“Sorry about that,” I said.
He shrugged. “I know I’m interfering.”
“You’re not,” I said quickly, shaking my head. “You’re not, Tor. It was, it was really good to see you again. I’m sorry that I haven’t…that I didn’t.”
“It’s fine.” He moved quickly, flinging his arms around me and yanking me into a hug I’d spent almost four years missing. I reminded myself it was him and not Ev, that this was the brother of my husband, not my husband himself. The hug was over as quickly as it started, and Toren looked like he’d eaten ants when we broke apart.
He opened the door to my apartment and all but ran down the stairs. He’d definitely tried to make an escape earlier in themorning. I caught up with him, unlocking the door and leaning against the jamb with my arms crossed in front of my chest.
“Is your number still the same?” I asked.
“Always has been.”
“So is mine.”
Toren clenched his jaw and nodded, then pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. He didn’t say goodbye to me, and I didn’t say anything to him. After he left, I locked up the shop and went back upstairs.
“We’re alone,” I called out to Smith, kicking the door closed and heading into the kitchen to get some coffee brewing.
Smith shuffled out after me with his hair pointed in every direction except the right one. He joined me in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with his arms folded in front of his chest, his now-healed tattoo on display. I tapped my fingertip against the top of one of the buildings and cocked my head to the side.
“When do you want to get your second tattoo?”
He arched a brow. “I don’t even know what I would get.”
“Why did you want this?”
He looked down at the design I’d put into his skin and gave me a shrug that was far more casual than I knew the decision-making process for him had been.
“It was important to me.”
“The content or the act?”
Smith rolled his eyes and the coffee pot pinged an alarm to let me know it had finished. It also gave Smith an out to sidestep me. He skirted around me and grabbed two mugs from the cabinet, poured coffee for each of us, and passed one to me like this was a dance we’d been doing for years, not weeks.
“I think you know,” he said, mouth obscured by the rim of his coffee mug. “I think you know me better than I know myself at this point.”
“I doubt that.” I rested my ass against the counter opposite him, crossing my legs at the ankle. “But I’m happy to be the one to help you learn.”
CHAPTER 35
SMITH
When we got to Marshall’s, Silas’s car wasn’t there. I took that as a good sign, assumed he was probably with Lincoln, and fought back the taste of jealousy. I put my car into park and stared at Marshall’s garage, smiling—just barely—when I felt Riggs’s attention turn from the house to my profile.
“Are we going in?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t move.
“In a bit?” Riggs asked, reaching over the console and rubbing my thigh. As soon as his hand hit mine, relief washed over me and I closed my eyes and let my head drop against the headrest.
I knew Lincoln—and Hunter—and also Silas and Marshall were into some of the more intense examples of power exchange I’d seen first-hand at Rapture, and Riggs was too in some ways, but the nature of our relationship felt different than how I pictured theirs. It wasn’t a constant thing or even really a necessary thing. It was something fun, something that elevated our intimacy. But even the situational nature of it didn’t changehow nice it felt to have Riggs’s support. Though, that was also just part of being in a relationship with someone probably.
“I love all my brothers, but Marshall means the most to me.”
“I can tell.”
