by Rachel Angel
Sloane gave a small smile and said, “So off to the next piece.” He took out another vanilla envelope, which was labeled “Part 2”.
“Congratulations on finding the clue to part one! You should have known our favorite dessert had something to do with the clue. Now that you’ve found the golden key, fit it into the door of your dreams. Home is where you start to dream. What you do with it, is yet to be seen.”
Sloane looked up and said, “That’s it.”
Thomas was already on it. “Give me the key,” he said.
“May I?” I asked Sloane, grabbing the key from him and handing it to Thomas.
“Come on guys,” he said. “We’re going to my lab.”
“Lab?” Ash asked. “When did you have a lab here?”
“I don’t,” Thomas said. “It’s not really a full lab, but just where I do most of my science fair projects growing up. I have all kinds of equipment there, including a key duplicating machine. I’m making each of us a duplicate of that golden key so we can try it out on all the doors in this house.”
“It has to be in this house,” I said. “Home is where you start to dream.”
“Exactly,” Seb said.
Thomas looked at Sloane and said. “Stay put. We’re going to solve this one soon so don’t leave. We’re going to need Part 3 after this.”
Sloane sat back to relax and said, “I’ll take my time drinking my coffee and enjoying the raisin bread you gave me, too, Thomas.”
“I’ve got more of those in the kitchen so help yourself,” Thomas said. “Baked an entire loaf earlier today.”
Sloane smiled. “Putting that scientific brain to good use I see.”
Thomas said, “Ha. Now I’m putting it to use finding this clue. Come on guys. To the workroom!”
We followed Thomas to the basement where someone had converted it into a semi-lab/tool shed/computer central.
“Why haven’t I seen this before?” Ash asked.
“Because you were too busy not studying and goofing around,” Thomas said. “You were never interested in what I was working on anyways.”
“Did you know about Thomas’ mad scientist room?” Ash asked Seb.
“Yeah,” Seb said. “I helped him set it up.”
Ash looked mad. “You two… always working together and leaving me out of things.”
“You weren’t interested in helping,” Seb said. “I remembered telling you to help us clear the junk in the basement for Thomas, and you made an excuse about having to study for an exam, which you flunked anyways.”
“Oh yeah,” Ash said smiling. “Now I remembered.”
I shook my head. “Must been before my time here at Keystone,” I said.
“Why didn’t you know of this place?” Ash asked me.
“Because your mother kept my mother and me too busy with chores everyday for me to snoop around. Plus, I never liked dark basements. Creepy.”
Thomas smiled. “You wouldn’t think it’s so creepy if this was where we would get together instead of my bedroom. You’ll associate this place as a special place for us, wouldn’t you?”
“I guess I would,” I said. “But it’s still a dark basement, and…” Thomas turned on the lights and the place lit up into neon lights like a cool space and futuristic-themed playroom.
Thomas smiled. “This is my playroom.” He pulled out some chrome bar stools for us to sit at a clear acrylic bar and said, “You can wait here while I work on getting the keys made. Help yourself to the drinks in the fridge.”
“Man, you’ve been holding out on me,” Seb said. “I don’t remember you having a bar in here.”
“I installed it when you guys moved out,” Thomas said. “Kaley had left to go to Harvard, Seb left, and Ash left too. I was here by myself with Dad for a while longer before I moved out too.”
“Oh,” Seb said. “No wonder I don’t remember this.”
He walked over to the fridge and opened it. “This is my kind of playroom.” He pulled out a few cans of beer, handed one to Ash and one to me. He kept one for himself. “So, Thomas, is this your room of dreams?”
Thomas was already done with the first key, handing it to Seb. “Maybe,” he said.
“I think we all have a favorite room of ours in this house that would be our room of dreams,” I said. “Seb is right about that. This isn’t about just one room. I think there is going to be more than one clue in each room.”
“Dang,” Ash said. “Can it get more complicated than that?”
Thomas was done with another key. “Dad believed in teamwork so the first clue made us work together. This clue will require us to work together, but individually, too. When you get your key, start looking for the room you think Dad thought was your favorite room. Your room of dreams.”
“Gotcha,” Ash said, taking the second key Thomas made with him. “I know which one I would choose already, but I don’t know if Dad would’ve known about it.” He obviously meant his hidden room… the one he showed me recently, and the one we’ve just had passionate sex in.
“You should try another room,” I said, “Just in case.”
Ash nodded. “Okay, but yeah, that room…now definitely my room of dreams. Hot ones.”
Seb and Thomas looked over at him with a frown. “What are you doing, Ash?” Seb said. “Get going.”
