Page 68 of Shadowed Bond

I smile softly as I use it, spraying it over myself. “Smart,” I say.

“I can be smart sometimes.”

“The key word being sometimes,” I tease.

Suddenly the door handle rattles and we both still.

“Ares?” Renji’s voice comes through the door, far too amused. “You alive in there, brother?”

I close my eyes. Goddess, kill me now.

Ares does not even look embarrassed, only irritated.

“Go away,” he growls.

“We’re already eating dessert,” Renji informs him.

“Then eat it; the fuck do I care?” Ares replies, as he combs his fingers through my hair, kissing me lightly.

“Everyone’s wondering where you are,” Renji adds in a sing-song voice.

“No, they’re not,” Ares scoffs.

“We are, actually,” Carter’s voice comes.

Ares shakes his head, walking towards the door, when I grab him by the arm, stopping him.

“Now what?” I whisper. You cannot open the door with me here!

He leans closer, voice rough near my ear, his lips grazing my lobe. “Get used to it. I’m fucking you everywhere.”

Heat floods through me so fast I almost moan. His hand tightens briefly at my waist, and despite the embarrassment, even though his brothers are outside the door and clearly enjoying this far too much, something in me warms.

I turn my head enough to look at him. “Everywhere… I’ll hold you to it,” I whisper.

His eyes flash, but the door rattles again.

“Go the fuck away, or I swear I’m going to kill you,” Ares growls, but both his brothers simply snicker.

It takes me another two minutes to fix myself well enough to return to the dining room. My hair is mostly in place, my dress is acceptable, and my cheeks are only slightly flushed.

Ares, of course, looks completely unbothered as he unlocks the door and steps out first.

Renji and Carter are standing in the corridor, both smirking.

Jayce stands a little farther back, arms crossed, mouth curved faintly.

Ares looks at them. “What?”

Renji’s grin widens. “Nothing.”

“Say it.”

“No, I value my life.”

“First smart thing you’ve said today.”

Carter looks past him to me, and I give him the kind of icy look that has made many men rethink their choices.