Page 20

20

Brianna

F or the first time in her marriage, Bri didn’t wake up alone. She’d never woken up less alone, in fact, walled in on either side by a tangle of arms and legs and—was that a tail too? She lifted her head to discover that Jasmine had joined them sometime during the night, taking the bed’s population from three to four.

Bri had been using Roman as a dual-purpose pillow and leg rest, with Aldous spooning her from behind. Their clasped hands resting on her hip didn’t escape her notice. Had they been holding hands all night?

Bri smiled, her heart nearly melting at the cuteness factor. She just hoped Aldous wasn’t going to be putting his walls back up after last night. The fact that he hadn’t disappeared to start working at the ass crack of dawn was a good sign. Right?

Aldous hadn’t taken all of those walls down though. He was still fully clothed, baring only his hands and his head. Not for the first time, she wondered whether he was hiding something beneath.

But then Jasmine stood, stretching her spotted canine limbs before climbing over the pile of bodies to insert herself further, licking every face she could reach.

None of them stayed asleep long after that.

“Morning,” Roman croaked.

Shyness hit her as she remembered last night. She’d given her virginity to this man— and his tongue had explored places she’d never thought a tongue would go. “Morning.”

A gruff grunt came from behind her, but Aldous still hadn’t let go of Roman’s hand.

Roman’s lips brushed her forehead. “You feeling okay after last night?”

“I feel…” She wasn’t quite sure how to phrase it. “I feel like the feminine filling in a masculine sandwich and I’m very happy to be there.”

“Would I be correct in thinking there’s no regret sprinkled on top of that sandwich?” Roman asked.

Bri didn’t need to think about her answer. “Correct.”

Her response seemed to soothe him, but a thin whine from Jasmine had him climbing out of the bed and throwing some clothes on to take her down to the yard.

As much as she wanted to simply go back to sleep, Bri decided to follow suit, dragging herself out of bed to wash and dress.

Aldous’s eyes followed her, but then his voice broke the silence. “Are you okay with this?”

“With what?”

He sat on the side of the bed, a muscle tapping against his jaw. “Me. Him. That doesn’t bother you?”

Midway through picking the knots from her hair with a comb, Bri paused. She approached him, standing between his spread legs to cup his jaw. “Why would that bother me?”

Aldous closed his eyes as she ran her hands through his dark hair. It gave her the sneaking suspicion he was enjoying her touch. “You’re my wife. I don’t want you to think that I’m forgetting you just because I care for someone else too.”

Jeez, this man was so stinking cute she could barely handle it. “When you watched me with him last night,” she began. “What did you feel?”

Aldous’s hands slid up her thighs, squeezing her rear with an intense growl. “You know what I felt. I liked it. I more than liked it.”

“I like watching you and Roman just as much.” Bri leant in to kiss him. “You know how wet I was after watching you together.”

There was a wicked edge to his smirk. “Don’t I just?”

She smiled, breathing in the sight of him until she never wanted to look away—knowing that her feelings for Roman were identical to her feelings for Aldous. The two halves of my heart.

With a skip in her step, Bri finished getting ready to leave. Roman and Jasmine were back within minutes, the latter excitedly bounding into the room as though she hadn’t seen them in years. Covertly, Bri kept her eyes on Aldous’s reaction to Roman, worried he was going to start shutting him out again.

Judging by Roman’s careful glances, he was thinking along the same lines.

Aldous cleared his throat once they’d packed up the few belongings they’d brought with them. “We ready, then?” he murmured. Bri could have sworn there was a hint of pink to his cheeks when he looked at Roman. Was he blushing ?

Roman nodded. “We’re ready.”

A quiver of excitement travelled through her as she left the room. As she passed Aldous holding the door open for her, she went up on her tippy toes to press a kiss to his cheek. He could be so absurdly sweet sometimes she wanted to smush his stupidly handsome face together.

The heavenly scent of food shadowed them as they travelled downstairs, and Bri was pleasantly surprised to see people scattered across the lounge. The empty beer bottles, solo cups, and chip packets of last night had been cleared away, replaced with plates overflowing with bacon and pancakes, huevos rancheros, and breakfast burritos, and steaming cups of coffee.

Her father sighted her instantly, a wide smile splitting his face. “Mija.” He waved her over to his table, his dark eyes sparkling with happiness—and the heat lamps above the chafing dishes on the sideboard. “Come and have some food. Did you have a good sleep?”

The question was so normal it nearly took her breath away. Her mother had never worried over whether she’d had a good night’s sleep. At best, Vivian was indifferent to her presence. “It was great.” I definitely wasn’t penned in on either side by dick or anything. “Thank you for letting us stay the night.”

