“I like neurospicy. Makes us sound tasty,” Avi said, winking at Felix, who rolled his eyes so hard Thomas feared he might injure himself.
Archer dropped into a chair beside Calliope. “Also—to answer your question—we’ve been here since Aiden kidnapped you. We got the SOS and took the jet back ASAP.”
“Five minutes working on a military base and he only speaks in acronyms,” Adam mused out loud.
Archer gave him the finger without bothering to look in his direction.
Aiden glowered at Archer. “I didn’t kidnap him.”
Thomas found himself fighting a smile at Aiden’s grumpy face. “You kind of did…but just a little.”
Aiden’s gaze cut to his and, for a moment, Thomas forgot they were in a room full of people. Aiden was beautiful and forceful. And when he looked at Thomas like that—like he wanted to eat him alive—Thomas lost his ability to think of anything but the man before him. Aiden was bad for business. Whenever he was near, Thomas got lost in him.
“I didn’t hear you complaining,” Aiden murmured.
Especially when he said things like that, while looking at Thomas like he was a slab of meat. Heat flooded his system as memories of their earlier encounter filled his head, temporarily rendering him mute.
“Oh-kay, I am not comfortable with this,” Noah said, looking at Aiden. “Stop flirting with my dad. It’s weird.”
“That’s not what you said yesterday,” Aiden reminded him.
Had Aiden talked to Noah about Thomas? That was new information. What the hell was happening? When had Thomas lost total control of this family?
“Hey, he’s Aiden’s dad, too,” August reminded Noah, lips twitching.
Aiden pointed a finger in his direction. “Don’t fucking start, August. I swear I will punch you.”
“Color me terrified,” August said, tone bored.
“Color me terrified,” Aiden mocked in a pretentious tone that made the others chuckle.
“Oh, yeah,” Seven said in a half-whisper. “I forgot he’s, like, Thomas’s…son? Awkward.”
“More like awesome,” Arsen challenged, grinning as he watched the back and forth.
“Careful, August,” Atticus said. “You don’t want to piss off Dad’s favorite.”
“Yeah, he might ground you,” Avi crowed.
“I hate all of you,” Aiden said.
“Our new stepdad’s kind of abusive,” Adam said, then snickered.
Aiden looked at Thomas. “Control your children.”
August laced his fingers together on the conference room table. “Hey, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. You just moved up the rank from son to husband. I’m the one who’s going to have to explain to my children how Uncle Aiden went to Grandpa Aiden.”
It was clear to Thomas that August was not at all upset about it. He didn’t even have the capacity to be truly upset. Aiden, however, seemed to be rendered speechless at August’s casual rebuttal. His gaze darted to Thomas like he half-expected him to bolt from the room.
But Thomas wasn’t going anywhere. He didn’t know where any of this was going, but he was tired of running. Now that his worst fears had finally come to fruition and everything was about to come to light, Thomas was hit with this weird sense of relief…and a newfound clarity. Nothing good came from keeping secrets from family.
He’d spent the last two decades playing this scenario over and over in his head, the day he might have to finally reveal his past to his children. He’d revealed his past in a million different ways, imagining their reactions, but whatever Thomas had expected from this confrontation, it wasn’t this.
The good-natured teasing, the knowledge that his feelings for Aiden hadn’t been as hidden as he’d thought they were all this time. He thought he’d feel embarrassed or ashamed of those feelings, but instead he just felt…relieved. No matter what happened later, at least—when it came to his relationship with Aiden—they all appeared to approve.
But there was still this one final matter to deal with.
He looked to Mac, who was the only one still standing. “Sit down, please. I want to get this over with.”
