I nodded and made myself look at his eyes. “I’ll come find you after lunch.”
Even though I was getting better at controlling my Light flow, and Ethan and Josh were getting better at managing the extra Light and using it to develop their abilities safely, I was still mainly going to Tyler if I needed to expel excess Light.
“Great. I’ll be in my study.”
“Nope.” I shook my head emphatically. I’d refused to step foot in that room since the night of the invasion.
Tyler and Dot both groaned. In the pool, the splashing and laughing stopped.
“Are you ready to tell us about Studygate yet?” Josh asked, treading water near the edge of the pool.
“Nope.” I popped the p and crossed my arms over my chest.
Tyler had already shifted his attention to his phone, tapping away, his brows pulled together. He finished what he was typing and stood up. “I have to go debrief with Alec.”
“Maybe let him sleep for a bit,” I said quickly before he could disappear.
He turned back to me, one eyebrow arched in surprise. I was the last person to know what Alec needed and certainly not one to advocate for him, but the faint tightness in my chest was still there, a pull toward a certain room on the third floor. Tyler’s eyes narrowed in on my hand lightly rubbing my breastbone.
“He’s OK,” I reassured him before he could ask. “I found him asleep out here. He was a bit banged up, had some bruising on his ribs.” I winced as I said it. “I’m pretty sure he abused his ability a little too. I woke him and he went inside, but he’s fine. Just let him sleep for a while.” I left out the awkwardness with the sunscreen. No one needed to know about that.
“He’ll recover faster if he lets you transfer the Light he clearly needs,” Tyler huffed.
I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? I was lucky I’d managed to transfer some before he woke up, but I wasn’t about to share that with the group either.
“All right, I’ll deal with him later.” He turned to leave, then paused, running his eyes over me quickly. “Did you put sunscreen on? Don’t get sunburned.”
“Yes, Dad.” I rolled my eyes, then scrunched my face up in disgust. I was pretty certain Tyler wasn’t attracted to me like that, and I was still trying to sort through my feelings for him, but referring to him as “Dad,” even jokingly, had left a bad taste in my mouth. I looked at him, and he was wearing the same expression.
He shook it off and walked away without another word.
I turned back around to find Dot holding back laughter.
“Oh, don’t start with me.” I groaned. Teasing me about my complicated relationship with the four Variant men in my Bond had become her new hobby.
She must have seen something serious in my eyes, because she took a deep breath and changed the subject. “Have you heard from Zara?”
“Yeah.” I frowned as I squeezed some sunscreen into my palm and passed the bottle to her. “She’s coming back tomorrow.”
Zara had been spending the summer with her family in California. She’d been released from the hospital a few days after the invasion, just in time for Beth’s funeral. Her parents had whisked her home straight after. We’d stayed in touch, sending each other messages while doggedly avoiding mentioning Beth or anything that had happened that day. It felt wrong to talk about it through a screen, but it meant our conversations felt superficial. Hollow. We hadn’t spoken at all for the past week, and when I’d asked when she was due back, all I’d gotten in response was a date and a rough time.
It made my stomach clench—I was equally looking forward to and dreading seeing her again.
“She’s cutting it close,” Dot said. Classes were due to start the day after her return.
I shrugged. “I can’t imagine she’s too keen to come back to the res hall.”
Dot just nodded, rubbing sunscreen into her shoulders.
Tomorrow would be Zara’s first night sleeping in our shared suite since it all happened. Her first night back in the rooms she’d shared with Beth for three years. I’d known Beth for only a few short months before she was killed, and I felt the loss keenly. I couldn’t imagine how people who had known her longer felt.
I’d been reluctant to stay there myself. It felt barren and sad without the Reds around. The guys refused to let me out of their sight anyway, so I spent most of my nights at the mansion in one of the many spare rooms. I still stayed at the res hall when I had an early class, but one of them would always insist on dropping me off, and someone would always be there in the morning to walk me to class. Between that and the Melior Group agents posted at all the gates for extra security, I was never far from a protective force.
Yet I never quite felt safe. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to walk the grounds of campus without reliving the horrors I’d witnessed there.
Josh stopped my dark thoughts from spiraling by using his ability to flick the corner of my towel into my face. It brought my attention to his cheeky grin, his head disappearing under the water.
Just as I realized Ethan wasn’t in the pool anymore, he grabbed me under the knees and behind my back and lifted me off my seat as though I weighed nothing.
I yelled and tried to wriggle out of his arms, but he just laughed, flashing me a wide grin that made his dimples appear, his amber eyes sparkling with mischief. One second we were standing at the edge of the pool, and the next we were flying through the air and hitting the water with a massive splash. He released his hold once we were in the water, but as my head broke the surface, I held on, twining my arms around his thick neck. I couldn’t reach the bottom at this end of the pool, but he could.
“You are in so much trouble!” I laughed despite myself, pushing wet hair off my face.
“Oh yeah? What’re you gonna to do about it?” Ethan was a hopeless flirt, turning every situation into an opportunity to make a double entendre, smirking with his full mouth and smoldering with his sexy eyes. Not that it worked on me. I was way too astute to let a little obvious flirting affect me.