“What about you?” Ash asked Seb.
“I’m thinking about my favorite room,” Seb said. “Now that I’m thinking about it, I think I’ve got it.” He took off, with the first key Thomas made.
“And now,” Thomas said walking over to me and handing me the original key. “You get to keep the original key since you found it. And I have a duplicate key.”
“Thanks, Thomas,” I said. “That is so sweet of you.”
“Yeah,” Thomas said, “Sweet. That’s what I want to be with you right at this moment.” He looked at me with a look of pure longing and hunger. “We’re finally alone together, Kaley,” he said. He leaned over to hold me close.
Before I knew it, he was kissing me fully, his mouth devouring mine as his hands went down the inside of my pants to squeeze my butt cheeks. “Oh, Thomas,” I whisper. “What are you doing?”
“Not holding back,” he said. “What’s the fucking use? There isn’t going to be an inheritance. It’s all going to those assholes you saw at the front door today. Those fucking assholes!”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Even when we find the clues and get whatever Dad left us, they want it all. So, screw that provision about not having any relations with you. I want you more than ever, and no provision is going to keep me from you.” He pulled down my panties along with my pants and lifted me up on the bar, positioning me so I was wide open to him.
With a groan he dove in between my legs, eating me with a fervor I’ve never seen before. I was bucking under him, wrapping my hands in his thick hair as his tongue expertly licked me to the point I was moaning for him to enter me.
“Fuck me, Thomas,” I moaned. “Fuck me now.”
He pulled down his pants and was already rubbing his thick dick along my wet opening, teasing me until I was moaning again. Begging for him to enter me.
“How I dreamed of this very moment in this very room,” he groaned, slowly entering me, filling me to the brim with his large dick. “Every time I came here, I came, just jacking off to you in this room, Kaley. Yes, this was before we ever got together. When you first arrived at Keystone Manor with your mother, and I laid eyes on you. You were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I was just a horny teen. I wanted you then, but you were so forbidden. The maid’s daughter. Mother would never let me date you. Let alone marry you. So... I would picture myself with you every time I came down here… away from mother’s prying eyes, away from my bedroom where anyone can see my soiled bedsheets.”
Thomas was pumping into me now in a frenzy, and I was clenching him hard in me, giving him everything I’ve got. “Oh Thomas,” I cried, just before clim
axing.
“Kaley,” he kissed me as he came. “You don’t know this, but you are my dream. And this room is definitely my room of dreams for you.”
I clung to him, again with tears running down my cheeks. What did Thomas give up to be with me? He thought he would lose all his inheritance anyways, but even though, I knew he would have given it up for me in the end.
He kissed me again and said, “You are my heart, Kaley. My life. Without you, I can’t go on.”
Chapter 8
Kaley
Thomas washed me off with a warm towel, and he quickly looked around. “Want to stay to see if this key fits anything in here for a clue?”
“Sure,” I said, kissing him again. His arms were around me, like he couldn’t stand being apart from me.
I didn’t want to let go of him, too. Being with him just now, and his confession to me made my heart swell with so much love for him. “I love you,” he said, kissing me. “I love you so much, Kaley,” he said again.
“I love you, too,” I said, kissing him. “Always have.”
“I know,” Thomas said. “Even when you playfully gave me that little girly heart-shaped music box for Valentine’s Day…the one you have to insert a key into for the music to play…I knew you loved me. That gift was so girly, but man, it was so you and so straight from the heart. I couldn’t help but love your girly gifts too.”
“Do you still have that music box?” I asked. “I gave that gift to you the first Valentine’s we were together.”
“Yes,” Thomas said. “As a matter of fact… it’s right there.” He walked up to a shelf where an old science project from his childhood was on display. It was a model of a luxurious hotel set against a tropical background. “Here it is,” Thomas said, handing me the music box.
Right in the middle of the music box was a small hole for a key to be inserted to start the music. At that moment, I took the golden key and placed it into that hole.
Perfect fit.
I turned the key, and the music began playing. But I also heard a click, and the top of the music box became loose.
I lifted the top right as Thomas came over to look at what I was doing, a look of realization dawning on his face.
Out pop a small note the size of a rolled up fortune cookie note.
“Congratulations! You realized your dreams. Now onto Part 3.”
“Wow,” Thomas said. “Again, working together with you, we solved this one.”
“I don’t know if I have to find a room of dreams, too,” I said. “Do I? Or is it just you Keystone boys?”
“We can go to your room of dreams to find out,” Thomas said. “Which room would that be?”
“Come on,” I said, heading out of the basement and up the stairs towards one of my favorite rooms.
