by Eva Chase
“Thank you,” I said quietly. Despite all the things I could be angry at Cade for, I was grateful for just as many. Then I turned toward Ryo, Jenson, and Elias where they were waiting in the doorway.
“Let’s go home.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
One year later
Trix
The late-afternoon sun streamed down into the backyard, the summer warmth drawing a rich scent from the garden’s soil. I sat back on my heels where I’d been weeding the plot closest to the patio and tipped my face to the light. Even all these months after my short time under Roseborne’s perpetually clouded sky, I took immense pleasure in soaking up the natural glow whenever I could.
We’d moved into this house a couple of months ago at the beginning of the summer, but I was pretty happy with how much I’d managed to do with the yard already. Even though I spent most of my weekdays landscaping and consulting on other people’s gardens, getting to putter around in my own was a welcome change. No outside expectations to meet, no justifications needing to be made. The guys were pleased with whatever I came up with.
I tugged out the last few weeds and then shed my gloves. Speaking of the guys, they should be home soon—hopefully with good news. Ryo had already bought the ingredients to make a dinner that would either be in celebration or consolation.
On my way to the back deck, I stopped to check on the two potted lime trees positioned on either side of the steps. A citrus plant grown from seeds wouldn’t normally bear fruit after just a year, but limes hung in abundance from their branches. The tree I’d taken the original fruit from had been a little more than natural, after all.
I plucked one of the limes for Ryo’s use and let my fingers run over the tree’s delicate leaves. These weren’t the only two plants I’d been able to grow from the seeds in the fruit I’d brought with me from Roseborne, but I’d found homes for the others with various clients—the ones I thought would most appreciate a tiny bit of magic in their lives. These two trees remained, though, like Cade and I had stuck together through so much of our childhood. I liked to think of them as the best parts of him getting to flourish in a way he’d have enjoyed if he knew.
Someone needed to remember him, to honor his good side one way or another. I’d discovered as soon as we’d gotten back to the real world that because Cade had died in Roseborne’s grasp, the college had taken all memories of him with it, just like it must have the rest of its ultimate victims. The Monroes still thought I was the only kid they’d fostered in the past few years. No one had any idea Cade had ever existed except for me and the other survivors.
I’d just come into the kitchen when the front door clicked open. I set down the lime by the cutting board and hurried over to meet my guys.
Elias came in first, with a grin that told me we were going to be celebrating, not consoling ourselves, tonight. He was wearing one of those fitted suits he’d favored for as long as I’d known him, but over the past several months as he’d branched out with new ideas about what kind of business he wanted to create and how to run it, he’d looked increasingly relaxed even in those formal clothes.
“They went for it?” I said, lighting up in turn.
“We’re all set. In just a few months, those kids are going to get the opportunity of a lifetime.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me to him for a kiss.
When we’d first started picking up the pieces of our lives, Elias had decided that what mattered most to him was reaching out to young people in situations like his own and his sister’s. He’d started by seeking out kids and teens who might not have been getting the most or the best guidance at home, but who had strong opinions and ideas they could make something of themselves with if they had help finding their direction. Through sponsorships and grants, he’d gradually built a youth leadership organization that offered paid classes and enrichment to the kids whose families could afford it while funding poorer kids who’d shown aptitude. Today he and a few members of the board, including the friend he’d cut out of his past business venture, had gone to speak with a major entertainment corporation about a partnership.
Two other board members came up on either side of me to claim their own congratulatory kisses. Jenson beamed at me unreservedly, all his layers of protective facade long shed as he’d come into his own too. He now put his con artist skills to more legitimate use, teaching workshops for Elias’s company on how to project confidence and network effectively as well as acting as an occasional security consultant for businesses wanting to test their employees.
I bobbed on my toes to kiss him with full enthusiasm and then turned to Ryo. His smile was as bright and gentle as ever, but without the hint of melancholy that had clung to him so often at Roseborne. He hadn’t totally settled into a definite line of work, preferring to take his opportunities as they came these days, but when he wasn’t refurbishing décor I could use for my clients or leading Elias’s pupils in craft-related classes, he volunteered with a charity that sent former addicts into schools to share their experiences and hopefully help guide vulnerable students on a better path. Each time he came back from one of those sessions, I saw a little more weight lifted from his shoulders.
He captured my mouth with a tender press and then headed toward the kitchen with his usual upbeat energy. “Time to get cooking!”
It’d taken some time for the four of us to find a balance back in the real world. We’d all come from different towns or cities; none of us had a living space of our own except Elias, and his condo had passed to new owners while he’d been in Roseborne’s limbo, with no recourse to get it back even now that the evidence of his existence had reformed in people’s minds and computer databases. Roseborne’s magic appeared to adjust for the long absences in a way that made everyone around us believe we’d been gone for normal if misguided reasons.
So we’d stuck together, through the early squabbles and moments of uncertainty, as we’d figured out our ways back onto our feet with some help from Elias’s substantial savings, which hadn’t disappeared or been taken over. From a motel room to an apartment and now this house, as we’d become more sure of ourselves and what we meant to each other, we’d discovered an equilibrium that felt easier than I’d ever have imagined my life could.
