Chapter 7
“Hey,” I say with a forced smile. My voice is lost to the music, and Keri’s eyes dart from me to Hasan.
Robert looks down at his drink, refusing to meet my eyes.
They think they just caught me cheating.
Dammit. I don’t want to care what others think.
I shouldn’t have to explain myself. I’m a grown woman and I’m free to do whatever I want.
But I don’t want anyone to think I’m a cheater. I’m so far from that and I have no tolerance for those who do cheat. How the hell do I explain this?
“Did you break up with your boyfriend?” Keri asks, eyes narrowing ever so slightly. She takes a step forward, needing to be closer to talk since the music is so damn loud. She has no tolerance for cheating either, which makes me like her a little bit more.
“No,” I start, swallowing hard. “We’re still together.” I’m internally wincing so hard my stomach hurts right now. “This is my other boyfriend, Hasan. We’re, uh, in an open relationship…together.” With a set of twins, but that’s neither here nor there.
“Oh,” Keri exclaims, eyebrows going up. She runs her eyes over Hasan and then looks at me. She leans in, smiling. “You have to share your secret with me. Two hot boyfriends?”
I laugh, and the song playing comes to an end. A live band is coming onto the stage next, and we have a few minutes before the music starts up again.
“Hi, I’m Keri.” She extends her hand for Hasan to shake, and then introduces Robert. “Do you two work together as well?”
“In a sense,” I say, wanting to keep the lie as simple as possible. Now that she knows I’m not cheating, I don’t need to go any further with this. I have more than one boyfriend. It’s not traditional, but we live in modern times and having several partners isn’t unheard of anymore.
“You look familiar,” Robert tells Hasan, tipping his head slightly. “I don’t think we’ve met before, have we?”
“No,” Hasan answers. “I don’t think so.”
“He gets that a lot,” I blurt, thinking there’s no way anyone could recognize the guys from their stone figures. They do have similarities, but when they are gargoyles, they don’t look human anymore. “I think it’s because he looks like Jason Momoa.”
“Ohhh, you’re right!” Keri takes a sip of her drink. “We’ll let you enjoy your night. We’re supposed to meet another professor and his boyfriend for drinks.”
“Have fun,” I tell her with a smile.
She rolls her eyes and laughs. “I’m thrilled to sit there and listen to the guys talk about history. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye!” I watch them leave and turn back to Hasan, letting out a breath. “That wasn’t as awkward as I thought. Those are our neighbors, the ones who had the party Jac and I went to last night.”
“Oh, now I understand why she looked surprised.”
“Having more than one boyfriend or girlfriend is more acceptable now than it was a few years ago, but it’s still a bit out of the norm.”
“Interesting. Why do people care what you do behind closed doors when it doesn’t hurt anyone?”
“Now that’s a good question, and one I can’t really answer.”
My phone vibrates with a text. It’s Tiffany, saying they’re here.
I stand, looking through the crowd of people and waving to her once she sees me.
She’s all dolled up, and I had no idea she put that much effort into her appearance when she’s not at work.
Which is kind of sad, considering we’ve worked together for years and I’ve never hung out with her outside of going to get food on our way home from work.
“You look great!” she tells me, sliding into the booth across from me.
“So do you!” I say. “This is my boyfriend, Hasan. Hasan, this is Tiffany and her husband Chen.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Tiffany says with a smile. “Have you guys been together long? Ace is very tight-lipped about her personal life at work.”
“Not too long,” he says. “But long enough.” He smiles when I look at him.
“How’s Mavis?” I ask Tiffany.
“Good. She’s with my mom and it’s so nice to get a night away. That sounds terrible, doesn’t it?”
We laugh and order drinks, then get an appetizer to share.
Tiffany is right, a night away from responsibilities is fun.
We stay at the bar for over an hour, and then take a walk around the block together.
Hasan holds my hand, looking at the bright lights of the city with bewilderment.
We pass by a homeless man and Hasan comes to a dead halt, looking down at the old man.
“Hasan?” I take a step back to him.
“Why doesn’t anyone help him?” he asks, deep voice low, and I’m reminded that he and Jacques were some of the few who joined the Knights with the genuine mission to help God’s people.
“It’s complicated,” I start, and know that’s a bullshit excuse. I pull my purse off my shoulder and dig out my wallet. I don’t carry much cash with me, but I have fifteen dollars to give him. Not all homeless people are frauds or people looking for handouts.