We walked into a room I had spent countless number of hours just admiring. Cleaning. And then admiring again.
It was Mr. Keystone’s study where I was given the job of keeping clean and refilling his decanter. To me, this room meant success, power, wisdom, and greatness. I had admired Mr. Keystone for all those qualities. But I had also seen how much he seemed to care for his children. It was this room where I sat down at his desk in his leather plush chair and dreamed how I would one day be in the same position as Mr. Keystone – successful, educated, in a position of high standing.
But someone else was already in the same room of dreams as mine.
Seb.
“Seb?” I called out.
He was holding a heart-shaped music box like the one I gave Thomas only this one had a black and white checked pattern on the enamel top while Thomas’ was pink. I had given all three of my Keystone boys a heart-shaped music box for Valentine’s Day that first Valentine’s we were together.
Seb was holding the music box, his key inserted into the top, and in his hand was a roll-up tiny piece of paper.
“This is the clue,” Seb said. “This paper. It just says to go to Part 3.”
Thomas looked at me and said, “I guess you both had the same favorite room, unless there is another music box in here for you to open, Kaley.”
We looked around, and didn’t find anything else the golden key could fit.
“So that was only for the Keystone boys,” I said, mostly to myself.
Thomas put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re still one of us no matter what, Kaley. Without you… we wouldn’t have those music boxes.”
“That’s right,” Seb said. “All of this is very much tied to you.”
“So guys,” Ash walked into the room, carrying his music box and a tiny note in his hand. “Are we all done solving Clue 2?”
“Ash!” I called out, running to him as he pulled me into his arms. “Where did you find yours?”
“Would you believe… in my bedroom. Figures. That’s where I sleep most of the time. Duh, how else could I have dreams if it isn’t in my own bed? Get it? Sleep? Dreams?”
I smiled. “Of course, duh!”
Thomas and Seb shook their heads as we all walked back to the room where Sloane was supposed to be waiting.
Only he wasn’t there.
Chapter 9
Seb
Sloane couldn’t have disappeared at the worst time. We were all ready to go, handing him the tiny pieces of paper we found, when he was nowhere in sight.
“Mr. Sloane,” I called out loudly. “Where are you?”
Kaley immediately began calling him on her phone.
Thomas checked to see if his briefcase was still there. It was.
“He has to be here somewhere,” Thomas said.
“Hey guys,” a familiar voice said from behind us.
I turned around and frown.
Sutton was standing there, big and tall, in the middle of the lobby. And Sloane was right next to him.
“Sutton!” Kaley called out, walking to him. “Why are you here?”
“Checking up on everyone,” Sutton said. “Especially on my girl, Kaley, here.” He pulled her up to him and planted a big kiss on her lips.
Man, I wanted to punch him for that. The guy was a caveman. He couldn’t keep his hands off Kaley. And his lips.
“Actually,” Sloane said. “I called him.”
“What?” Kaley asked. “Why?”
Sloane looked stoic and dead serious then. “I wanted him around for protection.”
Kaley, Thomas, Ash, and I looked at each other.
“Why?” Kaley asked. “Do you think something dangerous is going to happen?”
Sloane kept his eyes on all of us. “Yes.”
“Oh boy,” Ash said.
“I see you have each solved the puzzle for Part 2 so we will go on next to Part 3,” Sloane said. “Come on back to the room where my briefcase is.” He looked over at Sutton. “I would like to have law enforcement near me when I read the next part of the will.”
Now I was getting worried. Why would Sloane fear for his life by reading the next part of the will?
What the hell could be so devastating that Sloane would need to call Sutton for protection?
Chapter 10
Kaley
I walked into the library room where Sloane had set up the reading of the will earlier. It was one of my favorite rooms in the house because of all the books lining the entire walls of the room.
I loved books. All kinds of books. Every kind of books. I would read them all. This library was my sanctuary and place of freedom when I wanted to escape my reality and let my mind wander into different worlds.
I looked over at Thomas, whom I had now gotten closer to, emotionally and physically. I knew this was one of his favorite rooms too. We were on the same level when it came to intellectual pursuits. That was one of the strongest connections I had with him, besides the incredible physical animalistic chemistry we shared.
At the corner of my eye, I saw Ash settled into the corner of the leather sofa that had always been my favorite place to read. He knew it too, patting the seat next to him as he looked up at me expect
antly.
I walked over and sat down next to him. Immediately, his leg closest to me leaned closer to touch me, and his hand nonchalantly brushed against mine. I knew he wanted to hold my hand. I could feel the protectiveness in every inch of his body.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered to me. “Whatever’s coming, I’ll protect you.”