The Sage Haze- Chapter Thirty-Four
Title: The Sage Haze
Author: Windseeker2305
Rating: R, NC-17(in later chaps)
Summery: An ongoing series focusing on a group of friends who would literally do anything for each other. Tony and Sheera have been best friends since almost birth and Tony's world is about to be turned upside down when Sheera's cousin Shane moves to town to attend Allmsted University and everyone's lives from then seem to get more complicated and little more thrilling.
Disclaimer: Characters within are of my own creation. Do not recreate or repost elsewhere without permission. M/M love and sexual situations as well as M/F love.
In this episode; Jared's paranoia is explained and Damien learns a bit about his lover's past.
The Sage Haze
Chapter Thirty-Four
“What’s going on, prick?”
Jared turned, his eyes meeting first Tony’s and then Caleb’s. He tried to look innocent. But apparently the two weren’t buying it. Tony reached forward to pull open Jared’s jacket in order to show off the holster holding two pistols.
“You don’t usually physically case places out. You usually visually peruse from one place.”
Caleb nodded. “And you never walk around with more than one Glock, dude. So you might as well tell us why you’ve got a fucking stick up your ass.”
“Where’s Damien?”
“In the kitchen with Shane, Mai, and Sheera,” answered Tony. “Now tell us what the fuck is up and should we be worried.”
“I didn’t want to come here. Told the old man it was a bad idea…” Jared muttered, continuing down the hall. He’d been going around, turning all the lights on and checking the rooms; every single bathroom and closet within every single room. He even checked lamps and light sockets, and Caleb realized he was checking for bugs and other stealthy surveillance equipment.
“What’s wrong with here?” Caleb asked.
“Nobody made you come,” Tony muttered.
“I don’t mind a ski trip, Tony. It’s the coming here part. Coming to a place that you’ve been coming to for years. It would be easy… to follow movements.”
“Jesus, dude. Tell us what’s up!”
“I’ve been looking for her. Damien’s mother. I need to take her out of the equation, only she’s a hard cunt to locate. I did, however, find and hack into her financial records…”
“And?”
“And she’s been spending a lot of money recently. Twenty grand here, twenty there, disappearing from her accounts. But I can’t follow the trail, which means she probably withdraws cash.”
“Still don’t understand.”
“If I were paying mercenaries, that’s what I’d do. Pay cash. Make it so nothing can come back to me… that’s how I’m usually paid.”
“Wait, you don’t think… you could be jumping to conclusions.”
Jared shook his head. “I think Damien did see her couple weeks back,” he said firmly. “She’s a slippery bitch with a grudge against the Shrods and unfortunately she has good contacts- she didn’t exactly come from a poor family, did she- which is why she’s able to stay off the radar, and why she was never charged with anything in regards to Damien.” Tony and Caleb remained silent after that, staring at him with hard expressions. “Nothing for you all to worry about. It doesn’t involve you.”
“Fuck that, dude!” Caleb burst out. “An attack on Damien in any form is an attack on all of us. I can understand why you wanted to keep this away from Damien, but you should have fucking told us,” he motioned between himself and Tony, “this shit before we left, man! We could have prepared too!”
Tony nodded. “Yeah, you should know better by now, Jared. One for all and all that bull shit.”
“Since middle school, man,” Caleb ended with a firm nod.
Jared growled in annoyance and moved away from them out of the last guest room to return downstairs. “Supposed to be keeping them out of trouble,” he muttered to himself, thinking Shrod was going to want to kill him.
“Guys!” Sheera called from somewhere down the hall. “The laced hot chocolate has been made!”
“We’re coming!” Caleb called back and then tugged on Tony’s jacket. “We should tell her. She’s going to get pissed when he shows.”
Jared, having heard Caleb, turned and smirked at them. “What good does it do to tell her now? She’s going to get pissed either way.”
“He’s right,” Tony said. “But if you want to tell her, go ahead. I’m not doing it. She should already realize… it’s not like we came right out and said it was a joke. She assumed Damien was joking.”
