Page 41

KHALIL

“ W here are we going? And why can’t it wait until a more godly hour?” Aurelia huffs, partly from exertion and partly from annoyance at being up this early.

“Because where we’re going and what we’ll do once we get there is not for God’s eyes and ears,” I respond.

My cryptic answer only earns me a scowl from Aurelia.

We haven’t been forthcoming after dragging her out of bed because our destination is a secret. We don’t have many chances to surprise her out here, so as usual, we’re forcing her to indulge us.

At our altitude and being early spring, it’s still a little chilly in the mornings, but it won’t last, which is why we left the moment it was safe to give us time to reach Maia. We’re at the base of her now, making our way up the trail in a single file line.

I chose to walk behind Aurelia so that I could stare at the bottom curve of her plump ass hanging out of her denim shorts. I could kiss Seth for finding them when we scavenged her stuff because the view is better than anything these wilds could offer. I can tell she’s not wearing panties either from the way her ass jiggles, even within the tight confines of her shorts.

I tilt my head to get a better angle and trip over a fucking rock. My stumble draws Aurelia’s knowing gaze over her shoulder. “Now that’s what you get. Pervert.”

She wiggles her ass teasingly, and I groan as I reach down to squeeze my dick. I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I do Aurelia fucking George.

I’m damn near rabid and pitching a noticeable tent by the time we reach the cliffside halfway up the mountain. The travertine terrace overlooking the rushing river underneath has a stunning view of Big Bear to our left and Little Bear to our right and all the wilds in between. It never gets old, but Aurelia doesn’t notice it.

She takes one look at the shallow pools of water with steam rising from the depths and gasps. “Is that what I think it is?” She squeals when I nod and leans over to see more of the hot springs.

“I know it’s not whatever fancy hot tub you have back home, but it will more than do the trick, I promise.”

“And look,” Seth adds while reaching into this pack and pulling out two bottles of cheap wine and champagne. Aurelia had snuck them both onto the supply list before our last run to Hearth. Seth holds them both up now with a grin.

Goldilocks giggles when she sees them. “Seth, I think it’s a little early for wine and champagne.”

“Oh. Really?”

She snorts. “No.”

Seth howls and starts thrusting his hips, making Aurelia laugh even harder.

It’s not until Thorin, Seth, and I remove our clothes, revealing our swimming shorts underneath, that Aurelia sobers.

“Wait, I don’t have a bathing suit.”

My grin spreads even wider. “ We know .”

Propping her hand on her wide hips, she turns to face me. “You expect me to get in there naked? What if someone comes?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m sure Seth will scare them off.” On cue, Seth starts barking and growling.

Aurelia still doesn’t appear convinced even while looking at the shallow pools of water longingly.

“It’s still early in the season, baby. Most of the Cold Peaks are still impassable and will be for another month or two. No one’s coming.”

“The three of you got up and down this past month. Twice.”

“That’s because we know what we’re doing.”

“And Pete?”

“That idiot was desperate and stupid enough to risk it. You know that.”

More accurately, Pete and his boys were wanted for trafficking two counties over and had chosen the wrong mountain to hide out on. End of story.

“Fine.” The three of us don’t even pretend we’re not watching her strip until she’s naked. Aurelia looks around nervously like she’s expecting a tourist to pop up the moment she’s vulnerable. She has one arm covering her breasts and her other hand covering her pretty pussy, and that just won’t do.

The unusual sight of her so insecure has me walking over to her. I stand behind her until my erection is nestled between her ass, and I bring my lips to her ear. “Do you really think we’d let anyone lay eyes on what’s ours?” I whisper.

I’m already grabbing her wrists by the time she shakes her head. “No.”

She still resists as I force her arms down by her side, but I easily overpower her until her perfect body is once more bared to the forested canopy on the other side of the river. We’re high enough on Maia that we can see the top of the trees. “Khalil…”

She falls silent when I cup her breasts in my palms, massaging the heavy globes while I thumb her nipples. “Look at these perfect fucking tits,” I praise. “And you’re all ours. We got you, Goldilocks. You know that, don’t you? You’re safe with us, baby.”

