“It’s probably a good thing we got interrupted that night,” Davien murmured evenly, but with a edging hardness that darkened his features. “Do you have any idea how badly we could have hurt you? What were you thinking?”
I blinked. “Are you seriously admonishing me for something I did five years ago?”
Light sparked behind his stare but not enough to dim the simmering outrage beneath it. “So, you admit it was you.”
I faltered, realizing my mistake, but it was too late to take it back now. “Fine. It was me,” I confessed, dropping my gaze.
“Wait.” Nero put a hand up. “How am I just hearing about this?”
Davien’s grin was back, haughty and sly. “I figured it out the other night when I licked your pussy. I knew immediately it was you.”
I gapped in horror. “Is there something wrong with my … does she smell or something?”
“Oh yes!” both exclaimed in unison.
“What?” Hot, mortified tears stung my eyes. I made to leap off Davien’s lap, but he caught me around the middle and hauled me back, gripping me tight when I struggled. “Let go!”
“No,” he said simply. “Because you’re misunderstanding what we’re telling you.”
Nero reached over and took my chin between his fingers. “I love your smell. It’s probably my favorite scent on earth. It drives me crazy.”
I stilled in Davien’s arms. Against my will, I sniffled, adding to my humiliation.
Nero’s features softened. “Honestly, I probably should have known it was you ages ago. I’ve been obsessed with it for years.”
“And it’s delicious,” Davien added gently. “I’ve never gone down on any girl that much in my life.”
“Really?”
Both nodded.
Some of my apprehension dissolved at the sincerity on their faces.
“But that doesn’t answer my question,” Davien pressed. “How did you get into the room?”
“The door?” I mumbled, eyeing him warily.
He gave my bottom a light but firm smack that sent a cascade of pain and pleasure rippling up my spine. “I mean, what happened to the fairy girls? They never came back.”
This was the moment I was afraid of, the moment they were going to decide I was insane and walk away, but there was no way to avoid answering when both were watching me so intently. I didn’t know how to tell them what I did or why without coming off sounding pathetic or unhinged.
“Does it matter?” I asked instead.
“A little. I’m curious myself,” Nero decided.
Unable to sit still, I pushed to my feet. Davien released me and I made my way carefully around the coffee table, holding Nero’s sheets tight around me. They watched me, and I stared at the floor, refusing to meet their gazes.
“I saw you go up with them,” I mumbled to the big toe on my left foot peeking out from under a puddle of fabric. “I saw you go into the room and I followed.”
Davien narrowed his eyes. “And?”
I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes heavenward. “I may have accidentally locked them in the bathroom.”
“Mia!” Davien gasped.
“I said accidentally!” I snapped back, cheeks hot.
“Jesus!” He burst out laughing.
Next to him, Nero was pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed, but I could just make out the slight tremors in his shoulders.
“Oh my God,” he breathed, splaying his long fingers and peering out at me through them. “Mia.”
I spread my arms out in helplessness. “I asked them nicely and they said no.”
“Wait, you asked them?” Davien sobered just enough to ask. “What did you ask?”
I bit my bottom lip. “If I could take their place. They said no, and they were not nice about it.”
“Fuck me!” Davien panted in between fits.
Nero pushed to his feet and moved towards me, lips quirked up on one side. Without breaking eye contact, he hooked a finger into the slight gap between my breasts and the sheets and yanked me to him. His strong hands slid around my waist, pinning me to his chest.
“If you had come to us that night…” he trailed off with a skim of his lips along the curve between my neck and shoulder. “In that dress, and offered yourself…”
I held my breath, waiting for his answer, but he was distracted by the pulsing vein at my throat. “Would you have said yes?” I prompted.
Both men laughed.
“No,” they said as one.
“Not a chance,” Davien added.
My shoulders stooped. “But you just said…”
Nero lifted his head and peered down at me with hazel eyes hooded by heavy lashes and amusement. “If you had come to us that night, we would have been extremely tempted, but we would have taken you home.”
“But … why?”
“Because you were still barely legal,” Davien answered for him.
“I was eighteen,” I shot back. “Fully legal in nearly every part of the world.”
Davien snorted. “A week. You were eighteen for a week and we could smell the innocence on you from a mile away.”
I frowned. “My what?”
“We don’t sleep with virgins,” Nero explained. “Ever. It’s one of the rules. We don’t mess around with that.”
I thought about everything we’d done together in the last few days and raised a brow. “You didn’t have a problem with my innocence on the train.”
“As I recall, we tried,” Davien piped in. “You were very persuasive.”
“But that night at the party…” Nero pulled in a hard breath. “It wasn’t just your innocence. Your house is on our route. We stay away from girls we collect from.”
“Another rule?”
Nero nodded. “It’s messy.”
“You have a lot of rules,” I whispered, falling upwards into Nero’s endless gaze.
“It’s what keeps us alive,” he murmured.
“Putting that aside,” Davien interjected. “I want to hear more about how you locked two fairies in the bathroom.”
I winced, having hoped he’d let it go. “That’s where they went when they left you guys in the room,” I muttered. “There was a line and they were talking about how excited they were and how fun it was going to be.” I paused to roll my eyes, still feeling the lingering prickles of annoyance years later. “I asked if I could take their place. They said no. So, I waited until they’d gone in and…” I hesitated, not sure how much of it I should tell them without sounding like an absolute lunatic.
“Go on,” Davien urged, amusement bright in the quirk of his lips.
“I snapped the doorknob off from the other side. Honestly though, it took them a lot longer than was necessary to get out. There’s a little spot—”
Nero’s mouth crashed down on mine, silencing me. It was hot and possessive. His long fingers bunched into the material of my sheets, twisting them tight and forcing me harder into the curve of his body.
“As badly as I had wanted to fuck you that night,” he snarled against my swollen lips. “I would have put you over my knee if we’d gone through with it and you’d been hurt. What you did was risky and dangerous, and—”