Chapter 9

Nine

I felt one of them pick me up last night and carry me from the pile. As I snuggle down against him now, I'm grateful. My bones feel about ten years older than normal, and the couch wouldn't have done me any favors.

I barely crack an eye, and the Bad Religion flag acting as a curtain lets me know exactly who's chest my cheek is nestled against.

He's awake, fingers swirling over my shoulder.

"You're old enough to have real curtains, you know."

Chase's chest quakes, just a little and he kisses the top of my head. "No one's ever complained before."

"You are good at distracting…"

All I have to do is tip my head up and he takes my lips. His hands move over me, positioning me so he can better take what I'm offering.

But he doesn't drag me to where I want to be.

Half pinned beneath him, I can't complain. Not that I want to.

Chase might look slight, but beneath those layered shirts and jeans that most people would complain were too tight, he's all lean muscle. Held against him now, I like the way he feels over me.

"Didn't get enough last night?" I ask when I'm able to take a gasping breath.

"If you think we're ever going to get enough, you'd better readjust your expectations."

I would call Chase sweet, but there's nothing about this kiss that fits the word. He takes my mouth as if he owns it, as if I have no say in how he kisses me, and I arch against him. The fact that we're both still naked is going to make it easier to get what I want.

At least… it should.

But when I spread my fingers through his hair and pull him to me for an even deeper kiss, he takes my wrists, and pins them over my head.

He pulls back from me, looking down like he wants to keep me like this forever. "My bed, my rules."

"Is that how that works?"

Humming a yes, he lets my hands go. "Keep those there, or I'll find something to tie them up with."

By himself, Chase is a different lover.

Together, none of them compete for me… Not exactly.

But when the other three are there, it's like I'm barely able to hold my head above water.

Fingers dragging over my skin, Chase studies me like he's never seen me before. Or like he'll never get to see me again.

Neither of which are true.

I almost reach for him, but I clasp my hands together instead. I'm willing to play if it gets me what I want.

But when he stops his sensory perusal, the loss of his touch makes me shiver.

"Chase…"

But he doesn't answer me.

There's no time to articulate what I want from him. He slides back, and the covers fall off the foot of the bed.

And then, his mouth is on me. No warning, no questions, just heat and tongue and pleasure making my back bow.

He works over me in long, slow movements, licking all of me and twirling his tongue over my clit.

But when I reach for him, to help him get me there, he shakes his head against my thighs and pulls back.

"Don't forget, I'm an old man… I have more patience than the rest of them."

My lips twitch with a smile though I'm not sure how I manage it in this state. "More experience?"

It's his turn to laugh. "I'm going to let you ask Johnny about that."

"Not fair, making me wait…"

"Who said you have to wait."

He sets his unlocked phone on my stomach before setting his lips to me again.

It's already ringing.

Johnny answers with a gruff, "What's up?"

"Hi." The word is breathier than I meant for it to be.

"Scarlette?"

I nod even though he can't see me through the phone, but it's a motion to help me get my thoughts in order. "Chase told me I needed to ask you a question. Are you alone?" I gasp when Chase sucks hard on my clit.

"Yes. Thank God. With those sounds you're making…" He lets out a low sound that might be a growl. "Is he inside of you right now?"

"Mmhmm. Tongue—" I rasp as he spreads the fingers he's slipped into me as well. "And fingers."

"Why do I have to have a day job?" I hear upholstery creaking. "What was the question?"

"He told me to ask you who was the most experienced of the four of you… I assumed that he was the oldest, so—" The word dies sharply on my tongue when Chase swirls his around my clit.

"I may have had a misspent youth."

"How misspent?"

"Let's just say I'm not going to any of my high school reunions."

"Too many broken hearts?"

"Too many broken hymens." Chase says as he moves up me, hips pressing my legs wide.

"I had a reputation…"

"Well deserved." Chase kisses my shoulder.

"…so girls would come to me if they wanted to… get it over with."

"And you were the one they trusted with that?"

"It helped that I wasn't one of those assholes that tried to talk them out of a condom… and I knew what I was doing."

"Did you?"

He grunts, but it sounds like a yes. "Tell me what he's doing to you."

