brightest light out there. Thanks to him, our lives will never be dark again.

Deke, I swear I’ve tried to hold it together. Sherri was so amazing and that I got to be a part of that is breaking my heart. No, he corrected, it’s bursting. Right out of my chest. It’s so much. It’s more than I deserve or expected. He rested his forehead on the cool glass.

Deacon laid his head on his shoulder, something Sherri couldn’t do because he was a good head taller than she. Sherri had only known him an hour when she’d nicknamed him Moose like the character on Supernatural. She didn’t seem to care that he was only a few inches taller than Deacon.

You deserve it. You should expect nothing less from us. Is the light too bright where you are, in your head?

No. It’s perfect. A tear slid down his cheek. It’s perfect because you made it perfect for me. I love you and Sherri, so goddamn much that I wish— he stopped, and turned toward his lover. I wish I had a family who cared.

Deacon let go of Kai’s hair, in order to take his face between both his hands. So let’s tell them.

It’s not that simple. He blinked back the tears even as Deacon tried to wipe them away.

It is.

You never met my parents.

I know you’ve spent your youth trying to measure up to their standards and the last fifteen years trying to thumb your nose at them because you think you didn’t.

Okay, that’s true, he thought. Except I don’t just think that I don’t measure up—my father made it quite clear that I never will. And Mom, well, she’ll support whatever her husband says. Sherri, thankfully, would never let me get away with that sort of shit.

Do you really think I have what it takes to be a dad? he asked.

No. Deacon shook his head. "But neither do I. Sherri is going to be so much better than us at this whole parent thing, I don’t even want to imagine how she will run circles around us. But that’s why we have each other. Together, we can’t help but be awesome dads. Now if we can just come up with a name for the little screamer. Sherri was so sure it was a girl, it’s hard to believe she didn’t decide on any male names."

Matteus. After your dad, Kai said, turning his head and kissing his lover’s palm. Deacon’s father had become more of a father to him than he’d ever had and it seemed right to name their son for him. Matthew if you prefer, or Matt or Mattie for short.

Deacon nodded, looking pleased. See? You are getting good at this already.

*****

August 2013

Deacon hated that he had to find a new tattoo artist. It seemed anyone who wanted to make a quick buck was moving to the oil sands of Alberta and his guy, Jayce, was no different. He’d sold the building, studio, equipment and all to ‘the new guy’. No matter how many times Jayce said, You’ll love the new guy, I promise you, Deacon could guarantee he wouldn’t love him. Even if he’d reluctantly admit that the new guy’s portfolio was impressive.

But here he was, in the chair with his shirt off. If he wasn’t careful, he could quickly run out of places to put new ink that he could