Thorin steps into the first shallow pool, which happens to be the largest, and offers his hand to her. Aurelia takes it, and he helps her down into the hot pool.

Steam immediately curls around them both while Seth and I follow them into the pool.

“Fuck, yes. This feels amazing,” I hear Aurelia moan. The steam immediately veils them, but I can still see her body relaxing as she leans into Thor.

Seth comes up on her from behind while Thorin is plastered to her front, and I watch the former run his hands down her arms and over the goosebumps already covering her skin from the sharp contrast of the cool air and hot water.

Content to watch her with them for now, I hang back and take a seat on the uneven lip of the pool. Thorin is kissing one side of her neck while Seth is devouring the other, and I’m growing harder by the minute watching them consume her.

Without any direction, Aurelia reaches back and slips her hand inside Seth’s shorts, and I know the moment she wraps her hand around him because he releases a shuddering breath and bites into her shoulder.

The pain of his teeth sinking into her skin only inflames her need, so she frees him from his shorts while jerking him off and kissing Thorin like they’re long-lost lovers.

There’s a moment when I think Aurelia might pull away and end this before it even really starts, and that’s when Thorin cradles a hand against her belly. She stiffens, so Thorin quickly shifts gears and slips his hand between her thighs as if the moment never happened.

Aurelia softens once more and moans into his mouth while he toys with her clit. She starts jerking Seth faster while he matches her rhythm, thrusting his hips into her hand.

“Sunshine, baby, I’m going to come,” Seth warns her hoarsely.

Aurelia uses her hold on him to tug him closer to her until the underside of his cock rests between her ass. And that’s where he comes, his warm seed spurting onto her lower back and marking her as his.

The moment Seth quiets, Thorin ends his kiss with Aurelia, grabs the back of her thighs, and lifts her from the pool. Neither of them speaks a word as he lowers her down on his cock, but Aurelia isn’t able to keep quiet for long as he drills in and out of her. Thorin’s gaze is intense as he watches her take him, and if I had to describe what he was feeling, it would be nothing less than obsession. Aurelia looks like a goddess being worshipped by his cock.

“Thorin…please…”

“What’s the matter? You want to come, songbird?”

“Yeah.”

Thorin carries her across the pool before setting her down on her feet in front of me. When he spins her around, and she sees me, Aurelia tries to climb in my lap and mount me like a bitch in heat. “Khalil, make me come. Please?”

Thorin yanks her ass back with a possessive growl, and she growls back as he bends her over. Aurelia’s head ends up hovering over my lap, so I grab a fist full of her hair while finally freeing my dick from the confines of my shorts.

“Is this what you want, baby?” I tap her perfect, pouty lips with my thick dick before working the shaft until pre-cum spills out of the slit. The pearly drop coats her bottom lip, so I use the tip to spread it across the seam of her pretty lips. “You want me in your mouth?”

Aurelia nods and holds my gaze while she licks my cum from her lips. I know the moment Thorin enters her again because that divot between her brows appears, and her mouth parts like she’s full already when Thorin still has a few inches left to give our girl.

A plaintive moan slips from her lips when his pelvis finally meets her ass.

I carefully gag her with nine more inches until her nostrils flare against my thighs once I hit the back of her throat.

Groaning, I lean against the wall of rock, sediment, and mud behind me, and I keep her there for a while—long past her need to breathe. Aurelia sinks her nails into me while Thorin pounds her pussy, but I still don’t let her up for air.

We’re using her, and I can tell by Thorin’s grunts and strangled curses that it drives our girl wild. I can only imagine what her tight, little pussy is doing to him. It’s the only thing that rivals her hot, wet mouth wrapped around me.

When I finally pull her off me, copious amounts of saliva and pre-cum cling to her mouth and chin while she coughs and gags and sucks in huge breaths.

“Had enough, Goldilocks?”

“No,” she replies in a raspy voice.