“When’s he coming anyway?”
“Tomorrow,” Jared answered.
SHSHSHSHSH
Damien was spread out across the bed on his side. His head held up by his hand as he watched the man who sat on the end of the bed. Jared had three guns sitting on the bed beside him and one in his hands and he was in the process of taking that one apart and cleaning it. His movements were meticulous and very well practiced, and Damien watched him in fascination.
“Tell me some more about this mentor of sorts,” he finally spoke after Jared had done with the first two pistols. He was ready to know exactly who Jared was. And he thought Jared should be ready to tell him. Should be able to trust him by now. “The one who takes traumatized kids and turns them into killing machines for their own gain.”
Jared paused in his motions, his shoulders visibly tensing. He turned to glance at Damien and saw nothing but open curiosity. Maybe even a bit of childish excitement, which was totally Damien and made Jared smile a little.
“I was born in Donegal with the name Declan Brennan,” he began, going back to servicing the last pistol as he spoke. “Once, I had a mother, father, a little brother and an older sister. My mother was pregnant as well when it happened…” He paused and as Damien pulled in a deep breath at the admissions, he saw Jared swallow thickly, his hands tightening around the gun in his lap. Damien pulled himself up until he was kneeling on the bed, staring at his lover’s haunted profile. Jared looked away from the Glock to stare at the wall straight across from him.
“I was seven when it happened. I was only seven years old when I received my first bullet wounds.” Jared laughed suddenly, and it was a derisive cold laugh. “The world is always talking about IRA attacks, about how we’re monsters, but they never speak of the terror Britain causes. Of their attacks on innocent people in our own country. Even before it happened, I’d heard of terrible things happening to the people of the Republic,” he went on, turning to look at Damien. “But I was only seven and didn’t completely understand until I’d lost them… There was a massive attack at a church gathering. Apparently MI5 had intel that said the gathering was a cover.” Jared shook his head. “Which was bullocks since half the people there were children, but the Brits didn’t care who they were attacking.
“I don’t remember much. All I do remember is running after my sister down the path behind the church. I remember the both of us laughing. Holly looked at me over her shoulder as we ran, smiling at me, telling me to hurry up and then… then the earth rocked under our feet. Next thing I know, my ears are bleeding; I can’t hear anything, but I can see my sister burning, her arm laying several feet away from her body. I could see her mouth open. She was screaming, but I couldn’t hear... Another explosion went off behind me, sending me flying. And another to the left. The church where the rest of my family was. And there were bullets flying all over the place.
“Woke up in the hospital two days later. In Northern Ireland. Bastards from Belfast were there. Started questioning me about my family’s association with the IRA. It was an interrogation that lasted several hours…”
“But you were only seven,” Damien whispered faintly, unable to stop himself from crawling forward and grabbing onto the back of Jared’s shoulders.
“They wouldn’t answer any of my questions. Wouldn’t tell me what happened to my family. But I learned soon enough. The moment I heard from one of the nurses I was being released to an orphanage… that’s how I found out I was the only survivor of my family.”
“Jared,” the blond whispered, tightening his hold and pressing his cheek against the man’s back.
Jared set aside his gun to grip the arms around his chest, rubbing his palm soothingly over Damien’s arm. “Wasn’t in the orphanage for long. It was maybe a week before he came along and took me out of there without any one ever knowing. That’s the day Declan Brennan disappeared off the face of the earth. That’s the day I became Jared Newton. After what happened to my family, it was easy for him to pray on my grief and guilt, and I did whatever he said, learned whatever he wanted me to. I was happy to join, because that would mean eventually, when I was fully trained, I would get revenge for what happened to my family and everyone else who had been killed. The innocent who didn’t deserve it.”
“What do you mean your guilt?”
