Like the Seasons

  

  Suncoast Society

  Like the Seasons

  Boyd’s determined to make his relationship with Caleb succeed, no matter what they must do to keep it a secret at work until they can transfer Caleb. The fact that Caleb isn’t freaked out over Boyd’s long-lost daughter, Ella, is more proof, to Boyd that they’re meant to be together.

  Caleb never thought he’d find happiness—until a friend’s sneakiness brought him and Boyd together. But Caleb knows his family won’t be happy if they discover his secret. Between keeping the situation hidden at work, and avoiding his family, it’s stressful. Helping Boyd’s daughter is not only the right thing to do, it’s a great distraction.

  When Ella’s nearly killed, Caleb steps forward to help the man he loves by taking over to care for her, adding yet another complication to their already shaky situation. But when Caleb’s family decides to meddle, Boyd refuses to back down and will do whatever it takes to fight for his boy…and their happiness.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), BDSM, Contemporary

  Length: 41,441 words

  LIKE THE SEASONS

  Suncoast Society

  Tymber Dalton

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  LIKE THE SEASONS

  Copyright © 2018 by Tymber Dalton

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-089-9

  First Publication: March 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]

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  For Hubby and Sir.

  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 thirty books, 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.

  Honest reviews are always welcomed. They help with a book’s visibility and can boost its placement on book retailer sites. Even a few lines about what you felt reading the book will help. Thank you so much, it’s greatly appreciated!

  Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cXKR7v

  http://www.tymberdalton.com

  http://www.facebook.com/tymberdalton

  http://www.facebook.com/groups/TymbersTrybe

  http://www.twitter.com/TymberDalton

  For all titles by Tymber Dalton, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  Boyd, Caleb, and other characters in this book were first featured in Indifference of Heaven, and that book really should be read first. Yes, Kent, and others, will be getting their own books. Look for Kent’s story in Through With Love. Boyd was first briefly introduced in Steady Rain.

  While 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

  Some of the characters in this book appear in or are featured in previous books in the Suncoast Society series. All titles available from Siren-BookStrand.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Like the Seasons

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Like the Seasons

  Suncoast Society


  TYMBER DALTON

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Then

  I hate my life.

  Caleb stared at the drizzly, cold March day outside. It was easier to sit there in his old Toyota and eat his lunch with the heater running than to pretend to want to socialize with his coworkers.

  Too many of them who knew one or more people in his immediate family.

  I hate Virginia.

  It didn’t matter that he’d been born and raised there. He wanted out. His mother was, once again, dragging him to church all day Sunday. When she’d asked if he had plans on Sunday and he’d stupidly said no without thinking, she’d assumed it meant she could make plans for him.

  All he wanted to do on Sunday was sleep late and vegetate.

  Nope. He would now be attending church with her, and then some sort of social after.

  Where his mom wanted to introduce him to the daughter of a friend of hers.

  Ugh.

  Not going wasn’t an option, unfortunately. Especially since she’d finalized the plans with her friend and the friend’s daughter. If he tried to cancel, she’d guilt-trip him, or, worse, ask his dad to “talk with him” and convince him to go.

  The last thing he wanted was that kind of “talk” with his father. In fact, he avoided contact with his father as much as possible, now that he no longer lived under the man’s roof. Too much risk in his secret being discovered, and Caleb had no illusions what the man would attempt if he figured it out.

  His father was six-four compared to Caleb’s five-seven. Years spent working in coal mines meant he was still as strong as ever and quite capable of kicking Caleb’s ass.

  If Caleb tried to ignore his mother pounding on his door Sunday morning, she’d just start calling him, and then would call his landlord—her best friend’s brother-in-law—to come outside, walk around the side of the garage, and unlock the door to the tiny efficiency apartment over the garage.

  Living less than a mile from his parents’ house, he had zero privacy and didn’t have the funds to move somewhere else.

  He already knew how Sunday’s disaster would play out. Worse, all the while, he’d have to pretend to be het when he talked with the woman. He’d end up having to agree to go out once or twice with her due to badgering from his mom and hers, and either letting her down nicely on the first date, or acting like a dick to her to make her go away because she couldn’t take a hint that he wasn’t interested in her.

  Just like his mother and three sisters, all younger, couldn’t take a hint.

  And his father…

  Caleb shuddered.

  Maybe it is better to play het for a while longer.

  That would metaphorically be less painful than the physical pain he knew he’d experience admitting to his father he was gay.

  At least his sisters had stopped trying to fix him up because their friends all complained to them after their dates about what a dick their brother was.

  During college he’d recognized he was gay, and kinky, but terror that his family might discover his secret kept him firmly locked in the closet while there. He couldn’t date guys locally. He damn sure couldn’t risk trying to find a kink scene anywhere nearby. He had a PO Box at a UPS store in town where he received his mail and the occasional package he ordered from websites, packages that would curl his family’s hair and have them dragging him to church to repent his sins if they knew the contents.

  Those particular toys he kept locked away in the storage trunk he’d taken with him to college, and which now resided under his bed.

  Eventually, he would find a job somewhere else. Somewhere far enough away from his family where they couldn’t easily drive to visit him and drop in without any notice.

  Far enough away his mother couldn’t guilt-trip him into going to church with her, or fix him up with daughters of friends.

