Page 73 of Veiled Amor

“You go missing for a few days, and you bring home a wife, Cap?”

Ignoring Snake, he looked down at her amused face. She wasn’t to know she’d handed the biggest gossip the juiciest lie.

Not knowing either how much his dick approved of her teasing him. So did his heart.

His wife.

“Hi, I’m Lucia,” she introduced herself to Winter, then stepped out of his arms to coo over the two boys. “Oh, your babies are beautiful. Look at those big eyes, I could eat you up.”

“It’s great to meet you, Lucia. I’m Winter. This is my hubby Snake and our boys, Bowie and Cash. Congratulations, you two!”

Capone rolled his eyes as Lucia looked back and grinned. “Don’t listen to her. She’s crazy.”

“Don’t listen to him,” she countered, coming back to curl around his waist, settling something in him. He dropped his hand and squeezed her hip. If she was his pretend wife, then he deserved some touching privileges. “He’s ashamed of me because I slurp my soup.”

All Capone’s efforts to keep her at arm’s lengths crumbled when he laughed and dipped his mouth to her ear, giving the other two a glimpse at their intimacy. “You’re a bad brat.”

Then he heard Snake’s shrill whistle. “Yo, look alive,” he called behind him into the club, “Capone’s brought an old lady with him.” He turned a smirk on Capone, who narrowed his eyes at his brother in arms. “Asshole.”

“Congrats, my brother,” he smirked. “Wish we could stay to hear the story, but I gotta get my family home, come over for dinner soon.”

Satisfaction rushed over Capone’s weary bones and begging heart when she curled closer, but addressed Snake. “Sorry, I was just funning this guy. I’m not his wife, but I’d love to come to dinner sometime to get to know his friends.”

“Get inside, brat.” He all but growled with no anger behind it. Not like he could intimidate her, she was grinning too much. He knew already everyone would love her. She was so hungry for social interaction. He wouldn’t be surprised if she befriended everyone in seconds. And on the back of that thought, he shepherded her inside while he scowled because he wanted to keep Lucia all for himself.

It made no sense and absolute sense at the same time.

He couldn’t have her.

But wanted no one else to have her attention, either.

Call him what you will; Capone was possessive over Lucia. Irrational emotions, newly afflicted. They didn’t need to make sense. He was protecting her, even from himself. Though he was doing a shitty job of that. He’d done everything but sew Lucia into his skin by bringing her home with him, especially to his club. He didn’t bring women here, not even a casual date. But it felt right walking through the doors with her clinging excitedly to his arm.

Somehow, it felt as though a gaping wound in his chest became a little smaller. Some of his open grief sighed into the background because all his focus was on a smiling blonde woman all but vibrating at his side. Her smile speared him clean through the chest. And you know? For once, while he looked at her, his brother wasn’t anywhere near his mind, plaguing him with guilt.

He grinned in return and took his pretend wife to enchant his friends and brothers as easily as she’d snared his heart.

His wife. His wife.

She should have been his wife. That much he knew.

I saw her first. A voice in his mind whispered.

Staking a claim because he couldn’t help himself.

I saw her first, brother.

TWENTY

“You get a hot biker. You get a hot biker. You all get a hot biker.” - Lucia

There were lots of different levels of handsome men.

The pretty model type with flawless looks and manly manicures to match. Then there was the rough and tumble type of men. The kind you knew they didn’t give a shit about getting their worn jeans dirty if they mounted a woman on the floor to fuck her brains out. Every man there was the latter, and her heart clattered like she was having an out-of-body anxiety moment.

Gorgeous was not the word for what she was looking at.

Left and right and in the middle, it was wall to wall sexy men.