Architects_Sons of Olympus

by Helen J Perry

  Now, Autolycus had come along and mentioned Philip.

  Jade couldn't guess why Philip wanted to see her, but she remembered well enough that despite his youthful appearance he was thousands of years old. A god. A god with a sense of humor like her own, a man who flirted with everyone as furiously as she did, and who had a wicked smile. Excited about seeing him again, Jade was thrilled he remembered her. After the fun they'd had in the olive grove many months ago, even though it was last summer, she wasn’t going to forget him in a hurry.

  Gripping her more firmly, Nic pulled Jade up and helped her return to the tree.

  They'd just slumped down beside it when Autolycus reappeared in front of them. This time he carried a red and green checked blanket.

  "I haven't found Philip yet. He's somewhere in the Labyrinth I expect." He placed the rolled-up blanket on the ground. It appeared lumpy as something was obviously wrapped inside. "I brought you provisions to sustain you in your waiting. There is food and drink here. I bid you farewell."

  Without waiting for a reply, he hurried off as abruptly as he'd appeared. Leaving three people gaping in his wake.

  Karl got up and lay the checked blanket on the floor and unwrapped the picnic. "Bon appétit."

  There were a couple of bottles containing liquid. From experience, Jade guessed they were probably mead, a wine made with honey. Packages of food were wrapped in thin sheets of muslin. There was cheese, bread, grapes, and apples.

  Jade hadn't been hungry until she saw the food, and even then she wasn't sure if she had the energy to eat. Fortunately, Nic crawled forward and prepared a selection of food for her using a piece of muslin as a plate.

  "I'm lucky you two are here to look after me," she said as he placed it on her lap.

  "You wouldn't be here and hurt if it wasn't for us two. We're to blame for the predicament."

  Chapter Nine

  "You don’t think he’d poison us, do you?" Karl asked. "You said he’s a thief. Would he sink that low?"

  "He’s got no reason to, and he’s not an idiot," Jade said, snorting. "I don’t think he’s a murderer. And I’ve got friends in high places. Philip wants to see me; heaven knows why, and he's a god. I’m connected with the immortal Spartans. They're much higher up the pecking order in the eyes of the gods than the Auto dude. If Autolycus, or anyone else, tried to kill me, Lauren would get the top gods to smack down thunder, lightning, and earthquakes. At least, I'd like to think so."

  "There’s so much I don’t understand," Karl admitted. He spoke the words against Jade’s head, mumbling into her hair. His warm breath made Jade shiver in delight. "This world, the people, the policies surrounding it…"

  Having eaten a little, and sitting snugly sandwiched between the two men, Jade felt too sleepy for conversation. "Well," she said, struggling to structure her thoughts into words, "when it comes to other dimensions, there are no policies. The world defies physics and logic."

  "Is that why you like it so much?" Karl asked. "You seem to fit right in."

  "Ha! Ha! Very funny." If Jade’s eyes were open, she would’ve rolled them. She snuggled closer to Nic, finding comfort in his warmth and his scent. "I’ll have you know that I enjoy the whimsicality of this dimension. Each time I see something different, and it astounds me every time."

  "Even this time?"

  "Not this time." Jade laughed. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter. "Not yet, at least. We’ll see where the rest of this adventure goes, though."

  Nic shifted his body, turning toward her slightly. "How long do you think we’ll be here?"

  "I don’t know. Hopefully not more than a day. I hope we're not stuck here for long."

  "Do you think we’re in danger?"

  "The truth is, I don’t know enough about this world to guess, but I don’t think so, not now I know Philip is near. We'll be safe with him, I'm sure. I didn’t even know there were giant cats used as guards. I guess I should’ve known. Lauren’s told me that scale is all an illusion, so the sizes of things to do with the gods aren’t fixed. But, I’ve never had a run-in with anyone."

  Nic placed a hand on her thigh. Not the sort of hand that was set to creep higher. But the sort of hand that was going to rest there as they slept together. "Then I guess we’d better hope we get back home soon." He mumbled, sounding as sleepy as she felt.