“I felt guilty, having survived when the rest of my family didn’t. Since then I’ve come to realize it wasn’t my fault and there was a reason why I didn’t die that day… For ten years he secretly trained me,” Jared went on, needing to get on with the rest of the story. “For ten years I was an active member of the IRA. I trained a few people myself. My involvement died down a bit when I went to Uni. Majoring in business. He didn’t like that, but I was old enough to break his chains, and skilled enough to kill even him. I was mature enough to realize I wanted more in life. So now I work for your father. Now I’m mostly a mercenary. I do certain jobs on Shrod’s orders- I still don’t know how he discovered who I really was- and sometimes I’ll do the odd kill here and there for the old country…” Jared trailed off and leaned back against Damien, apparently no longer bothered by what they were discussing as the most painful part had been the beginning. “And I’ll be watching your back for the next fifty years.”
Damien, who had pressed his lips in comfort against Jared’s neck, smiled widely. “Who says I want your brutish ass watching my back for that long?”
Jared reached back, fingers sliding into his hair. “You haven’t a choice, princess.”
They were silent for a long time, sitting as they were. Damien rubbed his cheek against Jared’s shoulder, smiling when he thought of Jared’s birth name. “Declan,” he finally murmured. “I like bastard better.”
“Hmm…”
“What was it like, when your mentor took you away?”
“It was… still like living in an orphanage. Only it wasn’t only kids. It was an underground military barracks in England.” Jared laughed. “Right under their noses. That’s where the beginning of my training started. I started going to school in London, an elite school.”
“That explains why you can easily pass as one of us snobs. Why-”
Jared twisted around and gently pushed his lover onto his back before crawling over him. “The IRA has a number of ‘brits’ of high society right under MI5’s noses. I was just another they were training. It served me well in the end. As I was able to get the best education. I wouldn’t be where I am now if not for that.”
“Daddy says you’re a business genius,” Damien whispered.
“Exactly. I enjoy it as much as you.”
“Did you know Daddy’s gonna-” Damien broke off with a gasp when Jared’s hand slipped under his shirt and his lips skimmed over his jaw. “Jared, stop. I want to tell you-” he was interrupted again, but this time, instead of it being Jared, who was doing wonderful things with his lips, they both heard something thump against the wall behind the headboard of their bed. And then the one thump turned into many and Damien clearly heard Shane shout Tony’s name. He snickered. The walls weren’t exactly thin, so those two must be going at it crazy style.
“Why are we all in rooms right next to each other?” Jared murmured.
Damien snickered again while at the same time, unbuttoning Jared’s shirt. “So I can hear Shane own Tony.”
Jared shook his head, fingering the longish black and violet strands of his lover’s hair. It had been surprisingly easy to tell Damien of his past; the basics anyway. And Damien had reacted the exact way Jared had needed him to. To not make that big of a deal over what happened to him as a child. Jared had had years to get over the unnecessary killings of his family. And Damien had just accepted it without fuss. Which was lovely.
“Bastard, where’s my bracelet?” Damien demanded as he pushed Jared’s shirt off his shoulders.
Jared shook out of his thoughts and refocused on Damien’s frowning face. That frown was very petulant… and sexy. “Pardon?”
“My bracelet. The one Shane told you I wanted along with the wine, flowers, and chocolates.”
Jared suppressed a grin. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetheart.”
Damien flushed and melted a bit under him. “Yes, you do,” he replied softly, his hands sliding over those perfect shoulders.
“That would be spoiling you,” Jared murmured as he lowered to run his tongue along the side of Damien’s neck. “I have no intention of doing such a thing.”
“A bracelet like that would be the perfect accessory for seven of my outfits, Jared! I want it!”
Jared shifted until his lips were pressed against Damien’s ear. “I’ll give it to you,” he murmured roughly, and it was completely obvious he wasn’t talking about the bracelet.