"Distracting me… He's teasing me now that he's gotten me wet." I meet Chase's eyes. "Rubbing his cock against my swollen pussy, but he's not inside me yet."

"Maybe he's wondering if you got enough last night."

"I didn't." I shake my head as Chase presses into me… just the tip. "I'm never going to get enough."

Chase chooses that moment to press into me. His cock traveling the path his tongue has left wet and wanting.

I barely hear Johnny's curse through the phone as I drop it to the bed beside my head.

Chase isn't the biggest of the four of them, but he's not small.

Fuck .

When I open my eyes and see Chase grinning down at me, I know I said it out loud.

I remember someone once comparing it to a key and a lock. The need to fit perfectly. If that's the case mine is a special lock, because these four, very different keys fit perfectly.

Chase kisses me with a brutal hunger, but it doesn't last long. As soon as his lips leave mine, they travel to my ear.

His words are a whisper. "Don't be quiet, witchy woman. Johnny's definitely got his cock in his hand right now… and Thomas is out there. Let's make sure they both come to the sound of your pretty little screams.

The sound that leaves my lips is a whimper, not a scream, but Chase has been paying attention.

On his knees, still inside me, he lifts my hips from the bed, angling me so his cock hits that perfect spot with each thrust.

And I'm not quiet.

Each whimper is louder than the last until they turn into moans.

I hear Johnny curse through the tiny speaker that's still close enough to my ear…

And when Chase finally drags a finger to my clit again, only the first sharp sound that leaves me is a gasp.

He works my pussy with his cock, my clit with his hand, and with Johnny encouraging in my ear, I can't stop myself from thrashing, from wanting to take control. But I don't take this away from Chase.

I won't.

"Come for me, Honey," He grips my hip harder, dragging me against him, pressing me harder to him. "I want to see that gorgeous face you make.

"You want a reminder of how amazing you are." I bite my tongue, but don't manage to stop the low laugh that bubbles from my chest.

That laughter doesn't last long. It's a fractured sound that tears through me as Chase's rhythm changes.

And that's all it takes to send a burst of heat through me that feels as though it could tear me open.

The words that fall from my lips make no sense, but they're their own kind of spell, and I come apart on him, back bowed so sharply I'd see nothing but pillows and headboard if I could open my eyes.

But I can't.

All I can do is ride the wave of pleasure to its end.

Chase comes a moment later and I'm startled by how aware of it I am.

How the rest of the world is drown out by my heartbeat and the static in my head… but the grunt of his release reaches my ears with perfect clarity.

And then, there's nothing but silence, and our heavy breaths mingling.

He releases my hips, dropping onto his elbows so he can kiss me.

Chase picks up the phone from where it rests against my shoulder. "Enjoy the rest of your work day."

I hear Johnny call him a bastard right before Chase hangs up and drops it back into the pillows.

He presses one more kiss to my neck. "I may fight them if any of them wants you to stay in their room next time."

"How did you win that honor?"

He pulls on a pair of boxer briefs and stretches, cracking his spine in three places. "I'm the one who doesn't have to leave the house this morning. None of us were going to wake you before you were ready."

A quick glance around the room doesn't show me the colors I'm looking for. Chase wears nothing but black.

"Did you leave my clothes in the living room?"

"Maybe," His words are soft as they brush over my skin. "Maybe Thomas decided to hide them so you'd walk around the house for a few hours in one of our shirts again."

"Johnny's are the only ones that are long enough."

"That's why I stole one from his dresser on the way back in last night." He picks up the black fabric slung over his desk chair and trails it over the top of my breasts. "Are you going to accuse us of being Neanderthals?"

"Why would I?" I snatch the fabric from his hands and wiggle it over my head. "When I can just call you beasts and cover so many different things?"

He smiles, his teeth sharp. "I'll see what I can drum up for breakfast."

He's off the bed and out the door before I can tell him I'm getting up. And when the door closes behind him, I flop back into the pile of pillows and close my eyes.

It would be so easy to sink into the serenity of this bed and wait for him—or any of them—to return to me.

And that's why I force my eyes open again and roll out of Chase's bed.

