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“But…” I lick my lips, shaking my head again. “It’s barely been aweek.”
“So?” He rolls me onto my back and moves to cage me against the mattress, elbows on either side of my face as he kisses me hard. “You’reours,” he murmurs against my mouth. “Ours, because you’re fucking perfect for us, and none of us has any interest in letting you go.”
It should terrify me when he says it. Petrify me since he’s essentially saying I don’t have any freedom or choice in the matter.
But instead, butterflies take flight in my stomach, and all I can do is stare up at him like he’s Prince Charming and I’m the princess who’s been waiting for him for years and years.
But I’m no princess, and they’re not princes.
“Not until you treat me like a person,” I say, swallowing my feelings and that part of me that wants to curl up in his arms and never let him out of my sight. Theirrationalpart of me, clearly, because that’s something I shouldn’t be thinking about any of them. Not even Isaac.
“How am Inottreating you like a person?” Isaac points out, frustration warring with the kindness in his voice. His gray eyes are wide and sincere, and he looks so hopeful and socaringthat I could cry.
“You break into my apartment.”
“You like it. And you know I’d leave if you genuinely wanted me gone.” He says it with so much confidence that I can’t help an internal wince. God, he’s right. That’s the sad part.
“You tell me I can’t get this tattoo removed.”
“If you stayed with us, we’d want you to get it anyway. And youlikeit, don’t you?” I do, but I’m not willing to tell him that.
“Youhidewhat you do from me, even though you say you want me in your life. If I’m in your life, it’s yourwholelife. Not just the convenient parts of it.” I can’t believe the words have left my mouth, but there’s nothing to do about them now other thancommit. I twist under him and reach up to cup his cheek. “You have to admit, that doesn’t seem fair.”
“Youdidwatch Ezra and Ashe commit murder,” Isaac points out dryly, meeting my gaze with his narrowed eyes. “So I think that’s a bit of a moot point now.”
“Nah, I did that on my own,” I protest with a shake of my head. “You guys don’tinviteme to your stuff. Maybe I should get to break into your place.”
Isaac thinks about that; then a slow smile spreads over his full lips. “You want me to invite you to watch me kill someone–”
“I didn’t say that exactly–”
“And you want me to help you break into someone’s apartment?Hmm.” He looks away thoughtfully before his attention comes back to me full force once more. “Arlo’s apartment. No. Ashe’s. He has so much cool shit to look at and play with that it’s unreal. Not that he’ll leteitherof us touch his crap. It’s worth a lot, or whatever. But if you can’t break into your best friend’s, sometimes lover’s, apartment to play with his samurai swords and armor, whatcanyou do?”
I stare at him, eyes narrowing slightly. “That feels rude,” I say at last.
“So is breaking into your apartment so much. We’ll beruderight back.”
“Ashe has never broken in here.”
“Not that you’veseen.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m joking, hey, I’mjoking,” Isaac assures me and kisses me to reassure me. As if that’s some kind of cure-all or something.
Unfortunately, it kind of is.
“Okay,” he sighs, flopping down on the bed beside me. “Cy won’t like it, but…” he shrugs his shoulders and trails off. “He can deal with it, I guess. I’ll take you with me, if you want, to see what I do for work sometimes. But Ari…” He waits until I look at him to continue, his face suddenly serious. “There’s no backing away from this. No just leaving or deciding you’ve had enough, okay? You stick with it until the end, or you don’t come at all. Deal?”
“Deal,” I say, trying to ignore the twisting of my heart and the way my stomach lurches. “Unless it involves sprinting. Or running without being chased. I make no promises then.”
He laughs incredulously and kisses me again, dragging me to him as his hand finds its way between my thighs. “You’re going to be the fuckingdeathof me, Ari,” he growls in my ear, two fingers pushing into me again. “And I’m so willing to let youwreckme without a second thought.”
