Page 8 of The Magic of Discovery
Kai: I can’t wait. See you at two.
Feeling like a sixteen-year-old girl, I set my phone down on my nightstand and trailed my fingers along Maven’s fur for a few moments before I made my way to the master bathroom. While I went through my bedtime routine, I couldn’t stop grinning to myself and hoping that these guys could be new friends...and Kai might be a little more?
“Ilove eggs, I love toast, I love bacon, but I love Fish’s mom the most. Rise and shine, my sleepy friends, I don’t wanna hear Sloane bitch and moan. We’re here in Emerald Lakes, get up bitch, I made pancakes!” I bellowed out my improvised song as I ran from room to room slapping all of their lazy asses with my spatula. Ignoring the groaning and cuss words, I danced back out to the kitchen.
Breakfast cooked, yoga done, shower time. Crushing it. I flexed my right arm and mentally high fived myself. Running a hand through my dark hair to swipe it back and out of my eyes, I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower to heat up.
I had just stepped under the stream of hot water when I heard the door open. Cam called out, “Sorry, bro. Fish is in the other one, and I have to piss like a racehorse.”
“That’s fine, but don’t you dare shit while I’m in the shower. Not. Cool,” I said sternly, receiving a deep chuckle in reply from the other side of the shower curtain. I got to work washing my body and asked, “Did Sloane come out yet?”
“I heard some movement coming from that room, but I haven’t seen him yet.” Cam put the toilet seat down, and a moment later, the sound of running water filtered through the bathroom as he washed his hands.
An icy spray poured from the showerhead, I yelped and jumped back as Cam’s laughter and choked apology echoed throughout the room.
“Brooooo, my nuts just abandoned their happy dangly nest and moved into my stomach!”
“I’m sorry, dude. I didn’t realize that would happen. I thought that was like a myth or something.”
Myth, my ass. “Let’s go over the plan for the day during breakfast. Everything is cooked, and I’ll be out in a few.” The door clicked closed, and I finished rinsing off in the now lukewarm water.
Stepping out onto the soft yellow bath mat, I grabbed my towel from the hook next to the shower and roughly rubbed it over my head, soaking up most of the water before quickly wiping the rest of myself dry and securing the towel around my hips. I mindlessly went through the motions of getting ready, a routine I’d gotten down to about three minutes. Spy life will quickly make you into a time-efficient machine. All the while, long red hair, green eyes, and an ass that wouldn’t quit kept cycling through my brain in rapid fire flashes. Just as my dick started to respond, a loud voice from right outside of the door yelled, “Quit jacking off and get your ass out here, K.”
That grumpy fucker.
“I was just thinking about you, Sloaney baby. You know I can’t stop once that happens,” I called out as I pulled the door open so fast that Sloane fell through the doorframe and right into me. I laughed as he pushed me back into the bathroom, the smile on his face letting me know he wasn’t really upset. The grump only ever smiled around us, and we’d been a part of each other’s lives for so long now that I knew him nearly as well as I knew myself.
I wrapped my arms around his waist, returning his smile. Sloane leaned in and whispered, “Are you hungry, K?”
His face was so close to mine that our lips were damn near touching, our breath mingling. I swallowed roughly, the air suddenly feeling turbocharged.Damn this libido!
“Starving,”I breathed.
Sloane’s hand dropped down to rest on my ass before he roughly gripped me, pulling me into his body. “Good,” he said softly, but there was nothing soft about the hardness pressed against me, or his personality. “Because some cheery asshole made breakfast.”
His grip tightened briefly, and I struggled to contain the groan that wanted to come out of my throat before he released me and headed to the kitchen. It had been a while since we had fucked around.
Adjusting the towel, I sped into my room to get dressed. My dick was rock hard after that shit with Sloane, and I had every intention of dropping my towel and rubbing one out. Then I heard the voices of my friends and the clanging of plates and silverware.I always make them amazing meals, and they don’t even have the decency to wait on the fucking chef? You never take another man’s kill; the hunter gets the first bite!
Those bitches are not going to start eating without me.Rolling my shoulders back, I commanded my cock,wilt, you beautiful steel sculpture. There’s no time for shenanigans.It didn’t work. Rifling around in my dresser, I snatched some gray sweats and stepped into them. Sloane’s voice carried into my room, saying something about delicious pancakes that sank my boner like it’d been hit with an enemy torpedo. Pulling the door open, a feline growl rumbled out of my chest, the sound easy to hear despite the guys’ laughter.
“Chill, K. We’re waiting. You know we love how you take care of your pack,” Cam cooed when I stalked into the dining room, my eyes flashing yellow.
Storming over to the plate of pancakes, I stacked three of them up and ripped a huge bite out of them as I flopped down into a chair. Now that I’d had first dibs, my body calmed, so I nodded to signal the rest of the idiots could go ahead.
My thoughts drifted once again to Saige, the way she effortlessly bantered and flirted with me through text, how she made me smile. Something told me that she would be different from any other witch we’d ever met, and I couldn’t wait until the guys figured out that she’d be coming to hang out with us today.Gods, I really am so damn smart sometimes. Most of the time. Yeah.
* * *
“What arewe going with for a cover story, Cam?” Fischer asked as he carried the plates to the sink.
“Last night I was checking out properties in Kingstown since that’s where Larson got stopped by that revulsion spell. There’s a warehouse there that has been vacant for about a year. If they ask, we can tell the townspeople here that we’re from Radical, and we were sent on a scouting mission for a possible business expansion. It’s believable because Rad did just acquire that mega complex in Texas. We can say we wanted to stay here because we didn’t want to deal with seeing any competing firms or giving away that we’re looking at the property.” As he talked, Cam scrolled through his phone, handing it to me after he’d pulled up the listing.
Joining us at the table, Fish grabbed the phone next, Sloane leaning forward to also take a look. “Yeah, I think that’s about as solid as it’s going to get, and the excuse of corporate secrecy might deter people from prying too much,” I agreed.
“Sounds like a plan. We should reach out to the listing agent just to cover all bases,” Sloane chimed in. “Send me the link to this, and I’ll give the dude a call later this evening.”
“This town is like Sleepy Hollow. It’s a great place to hide anything. Why would anyone think to look here? The population is what? A thousand? Fifteen hundred?” Fischer spun a pen between his fingers, his eyes locked on it despite his focus wholly being on us. The man wasalwaysfidgeting. Being a cognitive mage, he had the ability to feel what everyone around him was feeling, and getting a glimpse into others’ heads wasn’t always the best for his own.
