by Isabel Wroth
She had to bite down on her lips to keep from cackling at him, but Ever had no such problem, “He poop yet?” Roar blinked, then glanced down at his son suspiciously, “No…”
“I’d think you would prefer dirt, to poop.” Roar huffed, patting Lyon on the chest with enough love to make a whomp, sound. “Hold it in, son. Hold it in. You made Raid get your brand?” He said, topic changing back to why Raid was the better brother, “Made him? No. He decided to do it all on his own.”
“Wait till the rest of the brothers hear about this,” He got his phone out, no doubt intending to text the whole crew, but Ever interrupted him. “Was there a reason you came up here? I thought you were working in the house.”
“Oh, right. One of the hippie fuckers came up to the house, wanting to know where to set up the drum circle. He didn’t take me seriously when I told him he could set it up in the seventh circle of hell,”
“Roar!”
“What? I told you I wasn’t going to be nice. It’s a stupid idea, and it’s gonna keep the kid up all fuckin night, and I lost the damn bet so I’m the one who’ll have to stay up with him, listening to some spindly little fucker whacking off on his drums.”
“It isn’t a stupid idea! They like the energy around here, and positive vibes make the plants grow.”
“Woman, I swear to god, if you start trying to make me eat kale, or granola-“
“You’ll what?”
She laughed while the two of them walked off, hand in hand, still bickering. It was cute. The wind blew gently, bringing in the scent of fertilizer, flowers and herbs, honey from the infusions she was making, the tinkling of the wind chimes and the soft ringing of the bells hung around the nursery, creating the most awesome working environment she’d ever experienced. It was getting hotter in the afternoon, and since no one was really around, she took her shirt off and pinned her hair up, moving along with the tribal music playing on her Deva Premal Pandora station. Things were just falling into place. Denny’s bullshit aside, she felt like she belonged here, like this was home. A lot of that had to do with Raid, but the rest was how well she fit into things, like Never Ever Land, and Vintage Glamour, it just was right. Easy almost. “Home,” She sighed, happier than she’d been in a long time.
TWENTY SIX
He came blasting down the driveway at Ever’s place, so fucking mad he could barely contain himself. He threw his hand up when Roar called out to him, having come out at the sound of his pipes coming up the lane, and stomped out to the studio. Any other time, the space would have chilled him out. But not today. Not right fucking now. He’d thought that anyway, until he stomped around the corner and got a good whiff of something he knew Athena was responsible for creating. Shit smelled like tranquility, but he wasn’t in the mood to be tranquil, he was in the mood to skull fuck a certain dickhead. He did slow his roll and stand there watching his woman move around in her workspace, a happy smile on her face. Bitch blew him away with how downright gorgeous she was.
She’d piled all her hair up on top of her head with a flower child headband, was glistening with sweat, wearing nothing but a dark green sports bra and a long gauzy gypsy skirt. He could see almost all of her brand, draped around her ribcage so beautifully; Frankie really had outdone himself on the detail of it. Her hips were rolling this way and that, fuckin belly dancing while she mixed her herbs and stuff up, bouncing and rolling as she moved over, dumping them into the big pot she used to make candles. He just stared, every cell in his body loving her, half thinking he could keep shit to himself and let her have the rest of today with that smile on her face.
Cruncher ruined the quiet retreat he’d intended to make, by appearing out of nowhere and racing up to him to bark gleefully in greeting. Practically doing backflips of joy, “Jesus! Cruncher! Behave or else you don’t get to play with Squatch anymore. He’s teaching you such bad habits, freaking dingbat.” She was smiling at him when he looked up, coming towards him all gorgeous and sweaty, eyes bright with how happy she was. But one good look at his face, and he watched that fuckin light dim. But she didn’t stop coming. She reached out, her hands smelling strongly of that tranquil, calming aroma and she cupped his jaw, brushing her thumb over his cheek. Even that threatened to calm him down, just her touch on his face, but god damnit, he didn’t want to be calm! “What happened?”
