Page 17 of Forsaken Dream
Chapter Eight
Echo
Some time after the jerks were out of my house, I fell asleep cuddling the iron skillet like it was a safety blanket. Proto was nowhere to be found, the annoying creature probably hightailed it at the first sign of danger. Not that I believed any of the three males would harm him, but he didn’t know that. A more useless familiar had not existed in the history of the Faerie realm. Just my luck that I ended up tied to him for life.
Rubbing at the crust that had formed at the corners of my eyes, I debated if I should get out of bed or play possum. If I stayed in the cocoon of my comforter, I could pretend that yesterday didn’t happen. There were no mouthwatering males prancing around my house, Josh didn’t threaten to take my home from me, and my account had more than a couple of hundred to hold me over until the end of the month.
It was the ninth.
Groaning, I thumped my head on the pillow. No matter how tempting it was, I couldn’t stay hidden from the world or the responsibilities Pam had left for me. This farm was her pride and joy, and I’d be damned if I disappointed her, even when she couldn’t see it. Kicking off the covers, my legs had barely touched the floor when something dropped next to my window. What was it with me and windows? I couldn’t catch a break …
Still clutching the skillet, I rushed to see what fresh hell awaited me for the day. Fully expecting Josh to be lurking around the house—as was his typical start to each and every day—I gaped at the roof tiles that had been broken into dozens of pieces and sprinkled across the side of the house.
“No.” Darting out of my bedroom, I ran outside in my pajamas, still barefoot. “No, no, no,” I repeated as if my denial would prevent the roof over my head from literally falling down.
Rocks and the fates knew what else stabbed the soles of my feet as I ran around the house, skidding over the ground when I sharply took the corner. The morning sun was already blazing bright, the heat from it warming the hard-packed dirt so I had to keep moving. Otherwise, it would’ve burned me. The broken roof tiles came into view, the faded red color looking more dirty than an actual shade of the color. Stopping before I actually walked over the sharp pieces and shredded my feet, I pressed a thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose and counted to ten.
“It’s fine,” I said to no one in particular. “Everything is going to be fine. You can fix this.” Blowing out a breath, my eyes bounced from one broken tile that had fallen from the roof to the next. “Instead of running from hot males with the bodies of gods, you will stay at the market and actually sell stuff.”
“You think I have the body of a god?” Vaser asked from behind me, amusement oozing from his lips and scaring a good fifty years of my life.
“What?” Flailing because I almost tripped when I jumped to face him, I stuttered like an idiot. “No, that’s not … I wasn’t …” Huffing, I glared at him. “What are you doing here, Vaser?”
“What we said we wanted to do.” His heated gaze rolled over me, from my dirt-covered toes to the nest of hair I hadn’t brushed yet, which was sticking out all over the place. “Taking care of you.” His tone suggested he wanted to take care of things other than the house that was falling apart on me. I zeroed in on one of the words he’d used.
“We?” Looking around, I couldn’t see anyone other than him. “Who is ‘we,’ exactly?”
“Good morning, Echo,” Tyler called out, and a kink formed in my neck when my head jerked to stare at him incredulously.
“What the hell do you think you are doing perched on my roof like a damn rooster?” Another roof tile dropped from his fingers, hitting the ground and breaking into pieces. “Hey! What in the fates name?”
“Fixing your roof.” The gargoyle shrugged without a care in the world and beamed at me.
“Get your ass down and stop destroying my roof, you … you oaf!” wiggling the skillet at him, I continued shouting like a woman possessed. “Get the hell off my land!”
“Those were already broken,” Tyler mumbled defensively, and my stomach clenched at the dejected look on his face. “I’m good with stone and brick …” he trailed off as if deciding how much to tell me. “I will have it fixed for you in no time, and then you won’t have to worry about it anymore,” he finished quietly as if admitting he could fix the roof was embarrassing.
I swallowed thickly, guilt choking me.
It wasn’t like I had the money or a different way to repair it. Instead of saying thank you and thinking of a way to repay him since I couldn’t actually pay him for it, I yelled like an old crow. Seeing the wide expanse of bared chest glistening with sweat in the sun sent images of many ways I could repay him, with me riding his face or him thrusting between my thighs while we tangled the sheets on my bed. Just like the demon and the angel, Tyler was a sight to behold. Where Vaser was lean as a swimmer, and the angel bulky like a warrior, the gargoyle was larger than life. His muscles looked like they had muscles, but not in a macho, bodybuilding way. He was a good six feet five, towering even when he was standing on the ground and not on my roof. The height carried his large frame perfectly, and warmth spread through me at that thought, centering between my thighs.
My feet shuffled from the building fire in my lower belly.
Vaser cleared his throat.
“What?” I bit my lip to stop talking when I turned to see the demon eyeing me like I was a juicy steak and he was a starving male. His nostrils flared and a deep, low growl rumbled in his chest.
“We just want to take care of you.” Vaser’s voice had a husky note to it that sent feathers tickling the back of my throat. “You don’t owe us anything, Echo. Just let us do this for you. If you want us gone when we are done, we will leave you alone.”
My mouth opened to say I had no idea what when yet another shock rendered me mute.
“Where am I stacking these baskets?” The angel walked out from the orchard, a basket filled with apples perched in one hand as if it weighed nothing. When he saw me staring at his half-naked body, he smiled so bright it blinded me. “Hey, Echo. Where would you like me to leave this one before I go back to gather the rest?”
“How do you know my name?” Because, of course, that was more important than him climbing trees and lugging heavy baskets of fruit not even ten hours after he was bleeding to death.
“Vaser and Tyler told me.” His gaze dropped as if embarrassed. My head spun. This day had a very strange start to it. The song “It’s Raining Men” hummed inside my head since everywhere I turned there was a half-naked male greeting my gaze. “I’m Angelo, by the way. I should’ve started with that last night after you took care of me when I was hurt instead of acting like—”
“A jerk?” I supplied, closing my eyes as soon as the words were out.Way to go, Echo. You are absolutely delightful to be around.The voice in my head sounded suspiciously like my mother’s.
