40. Fern – Meaning Confusion Wealth
40
FERN
(DEVIL’S brUSHES)
MEANING: CONFUSION; WEALTH
EVERETT
________
I watched my wife explore the penthouse of the hotel with an enthusiasm I’d never seen from her. She was giddy . Looking in the closets and drawers, exclaiming at all the things she’s found.
“There’s makeup in here,” she gasped from one of the bathrooms. “Like literal, actual makeup . It even looks like it might match my skin tone. It’s not pale. What fucking magic is this?”
The magic was that this was a five-star hotel. On the coast of the capital city of Grecia, Thenos, with a view of the ocean on one side and a city—complete with the mountaintop ruins in the center—on the other. Though we hadn’t been here in years, they knew who we were and did whatever they could to make our stay pleasant. Including getting makeup for our wife, her colors supplied by the makeup artist we’d used for the Extasis event.
A squeal of joy came from the direction of the pseudo-nest in the corner of the top floor suite. I locked eyes with Cameron, unable to contain my smile. Her joy was contagious, and I wanted more of it. All of it.
But Micah knelt in front of the trunk of sex toys Cameron had delivered, frowning. The wand that Micah and I had found broken beside the bed in Venisi was in his hand. “If you pushed that hard, I’m not surprised it broke.”
Cam shook his head. “That’s the thing. I wasn’t pushing that hard. The reason it pushed Ocean over the edge like that is because she was already so blissed out. I ate her out and used this one first.” He pointed to the small toy that curled in a swirling shape but used suction and vibration. “It was because her body was so overloaded. I didn’t even have it on the highest setting. I might have tried that if it hadn’t died.”
Now Micah was following his gaze, his expression changing to the one he wore when he dove into a design problem. “More than died. It looked like it had cracked.”
“Yeah.” Cam nodded, setting the toy on the bed. “The head was like… dangling.”
I crossed to him and picked the wand up. We’d seen all the toys before during development and when the designs were approved. This felt different. Lighter than I remembered.
“What the hell?” Cameron muttered, looking at his phone. “Something is wrong.”
“What?”
He shook his head, scrolling through something. “I decided to look, just to see. There’s already reviews coming in for the new line. It’s not just a fluke, the toys are breaking. So far, lots of anger and disappointment. Saying that things feel cheaper than they have in the past. I need to call Trish.” Our head of marketing.
“I just thought when I picked this up that it was lighter than I remembered.”
Micah took it from me, eyebrows rising. “Agreed. That feels way lighter.”
Ocean walked past from where she’d been, heading into the suite’s spacious kitchen, clearly on a mission.
If the launch was floundering it needed to be addressed, but this was also our honeymoon. Our wife wouldn’t mind if we had to take care of things. She understood. But I wasn’t going to let her joy suffer because of this.
“I’m going to take her to the ruins,” I said, nodding to Cameron. “Just the two of us. It’ll give you a chance to talk to Trish and get ahead of this in any way you can. And?—”
“And I’m going to figure out why the hell it feels like the whole body of this is made from heavy plastic and not metal,” Micah said.
While he didn’t directly design the machines, he was still in charge of their appearance. And he worked closely with the specialists and engineers to create the products. He would know what needed to be asked. Their expertise was more needed here than mine.
Plus, I was selfish.
I wanted to spend time with my wife. Bask in the glow that she gave off simply because she was happy. She was so excited to see the ruins, and though we couldn’t see them all today, it was a good start.
“That’s a good idea,” Cameron said. “I want to go with you, but…”
But a poor launch, especially because of product dissatisfaction, could do irreparable damage to the brand and spread like an infection. No one had to say it out loud. We prided ourselves on being luxury. Especially with Extasis. Yes, our products were expensive, but they were also the best. If people didn’t value that reputation? It would crumble into nothing.
Something tingled at the back of my mind, but it was fuzzy. Like a camera that was blurry. An image I was getting, but wasn’t quite seeing clearly.
“We’ll leave you to it.”
I found my wife out on the balcony facing the water that shared her name. The wind off the sea blew her hair back and she closed her eyes, letting the sun warm her skin.
Trapping her against the balcony, I whispered in her ear. “Trying to get back to the water, little nymph?”
“Not yet.”
“Not yet.” I hummed into her neck. “That’s good for me. At least until I get you into the pool later.”
She looked over at it. “It’s incredible.”
The pool was an infinity pool, the edges appearing to fall off into nothing and reflecting the city and ruins back at us.
“Will you be terribly disappointed if I’m the one to take you to the ruins today?”
Ocean turned in my arms. “What do you mean?”
“Is it okay if it’s just the two of us?”
I saw the panic enter her eyes. “Is something wrong?”
Sighing, I grabbed her hips and pressed my body into hers. “Business none of us want to deal with. I swear to you when we promised you this trip, we didn’t envision it like this.”
“It’s been pretty great so far. But no, I don’t mind if it’s the two of us.” Her smile turned shy. “I like having time with each of you.”
“Do you need anything?”
She wore a flowing white dress that looked like she stepped out of a history book. Her skin looked even darker against the bright fabric, and with the sun shining off her hair… fuck she was beautiful.
“Sunscreen. We’re going to be in the sun for a while.”
“Definitely.”
“Okay. Be right back.”
I watched her walk away, thoroughly enjoying the way her hips moved and the swish of her long skirt. When was her heat? I needed to find a way to ask without making her think the question was strange, because I was dying to tell her everything.
She was better.
She was blossoming .
As soon as her heat revealed who and what we were, I wanted to sink my teeth into her neck and bind myself to her forever. I would have done it that night at the gala if I’d thought she would have believed us and welcomed it.
Finally, I felt the confidence she hid because other people were assholes and made her feel lesser. She was starting to believe us when we told her the truth. That she was beautiful. Hopefully she heard the words we didn’t say just as clearly.
That we loved her.
Because I did.
I loved my Omega like nothing I’d ever loved before. Not even Micah and Cameron, though they were my pack and part of my soul in the same way she was. Ocean was the center of my soul. She was the center of theirs too. The center of us. We were a triangle and rotated around her like she was the sun and we were the planets.
We just needed to be able to fucking tell her.
Shaking my head of the thoughts so I didn’t blurt everything out the minute I saw her again, I followed her inside and called for the car. Time to show my wife how beautiful the world was, and the lengths we’d go to just for her.