I let a slow, cocky grin spread over my lips, aimed pointedly at my brother.
“Don’t worry about it, Bijou, they’re just jealous.” Hem flashes a toothy smirk right back at me and I roll my eyes.
“Trust me, I get all the action I can handle.” I grab my dick crudely and waggle my eyebrows. I stop short of bragging about my hot date with a demon tonight. Under normal circumstances, I would happily rub his nose in every little detail, but for some reason, I don’t want him to know about Montrose. Maybe because we’re dealing with demon drama already, and it feels kind of tacky to nail one while our baby bro is hiding from another. Not that any amount of social faux pas is going to stop me from making it tonight, but apparently, it’ll keep me from gloating too loudly about it.
Speaking of Mac…
During our little verbal sparring, he slipped away from me. I whip my head around, searching the shop for him. I wasn’t kidding when I told him that he’d end up on shit lists he doesn’t want to be on if he lets his sticky fingers get the best of him inhere. Unfortunately, I’m not sure the threat of disembowelment is enough to keep him in check.
I spot him over by the far wall, studying a wall of shelves containing an array of small statues and antique knickknacks.
“Mac,” I growl a warning, and he holds both hands up without bothering to look back at me.
“Just looking,” he says.
“Keep it that way,” Hem says with a growl of warning in his voice.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t—” Dempsey starts to say, and Hem and I both bark out laughter before he can finish his sentence.
Lake’s high heels click against the wood floor as he crosses the shop to sidle up next to Mac.
“Nico tells me you’ve got a bit of a problem with taking things that don’t belong to you, baby dragon.”
“All dragons do. I don’t know why everybody is so on my case about something that’s just natural instinct. Are you all giving Arson’s new mate shit for shedding on the furniture?” Mac grumbles and stuffs both hands into his pockets.
“Yes,” I answer blandly.
“And just because it’s instinctual doesn’t mean you don’t have to make an effort to control it,” Hemingway points out. “We all have urges, we just do our best not to act on them.”
“For the love of fucking fire, if I wanted a lecture I would have run to Mom and Dad instead of you guys.” He turns back towards us and grits his teeth.
Lake reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. Mac tries to shrug it off, but Lake is way too stubborn to be dislodged that easily. He tightens his grip until I’m sure his manicured nails are digging into Mac’s shoulder through his t-shirt.
“Your brothers love you. Sometimes that means getting a little bit of a lecture. Live with it,” he says sternly.
“Whatever.” Mac jerks his shoulder again, and this time Lake lets him go. With a childish scowl on his face, he stalks out of the store.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I forgot how moody we all were at his age.”
“That boy needs a daddy to put him over their knee.” Lake says. I sputter a laugh and Dempsey makes a choking sound. Lake shrugs and smooths his hands over his suit jacket. “What? We were all thinking it.”
“Uh, no. I definitely wasnotthinking about my baby brother playing kinky sex games. Thanks for the mental image though.” I give an exaggerated shudder. “I guess I’d better go after him, seeing as how there’s a pissed off demon hunting him and he apparently swings wildly between cowering like a whelp and recklessly flipping the bird at the concept of safety.”
“Good luck with all that,” Hem says, shaking his head and grinning.
“Thanks. I’m going to need it.” I start towards the door.
“Oh, by the way, I’m reading up on demons,” Dempsey calls out before I reach it. “I figured we should have a family meeting…”
He looks around at all of us and blushes. I get why Hem fell for the shy little nerd. There’s something sweet and innocent about him that begs for protection.
“Good call. Let’s all meet for dinner at Lord’s place to make a game plan.” I leave them to sort out the details and text our brothers. I’ve got a moody rogue dragon to track down.
MONTROSE
I figuredI would hang around while the dragons visited the antique shop and wait for an opportunity to mess with thethieving twerp a little. I didn’t expect him to make it quite so easy for me though.
I’m seated on the awning over the shop door with a mild glamour around me to keep anyone from looking in my direction, swinging my feet and enjoying the warm sunlight on the soft flesh of this form. Sunshine is one of the many reasons I prefer the human realm to the demon one. It’s not the only one, of course. There’s also the abundance of mortals with all their delicious emotions, freedom from bullshit demon politics, andmuchbetter fashion. But sunshine is in the top five.
