Three Rings and a Rose (21 page)

Stepping forward, Maddie extended her hand to Caedon, and they shook hands. Then she did the same to Micah. “Yes I do,” she replied politely. “It’s nice to meet you, Caedon. And Micah, it is lovely to see you again.”

Caedon nodded.

“Likewise,” Micah said.

Unable to help herself, Ella ribbed them. “I thought you two were leaving.” She winked at the men so they’d realize she’d been teasing.

“They can stay,” Maddie offered. But all of the girls around her gave her the evil eye and growled. “All right, maybe you can’t.”
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Caedon snorted. “I know when I’m not wanted.”

“Since when?” Micah asked with a straight face but a distinct teasing undertone was present.

Flipping Micah off, Caedon ignored him. He stalked over to Ella.

Then with a thorough kiss, he murmured, “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Oh no,” Ella groaned. “I have plans. I’ll see you tomorrow, though.”

Micah’s face turned ten shades of red, and Ella knew the reason.

Immediately feeling horrid, she explained the truth that she should have shared long ago. “I’m going to Luscious to see Tate…like I do every Friday night.”

Instead of calming down like she’d expected he would, Micah charged over to her and grabbed a chunk of her hair. Pulling harshly, he ground out, “Mine,” then crushed his lips to hers. He kissed her with more pent-up possessiveness than she’d known a person could possess. In a single aggressive invasion of his tongue, he demanded her surrender to his will. And she gave it to him freely. But as soon as she did, he released her. She nearly fell, but he was there to catch her—as always.

“Fuck a damn duck,” Shannon grumbled. “I need a cold bath now.”

Ella rolled her eyes. “Not likely. You have three husbands who are ready, willing, and able twenty-four hours a day.”

“Shit,” Shannon cursed. “Those three love every second of it and beg for more when I’m done with them.”

“On that note, I’m out of here,” Caedon announced then hauled ass out the door, his laughter trailing behind him. A second later, Micah hit the road, following closely behind Caedon. Before the front door bell rang to indicate their exit, Shannon demanded, “Spill!”
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Strolling out the front door of The G Spot with Micah, Caedon’s jitters nearly got the best of him. After spending the last half hour with Ella, he’d been calm, cool, and collected—mostly. But now that he had to face Micah with a huge confession, he felt overwhelmed and borderline freaked the fuck out.

As they stepped out into the midday sun, Micah asked, “Do you have any plans for this afternoon and evening? Obviously the two of us are on our own.”

Caedon liked the sound of that. He liked it a lot. “Yeah, it seems like it,” he replied with a smile he couldn’t hold back. “Actually, I have something I want to show you.”

Micah arched his eyebrow. “Really?”

Caedon cleared his throat. “I bought something for the three of us, and I want to see what you think.”

“Okay. We can do that,” Micah said. Placing his hand on Caedon’s back, he guided him toward his car.

Caedon figured Micah wasn’t aware of what he was doing, but he had no intention of calling a halt to his touch. It felt too good, too right for him to say a word. All he wanted to do was luxuriate in the feel of the man he loved. So he did.

Reaching that car, Micah unlocked the car with his key then let Caedon inside. “Shotgun,” Caedon joked. But before he could get into the car, Leila appeared from thin air.

“Hi Caedon,” she purred. “Fancy meeting you here.” Caedon felt like cursing. He wanted to be polite because it was the nice thing to do. With Caedon moving to Serenity, he preferred not to
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piss people off. But this woman tested his resolve whenever he came into contact with her. That was saying something considering he’d only talked to her twice. However, after all he’d heard about her from Micah and Ella and what he’d seen of her, he didn’t trust the woman as far as he could throw her.

Nodding his head, Caedon forced a smile to his face. “Yeah, we were just visiting with Ella.”

“How lovely,” she said breathlessly. “Spending time with old friends is always such a delightful treat.”

“It is,” Caedon replied, “especially when the old friends find their way back together.”

