“Start your new life out with a bang. Again, interesting choice of words,” Ezekiel states with that same infuriating expression.
“I get my fantasy,” I go on, not letting him deter me, since my time is very limited for how much longer I can hold the new form back.
“All the things you’ve done to coerce a woman—”
“Seduce a woman,” Gage interrupts, smirking. “Not coerce.”
“—into bed with you,” I continue, not acknowledging the interruption. “I get that. All of it. Everything I’ve had to watch over the past five years.”
“Five years? Before we even get sex? I can’t even count the number of women who’ve been in here in that span of time,” Kai growls, as though I’m ludicrous.
I open my mouth to speak, but Jude waves his hand. “No need to recite the number, comoara tr?d?toare,” he says, his accent subtly shifting to one I can’t pinpoint on the last two words.
“What did you just call me?” I ask, then shake my head when I remember I’m on a timer here. “Never mind. Not the important part,” I go on calmly.
“I want five-and-a-half years of seduction, and not just the touching kind. Roses. Jewelry. Fancy dinners. All of it. I want the same amount you did for them crammed into the limited amount of time we have.”
“High maintenance little piece of ass, aren’t you?” Kai asks with an eyebrow arch.
I point a finger at him. “You’ll be lucky if you get to do more than watch. I’m the one getting to be selfish in the bedroom, while selflessly risking my life for you and following around your ungrateful asses.”
Another flicker that I force back has me taking a deep breath, that fortunately helps to calm me. Bonus.
The other three guys just grin over at Kai.
“It’d almost be worth it just to see you suffer,” Jude states, his grin growing.
Kai snarls at him, and then turns his glare on me.
“You’ll change your mind.”
“Highly unlikely,” I dutifully point out. “If you want to touch me while I protect you, because I’ll be protecting you regardless, then you need to remember how very important it is to woo me. The sex will happen naturally and at my speed, while the wooing continues in between bouts of it. And I’ll let you do almost anything to me. As long as my fantasies get put out for me as well.”
“We’ve had a taste. What happens if you leave and we start losing our minds the way E did already?” Gage asks, a very scary look on his face that has me questioning my confidence. I’d say it had me questioning my sanity, but that went years ago.
“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to touch her for that very reason,” Jude points out as though he’s being reasonable and accusatory in the same breath.
“You felt it. You went after her too,” Gage tells him without looking away from me.
“You were just too slow,” Kai adds, smirking as he darts a taunting look toward Jude.
Jude’s jaw clenches, and he forces his eyes back to me. “I take it back. It wouldn’t be almost worth it. It’s definitely worth it. Sign me up. Tell me how many fucking roses or bracelets you want. Who gives a damn if we’re stuck with you for all eternity? As long as Kai suffers, I’ll sign eternity over.”
Kai flips him off, and I give Jude a dubious look, even as I flicker in and out of flesh, working even harder to force it back this time.
“If it is a long-lasting issue, which I highly doubt, we’ll find out how long you can be without me, and I’ll return at the end of that span. No touching during those times,” I quickly add. “My body like this works just fine in reeling you in from that mad edge. We can go on without ever crossing a line again, and I can be loyal to my one true love.”
“I’m sure he’d be just fine with you coming to see your real-girl-christening quad every so often so we can get our fix,” Kai states flatly.
They truly are exasperating.
“I rescind the offer. You’re making it too complicated.”
I turn to leave, and Gage darts in front of me, passing through me, and causing me to lose my hold for a moment.
He immediately pins me against the wall, and for the first time, I feel trapped, unable to simply pass through him. His eyes drift over my face as he lifts a hand and fingers a lock of my hair.
His other hand fists against the wall like it’s taking a concentrated amount of effort not to touch me in any other way. I finally manage to force the form back, and his hand slips through my body, ghosting those tingles throughout me that has me straining twice as hard.
I stay in my place, even as he continues to loom over me.
“Uncomplicate it,” he says, even though it looks like he hates the words.
“I know nothing else about this world than the four of you. Outside of my fantasies, I don’t even know what goals are to be had. I’m asking you to take care of me in all ways, and ease me out there. I can’t tell you how many times I was tempted to give into the fade, to stop fighting so hard for so little. I didn’t survive this long just to fall into the world with blinders on and get myself killed before I get to live. The tradeoff is me and my devout protection, though as I said, you’re protected regardless.”
“Sounds very meager as far as comparisons go. If you’re protecting us regardless, despite the fact we’ve survived just fine for many, many years without you, then all we really get is to sex you up and fulfill your fantasies,” Jude states dryly.
A hint of a grin forms on my lips.
“Gage was only with Ezekiel. They could have both taken me, if you know what I mean,” I state with dark humor in my eyes.
Kai’s smile falters, and Jude’s eyes narrow.
“I could have had her too, and there was no one in the room besides me,” Kai grinds out, cracking his neck to the side.
I hold Jude’s gaze as I remind him, “You can’t have any other girl without each other in the room. Except me. You can have me individually, and share when you want to share. That’s the tradeoff.”
His entire expression blanks, like he doesn’t want me to see anything in his eyes or his features to clue me in on where his mind goes. Kai shoves Gage away, taking his place as he gets in front of me.
“What’s my incentive if you’re icing me out?” he asks coldly.
“Work for it, and who knows, maybe I’ll let you have me too,” I say with a false bravado that wavers on the end.
Sheesh, he’s really gorgeous when that intense stare is on you because he wants what he can’t have. It has me questioning just how weak I might actually be once this thing gets started.
He pushes off. “I’m not in,” Jude finally says with a shrug. “Individually, we’ll get greedy, selfish, even combative. Look at what happened to E. I say we stick to how things have been, and you learn not to be in front of us in flesh. Otherwise, we’ll ask you to leave permanently. If you stay, that precious life of yours might just end before it truly begins.”
It’s always Jude who cuts the deepest. I’m not sure why I keep expecting anything else.
It’s like it sobers all of them, and I see the renewed determination in their eyes.