“See, that’s why I didn’t go outside,” Blaze says from the living room couch. “Because I knew it was cold.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Asch says. He still doesn’t release my hand, and despite his complaints about it being cold, his is still warm in mine.
“Where’d you go?” River asks, heading over to the couch and sitting down.
“I told you. Downtown.” I shrug casually. “Not that Harmony has a downtown, but there’s a sleepy charm to it I’m coming around on.”
“It has a downtown,” Blaze argues. “It’s just small and pathetic.”
“Like your dick?” I quip, laughing when Blaze scowls.
“Maybe you need a reminder of just how small and pathetic it is,” Asch suggests, but his touches are more casual than sexual as he wraps an arm around my waist.
I squirm against his hold. “Well, if we want to see that, I think we need to get naked. Maybe I need to get my mouth on all your cocks, so I can properly assess which one is the best.” Asch doesn’t let go, so I awkwardly go for my jeans buttons around his arm. “That soundsfun, actually. A literal dick measure contest. I’ll give points for good taste and mouthfeel, too.”
Asch snorts. “Or we could hang out,” he says. “Which we haven’t done nearly enough of.”
“Ooh, are you afraid you won’tmeasure up?” I joke, but none of them laugh. Not even Blaze, who’s looking at me far too seriously.
My blood scrapes against my veins, and I glare at River. “What did you say? What did you tell them?”
“That you have an appointment with the dean that you’re thinking about blowing off,” River says matter-of-factly, like he’s not a fucking traitor.
“It’s nothing!” I complain, and this time I struggle properly against Asch’s hold. “He’s probably going to congratulate me on being the best student the school has ever seen.”
Asch doesn’t loosen his grip on me at all, not even when I stomp down hard on his feet, though I do feel him wince.
I shouldn’t have taken my boots off.
“Come sit down,” River says. “We don’t have to talk about that, but let’s do something other than have sex for a little while.”
“We already did plenty of non-sex things,” I say, elbowing Asch, who still doesn’t let me go. “We went ice skating. You suffered my family. We took Samantha to the monuments!”
“Wow, you did date things with River and not us?” Blaze comments. “Now I’m jealous. I want a date with you too.”
“Just as long as it’s inside,” Asch says.
“Too much of a wuss to go ice skating?” River asks him with a smirk.
“Absolutely,” Asch replies without hesitation. “And not ashamed to admit it.” He suddenly lifts me up, and I squeak as he carries me over to the couch.
“Put me down!” I yell, slamming my hands against his chest. “I do still have a knife on me, you know.”
“You are not cutting Asch.” Blaze gets up and grabs my wrists. “Do we have to tie you down to have a real conversation with you? Because we will.”
Tying me up sounds like it could lead to something good. I grin at Blaze. “You liked tying me up the other day. Do you have a crop in your closet, too?”
“Do you even know Blaze and Asch at all?” River abruptly asks. “Why can’t we sit and talk for a little while, Pandora?”
“There’s nothing to talk about!” I turn my glare on him. “What would we talk about? How fucked up everything is? How the world hates me? How there’s no fucking way in hell we’ll actually fix anything? How all my promises to Samantha are a fucking joke? Maybe you want to talk about all the needles scraping through my skin?”
Asch holds me closer. “How about we talk about how intelligent you are? How passionate, how protective, how determined you are?” he asks, his voice soft. “And yeah, we should talk about how to fix things. Everything.”
Blaze lifts my hands up and kisses my knuckles. “We don’t need to worry about any of that today, Pandora. But we do need to worry aboutyou. You haven’t been acting like yourself.”
I burst out laughing, because that’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day, right alongside the business card Papa gave me as my fucking Christmas present.
“What does Pandora act like?” I ask through my laughter. “I’m a terrible destroyer of worlds, and all I want to do is devour my enemies. Which I’m doing!”
