Page 147 of Merciless

I roll off him and keep my back to the guys. “Leave me alone.”

“We’re not leaving, Eden,” Elijah growls.

Tears sting my eyes, and I curse the fact that I cry when I’m angry. “Are you going to keep me tied to your beds until I fall for you both?”

“Maybe,” Asher murmurs, then shares a look with Elijah.

My jaw drops. “That’s called Stockholm Syndrome.”

Elijah scowls at me. “Don’t pretend you haven’t been falling since the beginning.”

“Feelings change,” I say. “It was all a lie.”

“Not for me, little ghost,” Asher says.

“Or me,” Elijah says. “We may have gone into it with cruel intentions, but my feelings for you are real. I fell in love with you, Eden. I’m still in love with you.”

“Love doesn’t hurt. You hurt me.”

Elijah snorts. “Love hurts every single fucking day. I can’t be around you without my chest hurting when I look at you. I can’t think about you without getting hard to the point it hurts. So don’t tell me love doesn’t hurt.”

“That’s lust. Not love.” I turn away from him.

Elijah grabs my arm and forces me to look at him. He leans in until his nose bumps against mine. “I’d kill anyone for you. I’d destroy everyone and their empire if they tried to harm you, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“Why do you think we were gone for hours, little ghost?” Asher sings. He gets off the bed and unwraps a sucker. “That video wasn’t meant to go out to anyone. It was for us and us alone.”

“It still doesn’t take away the intentions you had when you first got with me.”

Elijah straightens and glares at me. “Then how do you want me to prove my loyalty to you? To show you how sorry I am?”

The room falls into silence again.

I’m not sure what would be good enough. Groveling was never my area of expertise. This is my first relationship, or whatever the hell this is.

When I don’t answer, Elijah gets off the bed and fishes something out of his pocket. He turns to me and tosses teeth onto the mattress near my legs.

I scramble backward. “Please tell me they’re fake.”

Asher snickers.

Elijah stares at me, blank-faced. “Derrick is the one who spread the videos around the school. He wanted to talk through his teeth, so I took them.”

I peek at the guys and inch away from the teeth.

What kind of caveman-type apology is this?

Asher grabs my ankles and drags me down the bed.

“What are you doing?” I snap.

He eases me to stand on my feet. “I’m going to draw you a bath, and you’re going to soak in it while I make something for you to eat.”

I blink and look between the guys.

What kind of twilight zone am I in right now?

The Merciless Twins bathing me and making food for me after they made me look like a complete idiot?