me as I go falling nipples-first to the floor, my damn wings not doing a thing to help catch my fall other than to flap-flail right along with my arms.
“Oof!” Vudu’s strong hands catch me around my waist before I can hit the floor, but I’m so top heavy with the wings and my inflated confidence that I tip all the way over in his arms until I’m hanging upside down. I feel the tulle skirt of my dress flop up by my ears, baring my dumb ass in the most spectacularly embarrassing seduction fail to have ever happened to any angel or demon alive. Ever.
Vudu quickly spins me back until I’m right side up, and he sets me down on the floor as I scramble to shove the tulle back down where it’s supposed to be, but the damage is done.
“Oh. My. God.”
I cover my face, completely mortified, and I’m certain that my entire body is flushed red with humiliation.
“What...ah. What happened there?” Toreon asks carefully, but I can hear the smile on his face, and I want to die...and also punch him.
I instantly drop my hands to glare at him. “I was trying to seduce you pricks!”
Vudu’s dark eyebrows shoot up in surprise, while Toreon rears back a little. “You were...what? I thought you wanted to talk?” Toreon asks.
I start pacing around the room, because I can’t even face them right now. My mind keeps replaying how I tripped and flipped, and I think I may have done some permanent damage with the hip popping, because now it clicks every damn time I take a step.
“You haven’t tried to be with me all week,” I begin, my hands flinging around animatedly. “I feel weird about it, okay? So when I told my sisters, they so kindly suggested that I bring you up here and try to seduce you. But clearly, I am incapable of that, as I just so colorfully showed.”
I hear Vudu’s low rumble of laughter, and I flush all over again. “This is the worst,” I say before I stop in front of the wall and plant my forehead against it. I thump my head against the wall a few times for good measure, wishing I could reverse time and stop myself before the wings part of my plan.
Before I can hit my head against the wall again, Vudu’s hand is suddenly there, gently pressing against my forehead and pushing it back. With his other hand around my waist, he turns me to face him, but I’m still so mortified, so I bury my head against his chest.
“Let’s just forget this ever happened and go downstairs, okay?” I ask hopefully.
Toreon comes up beside me and runs a hand down my back. “You don’t have to try and seduce us, Sable,” he tells me. “We’re seduced every time you’re in the room with us.”
I turn my head to look at him, hope flaring to life in my chest. “I thought maybe...maybe you changed your minds. That you didn’t want me as your mate anymore.”
Vudu stiffens and then pulls me away from him, his frowning face taking me in while Toreon gapes at me.
“Is that really what you thought?” Toreon asks.
“No? Yes? Maybe…God, I’m so embarrassed,” I say again.
Both of my mates sigh and share a loaded look before Toreon runs a frustrated hand over the top of his black hair. “It’s not you who should be embarrassed. It’s us.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Toreon answers. “We’ve made you feel doubt, and that’s not what we want. We were trying to let us all heal. Get to know each other better. But we didn’t realize that it was making you so uneasy.”
“Yes, we only want to make you feel good things,” Vudu adds, his large hand coming up to pet my arm. How someone so rough and large can touch me so gently, I’ll never know.
“So, you do still want me?” I ask thickly, forcing myself to ask the question that’s been plaguing me.
“Always,” they both answer, and immense relief takes away some of the humiliating sting.
“We need to do a better job at this mate stuff,” Toreon mutters to Vudu.
“I’m blaming you. You said she needed time,” Vudu tells him, clearly unhappy.
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Sable,” Toreon says, “I thought you did need time, that you would want it after everything that happened. I was trying to let you adjust before we took things further. I wanted you to feel safe and comfortable. I thought when you were ready, you’d let us