Ryo got to work prepping the steaks while giving light-hearted orders to the rest of us to chop this vegetable or combine this ingredient and that one, and we all followed his lead without argument. Each of us had our strengths, and he was definitely the king of the kitchen.
Jenson stole a piece of caramelized onion from the pan just before Ryo dropped in the first two steaks. He licked his fingers appreciatively. “Where’d you learn this one?”
A shadow did cross Ryo’s face then, if only for a second. “It’s my dad’s recipe,” he said, quick and quiet, and offered a shrug as if to say it wasn’t any big deal.
He’d reached out to his parents tentatively since we’d escaped Roseborne. From what he’d said, they’d been confused by his absence, relieved he was okay, but hesitant to see him. Too much pain lingered, raw from the years of hurt and the additional years when they’d been left adrift not knowing his fate. But they still talked to him in between the stretches of space he gave them. I thought there was reason to hope they’d eventually forgive him. It might just be a long journey.
Jenson hadn’t spoken to his parents at all since he’d returned, declaring them “bad influences I’d rather not invite back in.” Elias had gone to speak to his grandfather once and returned looking resigned but satisfied, so I guessed he’d gotten what he needed to out of the confrontation even if the older man hadn’t been open to hearing his new perspective.
When dinner was ready, Elias poured wine into the glasses around the table, and we all clinked glasses with a cheers to their successful venture. As we dug into the meal, Jenson narrated the meeting with dramatic flourishes.
“When do you think you can come around and do another gardening session with the kids, Trix?” Ryo asked when the o
ther guy had finished. “I think the younger ones especially get a lot out of that—just seeing they can grow something.”
At Elias’s enthusiastic nod, I had to smile. “I’m pretty booked up next week, which is awesome—the word of mouth really seems to be spreading—but I think the Friday after that I might be able to keep open. I’m always happy to pass on the green thumb.”
The wine gave me a slight, bubbly buzz, and the dinner left me comfortably full but craving a different sort of satisfaction. As soon as we’d finished loading the dishwasher, I wrapped my hand around Elias’s tie with a meaningful look I shifted from him to the other two guys. “Time to take the celebration upstairs?”
Jenson tucked his arm around my waist and pressed his lips to my cheek. “That sounds like a perfect idea.”
We’d picked this house partly for the expansive back yard and partly for its four bedrooms. The three other than the master were on the smallish side, but considering at least one of the guys usually spent the night in the master with me, all that really mattered was we each had at least some space that was just ours when we needed it.
While I had plenty of one-on-one interludes with my lovers, there was nothing quite as thrilling as enjoying them all at once. We’d found a sort of harmony there too, and the pleasure we could make from that collaboration felt like something more than the sum of our parts. Something bigger and sweeter, and not just about physical satisfaction. I treasured the love between me and each of the guys—and the affectionate respect they’d developed for each other—so much that any skeptical glance or judgmental murmur when we were out in public merely rolled off my back.
In the bedroom, the guys surrounded me, choosing their places through some unspoken agreement. Jenson eased his hands up under my shirt as Elias hooked his fingers into the soft fabric to strip it right off me before claiming my mouth. Ryo kissed my shoulder and stroked his fingers over my outer thighs. My hands flitted between each of them, drawing all the passion and pleasure I could from our closeness. And tugging them out of their clothes as quickly as I could manage it.
We ended up on the king-sized bed, plenty big for all sorts of fun. Ryo dipped his head between my legs, and I groaned as he slicked his tongue over my sex. Jenson caught the sound with a kiss. I tangled my fingers in his hair, trailed my other hand down Elias’s chest to grasp his cock, and arched into Ryo’s dedicated mouth.
It only took a minute before I was quaking on the verge of release. Ryo grazed his teeth across my clit, and I came with a surge of pleasure. He kissed his way up my torso as I floated in the aftermath, but we were hardly done yet.
I grasped Elias’s hip and urged him over me. As he settled between my thighs, teasing the head of his cock over my opening, I tipped my head toward Ryo to return the favor he’d given me. When I gripped Jenson’s erection, he pushed into my hand with an eager stutter of breath.
We found our rhythm easily now, the pulse of Elias thrusting in and out of me echoing through me to my mouth around Ryo’s cock, my fingers around Jenson’s. Bliss flowed through me with the burn inside, the caresses of so many hands over my body, and the increasingly urgent sounds of my lovers’ pleasure. I didn’t want it to end, and yet the ending was the best part.
It came over us in a wave. My climax brought my lips tighter around Ryo’s length, my fingers gripping Jenson’s erection even more firmly, and they came within seconds of each other with a chorus of stuttered breath. Elias groaned and stiffened as he followed us into that shared ecstasy.
They sprawled around me on the bed, cocooning me in heat and mutual adoration. I snuggled my head close to Jenson’s, slipped my arm around Ryo’s, nestled my legs against Elias’s.
