by Krista Wolf
“You’re rich,” Julian smiled down at me. “Filthy rich.”
“We’re rich,” I corrected him. “All of us.”
Noah let out a scream of triumph that rocked the chamber. Reality had finally caught up with him.
“The cat’s super-rich,” Chase pointed, to where the calico was sniffing a pile of newly-spilled coins. It pawed at the horde a few times before finally deciding to lay down in it.
Noah showed up, grinning like his face would break. He threw his big arms around the both of us, squeezing us together uncomfortably, cackling at the top of his lungs until he finally let go.
“Do you know what this means?” he said, grabbing Chase and shaking him. “Do you know what this means?”
“I finally get to fly first class?” Chase quipped.
Noah punched him in the arm, nearly knocking him over, then hugged him again. The two of them went back to removing more of the wall, this time being careful where they threw the stones.
“This changes everything, you know,” I sighed happily, turning back to Julian. “He’s right.”
But the stonemason slowly shook his head. “Not everything.” He took my hands in his. “At least not for us.”
There was a warmth in his storm-grey eyes that assuaged my fears. Some of them, anyway. Noah was right of course — after tonight, nothing would ever be the same. But some things… well…
“I still can’t believe the cat’s name was KITTY!” Chase screamed.
Sixty-Nine
MADISON
It took us the better part of two days to research and catalog everything we’d found. To clear out the cavity behind the wall, and make sure we hadn’t missed anything.
After that… things moved pretty fast.
With some guidance from Jonathan, we declared the Westgate Castle treasure horde to Midlothian County, where it instantly became the temporary property of the Treasure Trove Unit of the Scottish National Archives. They were to determine which pieces would go straight to museums, and which — if any — we could keep. Potential rewards would be paid out by a special allocation panel, based upon the perceived value of the horde. All of this meant we’d end up getting a small fraction of cash in exchange for our vast treasure... eventually.
“Piss on that,” Julian had grunted.
Of course, knowing all this beforehand helped us determine exactly what the ‘horde’ finally consisted of. And by the time we turned it over, it was at least two-thirds to three-quarters smaller. Naturally.
“Between them digging it up and hiding it a second time,” shrugged Noah, “I guess a lot of it was spent.”
“Shit happens,” agreed Chase.
Noah’s connections back home enabled us to fence a few quick coins for a very tidy sum. This made us liquid enough to hire whatever lawyers we needed, while Julian expertly walled up the rest of our findings — in three different parts of the castle — for a rainy day.
As for the artifacts and relics, we turned most of those over, with Jonathan facilitating the process. Although none of his information had contributed to us finding the treasure, we kept up our end of the bargain and took very good care of him. When he mentioned suspecting our findings were much greater than we were actually letting on, we slid him a few choice pieces under the table that would more than ensure his silence. So much so, that he ended up physically hugging us, one after another.
Edgar was well taken care of too, to round things out. Noah and Chase had protested that part, but I kept insisting it was good karma. We sent him over to Nolan’s with a heartfelt apology, and to inform the old man that any future rent on his stables was already paid… for the rest of his life.
As for what we kept and hid, we’d be spending it for decades, not years. Drip-feeding certain coins and bars into circulation as we saw fit, using Jonathan’s connections with different dealers, collectors, and other third-party buyers as we went. If we did it smartly, we’d never get caught. No one would suspect we’d kept a thing, and not one of us would have to worry about money… ever again.
And then of course, on top of all that — our eventual cash reward.
In the weeks that followed, our castle became significantly more famous. The ‘Westgate Treasure Horde’ made international news, and attracted flocks of historians and history buffs to Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside. For a while we gave the United Kingdom’s premiere archaeologists free reign over the property and castle grounds, including most of the keep itself. It was an intrusive yet necessary step to finishing all proper paperwork, and to ensure — at least as far as the county was concerned — we weren’t keeping anything from anyone.
As for me, I slept like a baby in my king-sized bed, surrounded by warm skin and hard muscle. Just behind my headboard, a thousand gold Nobles and silver Ryals lay stacked neatly past the newly-mortared stones. They gave me some very pleasant dreams, and I can’t say the guys didn’t enjoy them being there either.
It was at least a month and a half before we were really and truly alone. The few remaining reporters had left. The final few digs and excavations had been closed out. As the last of the equipment was cleared out and hauled away, we were given our privacy back. And I, my castle.
And yes, it was officially mine now — as long as I kept it in its present historic state. The official paperwork showed up just as the place was ours again, leaving Julian, Noah and Chase all to myself… and me, to them.
“I’m glad this is over, finally,” said Noah, as we stood atop the highest point on the castle’s battlements. The sun was dying a spectacular death on one of the first days of autumn, leaving a trail of orange and red streaking across the horizon.
“But is it ever really over?” asked Chase with a chuckle.
