Page 16 of Little Music of Night

Christy

The kettle sang on the stove, whistling at a brutal pitch that had me cursing under my breath as I picked it up quickly. I poured the boiling water into my teapot over the fresh leaves, set it down, and decided I’d lost it.

I’d invited the two phantoms who were stalking me to breakfast.

Two devilishly handsome phantoms.

Ray and Erik were opposites. Where Erik was dark, Ray was light.

When Erik wasn’t in his monstrous phantom form, he looked like a tall, broad-shouldered man with black hair, pale skin, and eyes that shone like oil in the sun. Glimmering with darkness, with something depraved. When those eyes met mine, a silent thrill rushed through me.

Ray, on the other hand—he made me feel safe. I didn’t know him. But Ifeltlike I knew him. He had bright green eyes, tan skin, brown hair that he could tuck behind his ears.

Both of them were transparent, and yet they could touch. Ray had held my hand, and I’d certainly felt him as if he weren’t a spectral creature.

Science had never been something I was good at. I couldn’t even attempt to understand how they were possible. But everything I knew to be true in this world had been tipped upside down in the last twenty-four hours.

And now I wanted to sleep with two masked phantom men.

What the hell was I thinking?

A soft knock echoed through my apartment and I glanced up. “Come in,” I called.

They could have opened the door. Instead, theywalkedthrough the door.Okay then. I ran my fingers through my hair, stressed that I wasn’t cut out for this. How could they be so sure I was the one? Did I even want to really date someone? Andtwosomeones?

Yes.The answer was, secretly, in the tiny box locked away in my heart—yes. It’d been far too long since I’d been touched, and Erik hadtwomonstrous cocks that I couldn’t stop thinking about last night. And Ray . . . His was unique too. I didn’t get enough of a look since it’d been dark, which was a shame. And just made me want to push both of them back into the bedroom and demand they take their clothes off.

“Good morning,” Ray chimed, beaming at me. “How did you sleep?”

Awful, because getting myself off once last night had only made me more greedy. It was like every part of my body hungered for more. “Well enough,” I said. “How’d you sleep?”

“Well—”

“Phantoms rarely sleep,” Erik interrupted.

I shivered as he neared, his dark eyes raking over me until he was close, only inches between us. I looked up at him, studyingthe way his mask clung to his features. He cocked his head, his lips pressing together.

“What is it, angel?” he asked.

He was amused. Amused by me, I guessed, though I had no idea why.

“You have questions,” he continued. “Or maybe you couldn’t sleep well because you were busy thinking about us. Wondering what it would be like for us to ravage you.”

“Erik,” Ray growled. “We should have a proper breakfast?—”

“Well, Iamhungry.”

His words hung in the air, and I wasn’t lost on their meaning or the way they made me feel.

I’d never been the kind of person who wanted to immediately jump into bed with someone. But I was a curious person, to the point that it often got me in trouble growing up. There was chemistry here, even though I felt like I was out of my depth with this whole fated mates business.

But damn it. On a basic level, I wanted him. I craved him. Both of them, in fact.

“I have work in three hours,” I said. “And will need to be presentable for that.”

“Plenty of time,” he whispered, slowly lifting his hand. He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, the graze of his fingertips making me tremble with want. “Although truthfully I think Ray would like to have you between us for far longer than that. He just wants to be a gentleman right now.”

“Is he?” I asked, my eyes darting past Erik to him.