Unconventional Read online

  “Oh! Hey!”

  Reaching up with one hand, the man pulled a set of thick black headphones down around his neck. No wonder he couldn’t hear us.

  “Well hello there,” the man said amiably. He had one hand over his heart, like we’d just scared him half to death. He used the fingers to pull the glove off his other, and extended a hand. “I’m Edgar.”

  I shook it. “And I’m—”

  “Ms. Lockhart,” he grinned. “Of course.”

  “Madison, please,” I corrected him.

  He shook Chase’s hand as well, then set his weed-whacker down across a long thin shovel he’d been carrying. And that’s when I realized, it wasn’t a weed-whacker at all.

  “Is that—”

  “A metal detector,” the man smiled. “Yes.”

  “What are you doing with it?” asked Chase.

  “Detecting metal,” the man said, laughing at his own joke. “Just a dumb hobby of mine, really. I’m a bit of a history buff. I like digging things up from the past.”

  “Way out here?” I squinted.

  “Sure!” he said excitedly. “This is old land. Farms on top of farms. People have dropped things here for centuries.”

  He opened a canvas pouch at his waist, and pulled out a few rusty objects. All of them were unrecognizable.

  “What are we looking at here?”

  “Reins guide for an old harness,” he said. “Top of an oil lantern. Broken horseshoe...” One by one he dropped each item back into his pouch.

  “That’s not treasure, it’s junk,” said Chase.

  “Never said I was looking for treasure,” Edgar smiled. “I’m looking for history.”

  “That uh… shredded can of soda you’ve got right there,” I pointed skeptically. “That’s history?”

  “No, that’s junk,” the man laughed. “But I take everything I find along with me. No sense in not cleaning up, right?”

  Edgar wiped at his forehead with one arm, then looked back in the direction we’d just come.

  “Is Nolan looking for me yet? I usually do this on break, or between busy times when—”

  “No, no,” I assured him. “In fact, he didn’t even mention you.”

  “He hired me at the beginning of summer,” said Edgar. “He’s much too old now, to muck out the stalls. And feeding all the horses? You know… with his foot all twisted…”

  “We know,” said Chase.

  Edgar grinned back through the dirt and coughed. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any water, would you?”

  Chase pulled out the long metal flask of ice water we’d been sharing. When he offered it to the man, his eyes lit up.

  “Ah, thankee!”

  For a long time Edgar drank his fill, upending the flask until it was nearly empty. Chase looked over at me and rolled his eyes. I smiled and poked him in the ribs.

  “Hey, it’s okay if I do this, right?” the man asked, suddenly concerned. He handed the flask back with a firm nod. “I mean it’s your property, and all. If you didn’t want me to—”

  “No no,” I smiled waving him off. “Go for it. It’s totally fine.”

  “Yeah,” said Chase. “Unless you find something good, though. Like a cache of diamonds, or a chest of gold coins.” He grinned at Edgar and winked. “In that case we’re splitting it.”

  There was a slight pause as the man slid his headphones back over his ears and pulled his gloves back on. “Totally,” he grinned back, with a twinkle in his eye.

  Forty-Six

  MADISON

  “And I’m telling you, it makes perfect sense for you to move in here too.”

  I’d presented my argument rationally, and with good reasoning. Or at least I thought so. Julian on the other hand, had kept his tattooed forearms crossed over his yummy chest.

  “For one, I have all the room in the world,” I said. “I’ve already made up bedrooms for Chase and Noah. If you let me make one for you, we’d all be together. Not just some nights, but every night.”

  Julian seemed to consider this part, at least for a moment or two. Rather than answer, he grunted.

  “Think about it,” I said. “You wouldn’t have to drive back and forth to the city each day. You’d save all that time and trouble.”

  Our conversation took place out in the courtyard, as my sexy stonemason took apart the pieces of the stacked stone arch. The thing had stood for more than five centuries like this, totally untouched. Yet it had taken only one asshole inspector to have it dismantled.

