My betrotheds shifted closer, like they could read my mind.
I should have worn a bomb.
Their hands rested possessively on my lower back—one on top of the other. Body heat burned through thin layers of silk.
I tried to inch away from their touch.
They leaned into me.
Salt and musk mixed with the scent of electricity, and I shivered.
I was standing in the middle of a hurricane, waiting for the eye wall to hit.
Kharon dipped his head to my ear. “Are you okay?” His voice was a throaty rasp.
No. I’m cheating on Carl Gauss. I’m an unloyal whore.
Memories of fingers dragging across my chest scoured my brain, and butterflies fluttered.
He tangled a finger around the one curl that hung freely down my back and tugged sharply, smirking. “Are you, carissima?” he repeated.
He’s mocking me.
I glared up at him. “No,” I whispered. “No,dearest.I’m not.”
Kharon’s smirk fell. “You will be,” he said through gritted teeth.
The pretense of civility was gone.
“No,” I said. “I won’t.”
Augustus shifted closer. “Pay attention—don’t do this now,” he whispered, glaring at both of us, black eyes flashing.
“You would say that.” I scoffed.
Fingers flexed across my spine, pressing harder into skin.
“What’s that”—Augustus ducked his head low, breath hot against my ear—“supposed to mean,Alexis.”
The ends of his silky hair brushed across my collarbone, and the butterflies exploded. Queasiness twisted deep in my stomach.
I hated the way he said my name.
Like it was a sin.
Like it meant something to him.
“Or,” Augustus whispered huskily against the shell of my ear, “should I call you—Hercules?”
A lily stem snapped in my hand.
I turned toward him. Our faces were inches apart, disconcertingly close.
“How about you call me nothing—Professor. I’m only here because you tricked me.”
Black eyes pooled into a bottomless abyss.
“You’re here because you accepted our gifts,” he said harshly. “I warned you that someone would step in with how reckless you were acting, andyouagreed that we would be the ones to take care of you—Kronos fucking knows you need the help.”