“No?” My thumb sweeps her swollen bottom lip. “You want some more?”

“Yes, please.”

She’s barely caught her breath when I give her what she wants, feeding her my dick before looking around for Seth while Aurelia’s head bobs up and down in my lap.

Spotting him crouched over by our packs, fucking around with the champagne bottle, I refocus on our girl and trying not to come yet.

When I pull Aurelia off my dick again, she sucks in another huge breath and then turns her head over her shoulder. I know she’s watching the way Thorin’s scarred abs flex, and his blond hair hangs around his face and shoulders as he fucks her. It’s almost as mesmerizing as the sight of her round ass jiggling from the impact. The sound of their slick skin slapping each time they come together mixes with the bubbling water of the pools while the steam continues to rise up, obscuring the three of us locked together.

“Thorin? I kn-know you’re gonna…c-come…soooon. Can you pl- pleeeease pull ooooout?”

Thorin’s only answer is to flick his determined blue gaze up at me.

I grant the unspoken request, silencing Aurelia again when I grab her curls and force her face back toward me. Realizing I’m shutting her up, she presses her lips firmly together, but I win our battle of wills when I reach down and tug on one of her nipples until she cries out from the pain.

I guide my dick back between her open lips.

Aurelia’s sounds of protest are muffled but no less emphatic as she attempts to appeal to our softer side—as if such a thing exists. If Thorin wants her barefoot and pregnant, that’s the way it will be.

As if to make his point, Thorin slaps her hand away when she reaches back to place a hand on his abs. He then lifts his leg to rest his foot on the lip of the pool next to me, fucking her pussy from a deeper angle while I choke her with my cock.

The three of us come together too soon—before we’ve had our fill, if that is even possible with her. The sounds of our pleasure mix with the pop of a cork and the spray of the chilled champagne Seth managed to get open.

The moment Thorin empties his balls, he pulls out of her and swims away in the shallow pool while an exhausted Aurelia crawls into my lap with a pussy full of Thorin’s cum and a belly full of mine. She rests her head on my shoulder and nuzzles my neck while I rub her back above where Seth’s cum is drying. Staring up at the sky our star fell from, I wonder how the fuck we got to be so lucky.

It has been, without a doubt, a perfect fucking morning.

It takes us longer to get back to the cabin after we leave the hot springs since Aurelia is drunk and fucked out after the three of us decided to go a second round before we left.

We just manage to get her into Thorin’s bed before she passes out with a mumbled goodnight despite it being the afternoon. Once she’s out, the three of us lounge around Thorin’s bed, content to watch her sleep for a while like the obsessive creeps she accused us of being.

“We shouldn’t have let her drink today,” Thorin says as he holds her.

I cringe from the other side of the bed when I realize the risk we’d taken today, but fuck it. Aurelia needed it, and we’d sworn to take care of her—to never make her want for anything or regret for even a moment choosing us. I eye Thorin over Aurelia. “You really think she’s pregnant?”

He shakes his head as his eyes trace the delicate lines of her face. “I don’t know. That’s why we need to get her to take that fucking test. Until then, we’re flying blind.”

Rubbing my beard, I watch Aurelia’s chest rise and fall, and I swear my own breathing slows to match her rhythm. “Aurelia’s stubborn.”

“Aurelia’s not in charge,” Thorin reminds me. “She’s taking that fucking test.”

“And if she is knocked up? She won’t be happy about it. You know that, right?”

Thorin shrugs like an asshole. “Too fucking bad. She’ll get over it.”

“I think a baby will be cool,” Seth decides from the foot of the bed where he’s lying on his side, picking the threads in the bedspread. “Maybe one that looks like Sunshine.”

My gaze flicks to him. “They require a lot of attention, Seth. A baby will take up all of her time.”

“Oh. Well, then, never mind.”

When my attention returns to Thorin, I catch him rubbing her belly like he tried to do at the hot springs before she shut down. “And you need to figure out if you really want a baby or if you’re just hellbent on trapping her, Thor. Really consider it and decide—preferably before one of us does actually knock her up, and it’s too fucking late to take it back.”