Everything about the guys is too easy. Which means something is horribly wrong. I just have to figure out what it is.

But first… A trip to the bathroom.

My stomach growls too loudly when I step out into the cool hallway and head into the house in search of breakfast and my clothes.

The shirt hangs off me like an eighties era aerobics top. The design on it has started to crack and flake from wear and washing, but the logo for a band that plays regularly at the local dive Chase works at is still legible.

When I step into the kitchen, two heads turn, and Thomas lets out a low wolf whistle.

"Damn if I don't like the way that looks." Thomas comes to me, kissing me and sliding his hand under the t-shirt, over my ass. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

He jerks his head at Chase. "Did this guy actually let you get any sleep?"

"The four of you left me completely exhausted. I would probably have slept through a fire."

"I am simultaneously smug and horrified."

I glance around, noting Chase glaring into the fridge, but otherwise… "Just the three of us?"

I knew about Johnny, of course, but I had expected to see Joshua.

"They've already left. Pretty sure they drank a pot of coffee each before they went, and they took full thermoses with them."

"Now I feel bad."

"Don't." Thomas brushes my hair back from my face. "They both loved last night."

"We all did." Chase leans in and presses a kiss against my neck.

He has a jar in his hand and offers it to me. "According to Johnny's atrociously scribbled notes, this is a Greek yogurt and chia seed overnight peach cobbler oatmeal. Maybe."

He grimaces. "He needs to find things to make that don't require a full page to name."

"Thanks."

But Thomas snatches it out of my hand and takes it back to the kitchen. "I promised him I wouldn't let you feed her straight from the jar."

"There's nothing wrong with eating out of jars." Chase steers me to the table and sits me down before turning back to Thomas. "You do it all the time."

"Spoonfuls of peanut butter do not count." Thomas sets a bowl in front of me and hands me a spoon. "We're only mostly uncivilized in this house."

The oats are amazing, but when Thomas sets a cup in front of me, I blink at it a little longer than is strictly necessary. "You bought my tea."

"I don't know if it's the right brand." Thomas winces. "And I'm not sure if I made it right."

I take a sip. There's a little too much sugar, but, "It's perfect."

Because I was more than ready to drink coffee and… "Did someone snoop through my cabinets when they came for a visit?"

"Guilty." He sits down next to me, handing Chase a cup of the coffee I'd expected.

"Shouldn't you be at work too?" I ask and Thomas immediately shakes his head.

"Not yet. The plumbing is mostly fixed, but since we can't have kids in until tomorrow, today's just some admin and meetings. Those don't start until ten."

"Where are my clothes?" I ask, looking pointedly to where my bag had been.

His smile too wolfy, Thomas slips his fingers between mine. "Have I shown you my room yet?"

He takes my hand before I answer and leads me back down the hall.

Like Chase's room, Thomas' isn't over stuffed with furniture. He's got a bed that's been made to military regulation—though I don't think he was ever in the service—and a tall, narrow dresser between the doors to the hall and his closet. The main difference between their rooms is that there's color here.

And a stack of papers underneath a bulky red sharpie.

Black-out curtains—open at the moment—are a deep blue and there's a rug that's a riot of color. But movement in the corner catches my eye.

"A lava lamp?"

He smiles at the thing sitting on the top of his dresser. "A reminder of my childhood."

Opening the narrow door to his closet, Thomas presents me with my bag and I set it on his bed, digging through for what I'll need for the day.

I'd brought clothes that wouldn't wrinkle, and go on quick, so I'm half dressed before I say, "Chase said I got to sleep with him because he was the one who'd be here… but you're here, so what was the real reason?"

"Aside from the fact that Chase's bed is more comfortable than mine?" He zips the side of my skirt up. "He's the only one who hadn't gotten to spend alone time with you yet. We like to play fair."

"Should I put up a leaderboard? Mark down every time I'm with one of you? That way, if someone gets too far ahead, he can be put in time out?"

Laughing, Thomas grabs a messenger style bag from beside his desk and gives me a long once over. "That might be fun."

"Do you want to stay with Chase for a while? Or would you like to part ways at the curb?"