“Nonsense. You always have a place here.”

“Go and sit down with your father,” Aldous murmured in her ear. “We’ll get you some food.”

“Pancakes and bacon?” she said hopefully. She’d been eyeing people’s plates on the way over, her stomach grumbling like thunder. “Like a whole stack of them. And maybe one of those breakfast burritos.” She was starving .

He nodded, moving over to the sideboard full of food with Roman whilst Bri followed her father to a table in the corner. She saved a seat for Aldous against the wall, knowing he didn’t like to have people behind him.

“I realised something this morning,” Dante said, his gravelly voice setting itself apart from the quiet lull of the lounge. “Yesterday you told me you’d gone to college but I never actually asked what you studied.”

“Oh.” Bri shrunk a little bit, as she always did when this line of questioning came up. “I got a business degree.”

“Is that what you’d like to go into?”

“Not…not exactly. I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to study. Mom wanted me to do something that would be most useful to her, so she had me do a business degree.”

“Did you enjoy it?” Dante asked.

Bri licked her lips, letting the silence go on a little too long. “Not really.” The experience of going to college had been a good one, but as far as the degree went…

“What do you think you would have chosen for yourself?” Over Dante’s shoulder, Aldous and Roman headed over to their table, laden with plates. “Or did you just want the freedom to find that out?”

She shrugged. “In my last year of college, I did think about maybe going to law school after I graduated. It sounds kinda stupid, I know, given who my mother is.”

Dante shook his head, a grin hitching his lips. “That’s not stupid at all. I think it’s smart.”

“Really?” Bri accepted a plate from Aldous as him and Roman returned. Her eyes widened at the mountainous stack of pancakes and breakfast burritos piled onto it.

“You’ve been surrounded by criminal activities since the day you were born. And,” he dragged out, watching Roman feeding Jasmine a sausage off his fork, “it’s in your blood. You gotta take after your old man in some way, right?”

Bri leant back in her chair, feeling Aldous’s arm resting on it. “No way. You studied law?”

“I did,” Dante confirmed. “Didn’t graduate, mind you. But it was what I wanted to do with my life.”

She’d known he was at university during the massacre in Mexico City, but she hadn’t given a thought to what he’d been studying. “If you could go back, would you change things?”

Those dark brown eyes pierced her. “Change the direction my life took, you mean?”

Bri nodded.

Dante considered the question, giving Jasmine an affectionate pat. “No. I regret certain things I’ve done or the way I acted in certain situations, but I don’t regret my kids.” He sighed as he looked at her, the corners of his weathered eyes crinkling. “Especially not when they’ve all come home.”

A shiver of something went through her at that word. Home .

Bit by bit, she scaled the mountain of pancakes and breakfast burritos, telling Dante everything he wanted to know about her life—her upbringing. In turn, she asked questions of her own. She didn’t expect him to answer her questions about the compound or what they did, but he surprised her by answering them all.

Including one that had been on her mind.

“So I’ve met Arturo,” Bri said. Her stomach was fit to bursting, but Dante had insisted on boxing up some food for the long drive back home. “But I have another brother, Tomas. Is that right?”

“Right.” Dante nodded, holding the door open for her and waiting for the rest of her question.

Compared to yesterday, the yard was almost deserted. Only a handful of cars remained amidst the dust and heat of the morning. Aldous’s SUV sat where they’d left it. Its tailgate was thrown open, with Aldous and Roman hefting Roman’s dirtbike into the spacious trunk.

Roman’s joining us in the SUV then. That was an improvement on their ride in. She wanted to do a little happy dance.

“I haven’t met Tomas yet though.” At least she didn’t think she had. Yesterday had been an avalanche of new introductions, but she wanted to make sure she had everything straight.

“No.” Dante hugged her goodbye. “But Arturo will be in your neck of the woods next week actually. We’re having a few issues with the Wraiths. Maybe I can convince Tomas to come and meet you too.”

Convince ? “Does he live down in Mexico?”

“No,” Dante said again, but something different lurked in his tone. “He couldn’t make it last night, but I’m sure you’ll meet him soon.”

Was he? He didn’t sound very hopeful.

Dante breezed past the issue. “Have a safe journey back, carinito. Text me to let me know you got home safe, yes?”

“I will,” she promised.

“Friday nights are always busy here. Don’t think you need an invite. Come and stay whenever you like. One of us is usually on-site—me or Arturo or Tomas. We’ll always have a place for you.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice muffled into his hug. Did that mean Tomas was on-site now? And he chose to stay away. “I’ll have to take you up on that.”

Although she worried whether the mysterious Tomas would honour the invitation.