SIX
Once I heard my apartment door close behind Alex and Mason, I all but flew up from my chair and began pacing, suddenly wondering just what on earth I was doing. Earlier that day, I’d viewed the commander’s two grandsons kind of as my enemies, and now I couldn’t believe that I was seriously considering sleeping with both of them so soon after my arrival to the city. After all, if I were being forced to sleep with them, that would have been one thing, but wanting to sleep with them was a different thing entirely. I half-wondered if maybe Mason had cast some kind of spell over me that had made me especially susceptible to the feel of his fingers and mouth on the skin of my hand. However, I knew that was a stretch. Other than possessing increased strength while in their human forms, shifters typically didn’t possess any skills as far as spells and wizardry. It seemed much more likely that where Alex and Mason were concerned, I had just let myself fall prey to some very human, very sensual feelings, maybe even ones I’d been suppressing for years.
After pacing around the living room for a few minutes with my disbelief about my behavior slowly decreasing, I opened the glass French doors in the middle of a wide row of windows and took a tiny, tentative step out onto the balcony, hoping that some brisk September air might clear my mind a bit and cool some steamy thoughts I was having. To my extreme frustration, images of the large bulge in Alex’s jeans had been stubbornly flashing through my mind the entire time I’d been pacing around the living room.
Trying to shift my thoughts from Alex’s bulge to who he was as a person, I began wondering why he’d initially acted so cold, commanding, and even borderline rude to me. Not that he’d even really warmed up later. But then again, I realized, he might have, if Mason had maybe given him more of a chance to enter the conversation. At any rate, I was at least going to give Alex the chance to warm up to me, because I knew that I definitely wanted him to warm up to me physically.
Not even coming close to the wrought-iron railing surrounding the balcony, instead just staying pretty close to the French doors, I looked out at the city, trusting that the view from the forty-ninth floor would be enough to distract me from all the thoughts spinning around in my head. I wasn’t the kind of person who was absolutely mortally terrified of heights and looking down from high places; however, I was the kind of person who felt pretty rattled by heights. There was no way in hell I was ever going to get near the balcony railing; I knew that for sure. Looking directly down at the city from that height would do me in, I figured. My knees would probably give out, at any rate.
It was now very late in the afternoon, almost early evening; and because it was September and the days were quickly shortening, the sun was already sinking low in the sky, painting the several dozen skyscrapers around me in shades of vivid orange and gold. The skyscrapers were all on the shorter side, with each of them being anywhere from thirty to sixty stories tall I guessed. The majority of them were made from gleaming steel and glass, which seemed to catch every single ray of the sun.
Across the street from my building, Iverson Towers, one of the tallest skyscrapers stood proud and shining, with a steel-framed wide base and three progressively narrower levels ascending to the top, where an enormous green-and-gold flag, which was the flag of the United Were-dragon States, flapped in a stiff breeze. Sheila had told me this building was where a lot of official government business was conducted, where all national intelligence operatives were trained, and where the commander held meetings with his grandsons, council members and advisors.
Iverson Towers, on the other hand, was a building primarily used for residential purposes. Alex and Mason each had a penthouse on the floor above me, but other than them, I had no clue who my neighbors were. Sheila hadn’t said who shared the forty-ninth floor with me, if anyone, and who lived in all the floors below, and I hadn’t asked. Sheila’s businesslike, borderline chilly demeanor just kind of didn’t invite questions.
Far below me, shiny cars wound their way through the city streets, which appeared to be a bit congested. No wonder, I thought. It was just about rush hour.
Eventually taking a few steps toward the railing, I remained out on the balcony, just looking out at the ant-sized cars for a long while, until I suddenly realized my feet were freezing. I’d been so caught up thinking about my visit with Alex and Mason that I hadn’t even realized that I’d stepped outside barefoot.
Despite making use of the sunken marble bathtub to warm myself up, and also despite Sheila bringing me up a delicious hot meal not long after that, I didn’t sleep well that night, tossing and turning. I was no stranger to this, having been prone to bouts of insomnia all my life. However, on this night, my insomnia problem seemed to even be a bit worse than usual. Three times, I awoke after dreaming about Alex, Mason, their handsome faces, and their long, lean, muscular bodies. In the third dream, they were both holding me at the same time, taking turns kissing me, with their hands freely exploring my completely naked body. I would have liked this dream to go on for a lot longer than it did and was disappointed when I felt myself coming out of it. At least an hour went by before I was finally able to fall asleep again.
The next day dawned clear and cold, and I took a steaming mug of tea out on the balcony, knowing that it was possible that this day might be the day that the sexual parts of my dreams would come true. Not to mention that I might be able to finally actually experience an erotic fantasy that I’d had stuck in my mind for years. This made me wonder if I was jumping into things too fast, even while, at the same time, I couldn’t stop butterflies from swarming in my stomach.
Not knowing if I was even allowed to, I didn’t leave my apartment that morning, wondering if I’d have the commander’s secret agents on me within seconds if I even tried. I knew he was probably still on high alert for me to try to escape the building or something, even though I no longer wanted to at this point, not that I wanted him to know that. If he did, some explanation might be required on my part, and I had no desire to tell the commander-in-chief of the nation that I wanted to have a ménage with his two grandsons.
Around noon, a maid came up to my apartment bearing a basketful of clean towels and a large paper bag of groceries. Neither of these things I really even needed, since my fridge was well-stocked and I still had plenty of clean towels in the master bathroom. Not to mention that I could have washed some in the spacious laundry room in my apartment if I’d really needed some fresh ones. Still, I was glad to have a visitor in the maid, and to have someone to feel out in regards to whether or not I was allowed to leave the building. In response to this query, the maid, who was at least a little bit warmer than Sheila, just gave her head a little shake, avoiding my eyes.
“Sorry…but for right now, I think Commander Iverson just wants to make sure you don’t…well, you know. Try to escape or something. I hope you can understand.”
If he only knew, I thought. I actually have no intention of trying to escape now, and for a very titillating reason having to do with his grandsons. In fact, if things between the three of us went as well as I hoped they would, I figured that I might be perfectly content to live at the Towers the entire three months that the commander wanted me to. I knew that that evening, after dinner with Alex and Mason, my mind would probably be made up, one way or another.