He glowers at me but doesn’t argue because he knows I’m fucking right. Aurelia doesn’t deserve to be saddled with that baggage because he’s insecure.

“She wants us, Thor. She wants to stay. She’s keeping us. You don’t need to make it so that she can’t ever change her mind. You just need to trust her. Do you?”

Thor stares down at Aurelia sleeping in his arms, and when he finally answers, his voice is thick with all of the things left unsaid between them. “Yes.”

“Good.” I exhale my relief as I stretch, feeling my own exhaustion creeping in. “Then chill the fuck out, bro. She’ll give us a baby when she’s ready. It should be her choice anyway.”

I don’t realize I’ve fallen asleep until I’m jarred awake a few hours later by a relentless pounding. At first, I think it’s my brain knocking against my skull since I couldn’t seem to turn it off even while asleep. When I lift my aching head and look around the room, I realize it’s just Thorin, Seth, and me in the bed.

Aurelia’s gone.

Seth wakes up next when the knocking continues, and then Thor.

“What the fuck is that?” Thorin asks in a groggy tone.

“I think someone’s at the door,” Seth answers as he rubs his eyes.

I stand from the bed, wondering if Aurelia stepped outside for a moment and got locked out, but when I step out of Thorin’s room, I see her standing a few feet from the front door. She has a towel wrapped around her while her wet, curly hair hangs around her shoulders in perfect golden ringlets. Her dark roots are already starting to show, and in a few more months, her hair will be more brown than gold.

She must have been in the shower when whoever the fuck is on the other side of our door interrupted.

Aurelia’s watching it now with a weird expression—like she doesn’t quite know what to do, and I guess not, seeing as she obviously can’t answer it.

“Goldilocks.”

“It’s the sheriff,” she says. “I spotted him through the window. I thought he’d go away if no one answered, but he just keeps knocking.” Finally, she looks at me when I say nothing. “He’s not alone, Khalil.”

“Fuck.”

“Do you think he’s here for me?”

“I don’t know, baby.”

“What are we going to do?”

“About what?” Thorin asks as he and Seth step out of his room. He frowns at the door when the knocking persists, and then his expression becomes blank when he remembers that only one person comes this far up. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Sheriff Kelly,” I confirm.

“Boys, you home?” the sheriff calls out. “Open up!”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think we should open it.”

Aurelia nods while tightening her robe. “I have to agree with Seth. Answering it seems like a bad idea.”

“We don’t have a choice,” I tell them. My gaze travels to Thorin and then Seth, who both look like they are mentally preparing for war. “We need to see what he wants.”

“We know what he wants,” Thorin grinds out.

“Yeah, but why now?” I reason. We’re all whispering since we’re standing less than ten feet from the door. “Why not a month ago?”

“Change of heart?” Seth guesses.

“No,” I say, following my gut. “It’s something else. If the Sheriff really believed we’d taken Aurelia, he would have come for her weeks ago.”

Thorin holds my gaze as he tilts his head toward Seth in silent question. Isaac?

Could be, I communicate silently.

“I can hear you,” Seth snaps. “And a door wouldn’t stop Isaac if Thanatos has come for me.”

“I realize now is not the time to ask,” Aurelia whispers, “but who the hell is Thanatos? He sounds suspiciously made up.” She narrows her eyes at Thorin and me as if she thinks we’re the ones who planted that bullshit in his head.

“He’s Death,” Seth unhelpfully explains.

Aurelia just stares at him.

“In short?” Thorin blows out a breath and shakes his head like he can’t believe what he’s about to say. “Thanatos is a god from Greek mythology. It’s said he appears when it’s your time to go and carries you off to the Underworld,” Thorin adds.

“Okay. Sure.” The face Aurelia makes says she thinks we’re all nuts.

“Thanatos is how Seth understands death,” I tell Aurelia. “No matter what happens, Seth knows everything will be okay if the winged god doesn’t come.”