Leila’s face pinched for a second before she evened it out. “But old friends are in the past for a reason.” Placing a hand on his chest, she fondled his pectoral muscle. “I’ve learned that new friends are far more pleasurable.”

Caedon glowered at her hand, silently demanding that she remove the offending appendage. However, luck wasn’t on his side. Before she extricated her hand, the noise of a camera clicking quickly sounded around him, and he groaned.
Fucking stalk-a-razzi.

Pushing her hand away, Caedon searched the area for whoever had taken the picture, but he found no one. Without another word to Leila, he hopped into the car and buckled up. Getting as comfortable as an irate man could be, he watched Micah say something to Leila then jog around the other side and get in.

A minute later, the car was running, and they were pulling onto the road. Giving Micah directions, Caedon sat back in stone-cold silence. He couldn’t think of anything to say. The nerves eating at him and the fury consuming him were too much for his brain to handle.

He needed a moment to contain himself, to calm down.

Micah seemed to read him well. He didn’t push Caedon to speak, which he was grateful for. Before long, they pulled up in front of an abandoned house, and Micah gasped. “A house? You bought
a
house?
”

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Caedon chuckled. He couldn’t help it. In spite of everything, Micah’s befuddled state amused Caedon. He couldn’t remember ever seeing the man so flabbergasted, and he’d been the one to do it. That alone made him insanely, disgustingly happy. Focusing on his joy rather than what had just happened, he said, “Yes, I bought us a house. We need somewhere to live
together.
” Cocking his head to the side, Micah seemed to be curious about something, but didn’t want to ask. Caedon worried that he’d messed up or overstepped his bounds. He’d not meant for this to be an extravagant gift. He wanted the house to be a beginning. In fact, he’d chosen a well-built fixer-upper on purpose.

“Just ask, Micah.”

Micah probed Caedon with his eyes, and Caedon shifted uncomfortably. “You have more money than you know what to do with yet you chose a house that is in serious need of attention. Why?” Caedon smiled knowingly. Micah wouldn’t care about the price tag, but he probably couldn’t understand why Caedon wouldn’t.

Unfortunately, Caedon had perpetuated the arrogant snob persona too well. Now he had to explain his decision which frustrated him. But he sucked it up and did it. “Because I want us to do this together…for Ella and for ourselves.”

Micah’s eyes lit up and a wide smile spread across his face. The joy Caedon saw made his heart nearly burst with his own excitement.

He’d been right about this decision.
Thank God.
“Caedon, I can’t believe you did this. I love y—” He seemed to choke on his words, falling into a fit of coughs before finishing with, “it.” Excitement pounded through Caedon’s veins. He could’ve sworn Micah was about to say that he loved him. When he didn’t, Caedon cursed inwardly.
I’m just crazy. Hallucinations are taking control of
my brain.

“I’m glad,” Caedon finally clipped out around the lump clogging his throat. Abruptly, he opened the car door then got out and mounted
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the stairs. He unlocked the door then opened it wide. “Come in and see.”

Micah did. He followed Caedon as they made their way through the entire house from the bottom of the dusty basement to the top of the creepy attic. They looked at everything in tense silence. Returning to the wide, open living room, Micah finally spoke again, firing off questions. Answering them as quickly as he heard them, Caedon found a smile forming on his face. He’d missed the curious side of his writer.

It only took a few minutes for Micah to get to the question that Caedon wanted to discuss most. “Are you going to hire someone to fix it up?”

Caedon shook his head. “No, we’re going to do it together.”

“What?” Micah gasped. “We don’t know anything about fixing a house.”

“And so?” Caedon asked, frowning. “If anyone can do it, we can.

It’ll be a bonding experience, and Ella will love it when we surprise her.”

Micah chuckled. “She’ll love it if we don’t burn the house to the ground beforehand.”

“We won’t,” Caedon told Micah. “I have faith in us.” His words held a wealth of meaning. It was a meaning they didn’t discuss. The words just lingered in the air. Shifting uncomfortably, Caedon sighed.

“When do we start?”