“House got broken into.”
He’d expected some fear, a little hint of it at least after how she’d reacted when her ex had shown up at their place with no warning. But she didn’t give him anything but anger, and upset, “How bad?” Bad enough. He was an idiot for not getting on top of the alarm system, and camera set up. Nasa had been busy working on a job with Pen, hunting down the fuckers that had killed Pike and Susan, and he’d thought Dickhead Denny was smart enough to stay away from them, what with being on record and under investigation. Clearly, he’d miscalculated the fucker’s intelligence. “Bad enough. Broke some shit, tossed everything like he was looking for something. Piled our clothes on the bed and poured bleach all over it, probably would have lit it on fire if he hadn’t heard my pipes and took off. Swear to god, I just missed that piece of shit by minutes. Took my mother fuckin pouch that had my seals in it, just for that, he’s gonna bleed.”
She blinked at him, a muscle in her brow twitching, but she shook her head and took his hand in both of hers, pulling him into the aromatic space and over to one of the big tables. “I was going to surprise you with it next week, on your birthday. I didn’t think you’d notice the seals gone,” She said apologetically, handing him a brown paper wrapped square and told him to open it. Frowning, he pulled the paper off, and his gut dropped down around his ankles to see what she’d done.
It was one of those box things, with stuff inside it to preserve it.
She’d put pieces of tree bark or something in there, glued it to the back, then put his wax seals on top of that. A bad ass owl skull sat in the center with the wing bones fanned out around it, each bone end touching one of the wax seals. She’d even cut out some pages in the shape of a heart and written in deep purple across the glass, right over the top of that paper heart. Every Heart Has a Story to Tell.
“I didn’t know what all to get you, but I thought you might like this, because now there’s no risk of the seals cracking or breaking all bundled up in your pouch thingy.”
Just like that, his rage just…poof, disappeared. He carefully set the box aside and yanked her against his chest, hearing the breath oomph out of her while he squeezed her tight and pressed his lips to her brow, held her there so she wouldn’t see what an effort it was to keep the pussy look off his face. “Didn’t think I could get in there any deeper,” He murmured, “Are you making a sex joke?” She teased, but it was sweet, it made her eyes sparkle when he tipped her head back to look at her, “No, I know how deep I get in there.”
Her lips twitched, so he kissed them softly, shifted to cradle her face and held her still while he took his time, savoring each slide of skin on skin. “Thank you,” He hoped she understood that he wasn’t just thanking her for the box, hoped that she understood he was thanking her for all of it. For taking a huge leap of faith and moving to Texas to be with him. For fucking writing him letters in the hospital, and going to massage therapy school so she could help him recover once he was out. For giving herself to him, for trusting him, for loving him. He hoped she did, her soft, “You’re welcome,” Made him think she might. “Scuse me dick, this area is for employee’s only.”
He clicked his tongue at Roar’s rude arrival, sounding way to smug about something, when he probably didn’t know yet about what had gone down with dickhead. He kissed Athena again, and Roar interrupted, again. Fucker was going to get cockblocked, so hard. “Fuck off, bro.”
“Oh, sure. I’ll just take this box of fragile stuff, back to the office where it might get trampled…”
Athena shrieked and whipped out of his arms, rushing over to yank the big box away from Roar like it was her baby, glaring a
“Jesusfuck! EVERLY!”
Roar took off running towards the house like it was on fire, while Athena smirked into her box. He chuckled while he sauntered up behind her and curled his arms around her belly, dropping a kiss on her throat, “You’re the shit. I tell you that today?” She made a negative sound, carefully unpacking what looked like lab equipment. Glass beakers and shit, only bigger. “Well, you’re the shit. What is all that?”
“Distilling equipment,”
“You gonna start makin moonshine, baby?”
“Um, noooo. My own essential oil blends and extracts of certain plants. For my tinctures. What are we going to do about Denny?”
