He inhaled sharply. “I’m honored you trusted me. Trusted us.”
I gathered my courage and turned slowly to face him. His hand slid around to my upper back, and our knees bumped. “You trusted me to be in yourhome,and I betrayed that.”
My eyes had adjusted to the dim light from the window behind him, but Andrew’s face was still in shadow. I could only see his profile — one sharp cheekbone and the outside edge of his lips, which curved into a smile. “You’re right. Your punishment is staying here with us.”
There was something else bothering me. I knew Andrew was at least attracted to me, even if that was obviously just a function of our compatible biological markers, but Gabriel was another story. Last night had just confused me even more.
Andrew’s hand left my back. His thumb pressed gently between my brows, smoothing out the furrow there, before gliding across my left eyebrow. “Don’t overthink it. Please?”
Maggie would take me back in a heartbeat. Or I could go to a different Center. There was one up north, outside the City.
But then Andrew just smelled so good. And he seemed to genuinely not care about my bread of privacy. And Gabriel was… Even if his attention was platonic, it felt wonderful to be cared for by him.
“Okay. For now.”
He smiled again. “We’d better tell him the good news. Want to wake him up?”
I didn’t. Whatever spell Andrew and my scent had cast last night had dissipated. What if Gabriels wasn’t as forgiving? On the other hand, what if he was? Was it wrong to want his affection?
Gabriel was difficult to wake. I tried poking him in the shoulder and he didn’t react, so I poked him again in the stomach. Still nothing. I shook his entire body, my hand on his shoulder. He groaned, but slept on.
“He’d sleep through an earthquake,” Andrew murmured. His voice was so tender, I felt like I was intruding all over again. “You’ll have to do something more drastic.”
“This is ridiculous,” I muttered, then scooted closer on my stomach and elbows. My hand against his chest looked ghostly white in the bluish gray light. I meant to just shake him again, but I got distracted by the hair under my palm. It was coarse, thicker at his sternum and fading as it spread to the outside of his chest and down his abdomen. There was also athicker line down the middle of his stomach, following the center of his rectus abdominis, which was incredibly well developed, scientifically speaking. I let my finger follow that line until I reached his belly button.
He finally stirred. I pulled my hand away. There was a split second where he didn’t react and my heart stopped.
This was it. He’d push me away for good.
Well, if he did, I would just leave and pretend none of it had ever happened. Maybe I could move states and completely start over. There were Ph.D. programs on the west coast that might accept me. Whoever was trying to hurt me probably wouldn’t follow me out there.
“Ah, you stayed,” he said, his voice rough with sleep. And then he smiled and stroked the back of my head. “I admit I was worried.”
“She thought about it,” Andrew said behind me. “But I’ve convinced her not to run for the time being.”
I needed to get this over with as quickly as possible. “I’m so sorry about last night. It was completely inappropriate, and it won’t happen again.”
Gabriel’s smile didn’t waver. “Mai dire mai, tesoro. You surprised us, but it was a good one.”
My face burned. I flopped onto my back to look at Andrew, too. “Can we just… go back to normal? And pretend my lapse in sanity didn’t happen?”
There was silence for a moment. “If that’s what you want,” Andrew said. His voice sounded strained, and I felt guilty and ashamed all over again. “Of course.”
“It is,” I said, trying to sound firm. I think I failed.
Gabriel reached for my hand and intertwined our fingers. I didn’t pull away because I was weak. “I do not want you to feel ashamed. Or awkward. You are still welcome here, carissima.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I’m going to shower.”
I fled the room and their scents as fast as possible.
True to their word, Andrew and Gabriel didn’t mention anything about the previous night. Andrew made breakfast: scrambled eggs with cheese and turkey sausage. He let me serve myself instead of bringing me a loaded plate like he’d done the day before.
Weirdly, them knowing about my recovery made it easier to eat in front of them. They already knew the worst. So what if I ate everything in a specific order or had to think too hard about what a normal amount of chewing was? It’s not like I was trying to impress them anymore.
Maggie called my burner phone in the early afternoon.
“So, good news, bad news. We found what your coworker was arrested for,” Maggie said. “It was just for breaking and entering at her high school. Apparently she broke into the science lab after hours, and the school pressed charges to ‘make an example.’ She did some community service, and that was it.”