  “Plus, your cat would love it here,” I argued. “All the rooms… corridors… An endless supply of places he could explore.”

  “She.”

  I raised a curious eyebrow. “She?”

  “My cat is female,” Julian nodded.

  “Wow,” I teased. “Gotta say, that makes me a little jealous.”

  Julian went back to unstacking the stone archway, laying it out carefully and sequentially so he could put it all back together again. He said nothing more, as I sat there way too long, just watching him work. Happily ogling his broad, muscular back and arms, as he bent to his heavy tasks.

  “Well at least consider it,” I said, before turning away. “But… you know…” I hesitated for a moment, then decided to just let the truth go. “It would really mean a lot to me if you were here too.”

  I walked inside, grateful to be out of the sun, and made my way up to my desk. From there I spent the rest of the day finishing permit and variance applications I’d been putting off. Getting all the rest of my paperwork squared away in anticipation of my last inspections, and to finally take ownership of the property.

  Julian strode back in while there was still sunlight. He’d toweled down and cleaned up a bit. He’d even changed his shirt.

  “Come on,” he said, extending one giant hand. “Let’s go.”

  “Where were we—”

  “To my place,” he said, pulling me in the direction of his truck. “To get some things.”

  My feet scampered to catch up, even as my heart soared. “You’re staying?” I asked excitedly.

  “For a little while at least,” he confirmed, opening the door for me. He helped me inside, lifting me into the high cab with two strong hands on either side of my hips. I imagined those hands slipping down to my ass, but it didn’t happen. Julian hopped into the driver’s seat, and a minute later we were rumbling down the road.

  The terrain flashed by. Scotland was breathtaking, especially out here in the hills and farms, but it was the cities I’d always found especially beautiful. Centuries of history existed here, going back to medieval times and well before that. Even the oldest American settlements seemed modern by comparison.

  “So how’s your family” I asked, as we rode into town. “Ariana. Jenna. And… Antonio?”

  “Pretty much the same,” said Julian. His sheer height had him sitting with the seat all the way back. One beautiful arm extended, resting casually along the top of the steering wheel.

  “Your little brother still tearing things up?” I chuckled.

  Julian’s handsome face broke into an even more handsome smile. “Wouldn’t be Antonio if he wasn’t.”

  We rode in silence, the rode sloping gently downward toward the sea. I felt a tightness, pulling at my throat. Forcing me to speak my mind.

  “I have to ask you something,” I said, staring out the window. “And I need you to tell me the truth.”

  Julian said nothing in response. His tattooed arm swayed gently left and right, as he made tiny adjustments to the winding road.

  “You send money home,” I said flatly. “To your family. Yes?”

  The big mason nodded slowly. “Yes.”

  I sighed grimly and looked down. It was the answer I expected, of course.

  “And I’m preventing that from happening right now.”

  Julian turned his head to look at me. He could see where I was going with this.

  “No,” I said immediately. “That’s not… It’s not lik
e—”

  “Yes it is and you know it.”

  I felt like an asshole. A shameless, selfish asshole. Taking advantage of a man’s generosity was one thing. But to take food from the mouths of his family…

  “Madison,” he said, his voice going hard and serious. “I need you to stop and look at me.”

  It took me a while to look up. When I finally did, my lover’s expression wasn’t anger — it was understanding.

  “You’re the one good thing I’ve got going right now,” said Julian. “I care about you. I need to help you. Just like I help them.”

  “Maybe,” I croaked. “But—”

  “But nothing,” he said firmly. “My sisters will be fine. Antonio too. Even my mother, who I’ll never forgive for drowning herself in her own misery.” His expression went grim. “Especially when it’s far past time she finally learned to swim.”

  He switched arms on the steering wheel, then reached across and took me by the hand. With a firm grip he pulled me against him, my body melding against his from the middle of the long bench seat.

  “You know I’m going to pay you back,” I said abruptly. “Every single penny I owe you, and then some.”

