Page 134 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

He rushed after her, lifting his breakfast plate higher, and smacked her backside, the loud crack ripping a screech out of her.

“I swear to gods, I will take my collar andwhip?—”

“Your ass bounces so nicely,” he remarked.

Balancing two plates of golden fries, she hissed, “Do it again, and will find my collar andwhip youmyself.”

“Do not start what you are not willing to finish,” I warned her. Because Zion would undeniably be down for it. “Pants off and on your stomach.”

“No. It still hurts.” She climbed onto the bed. “Leave my butt alone. It needs its rest.”

I gave a curt nod to Zion, and we seized the plates from her, setting them on the bedside tables.

“What—”

He swiftly pulled her black sweatpants—more likehis, since she had clearly stolen the pair from his closet—down to her knees and spun her to lay on her belly. I straddled her thighs and grabbed the tub of lotion from the bedside table. “Do you trust us?”

Her back muscles rigid, she buried her face into the pillow.

The stretch of time passing in silence,tick tock,tick tock, furled around my neck like a noose.

“Little death?”

The name I had chosen for her seemed to prompt her as she relaxed, her shoulder blades smoothing out. “Yes. You know I do.”

“Assuming is not knowing.” I grazed the swell of her hip. “What is it?”

Zion pushed back the dark strands stuck to her nose. “Did someone say something that made you think badly about us? If they did, I promise I’ll sew their lips together so they can’t do it again.”

Her snort blew the loose hair from her mouth. “That’s… I don’t have the words to respond to that. Gedeon can pin you with one of his disapproving looks instead.”

Zion’s eyes crinkled in amusement at my dirty look. “He’s doing it right now.”

Her faint snicker lifted the weight off my chest. “Good. I like it when he broods.”

“That’s not brooding.” I slapped the side of her ass, and her squeal dissolved the last wisp of tension restricting my airflow. “And I do not brood at all.”

“You do,” she mumbled. “So much. You start with a glare of death, and then it morphs into brooding.”

“Even in your sleep. It’s like a perpetual state of your existence.” Zion sat back on his heels, and his sweatpants stretched around his toned thighs. The waistband sitting low on his abs called for someone’s grip to yank them down his legs and toss them aside. To bind his arms above his head and make his pelvis twitch, like it did now. To see his neck arch backward, to hear his grunts stutter, to feel him pulse in your grasp.

Someone who would not force him to burn himself in a funeral blaze.

I swallowed.

His grin widened as he met my rising gaze. “You done exploring?”

“Exploring?” Kali wiggled to twist on her back, and I lowered on her upper thighs to keep her in place. “What are you two doing back there? I assumed we were going to tell Gedeon about the game we have going on.”

“The game?” I scooped a dollop of lotion out of the glass jar.

Zion reclined on the headboard, a hand behind his head. “Whoever catches you brooding during dinner first, they’re off breakfast duty the next morning. The loser has to cook.”

So that was why they refused to help each other fix up the meals in the mornings. And why I would end up cooking with one of them while the other smugly awaited their plate. My lips quirked. “But I made breakfast yesterday.”

“We take some days off from the game. You make good scrambled eggs.” A smile was evident in her voice. “Now can I pull my pants up? Having my butt out in the open is becoming weird.”

“Do I need to remind you? Your ass is mine. So if I want to admire it, I will do so for as long as I please. If I want it spread wide open for me, you will hold it until I tell you that it has been enough. If I want to be inside, you will accept me. Your tattoo marks you as mine and includes every part of you. You mayresist for now, but youwillgive in.” Her tiny whimper was music to my ears. I rubbed my palms together to warm up the lotion and prepare for the unpleasant question I had to get the answers to. “Why did you tense up before?”