Page 31 of By Mistake
Thiskiss made him wonder how he'd lived without them for so long.He never wanted to do anything else but kiss Oresti.
When they finally drew apart, he was panting softly, and he could still taste Oresti, salty-sweet, on his lips.
Clearing his throat, cheeks adorably flushed, Oresti stepped back and said, "Well, now you definitely have to accept my suit."
Andrus rolled his eyes."Like you would have listened if I'd said no.I may be contrary—arguable—but you're stubborn to a fault."
"Now that's been settled," Shimari drawled from across the room, "shall I go kill Farthing, so we can have done with this whole mess?"
Oresti sighed."Tempting, so very—" He stopped as the doorbell rang.
Andrus moved to go get the door, but was waved off by an amused looking Shimari."You have staff now, let them do their jobs."
"Very tempting, as I was saying, but Farthing abruptly dying would raise too many questions.I'd—" he stopped as the doorbell rang again "—rather see the bastard arrested and made to suffer, anyway.Iknowhe's responsible—" The doorbell again.Oresti scowled, but only shook his head and tried again."I know he's responsible for the death of Willow-White, and I'll see him suffer for it, so help me."
"An investigator and a royal who believes in justice, how charming," Shimari said, barely finishing before yet another ring echoed through the house."I may need to make some adjustments if we're going to be getting so many callers."
"This wasn't a problem before you ran amuck," Andrus said."A socialite demon and a prince with absolutely no sense whatsoever.Why me."He sighed as the doorbell rang yet again.
Oresti rolled his eyes at them, but a smile tugged at his mouth.He jabbed a finger in Shimari's direction."You."
"Me?"
"I am going to refine the binding spell, and bind you to me in addition to Andrus."
"Why?"Andrus asked, but as Oresti started to speak, said, "I swear to god if you say anything along the lines offor your own goodI will make Shimari throw you out andkeepyou out."
Oresti pouted.
They all ignored the doorbell ringing for what felt like the thousandth time.
Shimari laughed."It's a good idea.I was bound to both your ancestors.It makes it all the more difficult for someone to steal and overtake the binding.If one is incapacitated, I can still heed the other.It was a common safety measure once."
Andrus huffed."Fine."
"Then let's return to your basement and get this done.Then I'm moving everything down there to a room upstairs that Shimari will seal off, so we don't have to make this trip all the time."
"The books can't be taken from the basement rooms."
Shimari waved a hand dismissively."Easily attended."
Andrus rolled his eyes and muttered, "Bossy," but he was smiling as he purposely dodged another kiss just to be a brat and led the way back to the secret basement.By the time they reached it, the stupid doorbell had rung at least another six times.What in the world was going on?
Once in the workroom, Andrus found himself tucked into a corner while Shimari and Oresti talked, bickered, wrote and, finally, drew out a new circle.When he was done, and Shimari had verified the work—leaving Andrus rather shocked Oresti trusted him to do so—Andrus was summoned with a crook of the finger that should have pissed him off, but the affectionate, teasing smile that accompanied it instead just made him huff and obey.
Stupid, stupid, hopelessly smittenstupid.
Once all three of them stood in the circle, Andrus obediently offered his hand when bid.With a murmur of apology, Oresti sliced his hand open on the diagonal, then did the same to his own.Shimari lifted their hands in turn and lapped at the pooling blood, his red eyes glowing like hot coals, sending a shiver down Andrus's spine that didn't feel nearly as much like fear as it should.
Shimari's eyes glittered with too much knowing, but he couldn't imagine a demon would be anything but passively amused by such things.
As he finished licking up their blood, the circle around them flared to life, rolling through a thousand colors like a rainbow tide, and Oresti's strong voice echoed as he recited the spell that would do…whatever it was they were doing.
By the time he stopped, Oresti looked ready for a long nap.
Yawning, Oresti stepped out of the circle, stretching as he went, putting a frankly ridiculous backside on full display.Andrus scowled—and then scowled at Shimari when he caught him snickering."You shut up."
"What?"Oresti asked.
