Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“It’s just embarrassing,” Celia protested, tugging at the hem again. “Oh, forget it!” she sighed, giving up. “Just don’t stare at me, all right?
“We’ll try not to,” Fierce said, though he didn’t appear to be trying at all. “But it’s fucking hard not to stare when you’ve got a curvy goddess right in front of you wearing next to nothing.”
“Fierce, you’re making our lady uncomfortable!” Hold gave his brother a warning look. “Come on—let’s all eat Last Meal. Then we can figure out the sleeping situation.”
“The sleeping situation is that Celia is going to be right between us where she belongs,” Fierce said, frowning as he took the protein bar the Light Twin was offering him.
“Hey!” Forgetting to cover herself, Celia put a hand on her hip which had the effect of thrusting her breasts out more. “Nobody said I would sleep between you! Just because you had to warm me up—”
“Actually, my lady, it would be better if you did sleep between us,” Hold said quietly, passing her a protein bar. “Not just for warmth but for safety too.”
Celia felt her mouth go dry and she could barely swallow the bite she’d just taken of the bar.
“You don’t…don’t think there’s another V’ranna around, do you?” she got out at last.
“It’s not probable but it is possible,” Hold told her. “Just in case, we’d like to have you between us so we can keep you safe.” He held up his hands. “But I promise, we won’t touch you if you don’t want us to.”
“And of course, you’ll be wearing my thermal shirt,” Fierce pointed out. “So it’s not like you’ll be naked again, lelka.”
Celia looked down at herself again and made a face—her nipples seemed to be trying to poke holes in the thin fabric of the shirt. Not naked…right.
Might as well be, though, she thought. But there wasn’t much she could do about it since all the other available clothes were wet. And besides, she had been between the two of them naked for a long time and they hadn’t tried anything inappropriate, so she knew she could trust them to keep their hands to themselves.
Are you sure you want them to keep their hands to themselves? whispered a naughty little voice in her head. Remember how good it felt to be held between them? I wonder what it would be like if both of them were touching you at the same time…making you feel good? And it wouldn’t really be cheating—after all, you’re on a break with Peter, right?
Celia pushed the thought aside hurriedly. She didn’t care about sex—she never had, she reminded herself. But then again, she’d never had any good sex either.
Part of that was due to her past. For most of her childhood and her entire adolescence she’d had to be constantly on her guard to avoid getting raped or groped or violated.
Then, when she went to college, she had taken several psychology classes and promised herself that she would reclaim her sexuality and have sex for her own pleasure. But after years of being on her guard and fighting to defend herself, it was incredibly hard to lower her barriers. And when she did manage to do it, she found that the boys she let into her bed were selfish and crude and only interested in their own pleasure—not hers.
Sadly, her experiences as an adult hadn’t been that different. It seemed like men only wanted one thing and when you finally gave in and gave it to them, they took without giving and left her feeling hollow inside.
That was one reason she’d accepted Peter’s proposal—he didn’t just want sex—he wanted marriage. Something permanent together. That felt important to Celia and she held on to it even when she felt devalued by him in other ways.
But all that was beside the point, she told herself. She wanted to be safe from any more attacks, so it made sense to sleep between her guys. She didn’t stop to consider that she’d thought of Hold and Fierce as “her” guys—it just seemed the natural way to think about them.
After they ate, Hold spent some time treating his brother’s ribs. After some testing he determined that none were broken, though he was fairly sure a few were cracked.
“You’ll have to be careful for a while, Brother,” he remarked as he wrapped the Dark Twin’s ribs in the long, white healing bandages which adhered to his skin. “Don’t go hugging anymore V’rannas, all right?”
“As if I’d want to,” Fierce grunted, looking down at himself. The bandages didn’t quite cover all his injuries—there were dark bruises blooming on his tan skin.
Celia felt bad all over again as she looked at the Dark Twin’s bruises.
“Dios, Fierce—I’m really sorry you got hurt,” she said penitently. “I never should have gone rushing into that corridor like that! I never meant for that awful thing to attack you.”