“I’ll . . . um . . .” I laughed again. Naturally my brain supplied the least helpful words possible. “I’ll kiss you.” Maybe I wasn’t as immune to the flirting as I thought.
He started to walk us toward the shallow end, and I wrapped my legs loosely around his middle, trailing behind him in the cool water. He was tall, broad, and muscular, but his big hands were always gentle with me.
He didn’t reply to my last statement. Instead he just watched me intently as he moved, keeping my gaze captive with his eyes.
He pressed his lips to mine as he continued to walk me backward, and I sighed, completely lost in his touch. I ran one hand through his wet black hair, but before the kiss could intensify, we came to an abrupt stop as my back hit something hard and warm and slick. Josh.
Josh was the shortest of the four, his physique lithe and athletic. But all the training with Kane was resulting in extra definition. His shoulders were looking a little broader, his crisp collared shirts straining a little more over his chest, and there was a six-pack becoming more noticeable every time he took his shirt off.
“That’s not much of a punishment, Eve.” Josh’s voice was low, but it sounded semiserious. I pulled away from Ethan as Josh’s hands found my waist. He tugged, and I leaned back into his chest, my legs still around Ethan’s middle, not ready to let go but eager to have contact with Josh at the same time.
“Are you jealous, Joshy?” I teased, covering his hands with mine and turning toward him. His green eyes bored into mine, the lashes stuck together. His dirty-blond hair looked much darker when wet.
“Yes,” he whispered, his breath washing over me. There was no hint of teasing in his voice.
My immediate instinct was to kiss him. The Light and I were in agreement when it came to wanting to even the score. I closed the small distance, pressing my lips to his. He sighed into the kiss, not hesitating to tease my lips with his tongue, but this kiss was cut short too.
A loud battle cry cut through the relative silence, followed by a huge splash as Dot launched herself into the pool, literally throwing water onto our heated moment. All three of us startled, and the boys released me. My feet found the bottom of the pool, and I stood between Ethan and Josh as Dot broke the surface.
“Did you three dickheads forget you had company?” Her voice was teasing. She wasn’t actually upset, but I did feel bad that I’d forgotten she was there. “Save that ménage shit for when other people aren’t around.”
My eyes widened at her casual mention of threesomes. I stared at her, my lips pressed together, silently trying to communicate that she should stop speaking immediately. I mean, technically I had been in an embrace with both of them. So it was technically a threesome kind of situation. I just hadn’t thought about it in any tangible way before, and we certainly hadn’t talked about it.
I cleared my throat and chanced a look at Josh and Ethan. They were having their own silent conversation, their eyes locked on each other. Ethan was smirking, the dimple only just visible in his cheek, and Josh’s eyes were narrowed, but there was a twitch pulling the corners of his lips up too. They turned to look at me as one, and I quickly averted my gaze, suddenly incredibly self-conscious.
I didn’t want to examine too closely the thrill of excitement that jolted through me, settling somewhere low in my belly, at the charged energy between the three of us. I lifted my head to find Dot’s smiling face. She was casually leaning on the edge of the pool, her elbows propped up behind her, looking satisfied.
I moved toward her as fast as I could in the water and splashed her viciously. She screamed and tried to get away, laughing and spluttering before changing tactics and trying to splash me back. The boys joined in, and the rest of the morning went by without any more awkward moments or teasing from Dot.
That moment in the pool was the first time I’d heard her laugh freely since Charlie had been taken. I knew by the way she retreated into herself for the next half hour—pretending to read a magazine on her lounger while not once turning a page—that she felt guilty about having fun when we had no idea what kind of awful situation Charlie was in or if he was even alive.
We gave her space, and not long after, she made an effort to join in the joking and fun. We all knew it was what her brother would want—for Dot to be happy.
Two
That evening I sat on the edge of the kitchen island while Ethan cooked dinner. He moved around with ease, his posture relaxed, his smile coming easily as we chatted.
We talked about coursework, what he was cooking, how Dot was doing—and about our parents. Now that we knew we’d known each other since childhood, conversation turned to our parents a lot easier than it used to. We never reminisced for long or in much detail—it was too painful—but it felt good to talk about my mother in a context that didn’t involve rehashing her death. It was nice to be able to ask them what she was like.
Ethan and Josh weren’t much older than me, so they didn’t remember much, but Tyler made an effort to describe in great detail whatever he could remember. Like how she used to bake cookies for us as after-school snacks, or how all of our families would get together on Sundays for these chaotic, joyful meals.
Alec was avoiding speaking to me at all, so I had no idea what he remembered of my mother or of me as a child.
We also never spoke about the day of the invasion outside the context of looking for Charlie. We had come so close to losing each other again . . .
“My power is so destructive.” Ethan spoke low; we’d all become accustomed to lowering our voices when we talked about our Bond. He moved his chopping board closer so we could hear each other. “I just want to be able to do something positive with it, you know?”
“Ethan, it’s not about the nature of the ability. It’s how you use it.”
