“You absolutelyshouldask questions,” Rome interjects. “You’re new to us, Natasha. And this is a safe space for you to do that. I apologize for interrupting, but I’m hungry.”
Lulu chuckles and tips her head back, inviting a kiss, and Rome grabs her throat as he kisses her deeply. When he looks at her, it’s as if she hung the moon.
There’s no malice or hate anywhere in this home.
It’s so amazing. And so different from what I know.
It’s not long before we’re all seated around a huge table in the dining room, passing around bowls of spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and fresh bread. Luke sits next to Scarlett and scoots her closer to him, leans in and kisses her temple, and then continues his conversation with Spider.
I glance next to me, where Julian sits, talking with Rome, and I can’t resist reaching over to rest my hand on his thigh.
Without hesitation or breaking his train of thought, his hand covers mine, and he gives it a squeeze. When there’s a break in the conversation, he glances down at me and lifts an eyebrow.
“You okay, angelos mou?”
I nod and offer him a smile, and then I glance at his brothers.
“So, who’s going to tell me embarrassing stories about my husband from when he was a kid?”
The conversation stops around us, and all three of them, along with Jack and Luke, grin at me.
“I like her,” Mateo says. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know. So, this one time when we were in high school, Julianthought it would be a good idea to steal the principal’s classic Mustang and take it for a ride.”
“To be fair,” Rome adds, “he’d been stealing cars for a while by then. So, the ’Stang shouldn’t have been an issue.”
“It wasn’t an issue,” Julian insists, and I’m riveted.
“Did you get caught?”
“He never took the car,” Mateo continues. “Because when he got to the staff parking lot that morning to take it, he found the principal and his secretary fucking on it.”
“On it?” My eyes bug out, and I blink up at my husband. “On it?”
“It was early. He always got there early. Now I know why. And let me just say, I never needed to see his old naked ass fucking her against the hood of that sweet car. I should have stolen it later, just out of spite.”
“Aww, you were traumatized.” I rub his back soothingly, and the guys all laugh. “Poor guy.”
Julian catches my gaze and winks.
“He hacked into the high school system and changed all of our grades to A’s,” Luke says with a grin. “Remember that? Good times.”
“You’re welcome,” Julian says smoothly. “Is this walk down memory lane about over?”
“You can hack into stuff?” I nod, impressed, and Julian smirks down at me. “Me too. My father finally took my computer away because I kept getting into his financials so I could tell him where he was messing up. That’s why I’m computerless right now.”
“You hacked into your father’sbanking information?” Carson asks, clearly impressed.
“Well, he made me get an MBA, and then he wouldn’t let me use it. He broke my ribs, though, when he discovered I’d been in his?—”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Julian growls next to me, and I look up in surprise, noticing that all of the men are glaring at me.
Eight scary-as-hell men are super pissed off right now.
“Oh, um, nothing. I’m sorry, my mouth was running away from me, and ... I’ll stop.”
I press my lips together, cursing myself for not knowing when to shut up. But then suddenly, Julian turns my face to his, and he kisses my forehead.
“He’s going to pay for that,” is all he says, and we drop the subject.
