Clifftop Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Cassidy Browning

Just because Brad’s father objected to nudity, that didn’t mean she should be ashamed of her past. And it might make sense to sell the pictures and use the money to support her dreams now. Even if Brad rejected her, she knew she could be strong enough to take care of herself, whether or not Karl stayed.
    She didn’t like the idea of Karl leaving, she thought as she started back toward the house. He’d been a huge help, not only with the physical labor of renovating the house, but also in giving her advice about decorating. He’d helped her pick out color schemes and taught her about the way light and shadow could be used to accent the architectural features of the house. She’d supposed at first that he was gay, and that had taken away any discomfort about working so closely with him. Now she wondered how she could have ever made that assumption. He was artistic, yes, but that didn’t mean anything. Being near him made her feel comfortable, as if he would keep her from making any bad mistakes, and she’d trusted his decorating advice implicitly. He had never pushed her into dealing with the erotic photography, although he’d teased and flirted with her about it. She’d laughed and flirted back, thinking that he’d had no interest in her except as the daughter of his lover, someone he wanted to help. She hadn’t been present for the reading of the will, so she had no idea what legacies had been left to anyone other than herself. She hadn’t really expected anything from her father, knowing his tendency to spend every penny he made without any thought to his responsibilities. When she’d asked her mother about getting child support from him, her mother replied haughtily that she wouldn’t dream of it. Besides, she’d said, Allie’s father had an uncanny knack of making and surviving on nothing, and you couldn’t get blood from a stone. Allie thought that maybe Karl had handled their money, thereby hiding any assets he’d had. But as an adult there had seemed to be no way to ask and no hope of recovering anything that should have been hers. She’d decided that if Karl had taken care of her eccentric and often disagreeable parent, he probably deserved any money he’d been able to acquire. She was happy with her house, and if she lost it, she knew it would be her own fault, not Karl’s. He had done everything he could to help her.
    Now that she was reasonably sure he hadn’t been her father’s lover, she found that her attraction to him was growing. Images flashed through her mind of the two of them working together, laughing at the sight of each other covered in wallpaper paste, going over paint samples and arguing about the best placement of pictures. She always gave in to him at the end of those arguments. Mostly she liked to listen to him explain how one placement was better than another because of angles or light or some other thing she would never have thought of. When he was in teacher mode, his warm, green eyes would get a distracted look and his voice would take on a deep, sensuous tone that made her knees go weak. If Brad really did leave, maybe Karl…She had a vision of their evenings alone, the three of them having dinner, laughing about something, and wished there was a way they could go back to that, even though it would mean she couldn’t hope to ever act on her attraction to Karl. Maybe it would be enough to reclaim the comfortable feeling of being around them both.
    But there was no point in that kind of speculation right now, she knew. First she had to try to save her relationship. Brad might be overreacting to his discovery, but at least everything was out in the open now. Maybe Jane had done her a favor. They were at a crossroads, and it was time to make an honest, realistic assessment of where they were and what they each wanted out of their relationship and their lives.
    She walked across the backyard with an overwhelming need to call Brad. There seemed to be no time to lose. If