Magic of Three by Jenna Castille Page A

maybe she’d been living in this city too long. People getting on her nerves. Needed a vacation. That kind of thing.
     
    No one was after her. No one had a reason to be.

 
    Chapter Eight
     
     
     
    For Julian, the piped-in bubble gum pop music and clangs and grunts of his fellow iron pumpers faded to a buzzing annoyance as the two women walked in the gym, causing quite a stir with the men pounding away around him. A whipcord mass of energy with golden-blonde hair sporting blue and pink streaks, followed by a platinum-haired bombshell who’d look perfect gracing the pages of a Forties pin-up magazine. A more different-looking pair becoming close friends he couldn’t imagine. But they fit together, complemented each other. Were perfectly content in one another’s company.
     
    Julian’s heart swelled in his already tight chest at the sight of her sparkling smile. Lisa Harrington. His Third.
     
    She laughed, tossing her head back and letting the joy spill from her lush mouth as the silky silver curtain swished around her shoulders. Seeing her so filled with bubbling happiness after years of being haunted by the image of pain and betrayal shining in her eyes melted Julian’s frozen soul. Where Tim had chiseled a place for himself through the ice, Lisa thawed the final shards.
     
    Their Catalyst, the loyal and loving woman to fill those empty nooks and crannies in their lives, stood close enough to touch.
     
    His jaw clenched as he watched other men avariciously eyeing the two making their way to the treadmills. With two such perfect specimens of scantily clad womanhood, he couldn’t blame them for staring. But no one had the right to look at her with such lust. She belonged to him and Tim, as she had so many centuries before.
     
    He simply needed to get her to admit to that, to come back to them.
     
    But to start he had to get to know her, this new version of her. Lisa Harrington. With a loud metallic thunk, he dropped the bar of the machine he’d been working for the last twenty minutes. He turned, wiping the sweat off the bench and snagging his water bottle before making his way to the aerobic machines. He slid onto the treadmill next to Lisa as she started a brisk, eye-catching jog.
     
    He faked a double take as he programmed his own routine into the machine. “The owner of CM,” he said with just the right mixture of surprise and pleasure. “No annoying customers to deal with today?”
     
    With a start, Lisa missed a step in her stride, her treadmill giving a protesting, mechanical cough. On the other side, her friend leaned over, looking him over with a flirtatious grin.
     
    After her friend reached over to nudge her and give her a pointed look, Lisa finally met his gaze. Julian smothered a smirk as a deep red blush blossomed across her face and neck before she jerked her head forward. “Uh, no,” she managed to mutter. She clicked up the speed, taking a quick swig of water as her feet stumbled into a swift gait.
     
    “Good to hear,” he replied. For a fleeting moment he wished he were more like Tim, wished he knew at least what she was feeling if not what she was thinking. He couldn’t let Lisa bury herself in her routine, ignoring him. But he couldn’t read her or project his feelings at her, forcing her attention. How could he make her acknowledge his presence? “I’m glad we were there, though. I hate it when people like that get away with throwing their weight around and intimidating people into giving them what they want.”
     
    “Yes, thank you,” came Lisa’s clipped reply.
     
    Julian relaxed into his stride. It seemed he and Tim had made an impact, if only in rendering her speechless. Her vibrant friend, on the other hand, had no such speech problem.
     
    “Hi, I’m Janice Thompson,” the feisty tricolor-haired woman called out across her friend. Her smile brightened the room, not unlike Tim’s effect. A woman who knew her power and wasn’t afraid to use it. “How do you