A Crafty Ever After

  

  Suncoast Society

  A Crafty Ever After

  Following Cali’s health scare, Sean and Max have played the double-Dom card and put their feet down. She will marry one of them so she’ll finally have good health insurance. They don’t care which one.

  Except when Cali can’t choose between them, she leaves the decision in their hands. And because life is never boring with Sean and Max, they can’t do anything the easy way. Where’s the fun in that? Now the two crafty bastards have yet another trick up their troublemaking sleeves to keep their beloved wife on her toes.

  So how long, exactly, can the men conceal the groom’s true identity from their bride?

  Genres: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 20,274

  A Crafty Ever After

  Suncoast Society

  Tymber Dalton

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  A Crafty Ever After

  Copyright © 2018 by Tymber Dalton

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-288-6

  First Publication: July 2018

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at [email protected]

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  For Hubby and Sir. Always.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tymber Dalton is the wild-child alter-ego of author Lesli Richardson. She lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her husband (aka “The World’s Best Husband™”) and too many pets. Active in the BDSM lifestyle, the two-time EPIC award winner and part-time Viking shield-maiden loves to shoot skeet and play D&D with her friends. She’s also the bestselling author of over one hundred and forty books and counting, including The Reluctant Dom, The Denim Dom, Cardinal’s Rule, the Suncoast Society series, the Love Slave for Two series, the Triple Trouble series, the Coffeeshop Coven series, the Good Will Ghost Hunting series, the Drunk Monkeys series, and many more.

  She loves to hear from readers! Please feel free to drop by her website and sign up for her newsletter to keep abreast of the latest news, snarkage, and releases. You can also find all of her Siren-BookStrand releases under all four of her pen names on her author page on the BookStrand site.

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  For all titles by Tymber Dalton, please visit

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  Author’s Note

  This book starts just before the point where A Spanktacular Fourth ends, overlapping some of the events toward the end of that book. That book really should be read before this one.

  Cali, Max, and Sean were first featured in Crafty Bastards, and have also been featured in Kinko de Mayo, Happy Spank Patrick’s Day, This Moody Bastard, Happy Spanksgiving, Friends in Common, and A Spanktacular Fourth. They’ve appeared in other stories as secondary characters.

  Why wasn’t this story part of A Spanktacular Fourth? Well, Max, Sean, and Cali are all sadists, need I remind you. They took their sweet time giving me this story. Once they did, I realized the completely different tone of this story—as you’ll soon see—meant it was more appropriate to tell on its own.

  Yes, there will be many more stories featuring this triad in the future, don’t worry. (And if you want to find out what had Tony so uncharacteristically upset in A Spanktacular Fourth, keep an eye out for Things to Do in Denver, which covers those events.)

  Some of the other characters in this book appear in or are featured in previous books in the Suncoast Society series.

  While most of the books in the Suncoast Society series are standalone works which may be read independently of each other, the recommended reading order to avoid spoilers and to not miss any backstory information is as follows:

