“Kids asleep?” she asks Gabe.
“Yep. Both girls crashed hard after an epic Disney singalong.” Gabe’s face goes soft as he talks about his kids, three-and-a-half-year-old Sophie and two-year-old Ellie. “Soph has been asking for you. You up for babysitting one night next week? Mol and I are due for a serious kid-free date night.”
Olivia grins. “Spend the night with my two favorite ladies? One hundred percent yes. Take the whole night. Use some of your billions to book a hotel, and I’ll sleep here with the girls. Call it my,I’m leaving for six monthspresent to you.”
“Sold.” Gabe kisses the top of her head. “Even though I still hate the idea of you going to Europe alone for six months.”
Olivia rolls her eyes. “No shit. But I’m going anyway, so deal with it.”
Breaking away from Gabe, she plops down on the couch right next to me, pressing her leg against mine as she leans over the now wide-awake baby in my arms. “Jeremy, she’s so big!”
“Tell me about it,” Jeremy says with a grin as he glances over at his daughter. “I want to slow down time.”
The guys all start bemoaning how fast their kids are growing, but I’m barely listening because Olivia’s tits are pressed to my upper arm as she plays peek-a-boo with Grace. Her hair smells like lilacs, the solid warmth of her body presses against mine, and she’s wearing my sweatshirt and a pair of tight black leggings that leave every single one of her curves on display. I know what sounds she makes when I kiss her and what the skin of her neck tastes like, and I need my hands on every inch of her with a desperation that settles deep in my bones.
Is this what obsession feels like?
“You okay there, my guy?” Olivia says in a low voice only I can hear.
“I am one hundred percent entirely not okay.”
She snorts out a quiet laugh. “Something on your mind?”
I move surreptitiously closer to her, nudging her shoulder lightly with mine. “Yeah, I’m thinking of how fucking good you look in my clothes and how badly I want to strip that sweatshirt right off of you.”
Olivia sucks in a breath. “I’m sure that can be arranged.”
“Careful,” I murmur, glancing at Gabe out of the corner of my eye, even though the last thing I want to do is be careful. I want to kiss her right here and tell the entire world she’s mine. Except she isn’t. Not really. I just wish she was.
Olivia smirks at me. “No, I don’t think I will be. Meet me in the downstairs bathroom in five.”
I stare at her. “What?”
Her smirk turns sly. “You heard me.”
With that, she stands from the couch and saunters out of the game room without another word or a single backwards glance.
Jesus Christ.
Taking a long, slow breath, my eyes glued to the doorway she disappeared through, I’m trying to get myself under control when Jeremy takes the seat Olivia vacated, reaching over and taking his daughter from my arms. “Go,” he says quietly.
“Go where?” I try for casual, but the way I stumble over the words is the opposite of that.
Jeremy chuckles. “Wherever Liv is going. She asked you to follow her, right?”
“How do you know that?” I hiss.
He grins. “I’m a master lip reader. Comes from all my years of playing hockey in loud arenas. And also, she showed up here, on guys’ night, wearing a Penn sweatshirt. You’re the only person any of us knows who went to Penn, and I know she just happened to stay at the loft the night of the snowstorm. You’ve had a serious thing for her for years, and it looks like something is finally happening. Is something happening?”
I stare at him, absorbing his words. “I thought I was subtle,” I mumble.
Jeremy shrugs. “To everyone else, maybe. But you’re my brother. I knew.”
My chest squeezes at Jeremy’s words—at the easy acceptance of what we are.Brothers. It’s an odd thing, finding your brother in your thirties. Our relationship was hard won, which makes the knowing he mentioned one of the sweetest parts of my life. “She’s too young for me.”
Jeremy rolls his eyes. “Give me a break. Emma is seven years younger than I am, and she’s the love of my damn life. The only girl in the entire world for me. My fucking soulmate. When it’s right, age doesn’t mean shit.”
I blow out a breath, looking around to make sure everyone else is still occupied, and then I tell Jeremy the real thing. “Gabe is going to murder me in my sleep. She’s his little sister.”
