Page 112 of Winter's End

“He’s a very generous lover, actually. Maybeyoushould read some romance books.” I tossed a pen at him from my side table, but he caught it gracefully in the air.

“Oh, Princess, you know I’m nothing if not generous.” He spun the pen around in his fingers. “Should I prove it to you? I’ve got”—he glanced at his watch— “twenty minutes. Nothing but time.”

He waggled his eyebrows tauntingly, but I wouldn’t take the bait. I had places to be today too.

“There’s some romance in our Manga collection,” Shane quipped from the couch. “Don’t be shy, Loggie-bear. I saw some dried tears on the pages of my latestYona of the Dawn.”

“Don’t call me that.” Logan glowered, shooting daggers in Shane’s direction.

But he didn’t deny it.

Cam was perched on the overstuffed armchair in the corner by our stone fireplace, his nose stuck in his own book. “I just finishedWar and Peace,” he mused thoughtfully, peeking up at us behind the pages before concentrating onOf Mice and Menagain. “Does that count as a romance?”

Drew’s face was a mask of mock horror. “That’syour idea of romance? How did you snag Winter again?”

“I’m a Southern boy, Drew,” he said dryly as he turned the page. “Romance is a school subject where I’m from. I don’t need your books.”

Drew’s ears turned pink, but he stood tall and puffed out his chest. “I don’tneedthem either. Ilikethem. And Winter likes them too.”

He winked at me and settled into the other cushion next to Shane, pecking him on the lips before handing him a steaming mug of coffee.

“Cam listens to opera too,” Quick added, with a mock-solemn nod. “Opera is the music of heartbreak, isn’t it, Big Guy?”

“No,” Cam intoned passively, not even glancing up from his reading. “It’s not.”

“I read one of Winter’s polyamory books recently.” Travis walked in with two steaming mugs of his own and handed one to me with my own tender kiss.

I smiled at him appreciatively and took a long swallow.

“Really?” Shane perked up, eager to hear all the gossip, as usual.

“Yeah.” Travis shrugged and settled into the space beside me. “I mean, it’s our life, isn’t it? I was curious.”

“And?” My best friend-turned-lover leaned forward in his seat. “What’s the verdict? Some good boinkage? Everybody getting their boink on?”

Drew snorted beside him and Cam shook his head with a thinly veiled grin. Only Quick would say the word ‘boink’ with the utmost seriousness.

“Lots of group sex, yeah. One scene even had TVP, and I gotta tell you, I don’t think it’s possible.” He wrinkled his nose and grimaced, and I grimaced along with him.

Three dicks in one hole. Ouch.

“Oh, it’s possible,” Logan chimed in. “But I think you’d need something to hang from to really get in there.”

As the five guys debated the logistics of how a TVP situation could work, I sat back and watched the beautiful men who made up our family.

Shane had let his hair grow long, and it hung down his back in a beautiful herring bone braid today. When WAQ was restructured under new ownership and management, he officially left the company to pursue his master’s and then immediately after, his Ph.D. He was now a professor working toward tenure at Sequoia State University. I had never seen my handsome best friend so exuberant as when he was talking about his lessons or his students. He was made to teach, and his students were lucky to have him.

Cam had started his own carpentry business. Despite his master’s degree in poli sci, he’d decided he got more satisfaction from working with his hands. Chase Carpentry now had six employees. The firm specialized in custom trim work and design. He came home from work in a good mood almost every night, and it soothed my soul to see my brooding boy so calm.

He still fought to keep his anger out of his daily life, though. Logan had a circuit set up in the basement, and they sparred together at least once a week. When they were feeling brave, the other three would have a go, but it wasn’t often. They enjoyed keeping their teeth intact.

Travis had enrolled in college as soon as we had settled in to our new lives. He’d taken business courses and graduated top of his class. His mother lived long enough to watch him cross the graduation stage, and he told me afterward it was the proudest moment of his life. She passed away a few months later from disease complications. Travis had mourned her loss, but I think secretly, he found relief in the fact she wasn’t suffering anymore. Scleroderma was a terrible illness.

Devon disappeared once Georgio was imprisoned. Travis thought he might have gone on a bender and either lived on the streets or had died from an overdose. He occasionally went out to the darker parts of Carlisle to search for him with Cam or Logan at his side. But so far, he hadn’t turned up. It wasn’t something we spoke about—the regrets were still too raw for Travis to face, and it might always be that way.

Drew, Logan, Travis, and I had combined our business skills and natural talents and opened up a series of clubs all over Sequoia County. Drew headed up the dining aspect, Travis managed the bars, I oversaw the entertainment, and Logan was Chief of Operations. We’d opened one club at a time, tweaking and experimenting as we built. Now we had four locations, and plans to open three more over the next five years.

My favorite was Club Quintessence. It was the epitome of elegance. We took all the things we loved about Bourbon & Blues and made them our own. Royal blue and gold were our club colors, each building ornately decorated to create a roaring twenties vibe. Hillary had her hand in designing each space, and I wasn’t disappointed.

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