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“You’re not a good liar.” Nico kisses my cheek, and then down my neck to where his mate mark is.
“I know.” My eyes drift closed. The mattress dips. Castor’s rolled away—Nico, too. “I’m tired, but bath first.”
Holter wiggles out from under me and rolls off the bed. “I’ll get one ready.” I don’t know how much time has passed before he comes back. “Want me to carry you to the bath, Belle?” He leans over the side of the bed, his fingers trailing over my arm.
“Yes,” I say without opening my eyes.
“I’ll get that bath bomb you like so much from your mermaid chamber.” Eros kisses the side of my ear and rolls off the bed.
“I’ll bring her,” Nico’s voice rumbles in my ear. “In a minute, before it gets too cold.”
“Okay?” Holter’s footsteps are faint as he leaves the room.
“Are you happy?” Nico’s the only one on the pod bed with me.
“Very.” I’m waking up a little. Nico has that this-is-important tone to his voice. I pull his large forearm under my head to use as a pillow. Shockingly, it’s not that uncomfortable despite being nothing but muscle and bone.
“I’m glad. But keeping Castor from the pod was the second time I made you unhappy. I won’t do it again.”
I crack one eye open and study the specks of amber in his eyes. They’re really close. Or can I see even better? I close my eyes again.
“I won’t.” Nico’s repeating himself. Right. Guess we’re doing this now.
“Yes, you will.”
“I won’t stand between you and another mate.”
“Oh, that. No, you won’t, because this inn is full up. Overflowing. Not even a stall in the barn is available.” Both of my eyes are open now, and my pulse is back to something more warm-blooded. “But yes, Nico, you will. You will make a mistake again. And I’ll be mad. You’ll be defiant. But we’ll get over it. Through it. We’ll become even stronger. Because I love you and?—”
“I love you. And you’re right. But I’m going to try.”
“And I love you even more for that.” I drag myself up from his forearm and reach his lips, kissing him until I melt back onto his chest.
“You ready for that bath now?”
“Yes.” And he lifts me before I can move on my own, carrying me into the bathroom.
38
EROS
I’ve got one of the stools next to the bathtub. All of Sunshine’s favorite things are on it: some more gel, water, cookies, and some popcorn. I test the temperature—perfect. Sunshine likes the water somewhere between cooking a lobster and, well no, she likes it warm enough to boil herself. I give it a quick stir, making sure the last of the bath bomb has dissolved.
Nico has her in his arms, and damn, we need a bigger tub. Because instead of lowering her in, he steps in with her in his arms, pulling her back to his chest once he settles.
“Yeah, next time I’m not going to fall for letting you carry her, Nico.” Holter pours a tablespoon more oil into the water. “It’s going to need more scent.” He arches his eyebrow at Nico.
“You could have said no.” Nico grabs the end of one of Sunshine’s braids, and with more care than I thought him capable of, he undoes it. I’m not going to stand around and watch when I could be touching her. I gently pull apart one of the others.
A squawking racket goes off down the hall, and back in the pod room too, as all of our blocks ding at the same time. I don’t want to look at it. No one moves. They ding again, and Castor takes off.
“Poseidon,” Castor swears, coming back down the corridor. “Braesen has announced that Atlas is falsely blaming them for the Maelstrom collapse.” He’s got not only his own block but a stack of all of ours and a tablet on top.
The tidal wave of reality washes over all of us. This fight is far from over. We have a long battle in front of us, more than a few braids of deceit to untangle.
Sunshine closes her eyes and opens them again. “Well, you didn’t expect them to just admit to it, did you?” She sits up from Nico’s chest. A wave of water splashes from the tub to the floor. “Did you?”
“No, Sunshine, I don’t suppose we did.”
