“What?”
“They asked for sanctuary. Who are we to turn your kin, and this man who is so clearly head over heels for her, down?”
Stupefied silence followed her declaration, one that made Edmund want to crow in triumph. He held it in and noted the reluctant nod before Billy shot her a look. She gazed back, and Edmund saw the love connecting them, something he wouldn’t have been able to stomach before. Again, it felt like a lifetime ago.
“Don’t go to any room that isn’t your assigned bedroom,” Billy instructed, not sparing a second as he switched from stubborn man to reluctant host. “Don’t contact your folks while you are here and have them tracking us here. Lay low, and we will handle the rest. Lastly, if you hear the piano playing at dawn, don’t follow the sound.”
That one sounded strange, but Edmund had enough strangeness in his life to understand when not to pry. He nodded, all complacent, until Billy was all glowers once more before eventually assigning him and Alexa to the same room. They stepped in, stupefied at how everything looked clean as if they had already been expected: polished floors, modern furniture, the works.
“Archie will be staying in the room next door,” Billy specified, just a bit smug. “And the walls are thin.”
“Oh, good,” Edmund exclaimed. “Then we will hear when he calls our name.”
“I’m staying with Archie,” Charlie announced, already ushering the kid into the room.
“Wonderful!” Billy grinned. “Now, get settled and comfortable. You might be staying here for a long while.”
A long while translated to days in which Billy and Isabella did preparations that he couldn’t see, as the windows remained open and the doors unlocked. The odd feeling that they weren’t alone glissaded in his system, but he could neither prove it nor test it out as Alexa kept warning him of the same thing.
“Be careful. This is Iz’s and Janella’s house, passed on from their mother. We don’t want to be disrespectful.”
“Disrespecting an ancestral home is the last thing I have in mind, my love,” he crooned, then settled her over his lap. They had a hot and heavy makeout session that ended abruptly when the room began to grow cold, and suddenly he had an idea of what it was. “Ghost.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Anyway, I think it’s time to rest.”
“Seriously?” she asked, disbelief written all over her features despite allowing herself to be tugged in a lying position. “After getting me hot like that?”
“I’m sorry, my love. I promise I will make it up to you soon…oh.” His resolution ended with a grunt as she wriggled herself against him, pressed her back to his front, and proceeded to grind against him. His cock surged, a happy burst as his hips moved in instinctive time to her rhythm. Edmund bit his lip and stifled his groan, then let go when her hand found the zipper to his trousers and the bare contact wordlessly told him what she wanted.
As always, there was nothing Alexa asked for that he could refuse, so he lowered his trousers and lifted her shirt, a groan of approval coming out when he found her without underwear. One plunge and he was deep in her tightness. One thrust and she was moaning out before he covered her mouth and absorbed the rest of her sounds. He lifted her leg in search of a deeper angle, then pumped harder when he found one that she liked. He played with her tits and wished he could see them, then settled for kisses down the nape of her neck as she brushed against him. He read her body language and stifled cries until he found what he was looking for: that breathless gasp before she ground faster than usual, with no sense of rhythm but desperation that sought release.
“Easy, my love. I got you.”
He gripped her hips, locking her in place. He increased his pace and hit her pleasure spot repeatedly, then gritted his teeth when her back arched and her body trembled as she lost herself in her climax. When her muscles clamped around him repeatedly, only the most hardened man would have been able to resist, and Edmund knew he just wasn’t that man. So, he gave in and let go, too, the climax sweeping them in a mountain of bliss and ecstasy.
“That was…”
“The best. Always,” he finished, then kissed her shoulder and wrapped a blanket around them. “Sleep. Rest while this place is still peaceful.”
And while the haunting didn’t start yet. He didn’t mention that. He fell into sleep, too, but was jarred out of it sometime later, when he heard footsteps—as if a group of people was marching somewhere in the vicinity. Beside him, Alexa was fast asleep, and a peek at the room next showed Charlie and Archie also enjoying slumber.
Edmund tailed the sound, bracing for the army it must belong to as it got louder and louder. His system pumped at the nearness of discovery, and his instincts sharpened in preparation for the attack if that army wasn’t on his side. When it was so close, he leaped the corner and landed in what he calculated would be in front of the army.
Instead, he landed on nothing as the sound halted abruptly, leaving him in echoing silence. Then someone cleared his throat.
“It’s late. What are you doing jumping around in the house like some crazed ninja?”
He ogled Billy, who raised his brows. Then he glanced at Isabella, who was humming as she faced the window serenely and ignored them.
“I could say the same thing about you, minus the jumping around,” Edmund returned, straightening and marching over towards them without missing a beat. “What are we looking at?”
“Nothing that House can’t handle.”
Not even a second later, a figure appeared from outside, sending a chill down his spine. He stiffened. Two more figures followed it, faces recognizable as they approached and passed by the window that Isabella was standing at…and ignored her completely. When they returned to try to peer through the window, it registered that they couldn’t see her at all.
“I can’t see anything inside,” one of the Fae complained. “Why are we even here?”