"I do have things I need to get back to. And if you're leaving, it'll give me the excuse to not get distracted."

"I don't know if I'd tempt fate like that if I was you." Chase is waiting for us, leaning against the wall near the front door.

"Not tempting fate, just you."

Thomas pulls my coat off the hook and holds it out to help me into it. "If you wanted to walk us out, you should have put on clothes, old man."

They share a half hearted glare, and I step between them, kissing Chase lightly. "I'll see you soon. I promise."

Thomas winks at him before we leave, and I pretend I don't notice.

But as soon as the door closes behind us, Thomas scoops me up and carries me down the cement stairs.

"Those shoes look awfully wobbly."

"Sure," I say, knowing he didn't expect me to believe him.

When he sets me down, he doesn't let me go. "You know," he says, dipping his head to brush a gentle kiss across my lips. "We are going to need a ranking of bed comfortability, eventually."

I kiss him back, barely pulling away to say, "Mine's going to win."

I feel her before I see her, and when I peek around Thomas' shoulder, she's there, staring at us with all the righteous indignation I'd expect.

"Good morning, Mrs. Miller." I say with a cheery smile, though I open my eyes a little too wide when I look back to Thomas. "Get an eyeful?"

She lets out an enormous harrumph and hurries back inside.

"So you know," Thomas says, leaning down to kiss me again. "She came over yesterday morning to let Johnny know you were cheating on him with Joshua."

"And how did she take it when she found out you're sharing me?"

He grimaced. "He didn't tell her that . But he did make it clear that no one in the house has any specific claim over you."

Before I can say anything, he presses a finger to my lips. "Not that we don't all want to possess you in every way possible… We just know better."

"We'll see what we can figure out." Because I want to possess them too. And that is a dangerous path to travel.

Many a witch has tried to hold onto a supernatural creature… and to my knowledge, all of them have failed.

"Come to the game on Friday night?" Thomas asked, bringing my hand to his lips to brush a kiss across my knuckles.

"I've never been to a high school football game."

"There's a first time for everything." He holds my door open and watches me as I sit. "The energy is kind of inexplicable."

"I don't have a good track record with teenage boys. They tend to want to know me when I'd rather turn them into frogs."

"I would love to see that… There are a few I know who deserve it. But it's probably a bad idea."

"Definitely a bad idea.

With a smile that tugs straight at my heart, he says. "You should make a repellent. There's got to be a potion for that, right?"

"I'll think about it. The game, I mean. Not the repellent."

"If you do want to, meet the guys here. Six o'clock, tomorrow night. They can protect you from the high schoolers. And maybe you can protect them too."

He laughs and lets me shut my door.

I watch him walk away, the high school is visible from here, a pale building set on a hill, looking like a prison. And likely feeling like it to the students sentenced to its standardized testing.

When Mrs. Miller comes back out, tiny spade in her hand, I start the car. When I give her a cheery wave, and her eyes narrow even more sharply. I imagine she wants to stomp down the steps and wield the tiny shovel at me.

A flicker in my rearview mirror draws my attention back to the wolf in my back seat. "You don't need to protect me from a little old lady."

But its gaze is fixed on the front window on the far side of the house, and when I follow it…

The figure in the window is small, dark… barely more than a silhouette on the other side of the gauzy curtains, but the possibility settles in my stomach like a hard, cold stone.

And for the first time in my life, I actually hope someone owns a racist doll. Because if Mrs. Miller also has a warnaway in her house… either she's lying about the good, upstanding Christian lady she is, or something is terribly wrong.

Either way, I can't do anything about it right now. Gripping the steering wheel a little harder than I probably should, I turn my car around and head back home.

And I almost make it.

The lights in my rear view mirror shouldn't have been a surprise, but that didn't change the fact I flinched at the whoop of the siren.

Behind me, my ghostly protector growls and I pull off on the drive to the enormous expanse of the Sunrise Memorial Gardens.

"We'll give him the benefit of the doubt."

I don't see the wolf jump out of the car—it doesn't work like that—but before I've come to a full stop, he's gone.

When I roll down my window, to wait for my coming interrogation, I see it slip behind the walls set aside for urns and ashes.

