Just Right (Bliss Peak #1)

by Shon

“…But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” — C.S. Lewis

I was lost. That much I knew for sure. Yet, I didn’t know how to undo that fact.

Hiking to the lake to celebrate summer solstice seemed like a good idea. At first.

Fuck. Was that my payback for obsessing over a fictional triad every chance I got? If I was wrong for envying Glory for having two boyfriends who were also boyfriends, then I didn’t want to be right.

This little predicament was the result of a domino effect of bad decisions, and there was really no need obsessing over things I couldn’t change now.

The rational thing to do would be to get the hell on. But there was nothing rational left in my brain after the last few hours I’d endured.

Until now, I thought someone might have been inside and they were just ignoring me, but now that I could see no-one was home, I did what I had to do.

Do you know how hard it is to break into a house when your bladder is trying to embarrass you? It was the most humbling thing I’d done in a while.

Breathtaking. Everything was so tastefully extravagant. And somehow, warm and inviting at the same time.

It always amazed me to see how other people lived.

Whoever owned this home had it made. This house was the epitome of postcard material.

And I couldn’t help the guilt gnawing at me now that my bladder was relieved and a sliver of rationality crept back to the surfa...

It was still too soon to leave. But the second I could leave, I would. Right after I wrote a note apologizing for the window.

Okay, I’d write a note for the window and the food I was about to eat.

I’d rest my eyes for fifteen minutes and then I’d be out of these people’s house. Long before they ever got home. That was the plan. A cat nap and then get the hell out of dodge. Except, I slept right through that alarm and the next time I opened my eyes it was because of the cold press of metal against my forehead.

I wish I could say this was the first time I’d woken up with a gun to my head, but I’d be lying. There was that failed robbery sophomore year of college in that dodgy off-campus apartment. Then there was the time a month after I started traveling in my van full-time when the cops woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me I matched the description of someone who had just robbed a convenience store. Neither time had been fun.

There was nothing more sobering than finding a strange woman on your couch when

There was nothing like being wrapped up in Sincere Davenport. Ten years and I’d never gotten tired of being with him…like this.

He was my partner for life, and I only ever wanted to give him everything. Whether that was a nut or the entirety of my trust fund, I didn’t care. He took care of me like no other and I would always return the favor.

I could always tell when he was into a woman because he went from zero to a thousand in half a second. Pretty women were his kryptonite. And that was apparently true even if the pretty woman had broken into our home.

The people in my life were too trusting. There was no other way to justify what happened last night.

And really, guest was a stretch. She broke in to our house and Sincere and Lorenzo were too soft to turn her away. And I saw that look in Sin’s eyes when he first picked her up. He was already halfway in love with the woman and she’d barely said two words to us.

The man was criminally easy on the eyes with the most soothing energy to match.

“You aight, love?” Honestly? No, I wasn’t okay when he called me love and looked at me like that.

And that was how I knew I needed to get the hell out of dodge. This man was very happily married and I was sitting here all giddy and flustered from a friendly smile.

The feeling of being alone in a space where everyone else felt welcomed. Of being the spare. Of being here because I was tolerated and not actually wanted.

His earthy, masculine scent clung to everything inside the vehicle and made me feel surrounded by him on all sides. How did that simultaneously rile me up and calm me down? It didn’t make sense.

God, his jawline was sharp enough to chip ice. I was sure of it as I watched the muscle at the base tick. Unlike Sincere and Enzo’s low-cut Caesars, Romeo’s hair was long on top and tapered short on the sides. And he was so fine, it broke my brain a little bit.

“What’s the name of your shop?” “Soulstice Apothecary.” A gasp left my throat. “Oh, I’ve been there! You make my favorite hibiscus tea blend.” I tried to contain some of the excitement in my voice, but it was impossible. I loved that place. I bought all my incense, teas and body balms there. It was my little monthly treat to myself.

“This is me,” I said, pointing to the blue and white van. Romeo frowned and pulled into the parking spot beside it. “This is your car?” “This is my home. But yes, I drive it too,”

As reckless as my little stunt was, the most comforting part was that I’d never seen them around town in the year that I’d lived here. And that gave me solace because it meant that I would never—ever—see those three fine ass men again.

“I know it’s crazy after meeting somebody once, but I can’t stop thinking about her.” “I met you once and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, Sin. So, I don’t think it’s crazy. When you know, you know.

“Risky why?” “Because we’re married and a lot of women don’t understand what that means when we say we want to date them.”

“Goldy is beautiful and seems very nice, but we have to be honest with ourselves and remember that some women aren’t cut out for our lifestyle. Dating two men at once, especially two who are already married, can be a lot.”

It wasn’t like I’d been oblivious to other women since we moved here. But none of them had called to me in any way. Until I met the woman who broke into our house.

And while I’d been happy with our family while we got adjusted to a new city, I couldn’t deny my body’s natural reaction to Goldyn.

She reminded me of my grandmother, down to her aggressively kind demeanor and full figure. She was everything I wanted to be as I aged: firm, kind and someone who cared deeply for people even if they were strangers.

Everybody in Bliss Peak was so damn nice it still gave me pause from time to time. Not that people were inherently cruel where I came from in New Hope, but they weren’t like this.

Then again, I guess Bliss Peak hadn’t earned its reputation as the safest place in the state for nothing, either. Before I arrived, the idea of a quaint, all-Black mountain town blew my mind.

Got damn it, why did he get to walk around looking like that? I’d never met a man more infuriatingly attractive than the one looking at me right now.

Something about the all black attire against his already inky skin was sending my whole body into a panic.

Fuck me. How was she this pretty? So effortlessly?

“You’re the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met. I love how brave you are.”

“I want people to have a safe place to just be. Get lost in a book, eat too many pastries and drink too much coffee,”

Showing up at Romeo’s shop earlier wasn’t very I’ll never see these three fine ass men again of me, but I couldn’t bear the thought of someone being mad at me.

Sincere pulled his bottom lip into his mouth, and the dimple in his left cheek sent my stomach into a fit of flutters. God, I would never get over that. I could see exactly what Lorenzo saw in this man. Too damn fine for words.

Everybody in that house of theirs was just attractive beyond anything my brain could comprehend. In three uniquely different ways too. And they’re taken.

The men in that house are off-limits, Goldyn. Stop being a bird because one of them...

Romeo didn’t get flustered. Ever. But apparently Goldyn possessed the ability to get under his skin just by existing.

I hadn’t thought this stunt through. I was supposed to be teasing him about how much Goldyn turned him on, but now I was getting turned on from how much she turned him on.