by I. T. Lucas
Nothing Ella had said sounded out of the ordinary, so she continued. “I’ll put a big box for the donated clothing in the mail center.”
“What do you think, Sarah?” Vanessa asked. “Does that sound like a good idea to you?”
The girl nodded enthusiastically. “I volunteer to babysit the baby while Ms. Eva is doing the makeovers.”
Ella smiled. Eva’s visits were going to be popular not just because of the makeovers. There would be a line of girls waiting to entertain Ethan while she was at it.
24
Magnus
“I’m going to Merlin’s.” Ella wiped her hands on the dish towel. “Julian is there, and he said I can come over.”
“Merlin or Julian?” Vivian asked.
“Julian. But Merlin said it’s okay. They are having a marathon of reading research papers about fertility. I offered to help.”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Merlin can tell me what they are looking for and I can read some too.”
Vivian huffed. “Good luck with that. All that medical jargon is going to be like reading Chinese.”
Ella shrugged. “Then I’ll just sit next to Julian and read something on my phone. See you later.” She headed for the door.
“I’m going out too,” Parker said. “Wonder invited me to her house to study math.” He sounded smug.
Magnus wondered how Anandur was taking that. Parker was just a kid, and his infatuation was harmless, but it probably didn’t escape the Guardian’s notice that Wonder’s study buddy was drooling all over her.
“Have fun, kids.” Vivian waved.
As soon as the door closed behind Parker, she sighed and plopped on the couch. “It was a long and tiring day, especially because of the drive. But I’m really enjoying helping out in the sanctuary. Who knew that my bedazzling skills could bring so much joy to a bunch of traumatized girls?”
Sitting next to her, Magnus wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “You bring bling into their lives.”
She laughed. “Almost as good as the real thing.”
“We have the house to ourselves for the evening. That doesn’t happen often.” He nuzzled her neck.
“For the next couple of hours. Any ideas for how we should fill those?” She waggled her brows.
“Several, and all of them involve you getting naked. We can grab a bottle of wine and get into the Jacuzzi. Or I can give you a massage first and then we can shower together.”
“After the sex, or before?”
“Maybe after. So we don’t have to shower twice.”
“Hmm. Let me think. We have two hours, which is enough to do all three. We can make out in the Jacuzzi, after that you can give me a massage, and after that, we can hop into the shower.”
“You forgot the sex.”
She laughed. “I didn’t. We can have sex in the Jacuzzi, then again after the massage, and again in the shower.”
Pulling her closer against him, Magnus hooked a finger under her chin and planted a soft kiss on her lush lips. “I like the way you think. But two hours are not enough for all that.”
“We don’t have to come out of the bedroom. The kids will think that we are sleeping.”
“True.” He rose to his feet and offered her a hand up. “To the Jacuzzi.”
As the big tub filled up, Magnus went back to the kitchen and grabbed a wine bottle and two glasses.
Wearing her fluffy white bathrobe, Vivian sat on the tub’s lip and checked the water’s temperature. “This thing is so big that it takes forever to fill up.”
“That’s plenty for me.” He put down the wine and the glasses on the ledge, and then took his clothes off.
“I’m getting in.” He liked the way Vivian’s eyes followed his nude body.
Lying in the half-full tub, he patted his chest. “Come on, love. Get in here. I’ll keep you warm.”
“You seem in a hurry.” Vivian reached for the robe’s belt. “How about I add another feature to tonight’s entertainment.” She waggled her brows. “A striptease.”
“A lovely suggestion.” He waved a hand. “Please proceed. But don’t take too long. As much as I like watching, I like touching more.”
Turning around so her back was to him, she shrugged the sleeve off one shoulder, then peeked at him over it with a sultry smile. Satisfied with the effect her teasing had on him, she repeated the same with the other shoulder. Not letting the robe drop all the way down, she tempted him with just the top part of her rounded bottom exposed.
Focused on her slow reveal, Magnus didn’t notice that the tub was full until water splashed over the rim. “Now, look what you made me do, lass.” He opened the drain to let some of it out.
Laughing, Vivian tossed the robe on the vanity counter. “Can I come in? Or is the water too high still?”
He reached for her hand, pulled her closer, put his hands on her waist and lifted her off the floor. “Come here, you minx.” He lowered her down to lie between his outstretched legs, her back to his chest. Some water splashed out, but as long as it wasn’t a flood, Magnus didn’t care.
Vivian sighed contentedly and let her head drop back against his shoulder. “This could have been very comfortable if not for that thing poking me in the butt.”
“What thing?” He swiveled his hips, grinding his shaft into her soft ass cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She giggled. “I just hope the kids are not going to come back early and look for us. Did you lock the bedroom door?”
“I forgot. But don’t worry, they are not going to come in without knocking first. They know I can hear it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to go into a mad scramble. Parker sometimes knocks and then just walks in.”
“When they get back, I’m going to hear them coming in.”
She turned around in his arms, her hard nipples poking at his chest. “How? There are two soundproof doors between us and the living room.”
