Page 388 of Knox Academy Omnibus
Amelie
As Sawyer trails kisses up my neck, I arch my back and push my ass into his crotch.
“As much as I like where this is going, we need to wake up. The board is meeting in an hour, and you need to get the guys up.”
I groan, “Why me? You wake them up and I’ll sleep longer.”
Sawyer smiles against my neck. “Because they like you better than me.”
“Fine, you go and organise coffee.”
Sawyer crawls out of the fort, and I move and position myself between the twins first. Lying on my back, I run my fingers over their abs. Onyx is the first to groan his annoyance. Slate’s hand comes down on top of mine and one of his eyes opens. I grin at him, and he rolls to his side.
“Unless we’re continuing this, you need to stop,” Onyx’s raspy voice comes from beside me.
Group sex is amazing, but time consuming, last night again proved that. Sawyer still isn’t sold on the idea, though after lastnight I know the idea is growing on him. I’m sure he’ll be happy when life gets back to normal, or as normal as it can be now that I’m the boss of a secret organisation.
“No time, we have to meet with the board and you need to get up.”
“There’s always time for a quickie,” Kalen quips, now awake. He stands and gets caught in the blanket fort, and Onyx snorts at his brother as he waves his arms and they also tangle in the fairy lights. We all burst out laughing as the fort comes crashing down around us. Slate, Onyx and I crawl out, while Kalen becomes fully tangled and falls to the ground flopping around like a fish out of water.
“Are you going to help him?” I ask the twins as they continue to laugh. I rush to Kalen’s side.
“Stop moving so I can help get you out,” I chastise.
“I can’t breathe! I like it kinky as much as the next guy, but asphyxiation is not my kink.”
I chuckle as I help pull the fort cover from around his body. Only Kalen could do something this complicated from a simple scenario. Knocking down a fort is easy to do, getting himself trapped between fairy lights and material is all Kalen. After a few minutes we get him free and he jumps to his feet.
“Why is everyone still standing around?” Sawyer asks, looking around the room. A brow raises, he opens his mouth but thinks better of it, shakes his head and looks back to me with a coffee in his hand. I close the distance between us and take my coffee, kissing his cheek in thanks.
“You three get dressed, we are leaving in half an hour. Amelie, you look amazing in that little silk number but I’m not sure the board will appreciate you walking in there with red lipstick smeared on your face and ‘I was fucked five ways from Sunday’ hair.” I snort, handing Sawyer back the cup of coffee after taking a sip. I find my garment bag and go straight to thebathroom. I have the world’s fastest shower but I don’t have a shower cap available, so I’m going to have to put my hair up into a tight bun to look professional. Sawyer wasn't joking about the lipstick, I looked like a hot mess. A thoroughly fucked hot mess nonetheless.
The upside to having to wear power suits is Elsie buying them for me, so I practically have one in every colour. Today I opt for a Khaki suit with white heels with a thin strap over my toes and around my ankle. I keep my makeup neutral. I don’t want to threaten these men today. They have served The Order and deserve respect, especially since we are pulling the rug out from underneath them.
Within half an hour we are all suited up and ready to go. Sawyer drives us to HQ, Frost and Cap follow behind us. We will be on edge until Harold is found but God knows how long that will take. If he has gone underground we have Buckley's chance of ever finding him.
Nerves swallow me whole; my leg bounces and I can’t stop rubbing my face. At this rate I’ll have no makeup left on my face – luckily I only used a BB cream. I got my father’s skin and it’s free of blemishes. A quick touch up will fix that. Sawyer pulls into an underground parking lot and we all get out.
“Okay, so I will take Amelie into the board meeting, you three will go to my office and bring all the new board members down and wait outside. I have all the votes we need to create a new board, so this won’t take long.”
We separate at the end of a long corridor, Sawyer scans an ID card and a set of doors slide open. My heart is erratic as the men inside stare back at me. My father, Dirk and Monty all smile at me. Baxter’s grandfather doesn’t look impressed that he has to be here and Baxter can’t be here by proxy. I swallow nervously under his stern stare.
Maggie’s grandfather looks like he may die before the end of the meeting, he has an oxygen tube attached to his face and his eyes struggle to stay open. It makes my heart hurt. Where’s the compassion? I’m starting to think the ‘blood in, blood out’ rule may need to be revisited. Forcing this guy to keep working until he meets his maker just seems cruel and unnecessary. I don’t intend on becoming like him and I know for a fact that my guys wouldn’t want to see their dad like that either.
The sneers come from The Twins’ and Sawyer’s family seats. I have never pushed for information on why they don’t associate with their families. I just figured it came down to history and that they’d tell me the entire story once they were ready. I can’t help but be curious as to how Monty came to adopt them, or the reasons why.
I have a speech prepared. Until last night I didn’t know I needed to say anything but apparently it has to come from me. Sawyer has to leave the room. He nods his head at his father and leaves to wait outside.
I take my spot at the head of the table. Everyone stands, except Maggie’s grandfather but I doubt he could even if he wanted to.
“You can all be seated.”
They all sit and I look around the table.
“I want to thank you all for being here today and start by saying that I’m grateful for all your years of dedication to The Order. That will not go unrewarded.”
Someone snorts.
