Page 100 of Altius
“What a great gift.” Wearing a trapper hat with fleece-lined ear flaps, Alijah admired himself in a nearby mirror.
His striking bone structure deserved better.
“Did you buy it already?” he asked.
“No. I don’t know enough about pianos. Stuck an IOU in a card. She picks, I pay.”
“Hey, doc,” Joaquin said, tapping the glass to draw my attention to a pair of star-shaped rhinestone earrings thatmatched the sweater. “We know some guys looking to offload a pretty sweet grand piano.”
Alijah whipped around, ear flaps bouncing against his cheeks. “We do?”
Joaquin gave him a pointed look—and a nudge through their bond—causing Alijah to give a startled little jump and rush over, wearing a bright smile.
“Oh! We do, we do. Extremely local. Very friendly. Willing to sell it for a song. Or maybe a few dozen olybolly—olenbollen?”
“Oliebollen,” I said—and only then did my lagging mind understand their meaning. I looked at Joaquin in surprise. “Wait, you’d seriously sell me Jacobi’s piano?”
The corner of his mouth hooked up, exposing an incisor. “Why not? None of us can play. It came with the place, and now it’s gathering dust. If it can make Kelsey happy and get it out of our way, there’s no reason not to. It’s a win-win.”
“Only if you agree to accept the market price,” I said, looking between the mated pair. “And it won’t upset Owen.”
“Pfft. Like he cares.” Joaquin looked down at me, dark eyes sparkling. “How about market price and two dozen Dutch donut thingies?”
Pressing the trapper hat to his chest, Alijah offered me a bow, extending his hand with a flourish. “Do we have a deal?”
“We do indeed.”
The three of us made a great show of shaking hands and congratulating ourselves on our superior negotiation skills, all with a joyful smile on my face.
I couldn’t help it.
Keeping a lid on my emotions was more taxing than it seemed.
***
After we finished shopping, we secured our loot and coats in the back of Joaquin’s truck in the staff section of the ballet theatre’s parking structure and headed inside for the four o’clock performance ofThe Nutcracker.
The lobby had been transformed into a candy forest with copious amounts of glittery fake snow. With one hand on Alijah’s hip and the other on my shoulder, Joaquin ushered us through the crowd of patrons, including many families with small children wearing fancy clothes.
Our seats were about halfway down the center section, adjacent to the aisle. Alijah took the farthest seat without hesitation and started reading the program. I paused, expecting Joaquin to sit beside his mate.
But he just stood there, arms crossed, the dimple on his left cheek deepening as he leered at me.
I was not in the mood for an oddly suggestive stand-off.
“Go,” I whispered firmly, nodding toward the middle seat.
“Ladies first.”
“Joaquin.”
He leaned down and whispered, “Thought you liked being in the middle of two men.”
Warmth flooded my cheeks as fragmented memories of my heat surfaced.
Four hands wandering across my body. A mouth on each of my breasts. Two cocks drilling into me at the same time.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I took a step back and glared at him. “Stop.”
