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“Thanks for coming with me tonight.”

“Thanks for letting me come.” The corner of her mouth quirks.

I lift an eyebrow. “So the Princess does have a sense of humor.”

“Sometimes.” Her eyes focus on my mouth and she adds, “Are you coming in?”

We both know that if I want to get in another deposit–or two–I could pull it off.

But the thought seems vaguely uninviting. “No.”

Verity looks over my shoulder, and I turn to see Pace standing in the doorway that leads to our suite of rooms. Unlike the maid, he’s completely unsurprised that we’re in nothing but towels. Fucker’s probably been watching us since we left Trudie’s with some jacked up cam in the SUV. “Lex is asleep,” he tells me, then lifts his chin at the Princess. “You need to prepare yourself.”

Whatever flirty vibe we had going on vanishes. Squaring her shoulders, she visibly readies herself for the battle ahead, replying, “Of course,” and ducks into her room, shutting the door.

“Thanks for the cockblock,” I say. “I had fifteen minutes.”

“You had all day to get your dick wet.” He glances down at the towel. “Although it looks like you accomplished that.”

“Shut up.” Brushing past my brother, I jerk off the towel and toss it in the hamper in the corner. I don’t want to talk about Verity right now. Tonight was unexpectedly nice, and now I’m about to unleash a beast to hunt her down like prey.

Pace’s impatience tells me there’s no time to shower, so I grab a pair of shorts, tugging them on as I walk into Pace’s lair. Effie’s cage is covered–asleep for the night.

“How long has he been out?” I ask.

Pace stretches, looking almost as tired as I do. “Thirty minutes or so.”

“So, any time now?”

Lex has a routine. He passes out, slips into REM, and once he’s in deep, he rouses, still unconscious but moving. And horny as fuck.

“He left a wound last time,” I say, sprawling out on the leather couch. “Did you see the bite mark?”

Humming, Pace nods to the bank of monitors. “I saw it on the video, but she didn’t take her shirt off yesterday when we fucked.”

“Your loss.” I think about her tits, buoyed in the water, round and soft. I run a hand through my still damp hair. “I wish I could fuck them, you know?”

He grins, tapping the keyboard. “Yeah, I know. That’s half the reason I keep her covered up. Too much goddamn temptation.”

A groan comes from the bedroom and we pause, eyes swinging to the door. “I told her we’d keep an eye out this time. Make sure he didn’t hurt her like that again.”

Pace throws me an aggrieved look, but says, “I’ll monitor the cameras.”

He flips them on, and we discover Verity is already in bed, her handmaiden nowhere to be found. She’s propped against the pillow, wearing a loose Forsyth hockey T-shirt. As much as the girl drives me crazy, she’s a team player, I’ll give her that.

“Time?” I ask.

He checks the clock. “Twelve-oh-one. ”

Preparing myself for the alter ego of my steady, controlled brother, I head to the door. “Let’s make this happen.”

My cock wakesme up early the next morning, throbbing from a very detailed dream about coming on Verity’s tits.

Sometime after letting Lex in the room, I fell asleep on Pace’s couch. He’s slumped over the desk, passed out, the screen to Verity’s room still pulled up. Knowing my morning wood isn’t going to let me go back to sleep, I rise, stretching my arms over my head, and move behind Pace to check the feed.

Verity and Lex are also both dead to the world, tangled up in the sheets of the massive bed. It’s hard to get too detailed from the camera view, but I can see the rise and fall of Verity’s chest, and the twitch of Lex’s exposed foot. They both survived.

Passing Effie’s cage, I lift the sheet and offer her one of the little treats Pace keeps nearby.