  The big mason squeezed my fingers. “I know.”

  “I mean it, Julian. Once I own that piece of property, once I can do what I want with it…”

  His arm slid around me. It made me feel whole. Complete. Comforted and safe.

  “Madison…” he murmured, as the lights of Edinburgh began to glow in the distance. He squeezed me against him, crushing away any remaining shred of self-doubt.

  “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

  Forty-Seven

  MADISON

  I clawed him even deeper inside me, my fingers clamping down over the two firm cheeks of his magnificent ass. I could feel the muscles working there, beneath the skin. Churning and flexing powerfully as he drove himself into my body, my legs spread wide, my chin pinned to his shoulder.

  “Fuck me…”

  The words were unnecessary, but my lips formed them anyway. I was murmuring all sorts of things. Words and phrases that held little meaning in the wake of my limitless arousal.

  My lover drove deeper still, pinning me back against the cabinets. I was bare-assed on his kitchen counter. Julian had lifted me into the corner, before shoving his way between my legs and plunging inside me.

  Mmmmmm…

  His apartment was clean, neat — just like his life. Totally utilitarian, but with a creative touch too. I’d seen paintings on the walls that I never would’ve imagined he’d like. Living plants that he was apparently watering, actually taking care of.

  It was totally cute. Adorable, even. That this gargantuan, rough and tumble stonemason had a softer, more sophisticated side to him. A perfectly-made bed. A clean bathroom. Even a cat…

  He was already way ahead of ninety-percent of the guys I’d ever dated.

  Right now, none of that mattered. Shortly after my two-minute tour, Julian had started kissing me in the middle of his kitchen. It had been hot. Steamy. Almost dream-like in intensity and passion, until I suddenly found myself with my sundress bunched up around my hips, being fucked like a bad girl with my panties stretched to one side.

  God…

  My hands had wandered across his great winged back, tracing the hard lines of every scrumptious muscle. They’d slid down past his beautiful ribs, to finally settle over his thrusting, ever-lunging ass.

  “Julian…” I breathed. “I— I’m…”

  If he heard me, it didn’t show. His strong hands gripped me tighter, his body flexing forward to slam me harder, penetrate me even deeper, as the handles of his cabinets began digging into my back.

  “I’m going… to come…”

  It was only a whimper. A gasp, lost in a frenzied sea of clenching and slamming and fucking. And then I was clawing him, my arms and legs going tight with need. My fingernails digging into the flesh of his ass, maybe even piercing the skin, but definitely sinking deep enough to leave ten sharp indentations or bruises that coincided directly with my—

  “OHHHhhhhhOHHHhhhhh!”

  I exhaled as I came, collapsing into my lover. Feeling everything but my climax wash out of my body, as my brain reeled with the warm, familiar rush of ultimate ecstasy.

  I was still quivering when he came. My legs still clenched and trembling around him, as Julian surged into me and delivered his seed.

  Oh… oh fuck…

  It came in thick, pulsating waves. An explosion of warmth and wetness, way up, deep in my belly.

  FUCK…

  He nuzzled into my neck, biting my shoulder as he unloaded. Grunted unintelligibly into my tender flesh, as his hard blond stubble elicited a sharp flash of welcome, contrasting pain.

  Somehow the moment triggered a secondary orgasm for me. My pussy contracted around him, squeezing and milking and loving his hard, pulsating cock. Tiny clusters of stars filled my vision; flashes of silver that streaked by, even with my eyes screwed shut.

  “Oh Julian…”

  I breathed his name, and it tasted sweet on my lips. Like there was a connection to it. Like there was something more to just saying it, but uttering it with fresh new meaning. Breathing it into his ear while he was inside me, filling me, making me wholly and completely his.

  “I love you…”

  The words dropped, only they didn’t come from me. They came from him. Julian. My sexy stonemason, my lover, and now my—

  “I love you Madison,” he said again. He’d pulled back just enough to tilt my chin upward. To catch my eyes in his steel grey orbs, to penetrate them with his own, just as he was still penetrating my body.

