Page 60 of Sweetest Sin

“Really?” she snaps. “Threatening the mother of your child? Such a gentleman.”

“I never claimed to be a gentleman.” I shrug. I lean in so only she can hear me, my breath tickling her ear. “And I’m pretty sure when I was fucking you from behind and you were begging me to do it harder, you were perfectly okay with that. If you were to be honest with yourself, I think you prefer it that way.”

“You’re such an asshole,” she hisses, looking me in the eye. “It seems like you’re a bit obsessed with our time together. This is the second time you’ve brought it up. Hope you have a good memory because the only way you’ll ever fuck me again is in your mind.”

She stalks off, and I can’t help but laugh.

“We’ll see about that,” I call after her, earning her middle finger.

“What the hell was that?” Brielle asks, glancing from me to Peyton, who’s now helping our son blow up a floatation devicethat’s shaped like a pizza. “And why is the flight attendant in our house?”

“That’s what happens when you don’t wrap it up,” Matteo says with a laugh as he saunters into the room and slides his arm across the back of Brielle’s shoulders. “Our brother here hooked up with that woman and got her pregnant.”

Brielle’s body stiffens, and Matteo drops his grin.

“Hey,” I say to her. “I’m not a woman, so I can’t possibly know what you went through …”

“It’s fine,” Brielle snaps. “It’s been years. I’m over it.”

It’s clear she’s not, but in our family, showing any kind of emotion is a weakness.

“So, she … what, kept him from you?” Brielle asks, channeling her anger toward Peyton.

“Put the claws away,” I warn.

I might be pissed about what Peyton did, but that’s between me and her. I’m not going to have my family fighting my battles for me, and if I have any chance of coexisting with her, I can’t have my sister or mom out to get her in my honor.

“She did what she thought was right,” I tell her. “The important thing is that I know now, and it would make shit easier if you could get along with her, especially since she’s not going anywhere.”

“She’s living here?” Brielle accuses, her eyes wide in shock. “What … did she find out you were worth billions and came to collect?”

“Actually,shedoesn’t want a single thing from him,” Peyton says, nodding toward me. “I had no intention of telling him about Damien. But thanks to your brother stalking me when I told him to leave me alone, he found out about our son, then almost got him kidnapped. As soon as he finds the guy responsible, we’ll be out of your hair.”

Without waiting for Brielle to respond, she walks back over to Damien, taking his hand in hers and scooping up the giant pizza with her other hand, and they disappear out the back door.

“Well, that went well,” Matteo mutters.

“Anthony is after Damien,” I tell Brielle.

“What?” she gasps. “Why?”

“I think he knew you were possibly pregnant with his kid and knows Dad forced you to have an abortion.”

Her face turns white.

“He potentially lost his heir and the connections to our family. I think he was trying to find a way to get back at our family and found out I had a son at the same time I did. He sent me a text—an eye for an eye—and then tried to have Damien kidnapped.”

“That motherfucker,” Brielle hisses. “Where is he? Why haven’t you killed him yet?”

“He’s hiding,” Matteo says. “But I promise, we won’t stop until we find him.”

“And when you do, I want him,” Brielle says. “I want to be the one to end his life.”

She’s never killed anyone, so she doesn’t know the way it stays with you, but I’m not about to argue with her. When the time comes, I’ll convince her to let us handle it. But for now, I nod in agreement.

“That doesn’t explain why that woman kept your son from you,” she says.

“That woman’s name is Peyton,” I tell her. “And she’s the mother of my son—your nephew—so show her some respect.”