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“Agreed. Let me stand you up so we can get your clothes back on right. You’re starting to shiver.”

“You’re completely naked. Why aren’t you shivering?”

“I don’t think the cold bothers me as much as it bothers you.”

“My owl is used to cold climates. I should be fine, too.”

“I don’t know how that works. I think snakes hibernate in the cold, or something, but Dev doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

She was standing on one leg, and Ezra went to his knees to help get her panties and pants over her foot — that still had a black sock on it — and up her leg. He found her boot, slid it on, and then stood and watched her finish fastening her pants.

“Thank you. Someday, we need to have a talk so I know everything you were trained to do.”

“I was taught to be of service and to help where I can. I can take control of a woman enough to get her off during sex while still remaining submissive to her. Thank you for allowing me to orgasm, Miss Genie.”

Genie shook her head because she wasn’t absolutely certain she wanted to be Miss Genie, at least not during sex, but she didn’t say anything because that was a talk she’d need to have with Dev and Brooke.

She understood why she needed to remain dominant to Elijah, but she felt like Ezra was responsible enough she shouldn’t have to stay alpha in order to be safe from him.

Ezra lifted her to his hip, and she wrapped her legs and arms back around him. Her head naturally landed on his shoulder, and she let him carry her without protesting that she could walk. It felt good to let him take care of her.

“A service submissive takes care of the Top,” Ezra told her. “It’s my job to see what you need and give it to you. If I’m doing my job right, you won’t have to issue many orders.”

Genie kissed his cheek, unsure of what to say. He clearly understood she wasn’t happy with her role as Top, and that probably wasn’t the way Dev intended things to be, though she loved that Ezra knew how to make it easier on her.

Ezra stepped into the yard area and approached the huge inground pool, and Dev stopped swimming to float on his back.

“There’s a fine line, sometimes, between service submissive and service Top,” Dev told them.

Or maybe Dev was talking to Ezra. Or Genie.

She didn’t know, so she asked. “Are you telling me, or Ezra?”

“Both of you.”

“Why is Elijah on his knees, quiet, and looking as if he’s in trouble?” Genie asked.

“He was going to kill a raccoon, and Ezra stopped him just as I was about to grab his willpower and do the same. Where is your jacket?”

“I think I must have left it on the chair I was sitting on.”

He was quiet, and she got the sense he was telepathing someone. He rose out of the water and used his shirt to dry his entire body before he stepped into his underwear, his jeans, and then put his socks and shoes back on. He held onto his shirt, and stood ten feet from Elijah, his hands on his hips.

“You’re going to be punished without your brother in the room to share in your misery.”

“We’re supposed to be punished together!”

“Unless one of you intervenes and keeps the other from getting into mischief.” Dev looked to Ezra. “Unless you ask me to punish you as well, you’re in the clear.”

Ezra shook his head. “No. We are invited guests here, and our hunting privileges were clearly laid out for us. May I speak to my brother?”

Genie understood that when someone was under a sentence of any kind in the supernatural world, conversation with them wasn’t a given. Whoever was responsible for them had to give permission for pretty much everything.

“You may, though I reserve the right to stop you if I don’t feel it’s beneficial to the subject at hand.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Ezra looked down at his brother and looked sad. “Most of the time, I understand your need to buck the rules,and I can support you in it, but today? No, Elijah. Just no. If we’re to grow into the men we want to be — free and responsible and capable of finding our own happiness — then we have to be responsible. Youknowhow important hunting privileges for guests are, it’s one of the strictest laws the vampires have when visiting other territories. It’s the balance to their guesting laws. This is the giant honey badger’shome, Elijah. We are guests here, and you were about to break a serious guesting law. Hunting law. What if the raccoon was his motherfucking pet? It’d be like someone coming into our space and eating Ferocious.” He took two breaths before finishing. “So no, I won’t be sitting by your side sharing in your punishment for this one, not unless Dev or Brooke or Genie think I should, and I don’t think they will. You’ve earned whatever they decide, and I may even punch you in the face on top of it because I’mthatmad at you.”

No one spoke for a good three minutes, and Dev finally told Ezra, “I’ve told one of the guards to get some leg irons from the basement of this home. You’ll be sitting up on the way home, leg irons locked to the floor, and your hands free.”