“Good,” Ares said. “And Kurt Wilder?”
“The Gaming Commission has opened a formal investigation. FBI’s looking into corruption charges. Daniel Wilder is being questioned about his involvement.” She closed her notebook. “It’s over. You won.”
I looked at the executive floor, at the smoke still drifting from the shattered windows, and the brothers beside me, soot-stained and exhausted and absolutely beautiful. I looked at Marta, who had flown across the country twice to help us fight.
“We won,” I repeated.
And despite everything—the terror and the fire and the near-death experience—I meant it. We’d won.
We had won not only the hearing but also the conspiracy and the assassination attempt.
We’d won each other. We’d won the right to love who and how we wanted without shame or apology. We’d gained the freedom to build something unconventional, beautiful, and real.
“What now?” Leo asked.
I looked at each of them—Orion with his protective intensity, Leo with his creative brilliance, and Ares with his fierce devotion.
“Now?” I said. “Now we rebuild. The suite. The hotel. Our lives. Everything. Better than before.”
“Together,” Orion added.
“Together,” I agreed.
And as the media captured our moment—four people wrapped in emergency blankets, covered in soot, absolutely in love—I knew that whatever we rebuilt would be stronger than what had burned.
Because we’d been tested by fire, literally and figuratively.
And we’d survived.
Epilogue: Ares
SIX MONTHS LATER…
“Conference call’s done,”Orion said, ending the video meeting with our attorneys. “Insurance settlement came through. Full coverage for the fire damage, plus punitive damages from the conspiracy lawsuit.”
“And the Gaming Commission?” said Leo.
I barely heard what Orion said next. My mind had drifted to the morning, the four of us waking up together in the humongous bed that Leo had commissioned for us from a specialty mattress company. It had arrived only two weeks ago, and we were having fun trying out all the ways we could use it.
Tashi had been different this morning, somehow softer and more welcoming. Gone was the ferocity of our earlier lovemaking, which I was beginning to miss. She’d snuggled up next to me while my brothers slept.
“Shh,” she whispered as she fondled my cock with her soft hands. It didn’t take me long to get going, especially when she raked the tips of her nails across my balls. The woman knew what I liked.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
“Shh,” she said more fiercely. “No noise. This is our time.”
“Wait,” I whispered back. “Is this what you do every morning with whoever wakes first?”
“Maybe,” she whispered playfully in my ear.
Note to self. Wake first every morning.
I was getting into what Tashi was doing to me, and I was thinking I wanted her to get on top of me and ride me hard, and just the thought made me moan.
“What’s going on?” said Orion sleepily.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep,” I said.