“WE, aren’t going to do anything. I, am going to deal with it. Got the prospects cleaning up the house,”
“You call the cops already?”
“Yeah, that’s why I was so late getting out here. I fucked up, I’m sorry baby.”
She paused in the examination of one of the large glass bottles, setting it aside so she could turn around to look at him, reaching out to put her hand on the exact spot where her name was inked into his chest. “We both know who it was, and obviously as determined as he was, it was going to happen. You didn’t fuck up.” He wanted to snort and list all the ways he’d absolutely fucked up, but he wanted her to keep looking at him like she was. Loving, soft, reassuring him that she wasn’t mad at him for not taking better care of her. “We’re staying at the compound tonight, I sent one of the girls to pick you up a few changes of clothes until I can replace what was ruined.”
“Honey, you don’t have to-“
“Babe, this is one of those times, I get my way.”
“This is the coolest shit I’ve ever seen.”
He looked over Athena’s head to the woman who’d just walked in, lookin like she owned the place or something, and Athena turned to smile at her in welcome, “Look around, I’ll be right with you.” To him, she lowered her voice and rubbed her hands carefully up and down the healing lines of his tattoo, going up on her toes to touch a kiss to his clenched jaw, “Okay. I’ll pick up dinner on my way to the mother ship.” He kissed her back, nipping at the fullness of her lower lip, just because he could. “Nope. I’m coming to get you at six. We’re going out. We gotta talk about shit,” He kissed her again and made to leave, but her fingers closed on his shirt and held him in place, “Hey, we good?”
She was nervous. He didn’t have to work hard as to guess why, probably thinking that this shit her ex was pulling was enough for him to call it quits. Like the dickhead breaking into their place and wrecking their shit was enough to make him want to get shot of her. He got up in her space, cupped her soft cheeks and tipped her head back to take a slow, sweet kiss, despite the fact that she had a customer moving around her workshop. Did not give one fuck, his woman had doubts, and it was going to get her spanked later. “Never better, baby. See you at six.” Her eyes positively sparkled, her cheeks went soft with a sweet blush, “See you at six. I want chocolate for desert.”
“Done.”
TWENTY SEVEN
Watching him walk away, with the knowledge that Denny had come in and touched her things, destroyed her sense of safety, part of her wanted to call him back and ask him to sit with her until it was closing time. But out here, she was surrounded by people and safe as could be. The other part of her was upset, pissed and wanted to go hunt Denny down and rip his balls off with her bare hands. Fucker! “Totally inappropriate, but girl, your man is fine.” Her customer’s appreciative tone snapped her back to reality, and she blushed harder, having totally forgotten she was there. She was a statuesque woman, with alabaster skin, blue eyes, and inky black hair that shone like obsidian in the sunlight. It was cut in a severe graduated bob, not a single hair out of place, looking slick and gorgeous in a white linen pencil skirt and a matching chiffon shell, “Thank you. He really is. I’m Athena, may I help you with anything in particular?”
The lady, Collette, looked around her shop and took a deep breath, one that made her lips curl up at the edges, pleasure lighting her eyes and she could see the muscles unknotting in her shoulders in reaction to what would soon be her Tranquil Tea Lights. A best seller. “I was getting my hair cut in town, at Vintage Glam? The resident esthetician was putting some of your products on her shelves and told me all about what you do. I need some salve, she didn’t have any and referred me here to the source.” Wow, Ripley wasn’t wasting any time growing her business. Awesome. “Of course. You’re in luck, I’m actually melting some beeswax to make up a few different things. Do you have twenty minutes? I can make it up fresh for you.”
Delight lit Collette’s eyes, and she seated herself near the counter on one of the stools for just that purpose, watching her eagerly, if not a little expectantly. She just had this air about her that was…commanding. Dominant. “So, I tend to make my salves for specific uses. Headaches, wound healing, itchiness, dry skin, and so on. What result are you looking for?” Collette folded her hands on the table top, her vixen red nails filed to points, perfectly manicured. “I’m a professional Domme.” She said frankly, and got a blink in response. Well, that explained her dominant aura of confidence. Cool. She got a bowl down and moved around to her jars of dried herbs and oils, pulling a few down at a time. “So, bruises, welts, ligature marks and contusions?”