  "Yeah." Jade opened an eye to find the world had stilled. "How are you feeling right now, by the way?."

  Karl lifted his head. "Tired. Nic?"

  "Same?"

  There was one thing that had continued to puzzle Jade since earlier that day. "Karl, what did you mean when you said I'm our type, not your type? Have you and Nic been talking about me and what happened?" She was sure they had, and after the near death experience, it was something they could surely admit to.

  "We didn't need to talk about you Jade. I know Nic well enough to know you're his type too."

  Enjoying listening to them talk, she asked, "How well?"

  She felt them both shift positions slightly as if uncomfortable with the question and unsure how to answer.

  "Very well." Nic didn't seem like he was going to elaborate on his suggestive answer.

  After a long pause, Karl said, "We travel together, working away from home, wherever the job takes us, Jade and we've found we like the same kind of women."

  "We like ladies who are different, adventurous, and special, like you." Nic squeezed her thigh. "We don't often meet women like you on our travels."

  Karl chuckled. "I've never met anyone like you."

  Nic laughed. "That's true. It’s kinda weird lighting out here. Do you think it’s twilight?"

  "It might be." Jade opened lifted her chin to look through the canopy. Through the foliage, she spotted traces of the sky. The light was fading. "I think we’re almost past dusk."

  "It’s probably not a good idea to travel, then." Unfazed by it all, Karl remained as sensible as ever. "And that strange guy in the white dress said wait here."

  "Chiton, not a dress," Jade corrected. "It's called a chiton."

  They started talking about dresses and skirts that men wore in foreign cultures. Jade vividly recalled Philip in his leather kilt. She'd called it a skirt, but it didn't look at all feminine the way he wore it. His angular toned body was far too masculine. He was good looking and all man, as she'd discovered.

  The back-and-forth chat between them flowed easy.

  "We should sleep here. Are you okay with that?" Nic asked. If they got cold later, there was always the picnic blanket they could pull over themselves.

  Karl snorted. "I’m okay with it."

  The ground felt surprisingly comfortable, though, and Jade didn’t mind staying. A forest seemed as good a place to camp out for the night as anywhere else. She continued to snuggle into Nic's warm body.

  Karl held her hand and snuggled up to her on one side. Jade rubbed her thumb against Karl’s hand, which set off mini jolts of electrical sparks. She wondered if he felt them too.

  Karl had the self-confidence to take Jade’s humor in his stride, but he was still uptight enough that Jade had something to work with. And in turn, he instinctively seemed to know how to dish Jade’s treatment right back at her.

  It wasn’t often that Jade found someone she could riff off so easily. It was like hanging out with Lauren.

  Nic's was the measured voice of calm reason between them.

  The amazing chemistry between the three of them had been a constant. Jade had learned to live with it, keeping her desires in check, but now and then, Karl or Nic took her breath away. And as the world darkened around them the three of them huddled close.

  They sat in silence for a while. Not speaking, but not exactly silent. The world around them buzzed with noise from origins they couldn’t see. Insects. Animals that rustled about just out of sight.

  "So, you could tell me now about your plans," Jade said finally, breaking the silence between them. "And the trees you’re gonna cut down."

  "What
about it?" Karl asked. The top button of his shirt had come undone somewhere along the way. His suit jacket was long gone.

  "Well, are you still set on tearing down the trees?"

  "Look, I never said I was tearing down the trees. Not all of them and not even most of them. You and your friend dreamed that up. To start, it was just going to be a few trees, that’s all. So yes, my plans are unchanged—we’re going to fence off the area and remove a few trees." Karl’s voice sounded laced with discomfort, though.

  "Why are you doing this?" Jade paused, then reframed the question. She didn’t want to come across as hostile. "I guess I mean, why are you so set on tearing down the woods to build whatever it is you’re building? Why Beaumont? We don’t have anything to offer. We’re just a small town out in the middle of nowhere."

  Overhead, stars began to appear one by one. Jade marveled at how the stars popped into appearance like sparks from a lighter.

