if Maxton didn’t look equally as embarrassed, his gaze gliding to the wall, his cheeks tinted pink.
“I’m just gonna … leave,” he mumbles then starts to walk out of the room.
“You don’t have to leave. Just give us a second.” Asher climbs off the bed, scoops up the shirt he was wearing earlier, and then returns to me.
Without uttering a word, he guides my arms away from my chest and tugs what’s left of the corset off me. “Put your hands up.”
Puzzled, I lift my arms above my head.
A half-grin materializes on his face as he slips his shirt over my head and covers me up. Then he leans down and gives me one more kiss before turning toward Maxton, who has his back to us and is staring out into the hallway.
“You can turn around now,” he tells his brother as he walks over to the table and picks up the empty glasses he was drinking out of before we started messing around.
Maxton inhales loudly then twists back toward the room, his gaze briefly flitting to me, his cheeks flush. Then he hurriedly looks away and fixes his attention on his brother.
Great. Now things are gonna be awkward between Maxton and me.
“Where’s Arrow?” Asher asks Maxton as he lazily strolls over to the bar, as if he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Me? My mind is racing as what happened between Asher and me washes over me. Sometimes, whenever one of them touches me, I feel like a different person—creature—then the old Harlynn who spent most of her life keeping her distance from others. But that version of me didn’t even exist, did it?
“He sent me here to pass along a message,” Maxton replies as he sinks into a chair at the table. “Him and I saw the front desk clerk using a crystal ball that we’re pretty certain is a security crystal ball.”
Okay, so I’m totally aware that my paranormal knowledge is limited, but this …
“Hey, I know what that is,” I declare, scooting to the edge of the bed and lowering my feet to the floor.
Asher smiles amusedly as he uncaps a bottle filled with violet liquid. “Do you now?”
“Yes, I do.” I square my shoulders. “It’s a crystal ball that kind of works like a security camera, so more than likely, it probably shows what’s going on in that event in the basement.”
“While I love your confidence, little thief, I already assumed as much.” Ash fills the cup up to the brim and smiles at me, not in a cocky way or anything like that. It’s the same smile he gives me whenever he thinks I’m being innocently cute or whatever.
“Good for you,” I quip, crossing my arms and flashing him a haughty grin. “But did you know that there’s a really simple way to steal them?”
He’s in the middle of lifting the glass toward his lips when he pauses. “What’s this way exactly?”
My grin broadens as I stand up. Even though I’m tall, his shirt nearly dwarfs me and is a reminder of what Asher and I were doing only minutes ago. But I push those thoughts aside and focus on this moment, because finally, finally, I feel like I’m about to be useful.
“How about I just show you instead?”
He lowers the glass from his lips, hesitation consuming his features. “Is it dangerous?”
I shake my head. “Not any more dangerous than any of the other stealing missions I’ve done.”
He sets his drink down onto the counter. “When you tried to steal my lamp from me, you got injected with death poison.”
Crap, I guess I should’ve used a better example.
“Yeah, but was I ever really in any danger?” I question, playing with the hem of the shirt. What I’m really asking is: were you ever going to let me die, even if I hadn’t made the bargain with him?
To be honest, part of me doesn’t want to hear the answer.
And he doesn’t seem like he’s eager to tell me the answer, either.
“No,” he finally caves.
“So, you would’ve just let me go if I hadn’t made the bargain?”
He massages the back of his neck, seeming twitchy. “Yes.”
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the truth and a realization on my part.
“So, if I hadn’t have agreed to go with you, you would’ve just healed me and let me go with your lamp?” I ask.
“I wouldn’t have let you go with my lamp,” he explains. “I just … We could’ve gotten it from you, healed you,