SHSHSHSHSH
Sheera was the first up the next morning. “No surprise there,” she muttered to herself as she padded down to the kitchen in her nightgown and a thick fleece robe. No surprise since she’d heard what was going on around her. Three couples going at it long into the night. Sheera scowled as she flipped the switch that would turn the coffee maker on. Mai’s giggles still rang in her ears. Mai was a giggler when she and Caleb went at it. And fucking Shane was a screamer. She hadn’t heard Jared and Damien, but it was obvious they would have been fucking as well. She suddenly laughed quietly to herself at the thoughts. Not knowing why she was laughing, but suspected she did it because it was better than feeling sorry for herself.
Sheera left the kitchen with a full cup of black coffee cradled within her hands and walked into the living room, rounding the massive stone fireplace to sink down into one of the couches, staring into the fireplace and wondering if she should even bother to get it started. Halfway through her coffee, and when none of the boys seemed to be getting their lazy asses up so they could do it, she decided she might as well.
She’d only just set her mug on the coffee table and stood when she heard someone at the front door. Thinking it to be Shrod, she turned to face the door in order to give him a smile as he unlocked and pushed it open, only for her smile to freeze when it wasn’t Shrod that came in and started stamping his shoes on the small rug, trying to dislodge the snow off his boots.
“It wasn’t a joke,” she ground out.
Jake’s gaze snapped up from the floor when he heard her voice. They stood there silently staring at each other. Now, Jake had seen Sheera at her best and worst before after the many years of her working for him, but he’d never seen her like this, she thought in despair. Looking completely horrible with her hair down and still tussled from sleep; with nothing on but her nightgown and robe. Sheera was covered and yet she felt too exposed like this with her boss. Especially when Jake’s flat expression suddenly morphed and he clearly eyed her up and down.
He flashed her a grin. “Good to see you, Sheera.”
Sheera tried desperately to keep from blushing, but she suspected she failed on that. “I wish I could say the same,” she managed to hiss out before spinning and stomping away towards the stairs.
“That’s not how you’re supposed to greet people,” Jake called after her, a laugh in his tone. He wasn’t surprised when Sheera ignored him and continued up the stairs.
A moment later, Sheera’s voice suddenly broke the silence. “DAMIEN!!!”
Author: Windseeker2305
Rating: R, NC-17(in later chaps)
Summery: An ongoing series focusing on a group of friends who would literally do anything for each other. Tony and Sheera have been best friends since almost birth and Tony's world is about to be turned upside down when Sheera's cousin Shane moves to town to attend Allmsted University and everyone's lives from then seem to get more complicated and little more thrilling.
Disclaimer: Characters within are of my own creation. Do not recreate or repost elsewhere without permission. M/M love and sexual situations as well as M/F love.
In this episode; Jared's paranoia is explained and Damien learns a bit about his lover's past.
The Sage Haze
Chapter Thirty-Four
“What’s going on, prick?”
Jared turned, his eyes meeting first Tony’s and then Caleb’s. He tried to look innocent. But apparently the two weren’t buying it. Tony reached forward to pull open Jared’s jacket in order to show off the holster holding two pistols.
“You don’t usually physically case places out. You usually visually peruse from one place.”
Caleb nodded. “And you never walk around with more than one Glock, dude. So you might as well tell us why you’ve got a fucking stick up your ass.”
“Where’s Damien?”
“In the kitchen with Shane, Mai, and Sheera,” answered Tony. “Now tell us what the fuck is up and should we be worried.”
“I didn’t want to come here. Told the old man it was a bad idea…” Jared muttered, continuing down the hall. He’d been going around, turning all the lights on and checking the rooms; every single bathroom and closet within every single room. He even checked lamps and light sockets, and Caleb realized he was checking for bugs and other stealthy surveillance equipment.
“What’s wrong with here?” Caleb asked.
“Nobody made you come,” Tony muttered.
“I don’t mind a ski trip, Tony. It’s the coming here part. Coming to a place that you’ve been coming to for years. It would be easy… to follow movements.”
“Jesus, dude. Tell us what’s up!”
“I’ve been looking for her. Damien’s mother. I need to take her out of the equation, only she’s a hard cunt to locate. I did, however, find and hack into her financial records…”
“And?”