We scanned the horizon together, enjoying the crispness in the air. It would get cold soon enough. Snow would start to fall…
And not one of us needed to be anywhere, or do a single damned thing.
“What now?” I asked, with a wistful sigh.
There was a long pause before anyone answered. “For us?” Chase finally asked.
I nodded slowly. “For everything.”
It was the one question we hadn’t answered. The question we’d somewhat avoided in the chaos of our discovery, its documentation, and everything that followed.
“Well Noah and I still don’t have a place,” said Chase.
“You could though,” I pointed out, albeit hesitantly. “You could take even a small portion of your share and buy the house of your dreams.”
Noah nodded. “We could buy an entire estate if we wanted to,” he agreed. “Build a whole block. House after house…”
They turned to me, and in each of their expressions I saw the hint of a smile.
“We won’t though,” said Noah. “Because we’re here. With you. Where we belong.”
My lip trembled. I sniffed a little, as a tear rolled down my cheek.
“I definitely wouldn’t be anywhere else,” agreed Chase. “Even with every gold coin in the world.”
He slid an arm around me, squeezing me in. Pulling me to a spot directly between him and Noah, while still looking out over everything I owned.
Everything we own.
The little voice in my head sounded so sure of itself. I wanted to be just as confident.
“What about you, you tattooed maniac?” asked Noah. “Where do you stand in all this?”
Julian didn’t answer right away. Instead he kept staring out past the battlements, while stepping slowly forward. He continued until he was pressed snugly against me, shielding me from the wind.
“I’m not a hundred-percent certain we’re done here either,” said Julian, slipping his arms around my waist. His fingers interlaced themselves over my lower belly, where they felt firm and secure and wonderful. “Not with you,” he squeezed, “that’s for sure. But also with our renovations.”
His voice trailed off curiously on the early autumn wind. Noah and Chase looked back at each o
ther almost amused.
“And you’re thinking we need to…”
“Quit fucking around with the aesthetics,” Julian jumped in, “and start doing the important stuff necessary to turn this place into what it was always meant to be.”
“A fierce stronghold able to withstand catapults and siege engines?” I asked, feeling clever.
“No,” the stonemason replied simply. “A bed and breakfast.”
Epilogue
MADISON
Noah’s grip became steadily firmer, eliciting an aroused whimper from the base of my throat. He had one hand on the globe of my naked ass. The other, entangled in the mess of my hair.
“Don’t stop… don’t stop…”
Right now he was pulling my head back. Drilling me into the fluffy white comforter, face-down, my jet-black thong stretched to one side.
I came hard, right before he flooded me with his seed. I could feel it firing into me, over and over. Filling me to overflowing, for the second time in as many lovers.
“Oh it’s so warm…” I groaned, reaching blindly backward to pull him in. “So fucking warm…”
We were in a hotel, and an expensive one at that. Treating ourselves to a rare weekend away, considering how close our second set of renovations were to being done.
“Mmmmm…” I moaned as he pulled out of me. I rolled onto my back. Spread my legs, and let my hand drift slowly downward.
“Where’s Julian?” I purred, dragging a finger through his warm, pearly come.
“I think he went for coffee.”
“Well send him up,” I sighed, bringing the same finger up to my mouth. “I need him.”
Noah’s eyes were locked on my come-coated fingers, which were now resting against my lips. I opened a little, still holding his gaze. Smiling wickedly as I dragged them over my tongue.
“I need him now…”
Noah shook his head, half in lust, half in disbelief. “You’re the devil,” he murmured. “You know that?”
I rolled back onto my stomach and kicked my legs playfully. “Oh I know,” I giggled.
Nineteen months. That’s how long it’d been since we’d filed the permits. In that time we’d upgraded virtually every room of the castle, creating bedrooms out of barren chambers, bathrooms out of alcoves. The Great Chamber was now the main lobby, complete with a roaring, refaced fireplace. Our old living room, a beautifully-furnished bar and lounge.
“You done with her?” Chase asked cheerfully. I wasn’t sure when he’d entered the room, but his eyes were fixated on my smooth, porcelain ass. “I might want another go, before—”
“Julian’s got next,” Noah cut him off. He smiled at me demurely. “Or so the lady says.”
Chase had shaken me gently awake while it was still dark. We’d rutted like animals beneath the soft down blankets, rocking each other to screaming orgasms, made silent by clamping our hands over each other’s mouths.
“Well if he doesn’t show,” Chase said, “I want in.”
“In, eh?” I teased, jiggling my ass at him.
His green eyes shone brightly for a moment before he broke his self-imposed trance. “Yeah, that’s right,” he replied firmly. “In.”
Nearly two years, my mind registered. Seven seasons. Eighty different tradesmen over three different builders.
