Sawyer
“I’m sooooo bored,” Sawyer complained. He rolled onto his stomach, thumping his fist into his pillow.
Draco peeled open an eye and glared at him. “I’m well aware.”
“Dracoooooooo.”
“Can’t you go bother Andvari?”
Sawyer sighed and punched the pillow again. “He’s sleeping in the guest room. Hemighthave told me that if I wake him up again, he’ll tell Cecil I need a week’s worth of those special smoothies of his. Needless to say, I’m not waking him up. Those things taste like ass.”
“I thought you liked ass,” Draco mumbled sleepily.
And he did. Sawyer liked ass a lot, especially the four asses belonging to his guardians. The best thing about being the mystical chosen one of myth and legend? Four amazing protectors to keep him safe. Well, technically he had eight, but the other four hadn’t arrived yet. Sawyer could only hope he’d love the new ones as much as he did his current ones, even if that seemed a little greedy. He’d never imagined being in a relationship quite like this one, but then he’d never imagined being responsible for saving the supernatural world, either. Even if he still didn’t have a clue exactly how he was supposed to manage that feat.
Sawyer rolled off the bed and pulled on a pair of shorts to protect the little modesty he had left. He still wasn’t used to having staff in the house. Cecil, the butler, was amazing but having him around meant Sawyer couldn’t run around naked. Not that he usually ran around naked, but with four absolutely breathtaking men who were all very happy to bend him over the nearest surface… yeah, he ended up naked a lot. Besides, being naked was only one of many things Sawyer couldn’t do right now. Leaving the house was another, and a much bigger problem for him.
One of Henry’s visions revealed that one of the guardians needed a salt water pool— and don’t think Sawyer hadn’t spentdaystrying to figure out what kind of guardian might need to live in salt water. Seriously, his brain went into overtime guessing, but the options were limited and, well, he’d been distracted by the four sexy guardians he did have— anyway, Eduard managed to get a crew in to build their new backyard extravaganza. And since Eduard never did anything the easy way, a six to eight week construction project was going on right outside the back door. And since Sawyer had already been attacked twice, it was decided that he would stay locked away like a princess in a tower while the workmen were on the property.
Needless to say, Sawyer didn’t exactly love that decision. The worst thing about being the mystical chosen one of myth and legend? Everyone expected a super-being with great big cosmic powers. How many powers did Sawyer actually have? None. Zero. Nada.Nothing. He was a magical null. Not one single super power to his name.
They were only two weeks into the construction project and the boredom was getting to Sawyer in a profound way. He wasn’t an idle kind of guy. He finished his master’s degree a month before and immediately became neck deep in the supernatural world. Until then, he’d been busy, constantly on the move. He left the house early in the morning. Hit the gym. Went to class. Ran home for lunch to let Pearl outside. Back to school for library time. More class. Coffee with friends. Home to grab Pearl and over to Draco’s for dinner. It wasn’t anything overly exciting or spectacular, but he wasn’t trapped inside a mini-mansion.
“Good morning, Sawyer.”
“Hey, Viv.”
Vivian, the chef Cecil brought in from Eduard’s estate, fit right in and loved to experiment with expanding both Sawyer and Henry’s palates. Neither of them were particularly adventurous eaters so she’d been trying out different foods on them to see what they liked. So far, they enjoyed the vast majority of her offerings, but Sawyer had a sneaking suspicion she was going easy on them, softening them up for something really interesting later. Like snails. No freaking way was he going to eat snails, no matter how gourmet they were supposed to be.
He eyed her, sending a wordless threat that she better not try to feed him something disgusting, before realizing she’d moved when he was lost in his thoughts. She stood in front of him with a suspicious looking glass full of something green from the fridge and tried to hand it to him. “Your smoothie.”
“Viv,” Sawyer whined pitifully. “I didn’t wake Andi up!”
She snickered. “Drink it. It’s good for you.”
“Fine. But I do this under protest.” He slurped it down, prepared to hate the overly herby flavor of Cecil’s usual smoothies, and was pleasantly surprised. “Huh. That’s not terrible.”
“I added a few things to Cecil’s basic recipe. I thought you might like it.”
Sawyer took another hesitant gulp, preparing once again to hate the concoction. Greenish brown sludge should not be tasty. “Did you add pineapple juice?”
“Yep. And don’t ask anything else. You really don’t want to know. So do you like it?” Viv asked.
“I do. I wish someone would explain to me exactly why I need restorative smoothies. I mean, I’m a healthy guy. Young. In my prime or whatever. I eat my vegetables. I can just, you know, eat food.”
Viv shook her head at him like she was judging him without words— which she probably was because when she found out he’d never tried Korean food, she’d hadopinionson his life choices— and returned to her attention to her cutting board. “As Cecil pointed out, you are often distracted and don’t eat the most healthy options. You are also burning more calories than you realize between training and… other activities. This way, you’re getting all the nutrients you need.”
Sawyer blushed but decided to ignore her acknowledgment of his so-calledotheractivities. “I swear, it’s like I’m four and not twenty-four. You’re all ganging up on me.”
“Aww, poor muffin. I’d feel sorry for you, but I don’t.”
After giving her a very stern glare that earned him a giggle in return, Sawyer went and plopped down on Pearl’s over-sized doggy pillow by the sliding glass doors in the breakfast area. It mysteriously appeared one day and featured a Tempurpedic temperature regulating something or other and was basically more comfortable than the mattress Eduard had custom made for the master bedroom. When Sawyer asked Cecil about it, he’d simply receivedthe lookin return. The entire staff had a way of judging him without saying a word. He pretended like he hated it, but mostly he loved the attention. Besides, they were kind of spoiling him rotten and acted like overly-doting parents. He didn’t have parents to dote on him, not since Mama Thea and Papa Smith passed away.
“Hey, baby girl. You feel sorry for me, don’t you?” Sawyer patted his leg and waited for his girl to snuggle up to him.
Pearl laid her head on his knee and looked up at him expectantly. He gave her ears a scratch and looked out at the backyard. The workmen were busy, putting in pipes for plumbing and steel bars for the foundation of the pool. The giant hole had already been dug and they were making it stable for the concrete or whatever they used to form the shape. They couldn’t finish it fast enough. Pearl agreed. She had been limited on her outside time, too. She’d scratched her paw on something and Cecil had about had a coronary. Sawyer had never seen the butler flustered before, but when he’d seen Pearl limping?Whoa.It had been intense. Sawyer hadn’t known who to comfort first. He sighed as Pearl wiggled over onto her back for a belly rub. He complied, as he always did.
“Good morning, Sawyer.”
