“They’re my—” I begin, but a grinning Sin cuts me off before I can finish.
“Husbands,” he announces proudly, and Tate’s lips twitch from the other side of him. Desmond throws his head back in laughter and clasps Sin on the shoulder.
“Fuck, man.” He brushes away the stray tears cascading down his eyes. “Have a little tact.”
“You put a tack in the wall to hold things up,” Sin deadpans as he removes a cigarette from his jacket pocket. “I suppose we can consider my cock a—”
“He’s joking!” I interrupt, voice nearing a screech. “They’re just some of Avery’s friends.”
Sin’s expression turns positively murderous, as if he’s peeved that I didn’t accept his proposal of marriage, and he practically shoves the cigarette into his mouth with a disgruntled huff.
“Guys, this is Colton, Ray, and Henry,” I introduce, pointing to each man in turn.
“Hi, I’m Desmond!” He swaggers forward with his hand extended. “God of Combat.”
For the love of…
When he catches my incredulous stare, Desmond merely winks, a shit-eating grin pasted firmly in place. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he’s reveling in the chaos his words create. Sometimes, I wonder if he was misclassified. He should’ve been labeled the God of Mayhem—he’s a beautiful tornado rushing through a house, destroying everything in its wake. You can’t help but stare up at the swirling storm of dirt, wondering if this is it. If this is the moment you lose yourself to the winds.
“The big, ugly bastard over there is Helio.” Desmond points to the man in question, who merely grunts, folding his meaty arms over his chest. Unlike the others, his dark beard is in desperate need of a trim, and I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like against my thighs. Totally inappropriate time to think about that, considering my brothers are less than a foot away from me, regarding my mates with barely veiled disdain. “He’s the God of Karma.”
“Des,” I warn in a low, dangerous voice. I won’t hesitate to take my trusty baseball bat and destroy his nuts. I rather like his nuts, for your information, but I’ll break them all if he doesn’t shut the fuck up.
“I’m Arsin,” the God of Flames says with a bright smile. He extends the hand now holding his still lit cigarette. “I like setting things on fire. But that wasn’t what I got arrested for. Apparently, you need to be more careful in this realm not to leave trace evidence of your bomb when you kill someone.” He chuckles giddily, as if the memory is immensely amusing. “Who knew?”
I swear my brothers are seconds away from going into cardiac arrest. If my boyfriends give my brothers heart attacks, I’ll never forgive them.
“I’m Tate.” The last man shoves his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and rocks on his heels. When he catches my stare, he glares, baring his teeth like a feral animal. Asshole.
“So, what’s for dinner?” Sin continues, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I smell tacos.”
IT’S NOT, in fact, tacos that my brothers have prepared.
How Sin confuses homemade pizzas with tacos is beyond me, but soon, we find ourselves settling around the large dining room table. It had only been set for five, and a very reluctant and grumbling Ray was forced to grab extra chairs from the garage. It’s a tight squeeze, and I find myself nestled between Desmond and Tate. Tate is shifted as far away from me as possible, his ass dangling off the wooden seat. But the former’s knee, however, is flush against mine. Apparently, my words from earlier today penetrated that thick head of his. He’s been more touchy-feely than ever before, now that we’ve cleared the air.
But anger still thrums in the deepest pit of my stomach at the thought of Rebecca, my best friend, laying her fingers on my man.
If my memory serves me correctly, she knew exactly how much I loved each of them. She never looked at them in a way that made me think she had feelings for them. If anything, she seemed slightly annoyed and irritated whenever they were in the vicinity. On more than one occasion, she called them animals. Had I just been blind? Oblivious? Stupid? All of the above?
Her betrayal causes a lump to form in my throat, making it impossible to swallow.
“So,” Henry begins, drumming his fingers on the table. He hasn’t even picked up his slice of pizza yet, too busy glaring daggers at each of my “husbands.”
I’m so going to spank the shit out of Arsin when this is over.
“What sort of business do you do?” he queries, and I can read the question for what it is—getting more information on the men that have infiltrated his little sister’s life. Surely, if he was behind this attack, he wouldn’t be curious about something as mundane as their day jobs, right?
Fuck, I’m going to drive myself insane with the incessant questions.
“I’m a combat instructor,” Desmond replies easily, his hand dropping to my upper thigh and giving it a squeeze. I’m wearing a gorgeous red dress today, one that hangs just above my knee, so it will take very little for Desmond to push the fabric away and—
What the fuck am I doing? My brothers are mere inches from us.
Try telling that to my raging libido.
His thumb absently strokes the swath of bare skin exposed, and I can’t stop the involuntary shiver from hitting me full force.
“What does that entail?” Ray questions, finally sounding engaged with the conversation. All of my brothers are obsessed with self-defense, combat, hunting—pretty much anything that involves violence.
“I have a company I opened up a few years ago,” he answers, and the news causes my eyes to widen. How did I not know about this?
But then again, I don’t know a lot about who the guys are now. I’m assuming they retain some of the traits from the gods I met and fell in love