A year ago, we’d been four broken people struggling to believe we even had enough pieces left of ourselves to be someone whole. Now, my heart was filled to bursting.
“This,” I said. “This is home.”
“I take it you like the house,” Elias said wryly.
I nudged him with my toes. “No. Being with the three of you. No matter where we are—that’s home.”
Jenson lifted his head to press a kiss to my temple. “No arguments here. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” I could still hear a thread of elation in his words every time he had the chance to declare his affection openly, without needing to twist the words around a liar’s curse.
Ryo twined his fingers with mine and cuddled closer. “And we only had to go through hell to find it.”
I had to laugh, but what he’d said was true. Roseborne had put us through hell. But we’d made something wonderful over the ashes of that awful place, and that was all the proof I needed that whatever else was coming our way, we’d make it through all right.
* * *
Thank you for sticking with me all the way through to Trix’s happy ending! I apologize for the past cliffhangers and hope the finale made up for them. ;)
If you’d love a story with a whole lot of literal monsters and a heroine who’s on their side, don’t miss my new Flirting with Monsters series! Sorsha has no idea what she’s in for when three monstrous hotties follow her home from a robbery and drag her headlong into a paranormal conspiracy in Shadow Thief!
Shadow Thief (Flirting with Monsters #1)
One sassy pyromaniac thief, three sexy-as-sin monsters, and a paranormal conspiracy of epic proportions.
It was an ordinary job. Another night, another asshole collector of the supernatural. I free some poor little beasties from their cages, pocket a few trinkets to pay my bills, and burn the place down on my way out. Just call me the Robin Hood of monster emancipation.
I didn’t count on three manly monsters following me home like lost puppies. Stunningly hot lost puppies, but still. Now I’ve got a seductively cheeky incubus, a sweetly enthusiastic demon, and a grimly stoic angel camped out in my kitchen. They’re determined to repay me for my help, and they won’t get out of my apartment until they’re satisfied we’re even.
To be fair, they’ve got no place else to go. A covert band of hunters captured their boss, and the trail is ice-cold. I’ll lend a hand if it means I can send them packing… and when it looks like we’re up against the same creeps who murdered the person I loved most, you’d better believe I’m all in.
Track down the baddies.
Steal back the boss.
Don’t get killed along the way.
Oh, and maybe make out with a monstrous hottie or two.
Piece of cake.
I’m so going to regret this.
Get in on the adventure now!
Or read on for an excerpt…
SHADOW THIEF
1
The story of how I was going to end the world began not with a bang or a whimper but a kerplink.
The kerplink came from the latch of an arcanely ancient window lock hitting the sill as it disengaged. Adjusting my position on the ledge outside, I withdrew my equally ancient wedge and probe—gotta have tools that fit the job—from beneath the sash. At my tug, the window slid upward with a faint rasp.
Shadows draped the hallway on the other side even more densely than in the backyard below me, where the glow of the mansion’s security lamps cut through the night. Less work for me. Dressed in black from head to toe, with my hands gloved to avoid fingerprints and my vibrant red hair tucked away under a knit hat, I blended in perfectly.
I slipped from the flutter of the warm summer breeze into the stillness of the hall and eased the window shut. The ceiling loomed high above. The tangy scent of wood polish tickled my nose. No doubt the floorboards that showed at the edges of the Persian rug gleamed like glass in daylight.
The thick rug handily absorbed my footsteps as I slunk along it, eyeing the doors. If I’d been able to get a good view from outside, I’d have snuck straight into the room I was aiming for, but with the coverings on the other windows, it’d been impossible to know whether I’d hit the jackpot or stumble onto inhabitants I wasn’t looking to meet.
Looking arou
nd now, there were a couple of signs that this wasn’t the home of your typical collector. Most of them kept the rest of their living space free of anything that would hint at their secret interests, a portrait of normality. Here, paintings of eerie, twisted forms with glowing eyes hung on the walls. Farther down, a patch of thicker darkness streaked across the pale paint of the ceiling as if it’d been scorched. What the heck had this dude gotten up to?
But then I spotted the door that had to lead to his collection room, and that question fell away behind a tingle of exhilaration.
I couldn’t tell exactly what kind of security I was dealing with until I got right up close and flicked on the thinnest beam on my flashlight. The sight made me grimace. Son of a donkey’s uncle.
In my experience, there were two kinds of collectors. Some went all in on traditionalism, preferring esoteric fixtures and devices of times past—the older the better—to match the nature of the creatures they’d stashed away. Others valued modern tech over keeping a consistent ambiance and secured their collection areas with the most up-to-date electronics.
I preferred the former. Forget fancy do-dads hacking digital codes—it was much more satisfying getting to tackle concrete objects hands-on, like a puzzle I was putting together… or, more often, pulling apart.
This guy clearly leaned that way too. Except he leaned it way too far. One look at the mass of interlocking metal around the door’s handle told me my standard picks weren’t getting anywhere with that lock. I didn’t encounter many that required more forceful methods. Tonight’s collector was awfully paranoid about protecting his treasures.
