Hers To Keep: THE QUINTESSENCE COLLECTION I

by Akeroyd, Serena

  Sascha grinned. “Devon’s getting better.”

  “He is?” Jacinta sounded surprised. “She’s good fer him then?”

  Sawyer hummed. “Aye. Actually gets him tae sleep.”

  “I really dinnae want to know how,” his mother replied, a bawdy laugh spilling down the line.

  Even though Sascha had had the beginnings of a tension headache since leaving the prison, she couldn’t help but smile at the amusement in Jacinta’s tone.

  “You’re probably safer not asking,” she admitted.

  “I can imagine. Yer must be a busy lass, and there’s no mistake.”

  “Ma!” Sawyer bellowed again. “You’ll embarrass her.”

  “Wasn’t that the point?” Sascha whispered with a glower at him.

  His grin was unrepentant.

  “Ach, she cannae be too weak-livered if she’s living with the likes of you. Sean’s the most charming of the lot and even he’s a bugger from time tae time.”

  Sascha scratched her forehead. “Isn’t bugger...?”

  A snort sounded from the opposite end of the kitchen. “No, she doesn’t mean I’m into buggery,” Sean murmured as he stepped deeper into the room. “Hi, Jacinta. Long time since we’ve caught up.”

  “Yer not wrong, lad. I’ll call you sometime next week. You want some Tablet sending down?”

  “Aw, that’s sweet of you, Jacinta. I’d appreciate that.”

  “Tablet?” Sascha asked, cocking a brow as he headed to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

  “It’s this type of candy. Very Scottish. You’ll like it. It’s kind of like fudge with sugar crystals.”

  “It’s one of our traditional foods, lass. I’ll send down extra so you can try some.”

  “Sean’s watching his sugar, Ma. He’s pre-diabetic.”

  “Bit a’tablet won’t do him nae harm,” Jacinta argued.

  “It’s pure bluidy sugar! How the hell can it nae do him harm?”

  “Don’t worry, they get like this,” Sean assured her, whispering in her ear as he came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her belly.

  With a sigh, she sank into him, letting him keep her upright. When he nuzzled his nose into her nape, she relaxed even further.

  God, it was good to be home.

  “I can have a bit,” Sean threw into the mix. “A little of what you fancy does you good,” he informed them all, rocking his hips up and nudging her with his dick.

  She grinned. “He’s not wrong, Sawyer.”

  “Ye would agree, a’course,” Sawyer grumbled.

  “Since he went all health nutty on us, he won’t even have Cranachan! I hope you’re curing him, Sascha. A lad needs sweet stuff from time tae time. It’s why he’s always so sour now...”

  “That kind of attitude is exactly why Da has bluidy angina! There’s nothing wrong with being healthy.”

  A disapproving hum sounded down the line. “It’s under control.”

  “Because I designed that diet fer him,” Sawyer said, pouncing on her with a rapid-fire retort that had Sascha blinking.

  “Aye. Mebbe.” Jacinta huffed. “Do you like blood pudding, lass? I can send you a care package down. Even boy wonder over there likes a bit of blood pudding.”

  Sawyer grimaced. “Yer have me there, Ma.”

  “I know I do,” Jacinta retorted, sounding satisfied.

  Sean snorted. “You’ll spend a fortune on shipping if you send that, Jacinta. It’ll need to be overnighted.”

  “The lad puts more money in my bank account than I could have used when he was a bairn and constantly growing out of his trousers.” Jacinta scoffed. “I tell yer now, I wish you’d been rich then, Sawyer Bennett. Yer nearly had us out on the streets growing out of your damn clothes the way you did.”

  Sawyer rolled his eyes. “Like I can help being tall.”

  “And I’m nae complaining. I just wish you’d been rich back then.”

  “Sorry to be late to the party,” he retorted.

  “Jacinta!” Devon’s happy yell had them all turning to the staircase where he was bounding down into the kitchen. “I thought I heard your dulcet tones.”

  Jacinta chuckled, and it sounded like a braying horse. “Yer a charmer, yon lad. And here’s me thinking it was Sean who had the silver tongue.”

  “I do, Jacinta, but only with the right woman.”