  "We have a client, we bought the land on their behalf and our instructions, so far, are to protect and preserve it. Enclosing it with new fencing seems the best way to meet the client's objective. And it would keep people from falling down holes it new worlds."

  "But you have equipment for tree felling. What's that got to do with putting up fences?" Jade asked softly.

  "You don't know much about woodland management do you?" Nic asked.

  "No." She had a feeling she was about to learn.

  "Neither do we. We've never managed woodland before, we're developers. We're used to clearing land and putting up buildings, but that's not the plan here at the moment." Nic let his head fall back against the tree. "I've heard of the term coppicing. I wouldn't know what it involved though. I wouldn't know what trees to take down. We've a tree expert coming in next week."

  "Why didn't you tell us that, Karl?

  "You didn't give me much of a chance. And it's not as if you were forthcoming about what you were hiding here either."

  "Now, now, you too."

  "It's okay, Nic. I immediately painted Karl as a bad guy and wrote off everything he did as asshole behavior instead of giving him a chance. What we were hiding is that my friend Lauren lives in one of these other worlds. She isn’t a squatter. She didn’t always live there. She used to live in Beaumont, like me. We went to school together. A few years ago, she met the Spartans—they defend the gateway through the dimensions and keep the worst of the worst from coming through the cracks—and they fell in love. Lauren lives with the Spartans now, but now and then, she comes back to visit me. Part of the reason I didn’t want you to tear down the woods was so that she could still come back and forth without raising any eyebrows."

  "Now, that I understand. It’s reasonable." Karl gently shook the hand he was holding. "I’m sorry for being rude to you. Most times I keep my emotions carefully locked down, but being around you, it has been difficult. I treated you unfairly."

  "Whoa, back up a bit, here." Nic raised a pointing finger and cycled as if rewinding the conversation. "You said the Spartans, you don't mean actual Spartans?" he asked. "Like the Three Hundred?"

  "You've heard of them? Oh, gods, well that's a long story, but I guess we might have all night." Jade told them about Lauren meeting and falling in love with three guys who it turned out had known her in a previous life. And who it turned out weren't human anymore because the gods had given them new lives as immortals. And lived in a magical other dimension called Sparta, but not ancient Sparta and not in modern Greece either. It sounded completely crazy. "So she's in a complicated relationship with three men, but it works for them, and they are all happy with it."

  "I can understand that, can't you Karl?"

  "Yes. I can totally see that working well between the right people."

  "You can?" Jade had thought the men would find it strange and objectionable. But set against the rest of her wild story. It didn't seem all that outlandish.

  "I’m sorry for how things turned out back in my hotel room," Karl murmured.

  Jade turned to face him. "I’m sorry, too. And I guess you told Nic?"

  Karl nodded. "Not that I needed to. Nic sort of guessed."

  Insects chirped. Frogs croaked. Night settled in and limited their vision. Overhead, the stars flickered like flames. Jade wondered if they were even stars at all.

  "I like you, Jade," Karl said after a long silence. "I wouldn’t have taken you to bed otherwise, and now that I’m getting to know you better, I like you even more."

  "Even when I do dumb things?" Jade asked playfully.

  "Even when you do dumb things." Karl chuckled and squeezed Jade’s hand. "Perhaps that’s just something I like about you. Opposites attract, you know."

  "Hey. Are you claiming you don’t do dumb things? You’re the one who followed a barely legal kid into the depths of the forest and then down a hole leading to god knows where."

  Nic chuckled. "Don't believe the suit. He does a lot of crazy stuff and can be quite impulsive."

  "What is it between you two? You seem to know each other very well. I thought he was your boss, Nic. Am I wrong about that too?"

  Karl chuckled.

  "Sort of. I like you, Jade. I did since the second I saw you back in that car park. And I knew Karl, my business partner and co-owner of the company, would be interested in you too. When he made an appointment to meet you in his hotel room, I could guess how it would go down." Nic confessed. "I told him, I should've been the one to meet you, but, well, stuff happened, and I went to sleep late that night and didn't get up early enough. We both liked the look of you and, speaking for myself, I like you more now I've gotten to know you better."

