Anyone else would miss the tightening at the corner of his eyes, the slight flare of his nostrils, overlooking the minute twitches. But I know him well enough to see that he’s put together in a matter of seconds what took me fifteen minutes to wrap my head around. Life has been far too cruel to my twin, and turning the woman he loves into one of us is an additional kick in the teeth when he thought he’d be spared the agony of the change. He conceals his internal screaming at the injustice of it all flawlessly, running his knuckles down her cheek in a reverent caress.
“I’m sorry to drag you out of bed simply to keep me company.” His features briefly darken as he catches sight of her irises. As if he can’t help himself, he hooks a finger in her belt loop, dragging her closer.
The breathy sound of her chuckle goes straight to my cock and I have to bite hard on the inside of my cheek. “You say that like it’s some great burden to crawl into your bed in the middle of the night. Hate to be the one to break it to ‘ya, Reid, but I’ve seen several people at work that would happily carve out my spleen for a chance to be in my position.”
A barely discernible growl fills the air around us, and both of them turn to look at me, Sabrina confused, and Reid like I’m an idiot. It takes a second before I clap a hand over my mouth, realizing that low rumbling sound was coming from me and not him. Well, notme,but my chest. I’ve never suffered the same issues with my travel companion that the others seem to struggle with, the two of us content to let me run the show. Yet now, my other half that’s been hibernating in relative silence for over a decade is battering around like a hungry shark that scented blood in the water.
“Why don’t you two go spend some time together while I grab something to eat?”
Sabrina’s dual-colored eyes sparkle with amusement. “My god, I’d kill for a guy’s metabolism.”
Walking past them, I pause, returning to capture her face in a bruising kiss that I savor, knowing it very well may be my last for a long while. When I finally pull away, she’s outright laughing, shaking her head. “You function way better on a few hours of sleep than I could ever hope to. Go get a snack and Slade’s lecture over with, since you’re so energized.” She faces Reid, cocking her head slightly. “Are we coming back here after work?”
He presses his lips together before smoothly spinning things. “You’ve got your computer, right?” As she taps the bag at her hip, he waggles his eyebrows playfully. “Then honestly, there’s no reason that we can’t work from home tomorrow. It’s a Sunday anyway, and Jonathan and I are at a point where we’re working on separate functions. We can get some sleep and set up in the study so that we aren’t distracted.” He splays his fingers possessively over her lower back, guiding her toward the front door.
“Work from homeanda stocked bar? You guys are really making it hard to want to go back to my apartment,” she teases.
Now that I’m around my twin, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pretend that everything’s normal, happily passing the responsibility of watching her his way while I focus on simply putting one foot in front of the other. He accepts the role without question, despite the way he’s got to be freaking out too, problem after problem running through his mind in rapid succession.
“You know,” he hesitantly begins, voice solemn, “that thing we talked about on your first day at work?” My ears perk up, gleaning any insight into my mate that I can, absolutely obsessed and a complete goner already. “You don’t have to suffer in order to be a good person. And having money doesn’t make you a worse one.”
She pauses, looking up at him, clearly conflicted. “You guys are definitely an exception, but-" she sighs "- no, you’re right. I naturally default to assuming people with money don’t know what it’s like to struggle or suffer like the rest of us. I’m admittedly biased, and maybe a little resentful, if we’re being honest, after how I grew up. But that’s pretty narrow minded, and I should know better than to lump people together like that. If it’s any consolation, you guys are a pleasant surprise, so I'm happy to be proven wrong. But cut me some slack, because I’m still trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t return that dress now that the party’s over.”
This time, I’m able to mentally punch my other half in the face before he can voice any input on my failure to properly take care of our mate, conveniently overlooking the fact that the reluctance isn’t because of my shortcomings. “I’ll go take my lashings and catch up with you two soon?”
Continuing past me down the hallway, Sabrina calls, “Take mine while you’re at it?”
Regarding her back with a sad smile, I sigh. “You’ve got it, hot stuff. Save me a corner of the pillow?”
She winks over her shoulder. “Might have to slide in close, but I think the three of us can manage.”
Reid, on the other hand, gives me a pitying look, knowing as well as I do that it isn’t going to happen, that this is the eye of the storm. Tilting my head his way in solemn acceptance, I break off from the two of them, navigating the halls until I find Slade in his room. He’s sitting at the foot of his bed, drinking a glass of scotch with a somber expression, the embodiment of how I’m feeling right about now.
So this is going to go over swimmingly to improve his mood, I’m sure.
“Haven't you caused me enough problems for one night?” he sighs, not getting up. If anything, he looks more defeated than ever, shoulders slumping before he takes another drink.
“Nope. Isn’t it nice being the firstborn?”
He glowers at me over the rim of his glass as I close the door behind me. “What now, Cin?”
Canting my head, I give him a second look, noting how broken he appears. “Things go okay with Em?”
His eyes cut to the side. “We’ll reconvene in three weeks for the formal announcement. She said that she’ll have her decision then.”
I nod, figuring as much. “So you’re in a pissy mood because you’re jealous?”
Scowling, he pushes to his feet and strides toward his dresser, snatching up the bottle of scotch sitting on top of it. “Of course I'm fucking jealous! The scent of sex saturated Victor’s place, even if you had her mostly out of earshot. Emphasis onmostly. And I had to sit there impassively enduring it all, along with the comments.” He slams back the rest of his glass before he refills it. “She hardly even notices that I exist.”
My stomach flips. “You’reavoiding her after you pissed her off at dinner that first night because you don’t want to scare her away by fucking up again, which I get, but you’re going to do just as much damage by hiding. She doesn’t think you have an interest, more that you’re supporting your brothers.” He huffs, so I push a little further. “She’s okay with the idea of multiple boyfriends, and that’s the part we were worried about more than how she’d take it when we told her the truth. So why are you keeping her at arm’s length?”
Down to a white t-shirt and navy pajama pants, he looks more human than usual, like an actual person for once instead of the prodigal son. He scrubs his free hand over his jaw, glaring at the ceiling as if it personally offends him. “I don’t know what it is about her, but I... genuinely have an interest, even though I’ve barely spent any time with her, and it’s messing with my head. Especially after seeing how well she navigated things at Victor’s last night, I can picture her here with us permanently,wanther to stay. Yet she couldn’t care less about anything I have to offer, so I don’t knowhowto talk to her.”
I blow out a long breath. “Then you're either about to be really happy, or really pissed at what I have to tell you.”
Narrowing his eyes, he takes another drink to brace himself for whatever mess I’m about to throw his way to clean up, used to such things by now. Undoing the top two buttons to make it easier, I push my shirt out of the way with a shaky hand, holding his gaze all the while. Slade chokes on his drink, scotch spraying as he sputters, dropping his glass on the carpet. Storming forward, he yanks my shirt aside even further, heart thundering audibly in his chest.
“What the hell?” he breathes, incredulous, while tracing the mark in awe with a single digit. “Have you shifted?”
