Chapter Eleven
I measured all three men with an inquisitive stare before I spoke.
“Explain.”
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Chester grinned sheepishly at his roommates.
“No,” Elijah stepped forward. “It’s time I took my responsibilities as the leader seriously. I will try to explain the best I can.” He took a deep breath in. “As you saw last night, we are shifters. A fact we endeavor to keep hidden.”
“The permission you gave was to approve of revealing your secret?” I asked, everything coming together now that I wasn’t in the middle of a crazy moment.
“Yes, it’s…” Elijah searched for a word.
“A big deal!” Chester chimed in.
“Sacred,” Rowan said at the same time.
“It’s necessary to reveal the secret, which is not only our secret but concerns the survival of all the shifters that hide from public scrutiny, only to those who are deemed trustworthy,” Elijah continued.
“You… you really trust me with this?” I asked, stumped.
“If there is one thing I am sure about, it’s that you would never endanger a cat,” Elijah smiled at me. “And we are cats, aren’t we?”
I huffed and crossed my arms.
“Give yourself some credit. I won’t reveal your secret, but it’s not only because you are extremely cuddly as a cat.”
“I assure you I am extremely cuddly in both forms,” Elijah said proudly.
“Let’s not get distracted.” I narrowed my eyes, even if I was very interested in testing that theory. “Okay, you are magic or whatever. I can roll with that. What bugs me is why you inserted yourself into my life so thoroughly. Chester sought me out immediately at the University and crawled into my home as Cheddar with no hesitation. Rowan stalked me as a cat…”
“Kept you safe,” Rowan huffed. I ignored him.
“…and Elijah pursued companionship with me as a human before I spotted his cat form. You were keeping tabs on me wherever I was. You got so close to me… I thought… I let myself… Have you been hired by my father?”
I hoped they would protest but the silence was telling. Elijah nodded in the end, confirming my suspicions. My heart was breaking and I couldn’t hide the hurt in my eyes.
“Wait, so when you scared Kevin off… it was on my father’s orders?!”
“No, Lisa,” Chester stopped forward to herd me against the wall. How he seemed to loom over me when he was shorter than me was beside me. “By that time I did it not because I was paid to do it… but because I wanted you.”
Chester kissed me with all the passion and vibrant energy that could barely be contained in him. For a moment I let myself be swept in the strong current of the kiss, letting my lips part, enjoying the thrill of slickness of meeting tongues. But when we parted, still keeping so close we shared the same air, the world interfered.
I caught how Elijah flinched and stepped back when he saw the kiss. The gaze he dragged away from us was unfathomably sad. He was ceding the ground just because Chester kissed me first…
Rowan, on the other hand, did not prescribe to the rule of dibs. He stepped toward us with deadly calmness, making Chester straighten in alarm, then grabbed my chin and kissed me himself.
If Chester’s kiss was raw passion, this was a tease. A brush of lips to make me want more. A placeholder. A promise that it could turn into more, but it wouldn’t yet.
“You want all three of us,” Rowan said quietly, but in the silence of the room he may have been as well shouting.
My lips were dry as I tried to shape the words.
“Yes.”
“We want you as well!” Chester beamed. “Right guys? We were just talking about it when you knocked…”
Rowan and Chester had already made their want clear with a kiss, but I looked towards Elijah. He looked rooted to the spot.
“Elijah?” I asked. “Can I have a kiss?”
That made him move. He took my hand and brushed his lips against it before he took my lips in a careful, hesitant kiss. We ended up holding hands and I could feel his shake slightly.
“Does this mean I can really have all of you?” I whispered when we parted.
“Not yet,” Rowan said and pulled out his phone. When the video connection flared to life on the screen, he thrust the phone at Elijah and I scrambled out of view.
“Good evening, sir,” Elijah said to the mystery person.
“Evening, do you have an update on my butterfly?”
I froze as I recognized the voice of my overbearing father.
“In a matter of speaking,” Elijah swallowed, then steeled himself. “We quit, sir.”