There were headaches. Delays. Variance applications, and yes, even more inspections. Still, it had all been worth it. In just a few short days, we’d be business owners.
Westgate Castle would be open for vacancy.
Noah began walking, and I watched him go. He looked magnificent naked: all ribs and abdominals and shredded, delicious muscle. My eyes were glued to his ass as he stepped through a doorway. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of the shower kicking on.
“C’mon,” bemoaned Chase. He bounced onto the bed and slid an arm around my waist. “Let me in…”
The castle wouldn’t exactly be a bed and breakfast, but more of a historic hotel and attraction. Guests could sleep in any one of the thirteen original bedchambers, or in any of the eight different cottages we’d built from scratch. Julian had set the foundations for each of those. Noah and Chase had done the framing.
And in the center of it all, behind two-inch thick glass, the Westgate Treasure Horde — or at least, a small part of it anyway. The stunning array of shimmering coins and objects was on indefinite loan from the Museum of Edinburgh, which to us, was the height of irony.
“If only they knew what was still here,” Chase always chuckled.
The treasure alone would attract thousands each year, and bring an influx of new tourism to Edinburgh, Tranent and the surrounding countryside. That was the theory, anyway. For what we’d spent on making the castle hospitable to guests, I sure hoped it was all true.
Chase was lying alongside me now, tracing a finger along the curve of my neck and shoulder. His touch was giving me the shivers. The good shivers.
“I can’t believe we open in just three weeks,” he said.
“Two and a half.”
My lover chuckled. “But who’s counting, right?”
His fingers traced downward, gliding over the small of my back. Sending tiny electric shocks down my spine, as I wriggled further into the soft comforter.
I thought about how our lives would change… but also how they would remain the same. How in nearly two years we’d become such a tight-knit unit. More than just boyfriends and girlfriend, but something more intertwined. Much more intimate.
Not only had our romance not ended with the inspector’s certificate, it had actually grown stronger. Blossomed into a full-blown relationship, with all three men declaring their love for what we’d built together, as well as for me.
And I… well, I was the center of their attention. In turn, I dedicated myself to their every last need. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally…
Julian had not only sent enough money back home to take care of his family for good, he’d even moved his brother and sisters to Scotland. They had a beautiful place now, just outside Tranent. A place they could live and thrive while we built a separate manor house for them, further out on the castle grounds.
And not far from that, on a hill overlooking our lake; the first stones had been laid for our very own place. A place the four of us could live in happiness and privacy, while still maintaining the castle, and its grounds.
It would be beautiful. Symbolic. A little castle all our own, where we could write our own fairytale. Our own happy ending. One that would be long and beautiful and filled with—
“Ah, there he is!”
Julian stomped back into the hotel room, the heavy door swinging shut behind him. He carried four steaming coffees on a cardboard tray. The rich aroma made my nostrils flare.
“You had about two more minutes before I jumped your girl here,” he joked, giving my ass a playful slap. “Five at most.”
“Oh yeah?” he said, setting the coffees down.
“That’s right.”
“And what’s stopping you?”
In that single moment, Chase was all smiles.
“Well, I figured we were still taking turns,” he shrugged. “You know, just for the weekend. The little rule we’d made so as not to tire her out, or—”
“Are you tired?” Julian asked me abruptly.
I moaned happily, reaching my arms high overhead. Stretching my legs out, as my aching but wonderfully sated body lay sideways across the big bed.
“Not even a little bit.”
“Well then we can share,” Julian agreed, his mouth curling into a smirk. The coffees forgotten — at least temporarily — he unbuttoned his jeans and pulled his skin-tight T-shirt over his head.
Mmmmm…
I was lucky. No, beyond lucky.
Maybe the luckiest girl in the world.
“After all,” he said, reaching for me as he dropped to the bed. His hands slid to my body. His lips brushed sensually against mine.
“Sharing is what we do be
st…”
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Chapter One
BROOKE
The alert came through late, just as I was about to climb into bed. The little chime sounded different than the other noises my phone made. More cheerful. More insistent.
New Message from RadTriad
My stomach dropped. It was them, I was sure of it. The alert I’d hoped for. A response from the one crazy profile on the whole strange network that would make it all worthwhile.
Leaving my phone plugged into the charger, I slid into my computer chair. My machine was already on. It was always on. On and open to a fresh notepad window, so I could easily scribble any thought or stream of creative consciousness, no matter how big or small.
Is it really them?
It took another fifteen seconds to punch up the website and log in. Sure enough, the little envelope at the top right corner was lit up a golden yellow, indicating a new message. A message that I immediately clicked…
Hey gorgeous! You around?
Yes! I couldn’t believe my luck!
Navigating to a different screen, I punched up the sender’s profile before responding. RadTriad was not one, but three separate people. Three very hot, sexy, and amazing-looking guys…
