Page 82 of These Wicked Desires

She lifts her head to the sky, and a small smile twitches on her lips. She doesn’t say anything, but she nods.

“Make a wish, Gracie. I think you’d be surprised at how often they come true.”

Ellis

“Ellis, wake up.” Cade’s quiet voice filters through my sleepy thoughts, along with an incessant gentle shaking.

I roll over, tugging the blanket higher.

“Ellis, love. Wake up.”

The blanket around my shoulders disappears, and I grumble something unintelligible that one hundred percent was supposed to be ‘fuck you,’ as I search for the missing covers. Cade rubs my cheek, and I turn my head, biting down on the first thing my mouth comes into contact with.

“Ouch, fuck!” he yells, tugging his hand from my mouth.

Movement on either side of me jostles me, and I pry my eyes open to find Sterling standing naked on one side of the bed, hands tipped in claws and icy blue eyes scanning the room for danger. On the other side, Cade and Kai are holding their heads grumbling where Kai sat up so fast he collided with Cade who was leaning over to wake me.

Serves them right.

I snag Kai’s pillow and cover my head with it, curling into a ball.

“What the hell?” Sterling growls. “What’s going on?”

“She bit me,” Cade says indignantly. “Again.”

“So … there’s no danger?” Kai asks. “Why am I awake then?” Based on the way the bed bounces, Kai flops back down and curses. “Where is my pillow?”

Said pillow gets pulled from my head and I ball my fists and hit the mattress. “Why won’t you let me sleep?”

Cade looks at his hand and shakes it like he’s trying to ease the pain. “Because I have a surprise for you.”

I glance at the clock and groan. “It’s three in the afternoon. The sun is out. It can wait until tonight.” I try to take Kai’s pillow again, but his head is on it, and he opens one eye to glare at me.

“Don’t even think about it,” he says, tucking it further under his head.

“It can’t wait,” Cade says, grabbing my hand and trying to pull me out of bed. “Come on.”

Instead of making it easy for him, I go limp so he has to drag my dead weight from the bed. As he pulls me over Kai, Kai gets frustrated and tosses me to the floor. I land with a thump, and stare at the vampire in disbelief.

He smirks and closes his eyes. “Just go already, so I can go back to sleep.”

“Unbelievable,” I mutter, climbing to my feet.

Cade pushes me toward the bathroom. “I already have coffee made for you. It’s waiting downstairs.”

“Whatever.” I shut the bathroom door in his face and sigh. I hate mornings to begin with, and it’s not even technically morning for me. I’d only been asleep for about four hours before Cade so rudely woke me up.

I debate a shower, but I don’t have the energy to do all that extra stuff, so I settle with fixing my bun and brushing my teeth. I’m working on that second task when the bathroom door opens and Sterling steps in.

He grabs his toothbrush and smiles at me. “I’m awake now, so I’m going for a run.”

Crazy wolf. I roll my eyes and say, “oood or oo.” With my mouth full of toothpaste and toothbrush, I’m not sure he caught that.

He raises one silver brow, his blue eyes sparkling. I spit and rinse my mouth, turning to glare at him.

“You have a little bit of toothpaste, just there.” He points to my chin, voice shaking with laughter.

“I hate all of you.” I wipe my chin on his shoulder as I walk past him and back into the bedroom.

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