Page 46 of Master Heimdall

Erik, Noah, Declan, Colin, and I moved over to the bar and took a seat. Erik poured us each a generous amount of Lagavulin into crystal tumblers and handed them out. No one drank until Erik poured himself one and then we held our tumblers aloft.

“Skal!” he said.

“Skal!” we returned.

The women entered the foyer just as the elevator opened and out stepped the last two in our group, Jared and Lincoln. They joined us at the bar, and Raia continued the tour outside on Erik’s massive deck. He even grew his own produce out there. The way his place was set up if there was ever an extended blackout, he’d be fine. I guessed coming from poverty gave one a different perspective on life.

The rest of us had a silver spoon in our mouths since birth. Not to say that our life choices hadn’t hardened us and given us a host of experiences way outside the general norm of a silver-spoon upbringing.

I watched Rose with the women. Even though this was Raia’s home, Rose was definitely guiding the discussion and the others happily joined in. I wasn’t the only one watching Rose, so was Mari with a small, but very happy smile on her face.

“She’s happy,” she said, as I sidled up beside her.

“As am I.”

She turned and gave me a critical evaluating look. “I’m glad and you can tell, you even look younger. Must be all the good sex.” She glanced again at Declan and I wondered what was going on, but then she redirected her vision back to outside. “I think I’ll join them.”

That was a first. Mari always preferred to hang with the men. But with her and Rose being so close, maybe she felt more comfortable spending time with her besties’ women? I honestly had no idea, but Rose being here had somehow added to the dynamic and clearly Mari felt it.

Mrs. Goodwin hustled out of the kitchen with a big platter of appetizers, which Erik quickly took away, lovingly scolding her for carrying something so heavy. I’d asked him once why he didn’t just retire her, and he’d said because when she no longer had purpose, old age would settle in and she would perish that much faster. It reminded me now of what Mari had just said about looking younger. I also felt younger. Rose had been an injection of life I’d needed badly.

We watched Erik carry the tray outside, offering the women first dibs of the appetizers. Good thinking as he knew we’d devour it entirely if they didn’t get some first. The guys sat at the table and finished off the remainder. We were all tall, muscular men, who needed lots of food to keep us satisfied, but that wasn’t all we needed. My gaze floated outside once again to Rose, who was laughing at something Shelby had said.

I felt a magnetic pull and stepped outside and joined them, arriving to hear the end of Shelby’s story. When she saw me, her face turned red and she skipped inside the house, launching herself at Noah’s back, as he was now standing and talking intently in response to something Jared said. I think she was trying to tackle him, but he was swift and turned right at the last second to capture her in his arms.

Shelby was a tiny woman with no hips to speak of, and as Noah said ,the finest ass he’d ever seen. At first they’d been such an unlikely pair but now, their relationship seemed so effortless, so organic and I couldn’t help feeling impressed by them.

Jared had the rest captivated by whatever he was saying. I’d thought more than once that he should go into politics. He was hard enough to not be bought, and rich enough to fund his own campaign, but where he really shone was in his ability to command attention. He and Declan were very similar that way, but where Declan had a quiet command, Jared was more of a showman, and it came through in the way he dressed, and his body language. His looks were really a lot like the actor who played Lucifer in the Netflix show. Dark hair and dark eyes, so intense in his pale British complexion, and when he played at the clubs, those dark orbs looked like they were pieces of obsidian, shiny black surfaces hiding dark intentions.

Rose wrapped her arm around my waist. I lift her up and she instinctively wrapped her legs around my hips. I captured her lips and pierced them with my tongue. She moaned softly as I pillaged her the way my cock wanted to invade her pussy.

I pulled my head back, enjoying the look of her swollen lips. “We have an audience.”

“Uhuh. Perfect,” she replied and tilted her head back, offering me her neck. She loved it when I slid my tongue down her pulse and sucked on it.

When I came up for air, Erik called us for dinner. I took my seat with Rose on one side and Colin on the other. Something was off with him. I’d noticed the moment he stepped off the elevator and now he was moving his food around on his plate, completely lost in thought. I wasn’t the only one who noticed. His big bro, Declan was watching him as well. Our eyes met and I got what he wanted.

“Hey. What’s going on?” I nudged my friend and partner. “You’ve been off since you arrived.”

He reached into his jean pocket and pulled out a card. “This is my problem.”

I looked at the card and saw it had a woman’s name on it, under the PR title for a communications company we’d done an installation and security sweep for.

“I met her at my last job, just before I packed up to come home.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I think she’s in trouble, but when she tried to talk to me, she was hustled out of the room by their in-house security. Anyway, I gave her my card before she was removed, but I didn’t hear from her before I left. I can’t help feeling that something is seriously wrong, Gabe, and I’m not sure what to do about it.”

Colin was ex-military and if his gut was telling him something, it was probably correct. “I think you should go, but not alone. Let’s talk about this more after dinner and we can make a plan.”

It turned out that we didn’t need to have a private discussion because all the guys followed us outside, even Mari.

“What’s going on?” Declan asked.

“It’s work related, no need to worry.”

“If something has my brother this down, then it isn’t just work related.”

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