Seduction (Curse of the Gods #3)(45)

Wait—why the hell would they undress completely?

A warm palm landed on my thigh, stilling me. I’d been fidgeting, without even realising it.

“You need to sleep,” Yael told me, the gentle tone so unlike him that it gave me further pause. “And we need to feel you safe with us. Worry about the other stuff tomorrow.”

He squeezed my leg, and while I knew that it was to emphasise his words, I was struggling to find any moisture in my mouth. All I could think about was pulling my foot up along the bed to bend my knee, and whether it would force his hand to move further up my leg.

That was gravity.

Gravity couldn’t get in trouble for breaking the pact. Right?

“That was nice advice and everything,” Rome drawled, “but she’s not listening.”

“Will we restore the soul-link?” I squeaked out, trying to change the subject.

Rome rolled on to his side then, facing me. He propped his head up on one hand, staring down. He didn’t seem to be focussing on what Yael was doing, instead he reached over and slowly pulled the hem of his shirt down my body. It had ridden up a lot, and I was minus underwear, so I was about to flash my goods to the world. Again. Yael didn’t move his hand, though, so half of the shirt was back at knee level, but his half remained high on my thigh.

“We can restore the soul-link as soon as Cyrus comes back,” Rome told me, and I was briefly confused until I remembered that I’d asked the question.

I shook my head. “Is it possible to have the link returned between us six, but also keep it with the semanight stone? That way I can still have some distance … if needed.”

Yael’s hand clenched tighter around my thigh, and I started to worry that I was going to bruise.

“We’ll see,” was all he said.

I didn’t argue further. There was a time and place, and right now was neither. I was too distracted. I vaguely entertained the idea of burrowing under the blankets and pretending that they weren’t there.

Rome’s palm landed on my stomach, spanning right across it and causing me to jerk a little. “Go to sleep, Willa.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to find some equilibrium. I knew I was fidgeting again, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. Being back with my guys after so long apart had me desperate to wrap myself around them and never let go.

Heat flickered across my face, and I heard Rome mutter, “She’s going to set the room on fire again.”

Intention.

I needed to sort out my Chaos intentions before I destroyed Topia. The only problem was that I couldn’t think of what my intentions were. I just kept picturing the two Abcurses on either side of me, and wondering if they were going to take any more layers off.

“Shit.” Yael’s curse had my eyelids snapping open.

I scrambled up on the bed as my eyes flicked between the two of them. Over and over. Back and forth. Eventually, I got too dizzy to continue.

Rome and Yael were standing on either side of the bed now and I was standing on the mattress, right in the centre. I still only came to Rome’s height.

“You’re staring, Willa.” Rome lifted one eyebrow, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.

I couldn’t breathe. It was getting really hot, and it wasn’t because of my little fire accident.

It was because of my … other little incident.

“You … you two need pants,” I finally choked out. My voice sounded a little high and strained.

“We had pants,” Yael drawled. “They disappeared.”

Fuck. Double, triple … a million fucks.

They weren’t even trying to cover themselves. They were just standing there casually, and I just continued to stare. I’d seen Aros once before: that image was burned into my memories. Now I had two more to add.

“You have no sun-lines.” What the hell is wrong with you, Willa?

Rome actually laughed. Out loud. “On Topia, clothing is a formality. Most gods don’t wear much under their robes.”

It was like I had been born to live there.

“I’m going back to bed,” I decided. This was too much for my dweller brain. It was going to short out.

“At least you didn’t use fire this time,” Yael said as I slid back under the covers. “You’re learning to control the Chaos.”

Rome muttered, “She could have burned something very important.”

I wanted to be grateful that I hadn’t set fire to anything very important, and that I seemed to have developed another Chaos trick: the instant nudity trick. Unfortunately, it was hard to think about all the things I was trying to be grateful about. I needed to keep thinking about my new trick so that I didn’t have the penis gallery in my head.

Just when my heart rate was almost back to normal, I felt them shifting around on either side of the bed. I had closed my eyes only half a click ago as an act of self-preservation, but now I cracked one of them open again. I had no idea where the clothing had come from, but Yael had a new pair of pants on, and he was tossing a second set over to Rome.

I quickly closed my eyes again and took a deep, shaky breath as they settled back to the bed, their bare arms pressing in against mine. At least they had pants on, and they had left just enough warm, golden skin for me to cuddle up to.

Just as soon as they fell asleep and I was able to do it undetected.