Page 36

Stefanos

Since she stayed for the weekend, we went clothes shopping for her, but I might have gotten out of control when we stopped off at a lingerie outlet. There were stockings, basques, bodysuits, corsets, flimsy panties and bras. After seeing her in her black hold-ups, I wanted more.

“I don't think I will need any more underwear for many years to come,”

she said dryly.

“Hmm,”

I said because she would when I ripped half of them off her. “How about we go to the jewellers and you can show me which type of ring you like?”

She paused to look at me and I stopped walking to shuffle the bags into one hand, wrapping my free hand around her waist.

“You said yes, five times, I believe,” I said.

“But marriage—”

“Is a done deal.”

She frowned at me before muttering about me and her mother ganging up on her. It seemed like I had an ally in Thema. I watched Amari walk off. She wore her knitted dress but had bare legs with her boots. I wanted her to move in with me. The thought of her going home tomorrow made me desperate enough to message Thema.

***

“You're coming in?”

Amari asked as I followed behind her with my bag hidden among all of hers.

“Stefanos, Amari, you're back,”

Alcina said as she opened the door. “Mum said we are having a sleepover.”

Amari was hugging our sister but she glared at me. I smiled innocently at her before Alcina threw herself into my arms next. She was so tiny and light, fitting perfectly on my forearm.

“You're so tall, S,”

she said with a giggle.

Thema appeared in the doorway as she looked at us with a smile, but she had tears in her eyes. Before I could say or do anything, she ushered us inside, saying the spare room was a mess and that I should sleep in Amari’s room.

“But Mum—”

“It’s a sleepover, Amari,”

her mum interrupted her.

“I will show you where her room is,”

Alcina said.

I watched them all, my father’s other family and for the first time since his death, I felt close to him. I understood the words on his letter. Just as I vowed to Amari to protect her, that protection fell on my sister and her mother.

“Traitors, the lot of you,”

Amari said, trying to tickle Alcina.

I glanced at Thema, her tears were gone and there was only happiness as she watched her daughters.

***

“I should make you sleep on the floor,”

Amari said cuddling into me.

“Why?”

I asked, trying to get comfortable on her bed.

“To make up for the cage you had me in,”

she said pushing her hand into my shorts.

“Are you sure you want to do that with the sounds you make? Alcina will think I’m killing you,”

I said kissing her neck. “You should move in with me.”

She pulled her hand out of my shorts with a sigh.

“You’re always plotting something,”

she grumbled. “What good is a sleepover if I can’t take advantage of a real penis?”

“That’s why you should move in with me,”

I said with a chuckle.

It took me a valiant six days for her to agree to move in with me and for me to deny her my dick. Thema high-fived me on our way out, but I wasn’t done yet.

***

“You bought us a house?”

Thema said blankly.

“I know you wouldn't live with us if we asked, but I've already missed out on six years of my sister's life, and Amari moved in with me. I thought you would like to live closer to her. There is a great school for Alcina,”

I said with a shrug.

“I-this is too much, Stefanos,”

she whispered.

“Do you want me to go into detail and tell you exactly what I did to your daughter? How I broke her?”

Her head snapped up with fire blazing in her eyes before she narrowed them on me with pursed lips.

“Give me the damn keys to my new house,”

she said holding her hand out.

With a satisfied grin, I pulled them out of my pocket and dropped them into the palm of her hand, leaving her to explore the new house that was a two-minute walk from ours.

My mother didn't accept my future wife and wouldn't accept the rest of the family, but this wasn't a surprise.

Amari slipped her arms around me from behind.

“You can do anything you want to me tonight,”

she whispered.

“Anything?”

I asked to clarify while turning around as multiple ideas exploded in my mind.

“Anything,”

she said firmly with a smile, but it was the happiness in her eyes that took my breath away.

The IUD was out and I knew exactly what I would be doing to her tonight. My arms tightened around her, I could have lost her, never known this happiness or the innocent love from my little sister. Without my father, none of this would have been possible.

“Se agapó,”

I whispered to her before pulling back from our embrace to claim her lips.

I love you.