Her smile is warm. “I can do that. And I want the same from you. Well, that and your patience. I’m going to fuck this up. My only relationship was when I was married to Mishka, and thatwas never traditional. This one, this is the one that has to count, so just know that I’m going to fuck up. Probably a lot in the beginning.”
“Then we communicate and we figure it out.”
“From the stories I’ve heard, your mother liked to throw things at your father in her style of communication. Maybe I’ll be the same.” Her grin is wicked.
I laugh. “Then it’s a good thing I’ve learned to move fast, isn’t it?” She kisses me, sinking into me as it deepens. It’s not a passionate kiss, but easy and full of promise. When she pulls away, I smile at her. “We might have to set some ground rules though on you using Hades,” I tease.
She grins. “And ruin my ace in the hole? Forget it.” Then she snickers. “And as it is, I might need to work on training a new puppy for Mila, even if her father is trying to forbid it.”
I chuckle, thinking back to that argument that was raging on before we left. Mila insisted that she needed a dog of her own for protection, and she wanted to hire Rori. Zakhar was fiercely against it, insisting that they already had Freya.
Ilya stood there, scowling and pissed Lane had disappeared on him. Again. After she drugged him so he couldn’t chase her until she had a head start. The crazy fucker wasn’t even pissed about the drugging part, in fact he had just grinned and said it was their thing. The same thing Lane told Rori last night before disappearing, apparently.
I don’t know what the hell to think about any of that, but I know that I don’t want to be around when all that shit eventually implodes. And it only solidifies what I already know.
Russians—present company mostly excluded—are a whole other breed of insanity.
“Titus already mentioned that he might talk to you about helping with the dogs we have and are training,” I tell her,refusing to think about any of that again. It’s done, and I’m ready to move on.
She looks at me in surprise and then beams. “Really?”
It makes me smile seeing her so happy. “You’ve trained Hades, and while our men are good at what they do, Titus isn’t one to turn down the possibility of making them even better.”
“I kind of want another dog to train anyway. Maybe a Malinois this time. They’re really smart working dogs. Crazy, but fun.”
“Whatever makes you happy, but none of them are sleeping with us,orsetta. I’m not having anyone between the two of us in our bed.”
She chuckles. “I think I can manage that.” Then she gives me a wicked grin as she slowly eases down. “Especially when I want to give my man a thank you blowjob to distract him from all the shit I’ve done to piss him off.”
I chuckle, then groan when she reaches my hardening cock, taking it into her mouth. Fuck, if this is how she’s going to distract me, I won’t care what she’s done.
45
RORI
I refuseto allow my nerves to show when I walk into Nico’s house. I keep my head held high, my back straight, and Hades at my side. I wore a pair of black skin-tight pants, combat boots, and a maroon tank top covered by a black leather jacket. A blend of the me they know and the me I am.
Alonzo was clear with me when I was getting ready, and I wrap his words around me now as I look at the group assembled in the large foyer to meet us.
Aurora O’Brien is who you make yourself to be. Who they think you are doesn’t matter. You show them who and what you are now, and they accept it, or they don’t belong in your world.
I feel the weight of their stares as they take me in, but my eyes move quickly to Sienna. She stares at me, arms crossed over her chest. Behind her stands Alessio, hand on her shoulder, offering comfort. He shoots me a grin over her head, but it doesn’t ease my anxiety.
I move my eyes to the others, and I see Gia smiling warmly at me, Amara grinning, and Kida watching me cautiously. Alonzoalready told me that Lucy and Massimo went back to Sicily, and a part of me is relieved at that. I’ll have to talk to her, but maybe space right now is for the best.
The men have varying expressions. Nico, Lazaro, and Zeno eye me distrustfully, but there’s no outright hate, so I guess that’s positive. Pietro, Aurelio, and Urso all smile at me, surprising me. Well, maybe not Urso, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen him not smiling outside of the fights we went through.
Before I can open my mouth to apologize, Sienna steps forward, and I already know what’s coming. I don’t try to dodge or block her. Instead, I ease away from Alonzo, and absorb the punch to the nose, and the one to my gut with barely a sound.
“Shit,” Alonzo bites out, and I can feel him reaching for me, but I wave him off. Alessio moves forward, concern on his face. The tension amps up, and I hear the other women gasp in shock. Hades whines, but he doesn’t try to intervene.
It’s not the first time he’s seen Sienna punch me and probably won’t be the last.
I swipe at my nose and unable to help myself, I smile. “That’s all you got, Harris?”
“I’m going to wipe the floor with you later, but Alessio will probably lose his shit if I hurt my hand too much yet,” Sienna huffs. She shakes out her hand, flexing it, but her eyes never leave mine. “I’m really fucking pissed at you for hiding that shit from me. I know why, I’ve had time to process it, but it hurts that my best friend hid things from me. All because she didn’t trust me.”
I swallow hard, trying not to let her words hurt too much. She’s angry, and she has the right to express those feelings. My feelings on it are irrelevant. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you, Sienna, but that I couldn’t tell you. Telling you, it would have meant your death. There were people always watching, listening in. I had bugs on me everywhere I went. Making sure I never didor said anything they didn’t like. You’re a sister to me, and I was never going to risk you.” I give a dry laugh. “Not that it really helped things in the end, but it was worth it.” I look past her to the others watching us. “You found your family, and you have a man who loves you and worships the ground you walk on.”
