For the next few minutes, they remained silent. Joseph merely reveled in the warm, solidness of Laurie behind him and Meadow’s softness in his lap. He wished they could sit like this for hours.
Except it would have to end, eventually. Meadow was nowhere near ready to stay the night with them.
After moving one hand to Laurie’s thigh, Joseph asked, “Do you think Dark Lord Khan would allow us to take her to the Autumn celebration in the fae witch territory next month?”
The fae witches, at least in the UK, celebrated the changing seasons with big gatherings full of stalls and shows and even dances. Since the former vampire Dark Lord, Laurie’s father, had been at war most of the time with the fae witches, Joseph had never attended a seasonal gathering before.
However, ten years ago, the fae witches, vampires, and shifters in London had formed a truce and signed a treaty. The fae witches were still wary, though, around the vampires. After all, Laurie’s father had kidnapped and imprisoned and even tortured many of them decades before.
Hatred and fear were hard things to overcome in the best of times.
Laurie grunted. “Maybe, provided Leo and Yesenia, as well as River and Nora, accompany us. The fae witches have grown fond of River already, given his medical practice. And Yesenia has helped some of them with easy requests to find lost items, like treasured heirlooms or mementos. Maybe having them with us will keep some of the fae witches from thinking we’ll instantly kill or kidnap them.”
He rubbed Laurie’s thigh, which had tensed. Laurie’s father had made all of his children’s lives hell, in their own way, on top of what he’d done to the fae witches. Laurie often carried guilt for not only being unable to help their former allies but also for not being able to rescue his sister.
With his huge heart, Laurie would try to save the world if he could.
It was one of the many things he loved about him.
Joseph said, “Well, then we’ll ask your siblings if they’d like to go to the festival. I’m sure they’ll say yes since Leo wants to mend things with the fae witches, given his wife. We’ll just need to be on our guard if Khan says we can attend, in case the French vampires try something. We’ll either need permission to take some of our own guards, or ask Dark Lord Khan for some extra eyes.”
Meadow sighed and leaned more heavily against Joseph. He leaned up and kissed her forehead before resting back against Laurie again. He added, “We’ll ask Meadow first to see if she wants to go before we plan anything. After so many years in hiding, maybe she doesn’t want to face the crowds.”
Joseph might’ve fended for himself on the streets of London, but he’d been used to living among massive amounts of people. The future sounded a bit more isolating, and maybe it wasn’t what Meadow wanted.
Laurie replied, “We’ll ask, but I think she isn’t a recluse by nature, only by necessity.”
“I get that sense as well.”
“Then let’s make sure to ask her about it before we take her home.”
Joseph grunted, and they fell quiet again. Soon he heard Laurie softly snoring behind him. Joseph stayed awake, though, and made plans on how to convince Meadow to go to the faewitch festival with them, as well as dreaming of a day when Laurie wouldn’t carry guilt for his father’s sins any longer.
Chapter Thirteen
The next day, Meadow tried for the tenth time to stop replaying events from the night before.
She’d dreamt all night of Laurie and Joseph, their hands and mouths, and how she’d orgasmed the hardest in her life. And even if afterward was a little fuzzy, she remembered waking up in Joseph’s lap, with Laurie hugging an arm around them both, one of them softly snoring behind her.
She’d actually kept her breathing even and had remained still for a little while, wanting to absorb the situation and how it made her feel. Instead of being embarrassed or overwhelmed, she’d actually wondered what sharing a bed with them would be like.
Was one of them a bed hog? Or, did they like their space? Would they ever cuddle with her? Of course, maybe Laurie and Joseph would just sleep close together and leave her alone.
But no, she didn’t like that last scenario. At all. She wanted both of them close.
Which was strange, since she’d never wanted another male, let alone two, to sleep in the same bed as her. Maybe it’d been a one-off, because of her orgasm.
And yet, she’d never felt as comfortable with new people as she had with Laurie and Joseph. Meadow was in new territory, and that didn’t even include the whole being-in-the-past thing, either.
Sadly, before she’d figured anything out at all, Joseph had noticed she was awake, and she’d made excuses to go home. Which, of course, she regretted since she’d secretly wanted to see more of Nyx’s Kingdom.
However, they’d been gentlemen and saw her home straight away.
Well, mostly gentlemen. They’d both given her searing goodnight kisses.
Stop replaying it all, Meadow. Nadia will be here soon, and you need to focus. If you can’t learn to control your magic and monetize it, you’ll always be a burden.
Her siblings would argue that point, saying she could never be a burden. But years of her father saying that the potential of her magic was the only reason he hadn’t shipped her off to one of her relatives—separating her from her siblings—had taken its toll.