She blinks at me, and then her mouth forms an O in understanding as she turns to peer at Seth through new eyes before nodding. “All right, so if it’s not Ezekiel’s brother, then who else would send a death squad to our door?” We’re quiet long enough for Aurelia to catch on and look at each of us in confusion. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

I smile a little to myself as I say, “Nothing.”

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue, or maybe Aurelia does think of our cabin as her home, too. Either way, the three of us are too chicken-shit to find out for sure.

It isn’t as easy for Seth to hide his feelings, though, not with his chest puffed out like that. Aurelia referring to Isaac as Zeke’s brother just assured Seth that he’s as real to Aurelia as Thorin and me.

What Aurelia just gave us without even realizing it is so far from fucking nothing, but now is not the time to let it distract us.

But later…

Let’s just say I’ll be feasting tonight.

“You guys are weird,” she says with a nervous giggle.

Thorin clears his throat and turns us back to the topic at hand. “If it was a SAR mission, Kelly would have radioed first.”

“He probably tried, but we were out all morning, and we didn’t take our radios,” I remind Thorin.

Thorin opens his mouth to argue, but Aurelia beats him to it. “All of this conjecture isn’t useful when there is a way to know for sure,” she reasons. “Just answer the door.”

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Thorin snaps.

I palm my face.

Leave it to that grumpy, paranoid prick to send us flying back three steps when we just gained one.

Taken aback by the misplaced malice that must feel like an unexpected backhand slap, Aurelia whirls on Thorin with her hands on her hips. “Excuse me?”

He eyes her. “You heard me.”

“Yeah, I did, but I’m not sure what your problem is, Thayer, so either spit it the fuck out or back the hell off.”

His conflicted gaze travels to me over her head, and I know he’s replaying our talk earlier while Aurelia was asleep. When I shake my head, he scrubs a hand down his face, wisely choosing to keep silent instead of letting those doubts resurface.

“Thorin’s just crabby, Sunshine. He didn’t mean it.” Seth pulls her into him, and she lets him while keeping her hurt eyes on Thor, who refuses to meet her gaze.

“Seth,” I say, coming to a decision. “Take Aurelia downstairs while I let the Sheriff in.”

“No need,” Aurelia pettily replies. “I can see myself out.” She pulls away from Seth, and as she passes me, I catch her arm. “Do not make a sound, Goldilocks. I mean it. Not a fucking peep.”

I brace for her to curse me out, too, but then she nods and tosses one last dirty look at Thorin before disappearing down the stairs into the basement.

The three of us wait, collectively wincing when we hear my bedroom door slam closed. If we’ve learned nothing else about our girl, it’s that when Aurelia is pissed off, the three of us feel the effects for days. I move for the front door and open it just as the sheriff turns away to leave.

If Kelly showing up here unannounced wasn’t enough to raise our alarms, seeing the eight armed men, who are not his deputies, standing behind him like statues definitely flips our collective switch into defense mode.

It takes me a second longer to realize it’s not just Zeke we’re hellbent on protecting.

It’s Aurelia, too.

The grim-faced men are all dressed in black tactical gear, and I can tell right away that they are professionals.

“Ah! You are home. I was beginning to worry these old ears were failing me.” The sheriff chuckles, but none of us return it as we size up the men behind him and wait to see why the fuck he brought them here. The sheriff picks up on the tension and says, “I’m aware you don’t welcome visitors, but this is important, and it couldn’t wait. Can we come in?”

“ You can.”

The less experienced mercenaries shift nervously when I reveal the gun tucked inside my waist while the other half meet my stare head-on.

None of this makes sense. Mercenaries aren’t Isaac’s style. Why pay a premium for professionals when he has brainwashed sheep to die for him for free?

We did our fair share of damage to his flock when we rescued “Zeth,” but this still feels extreme. And if it wasn’t for our unwelcome guests, I’d laugh at how quickly Aurelia’s name for Ezekiel and his most troublesome alter had caught on. I can even guess what she’s calling Zeke and Bane in that fascinating mind of hers.