  “Aye. I’ve heard tell of this, Sean. You’d better be treating the lass right. She’s nae had it easy with that wicked bitch doing what she did.”

  Devon blurted out, “Can you send me some Tablet?”

  The interruption had them all chuckling. “We just had this conversation,” Sawyer told him when he looked confused—truth was, Devon usually looked confused. It wasn’t exactly a new look for him.

  “About Tablet?”

  “Aye, lad. But dinnae worry, I’ll send you some too. Do you want me to bake yer some shortbread and Dundee cake?”

  “What about Spotted Dick?”

  Jacinta brayed out another laugh, and Sascha had to stifle a giggle—could a laugh sound Scottish? “Aye, I’ll send you some of that lad, if you want it.”

  “You’re the best, Cinta,” Devon said on a sigh that was positively love struck.

  “You’ll have to send me the recipe, Jacinta. If it makes him that happy, I’ll need to keep a supply in.”

  “He’s not supposed to be having sugar either,” Sawyer reminded them all, a gloomy trace to his words.

  “A little bit of what yer fancy, as Sean says. Maybe the lad would sleep more if you weren’t his Mother Hen.”

  “How does that work?” Sawyer retorted. “Yer said it yerself, he barely gets dressed without my prodding him sometimes.”

  “I feel like I’m missing out on something here,” Sascha complained. “I’ve never seen Devon walk around in the buff.”

  Sean snorted. “We lost our last two housekeepers that way. Said he wasn’t decent.”

  “I like being naked,” Devon admitted with an unapologetic shrug.

  Jacinta chuckled. “If I dinnae think of you as my own son, lad, I’d be grateful for watching you walk around raw.”

  Sawyer groaned. “Tae much information, Ma.”

  “What? I said if he weren’t like ma own son.”

  Sascha pouted. “Well, I’m no prude, Devon. Feel free to wander around raw for me.”

  Jacinta hooted. “You’ve got yerselves a live one there, lads.”

  They all looked at each other, wide, sheepishly amused grins creasing their lips.

  “Aye, we do. We’ll be visiting soon, Ma, so don’t be bankrupting us with shipping costs to send us cakes.”

  “When?” Jacinta immediately demanded. “I haven’t seen yer in a lifetime.”

  “It was six months ago,” Sawyer retorted.

  “Six months is six months! Half a year, lad.”

  “I told you to move down here.”

  A pshawing noise sounded down the line. “Can you imagine yer Da down South? Jesus on the cross, they barely understand me when I’m visitin’.”

  “Well, it works both ways. You haven’t been to see us either.”

  “You know that’s because of Aunty Mary. She’s been ill, lad.”

  Sawyer huffed. “Three days isn’t too long a trip.”

  “I’m coming for more than three days if I’ve tae make it all the way down there.”

  “You fly. It takes less than an hour.”

  Jacinta just grumbled. “Aye, so why don’t you do it tae?”

  “You know I don’t fly, Cinta,” Devon told her, breaking into the cookie jar that was getting mighty short of snacks—a reminder for her to bake more appeared on her mental to-do list.

  Jacinta grunted. “Aye, that’s true. I guess I’ll have tae pop down more often then. But we’ll never get your Da down there for more than four nights. You and I both know he hates Cockneys.”

  It was kind of sweet that Devon and Sawyer came as a package with Sawyer’s mother. Sascha fel
t a rush of warmth for the woman who had taken in an emotionally orphaned young boy and had made him a part of the family.

  “Sawyer tells me you’ve solved that wee puzzle you were working on.”

  Her biological son snorted. “Wee puzzle totally negates the importance of his breakthrough, Ma.”

  “Ach, you’re always doing something important or other. A woman can’t be expected tae understand the nonsense you do.” She scoffed as though the idea was close to insanity.

  “You solved P vs NP?” Sean asked, the awe in his voice seemed to prick Jacinta’s attention.

  “It’s a big deal, Sean?”

  “Well, this is bigger than anything he’s done yet,” Sawyer retorted in Sean’s stead. “Think of a needle in a haystack. Ye with me?”

  “Aye. Think I can cope so far,” Cinta replied, amused.

  “Well, imagine if you made a huge feckin’ magnet to cover a haystack the size of the feckin’ Earth, just to find that one tiny needle. Devon just did the mathematical equivalent of that.”

