The ensuing conversation came with a plethora of bribes from their friends and family for insider information. Apparently, the pot was in the five figures.
Kyle leaned across Jamie, poking Alexei hard in the shoulder. “I’m your brother, Lyosha. You owe me a hint.”
“Late on coffee delivery. No hint for you,” Alexei retorted with a smug smile.
Sean laughed into his drink at the disgruntled look on Kyle’s face. Jamie rolled his eyes and easily hauled Kyle back to a sitting position, his enhanced strength making it look easy.
“That’s your wedding present. You can’t get it early.”
“Shame. Not win pot.”
Kyle flipped him off, and Alexei returned the gesture. Their version ofI love youwas ignored by everyone else in the group in favor of the food that had arrived. The club offered up small plates with various dishes throughout the night for clubgoers, and someone had ordered the entire menu for their group. Sean snagged a skewer of filet mignon chunks before the horde descended on that dish. Alexei wasn’t even polite about it and simply grabbed that entire small plate for himself.
“You’re sharing,” Sean said around the bite he’d just taken.
“Only with you,” Alexei promised with a smile.
Alexei was a warm line of heat by his side that Sean never wanted to leave. He touched his thumb to the cool band around his left ring finger, knowing it wouldn’t be long until their future together as husbands arrived.
The group devoured the late-night snacks and poured another round of drinks. Conversation ebbed and flowed, with everyone switching up seats whenever they wanted to catch up with someone new. Eventually, Madison corralled Annabelle, Katie, and Alexei’s sisters to go to the dance floor.
“Anyone else want to join us?” Madison called out before downing another shot of vodka.
Sean reached for Alexei’s hand and tugged the taller man to his feet. “Come on. Let’s dance.”
Alexei got to his feet and pulled Sean in close for a quick, warm kiss that tasted like the whiskey he’d stolen a sip from out of Kyle’s glass.
“Whatever you want, Senya.”
Sean smiled against his lips. “Already got what I wanted.”
When Alexei pulled back, the smile he gave Sean made it seem as if they were the only ones in the club.
“Best almost-husband,” Alexei said as he led Sean to the stairs that led down to the dance floor.
All Sean could think about as he followed Alexei was that in two days there would be noalmost—just husbands.
2
Boston,Massachusetts
USA
“>”Kyle muttered in Russian as he carefully stabbed the pin of a miniature medal through the stiff fabric of Alexei’s Strike Force evening dress uniform. “>”
“>” Alexei muttered, carefully shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“>”
“>”
“>” Kyle glared up at Alexei as he prepared to pin the last medal into place. “>”
Alexei rolled his eyes but held still like his brother asked. It took another thirty seconds for Kyle to finish setting the medals and ribbons on the left side of his evening dress uniform in the regulation straight lines. It’d been years since they had both worn the Strike Force uniform, and months since they were full-on active duty for the MDF, but Kyle hadn’t lost his touch at making sure whatever they wore was regulation approved.
Kyle smoothed his hand over the stiff, dark gray fabric of the evening dress uniform when he finished, eying the medals critically. “>”
Alexei resisted the urge to tug at his collar. “>”
