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As much as Envy could get used to Sorrow huddling in his arms, he bolsters her chin and tilts her face toward his. “You can cry all you like in front of me.” He swipes a tear with his thumb. “In every way.”

She matches his position, cupping his face and studying it. “I think…so can you.”

What’s happening to them? What is this?

The boat coasts on its own. Stars and cliffs rise over the fern trees, banked by clouds as sheer as organdy.

They need to laugh. Preferably, they need to expedite that.

“So, you’re seduce-able.” Envy quirks his brows. “And I’ve still got it.”

Sorrow blurts out a watery laugh. “Bragger.”

“You’re worth bragging about.”

“Do I really intimidate you?”

What’s the use? She’s already ruined him ten times over.

He closes her robe, hiding all that yummy skin and tying the sash. “You always have,” he admits, forcing himself to meet those half-moon eyes. “My most embarrassing moment was with you.”

It’s her turn to freeze, right before she reels back. “You’re lying.”

“I’d call it denial. Does that count?”

“What do you mean, it was with me? Tell me or go to hell.”

“According to Malice, the weather is reportedly fantastic in hell.”

“Malice is a part-time lunatic, despite his heart of gold.”

Her glare refuses to let Envy off the hook. Blowing air, he grabs his t-shirt and puts it back on, whisking it over his head. “You were the only one I ever failed to impress. Even Love, who wanted to punch my lights out on several occasions, even she caved once or twice, forgiving my sly remarks.” He grabs Sorrow again. “But not the Goddess of Sorrow. You intimidated me, you were my embarrassing moment, and I was jealous of you ever since.”

“That’s impossible!” she protests.

“Oh, lucky me. I’ve gone and felt an impossible thing.”

“You know what I mean,” Sorrow amends, slapping his thigh yet allowing him to catch her hands and thread their fingers. “When? What did I ever do to you?”

Envy stares at Sorrow until her pupils widen, a blush lancing across her cheeks. “You can’t be serious.”

“Can’t I? I’m glad you cleared that up for me.”

“We were young. We hadn’t even come of age yet!”

An ugly god is easy to spot.

He props her atop his lap, her thighs straddling his waist. “Adolescent memories with sharp edges fuck us up. Lately, I wonder—and really, I should verify this with Wonder—whether I haven’t been jealous about anything since, because I’m still hung up on the first time. I’ve based a long life on a small moment.” His palms sneak into the naughty gap of her robe and link around her middle. “I can’t resist comparing myself to everything you say and do, measuring myself up against it.”

Sorrow’s eyelids hood as he traces her hipbones, then the dip of her tailbone. “I don’t know what to say,” she admits.

“Don’t try,” he mouths against her lips. “I’d rather leave you speechless. If it helps, I’m starting to like being jealous of you, being intimidated by you, being inundated by you, being offended by you. So perhaps you started showing me pain a long time ago.”

Her head cants backward when he grazes her shoulder blades with his nails. “Maybe you started showing me pleasure a long time ago, too. Except not like this.”

The boat rocks, bumping their pelvises together. Envy’s cock responds, lurching to the sky, just as it had before she’d begun to weep. “If that’s true, we’ve been building to a crescendo,” he says, nipping the soft concave under her earlobe. “I tried, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to stop.”

“Neither do I,” she says.