  “And that’s good?”

  Sawyer grunted. “It’s bluidy good.”

  “I think, knowing Devon, your bank balance will be even more padded out shortly, Jacinta,” Sean remarked wryly.

  “Nae more money. My lads will just guilt trip me for nae visiting more. These old bones can’t travel like they used tae.”

  Sawyer rolled his eyes but Devon asked, his concern evident, “Why can’t they, Jacinta? What’s wrong with your bones?”

  “They’re old, lad. That’s explanation enough.”

  Devon scowled. “Do you need to go to the doctor’s again?”

  “I went last week I’ll have you know.”

  “Why?”

  A mumble sounded down the line, but Devon seemed to catch it as did Sawyer—both of them finding it far easier to catch Jacinta’s heavy brogue.

  “Fer feck’s sake, Ma. Have we got to strap you into a chair and take you to the doctor’s ourselves?”

  “Yer cannae say anything, Sawyer Bennett. You’re just as afeared of doctors as I am.”

  “I dinnae care. I’m not the one with crazy cholesterol and arthritis.”

  Sascha twisted in Sean’s arms. “Do you have a clue what she said?”

  Sean pulled a face. “More from context, I’d hazard a guess she took Hamish to the doctor’s, and didn’t go for her own appointment. But didn’t tell a technical ‘untruth’ because she had gone to the clinic. For him. If that makes sense.”

  “Hamish is Sawyer’s dad?”

  Sean nodded.

  Devon’s voice was sad. “Jacinta, you lied to us.”

  “I dinnae,” came the indignant response. “I went to the doctor’s. I didn’t say the doctor checked me over.”

  “That’s a technicality.”

  “You taught me how important technicalities are, Devon, so dinnae be telling me that. Not when yer used tae have me pulling my hair out on technicalities when you were living here with us.”

  His cheeks turned pink. “That was different.”

  “How was it?” More indignation.

  “I was eighteen! You’re a lot older!”

  “Now I’m offended. You can scratch the Dundee cake off your list.”

  Sascha’s lips twitched at their bickering. It wasn’t like she could judge. In this household, technicalities were as important as oxygen.

  “What did he do, Jacinta?” she asked, breaking into their argument.

  “Used to tell me he dinnae have girls up in his bedroom because they were hiding in his closet, so technically they were in the closet not in the bedroom. Then there was the time he got into a fight with that idiot, Jamie Dougan, but it wasnae a real fight because he dinnae use his fists. Just kicked the shit out a’him instead.”

  Sascha’s mouth dropped open. “You kicked someone in a fight?”

  Even Sean was surprised. She felt his tension at her back.

  “You make it sound bad, Jacinta,” Devon reprimanded. “It wasn’t as terrible as she makes it sounds.”

  “He had to go to the hospital!” Jacinta bellowed, with the same force as her son.

  “He deserved it,” came the stubborn retort.

  “That’s it, yer see. He deserved it, so that added to the technicalities,” she scoffed. “I’m going before I start telling yon lassie all the bad stuff I knows about yous two.”

  Sascha giggled. “For that reason alone, I’d be looking forward to you coming for a visit, Jacinta. It will be a pleasure to meet you in person.”

  “Thank you, lass. That’s kind of you tae say. Watch out for a package from me. And nae Tablet for Devon. I’m sulking with him.” She paused. “Love you all.” Then, in a brusque manner that reminded her of Sawyer, Jacinta put down the phone without waiting for a reply.

  “Well, that was enlightening.”

  Sean’s rueful comment had her giggling again. She covered her mouth when Devon shot her a look. “Sorry, but he’s right.”

  He elbowed Sawyer in the side. “You were supposed to make her suffer a bit.”

  Sascha rolled her eyes. “Didn’t work out for you, did it? She liked me.”

  “I wasnae going tae let her tear into you,” Sawyer comforted in his usual gruff manner. “Just a little bit.”

  Sean snorted. “Just a little bit of internal bleeding, Sascha. That cheer you up?”

  She peered back at him with a wide grin. “Aye. It does,” she mocked in faux-Scottish.

  “That’s not bad, Sascha,” Devon pointed out. “You’ve a good ear.”