“And she’s been spending a lot of money recently. Twenty grand here, twenty there, disappearing from her accounts. But I can’t follow the trail, which means she probably withdraws cash.”
“Still don’t understand.”
“If I were paying mercenaries, that’s what I’d do. Pay cash. Make it so nothing can come back to me… that’s how I’m usually paid.”
“Wait, you don’t think… you could be jumping to conclusions.”
Jared shook his head. “I think Damien did see her couple weeks back,” he said firmly. “She’s a slippery bitch with a grudge against the Shrods and unfortunately she has good contacts- she didn’t exactly come from a poor family, did she- which is why she’s able to stay off the radar, and why she was never charged with anything in regards to Damien.” Tony and Caleb remained silent after that, staring at him with hard expressions. “Nothing for you all to worry about. It doesn’t involve you.”
“Fuck that, dude!” Caleb burst out. “An attack on Damien in any form is an attack on all of us. I can understand why you wanted to keep this away from Damien, but you should have fucking told us,” he motioned between himself and Tony, “this shit before we left, man! We could have prepared too!”
Tony nodded. “Yeah, you should know better by now, Jared. One for all and all that bull shit.”
“Since middle school, man,” Caleb ended with a firm nod.
Jared growled in annoyance and moved away from them out of the last guest room to return downstairs. “Supposed to be keeping them out of trouble,” he muttered to himself, thinking Shrod was going to want to kill him.
“Guys!” Sheera called from somewhere down the hall. “The laced hot chocolate has been made!”
“We’re coming!” Caleb called back and then tugged on Tony’s jacket. “We should tell her. She’s going to get pissed when he shows.”
Jared, having heard Caleb, turned and smirked at them. “What good does it do to tell her now? She’s going to get pissed either way.”
“He’s right,” Tony said. “But if you want to tell her, go ahead. I’m not doing it. She should already realize… it’s not like we came right out and said it was a joke. She assumed Damien was joking.”
“When’s he coming anyway?”
“Tomorrow,” Jared answered.
SHSHSHSHSH
Damien was spread out across the bed on his side. His head held up by his hand as he watched the man who sat on the end of the bed. Jared had three guns sitting on the bed beside him and one in his hands and he was in the process of taking that one apart and cleaning it. His movements were meticulous and very well practiced, and Damien watched him in fascination.
“Tell me some more about this mentor of sorts,” he finally spoke after Jared had done with the first two pistols. He was ready to know exactly who Jared was. And he thought Jared should be ready to tell him. Should be able to trust him by now. “The one who takes traumatized kids and turns them into killing machines for their own gain.”
Jared paused in his motions, his shoulders visibly tensing. He turned to glance at Damien and saw nothing but open curiosity. Maybe even a bit of childish excitement, which was totally Damien and made Jared smile a little.
“I was born in Donegal with the name Declan Brennan,” he began, going back to servicing the last pistol as he spoke. “Once, I had a mother, father, a little brother and an older sister. My mother was pregnant as well when it happened…” He paused and as Damien pulled in a deep breath at the admissions, he saw Jared swallow thickly, his hands tightening around the gun in his lap. Damien pulled himself up until he was kneeling on the bed, staring at his lover’s haunted profile. Jared looked away from the Glock to stare at the wall straight across from him.
“I was seven when it happened. I was only seven years old when I received my first bullet wounds.” Jared laughed suddenly, and it was a derisive cold laugh. “The world is always talking about IRA attacks, about how we’re monsters, but they never speak of the terror Britain causes. Of their attacks on innocent people in our own country. Even before it happened, I’d heard of terrible things happening to the people of the Republic,” he went on, turning to look at Damien. “But I was only seven and didn’t completely understand until I’d lost them… There was a massive attack at a church gathering. Apparently MI5 had intel that said the gathering was a cover.” Jared shook his head. “Which was bullocks since half the people there were children, but the Brits didn’t care who they were attacking.
