Beside him stood the other black-haired brother, Meph. It was hard to notice anything about him except the tattoos. They covered every available inch of his body, spilling over onto the left side of his face, and he had piercings in his lip, the center of his nose, his ears, and one eyebrow. It certainly gave him an intimidating appearance, yet despite that, he had a big lopsided grin plastered across his face that was strangely endearing.
He was the shortest of the four but made up for it by being a freaking bodybuilder. His arms went beyond jacked into legend territory. She could see the veins bulging and individual tendons of muscles from there. He wore baggy workout sweats and Nike high-tops—definitely a gym rat.
And his favorite gym buddy was probably the fourth brother, Raum. He had dark skin and hair trimmed to the scalp. A thin line of facial hair traced his upper lip and chin, and he was as obscenely jacked as Meph. His eyes were a brilliant and unusual gold, bright enough to notice from a distance. She’d never known eyes could be that color. The somewhat broody look on his face told Eva he wasn’t one to smile often.
Compared to them, Ash almost looked normal, she thought with an inward chuckle. Unfortunately, her stalker routine hadn’t calmed her nerves. If anything, it was worse. She wanted Ash’s brothers to like her. He’d said over and over that they were jerks, but they were obviously still important to him.
She told herself to woman up. She knew she looked hot. She’d put on her favorite gold cowl-neck top and a pair of hoop earrings to match. Her curls were piled in a messy bun on top of her head. Black leggings and scuffed-up Dr. Martens completed the look.
She was pretty sure Ash wasn’t going to give a damn about her clothes anyway. If he was thinking anything like she was, he’d only be concerned with how soon he could get her out of them.
She took a breath and stepped confidently around the corner, striding toward the brothers as if she hadn’t been lurking in the alley like a creep. They all stopped what they were doing and stared at her. Ash had frozen with his cigarette halfway to his lips, and she could see his eyes darken into that hungry look she’d been missing all week.
She stopped beside him and smiled. Her lady parts were clenching just from the sight of him, which was embarrassing because his brothers were all grinning at her like they knew exactly what she was thinking. She did her best to ignore them and looked at Ash. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
When he smiled, it was breathtaking. He held her gaze, and the rest of the world fell away. A bomb could have gone off and she wouldn’t have noticed.
Damn, she was falling fast, and it was terrifying. She wanted to say all this cringey stuff likeI missed youandI thought about you all week, but she held her tongue.
“Well, hello,” said another voice, reminding her they weren’t alone. “I’m Meph.”
He stuck out a tattooed hand—even his palm was covered—and when she shook it, he bowed low and kissed the back of her hand, which looked odd coming from a guy who looked like he was on his way to a gang meet.
“It’s an honor to meet the mysterious woman who’s interested in poor old Asmodeus here.” He straightened, released her hand, and eyed her suspiciously. “Tell me, why did you seek out the ugliest, most boring man in all the world? Self-torture, perhaps? A healthy dose of guilt means you don’t believe you’re worthy of having a sexual partner you’re actually attracted to?”
Eva’s mouth dropped open.
“Meph, shut the fuck up,” Belial growled.
Ash looked like he wanted to stab the lit end of his cigarette into Meph’s eye. She wouldn’t have blamed him if he did. Hell, she might have helped hold him still.
She planted her hands on her hips and got good and pissed. Ash had warned her his brothers were tools.Guess I should have believed him.
“First of all, it’s none of your damn business who I want to sleep with or why, asshole. And secondly, Ash is ten times hotter than you could ever dream of being, so I suggest you look in the mirror before you go calling him boring and ugly.”
It wasn’t completely true. Meph was undeniably gorgeous if one wasn’t put off by all the ink and piercings, but he needed to be taken down a notch, and she was full of righteous indignation on Ash’s behalf.
“Oh, snap,” Raum said.
“Meph, she can see him,” Belial said.
See him?What the hell was he on about? And had she thought Ash was weird? Because he had nothing on his brothers.
Meph’s retort died before he got a chance to begin it. He looked up at Belial. “Wait, what?”
“She can see through his... you know.”
See through his what?
Meph stared at Eva with his mouth open. Raum stepped beside him and did the same. She felt like a bug under a microscope. “But how?”
“I don’t know,” Ash said through gritted teeth, “but can we not talk about this right now?”
“Are you a closet lesbian?” Meph asked.
Eva sputtered indignantly. “Excuse me?”
