“I have a family history of Alzheimer’s, and I
freaked
that maybe I somehow have it so early at thirty, but no, they say I don’t. So last week the neurosurgeon suggested maybe we
open up
my fucking skull
and do exploratory surgery in my
brain
because there
has
to be something in there causing these memory gaps and they just must not be able to see it on the tests. So while I now know the answer, I have
no
fucking idea
how to clean this all up or get myself out of this mess.
“Because telling
anyone
my neighbors did it and they’re
elves
will end with me in the fucking mad house in a padded room. And I’ve got medical bills coming out of my
ass,
and I don’t know how I’m going to make my rent. I haven’t been writing because of all of this, my life is destroyed, and it turns out,
I’m fine
.” I focused on Aspen and shook my head, ignoring the stricken look on his face. “So yes,
thank you
for all your
help
. Please refrain from it in the future.
“I was doing
fine
before I met you guys, a little lonely, a little depressed, kind quirky, but
fine
. The only thing
wrong
with me was that I was stupid enough to let you dicks into my life and give you
my
fucking
heart
! So I don’t care if you’re elves or aliens. I want you out of my house and out of my life while I figure out how to clean up my shattered existence and the mess
you
made of it!”
I slowly got to my feet, but they didn’t move, simply staring at me as if I’d change my mind. I needed them to go, seeing them hurt and as much as I hated to I played the only card I had.
“Leave or I will call the police. Don’t make me pull that shit on you because I don’t care what you are but I know you won’t want the attention. So go. I
need
you
to go.”
I didn’t wait to see what they did. Instead I walked out of the room and up the stairs before turning and going in my bedroom. I crawled under the covers and buried my face in my pillow,
sobbing
uncontrollably. What a mess. What a fucking mess. If they had simply just told me
any
of it. Why? Why keep it all a secret or pull any of it with me. What had been the goal?
And why did I have to go and fall in love with them?
I heard the front door close a few minutes later, and I just cried harder, my heart breaking at
losing
them which was ever so fucked up on top of my fucked up mountain of fucked up. I stayed in bed that day, doing nothing but crying, and then crying again, and deciding to add more crying to my agenda. It seemed to be the day for it.
And I wasn’t even a crier by any stretch of the term.
The next morning the only reason I got out of bed was because I was starving and
so
thirsty after all that crying it hurt. I snagged a bottle of water from the fridge and an apple and plopped down at the table, making sure I wasn’t visible to any of the windows. I couldn’t even deal with that right then. But I pouted as I stared out the window. It was early enough that I could have enjoyed my back porch and not died of the end of August heat.
Too bad I was too broke to move now. The thought alone had my head dropping to the table with a thump as I groaned. Seriously, what
was
I going to do? I mean, they really and truly had broken my spirit. What had been the point of all of this? They weren’t malicious. They were too clueless to be… I slowly raised my head and replayed that last thought.
They were clueless. They hadn’t known how to mow the lawn. They had needed their hands held on so much. They needed someone to cook for them. Who better than a reclusive author with few friends?
But there was a flaw in that because they
had
hit on me right away and liked women too. Teak had made it pretty clear that they were entertaining the idea of me being their forth. I bit into my apple and then dropped it, when the gaps filled in and I realized what I’d been missing, ignoring the sounds of my breakfast rolling away.
They knew they could make me pretty.
Sure even when I was obese I wasn’t hideous, just fat. I had the features there to be attractive. Take what they could do to turn back the clock as Cypress had put it, but it was more than that because I was hotter than I had been at twenty. I mean, without even trying to sound all full of myself… I was almost gorgeous now. A while longer with their “treatments” and I would have been better than most models because I wouldn’t have had that boney, starved look.
So they could have gotten the human life tour guide they needed to acclimate to this world with the fat girl self-esteem to want to bend over backwards to please them and make friends, but then sneak in here and help me so I had more time for
them
so I would cook for them and whatever else, and they would then just make me hot for them after I was so smitten with them because they were big sweethearts to me so I was fuckable and they’d get their pussy needs all in one-stop shopping.
Yeah, that was one long run-on thought even as it raced in my mind. I shook my head and tried it again.
Why bother? No matter which way I pan this one out, I got played. They knew I’d get hot. They were all about touching me when we met—the opposite of feeding the bird you want to eventually cook. You’re not being nice, you ultimately want something from it.
The only real question I had left was if they were eventually going to tell me what they were so it would all come out how often they’d helped me. Was that simply part of the goal to free up my time to cook and do more for them or was it going to be a big reveal thing so I felt indebted to them later?
Call me Negative Nancy but after realizing they knew they’d make me pretty and fuckable for three hottie elves I tended to go with the latter. Much easier for me to simply fall into bed with them if they spring on me they’ve been doing all my chores and crap work for me for months, right? Or at least that was probably how that worked in their heads.
Either way I left the apple on the floor, stood with my bottle of water, and went back to bed. And that was where I stayed the next couple of days, getting up for only something to drink here and there… Not much else. I didn’t answer my phone or shower or check emails or even flinch if someone came to the door. I stared out the window, and if I got thirsty, drank something.
I was numb. They’d broken me and I was numb inside. I didn’t even
feel
or
care
enough to make the drink on my nightstand be booze. I didn’t want to eat or read or watch TV. Nope. I stared out the window while lying in bed and dozed. That was it.
