I consider the question as he leans back and hooks his arm around my neck. It gives my roaming hands access to his perfect chest, and I dig between his buttons, tweaking a pert nipple. “Both,” I finally reply. “Tell me where it hurts and I’ll kiss it better.”
He hums at the heated promise, but then collapses back against me with a sigh. “Logan and Lily are locked in her room. Ellis isn’t taking it very well. He’s down in the gym, pounding the treadmill through the floor.”
I wince, because Ellis’ way of dealing with trauma is usually to make his body break, one tortured muscle group at a time. “I’ll go down and talk to him.”
“Not yet,” he pleads, squirming around so he can face me. “Do you really think Lily will leave us?”
I sigh. “I think she might need a break, sweetheart.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he whispers, his hazel eyes shadowed. “I think maybe this has broken us.”
It’s a fear that aligns with my own, but I can’t bear seeing my beautiful boy so hurt. “Ithink she’s already half in love with you. She’s acting on instinct right now, but when the dust settles, she’ll need you. Same way Ellis and I can’t live without you.”
He melts against me, the beginning of a smile returning to his face. He bites his lip and looks up at me through his lashes,exactly how he knows I like it. “I smelled all three of you in her trailer. Talk about a headrush. I nearly came on the spot.”
I grunt and reach down, squeezing his thickening cock through his jeans. “You better let me take you to bed, or you’ll be coming on this spot, too.”
Tristan smirks at my lewd prediction, but hops happily off my lap, gripping my hand all the way to the door. We’re on the landing outside my bedroom when Ellis strides up the stairs, a towel around his neck and his bare chest gleaming with sweat.
“I’m going to LA,” he says with a combative gleam in his eye. “I’m going to do a press conference.”
I wrap my arm around Tristan’s neck and cock a brow at Ellis’ flushed face. “In the middle of the night?”
“I can be there in time for the morning news cycle.”
And avoid Lily’s devastated face over the breakfast table, although I don’t say that out loud.
“Okay, but I think you should give it a couple of hours,” I say carefully. “Becca is putting together some strategies for us.”
“I don’t want this thing blowing up any more than it has,” Ellis argues, gripping his hips so tight I can see the white of his knuckles. “I need to shut it down before Leo gets hurt. As for Lily…” He rubs the back of his neck, exhaustion and regret etched into his face. “Everything we have, all the things I can offer, and I’ve still made things worse for her.”
Tristan glances up at me, looking helpless, but this isn’t the time for hollow reassurances. I have no idea how Lily is going to react to this in the long run, but I know for certain that Ellis isn’t going to come out of this unscathed.
“At least let Becca meet you in LA,” I say gently. “As a friend, if you don’t want her acting as your agent.”
A tiny smile touches the edge of his mouth. “Can you imagine Tahlia’s face?”
Tristan makes a soft humming sound while I make a mental note to ask my LA investigator for a report on Tahlia’s movements. Becca might be able to pump her network for information, but not everything can be discovered over cocktails and yoga mats.
“The roads are going to be a problem,” I tell Ellis, since Cooper has confirmed Logan’s concerns. “Right now, they’re at least ten deep at the front gate, and as soon as they realize it’s you, they're gonna block you in.”
“There's always Della's balloon...” Tristan snickers, and I give his ribs a warning squeeze.
“I don’t think we're that desperate yet, but I can charter a helicopter out of Boise.”
Ellis nods, but it’s clear his attention is wandering. He looks around the landing, his gaze roaming over the wall paneling and furnishings before landing on Lily’s door at the end of the hall. “Do you think we made a mistake? Coming here and messing up their lives?”
I think that the mess was always coming, whether we were a part of it or not. Maybe they could’ve lived out their lives none the wiser, but as Leo grew older and wanted to know more about his birth father, how hard would it be for him to connect the face in the mirror with Ellis Castle? “Nothing about this feels like a mistake. Not to me.”
“Or me,” Tristan adds, reaching out to take Ellis’ hand.
He smiles down at our beautiful mate. “Then come shower with me while Ot finds me a ride.”
“You need a ride, Alpha?” Tristan purrs, hips swinging as he saunters towards the bathroom door. “Then I have just the thing you need.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – LILY
“This is getting out of hand.” A gruff voice drifts up to my window. “The deputies are trying to clear the road, but the damn reporters keep doubling up by the hour.”