“What?! You can’t! Who will watch over my flower? I can give you more money. How much do you want? Five grand? Fifty? Done! Now be a good bodyguard and go back to your work.”
“With all due respect, sir, we made our decision and will not be bought.”
“Really? Everyone can be bought. If money doesn’t do it for you, how about being blacklisted from the industry, hmm?” my dad said smugly and I wanted to punch him. “Just a few words in correct ears and your little high-profile bodyguarding gig will crumble like a house of cards.”
I couldn’t take this anymore.
Before the men could stop me I snatched the phone and pointed the camera towards me.
“I thought better of you, father,” I said and saw him splutter. “And you shouldn’t make enemies of my new boyfriends . After all, you are going to see them for Thanksgiving.”
Not waiting for his response, I jabbed at the screen to close the call.
“Holy shit,” Chester whispered, awe in his voice.
“I guess it’s official now… Boyfriends?” Elijah asked shyly.
“Yours,” Rowan said and headbutted me gently, like his cat form did not long ago when Shadow wanted to show affection.
“I hope you will have time to drive a few states over for Thanksgiving?” I said, frustrated by all that raw affection. “It’s only two weeks away, so if you have other plans…”
“No plans,” Rowan shrugged.
“Don’t know if you have heard, but we are unemployed now,” Chester teased.
“Speak for yourself. I still have my books to write,” Elijah pouted.
“About that…” I bit my lip before I continued. “…if our work dates were only because you had to keep tabs on me and you would rather be left alone to work in peace…”
“No! No,” Elijah jumped immediately to hold my hands in his. “It’s honestly a delight to have you next to me when I write, or edit, or brainstorm… or anything, really.”
“Sometimes he would just stare at you, completely entranced,” Chester revealed, his eyes in mischievous crescents as he tried to keep his laughter in.
“You menace!” Elijah pointed at the man who had accompanied us many times in the form of a cat. “Betrayer! I’m not going to help you the next time you get your head stuck in a jar!”
“I don’t mind you staring,” I said, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks. “I have to admit I have caught myself appreciating the sight before me as well… especially when you bite your lip and look so focused on the story as if the whole world is replaced by the one that lives in your head and flows onto paper as your words.”
“Really?” Elijah asked.
We would be staring, getting lost in each other’s eyes for forever, if not for Rowan coughing to get our attention.
“Evicted,” he said succinctly and showed us the message he just got.
“The landlord is trying to evict you because no pets are allowed in the flat?!” I asked in disbelief after reading the short missive. “That’s bullshit! She saw Rowan with Cheddar in his arms last Wednesday and only cooed at the cat. She made no problem then, which means…”
We looked at each other in understanding.
“Your father,” Elijah nodded.
“Fuck, we have till the end of the day to pack our things,” Chester swore. “Damn, I like this flat and we just moved here a few weeks before you. It’s hard to find anything good so close to the university.”
“That’s one thing that keeps bothering me… how are you a second year at the university I’m attending if it’s all a setup?” I asked, my brows furrowing in confusion. “Did you fake studying there?”
“I don’t know if I should be hurt or tickled pink that you think I could pull something like that off,” Chester said. “And you got it backward; it was a crime of opportunity. Rowan had heard about a bodyguard job in our city and me already studying at the university you would be going to was one of the reasons our team was chosen over all the others. I told you education pays off.” Chester shot finger guns at the two men, who shook their heads at his antics.
“But now we have to find a new flat and pack up… on very short notice,” Elijah sighed. “I imagined the day I finally got my first kiss would go a bit different.”
“It was your first kiss?!” I gasped out. “Here’s a second one, and a third, and—”
“Mngh!” I didn’t let Elijah speak as I showered him in kisses. He melted into me after the initial surprise and when we parted he looked dazed.
A job well done!
“Now, I hope this will sustain you through the packing… I have to go. I have an idea,” I said and with three swift kisses to my boyfriends’ cheeks I was out of the door.