“I don’t remember much. All I do remember is running after my sister down the path behind the church. I remember the both of us laughing. Holly looked at me over her shoulder as we ran, smiling at me, telling me to hurry up and then… then the earth rocked under our feet. Next thing I know, my ears are bleeding; I can’t hear anything, but I can see my sister burning, her arm laying several feet away from her body. I could see her mouth open. She was screaming, but I couldn’t hear... Another explosion went off behind me, sending me flying. And another to the left. The church where the rest of my family was. And there were bullets flying all over the place.
“Woke up in the hospital two days later. In Northern Ireland. Bastards from Belfast were there. Started questioning me about my family’s association with the IRA. It was an interrogation that lasted several hours…”
“But you were only seven,” Damien whispered faintly, unable to stop himself from crawling forward and grabbing onto the back of Jared’s shoulders.
“They wouldn’t answer any of my questions. Wouldn’t tell me what happened to my family. But I learned soon enough. The moment I heard from one of the nurses I was being released to an orphanage… that’s how I found out I was the only survivor of my family.”
“Jared,” the blond whispered, tightening his hold and pressing his cheek against the man’s back.
Jared set aside his gun to grip the arms around his chest, rubbing his palm soothingly over Damien’s arm. “Wasn’t in the orphanage for long. It was maybe a week before he came along and took me out of there without any one ever knowing. That’s the day Declan Brennan disappeared off the face of the earth. That’s the day I became Jared Newton. After what happened to my family, it was easy for him to pray on my grief and guilt, and I did whatever he said, learned whatever he wanted me to. I was happy to join, because that would mean eventually, when I was fully trained, I would get revenge for what happened to my family and everyone else who had been killed. The innocent who didn’t deserve it.”
“What do you mean your guilt?”
“I felt guilty, having survived when the rest of my family didn’t. Since then I’ve come to realize it wasn’t my fault and there was a reason why I didn’t die that day… For ten years he secretly trained me,” Jared went on, needing to get on with the rest of the story. “For ten years I was an active member of the IRA. I trained a few people myself. My involvement died down a bit when I went to Uni. Majoring in business. He didn’t like that, but I was old enough to break his chains, and skilled enough to kill even him. I was mature enough to realize I wanted more in life. So now I work for your father. Now I’m mostly a mercenary. I do certain jobs on Shrod’s orders- I still don’t know how he discovered who I really was- and sometimes I’ll do the odd kill here and there for the old country…” Jared trailed off and leaned back against Damien, apparently no longer bothered by what they were discussing as the most painful part had been the beginning. “And I’ll be watching your back for the next fifty years.”
Damien, who had pressed his lips in comfort against Jared’s neck, smiled widely. “Who says I want your brutish ass watching my back for that long?”
Jared reached back, fingers sliding into his hair. “You haven’t a choice, princess.”
They were silent for a long time, sitting as they were. Damien rubbed his cheek against Jared’s shoulder, smiling when he thought of Jared’s birth name. “Declan,” he finally murmured. “I like bastard better.”
“Hmm…”
“What was it like, when your mentor took you away?”
“It was… still like living in an orphanage. Only it wasn’t only kids. It was an underground military barracks in England.” Jared laughed. “Right under their noses. That’s where the beginning of my training started. I started going to school in London, an elite school.”
“That explains why you can easily pass as one of us snobs. Why-”
Jared twisted around and gently pushed his lover onto his back before crawling over him. “The IRA has a number of ‘brits’ of high society right under MI5’s noses. I was just another they were training. It served me well in the end. As I was able to get the best education. I wouldn’t be where I am now if not for that.”
“Daddy says you’re a business genius,” Damien whispered.
“Exactly. I enjoy it as much as you.”
