Page 1 of Fool's Bargain

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Deva

Winter Solstice, Malibu, California

Having the powers of a goddess wasn’t the answer to all life’s problems. After only a couple months at full power, it still amazed me how the littlest details could completely overwhelm even someone as powerful as me.

It had taken me nearly two months to find these powers, along with a completed soul and five soul mates to match. But it had taken the same amount of time for the universe to put me in my place once again, which it had done repeatedly ever since.

The offending object of the day taunted me, eroding my patience. I gritted my teeth, glaring at it and willing my temper into submission. I could have easily dismantled the thing with a wave of my hand, but it was theprincipleof the matter that irked me. Which of them was it this time?

“Keagan!” I called back into the bedroom. We’d taken to sharing Rohan’s bed most nights since he had the nicer bathroom, but glancing around the space now, I wrinkled my nose. Soggy towels were strewn here and there, the sink was spattered with soap and toothpaste, and one open tube of the stuff lay oozing off to the side.

Savages. I was mated to savages, but the worst transgression sat right in front of me, stalling my start to the day.

When my beloved ursa’s broad-shouldered frame filled the doorway, looking adorably bewildered with his sleepy-eyed face and rumpled hair, I nearly lost my resolve. But the bottomless depths of my love for these men would not fix this problem.

“This has got to stop,” I said, jabbing a finger at the toilet.

Keagan frowned, one hand falling to his crotch and scratching his balls. “Huh?”

I rolled my eyes. “The toilet seat. You left it upagainand I nearly fell in!”

His head tilted back a fraction and he lifted an eyebrow as he began shaking his head. “Princess, first, it’s just a toilet seat. It takes two seconds to put it down.”

“That’s my point! If it’s so easy, why can’tyoudo it?”

He held up his hand and took a step toward me. “And second, if you let me finish, it wasn’t me. I’m an ursa. I was trained practically from birth to know how to keep a woman happy. You don’t have to tell me twice when something makes you unhappy, and I heard you three weeks ago when you had the same complaint.”

I narrowed my eyes, redirecting my gaze to the bedroom. There was one surefire way to determine who the culprit was, but I stopped myself before summoning the hounds. I was a big girl. I could do this relationship thing without magic.

“Who do you think it is then?” I asked, crossing my arms and glancing at Keagan. He leaned against the bathroom doorjamb and peered into the room. Three big bodies were sprawled on the bed, still sound asleep.

“Well, probably not Bodhi. He grew up as the only boy in an all-female household, so putting down the toilet seat has been drilled into him from an early age. The guy even closes the lid after he’s done.”

“Yeah, he is definitely a mama’s boy,” I agreed.

“And Rohan wouldn’t have missed it the last ten times you got your panties in a twist over it, so he’d know better.”

“That leaves Ozzie or Llyr.” Of the pair, only Llyr was still in the bed with Rohan and Bodhi, naked except for a pair of thick, cable-knit woolen socks. The man had temperature issues that baffled me, but satyrs were funny that way.

I smelled coffee brewing, which meant Ozzie was already up and about. Just then a toilet flushed with a whoosh somewhere else in the house.

Keagan tilted his head toward the sound. “Ozzie uses his own bathroom, but I think he’s also a lid closer. The guy is kind of a neat freak.”

My gaze drilled into Llyr’s prone form. He lay in the center of the bed now, having adjusted to fill up the space left behind by me and Keagan, with Bodhi and Rohan sprawled on either side of him. I loved sleeping sandwiched between my mates, though it always surprised me how we managed to share such a small space when we were intimate. But cohabitating in this house had become such a chore. We had plans to renovate and add a second-story addition but had put them on pause in favor of touring for six months. I had a responsibility to the bloodline and couldn’t in good conscience forget about it just because I’d found the loves of my life. That responsibility weighed on me more every day.

Llyr’s body twitched and his eyes cracked open, then he lifted his head and looked at me. His lips pressed into a tight line and then he mouthed the word, “Shit.” Beside me, Keagan chuckled.

The other two stirred on either side of Llyr. Rohan’s golden-haired head turned as he rolled over and sat up, finally picking up on my mood. His gaze caught on me and Keagan standing in the bathroom door and he followed my look to Llyr.

His eyebrows lifted as he shifted his gaze back to me, then he shook his head and sighed. “What did he do, leave the toilet seat up?”

I let out a soft snort.

Bodhi was the last to rouse, his brilliant tattoos coming to life a few seconds before he moved. He rolled onto his side, took in the standoff, and shoved Llyr’s shoulder. “Better go fix it before she calls down the lightning and smites you, dude.”

“She wouldn’t,” Llyr said, shooting me a wary look as he climbed over Bodhi and padded toward me in his stocking feet. A slight smirk crept onto his face and his irises swirled hypnotically, the flirty satyr apparently hoping he could subdue my irritation with his seductive powers.

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