  Far enough away he could finally…live.

  Authentically.

  As a kinky gay man.

  A submissive kinky gay man.

  I hate my life.

  Once he finished his sandwich, he used his iPhone to cruise job listings. A civil engineer, he was currently working for the county zoning department and had been for the past five years. Unfortunately, he was low man on the ladder in a department of five, and he made a salary barely over minimum wage. The good things about the post were the health benefits, the paid vacation time, the relative job security, and the retirement benefits—if he stayed that long.

  They nearly always promoted from within. He’d been hired to replace the guy who moved up a step when the head of zoning, Roy Innis, had retired after twenty-five years, and everyone below him had advanced a step as a result. Roy had originally started out in the same position Caleb now occupied.

  Probably at the same damn salary as when Roy was first hired, too. Because god forbid they actually pay a real, living wage.

  At twenty-nine, he felt like he was stuck in suspended animation. Except, meanwhile, he was still aging and life was passing him by.

  There has to be more to life than this.

  He was about to shut down his browser when he scrolled a little farther and saw a job listing in Sarasota County, Florida, for the county, working in their planning department.

  Hot damn!

  One good thing about the past five years—it’d given him valuable work experience that many candidates fresh out of college would not have, and planning and zoning departments worked hand-in-hand anyway, so it wasn’t like he was totally clueless. He copied the link and e-mailed it to himself to look at that night after he went home.

  The last thing he wanted was to let anyone at work get so much as a hint he was thinking about changing jobs, much less moving out of the area.

  Because the first thing he could count on any of them to do would be to rat him out to his family, since most of his coworkers were either friends with his parents or sisters, or attended the same church as them.

  Caleb had forgotten about the job posting when he finally arrived home later that evening. He’d stopped by the grocery store for a few basics for his tiny kitchen that was such only in the loosest of definitions. He had a large sink that also doubled as his bathroom sink, a four-burner hotplate, a small fridge, a large microwave, and a countertop convection oven just large enough to roast a chicken or cook a round pan of biscuits. Maybe a small roast.

  The toilet and shower stall were tucked into a small closet-sized corner. At least it was well-insulated, and the large space heater they’d given him to use kept it toasty in the winter. The window-shaker AC unit kept it cool enough on the hottest summer days. He had free cable and Internet, and only paid four hundred dollars total a month.

  Cheaper than anywhere else, and no other utilities, either. At least it’d allowed him to pay off his car loan. A car that had seen better days, but it wasn’t eating him alive in repair costs yet, so the money he saved not shelling out a monthly payment went into savings.

  He was in the bathroom scrolling through his e-mail when he saw the note to himself about the job listing. After finishing, he grabbed his laptop and looked up the listing, hope swelling within him.

  Maybe a long-shot, but he pulled up his resume, freshened it, and followed the instructions to submit an application.

  Fingers crossed!

  The potential salary at the lowest end would be over double what he made now. Even if he had to buy a shitty RV and live in a trailer park somewhere, it’d be worth it to be living in Florida.

  Hope stubbornly tried to peek through, but he firmly tamped it down. It wasn’t smart to get his hopes up too soon.

  Still, all he could think about that night as he tried to go to sleep was maybe walking along a beach, hand-in-hand, with a guy.

  * * * *

  Now

  Late that Friday afternoon, Caleb was driving Boyd up to Tampa International so he could catch his flight to Portland. If Caleb thought the past few months of his life were nuts, between his mov
e to Florida and his new job, it didn’t begin to compare to the past several weeks and the crazy-good whirlwind romance that had exploded between him and Boyd.

  Who also happened to be his boss.

  A situation that almost caused their relationship to not be a thing before it ever had a chance to get off the ground.

  Thank goodness for meddling friends.

  Even better, Boyd had proposed to him last weekend.

  “I’ve never been to Oregon before,” Caleb said.

  “Neither have I.” Boyd sighed. “I’m going to miss you.” His hand came to rest on Caleb’s right thigh, and Caleb’s hand settled over it.

  “I’ll miss you, too, Daddy.” He smiled as Boyd groaned.

  “You know what that does to me when you call me that.” He pulled Caleb’s hand onto his bulge and squeezed it around his cock before putting it back on his thigh. “I’m going to want to ride you like a pony when we’re together again.”

  Caleb’s smile widened. His Sir was a sadist, and Caleb got his little tweaks in here and there, even though he was usually a masochist. “It’s only a week.” Caleb would fly out and join him next Friday, spend the weekend in Oregon with Boyd, and they’d fly home together that Sunday evening.

  “I know, but I hate being away from you.”

  “But this is a good thing, Sir. You’ve missed enough time with her already.”

  Boyd’s daughter, Ella, who Boyd hadn’t even known about until mere days before he and Caleb took their relationship to the next level. After dropping the news on Boyd that he was her father, Ella had basically disappeared, and wouldn’t respond to calls or texts. She’d finally broken her silence last weekend and contacted him…but it turned out she actually lived in Oregon.

  Now, Boyd was flying out to spend the week with her.

  Boyd gently squeezed his hand before playing with the chainmaille bracelet around Caleb’s right wrist—his day collar. “That’s one of the reasons why I love you—because you’re practical and caring and not a selfish jerk. And you put up with me and my sadistic ways.”