“And sore muscles. You’re making me think of that movie, Practical Magic,”
Athena smiled in delight while she took a pinch of calendula and sprinkled it into the bowl, getting some palmarosa and chamomile because she just loved it so much. Comfrey, arnica, a few other yummy herbs and brought it over to the table Collette sat at, pouring the contents into the big mortar she used for her dry herbs and started to grind it up. “I think Ever used that movie as the blueprint idea when she built the workshop. Its bad ass, how many ounces would you like? For the salve, I sell two, four and six ounces, the jars are there with the prices on them.” Collette didn’t even look at the jars, “Six. I bought some lemongrass lotion two weeks ago. I’m already out. Cannot stop putting that stuff on my body. I’ll take an entire vat if you’ve got it,”
She laughed, getting her supplies to mix up the salve, letting Collette sniff and touch the different oils she used as carriers, she picked Primrose, because it was least likely to cause allergic reactions in her submissives. She opened her mouth to ask Collette what sort of consistency she preferred her balm to be, more solid, creamier, when her cell rang and she saw that it was Stone, “I’m so sorry, I wouldn’t usually answer. This guy is making some furniture for me,” Collette waved her hand and told her to go for it, so she put Stone on speaker, “Hey Stone, you’re on speaker, sorry, my hands are covered in beeswax and stuff.”
Winner of the Sexiest Phone Voice in the History of Phone Voices, chuckled over the line. They hadn’t met, but she just knew he was hot, with a capital H. “No problem, build is going good, just wanted to know what color fabric you wanted. I have the micro-sued in a ton of different colors.” Collette leaned forward, staring at the phone with a gleeful grin on her face, “Stone, are you making my new best friend some dungeon furniture?” Athena’s brows lifted while she mixed the salve base together, Stone cursing loud and ripe, “Jesus Christ! You’re like the Devil incarnate! Popping up out of nowhere to haunt me! What are you doing to Athena? She’s so not your type,”
Collette winked at her, her voice lowering to a sultry, evil purr. Athena wondered if she and Stone had been lovers or something once, “The Devil? Darling, I’m flattered, and I don’t spend all my time at Pavlovia. Athena is a friend of a friend, she’s making me up some special salve, so tell Wesson his boo boos will heal much faster now.” When Stone growled like a rabid dog, she intervened, “I think a nice chocolate would be good, Stone. So long as wet spots don’t show up, my friends have a baby that’s learning to pull up on the furniture, and he’s a drooler.” Collette had started cackling at the words, ‘wet spots’, and she wondered how pink Stone’s cheeks were. She could practically hear him blushing. “No problem. It’ll be done by the end of the week.”
With that, he hung up. Collette was still laughing, clutching her stomach, and Athena had herself a few good giggles while she finished the salve, popped the cork in and gave it a dunk in her signature silver wax, pressing her seal on the top and set it aside to dry. “The lotion won’t take me but a second, I’ve got these six ounce jars for the lotion, or the twenty four-“
“The twenty four. I’ll be back in a week once it’s gone.”
“No problem. So, small world. Does Stone work with you?”
“Ha! No. I’m training he and his friend to work at Pavlovia, he’s right, by the way, you don’t seem the type. Your man does,”
She shrugged, getting the lotion ingredients together next, checking on her candle wax as she moved around, stepping over Cruncher where he’d decided to flop. Clearly having had a long doggie day. “I could totally picture Raid with a flogger in hand, wearing nothing but a pair of leather pants…” Boy could she ever picture that. Now that his surprise birthday present had been ruined, she’d have to get him another one. “You know anywhere I could get him a pair? I’m into kinky sex, he’s definitely converted me there, but I don’t know if I could be a good sub. Too bratty.”
-->