Page 107 of Bound

“Do I have to have a reason to smile?”

“I said smirk, not smile. Emme—”

“Ah. Here already!” As soon as the driver swung open the door, her friend waved with fluttery fingertips. “Have a wonderful time.”

“Wait.” Jayd ducked her head back into the car. “You are not coming along?”

“Fairly certain I will not be needed.”

Her maid waved again, though this time at a spot past Jayd’s shoulder. When she followed that visual cue, it was to collide her stare with a pair of the most welcome faces in her world.

“Well, I do declare!” she joked, spinning and rushing to where the two men stood. “Jagger Fox and Ozias Demos. Trouble has come to the neighborhood!” She exclaimed most of that into the solid expanses of their shoulders during their exchanges of tight, happy hugs. “I thought you two were on some kind of spirit quest in the outback. Though you were not truly fooling anyone with all that, you know. Kinky fuckery by any other name…”

“Ahhh.” Oz stepped back with a hand over his heart. “That’s it, Jag. Our jig is up.”

Jagger stepped over and sidled next to his man, tucking his head along Oz’s shoulder. “To be honest, I never thought it would last this long.” He winked at Jayd. “You must be staying very busy.”

“As much as I possibly can.”

She fought her damndest to match his buoyant tone, but the guy was still one of her closest friends. Why pretend to be intrinsically happy when she was truly not? Oh, yes, contentment was usually attainable—but soul-deep happiness? Not yet. Not when she still ached this much for a man who was so many miles away. For a dynamic she could not imagine having with anyone else…

“So, I guess you two are staying busy too?”

“As much as we possibly can.”

While Oz accented his innuendo with dancing eyebrows, Jagger added, “Between the busy, we have been spending a lot of time right here.”

“Here?” That was curious enough to pull her giggles short and tug her stare higher. “Doing what?”

Oz deferred his new grin to Jag—who deferred his right over to her. His expression seemed to take on a strange shroud as he finally declared, “Helping to build a dream.”

“A…dream?”

What if someone doesn’t want the dream to be over?

She ordered the words away from her mind and their impact out of her heart. Not everything in her world had to keep reminding her of Brickham. One day, hopefully soon, that would be an easier deletion to make. For now, she concentrated on the new surge of happiness that dawned in her heart.

“Jag…Oz…are you the new proprietors setting up shop over here?”

She openly admired the building behind them, which was a newer build in Sancti. There were three floors total, each with a dedicated stairwell entrance from the main door. A glass elevator tube went up one side of the building too. Every floor had lovely stained-glass insets, leading her eye to a cascading water feature that angled down from floor to floor. At the bottom, the flumes emptied into a diamond-shaped reflecting pool that was surrounded by benches beneath manzanita trees.

“It is a stunning venue,” she marveled. “How wonderful for you two! I should have been faster on the uptake when Emme flashed the Cheshire Cat leer and then said I was meeting with a new resident in Sancti. I just never imagined it would be—”

“Okay, damn. Hold up that furphy-mobile, little Sheila.” Oz grinned. “We’re not the droids—or the proprietors—you’re looking for. Though I must admit, Sancti’s growing on me more by the day…”

He trailed off into a series of mushy kisses with Jag that had Jayd wondering whether to applaud or groan.

She eschewed both to simply ask, “So can you lovebirds just give me an idea of what floor to head for, lüt vous plait?”

Since Ozias now cinched his boyfriend by the nape, he used his free hand to hold up three fingers. With a husky laugh, Jag broke free long enough to reiterate it. “Up on floor three, Ripley.”

The nickname had her smile stretching even wider. “Merderim, trusty partner in crime.”

“Ohhh, no,” Jagger volleyed. “Tonight, you get to have all the violations.”

Oz snickered. “Lucky girl.”

“Huh?” She gave it twice the thrust of the first time.