  "I like you too." She couldn’t deny it. There was something inside of her that yearned for Nic as it did also for Karl. They weren’t immortal, or princes, or from another world, but there was something special and attractive about them.

  All this time, Jade had fantasized about eventually finding a bunch of men who might be her soulmates from another dimension beyond the trees of Beaumont, but she’d never stopped to consider there may be a couple of human men for her instead. She wasn't even sure that's what they were suggesting. It sounded like it, a menage, but they hadn't said it. Perhaps they were going to duel at dawn over her hand.

  "I’m glad you like me, guys. And that you’ve seen a different side to me. Truce?" Jade smiled. She kissed Nic’s cheek and then turned and kissed Karl on the lips. "Truce."

  When she settled back into her comfortable position, Nic was waiting with another kiss. It was slow, and tender, and open-mouthed. There were several more kisses, between her and the two men before they snuggled together and finally drifted into sleep side by side, content with their quiet chemistry.

  Chapter Ten

  Jade woke, yawned, and stretched.

  Memories of the day before seeped into her consciousness when she realized she’d slept outdoors, on the surprisingly comfortable soft ground.

  It hadn’t been a cold night. Summer nights in Beaumont were stifling. Spring wasn’t too bad. In this land of someplace else, it seemed the nights were mild and dry, too.

  There was more than just the ambient air temperature to keep her warm. She woke to find herself warm and cozily wedged between two large bodies.

  In front of her, there was Nic, with his back to her.

  An arm draped across her and loosely spooned around her, Karl lay curled up behind. His body felt pleasant against Jade’s back.

  And that must’ve been Karl’s erection pressing against her ass in a way that left her eager for more. She pushed back against it and said a silent prayer of thanks, smiling a little inside. Maybe she shouldn’t enjoy the erection of a sleeping man who didn’t know what was happening, but after all that’d passed between them, she wasn’t about to feel too guilty.

  They’d fallen asleep together the night before, curled up after sharing a kiss or two. Neither man seemed bothered when she kissed the other. It made Jade’s heart flutter, but they’d done nothing more risqué than kiss.<
br />
  The restraint on all sides seemed mindful of the fact that they were outdoors, in a strange land, and Jade was battered and bruised after a terrible ordeal.

  That was yesterday.

  Today, Jade couldn’t help being horny after she woke up to find a hot man wrapped around her and another on her other side. It transformed last night’s heartfelt affection into a prelude of what was to come. Jade wondered if she featured in the men's dreams.

  When she looked back, there were many times in the day when they hinted they were open-minded enough to share in that way. Something Jade had never done and was eager to try.

  "Karl." Jade took his arm and squeezed. "Wake up."

  Karl stirred. As he did, he pushed forward with his hips, one last time. Jade felt the outline of the solid morning wood squash against her back. Jade squeezed her eyes shut, let out a deep breath, and tried to hold herself together.

  He’s going to wake up and be embarrassed.

  "Mmph," Nic mumbled. He turned around rubbed his nose against Jade’s. "Good morning."

  "Good morning," Jade murmured. "Karl doesn't seem to be awake yet."

  "He is," he mumbled behind her.

  She exhaled suddenly with the surprise of Karl grinding against her.

  Nic giggled. "If he's being inappropriate behind you, Jade. I'll defend your honor."

  "He is being inappropriate, but is it okay if I like it?"

  Maybe she didn’t need to be embarrassed about this since a previously naked Karl had once been on top of her and undressing her.

  "You, um…" Jade turned her hard to talk to Karl over her shoulder. She didn’t quite know how to put it, so she said it as simply as she could. "You’re very close. And hard."

  "Mm. Wonder why. Did you sleep well?"

  Nic giggled.

  "What?" asked Jade.

  "Well, I can understand how he feels." Nic moved his hand.

  Though she didn't look, Jade guessed he was adjusting himself.

  A low reverberating hum came from Karl, he rolled his hips, chasing a gasp from Jade’s lips.