  A smile cracked my face, stretching from ear to ear. It was so wide it hurt. So big and beautiful, it pulled at the strings of my soaring heart.

  “I love you too,” I whispered, kissing him.

  We kissed over and over again, deeply, lovingly, like we’d just discovered the act for the very first time. My bare ass felt warm on his hard counter, the knobs of his cabinets still pressing into my shoulder blades. But he was inside me, still connected to me. Or rather, connected through me; the physical aspect of our union linking our very souls.

  Oh my God I love him.

  The realization wasn’t new, but saying it out loud established its permanence. It brought things to a different level. One I’d always hoped to reach, but only dreamed of…

  Until now.

  Finally we parted, Julian stepping back to mark the visual of me inside his mind. I was spread eagle on his counter. My pussy pink and swollen, and now filled with a perfectly pearlescent button of his warm seed.

  We looked at each other again, and exchanged knowing smiles. This time I laughed as I hopped down, Julian reaching out to steady me on two very shaky legs.

  “You’ve really got a thing for kitchens,” I chuckled. “Don’t you?”

  Forty-Eight

  MADISON

  “Buck. Rocky. Goliath…”

  The calico sat impassively on the coffee table, licking its paws. It hadn’t responded to a single one of Chase’s guesses. In fact, it hadn’t even looked his way since arriving at the castle.

  “Moose. Killer…” continued Chase. He stopped abruptly and snapped his fingers. “Wait… T-Bone!”

  “Have you even looked at the cat?” yawned Noah, stretching out on the couch.

  “Of course I have. I’m looking at it right now.”

  “Then you’d realize it’s female,” Noah laughed, exhaustedly. “You dunderhead.”

  Chase stared back at the animal, utterly nonplussed. “It’s a girl cat?”

  “Yup.”

  “Well shit…”

  I laughed from my corner of the couch, where Noah and I were in the process of trading foot rubs. An entire week, they’d been here already. The three of them working from dusk until dawn, trying to get everything checked off the inspector’s list.

  Yet the closer we got to the deadline, the m
ore that seemed an impossible task.

  “Fine then. Xena!” cried Chase. “Raven! Athena…”

  There just never seemed to be enough hours in the day. Four sets of hands, including myself, but the sheer volume of work was just too much.

  In the morning we loaded up on coffee and bounced out the door. By nightfall, we were essentially exhausted. The guys would collapse wherever they sat down, sometimes without even eating dinner until the next morning. On the couch, in their beds… wherever they ended up, we let each other take sleep however we found it.

  And of course, they fell into my bed too. Sometimes just to sleep and cuddle. But other times…

  Other times they ravaged me, together and alone. Sometimes it was fast and frenzied, their rough hands possessing my body with the last of the energy they had. Most times however it was slow and lazy, my lovers rolling between my legs in the dead of night. Taking me deep and slow in the wee hours of the morning, planting kisses over my body as we fucked slowly, leisurely, beneath the sheets or blankets.

  It was incredible, feeling owned by three men. Spreading my legs for them whenever they felt the need, or even climbing aboard and grinding myself against them until they were hard enough to fuck. That part felt even dirtier, and I loved it. The idea that any one of us could get off whenever we wanted, no questions asked, seemed like the hottest thing in the whole fucking world.

  And that’s probably because it was.

  I was left dripping, so very often, from one lover to the next. My pussy slick and glistening, as I dozed in and out of slumber, waiting for my next boyfriend to push sexily inside me.

  As a result of all the attention I got less sleep than they did, but I didn’t care. Every moment with each of them was special. Every time I wrapped my arms or legs around them, I felt closer and more in tune with them. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally…

  You’re in love with them, Madison.

  Sometime during the whole thing, I’d stopped fighting the idea. I’d embraced it, for better or for worse.