Her grin was wolfish when she caught me staring. “Didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun now, did ya?”
I laughed, surging up from the bed to pull her into my arms. She hugged me back tightly and my own enthusiasm seemed to upset our precarious balance, which was made much worse when Clarin tossed another item of clothing at me and it smacked against my face, obscuring my vision. We tumbled into a pile and Clarin came back out of the closet to investigate our muffled laughter, shaking his head as he pulled us both back to our feet.
“Strip,” he commanded, deliberately raising his voice so that the three volatile males waiting out in the hallway could hear him.
I gave him a warning look and shrugged off my cardigan and scarf.
“Do it slower,” Clarin suggested, his voice still raised as Poison slapped a hand over her mouth to curb her laughter. “Put a little bit of a wiggle into it. C’mon, mouse, strip like you mean it.”
The door suddenly swung open, colliding with the wall in a bang. Quillan, Noah and Cabe spilled into the room, moving straight for Clarin. I quickly jumped in front of them, trying to prevent Clarin’s handsome face from getting punched, but Quillan only picked me up by the arms and handed me to Noah, who veritably tossed me to Cabe. Cabe set me down, and I ran back to Quillan just as he reached Clarin, catching his arm.
“He was kidding, jeez!”
Quillan wasn’t slowing down, so I quickly jumped between them, unfortunately getting flattened in the process. Clarin took a rapid step backward, his laughter shaking my body as he pulled me with him. He grabbed my arms and raised me up before Quillan, giving me a gentle shake.
“Look! She’s still clothed! It was a joke!”
“Stop. Touching,” Noah growled, ripping me away from Clarin and handing me off to Cabe again.
This time, Cabe didn’t let me go. He had obviously caught onto the joke the fastest, because he didn’t look angry anymore. He rolled his eyes at me in what seemed to be commiseration, but tucked me under his arm securely, keeping me prisoner until the others managed to calm themselves down.
Quillan took the longest, and I could tell that he was internally wrestling with something. I felt that I understood it, even if I couldn’t successfully label it. I had been confused over our relationship too, especially before the bonding with Noah and Cabe, especially before Silas had been weakened and the bond had released him from being a conduit. I wasn’t confused about my feelings for Quillan anymore—I was perhaps unsteady in my feelings, but I wasn’t confused.
The problem was, he didn’t have the luxury of knowing my head. He hadn’t been through my epiphany with me, and my bonding to Noah and Cabe hadn’t changed his outlook as it had changed mine.
He was still confused, and it was playing on him more viciously with every passing moment.
“That’s enough guys,” I said gently. “Fun’s over.”
“Fun’s never over,” Poison countered, drawing everyone’s attention to her. She was still dressed like a stripper.
“Er… we’ll wait outside again.” Cabe released me and dragged the other two back into the hallway.
“Sorry.” Quillan sighed the apology to Clarin more than spoke it, but Clarin graciously accepted it all the same, with a good-natured chuckle.
“Now that the chaperones have been whisked away again,” he said, clapping his hands together. “It’s time to turn you into a fancy-ass slu—”
“Clarin!” Noah growled through the door.
Clarin let out a gleeful cackle that clearly indicated his sadistic nature, and then he was silently motioning for me to finish undressing. I puffed out a frustrated breath, because I couldn’t quite decide whether to hit him or laugh at him. He forced me to change into a pair of skin-tight leather booty shorts and a corset-styled top in a dark blue colour, with cute little pink bows lining the bottom of it. The very contradiction it presented had me laughing as I pulled on the knee-length, kitten socks and powder-blue heels that Poison tossed at me. The last item handed to me was a leather garment that covered my arms like a short cardigan; it was secured over the front of my chest with a few buttons, though it ended an inch or two above my corset.
“This is a strange combination,” I remarked, staring down at myself.
I didn’t quite know where to look or what to think. There was a good amount of skin on show, and yet… there wasn’t. A bare inch of cleavage peeked above my corset before disappearing behind the leather cover-up, and only the tops of my thighs were bare between the shorts and my socks. Only a small stretch of my lower back was visible, along with my hipbones and a hint of my stomach. It was a contradictory outfit. A sarcastic outfit. Its innocence made it so much less innocent.
“I know, I know,” Clarin’s eyes sparkled, “I’m just that good.”