“Did you know Daddy’s gonna-” Damien broke off with a gasp when Jared’s hand slipped under his shirt and his lips skimmed over his jaw. “Jared, stop. I want to tell you-” he was interrupted again, but this time, instead of it being Jared, who was doing wonderful things with his lips, they both heard something thump against the wall behind the headboard of their bed. And then the one thump turned into many and Damien clearly heard Shane shout Tony’s name. He snickered. The walls weren’t exactly thin, so those two must be going at it crazy style.
“Why are we all in rooms right next to each other?” Jared murmured.
Damien snickered again while at the same time, unbuttoning Jared’s shirt. “So I can hear Shane own Tony.”
Jared shook his head, fingering the longish black and violet strands of his lover’s hair. It had been surprisingly easy to tell Damien of his past; the basics anyway. And Damien had reacted the exact way Jared had needed him to. To not make that big of a deal over what happened to him as a child. Jared had had years to get over the unnecessary killings of his family. And Damien had just accepted it without fuss. Which was lovely.
“Bastard, where’s my bracelet?” Damien demanded as he pushed Jared’s shirt off his shoulders.
Jared shook out of his thoughts and refocused on Damien’s frowning face. That frown was very petulant… and sexy. “Pardon?”
“My bracelet. The one Shane told you I wanted along with the wine, flowers, and chocolates.”
Jared suppressed a grin. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetheart.”
Damien flushed and melted a bit under him. “Yes, you do,” he replied softly, his hands sliding over those perfect shoulders.
“That would be spoiling you,” Jared murmured as he lowered to run his tongue along the side of Damien’s neck. “I have no intention of doing such a thing.”
“A bracelet like that would be the perfect accessory for seven of my outfits, Jared! I want it!”
Jared shifted until his lips were pressed against Damien’s ear. “I’ll give it to you,” he murmured roughly, and it was completely obvious he wasn’t talking about the bracelet.
SHSHSHSHSH
Sheera was the first up the next morning. “No surprise there,” she muttered to herself as she padded down to the kitchen in her nightgown and a thick fleece robe. No surprise since she’d heard what was going on around her. Three couples going at it long into the night. Sheera scowled as she flipped the switch that would turn the coffee maker on. Mai’s giggles still rang in her ears. Mai was a giggler when she and Caleb went at it. And fucking Shane was a screamer. She hadn’t heard Jared and Damien, but it was obvious they would have been fucking as well. She suddenly laughed quietly to herself at the thoughts. Not knowing why she was laughing, but suspected she did it because it was better than feeling sorry for herself.
Sheera left the kitchen with a full cup of black coffee cradled within her hands and walked into the living room, rounding the massive stone fireplace to sink down into one of the couches, staring into the fireplace and wondering if she should even bother to get it started. Halfway through her coffee, and when none of the boys seemed to be getting their lazy asses up so they could do it, she decided she might as well.
She’d only just set her mug on the coffee table and stood when she heard someone at the front door. Thinking it to be Shrod, she turned to face the door in order to give him a smile as he unlocked and pushed it open, only for her smile to freeze when it wasn’t Shrod that came in and started stamping his shoes on the small rug, trying to dislodge the snow off his boots.
“It wasn’t a joke,” she ground out.
Jake’s gaze snapped up from the floor when he heard her voice. They stood there silently staring at each other. Now, Jake had seen Sheera at her best and worst before after the many years of her working for him, but he’d never seen her like this, she thought in despair. Looking completely horrible with her hair down and still tussled from sleep; with nothing on but her nightgown and robe. Sheera was covered and yet she felt too exposed like this with her boss. Especially when Jake’s flat expression suddenly morphed and he clearly eyed her up and down.
He flashed her a grin. “Good to see you, Sheera.”
Sheera tried desperately to keep from blushing, but she suspected she failed on that. “I wish I could say the same,” she managed to hiss out before spinning and stomping away towards the stairs.
“That’s not how you’re supposed to greet people,” Jake called after her, a laugh in his tone. He wasn’t surprised when Sheera ignored him and continued up the stairs.
A moment later, Sheera’s voice suddenly broke the silence. “DAMIEN!!!”