Rath sends me a smirk. “Ballsy, considering they don’t have any.”
“It’s the desperation,” I explain, casually sliding my salad toward Story. She looks into the bowl, nose wrinkling, but stabs her fork into a tomato. “I saw one of the new Princes nailing her in the parking lot, bent right over in his back seat. This batch has initiative.”
Rath snorts. “Gotta respect a work ethic.”
I point my fork at him. “Especially when that work ethic involves pussy.”
“Do you really have to talk about this now? We’re eating.” Story roots around the salad distractedly, but then pauses, glancing up at me with a frown. “Wait. Did you, like… watch?”
I hold her stare. “Of course I watched. He was railing her right there, for all to see. I’m only human.” When her frown deepens, I reach over to caress her cheek, tucking her hair behind an ear. “It’s just like watching porn, sweetheart. It means nothing.” The words are true, but even I know they’re kind of bullshit. Truthfully, the Prince and his Princess weren’t super compelling, it’s just that this is the longest I’ve gone without pussy since Gen. It was the pathetic equivalent of an Oliver Twist character, standing out in the snow, gazing longingly into a window as the family inside enjoys a warm, hearty meal.
Jesus Christ, my dick is starving.
She looks like she wants to argue, but before she can, Killian finally speaks.
“So we can’t even watch other people fucking now?” His bitter gaze fixes on her, jaw twitching.
Her expression snaps into a scowl faster than I can parse it. “We can all watch you go fuck yourself.”
Rath stands, rubbing his temple. “Okay, I’m out. Your sibling drama is giving me a goddamn migraine.”
“We’re not siblings!”
That might have been really convincing, except for the way it’s said by both of them, in the most pitch perfect unison that even my twin sisters couldn’t hope to be so in sync.
An hour later, Rath is upstairs on the piano, I’m in the library typing out a paper for psych class, and Killer and Story are still going at it. I can hear them downstairs and it’s seriously fucking with my concentration. It gets to a point where I just can’t take it anymore. Slamming my laptop shut, I storm out of the library and down the stairs, following their voices into the den.
“It’s the only Ticonderoga in the house! I need it for my homework!”
“It’s mine.”
I try to figure out what the hell they’re talking about, but when I see the yellow stick in Killian’s hand, it all clicks. “You’re fighting over a pencil?” I ask, unable to hide my bewilderment and annoyance. “A fucking fifteen cent pencil?”
Story throws her hands up. “It’s the best kind of pencil, and I specifically bought it at the bookstore today.”
“Prove it,” Killian sneers, holding it up in a taunting manner. “Prove that you bought this pencil, and maybe I’ll give it back to you.”
Story’s hand balls up into a fist, and Killian holds the pencil like a weapon. Since our names being featured in a headline about a grisly pencil stabbing doesn’t strike me as beneficial, I march up, snagging the pencil out of the air.
“Hey!” they both shout. Apparently pissed I didn’t let the Forsyth Pencil Massacre take place in our living room.
I snap the pencil in two and toss a piece at each of them. Killian instinctively catches his. Story’s bounces off her chest and falls to the ground. I glare at my best friend. “What the fuck is this about, and don’t you dare tell me it’s about a pencil. Lizzy and Izzy act more mature than this.” When he just keeps seething, throwing me a dark look, I shake my head. “We can’t afford this right now. If you’ve got something to say to her, spit it out!”
“The agreement,” he grinds out, fists clenching, “was that we follow her ‘parameters’ and she’d keep belonging to us. That means I still have a say!”
“Jesus titty-fucking Christ,” I mutter, squeezing the bridge of my nose. Suddenly, I can relate to Rath’s migraine issues. “It’s not that hard to please a woman, Killer. Did you even think to butter her up a bit? To ask for something nicely? No, because you’re too busy nursing a grudge for something she had no way of knowing would upset you this much.”
I can see him really revving up now, that vein in his neck bulging. “After everything we’ve done to keep her included, she just decides unilaterally to—”