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After shaking the curls from her eyes, she props her fists on her hips, her stubborn eyes burning. “Excuse you, Miss. Thing!”
“Don’t you dare, little girl. If you come out, I won’t hesitate to bend you over a table and shove a vibrator so far up your ass, your teeth will rattle.”
“But there’s already a butt plug in there!” she squeals.
I growl and shut the curtains.
“Oh, Erry!” one of my associates sings from somewhere on the opposite end of the library—aboveme.
Rubbing my eyes, I make my way to the center to rejoin Crescendo.
“I get to go first, Thosie, you pining little Picasso!” My other brother yells, and I can imagine them shoving each other, shedding feathers onto shelves. Just as long as they don’t break anything.
“Dammit, Desi, you always get to go first, you flirtatious fireball!” Pothos argues, and I turn my back and lean over the table, shaking my head as Crescendo tunes to Katy Perry’sHot and Cold. I can’t help my smirk. Nor can I deny how much I’ve missed my adopted brothers.
“Wrong brother,” Himeros snarls. “Hedy needs all the pretty words, but my charges are already in the bedroom shedding their clothes!”
I roll my eyes as I hear them land on one of the bookshelves, crouching on its top as they debate. I don’t interfere. Their conflict won’t last long.
“Yeah, or on roller coasters or tailgate parties or in the fucking cathedral on Easter Sunday mass.”
Himeros spits out laughter. “Oh, that was a good one. Lot of celebrations that day.”
“Right in the middle of the Hallelujah Chorus, Himmy?”
“Perfect climax song. Oh, look,there’sEros.”
Himeros is the first to leap, landing in a sleek crouch with his golden wings catching the lantern light, shimmering like autumn fruits basking in the sunlight. Pothos follows his lead.
As usual, they mirror one another with their clothing styles. Ornate silk suits, parted to their navel to show their hewn muscles and well-tanned skin with sleeves at the wrist parading their ostentatious ruffles. Pothos prefers pink while Himeros always chooses red. Sleek high collars fan around the backs of their necks, where their silky golden brown hair curls.
I turn to greet them, but Himeros is already there, drowning me in his familiar scent of luscious pomegranate and exotic spices. He’s a head shorter than me when I’m in gargoyle form. Warmth engulfs my chest. I haven’t seen them since Psyche’s soul disappeared.
He spreads his arms wide. “Eros! My tempting partner in crime! Care to know of our exploits?” He grips my shoulders and presses his lips in a hard kiss to each of my cheeks before cupping my face. “I’ve been to places where they’ve renamed ‘temptation’ after me, and they measure time in flirtatious winks per hour. No big deal.”
“Missed you, too, Himmy.” I lower my mouth to give him a tender kiss as our relationship blurs the lines between adopted brother and paramour.
“Hey!” Pothos protests, folding his arms across his chest and curving the edges of his wings toward me. “I’m the one who turned some cities into the official capitals of unmet desires. You should see their welcome signs for me!”
Himeros snorts. “As opposed to the fashion capital cities of desire I’m responsible for? Did you know heart-shaped sunglasses are all the rage now, Erry?” he asks while Pothos scoots him aside to embrace me with the mirrored gesture, though his scent is vanilla with notes of musk, milk, and marshmallows.
They flutter their wings.
“What brings you to Purgatory, my sweets?” I wonder while gesturing Crescendo over.
“Oh, hey, Cres, love the bells! And that outfit, hot damn!” Himeros fawns over his fashion choices while Crescendo quirks a brow.
“Hot damn indeed,” agrees Pothos, licking his lips. Cres playsCreepby Radiohead. “Aww,” Pothos coos, “you’re fucking special, too.” He taps Crescendo’s nose, and a muscle twitches in my jaw.
Neither of them can help themselves. Or me, for that matter. It was how the cosmos designed us down to our immortal cell matter, the framework of the stardust fused into our DNA.
I wince, clenching my eyes and battling the magnetic pull to the God of Desire. They don’t make my cock throb like my Butterfly. But we share a deep brotherly bond—especially Himeros when our relationship goes back to the day I watched Aphrodite birth him when she arose from sea foam.
“Oooh, is that a flame of desire I feel, Eros?” Himeros presses his lips into a smug smile while bobbing his brows.
My nostrils pulse with quickened breath when he lowers his gaze to the steady bulge in my trousers. He flicks his eyes back to mine. “Still broody and of minor impotence, I see?”
Feminine laughter bursts from around the corner. Fuck. As soon as that sound and her familiar scent wafts my way, my cock throbs to iron life. Which doesnotescape Himeros’s notice.