  1. Safe Harbor

  2. Domme by Default

  3. Cardinal’s Rule

  4. The Reluctant Dom

  5. The Denim Dom

  6. Pinch Me

  7. Broken Toy

  8. A Clean Sweep

  9. A Roll of the Dice

  10. His Canvas

  11. A Lovely Shade of Ouch

  12. Crafty Bastards

  13. A Merry Little Kinkmas

  14. Sapiosexual

  15. A Very Kinky Valentine’s Day

  16. Things Made Right

  17. Click

  18. Spank or Treat

  19. A Turn of the Screwed

  20. Chains

  21. Kinko de Mayo

  22. Broken Arrow

  23. Out of the Spotlight

  24. Friends Like These

  25. Vicious Carousel

  26. Hot Sauce

  27. Open Doors

  28. One Ring

  29. Vulnerable

  30. The Strength of the Pack

  31. Initiative

  32. Impact

  33. Liability

  34. Switchy

  35. Rhymes With Orange

  36. Beware Falling Ice

  37. Beware Falling Rocks

  38. Dangerous Curves Ahead

  39. Two Against Nature

  40. Home at Last

  41. A Kinkmas Carol

  42. Ask DNA

  43. Time Out of Mind

  44. Happy Valenkink’s Day

  45. Splendid Isolation

  46. Similar to Rain

  47. Happy Spank Patrick’s Day

  48. Fire in the Hole

  49. Pretzel Logic

  50. This Moody Bastard

  51. Walk Between the Raindrops

  52. Rub Me Raw

  53. Any World That I’m Welcome To

  54. Heartache Spoken Here

  55. Roll With the Punches

  56. See You Sometime

  57. Borderline

  58. A Case of You

  59. Reconsider Me

  60. Never Too Late for Love

  61. Blues Beach

  62. Happy Spanksgiving

  63. Our Gravity

  64. Friends in Common

  65. Almost Gothic

  66. Empty-Handed Heart

  67. Steady Rain

  68. Indifference of Heaven

  69. Like the Seasons

  70. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

  71. Through With Love

  72. Judgment of the Moon and Stars

  73. For the Roses

  74. A Spanktacular Fourth

  75. Blue Motel Room

  76. A Cr
afty Ever After

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  A Crafty Ever After

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  A Crafty Ever After

  Suncoast Society

  TYMBER DALTON

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  The day before the ultimatum…

  It was a little after seven Sunday morning, and Max sat on the couch and stared at his laptop screen. Baxter, their black and white tuxedo cat, stood on the coffee table and glared at him because Max wasn’t paying him any attention.

  Max was the first one awake that morning and glad of it, because it gave him some privacy to do this little chore. Currently, he was logged into their company’s employee portal for their health insurance.

  For Sean’s account with them.

  It was six days since they’d almost lost Cali.

  All because she’d been too stubborn to do what they’d told her to do and spend money on a decent fucking health insurance policy. A decision, combined with her pride, that had almost cost her fucking life.

  Over a goddamned tiny cat bite, which had led to an ER trip several days later after it got infected, which had led to Cali having a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics they gave her, which nearly killed her and put her into ICU overnight.

  Now, granted, the cat bite technically was his and Sean’s fault, because the men had been the ones to accidentally spook Baxter while they were experimenting with their sparkler flogger prototype and pyrotechnic technique in the backyard.

  Baxter reached out with his paw and patted Max’s knee. “Maow.”

  “Not now, nip fiend.”

  Compounding Max’s guilt was the fact that he and Sean had dropped the ball in following up with Cali about her health insurance. They’d assumed she’d use joint household funds to purchase a decent policy. Their BDSM dynamic didn’t extend to the men controlling things like that for her, but Max had—once again—assumed a little fucking common sense on her part would come into play.

  He’d never imagined her pride and her self-imposed feelings of not wanting to be a “mooch” meant she’d put her health second and her pride first.

  An idea had been brewing in his mind ever since last week, once their fear of Cali losing her life—or at the very least, her hand—had faded and she’d been discharged from the hospital.

  Except he’d need Sean to go along with it.

  It’d also mean being sneaky around Cali, which wasn’t even part of the problem.

  Baxter grew more insistent and patted his knee again. “Maow.”

  “Not right now, Baxter.”

  He made seven thousand more a year than Sean did at Sarton, the builder they worked for. His insurance was slightly more expensive than Sean’s only because he was a year older than him.

  When he heard their bedroom door open, he quickly closed out the browser and shut the laptop lid, sitting it on the coffee table and heading for the kitchen. Baxter immediately stepped onto his laptop and settled there in catloaf energy-saving mode.

  Sean emerged from the hallway, naked and still half asleep, his hair all wonky.

  And still missing part of his right eyebrow, which was, fortunately, growing back.

  His eyebrow having been another unfortunate casualty of their sparkler flogger experiment.

  Max pulled him into his arms. “What are you doing awake so early, buddy?”

  Sean snuggled against him, his head tucked under Max’s chin. “I woke up and saw what time it was and realized you were gone.”

  Max nuzzled the top of Sean’s head. His guy was absolutely adorable in vulnerable moments like this. “Sorry. Wanted to do some stuff this morning.”

  “What stuff?”

  “Research.” He heard the bedroom door open again. “We’ll talk tonight after Cali goes to sleep,” he whispered.

  That earned him a sleepy frowny face, but Sean knew better than to question him.

  Cali emerged from their bedroom, wearing one of Sean’s T-shirts that fell past her ass—and the sling for her arm. “Please tell me there’s coffee.”

  Sean immediately set about making her a mug while Max kissed her good-morning. “You don’t need to be up yet.”

  “Well, I am. Going to bed early messes with my internal alarm clock. Plus you two weren’t in bed.”

  Her meds made her sleepy, and both men had felt exhausted last night after a day spent out in the workshop to catch up on packing orders and making more implements. That was in addition to doing all the housework Cali wasn’t allowed to do right now after none of it had been done since last Monday, when all hell broke loose.

