14. VANYA: THE TRUTH

I was ready to jump between them if they started fighting. Just the thought of that made me panic. I knew that I wouldn’t be strong enough to pull them apart.
Thankfully Devrim stood and held a hand out to Ezra who stared at it for a few seconds before placing his hand in Devrim’s and allowing him to help him up.
My mouth dropped open when they picked up the chairs and sat down as if nothing happened. Blowing out a breath, I walked back around the island and started on the sandwiches again. The silence was deafening, and the fact that they kept staring at me was making me clumsy.
When the sandwiches were done, I placed the plates down in front of them. “Bon appétit.”
They blinked at me.
“Enjoy,” I muttered with an eye roll.
We ate in silence. I wished they would say something. I wasn’t very good at starting a conversation. I could start talking about books, but I didn’t think that they read. So what else was I supposed to say?
I was going to be living with them for god knows how long, and it would certainly be hell if every day went by in utter silence.
Ezra finished first. “That was delicious. Surrey’s sandwiches don’t match yours.”
“Surrey?” I questioned
“Right, you don’t know anybody here. I forgot.” Ezra stood and carried his plate over to the sink. “She’s the cook at the main house.”
“Oh.”
“Her sandwiches are pretty plain,” Devrim said. “Yours tasted different. It has more flavour.”
I beamed at his praise. Smiling, I leaned across the island to grab his plate. I didn’t miss the fact that his eyes dropped to my chest when I did that. Was he found me as attractive as I was finding him—no—them?
I quickly turned with the plates in my hands and bumped right into Ezra. He winked at me as he took the plates and turned. I stared at his back for a few seconds before I turned around and took my seat again.
I risked a glance at Devrim from underneath my lashes. He was frowning down at his entwined hands on the countertop. What was he thinking about?
Ezra’s words from earlier flashed through my mind:
“Dev is just pissed because he got turned on when Ob—”
Devrim had cut him off before he could finish the sentence. Was he about to say that Devrim got turned on by Obsidian? They had been fighting, hadn’t they?
If Ezra hadn’t carried me away then we both would’ve known what had happened between them. Was he beating himself up because—?
I shook my head. It was none of my business, but it didn’t stop my brain-to-mouth filter.
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” I heard myself saying softly.
Devrim’s head snapped up and his eyes locked with mine. “W-what?”
I swallowed. “I mean. . .being attracted to the opposite sex. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
His frown deepened. “I’m not,” he instantly denied. “I’m not attracted to Obsidian.”
My lips tugged up into a smile. I hadn’t mentioned Obsidian, but at least now I understood what Ezra had been saying before Devrim tackled him.
“Since we’re on this topic,” Ezra said, breaking the silence that had followed after Devrim’s words. “We need to talk about why you’re here.”
“Ezra—”
But Ezra spoke over him.
“We’re attracted to you and we want to copulate with you.”
I blinked at him. “Copulate?”
Obsidian suddenly appeared. He had stepped out of the dark hall which had me wondering for how long he had been hiding in the darkness.
“They want to fuck you,” he said.
Ezra growled at him. “Do you always have to be so crude?”
Obsidian shrugged. “Make me one of those sandwiches, princess.”
I blinked at him. Did he just. . .? I shook my head.
“Make it yourself,” Ezra sneered at him.
“I want her to make it.” Obsidian pointed a finger at me. “So I can show her the same appreciation she showed me when I cooked for her.”
Cooked for me? The confusion cleared. It would explain why he got so angry.
“I—”
Obsidian growled, instantly silencing me. I lowered my head when he continued to stare at me. “Make me a sandwich, Vanya.”
His eyes narrowed when I looked back up at him. He was daring me to defy him. Obsidian was a man I didn’t want to test—not yet anyway. I wanted to get to know him a little better so I knew where his limits lay. I sensed something under his cold exterior, and I was going to find out exactly what he was hiding.
‘Sure,” I said as I stood and walked over to the fridge.
I made him the same sandwich I had made the others. Without a word, I placed his plate down in front of him and moved away to clean up the space I had used and to pack everything away.
When I turned back to face them, my mouth dropped open. Obsidian was busy taking his sandwich apart.
He held a piece of lettuce pinched between his thumb and forefinger, inches from his face. His eyes darted over it before he sniffed at it.
“It’s called lettuce,” I told him. “It’s healthy and—”
“I know what it is,” he growled. “I’m making sure that you haven’t put drugs in the food.”
His words made the smile slip from my face. Sometimes I forgot that they spent most of their life locked up in a cage.
“You know,” I muttered, “if I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t poison you. I’d shoot you instead.”
Their mouth dropped open, and I realized too late that I shouldn’t be joking about something like that. A nervous laugh fell from my lips. “I—I was only joking. You’d be able to smell poison from a mile away, and I know you’ll get the gun away from me within seconds.”
Devrim was the first to break the silence. “You humans have a sick sense of humour. I don’t really see what’s so funny in what you said.”
“I’m sorry.”
The way they all stared at me, made me feel degraded. What was meant as a joke was the reason for them to start mistrusting me?
The progress that had been made between us was thrown out the window because of my stupidity.
I shifted from foot to foot and glanced at the stairs. There was an escape route, and the coward that I was took it immediately. Without a word or look in their direction, I made a run for it. I reached my bedroom without either of them coming after me.
Closing the door, I leaned back against it with a relieved sigh. That was a close call.
Lashing out at them in the library or my home was different. They were on my territory then, but I was on theirs now. It meant that they could do anything they wanted to me and my father or anybody else wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.