This cemetery had only started taking occupants at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, but the wolf would probably stay away from those graves.

The long dead tended to be grumpier.

Damp brakes squealing, the Sheriff pulls to a stop behind me and I wait for him to get out and bring up whatever complaint he has this time.

He takes long enough to get out of the car that my eyes wander… To the grizzled front end of his car.

There's a scratch in his bumper that's a little too deliberate to ignore. I glare at it in my rearview mirror, but between the mud and the reversed image, I can't make it out before he steps into the line of the reflection and blocks my view.

"Miss Mathis," he says, sounding a little too pleased. But when I looked up at him, he wears a scowl, glaring at the empty back seat.

"What did you do with the dog?"

"I don't have a dog." I drop my head back to the seat and take a deep breath. "If you keep this up, I'm going to have to sue you for harassment."

"Don't lie to me. There was a dog in your back seat. A husky or German shepherd or something."

I look behind me, even though I know my wolfy friend is gone. "Where on Earth would I have hidden a dog that size?"

Mouth screwed in a line, he turns his glare on me. "Pop your trunk."

"No." I'm amazed I manage not to laugh at the barked order.

"Excuse me?"

"I don't have to submit to a search and at this point… I don't actually know what you're hoping to find."

What had been confusion morphs into agitation and he glares at me.

"Why did you pull me over?"

He blinks, like he doesn't understand the question.

"Even if I had had a dog in my back seat—which we can both agree, I don't—there's nothing illegal in that. So, please tell me what you pulled me over for."

"I don't know why you're lying to me."

"I'm not."

"We've never had problems before, but if this dog—"

"I don't own any animal. Owning another creature is a disgusting practice no matter how you try to justify it."

He doesn't look convinced. Not that I expected him to.

He takes his sunglasses off and leans close. "I don't know what you're up to Miss Mathis. But I know it's something. I'll be watching you."

For half a moment, I think I see the oil slick of an enchantment across his pupils, but it's gone in an instant and could have been nothing more than a trick of the morning light.

He scowls at me and then puts his glasses back on. "We're going to get this figured out, and I have a feeling you aren't going to like the consequences."

I wait for him to get back in his car and drive away, glad to see he turns left, back toward town.

When I glance at the wolf now in my passenger seat, I wish I could reach out and ruffle its fur.

Aphrodite, the warnaways, and now the spellform on the sheriff's car…

When I pull out of the cemetery and back onto the highway, I connect the bluetooth and dial the most used number in my phone.

It's early, but my mother never sleeps.

"Good morning, Scarlette. To what do I owe this early morning pleasure."

"I think Aphrodite might be a problem."

Before I can suggest the other woman is bewitching law enforcement, she lets out a long sigh. "She's toothless, unlike your new friends."

" They aren't going to be a problem, Mom."

"You can't promise me that. When they change, even if they retain most of their human minds…"

"They aren't going to change unless I make them."

There's a long silence on the other end. "We have no evidence that spell works permanently."

She's right, but we don't have any evidence it's temporary either. "I weighed the risks…"

"Have you forgotten what happened the last time someone did that?"

"It's different."

"Is it? I refuse to believe I would raise a daughter who would do something so foolish… so the only option I have is that I should have checked your hubris when you were a teenager." She mutters a curse in old Norse. "That kind of control over someone's life is not something anyone should have."

"I asked for their consent. I gave them all the details beforehand. It won't be an issue." Because I will never break that trust.

"You explained everything?"

A chill races over me. And I won't lie to her, but… "That is my risk to take. They don't need to know the consequences I'll incur if they decide to break this bond."

I glance at the wolf beside me. If all four of them decide they want their wolves back, my protectors will turn on me. Anytime a witch plays with forces like these… there's always a risk the spell could devour her.

"You need to tell them all of it. And if you don't. I will come down there and do it for you. Because if they abandon you to that fate, they will not survive its consequences."

"No." I shake my head, barely seeing the road beyond my windshield. "Like I said before, if it comes to that, you will not retaliate."

"Scarlette…"

"No. I made this choice. If there are consequences, they are mine. And mine alone."