“How about now?” Caedon asked. Walking away from Micah, he strolled into the kitchen and retrieved a couple of brooms from the storage closet he’d stocked last night. After Micah and Ella had gone to bed, he’d snuck in a trip to Garrett’s Groceries with Brooklyn and Addy then a quick jaunt over here. “Technically, I don’t own the place yet, but I talked to the realtor early this morning. She said that since I am paying cash, the paperwork would be pushed through quickly. So by this time next week, it’ll be ours.”
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Micah furrowed his brow. “How the hell did you find it already?

You have only been here a couple of days.”
Oh boy. Truth time.
“Well, I called my real estate agent from the plane before liftoff. I figured that a house is a good investment, and I didn’t plan to leave without you two by my side. So it made sense to just buy one. Then when I got here, Brooklyn drove me and Addy into town. We passed this house on the way, and I asked them to stop to look at it. I fell in love with it immediately, and I hoped you both would too.”

Walking over, Micah slapped him on the back. “You did a damn good job. I love it, but I know that Ella is going to die over it.” Caedon beamed. “I know.”

“Well, let’s get to work. It looks like we have a lot to get done, but I’m more than ready if you are.”

“I’ve never been more ready in my life,” Caedon whispered with a secret smile.
Never.

* * * *

Raising her legs, Ella propped her bare feet on the coffee table in front of her, careful not to knock over the coasters and drinks scattered around the glass top. She laughed boisterously as she watched her two heavily pregnant pals prance around the makeshift runway in the middle of her store. The brightly colored blankets Shannon had brought were not exactly the same as an elevated, high gloss catwalk like Ella was used to, but it worked just fine. Not to mention, they matched the plain overhead lighting and inexpensive boombox flawlessly. No flashy flood lights or showy sound systems for them.
Thank God.

Ella didn’t miss the fussy fashion shows. She hadn’t exactly relished the pounding music that inevitably gave her a headache. And the lights were a pain in the ass. They’d blinded her more often than not. She didn’t even want to reminisce about the clothes she always
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feared destroying in one way or another. Looking back, she’d hated the career she’d fallen into by accident. She just hadn’t realized it until after she’d left it behind. This kind of playful fashion show was more to her liking.

“I don’t understand why in the hell we’re doing this,” Ella announced between giggles, “but Maddie, you’re a fucking genius. If I weren’t a taken woman, and you had a horse-size dick, I would kiss you—tongue and all.”

Next to Ella, Maddie merely smiled. “If you change your mind and want to try walking on the woman side with me, you have my number, chickadee.”

“Yeah, I have your number memorized, sugar,” Ella joked then elbowed Maddie. “1-800-my-pussy-is-prettier-than-yours.” Not seeming fazed by Ella’s ribbing about her notorious cat lady ways, Maddie laughed. “My pussy
is
prettier than all of yours.” Katie-Anne sniffed indignantly as she lowered herself into the oversized lawn chair that Shannon had also brought with her. “I have two men willing to argue with you about that remark, Maddie.” Jaycee snorted then dropped down into the lawn chair next to her.

“Yeah, well, so do I.”

With a smug grin, Shannon exclaimed, “Ha! I have three men. I win.”

“Yes you do,” Maddie agreed as she stared off in space at some unknown thing. “Three is pretty fucking hot. Where do I sign up?” Ella shook her head. “I’d be careful what I wished for, Maddie.

There’s something in the water.”

Rolling her eyes, Maddie snatched her giant bottle of water off the table and waved it in the air then took a dramatic swig of it. “That’s why I brought along a two-week supply of Voss. I won’t even brush my teeth with the tap water in this town.”

“Speaking of something in the water…” Shannon trailed off with a grin wide enough to make Ella squirm in her seat. “
Someone
never shared their dirty little secrets with us.”
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Four pairs of eyes zoomed in on her, and she really did squirm.

Shifting in her seat, she felt herself flush. She had changed the subject on purpose after her men had left.
Looks like I didn’t do a good
enough job. Think, think, think. Damn, I’m turning into Winnie the
Pooh!