Blessed by Night

343  House Guest

The elevator door dinged and Malachi stepped into his apartment with Celeste trailing slowly behind him.

Somehow, holding his hand right now felt too bold of her. She had tried to let it go several times already, but Mal was still holding her firm.

Entering the house, they found Joanne and Sei at the bar looking rather close to each other.

The two were holding hands and giggling together over now-empty glasses of wine.

They looked up at the duo as they entered and met their arrival with a warm smile.

"We were wondering where you went when you stepped out so suddenly…" Joanne smirked as she dragged her eyes over the woman hiding behind her fiancé. "Hello, Celeste. Nice dress."

Her cheeks turned a deep scarlet. "T-Thank you.."

Somehow, that compliment felt like it was laden with suggestive undertones that made her slightly anxious.

That gaze, and that slight drawl on her words… she was almost of the same type as Malachi.

Celeste was beginning to develop the sneaking suspicion that she had voluntarily stepped foot into the lion's den.

"I was going to stay here for a few days if that was… alright with all of you?"

Sei and Joanne shared knowing smiles with each other.

"You don't need to be so stiff, dear. Of course you can stay."

"I'm surprised at your boldness though. With someone as squeamish as you, I would have thought it would've taken a lot longer before you spent the night with us."

Celeste lost all of her composure instantly. "N-No, no, no! Malachi told me you had a spare room so that's where I'll be sleeping! Nowhere else!"

"If you say so~" Sei replied in a sing-song voice.

Celeste didn't like that laugh. She really didn't like that laugh.

"O-On that note… I feel like I should go ahead and turn in for the night. Alone. By myself. With my underwear on." She smiled awkwardly and backed away.

Malachi actually let Celeste pull her hand away this time, but judging by the look on his face he didn't seem to like it much.

"Do you know where you're going?" He snickered.

"I'll find it by myself!" Celeste ran upstairs barefoot; practically tripping over several steps.

Serosh was lying on the floor while Cami played with toys on his stomach.

He too watched Celeste arrive and he developed a sneaking suspicion.

The beast fished a small pair of headphones out of the shadows and placed them on top of Cami's head.

"Mu?"

"Nothing, you just probably shouldn't take those off for the rest of the night."

Cami shrugged and just went back to playing without a single thought behind her eyes.

-

To her credit, Celeste did find the room by herself. Doesn't mean she got to keep it to herself though.

"Shouldn't you two be sleeping in your OWN bed???"

""No."" Malachi and Joanne smiled in unison.

"Well if you want to be technical, every bed in the penthouse is ours since we bought them." Joanne shrugged.

Celeste glared at the duo and tried not to let her eyes wander anywhere unsavory.

Malachi had arrived practically naked and only wearing boxers. Joanne wore a shirt that she was sure belonged to him and a pair of underwear.

Both of them carried spare pillows underneath their arms, but Celeste knew that had to be a prop.

There was no way these deviants had any sort of sleep on their minds!

Celeste might've had to let them sleep with her, but she didn't have to give them what they wanted!

"I-I have to be up for work tomorrow so keep your hands to yourselves please…"

Malachi and Joanne glanced at each other and then back at her.

"Of course."

"Do we look like we would cause you any trouble?"

Celeste noted the large angelic wings that were still enlarged behind Joanne's back.

She hadn't seen something that ill fitting since she was in her second year of college and her roommate tried to get into a frat party for free.

Celeste crawled into bed and her two additional guests joined in on either side of her. Alarming, but she wouldn't overreact just yet. They hadn't done anything wrong after all.

The lights went off, and they all got settled into their positions. Celeste got to experience her first instance of being sandwiched between two people.

Two very attractive people at that…

It didn't feel… quite as bad as she imagined.

She actually ended up snuggling just a little bit closer to them on instinct.

Joanne placed a hand on her waist. Malachi placed his hand on the top of her thigh.

Celeste's heartbeat quickened. But she didn't stop them or attempt to move their hands away. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

….

….

Ten minutes went by and neither of them did anything else.

Nothing? Not even make a pass at her or attempt a little heavy petting??

N-Not that she wanted to be forced to endure this kind of thing… but she had packed only good underwear for this little staycation.

If they just so happened to see it then it wouldn't necessarily be the worst thing, would it?

But no. These bastards didn't even want to take a peek.

Just sleep their lives away while leaving her high and decidedly not dry.

'I swear to gods it feels like they did this on purpose…'

Celeste closed her eyes and went to bed angry that night.

She completely forgot about Mal's teensy tiny little ability to read minds when he was in physical contact with a person.

But maybe, that was for the best.

-

The morning came and Celeste was still mad that she hadn't.

She ate breakfast in relative silence; only speaking when spoken to and shooting occasional glares at Malachi and Joanne- who either winked or blew her kisses as a result.

It was difficult to say whether that exacerbated her frustrations or just flattered her.

Her heated gaze settled onto Malachi like a predator stalking the tall grass.

The moment she got him alone for even a second, she was going to make him work twice as hard as normal to make up for this-

"Ba?"

Celeste abruptly blinked her eyes.

Sitting next to her in a high chair was a young infant who was staring at her with eyes full of innocence.

Camille was holding out a strawberry and offering it to her in a sweet gesture.

All of Celeste's negative inhibitions were starting to whither away into nothing.

"Hey, Cece?"

"Hm..?" Celeste looked up at Anna as she accepted Cami's strawberry of friendship.

Anna grabbed her shoulder and made a pitiful expression. "My wing is feeling a little bit stiff after last night and it's hard to move it properly… think you could give me a little 'check-up' when we go in today?"

"U-umm…"

It was not lost on Celeste that everyone at the table was currently avoiding her gaze.

Even the baby and the house pets seemed to conveniently find something else to focus their attention on.

Somehow, it felt like she was being slowly sucked in to a black hole of unknown origin.

And she had no idea if she still wanted to jump out before it was too late.