No Good Deed

Well there's no two ways about it, these guys don't do easy. Their love lives are messy, messy, messy. It's a good thing? Dunno. It feels real. This is Charlie's story, the last bachelor in the group, but it also provided a kind of coda or wrap up to the other couples and the group. Moving on. Maturing. Some six years ago some bad decisions were made. Charlie and the other party have lived with guilt over their actions and the people they betrayed. The past comes back knocking on Charlie's front door and won't be ignored. Since the blurb is vague I won't say more about the who, what, and why. I will say that this is my favorite relationship of all the Doms in the group. It's based on two people actually liking each of other for who they are without the transactional element. They enjoy a level of kink but it isn't the thing that makes them a couple. It made them real, relatable, and bodes well for their future longevity. There's some sweet Daddy action, an organic one, some sounding, which is intense, and an orgy which wasn't. Overall I liked it and the AB by [a:John Solo 7935034 John Solo https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] is a big part of my enjoyment.The rest of the book, including two alternate P.O.V.s from River and Avery, about events in this and the prior book only served to confirm thoughts I've had about these guys from the beginning. *Taylor's relationship to the group, with Warren serving as his full time minder, is at best a bandaid on the gaping wound that is his psyche and at worst an exhausting and dangerous dance for all involved.*It's not for me to say, to each their own, and all that but I'm still flabbergasted by River's devotion to not only kneeling for Phil, but his acquiescence to not even look him in the eye. Phil is a nice guy and good to River in his own way but IMO his Domdom (yes, I'm coining the word) is a way of masking a host of emotional issues. I'm not sure that as a sub I'd be super confident entrusting my wellbeing to someone who isn't at home in his own skin. I can only surmise that River REALLY loves Phil. Enough to humor him but ready to take care of himself at any moment. I guess we all do extreme things for the ones we love. *Gray is a self centered a**hole who, after prodding, comes through for his friends. He's that guy in the group we love though we know all his failings. He's been crushing on Taylor since he came into Warren's life and claimed to be in love with Phil for years until the reality of their humanity reveals itself. Avery turns out to be his happy place but, and again this is just my opinion, it seems to be more about what Avery does or doesn't give him and not necessarily for who Avery is. Avery is fairly self sufficient, drama free, and a willing repository for Gray's sadism, though for my liking, and in a show of what imagine to be unsanctioned BDSM practices, Gray uses Avery as a figurative, though physical, punching bag for his rage. I'm not sure Avery's gratification from these encounters is foremost on Gray's mind. He's not evil but, judging by his previous relationships, Gray is always #1 in his own book. I'm glad that he was knocked down a peg or two and stroke of luck has come to save him. His hotness looks better humbled. *In each book there's a poker game in which the newest addition is initiated via group sex. To my mind these were some of the unsexiest sex scenes ever. Joyless. Maybe they were meant to be that way. They mostly seemed centered on letting the newest sub know their place in the hierarchy of the group, like a dog pack or a sorority, not about pleasure, at least not for the newest sub. It gave me icks. As a side effect it let me to think of things like how much these guys lust after their friends's partners, what are the odds of these over 35 men always being ready, as it were? I mean they're ready to go the moment they walk in the door. The poker games always take place after, like they want to get the sex out of the way, as if it were a necessary chore. Have they partaken of some chemical help on the way? They claim to enjoy it. I didn't believe it. Lastly there's a short story about Robert, Avery's piano partner from the Tap House, which I absolutely adored and would pay good money to read in an expanded version. In spite of all my blathering I enjoyed this series. It made me think, it's people are messy, and the kink colors outside the lines, like Real Life. Imagine that.