“You wouldn’t take no for an answer.” That dangerous smirk played across Dorien’s face. “You kept yelling that if the ghost of Manderley came for you in the night, you needed some big strong men to sacrifice while you escaped out the window.”
“You were quite forceful,” Ivan added. “It was hot as fuck.”
I moaned again, my cheeks burning with heat. “I thought that was a dream.”
“The best kind of dream.” Dorien sat up, sliding his legs off the bed. His rumpled curls flopped over his face, and I went weak at the knees… from the hangover or his hotness, I couldn’t say. “Hey, so we need to talk. About serious stuff.”
“No serious before coffee.” I bent down to pick up my jeans from where I’d thrown them on the floor. Big mistake. My stomach did not approve of bending.
Dorien’s fingers circled my wrist, and he pulled me into his lap, brushing my hair from my face. His fingers against my skin were like a healing balm. “This thing that we’re doing, Sprite, it’s not a one-time thing – not if you don’t want it to be. You’re a Muse girl now.OurMuse girl.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t Titus have to agree to that?”
“Oh, Titus agrees. He’s going to be pissed he wasn’t here. He’s been wanting to ask you out since the start of the year.”
What?“He has not.”
“Mmmhmmm. He didn’t make a move because he thought I laid claim to you.”
I slapped his hand from my cheek. “This isn’t the Dark Ages. I make my own decisions, and I’m not some object to fight over.”
“I never doubted it.” Dorien’s hands skimmed my thighs, drawing circles on my back. Even through the haze of my hangover, it felt so good to be touched by him. “That’s why we’re not fighting. The three of us share everything, so why not share our girl? You don’t seem to mind – for a straight-laced music geek, you turn into a lioness in the sack.”
Ivan shuffled over, taking my hand and knitting his fingers in mine. “What Dorien is trying to say in his usual dicksome way is that we never wanted to hurt you. We did horrible things because we didn’t believe we had a choice.”
“You still did them.” I pressed my hand to my temple, trying to stop the rush of bad memories from flooding my head, in case they made my brain leak out my ears.
“Yes. And we know we have a ton of groveling to do before you forgive us.” Dorien rolled my nipple between his fingers, and I bit my lip to stop the moan from escaping my lips. “How does a morning orgasm sound?”
“Dorien.” Ivan frowned, his voice thick with warning.
Reluctantly, Dorien pulled his hand away. The storm crept in the edges of his eyes. “Right. Serious stuff first. You’re our Muse girl, Sprite, and we’ll protect you. But we’ve got to keep this secret. We have to continue to bully you.”
I stiffened. “Why?”
“Back in the library, I was trying to tell you Madame Usher wants you gone from Manderley. She came to me before you arrived, and said that Master Radcliffe had insisted you become his student, but she felt your background would be too much of a handicap. She mentioned her affair with your father, and how chins would wag in the music community. She said she couldn’t go against Master Radcliffe, but made it very clear you needed to be driven away. Since then, I’ve heard her change the story.”
“That’s… either she lied to you then, or you’re lying to me now.” My chest tightened. “Madame told me she kept an eye on my career since I left her school. My invitation came from her, not Master Radcliffe.”
“She lied to one of us. That doesn’t surprise me. I just don’t know what that means.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. This was too much to deal with right now. I couldn’t process this with hangover brain. “Why did you agree? It can’t be because of your family—”
“She holds the sword of Damocles over my head,” Dorien growled. “Over all our heads.”
“People we care about are in danger if we don’t do as she says,” Ivan added.
Like Elena,I guessed. But that made no sense. What could Madame Usher possibly do to Elena with Ivan always in her shadow? And what power did she have over Dorien? It had to do with what Dorien told me about his family, but that didn’t make sense – beautiful, wild Dorien who never gave a fuck what anyone thought. He wouldn’t let Madame own him over that secret.
“Are you going to tell me what she has on you?”
Dorien shook his head. “Greedy girl. You already have our hearts, don’t make us give you our secrets, too.”
“For now, it’s safer for you to live in ignorance.” Ivan squeezed my fingers.
“I think – although I can’t prove it – that she’s behind all the weird things we can’t explain. None of us smashed your violin or paid that homeless guy to hurt your mom. But I can’t figure out how she did those things, either.”
“And there’s this, too.” I fumbled on the nightstand for theGrimm’s Fairy Talesbook. As Dorien frowned at the inscription, I explained about the night I found it.