“Thank you,” the homeless man says. “God bless.”
Hasan looks from the man to me, and I know he’s thinking that’s it? I give him a wry smile and take his hand, continuing our walk down the street. The world today is better in many ways than it was before, but not everything has improved.
Hasan takes my hand, slowly walking from the car to the house. We had fun tonight, and this whole going out thing is easily going to become a habit.
“Maybe tomorrow we all can—” I cut off, feeling the air around me suddenly get cold.
“Ace?” Hasan goes into defense mode, pulling his shirt over his head and ripping off the concealment charm. His wings fill the space between us. I wait a beat and nothing happens.
“Never mind. I thought I felt something.” I crane my neck, looking around the yard. “But I don’t see anything.”
“Here,” he says, and scoops me up. He spreads his wings and takes off, flying up and landing on the roof. It’s his go-to spot for keeping watch over the yard, and the vantage point up here is amazing. But I don’t have wings, and if I fall, there’s nothing I can do but crash to the ground.
He hooks his arm around my waist, keeping me steady. “Do you see anything?”
“No.” I shake my head and scan the yard. “But this is cool. A little, uh, nerve-racking, but cool.” I carefully sit down, feeling the rough shingles beneath me, and let out a breath.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…yet.” I look up with a half-smile. “Let’s not spoil a good night.”
“It won’t spoil it.” He sits next to me. “I want to know what’s going on in there.” Gently, he taps the side of my head.
“Opening that can of worms could take all night.”
“Can of worms?”
“It’s an expression that basically means a mess…
which is kinda how I feel like my life is going in some aspects,” I admit both to him and to myself for the first time.
“Don’t get me wrong, I finally feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be, and having you guys fills the void, but I have these powers and using them hurts more than it helps. ”
“That’s not true. And you just discovered you had powers. It takes years to learn how to practice magic.”
“Well, I’m impatient, I guess.” I look up at him with a smile. “I don’t know how you guys are so confident in me all the time. I know what I’m good at and what I’m not, and magic…magic is one of the things I’m not good at.”
“Not yet.” He wraps his arms around me and presses down onto the roof with his heels, twisting so he can kiss me. “You should have confidence in yourself when it comes to magic, Ace. You are powerful and I find it so hot.” I can feel him smile as he kisses me again. “Did I say that right?”
“You did,” I mumble, wrapping my arms around his neck. I’m scared we’re going to fall, but confident he’ll catch me and spread his wings, gliding us down to the ground before we crash. I break away from his kisses to look down, finding the danger a turn on.
He does too.
Kissing me once more before getting up, Hasan takes my hand and helps me walk along the line of the roof, stopping once we get to the large stone chimney at the edge of the house.
He picks me up, moving fast, and pushes my back up against it, hands slipping down to my thighs.
I fasten my arms around his neck, kissing him hard.
“You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met,” he whispers, hands moving to the button on my jeans. “I used to think love was bullshit. I didn’t see the point in relationships. But you, Ace…you make me believe in things I didn’t think were real.”
My lips part and my breath leaves me, heart swelling in my chest. We kiss again, and Hasan undoes my pants. He slips his hand down the front of my panties, deft fingers rubbing over my clit. I hold onto him tight, back pressed against the fireplace.
Keeping one hand on his shoulder, I bring the other down his chest, going for the tie on the athletic pants he’s wearing.
I pull it loose and sweep my hand down further, feeling his monster cock through his pants.
My pussy quivers at the thought of that big thing entering me, filling every inch and stroking me in just the right way.
He inserts a finger, going right for my sweet spot, and I bring my hands up again, holding onto him as he finger-fucks me.
It doesn’t take long until I’m ready to come, and I madly tug his pants down and take a hold of his cock.
I widen my legs and he lifts me up, the tip of his big dick already rubbing me.
As Hasan holds me up with ease, I arch my back and sink down on his cock, moaning loudly.
Gripping him tight, I buck my hips, bringing myself closer and closer to orgasm.
He spreads his wings out for balance, pushing me against the chimney, and thrusts in hard and deep, over and over until I dig my nails into his skin, biting his shoulder to silence the moan trying to escape my lips.
I come so hard wetness drips down my thighs, and only a moment later, he comes hard as well.
“Don’t let go,” I pant when he sets me down.
“I won’t. I’ll never let you go.”