Page 32 of Finding Embers and Stars (Twin Flames Duet #1)
Chapter thirty-two
M y date with Maverick is even better than I hoped. It’s so rare to find someone who can appreciate the silence. Other than Piper and some of our adopted family, I feel like everyone wants to talk instead of appreciating the sounds around them. The crash of the waves is music for my soul. I don’t always want to listen to it while someone is bending my ear.
Once we get home, we meet up with Piper, Walker, Liam, and Milo. Wyatt is still avoiding me. I know he made breakfast, got the Jeep ready, and had lunch put together for us when we got home.
It’s ridiculous that a grown demon is hiding from us the way a little kid would to avoid getting grounded.
Breezing past the guys and the mountain of food that is laid out, I walk into the laundry room. Grabbing a basket of socks, I look at Piper and tilt my head, wordlessly asking her to follow me.
It’s time to hunt down our demon.
We find him working on one of the cars, loud rock music blaring through the garage. Thanks to the volume, I’m able to walk right up behind him and dump the entire basket of questionably clean socks over his head.
He whirls around, a look of pure shock on his face.
“You’re free!” I shout to be heard over the music and because he seems to have a thick fucking skull. “Wyatt, you are a free elf! No more hiding in the shadows doing shit for us. We need a fucking mate, not a house-elf. Will you please come have lunch with us?” Piper turns off the stereo and the sudden silence is a bit startling.
Wyatt shuffles his feet, his eyes glued to the floor as he passes a wrench back and forth between his hands. “I’m sorry Sage. I wasn’t trying to ignore you. I was giving you space. I know I fucked up in an epic way and I didn’t want to crowd you.”
Stepping closer, I wrap my arms around his waist. He’s an unmoving wall, frozen in place as if one wiggle will send me running. “Wyatt, you hurt me. I’m not going to sugar coat this shit, but the only way we can move past this is if we work together. Staying out of sight doesn’t keep you out of my mind.” Stepping back, I reach up to cup his jaw, begging him with my touch to look at me.
“Maverick is the one that pointed out that you are doing all the chores to make amends. I thought you were avoiding me because you don’t want to be around me anymore.”
The wide-eyed shock on his face makes it clear that in his dumb man brain it had never occurred to him that I would draw that conclusion. The wrench clangs as it hits the floor, and he wraps both arms around me, lifting me completely off the ground.
“No! No, no, that wasn’t… Just no!”
The way he wraps his whole body around mine is decadent, but makes it hard to inhale.
Piper is fighting giggles when she steps up beside him, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Okay Dobby, let her breathe. Air is important.”
Once he sets me down, she wraps an arm around each of us. “Wyatt, you need to realize that we will all fuck up at some point. As long as we communicate as adults, we will figure it out. No more hiding from your problems or I’m buying you a Dobby costume and will make you wear it around the house.”
The look of horror on his face is priceless. I almost hope he screws up again just because I know Piper will follow through on her threat in a heartbeat.
He kisses us each on the forehead, then follows us inside for lunch. After we eat, Liam and Mav get up to clean the kitchen and I look over at Piper.
There is hardly ever a time when we need words to communicate. Sure, they make things easier, but when you have a connection as deep as ours, it's really not necessary.
“Guys, Pip and I need to work for a bit. It shouldn’t take us more than an hour or two to tie things up. We will be on the third floor in our office if you need anything.”
They all nod and gather around to give us kisses. Not that I’m complaining, but you would think we were going away for two days and not two hours.
Wyatt hovers hesitantly at the back of the group, Piper leans into him and gets her kiss, but he doesn’t take a step towards me.
I grab his shirt and yank him into my chest. Sliding my tongue along his bottom lip, I nip him, drawing out a sexy hiss. “Stop fucking hiding from me, Wyatt. You explained, I understand, we need to move past this.”
It’s as if my words remove all his hesitation. He bends me over backwards, laying the filthiest kiss of my life on my lips. Grinding his hips into mine, the feel of his shaft pressing into me has a whimper of need slipping out. In one smooth movement, he stands back up, spinning me towards the stairs. He gives me a gentle nudge and a not so gentle slap on the ass.
He heads back out to the garage, and I wait for Piper to join me. Watching the way Maverick picks her clear off the floor for her kiss makes my heart sing. It didn’t take long for the guys to figure out that Piper is self-conscious about her size. She was always told that she was too heavy and tall. The number of times I heard her father say she wasn’t feminine enough makes me sick. Seeing all of them go out of their way to reassure her makes me fall that much harder for them.