“You can put that away, son. It won’t be necessary. These men are part of a private security firm and came a long way to speak with you three. Nothing else.”

“Why?” Thorin asks while slipping past me to stand on the front porch.

“Well…” The sheriff looks behind him at the mercenaries, and I know that despite what he claims, they make him uneasy, and I realize why when he says, “They were hired by Marston George.”

“Tell me this is not fucking happening,” I groan as soon as the front door closes behind us. The sheriff and the men Aurelia’s uncle hired had just taken their leave, and now the three of us are frozen in place, wondering how the fuck we’re going to get out of this one.

The sheriff had come all this way to introduce us to the men that will be searching our mountain with a fine toothcomb for Aurelia. He knows it wouldn’t have ended well if we’d come across them ourselves. The mercenaries also came with a hefty offer from Marston George for us to act as their glorified tour guides. We, of course, sent them packing with an offer of our own—to go fuck themselves.

Our hostility toward perfect strangers had baffled the sheriff, but he knew better than to ask us for answers we’d never give.

Nothing worth having is ever easy, and damn if Aurelia isn’t making us work for her in more ways than even she knows.

Thorin fakes a sharp cutting motion across his neck, silencing us, and then he waves us out onto the deck in case Aurelia is eavesdropping from the basement. The moment the upper deck door is closed behind us, he tips back his head and roars, “Fuuuuuuck!”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Seth says from his causal lean against the railing. “Let them look around. They won’t find her, and then they’ll be gone in a few days.”

“Marston George has access to his niece’s endless resources. With or without our help, he can hire a hundred teams and drag the search out for years if he wants to, and trust me, he will want .”

“That’s fucking stupid. Does Aurelia’s uncle really think she could have survived out here on her own?”

“No. He definitely thinks she’s dead, but the fucker wants a body to prove it.”

“For what?”

“Because right now, she’s still considered missing,” I tell Seth. “Without proof that his niece is dead, Marston George can’t inherit her fortune. It will be years before she’s declared deceased.”

“And apparently, the greedy bastard couldn’t wait that long.”

Until now, I hadn’t truly thought about what Aurelia was giving up when she chose us. But now the answer is staring me down like a ravenous void ready to consume me with guilt.

Everything.

She’d given up everything. Her life, career, and wealth—even her very existence. The least we can do is give her everything in return—starting with our loyalty and honesty.

“We should tell Aurelia,” I decide.

Thorin snorts, and when I raise my brows at him for acting like a salty bitch, he returns an equally withering look of his own. “You don’t think that scheming wench didn’t already know her uncle would send someone looking for her?”

That gives me pause while needles of apprehension prick at my skin. Great…now I’m as bad as Thorin. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying…what if she’s been lying to us and biding her time? Getting us to think she’s really falling for us so we’d let our guard down.”

“Thorin, come on. Do you realize how crazy that sounds? Aurelia is many things, but she isn’t manipulative. Don’t do this shit. Not now. Don’t let your paranoia ruin a good thing. A fucking great thing. Aurelia isn’t your mom. She’s not going to break her word.”

“Right.”

“ Wrong .” Seth pushes away from the railing and shoves Thorin back. The surprised look Thorin gives him is almost comical. “Sunshine told me she loves me. She wouldn’t have said it if she didn’t mean it.” Thorin just stares back at him. “And she loves you too, Thor. She hasn’t said it yet, but she feels it. You just have to stop being so…” Seth searches for a kinder word than what he’s probably thinking and settles on. “You.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Enough of this shit. Go see her, Thor.”

“What?”

“You’re spiraling. Go see her right now. Touch her. Hold her. And then look into her eyes and tell yourself that she isn’t yours. That she isn’t mine. And that she isn’t Seth’s. I fucking dare you.” When the stubborn ass doesn’t move from the spot where he’s standing, I shake my head. If Thorin can’t get past that voice in his head that says Aurelia can’t be trusted—that she is his past come back to haunt him, we’re doomed. “Fine. If you can’t do that, do yourself a favor and get the hell out of my sight before I fuck you up.”