He motioned with his head toward the slightly open window. “If anyone comes up the walkway, I’ll hear it.”
“I’m at such a disadvantage here. It’s like being hard of hearing in the outside world. Perhaps I should get a hearing aid.”
“A simpler solution would be for you to transition. I think it’s time.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. Not until this latest crisis with Ella is over.”
“There will always be something, Viv.”
“After this situation is resolved, I promise no more stalling.”
Cupping her cheek, Magnus kissed her softly. “I’m going to remind you that you said that when you come up with the next excuse.”
“No more excuses. A promise is a promise.”
25
Ella
“I’m sorry.” Exasperated, Ella closed her laptop. “I can’t understand any of it.”
When her mother had told her that it would be like reading Chinese, Ella had thought she was exaggerating. But it seemed these research papers were purposely written so that no layman could understand them.
It just confirmed her opinion about most doctors being pompous asses.
Present company excluded, of course. Julian was the most unassuming guy ever, and Merlin was eccentric, but in a nice way.
“It’s not as difficult as it seems at first glance,” Merlin said. “You’re just not familiar with the jargon yet.”
She waved a hand. “I’m not going to keep on trying. I give up. You guys will have to do without me.”
Glancing at Merlin’s cluttered and dirty living area, Ella decided she could be useful in a different way. “How about I clean up and organize a little while you two finish up with those papers?”
Merlin smoothed his hand over his long beard. “You are my guest, Ella. I don’t feel right about you cleaning up my mess.”
“Don’t be silly. First of all, I’m not a guest, I’m a neighbor. And neighbors help each other out. You made that paste for Parker to ease his fan
gs-growing pains, and you also made that tongue relaxer for me. The least I can do is help you with something you're apparently not good at, but I am. I’m the queen of cleaning hacks.”
Merlin cast Julian an amused glance. “You’re going to have your hands full with this one. When Ella sets her mind to something, she doesn’t let anyone or anything stand in her way.”
“That is one of the many things I like about her.” Julian winked. “My girl is a fighter.”
She rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys. I’m only going to clean up, not solve world hunger. Now, enough with the chitchat. You have work to do, and so do I.”
Less than an hour later, the place was unrecognizable. The stacks of books were dust free and piled high against one wall, the lab equipment was stowed in the kitchen cabinets, the floor was vacuumed, and the tables and counters wiped. The fridge still needed cleaning. The moldy leftovers were not going to get up and walk out on their own. But she would do it next time.
“Do you want a cup of coffee?” Ella asked, mainly to get their attention so they would notice how nice everything looked.
They’d been so focused on reading and taking notes.
Merlin looked up. “You’re a miracle worker, but I feel bad about you doing this for me. Let me at least treat you to some coffee and Godiva.”
As Ella’s mouth watered, she put her hand over her chest. “You know the way to a girl’s heart.”
“Just don’t show her where you hide them.” Julian leaned back against the couch cushions and stretched his arms over his head. “She’ll sneak in here in the middle of the night and raid your stash.”
“You’re welcome to raid it anytime.” Merlin pushed to his feet and headed for the kitchen.
He stopped by the dining room table that was now clear of equipment. “Where is my stuff?”
“In the kitchen cabinets. You should order some bookcases. If you have a place for everything, it’s not going to get as messy in here.”
He pulled out a coffee can from the fridge. “I was just telling Julian before you came in that Parker opens up new possibilities for us. When he gets the hang of his ability, we can hire human crews to do cleaning and maintenance, or even put up bookcases. He can compel them to keep this place a secret.”
Ella took the carafe and filled it up with water. “It’s something to think about, but I’m afraid the village will lose its charm if we bring outsiders here. I like it that it’s isolated from the world. It feels safe.”
Merlin eyed her as she measured out the coffee for the machine. “What about when you go to the sanctuary? Do you feel unsafe?”
“No. Well, maybe a little. I look at it as going to work, and at the end of the day, I come home. But home is not just my house where my family lives, it’s the entire village. And just as I don’t want strangers hanging around my house, I don't want them hanging around the village. Does that make sense?”
“It does.” Julian walked up behind Ella and wrapped his arm around her middle, pulling her against him. “We are like one big family who lives together.”
Merlin opened a cabinet, pulled out a box of chocolates, and offered it first to Ella and then to Julian. “And just like with any family, little birdies need to spread their wings and fly away. At least for a little while. Don’t you want to go to college, Ella?”
With everything that had been going on lately, she hadn’t thought about her education, but it didn’t mean that she’d given up on going to college. She just hadn’t decided what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
“I always wanted to be a nurse, but now I need to rethink it. There are already two nurses in the village, and there is no need for a third one.”
Merlin arched a brow. “How about a doctor? Nowadays it takes almost as long to get a nursing degree. So why not take the extra step?”
Behind her, Julian groaned. “As if we need any more doctors in the village.”
As the coffee maker was done spewing, Merlin lifted the carafe off and filled the three lined-up cups. “If we continue with the humanitarian effort, we will need more therapists. Vanessa is already stretched to the max.”
