Across the room, Akiva and Indra both watched, though their positions had reversed and Indra was straddling the lich.
“It’s my turn next, right?” Akiva asked, gaze holding mine. “Because I’m sure I heard something about all night, yes azizati?”
Chapter 21
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I woke up, but being the little spoon to Indra wasn’t it.
The hellhound had one arm pinning mine, the other wrapped under my jaw as a slightly bony pillow. He was still very asleep, If his deep breathing against the back of my neck was anything to go by.
His legs were tangled with mine as well, and it made a smile touch my lips. The hellhound was like a spider monkey.
The smile drifted away a second later. Was this moving too fast? Was I moving too fast? What kind of person had marathon sex with three men in a very solid relationship without having known them very long, whined about not wanting to make it a one time thing, and then stayed the night in their bed?
I needed Aveline for this kind of spiraling moral conundrum.
Swallowing, I tried to silently convince my heart that no, it didn’t need to speed up like we were about to run a race. That we were fine.
Indra suddenly pulled me closer to him with a sigh.
“Are you okay?” he murmured against my ear.
“Of course I am,” I lied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He didn’t answer, instead kissing my shoulder and sitting up. “I see we were left here,” the hellhound observed in dry amusement. “At least this time I had you instead of a body pillow shoved into my arms.”
I sat up as well, grinning. “They really do that?”
Rolling his eyes, Indra nodded. “They don’t need a lot of sleep, being undead and all. So they’re up more than me.” He stood up, stretching, and very kindly allowed me to silently appreciate his body.
Indra caught me staring and smiled softly. “You coming?”
“Yeah.” I got up as well, then paused. “Oh. My clothes are downstairs.” I didn’t particularly want to stomp down the stairs naked in order to get them.
Indra opened a drawer in the nightstand and pulled out a red, long sleeve shirt and boxers that he tossed onto the bed beside me, effectively ending the thought of walking downstairs naked.
I grabbed them, pulling on the boxers and pressing the shirt against my nose to inhale.
“It’s-“
“Cian’s,” I affirmed. The shirt was snug around my chest-not surprisingly-but I just needed to grab my own clothes from the floor downstairs.
Indra himself had thrown on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He looked me over and fought to hide a grin at how Cian’s clothes did not fit me.
“Want me to just grab your clothes and come back?” He asked very politely.
I considered it-Goddess I considered it-but I was an adult. I wasn’t going to have him fetch my clothes.
“No,” I said with a sigh. “It’s just for a moment. And what’re the chances that Cian or Akiva are in the living room?”
Indra, blessedly, didn’t answer. He only nodded as if to humor me and I followed him out of the bedroom.
Sure enough my clothes were still in a pile on the living room floor.
Sure enough, so was Akiva. He glanced away from the television as we came down the steps, looking me over until finally meeting my narrow-eyed glare.
“I didn’t say anything.” He rested the bowl of cereal he had been holding on his knee and raised his hands in surrender. “But if I did-“
“You didn’t. I like it that way,” I grumbled, grabbing my clothes from the floor and striding quickly to the downstairs bathroom.
My hair was a mess. It was tangled and gave me the appearance of a mane rather than normal-people hair. I finger combed it as best I could, running water through it in an attempt to get it to behave. But it only slightly worked, making me sigh. How attractive.
I did, however, feel better when I was back in my shorts and shirt from the night before, bra not included. It was too early for that, and I was too lazy.
It was an unspoken rule to leave before things got awkward, wasn’t it? When I opened the door and made my way back to the living room to make an awkward goodbye, I found my path blocked.
Cian stood in the hallway between me and the living room, a steaming green mug in his hand.
“I made coffee,” he said, but my eyes were fixed on the line of his throat, and the way his hands were wrapped around the mug. For a moment I was unable to tear my mind away from the memories of what we’d done only a few hours back and how those hands felt on my body.
“Oh?” I wasn’t sure if it was an affirmation or a question, but I stared at the mug like it could bite me.
“Unless I’m interrupting you running out the door.” He leaned against the frame, still holding the mug like it wasn’t probably scalding. Didn’t he feel the heat? Didn’t it burn?
“Uhh.” That was a bit too close to the truth and I studied the ceiling.
“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward,” Cian went on slowly. “Don’t you want to hang around for a bit? Akiva’s eating Lucky Charms, if you’d rather have that than coffee.”
I couldn’t help but grin, though I tried to hide it. I failed, and finally I dropped my gaze down to Cian and forced my stomach to unknot itself.
“I don’t like coffee,” I admitted. “But I like Lucky Charms. Will he share?”
Cian grinned. “Not willingly.” He turned and walked into the kitchen, not looking back to see if I would follow.
I did, leaning on the island as he went to a cabinet and opened it to reveal very mortal-looking