  Except for scooping Baxter’s cat pan, of course.

  As a result, they’d all been sound asleep by eight o’clock last night, which for them on a Saturday night was a miracle in and of itself.

  Usually, that’s when their evening was just cranking up, their Saturday nights frequently becoming really early Sunday mornings. Especially when they were volunteering at the club.

  “Ah. Sorry, sweetheart.” He tried to avoid looking at her right hand, which was wrapped in a huge, gauze-covered contraption they’d dubbed the Frankenhand. She’d been discharged home Thursday, and had an appointment tomorrow morning for a follow-up with the surgeon, which Essie would take her to. Cali had a drain in her index finger, where they’d had to go in and flush out the infection, but it seemed to be healing now. She’d still be on medicine for a while, to make sure the infection didn’t return.

  At least she was using the sling this morning like the doctor had ordered her to.

  But seeing her wounded hand, it made his stomach roll, knowing how close they’d come to losing her. They’d never had a near-miss like that before, and it’d terrified not only him, but Sean, too.

  She snuggled against him. “Why are you up so early?”

  “Sorry, sweetheart. I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I was researching something for work tomorrow. I didn’t mean for both of you to get up, too.” Technically it wasn’t a lie, although he hated bending the truth to her or Sean, even for a reason as good as this one.

  “I thought I was the workaholic.” A yawn escaped her.

  “You are, sweetheart. No one’s going to take your title away from you there.”

  Sean handed her a mug of coffee. “Damn sure not me.” Sean waited to let go of the mug until he was sure she had it secure in her left hand. It wasn’t her dominant hand, and sometimes she fumbled and dropped things, being limited to the one hand for now. “I’ll go scoop Baxter’s pan.”

  “Thank you, buddy,” Max said, leaning in for a kiss.

  “Where is the nip fiend, anyway?”

  “Coffee table.”

  Sean headed off to do it, leaving Max in the kitchen with Cali.

  Her gaze had followed Sean and returned to Max once they were alone again. “You realize I can do things, right?”

  He upshifted straight into Dom mode.

  Do not pass GO, do not collect a damn cent.

  “What did we tell you?” While phrased as a question, his tone definitely indicated it was more a declarative statement.

  She looked like she was working on the start of a good pout. “I’m not allowed to do anything.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “That Max is a big meaniepants.” She sipped her coffee.

  He snorted. “Sorry, babe, but neither of us are budging on this. You’re going to let your hand heal, and Essie is going to sit on your ass during the day while we’re at work. I hear from her you aren’t obeying the doctor’s orders or our rules, you’re going to see the bad side of me and Sean both.”

  “I feel useless.”

  He got it, why she felt that way—especially after what her ex did to her—but Cali didn’t seem to see the b
igger picture. “If you try to do too much and either re-injure your hand, or the infection doesn’t heal right, you could lose your hand. Now, what makes more sense? Taking it easy for a few weeks, or going through life called Stumpy Junior?”

  She snorted. “I’m not wearing the T-Rex outfit.”

  One of the things he and Sean both loved and adored about Cali was her fiercely independent streak.

  On the flip side, one of the things that irritated Sean and Max, in cases like this, was her fiercely independent streak.

  Except they’d never had a case like this before. Not really.

  And he’d damn sure make certain they never did again.

  But that would require a chat alone with Sean.

  And a whole lot of Dom ’tude from himself.

  * * * *

  Sean was in the process of scooping Baxter’s litter pan when the nip fiend himself strolled into the guest bath where they kept it, ignored Sean, and stepped right into the pan and started digging around.

  “Great, Baxter. Thanks.”

  Baxter squatted, looked up at him, and gave him the kitty half-blink as Sean heard him taking a piss.

  “Maow.”

  “Maow yourself. Lucky we love you.”

  No, he wasn’t upset at Baxter for what happened. He loved the little furball. If anything, Sean felt guilty Cali had gotten bit.

  It could have been worse.

  He didn’t want to go there in his thoughts, but when one is standing and waiting for a cat to finish his morning constitutional while you’re in the middle of trying to scoop his cat pan, it’s not like one had anywhere to go but up.

  Thank god Essie saw her hand and forced her to the doctor.

  More guilt, that he and Max hadn’t paid closer attention to Cali’s hand, much less that they hadn’t followed up with Cali about her health insurance situation a long time ago. They worked all week, and after work were either playing hard with her, or making stuff for their Two Crafty Bastards Toys website, or volunteering over at Venture.