Under Sean’s Protection by Lisa Oliver
Epilogue
Newton was drowning in papers.
He had not left his house in over a week and figured there was another four or five days of cleaning up the mess of everything that had happened since Kyle had been abducted-not-abducted.
He had filed a number of lawsuits against the council, which was not only risky, but essentially pointless, since the judges were all council appointed.
“So why bother?” Cam, his brother, asked. He was at Newton’s house, dropping off another box of files.
“Due process,” Newton said. “If I don’t file them, then it reflects badly on me. Anyone who takes a peek at the public record would later scream ‘why didn’t the Northern Territory’s lawyer do anything.’ I don’t want to be remembered that way.”
“Remembered?” Cam laughed. “Why the past tense?”
“Because, I’ll be dead by then,” Newton said. “Did you miss the part where I said I’m drowning in paperwork.”
He opened a new file folder.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he said.
“What?”
“Old Man Hyam is lodging a complaint against the council, saying they discriminated against him due to his condition.”
“Wha…?”
Newton scanned the letter. “That bastard is actually arguing that they only let him go because he was a paraplegic, and that he should’ve been detained and given a chance to defend himself properly.”
Newton took off his glasses and pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose.
“Is this guy for real? I mean, how did they even get him to go along with the plan? Last I checked he hated his son and everyone else on the planet.”
“After the council took Kyle, he apparently called Ranger and said, ‘whatever I can do’. Shaved his head and everything for it. People change, I guess,” Cam said.
“I guess.”
“Speaking of which, I gotta go and get changed,” Cam said as he walked to the door. “Big dinner tonight with the four boys and their mates. A truffle fest, apparently. Kyle insisted we all try them.”
“Wonderful,” Newton grumbled. “I’ll be fine here with another night of mac and cheese and sixteen more hours of paperwork. Don’t worry about me.”
“Never do,” Cam said with his ever-present grin.
Newton opened the new crate of files, screamed in frustration, and checked the label on the side of the box.
“Cam!”
His brother poked his head back in through the door.
“Yeah?”
“This isn’t the box of files I asked for,” Newton groaned.
“Oh,” Cam nodded. “There were two there. I guess I grabbed the wrong one.”
“I need the other one,” I swear I’m going to shoot someone before this is over.
“Can it wait ‘til tomorrow?”
“NO!” Newton barked. “Get that kid to send it over… the brother…”
“Michael? He’s back home with his mom and dad. They all went back after the pizza night.”
“Thanks for inviting me to that, by the way,” Newton said, the sarcasm obvious.
“Sorry, bro,” Cam said, and he did look sorry. That was the problem with Cam – he was sweet to everyone. Now Newton felt bad for making him feel bad. “It was all pretty hectic. I didn’t have a minute to think.”
“Well, I can’t get over to the house and back and still finish all this off,” Newton growled.
“Don’t worry,” Cam assured him, “I’ll get it to you. One way or another, it’ll be here within the hour.”
“I don’t know how that’s going to…”
“Me neither. But it will. Gotta fly!”
Newton threw the box lid across the room in frustration as he watched his brother run off, seemingly without a care in the world.
The boys and their mates!
Newton wanted to take ten minutes to feel sorry for himself, stuck in work while everyone he knew and loved had a warm body to share the night with instead of pasta and paper.
Ten fucking minutes. But no. It too would have to wait. Just like everything else.
The insult to injury was that not a single one of those beefy boys, his brother included, would know a truffle from a Twinkie.
But Newton did. He loved them and hadn’t enjoyed the unique taste for years.
/~/~/~/~/
Forty minutes later, as Newton was standing over the stove top stirring powdered cheese product into a milky noodle soup, a scent wafted across the room and made him weak in the knees. His groin was on fire, and his palms went instantly sweaty. In his aroused confusion, Newton sniffed the packet of orange dust.
Well, it sure as hell ain’t that.
As if someone were tugging on his cock, he felt pulled around and was suddenly facing the door, where a tall, muscular, and totally hot beast of a man stood holding a box of heavy files like it was nothing more than a marshmallow.
“Hey,” he said, and the sound of his voice caused Newton to start salivating. “Cam asked me to bring this over to you.”
Newton saw that this titan of a man was breaking out in a sweat and starting to shake. He’s feeling it too.
“Where would you like this?” the big man asked.
“Just drop it anywhere,” Newton said.
And he did.
The box spilled open across the floor, mixing in with the carefully stacked and meticulously organized files Newton had spent days reading, reviewing, and categorizing.
The tall and dark dream was walking towards Newton, and each was inhaling the other’s scent the closer their bodies got.
When he was about six feet away, the mountain of a man stopped and snarled his upper lip, which the lawyer took as a clear invitation. Newton leapt across the room into the towering man’s arms, and locked mouths in the deepest and wettest kiss he’d ever known.
The pot on the stove began smoking and a million pieces of paper scattered to the floor as Newton tore at the mountain’s clothes and tilted his head back to expose his vulnerable neck.
The end/to be continued
Yes, in case you didn’t guess, the next book in this series will be about Newton and his new mountain man. I am sure many of you can guess who that will be, but let me pretend I am keeping a secret a little while longer lol. In the meantime, I do hope you enjoyed this story about Sean and Kyle. As those of you who read my blog posts know, this story wasn’t easy for me to write, having been a domestic abuse survivor myself, and even after all these years it’s difficult for me to even think about writing about. Ironically, my editor told me that George was his favorite character in this story, because he was so complex – I’d be interested in knowing what you think.
What I can promise you is that there won’t be a long wait for Newton’s story. I am working on tidying up some of my smaller series so I can concentrate on some of the others I’ve started, so expect to see Newton’s Law in late August/early September. I am also finishing off a number of the “to be continued” stories I’d written for Stormy Glenn’s Manlove Fantasies, and Reggie’s Reasons will hopefully be my early August release. Although I know a lot of my readers are looking forward to Seth’s and Loki’s books in the Gods series and the sequel to Illuminate, my mind was getting too cluttered with all the stories I had sitting on the back burner, so it’s time to clear them up.
I just want to say, you my lovely readers, are who have kept me going this past eighteen months. The pandemic and the problems caused by it has changed our world in so many ways, but you have all remained steadfastly loyal. Your posts, comments, emails and messages are always so positive and I adore hearing from you all. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter, but please continue to stay safe, and share the love. Smile at a stranger, pay things forward and hug those you love as often as you can.
If you enjoyed this, please leave a review – thank you.
Hug the ones you love, often and with heart,
Lisa xxx.