Once we make it upstairs to our office, we dive into the world of being self-published authors. We spend nearly an hour going over book cover designs for our upcoming trilogy and the promotion parties we will do on social media.
Once our video call with our personal assistant is over, Piper heads over to her comfy chair and I move over to sit beside her in mine.
“So, Mav said something when we were out earlier, and I want your thoughts on it.”
Pip nods and smirks at me. “Sure, as long as you fill me in on bedroom activities with our sexy polar bear.”
I roll my eyes as I feel the blush covering my cheeks. “Yeah. So that happened. Can’t say I regret it because he was absolutely wonderful, especially for his first time.”
Piper’s eyes widen at that tidbit, but she doesn’t interrupt me. “Funny story. When he saw my piercing, he said that the female lead in his favorite book series had a hood piercing, just like mine. He then proceeded to test out the trick he learned from the book, and I am here to tell you that it does, in fact, work.”
Piper bursts out laughing. “I’m super happy for you that it works, but I’m still not getting one. The nipples were enough for me, thank you. I still can’t believe how dumb I was asking Cobalt to heal me after, I should have asked Ash like you did.” She groans in embarrassment, her hands lifted to cover her face.
I can’t contain my whoops of laughter remembering the looks on both their faces. How I wish I’d had a camera handy to capture that moment.
I take a deep breath to get my laughter under control. Time to get serious. “So anyway. Mav said the guys have already talked about our bonding. He said that they want to do it at the same time.”
Piper chokes on the sip of orange soda she just took. “Like all of us in bed together? Because while I love you, that is weird as fuck and so not happening.”
“Agreed. Not happening. I have no desire to see your O face any more than you want to see mine.” She snorts, rubbing a hand over her face again, but she can’t argue with facts.
“You and I are already bonded through Atlas, so the theory is that we can group off. Two with one and three with the other.”
Piper nods, looking thoughtful. “Okay, that could work. We already told them we aren’t scissor sisters so they should get that we aren’t passion buddies. Too bad that you didn’t get tails and tentacles in your harem.”
I look at the door when I hear a muffled snort from the hallway. Wyatt, Liam, and Walker are all standing at the top of the stairs waiting to come in.
“Nope, but I did get a tail.” I wink at Wyatt, and he grins at me as he walks in, sitting on the lounge piece of my chair.
I’m about to ask what they need when Liam spins away from the bookcase, staring at us in shock. “Fuck me, you’re Raven Fenrir, aren’t you?”
Walker runs to the bookshelf, then spins back to us. “No fucking way. You guys are Raven Fenrir? I have every single one of your books! We’re both part of your Discord server!”
Piper and I share a look before bursting out in hysterical laughter. “Horsen-around and Bear-necessities? That’s you two, isn’t it?” I can barely speak, I'm laughing so hard, but the guys seem to understand my garbled words.
Walker’s face is ten shades of red when he looks at me. “Oh, my Goddess, Sage! When I told you about that trick last night, you didn’t say anything!”
He paces around our chairs mumbling behind his hands about how embarrassing it is that he fan-girled his mates and used our own trick on me.
He finally stops walking to pose the question I’ve been waiting for. “Wait, how do you know about that trick?”
Pip snorts. “Well, Walker. Sometimes, when a lady is lonely, she feels the need to press the devil’s doorbell. Clearly you were distracted, or you would have seen the TNT part of her octopus tattoo.”
“Wait, you have a TNT tattoo? Where?” Liam’s eyes caress my body from head to toe as if he can see through my clothes.
I completely lose it at Piper’s deadpan response and Liam’s excited question. I’m howling with laughter and rolling around in my chair like a crazy person. “Ow! It hurts us!”
Milo walks in, followed by Maverick, who rushes over to me. Everyone watches in amusement as he pats me down, looking for injuries.
“Maverick, stop! That tickles!” He freezes, looking down at me.
“I’m not hurt, hurt. I was laughing so hard it made my stomach hurt.”
He looks at me like I’m insane, taking a step back. “Why would you be yelling it hurts us?”
I roll my eyes at him. My mates have so much to learn about us. “Duh. Isn’t it obvious that it hurts me and all twenty-seven of my personalities?”
The guys all stare at me, clearly shocked into silence.
Piper just shakes her head. “Welcome to Sage’s asylum. I’m glad I have company now; I’ve been dealing with this alone for the last twenty years.”
I chuckle, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Pip. I still love you, even though your personalities stopped splitting at thirteen.”