  “I’m just used to hearing Sawyer bellow it.”

  “I don’t bellow.”

  Sean snorted. “You bellow.”

  “I’m feeling the prejudice in this kitchen,” Sawyer said, close to pouting. “Anti-Scottish sentiment among ye English pigs.”

  She chuckled. “I’m Ameri—” Her mouth fell open. Technically, she was English, and his smirk told her he hadn’t forgotten. “Will you still feel the prejudice if I make your favorite dinner?” she asked instead.

  He squinted at her. “What’s the catch?”

  Her smile was sickly sweet. “No catch.”

  “Don’t trust her,” Devon retorted, gloom lacing his tone.

  She smiled. “It’s always worth it though, isn’t it?”

  Sean laughed. “She’s got you there.”

  Sawyer let out a sigh. “Okay. I’ll bite.”

  “Spaghetti and meatballs it is.”

  She reached down and squeezed the hands Sean had banded around her waist. When he didn’t release her, she peered back at him. “Sean?”

  “How did it go with Elizabeth?”

  Unsurprised Devon had shared her visit with her sister-in-law with the rest of the guys, she shrugged. “I feel better for it.”

  He caught her chin in his hand, studied her a second. What he saw there had him pursing his lips but otherwise nodding.

  “I don’t like that you went. I don’t like how you found out where she was, and used the lawyer to get you a visitor’s pass without us knowing... but you did what you had to do. I understand. Still, don’t do it alone again. There’s no need.”

  “Some things have to be done by oneself, Sean,” she pointed out softly and rather formally.

  “No. Not that. We’re here for you. Just like you’d be here for us. If you forget that, the house of cards comes tumbling down.”

  “He’s right,” Sawyer said softly. “You should have told us. It’s only because this one’s a bleedin’ Sascha savant that he knew what you were up to.”

  Her lips curved into a smile though she did feel guilty. Not just for today’s visit but for what she wasn’t telling them too—there was literally another person in the room and they didn’t know it. Yet.

  “A ‘Sascha savant?’” she teased, rather than think about that.

  Sean’s eyes were serious as he murmured, “Devon seems to have the best read on you.” He patted her chin with his pointer finger. “Remember that
the next time you sneak around behind our backs.”

  She blinked at the reprimand but couldn’t find it in herself to be angry. The visit might have been a stupid move. It was certainly unnecessary. Still, she felt better for it. Irrational or not.

  She’d seen the woman who’d changed her life forever. Had seen the woman who thought money was her God, and who was willing to kill to attain and secure wealth. Now, she was suffering the torment of the damned in a place where her position in society and her family’s wealth meant shit.

  “I had to meet her,” she said simply.

  “And that’s fine. You should have done it with one of us at your side.”

  Sean’s lack of ire had her frowning at him, but she just nodded. Then, slightly irritated by his almost paternal tone, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Some things have to be handled on our own, Sean. How could I have gone to that frigging woman with you at my back? Do you think she’d have taken me seriously? She’d have thought I was wet behind the ears and wouldn’t have told me anything I needed to know.” She blew out a breath, because Elizabeth’s words weren’t what comforted her now. Seeing her misery was. “I’ve lived a long time without you all. I’m a big girl. I know how to handle myself, and I know that when shit comes to shit, I’m a force to be reckoned with—that’s a side of me you haven’t seen. When the chips are down, when I’m backed into a corner, I come out fighting.”

  “But you don’t have to,” he argued.

  “I know, and that’s why you think I’m docile. I’m not. But I’ve felt safe with you, protected. That wildcat hasn’t been necessary. I knew you were there, knew you were protecting me. But today, I needed to remind myself that I don’t have to hang on you for everything. Some things have to be dealt with alone.” And knowing she was pregnant, that need had been all the more imperative.

  He pursed his lips at her, and she could tell that though he understood her reasoning, he didn’t like it. But he didn’t have to like it to accept it. “You’re ours, Sascha. Ours to protect and to cherish. Ours to love.” Sean said, his tone borderline grim. “It’s time you remembered that.”

  He pressed his mouth to hers; his kiss hard. His anger was bleeding through where it hadn’t in his words. When he pulled back, she licked her lips. That side of him didn’t perturb her. If anything, it stirred her blood.