Page 122 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

Sterling gave her a nod along with a polite smile. “Thank you for taking care of her. Again, I’m sorry to put you and your master through all the trouble. We’ll be more careful next time.”

The little girl gave a tiny, bumbling curtsy and left the room, leaving Sterling and me alone for a beat.

He looked in my direction, a soft, radiant smile unfurling on his perfect lips. He wore that chaste grin so well, but its innocence was a lie. I knew what those lips were capable of. For a second, I couldn’t breathe at the memory of them buried between my legs. My chest began to rise and fall in heavy succession, and my pulse thrashed in my ear as my attention slipped from his mouth down to the scar on his neck.

Mymating mark.

The sight of it sent a rush of heat down my core, filling my lower belly with a kind of warmth that had me sweating on the outside and melting on the inside.

“Ruby?” My name in his mouth was still the sexiest thing I’d ever heard, like it was a piece of candy he wanted to suck on forever. My whole chest squeezed, and I squirmed in my bed, wanting nothing more than to throw myself in his arms.

“I’m here. I’m fine.”

Just like that, the creases of worry etched into the marble planes of his face vanished, and his smile spread wider. “Thank God you’re safe.”

My brows arched in surprise. “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”

“What I said is that my faith comes and goes. I’m going through an uptick in faith, currently.”

My heart fluttered as if a thousand butterflies were trapped in my ribcage. “Would I have anything to do with that?”

Approaching my bedside, he leaned down to plant a kiss on my brow, his cool lips heaven against my blazing skin. “You have everything to do with it.”

Next, Corry strode in with his hands shoved in the pockets of his dark denim jeans. “Finally awake, Red? You’ve been out forever. That’s some dicking Sterling must have given you to blackout for two days.” The youngblood let out a low whistle, his gaze flicking around the room before it settled on me, the dimples on his cheeks appearing in the wake of his ear-to-ear grin. He ran a hand through his spiked hair, his gaze dipping to his toes. “Speaking of which, I’m sorry for the whole um… scene I made in the library.”

“It’s alright, Cor. It was kind of hot. I didn’t know you could be so dominant.”

The youngest prince perked right up, his face beaming with delight. “Yeah? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet, babe. Speaking of which, that sexy scar you gave Sterling? When do I get mine?”

Before I could even think of an answer, Eros ambled in next. His snake bites twitched with an arrogant smirk as he came over to the other side of my bed, studying me with something wicked glittering in his chocolate eyes.

“There’s our doll, finally awake to join the land of the not-so-living.”

My shoulder burned like it had been set on fire, and as if he somehow knew, he peeled back the sheet exposing just enough of my bare flesh for the whole room to get a peek at his mark on my shoulder. Arching down, he pressed his lips to it in a surprisingly gentle kiss. The scruff of his unruly five-o clock shadow tickled me, and for some reason, the pain in my mark seemed to ebb away under the purse of his mouth.

Eros was quick to yank the sheet back up when Vincent entered, a storm of darkness brewing in his glare.

For a sliver of a second, he looked in my direction with something vaguely resembling concern, but it was gone so fast I wasn’t sure if it had been there at all. “You’re awake. About time.”

“Missed you too, asshole. Can someone untie me and get me some clothes?”

Without them needing to coordinate, Sterling went for my wrist closest to him, Eros for the other wrist, and Vincent and Corry set to my ankles. It was embarrassing how hard my pulse skyrocketed, having all their hands on me.

Having all four princes in the same room at the same time was intense enough, let alone having them all touch me at once.

Especially when I was still buck naked.

And, of course, my traitorous body had a thing or two to say about the whole scenario by the way my nipples hardened, creating tiny peaks in the sheets.

But if anyone noticed, which they probably did by the way their smoldering eyes kept wandering over the outline of my bare body, they held their tongues.

“I’m sorry we had to resort to this, Miss Baxter. The Sharpes were concerned you might have ingested lethal volumes of my blood.” As Sterling spoke, his voice dripped with guilt. Knowing him, he probably held himself responsible for not stopping me sooner.

He’d probably been beating himself up for it the last two days. I wish he hadn’t. The night we’d spent together had been absolute perfection, and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Before I could assure him that everything was fine, Vincent’s fingers dug into my ankle with a bruising force as he ripped away the straps. When he’d freed my leg, he didn’t pull away like I thought he would. Instead, his hand lingered beneath the sheet, his digits digging into my flesh enough to make me wince. But instead of admonishing me, he pinned his hot glower on his eldest brother.

“I still can’t believe you let her take so much blood.”

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