Page 27 of Adored By Them
“Do you regret killing that Vorsong guy?”I ask in a quiet voice.
His gaze slides over Danica, over her raw wrists held protectively up to her chin.“Fuck no.I’d do it again if I could.”
10
Danica
It’s the middle of the night when I wake up snuggled between two sleeping men.They stripped down to their boxers at one point.I can’t get enough of their bare skin.
It’s hard to believe I’m alive.Uriel had me for four days, but it felt like an eternity.Although I kept thinking I had to get out, that I refused to die in his room, a part of me believed I might not make it.
Yet here I am, in the best, most perfect place in the world: in bed between Edmund and Troy.
They came for me.Yes, my brother was there too, and my grandfather’s “friends.”But Edmund and Troy showed up to save me.They didn’t have to.They don’t have to be with me now, and yet here they are.
Every time I’ve been in trouble, they’ve shown up.They came when Malcolm tried to hurt me, and they came this time.And there are other examples, too.
Maybe there really is more to this strange relationship than the arrangement our grandfathers made.
I don’t want to go anywhere else.I want to stay here with these two.I need them.
Ineedthem.
There was one point outside the warehouse today when Dmitri confronted me about this relationship.Edmund and Troy were talking to the police.Dmitri stood next to me like a guard, always the protective older brother.
He’d looked carefully into my eyes.“They’ve been searching for you nonstop.We all have, but they were obsessed.”
“Well, one doesn’t take something from the Layton family without repercussions.”I’d looked down, away, not wanting him to see the emotions I tried to hide.
“Dani, don’t bullshit me.”He waited until I looked up again.“I really think there’s something between you and Edmund.Troy, too.”
“There might be.”I shook my head.“On my side, there very much is something.But I don’t know if it’s reciprocated.”
He looked like he tasted something sour.“I’m sure the feelingsarereciprocated.And I guess I’m glad about it.”
“You only guess so?”
“Well, yeah.Until tonight, I didn’t think they deserved you.”
Edmund had returned before Dmitri and I could talk further, but Dmitri nodded knowingly at the way Edmund kept a hand on me at all times.
And now, even in sleep, Edmund is doing the same—a hand on my hip while he spoons me.Troy and I are facing each other, and Troy’s hand is touching mine on the mattress between us.
The moment is tender, precious.And I’m alive—so alive.How could I waste a single second of this gift?I stare at Troy’s handsome face, memorizing the lines and planes, the stubble dusting his jaw, the heavy brows over his eyes, the short sweep of hair over his forehead.
As if he can feel me watching him, his eyes open.A soft smile appears on his lips.“Baby girl.You’re awake.”
“I need you,” I whisper.
“I need you, too.”
I push at his shoulder.I want to be on top.Maybe I need the control, maybe I know that Edmund will wake up and I want him to see us like this.
He rolls back and reaches toward the nightstand.
“What are you doing?”I whisper.
“Getting a condom.”
