Page 5 of Incoronate
He studied me for a long moment before finally nodding. “Okay. We’ll stop for tonight. Let you get some rest.”
“Agreed,” said Dominic as he finished off the last of his drink and then set his glass down on the table. “Tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll have ample opportunity to get to the bottom of this then.” A dark look crossed his face as the corner ofhis mouth pulled into a faint, knowing curve. “One way or another.”
Right. It was the ‘another’ part I was worried about.
Because Dominic never made promises he didn’t intend on keeping.
2.CLOSE QUARTERS
The fog had already started to roll in by the time I reached my bedroom. I could see it from the window, drifting across the estate in slow-moving waves that seemed to swallow everything in their path. The gardens, the tree line, the world beyond the gates, all of it disappearing into the thick white haze. It felt fitting, somehow, as though the night itself was doing the one thing I couldn’t.
I pressed my fingers against the cold glass and turned away, my eyes immediately landing on my bed. It was still unmade in the middle of the room, the pillows scattered across it and the sheets twisted and half-draped off the mattress where we’d left them. I was sure I could still see the faint impression of bodies lingering in the fabric, just waiting for me there like a confession I hadn’t meant to leave behind.
The sight of it made my stomach drop.
All the things they’d said to me…all the things we’d done.
How much of it was real?
The question lodged in my chest, coiling tight until I could barely pull in a full breath. What ifnoneof it had been real? The pull, the certainty, the way our bodies had fit together too easily in the dark. What if it was all nothing more than the consequences of William’s spell and we’d just been too desperate to see clearly; too caught up in what we wanted to question what was actually being done to us?
I’d trusted it in the moment. Trusted the way being with them had felt inevitable and right rather than impulsive. But inevitability looked completely different tonight.
Everything did now that William’s voice had worked its way under my skin.
The door to my bedroom opened, but I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Trace and Dominic. Their presence instantly filled the room, lighting up every nerve in my body with their proximity. They moved through the space without hesitation, their footsteps easy and familiar, as though they’d walked this floor a thousand times before.
As though they truly belonged here with me.
I cleared my throat and faced them. “How did it go with Gabriel?” I asked, needing to focus on something besides the way their closeness made my pulse race.
“He wasn’t happy about being left out of that conversation,” answered Trace as he walked around me and crossed to the far side of my bed. He seemed far more relaxed now that I was fully conscious and back on my feet again. “I thought he was going to rip us a new one right there on the spot.”
I grimaced at the visual.
After we’d wrapped up in the living room, Trace and Dominic had gone down to the basement to fill Gabriel in on everything that happened. From the sound of it, the conversation hadn’t been pleasant for anyone involved and I was glad I missed it. Not that I could blame Gabriel, especially since he was stuck on Jacqueline duty tonight, working tirelessly to pull her back from the blood bender she’d spiraled into.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that too was a consequence of the spell.
Jaqueline had definitely never been mother of the year. Then again, being a Revenant didn’t exactly lend itself to warm maternal instincts. But she’d never done anything like this before. She’d never disappeared for days without a word when she knew we were relying on her, or left us scrambling in the dark while the Order was closing in.
Had all of that just been another casualty of the spell?
“When is my brother ever happy?” drawled Dominic as he casually strode across the room, already unbuttoning his black dress shirt.
My eyes immediately betrayed me, snagging on the smooth stretch of skin revealed beneath the fabric, the familiar lines of his chest already doing far too much damage without even trying. The memory of his body moving against mine surfaced without my permission, flashes of his lips and mouth and tongue, of the way he—
Nope. Nope, nope, nope.
I snapped my eyes up to the ceiling like it was suddenly the most fascinating piece of architecture I’d ever seen, my cheeks flaming hot enough to roast a marshmallow. God, what was wrong with me? He’d barely popped abuttonand I was already cataloguing his chest like a horny librarian.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I blurted out, the words coming out faster than I meant them to, my voice pitched just a little too high to pass for normal.
Dominic paused mid-button, his gaze lifting to mine. “This…?”
“Us sleeping together,” I answered too quickly. “I mean you two sleeping with me. I meanbesideme. Like in my room.” The words tumbled out uneven, tripping over themselves on the way out as though I no longer had control of my own mouth. “I just…I don’t think we should.”
Trace frowned. “We already talked about this.”