It was three days after we had it out that they showed back up, not even knocking and somehow getting right past my locks.
“Cara, honey, it’s us,” Cypress called out as I heard them come in.
Part of me wanted to shout out
no shit
but after days of not eating and barely drinking much I didn’t have it in me. I rolled over and faced my bedroom door so at least my
ass
didn’t greet them first.
“We know you said not to come back, but your mom called us and she’s freaked out,” Teak worried, and it was his face I saw first in the hallway. He looked left then right and checked in my office before coming my way. When his eyes landed on me in bed, he froze. “Cara, honey, it’s well after ten. Are you okay? What are you still doing in bed?” He came closer and knelt down next to me.
“Fuck,” Aspen hissed as he entered the room, walking over and pulling down the bedding a bit. “Guys, this is what she was wearing last time we were here.”
“No, Cara doesn’t…” Cypress started and then stopped when he moved behind Teak. “I can’t remember. I think so. Teak?”
“Yeah,” he whispered, tears filling his eyes. “Believe me. I won’t ever forget what she looked like screaming at us that we ruined her life. This was what she was wearing.”
“She’s in shock,” Aspen muttered, pushing past them and lifting me off the bed. “Cypress, call her mother back and tell her Cara’s fine, just a stomach bug or whatever humans get and she didn’t know her phone had died. We’re here now, and we’ll get her soup and Cara will call her tomorrow. Teak, fix this rent thing. I looked it up, and it’s normally due the first of the month which is tomorrow. Figure it out.”
“Cara, honey, who’s your landlord? Where do you send your rent?” Teak asked me, fear in his eyes. I just blinked at him. “You warned us the first day we met you, if we broke it, we buy it. We broke this, let us help fix it, okay? Don’t lose your place because we were idiots.”
He was right and I was honestly okay with them helping to clean up this cluster fuck. I didn’t know how to bail myself out of this one. It would never have gotten this far if they hadn’t been causing all these
mysteries
. “Blue address book on my desk,” I mumbled. I told him the landlord’s name and how much, but not to send it yet because I would have to slip a note into the envelope explaining
something
as to why the check wasn’t coming from me directly.
Teak nodded and I heard Cypress talking to my mom on the phone in the kitchen as Aspen carried me down the stairs to the bathroom. He steadied me as he turned on the water and then pulled off his shirt. I blinked at him realizing he was going to get in there with me.
And had the most evil, twisted, Machiavellian, fucked up idea I think I’d ever had. Honestly, of the three of them, it was lucky Aspen turned out to be the one to shower me because I was pretty sure it only would have worked with him. And as fucked up as the idea was, I was in a pretty fucked up place so I gave myself a pass for what I was about to do. I needed to know for sure.
I pulled off my shirt and pushed down my shorts, leaning heavily on the tiles as I stepped into the shower. I tilted my head back and thought there was never water that ever felt so good as it ran all over me. Then I glanced at Aspen who was standing there watching me, his hands on his fly.
“I thought you were helping,” I rasped, leaning my shoulders against the tiles instead of just my hand holding up my weight.
He blinked at me before shaking his head. “What? Yeah.” Aspen yanked off his shorts and boxer briefs before ripping his hair tie out. Then he stepped into the shower with me and closed the curtain.
And he was hard as a fucking rock, his very happy to be there dick smacking me in the hip when he turned to pick up the soap. He cleared his throat and shrugged. “Sorry.”
“It happens.” I took the soap from him and pointed to the shampoo. “If you could handle my hair, that would be the biggest help.”
“Sure, whatever you need, Cara.” He went for the correct bottle as I dunked under the water again and washed my face, then I did under my arms and anywhere else you
really
didn’t want a man washing after not taking care of it for a few days. Actually I was proud of how discreetly I did do that considering how close the proximity was in there.
Then again, I had a
lot
of hair and that seemed to keep Aspen pretty tied up.
“Okay, I think you’re ready to rinse,” he informed me after a few minutes of lathering.
I set the soap on the ledge and leaned my head on his shoulder. “Feels
so
good. You have to do the front a bit.”
“Uh-huh,” he murmured, and now that I wasn’t directly under the water, I could see he wasn’t paying attention to my hair even if that’s where his hands were. Oh no, he was staring at my tits. I moved against his hands and his cock brushed my ass. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I waited a few beats and then pushed where I’d wanted to go anyways. “So you guys—you know,
can
with humans, right?”
He coughed and let go of my head, stepping back, but then realizing there was nowhere to go and grabbing my hips to steady us both. “Sex?”
“Yeah, sex,” I chuckled, tilting my neck and smirking at him. “You know the performances you guys were so big on giving me when we met. Are you shy
now
, Aspen?”
“No, just wasn’t expecting the question.” He cleared his throat and pushed his wet hair back out of his face. “Yes, we can have sex with humans, of course.”
I rolled my eyes at him and gestured to his cock. “Yes, I see the anatomy would fit well.”
“Jesus, Cara,” he hissed as his dick twitched as he glanced down at it and where it would go if we did have sex.
“I mean is there anything that would be different? Do you guys have orgasms easier than human men or knock women up faster? Anything like that?” I leaned my head back to wash out the shampoo and moaned—maybe slightly excessively—as the water rinsed it out.
“Um, we move faster, so maybe it’s more intense, but elves don’t get diseases, so yeah, none of that. And we can’t conceive besides with other dark elves, not even light elves. I’m not sure what else.”