He gave me a devious look, twisting my innocent statement into a double entendre. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help chuckling. Dirty jokes were now a daily occurrence.
“I know what you mean.” He turned serious again, checking the pot on the stove before giving me his full attention. “But I still want to figure out how to put them out.”
Ethan was trying to develop a new level to his ability.
Tyler had discovered he could not only tell when someone was lying; with enough Light from me, he could also glean the basic truth behind their words. It was proving to be a handy yet slightly annoying development. He’d taken to constantly calling us out on our bullshit. Like when I asked if anyone wanted to watch Cosmos with me and they all said “yes,” Tyler was quick to point out Ethan actually did not.
He respected our privacy when it came to serious things—he still hadn’t asked about what had happened between Alec and I when his ability was enhanced with extra Light—but he was pushing us all to be more honest.
Josh, too, had noticed a new development. After he’d accidentally made Ethan float during one of our training sessions, we realized he could levitate not only inanimate objects but also people, even the members of his own Bond—as long as the intention to harm wasn’t there. Recently he’d set his mind to making himself float. He was trying to learn to fly—and actually beginning to succeed. With extra Light from me and deep focus, he’d managed to get himself about ten inches off the ground.
Ethan’s control had improved too, and the fire he wielded was becoming more powerful. But unlike Tyler and Josh, Ethan hadn’t been able to discover a new aspect to his ability; he was just improving on what he already had.
A little frown formed above his bright eyes, and I sighed. He was beating himself up instead of acknowledging all he had achieved.
Putting fire out sounded deceptively simple. Ethan could make his fire disappear easily, but it was tinged with the Light that flowed through him to create it. He described it as pulling a limb back against his body. It was an extension of him.
What he couldn’t do, and was trying his hardest to work out, was putting out regular fires. Fires started by someone else with non-supernatural means were beyond his reach.
“I know, hot stuff.” I squeezed his shoulder, trying to distract him by starting up our nickname game. “You’ll get there. Focus on the positives.”
“I know, I know. Just imagine all the good I could do.”
A slow grin spread across my face. It was fueled in part by how softhearted my big guy was—he just wanted to make the world a better place—but also by his not noticing my nickname. We’d become so used to calling each other increasingly ridiculous things that it was expected, and that, in turn, had given rise to a whole new game. We were now trying to slip them in so the other person wouldn’t notice.
He smiled back but with some confusion. I plastered an innocent look on my face but couldn’t wipe away the grin.
It didn’t take him long to catch on. He pushed back from the bench and groaned in frustration even as he laughed. Playing every sport imaginable, Ethan certainly had a competitive streak. He loved these little games.
He checked the pot again, added the cilantro he’d been chopping, and quickly switched the burners off while I waited for him to concede defeat. With his latest culinary masterpiece no longer in danger, he placed one hand on either side of where I sat on the island, his big arms boxing me in, and fixed me with one of his dimpled smiles.
“You better hope Josh doesn’t notice the cilantro in that stew—you know he hates it—and I don’t know why you’re smiling. You just lost a round,” I teased, leaning back on my hands.
“Josh can suck it. And I may have lost”—he leaned forward, following me—“but you think I’m hot, so I figure I won as well.”
I laughed softly, no longer trying to get away, maybe even tilting toward him a little. “Well, yeah, you do have a fire ability.” My voice was almost a whisper.
“Whatever. You think I’m hot.” His lips were inches from mine. “You want to hug me and kiss me and . . .”
I closed the miniscule distance between us an
d pressed my lips to his. We both sighed into the soft kiss.
Kissing Ethan felt as natural as it did exciting. With our continued training, my control of the Light and my guys’ control of their abilities were getting better, which made it easier to be more intimate. Ethan and Josh were stealing more kisses, and so was I. It was only when things started to intensify that I’d lose control of my Light and we’d have to stop.
It was driving us all crazy. The three of us, that is. Tyler had maintained his platonic barrier.
He’d given me a hint of thawing out the night of the gala. The way he’d told me I looked beautiful as he dragged his fingers down the length of my exposed spine still gave me shivers to think about. It had felt like the beginning of something more between us.
But then he’d reestablished the boundaries. Despite his newfound fondness for calling out the cold hard truth at every corner, this was one thing he was keeping his mouth shut about. I knew if I asked him, he would tell me the truth, but I was afraid of the answer.
Alec had gone back to ignoring me as if we weren’t even connected.
I may have been avoiding talking about intimacy with half my Variant Bond, but I was trying my best to make it past the make-out stage with the other half. So I did a mental check of my Light flow before deepening the kiss with Ethan.
Just as I scooted forward, opening my legs wider and pressing up against the hard planes of Ethan’s body, the sound of the fridge opening interrupted the moment, and we pulled apart. The clang of bottles and jars in the fridge door rang through the kitchen as Alec slammed it closed.
We both turned to look at Ethan’s obnoxious cousin. Alec was in sweatpants, shirtless and barefoot, breathing a little heavy, a light sheen of sweat covering his toned, tattooed body. He’d obviously just come up from the gym, and in our distracted state, we hadn’t heard him.
Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2) Page 2