Page 17 of The Erion Triad

Kyel with hard abs and a lean waist would be as bossy in bed as he was with his brothers. No, not bossy. More forthright. Assertive. The definition of alpha. He’d place her where he wanted her. On her back. Hands and knees. Bending over the back of a sofa. But he’d always make sure she found her pleasure before he released.

Zaen would be just as assertive, but he’d take his time a little more. Where Kyel was a little rougher, a little less able to rein in his desire—not that she would mind, not at all—Zaen would stroke her desire in ways that would leave her trembling in anticipation.

Juliran would be another thing altogether. He would be a slow burn through and through. Touching her, building the anticipation until she demanded his cock and then he would only give it to her after she’d found her climax—twice.

They looked a little different in her daydream, with an otherworldly blue tinge to their skin that only served to make them sexier. Where she’d plucked that particular idea from, she didn’t know. She also didn’t understand how it just felt… right. Yeah, it was right that they had blue skin. She chuckled to herself. She’d always did have a good imagination. Maybe she had a thing for aliens. Hot, sexy, well-defined, alpha aliens. Hmmm, truly droolworthy.

It was strange how she could see things so clearly in her mind. They would be as intense singularly or altogether. There was no jealousy between them at all. Only there seemed to be one way in which they weren’t all together, hadn’t joined as one.

It was important though, although she didn’t understand why, and she didn’t know how. There was a part of her that called out to do it, a deep part well past conscious understanding, something that wentbeyond, but the haze descended and she was thrust back into the world of work and tables and sore feet and waitressing.

“Lucie?”

She blinked up into Juliran’s questioning cerulean eyes. She looked about. The restaurant had been cleared, chairs stacked on cleaned tables, the floor recently washed, dishes in their place. The room was quiet and calm and ready for the next shift. All that had happened and she hadn’t even realized. Where had the time gone?

She wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ll get your money and we can call it a night.”

She went to the till and sorted out the notes to pay them.

Luke approached from the kitchen. “You guys told Luce you’re looking for work?”

Kyel nodded. “We did.”

“Well, you did a great job tonight. If you’d like to turn up tomorrow night about four, I’d gladly like the help going forward.”

Zaen nodded, accepting the notes as though he didn’t know what they were. “Will Lucie also be here?”

“I’m here all the time.” Lucie took her apron off and threw it into the laundry basket in a corner of the kitchen. “Honestly, don’t let me stop you from taking shifts or not. I’m not going to stand in the way of anyone wanting work. But for now, I’m beat. I’m heading off home. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“You will, Lucie.” Juliran was so serious when he spoke it almost made her laugh.

She looked up at all of them, illogically happy that she would get to see them again. It shouldn’t matter if she saw them or not. It was none of her business, but as she grabbed her bag from her locker and made her way out of the front door her skin prickled as three sets of eyes were laser-focused right on her, sending out an aura of protective bodyguards.

She paused and gave them a small smile. She should have been uncomfortable beneath such scrutiny, or at the least it should have given her pause—it would have coming from anyone else—but, instead, a feeling of surprising calm washed through her as she stepped out into the cold night. Her mind wasn’t as hazy as it had recently been, and yet, she still felt as though she was missing something. Somethingreallyimportant. Something life-and-death important. The feeling flittered though her stomach, leaving a hollow wake. She tried to rub it away, but the hollowness only became bigger and harder and colder. The more she struggled to grasp what it might be, the more elusive it became.

What was it? What was she missing?

Chapter Seven

Lucie

Cool night air closed around her. She glanced at the car park, remembering that Grant had taken their—her—car. She’d owned the car when they’d met, but had nowhere to live. It had only made sense to combine everything they both owned, but lately it seemed that she was stuck with the rent while Grant took everything that was hers and treated it as his own.

She needed that car to get to all three of her jobs. They lived near a train line. Surely he could take public transport occasionally, where she might be able to get home easily.

“Babe. Walking’s good for you,” he would say. “Think of your toned legs when you’re up on stage. That’s what people look at.”

Only now, with the moon high in the sky, shadows everywhere, and muscles that deeply ached from dashing to and from the kitchen all afternoon and night, she could have done with the car. She rotated her head to ease the kinks from her shoulders. She shouldn’t feel ungrateful. Grant was doing everything he could for her career. He was giving up everything to help her. He could quite easily get a good job. He’d told her on numerous occasions, but he’d made the decision that something worth doing on a big a scale as she was worth, needed someone to put the time in. She was better placed to pay the bills while he used his contacts. It would only be for a little time and then they could relax and enjoy the pay-off for their hard work.

She glanced at her feet and the pumps she wore instead of her sneakers. Not exactly the right shoes to wear for a busy Sunday night, but she hadn’t brought her comfy shoes when Grant told her they would be going out for breakfast. The thought of walking the three kilometers back home in them after working all night brought a groan to her lips.

Maybe she could ring Grant to come and pick her up. She tried his number, frowning when it went straight to voicemail. Maybe he was already home, tired after his meetings. He always met his contacts in unusual places. It seemed people in the music industry didn’t keep to business hours or office addresses, so Grant had said. He had to go meet them wherever they were, and not the other way around.

That made sense too. Music was entertainment, and people went out at night after their working day for their entertainment. When she got her break, she’d probably be working those hours as well. She placed a fist into the small of her back. She was already working those hours, just not doing the job she really wanted to do.

That night when Grant had first seen her sing had been purely by chance. She’d wandered off the street and into the restaurant, looking for somewhere warm to stay for a few hours, and had indulged in Luke’s karaoke. What a change one song had brought to her life.

Grant had seen her that night and he’d known she was a star, he said. He told her he’d take her on as her agent, get her more singing gigs. In the meantime, while he used his contacts and worked to get the right ears to hear her, he’d also arranged for her to have more shifts at Flips’n’Burgers. Not in the job she’d first thought, but artists had to do what artists had to do.

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