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Grace laughs, but there’s the slightest edge to it. Nerves. That’s not like her. What could she possibly be nervous about?
“Humor me. I don’t even believe in any of that stuff myself, but my mom messes around with crystals, and I just… I worry about you. That’s black tourmaline. Good for protection, apparently. And it looks nice, so no harm, right?”
I blink. “What… exactly do you think I need protection from?”
She takes hold of my arm, just above my elbow, and gives it a gentle squeeze. “Just be careful. I know… look, Iknowyou hate me saying it, but something about those boys of yours doesn’t sit right with me. You’re still seeing them, yeah?”
“Yes,” I admit.
“Something gives me a bad feeling. Humor me and wear it, okay.”
I smile, hoping it doesn’t look as tight and fake as it feels. The conversation, any conversation like this, tightens something in my chest and gets me weirdly defensive over Elias and Caelan. “Sure, if it’ll make you feel better.”
As if a crystal necklace could protect me from any demons, even if Ididneed protecting from them.
To appease her, I wear it for the day. But that she doesn’t trust me, doesn’t trust my trust in them, leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Before bed, I take the pendant off, tossing it into my jewelry box to be forgotten.
ChapterSeventeen
As busy as things are with work and the next semester starting, the time goes quickly.
Yet as busy as I am, there isn’t a day that goes by without me thinking of them.
There isn’t a day that goes by without us talking either, sometimes through calls, other times only by text. But the chance to meet them again in person doesn’t come up until several weeks into the new year.
There’s first the issue of where to meet. It’s a trek for me to go up to LA every time I want to see them and doing so would leave simple evening visits completely implausible. Besides, what’s even the point of me making the journey when they’re the ones who can travel wherever they like through the gap between dimensions?
So, I invite them to my home.
It’s not much, and it’s a far cry from the fancy hotels Elias has taken us to before. A very far cry.
All I have is a mediocre studio apartment. Not even a separate bedroom, just a tiny bathroom and one room for everything else—bed, wardrobe, desk, television, and a small counter with a sink, microwave, and minifridge that serves as a pathetic excuse for a kitchen. But it’s my own space, and I don’t have to share it with any roommates, which is a significant step up from my first few years at college.
Even though I spent an unnecessary amount of time tidying up beforehand, my heart is fluttering, and I’m still embarrassed I live here. It is so far beneath Elias’ standards.
His eyes narrow, and he frowns when I first show them in, but he never makes me feel ashamed. He’s only angry on my behalf. “How much are they making you pay for this? You deserve far more for how hard you work.”
Trying to explain that’s just how prices and wages balance out doesn’t seem to help, and it takes a lot of reassurances and insistence that,yes, I’m serious, to talk the two of them out of speaking to the manager of the apartment complex. I don’t entirely know how they intended to ‘renegotiate my contract’ for me, but I’m certain it would have involved a significant number of threats.
Oddly, though, this sets me at ease. Their care is incredibly flattering, even if their methods are questionable.
At the end of the day, it is what it is, and it’s surreal, in a way, to have them in my room. Elias and Caelan, actually there. Caelan is sitting against the edge of my desk and messing up the papers and notes I’d just carefully piled, and Elias reclines on my bed because I don’t have room for a sofa. Aside from the shitty computer chair I’ve draped myself over, there’s nowhere else to sit.
They look so out of place. Powerful and gorgeous, with enough presence to bring me to my knees, constrained in such a mediocre setting. It brings back a pang of my old insecurities for a moment.
Who the hell am I to drag them down to my level?
Still, I forget all about that the first time they lay me down and fuck me in my own bed, hard enough to make the headboard slam back against the wall.
* * *
Itiseasier for them to make the time to visit me more often if they come separately sometimes. There’s hardly room for me in my apartment, never mind both of them as well, so it works out. I stay in with Caelan more often. He’s less busy and gets bored without company when Elias is working. Nights in with pizza, popcorn, and a movie, sprawled against each other on the bed, become a near-weekly occurrence.
Elias is still more inclined to take me out, though I adamantly refuse to allow him to treat me to expensive restaurants constantly. Even if he says money is no concern, I still feel guilty. Instead, I introduce him to my local coffee shop.
It’s not far, only a block from where I live, and open twenty-four-seven. Sometimes, it becomes almost like a second home when I have a lot of work to do and end up staying there until two or three in the morning. That suits me just fine since late in the evening is the only time I have free to spend with Elias and Caelan.