Ella added cream and sugar to her mug. “But she can use humans. Why doesn’t she hire a couple of full-time assistants?”
Merlin shrugged. “I guess part of it is monetary constraints, and part of it not wanting non-clan people in the thick of things. People are nosey.”
Taking a sip, Ella tried to imagine herself as a therapist and cringed. “I can’t be a psychologist. It’s too emotional. Especially what Vanessa deals with. I don’t want to hear stories like mine all day long. I want to forget.”
Julian kissed the top of her head. “I can help with that. If you want, I can thrall you to suppress those memories.”
She shook her head. “No offense, Julian, but that sounds creepy. I don’t want to forget it completely. What happened to me didn’t destroy me, it made me stronger. I just don’t want to swim in that emotional cesspool on a regular basis. Do you get what I’m trying to say?”
“I guess so.” He leaned his chin on her head. “Besides, it’s not over yet. Even if you wanted to forget, you can’t because of your dream visitor.”
“Yeah, talk about creepy. But I’m dealing with him too.” She chuckled. “It amazes me how easy to manipulate men are. I got a badass mafia boss wrapped around my finger, and now I’m doing the same to a big-shot Doomer. If I’m not careful, it will go to my head.”
“By the way, Ella,” Merlin said. “I was wondering about something. From what I understand, you could talk about Lokan with Kian and then suddenly you could no longer do that. Am I right?”
“Yeah. When he confessed to being a dream walker, Mr. D made me promise that I wouldn’t talk about him. I thought nothing of it, and I had no intention of keeping that promise, but that was when he must have compelled me.”
Merlin nodded. “That’s what I’ve been afraid of. If the Doomer can compel you in the dreams, he is much more dangerous to you than you think. He can make you do things you don’t want to.”
“Then I guess Parker will have to release me. Just as a precaution, I’ll have him do it every day.”
“That’s a very good solution. And also make sure to report everything to Kian.”
“I will.”
As Ella reached for another chocolate, a hopeful thought flitted through her mind. What if Logan was compelling her to be attracted to him, and not feel attracted to anyone else?
He’d said something to that effect several times. She’d dismissed it, thinking of it as nothing more than harmless flirting and boasting, but it might have been more sinister than that.
If that was true, it was a huge relief.
There was a logical explanation for why she craved a man she shouldn’t want, while being indifferent to the man she should. The problem was that even if that was the case, Parker couldn’t help her get rid of that particular compulsion. First of all, because she wasn’t going to explain what was going on to her twelve-year-old kid brother, and secondly, if he commanded her to want Julian, that would be a compulsion too.
But what if that wasn’t the reason after all, and there was something wrong with her?
That made sense too. She was damaged goods, with hidden emotional scars that she was trying to ignore. Julian was like a pristine-white glove she wouldn’t put over dirty hands, but Logan was already dirty, so her soiled hands fit right in.
Crap, she needed to talk to someone, and it wasn’t Vanessa. Perhaps Carol would have some words of wisdom to help her sort it out.
26
Julian
“Well, I think that’s enough.” Merlin turned his computer off. “Let’s call it a day.”
Julian offered a quick thanks to the Fates. “You mean call it a night.” He pushed to his feet and offered Ella a hand up. “Are we meeting up in the clinic tomorrow, or here?”
“I like working in my pajamas.” Merlin smirked. “Come here when you’re up.”
<
br /> “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“Good night, Merlin.” Ella kissed their host on the cheek. “Are you going to monopolize Julian’s entire day tomorrow too?”
“I’m afraid so. I want us to be done with those papers, making sure that I’m not missing out on any new developments. Sometimes a small detail that no one thinks much of is a pointer in the right direction and leads to a new breakthrough. Especially anomalies.” He smirked. “If not for those pesky discrepancies that kept popping up, we wouldn’t have discovered quantum physics.”
“In this case, I’ll come over when I’m back from the sanctuary.”
He wagged his finger at her face. “Just don’t think about cleaning anything else!”
“We will see about that. That fridge of yours needs cleaning. You have leftovers there that are ready to walk out on their own.”
“Now you’re forcing my hand. I’ll have to clean it, so you don’t.”
She shrugged. “Whatever works. Good night, Merlin.”
Once outside, Julian wrapped his arm around Ella’s waist, and as soon as they were a few feet away from Merlin’s front door, he turned her around and pulled her against his chest.
“I’ve been wanting to kiss you for hours.” He took her lips, trying to be gentle but failing miserably.
The entire time she’d been bending to lift books off the floor or stretching on her toes to reach the top kitchen cabinets, Julian had been struggling to keep his focus on the reading material.
That curvy, compact body of hers had been very distracting.
He threaded his fingers into her hair, gripping fistfuls of the pink tufts as his tongue teased her lips, urging them to open for him.
When he delved into her mouth, her long lashes fluttered down and her soft body melted against him.
Surprisingly, Ella didn’t seem overwhelmed or frightened by his sudden attack. The scent of her arousal flaring, she clung to him instead of pulling away, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she kissed him back with just as much urgency.
