Page 38 of Evil Hearts

“I’ve got vanilla, hazelnut, cinnamon, and peppermint syrups,” he said without looking around. “Do you want to stick with vanilla or try something else?”

“Vanilla please,” she answered. Silas pulled out a chair for her next to Idris, but the big man made a soft unhappy sound.

“Would you consider sitting in my lap, Cassi?” he asked. “I won’t grab you or anything. I’ll keep my hands on the table or at my sides.”

Considering she’d thought she was agreeing to wild sex with the three of them and all they’d done so far was feed her and tuck her into bed, the request didn’t seem that inappropriate. If something as simple as sitting on his muscled thighs would make him happy, she wasn’t going to refuse him.

“Sure,” she agreed. Silas made an encouraging humming sound and stepped out of the way so she could climb onto Idris’s lap. Silas took the seat intended for her so once she was settled sideways on Idris, she was facing the vampire.

She could feel heat radiating from Idris through her thin, cotton pajama pants. She was a little surprised that the pixie who packed her bag hadn’t thrown in the single sexy nighty she’d bought on impulse and had yet to wear. But no, there was a change of clothes, her toiletries, and a very plain set of pajamas.

Cassi was still trying to figure out if that was a good or bad thing.

“Are you comfy?” Idris asked, one arm at his side and the other resting on the table in front of him.

“You’re n-n-nice and warm,” she murmured and gave in to the impulse to snuggle against his chest. She grabbed one of his arms and wrapped it around her. “Even better.”

He let out a happy sigh. “Yeah, this is good,” he agreed.

All the tension she’d been carrying in her shoulders started to ease. Now if only she could get the aching pain radiating from the base of her neck to go away, she’d be perfect.

“Silas gives really good massages,” Idris said, his low voice rumbling through her.

The idea of Silas touching her sounded nice. She looked at the vampire and gave a little nod. Silas smiled brightly as he got up and circled them.

“I’m only going to work on your neck and shoulders,” he said as his hands descended on her shoulders.

She hummed with pleasure as he started rubbing out the knots. It felt so good she closed her eyes and relaxed into Idris.

“Darlin’?”

Lazily opening her eyes, she found Reed sitting in front of her with a mug in his hands. “Do you want some of your steamer?”

“Hmmm,” she said, but when she tried to lift her arm, she was trapped by Idris’s embrace.

“Don’t worry, darlin’,” Reed murmured, shifting his chair closer. He held the mug up to her lips and carefully tipped it. She took a sip, marveling that nothing had spilled.

Everything about the vanilla steamer was perfect as the first sip slid down her throat and warmed her stomach.

“Nice,” she whispered, took another sip, then nestled back against Idris. Beaming, Reed sat back and took a sip from the second mug.

By the time she’d drunk half the steamer, Silas had worked every knot out of her neck and shoulders. She felt more relaxed than she had in weeks and was finally feeling sleepy. She should probably go back to bed, but didn’t want the massage to stop.

It turned out her version of heaven had a vampire in it.

“Hey, Silas,” Reed said. “Bradly returned your message.”

“It’s about time,” Silas grumbled.

“The man works days,” Idris said. “We can’t expect him to respond in the middle of the night.”

“For the amount I pay him, he should be on call 24/7,” Silas responded, then spoke to Reed. “What did he say?”

“He’ll schedule the repair crews this weekend, and he’ll take over managing the properties until a replacement for Edwards can be found,” Reed said, then looked up from the phone. “Do you think he’ll be able to get crews in there on a weekend?”

“If anyone can, it’s Bradly,” Idris said.

Hearing the name Edwards made Cassi perk up. “Edwards?”

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