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Every time, I did, our kisses slow, hot. They were heaven as much as hell because eventually they did end and he did have to go back to his room.
“Thanks for what you did today,” I said, not letting him go just yet. I wrapped my arms around him. “By chiming in with Bru.” He’d been the first to sound off at the dinner table tonight, and I appreciated it.
He shrugged. “Wasn’t a thing.”
He said that, but it was. I flicked fingers through his hair. “I’m just worried about him. He’s been real quiet and stuff. Texting a lot.” I had no idea who he was texting. His friends before we’d come back had been Legacy.
I suppose he could have gotten other friends at school, and I wouldn’t have blamed him anyway. He’d been forced into this bubble, but his place in it was definitely different from mine.
I just worry.
“We’re all keeping an eye on him,” he said, and my brow jumped. His eyes lifted. “We care about him, little fighter. Just like you.”
“Yeah, but it’s different.” He knew that.
He nodded, confirming that. He hugged his big arms around me. “He’ll be fine. I think he’s stronger than you’re letting him be.”
He might be right about that, but I couldn’t help myself.
I mean, he was my brother.
No one should get that more than Dorian, those connections tight, and they couldn’t be explained. Only felt.
I had a tie that was just as strong to Dorian but was obviously in a different way.
“Love you,” he said to me before going to bed, and though it overwhelmed me every time, scared me, I never hesitated to say it back.
“Fucking always,” I said to him back. He’d said that to me once, and it stuck.
I liked it.
I liked us way too much. I was past the phase of being attached. I was lost in him and us, and I didn’t want to get out. Loving Dorian Prinze openly was starting to get a lot easier, and that freaked me out just as much as the ease of saying that I loved him in the first place.
He always smiled after, making my heart fucking leap. We devoured each other’s mouths at my door before he finally ended up going back to his room, and I couldn’t sleep after all that. Dorian had said to me earlier today he was working through his own issues, things he wanted to say to me but couldn’t, and I had my own head shit. I was still trying to let go of the past and my fear about him. I was trying not to be scared of him.
But that was hard too.
We’d had a lot of shitty things happen to us and things where he’d hurt me. I was trying to forget and let go, but the subconscious was a son of a bitch. It wanted to protect itself, protect me.
Yeah, this was hard.
I knew we’d never be able to get to where we actually could be until I let go. I mean, how could we?
I needed a strong drink since I couldn’t sleep but settled on a milk in Ramses and Brielle’s kitchen. I knew my way around the house pretty well these days, so when I came across Ramses’s home studio with the light on, I found it curious. It was late, and he was never in there.
This was something I knew for a fact and had long before I’d come to live here. Wells had stated Ramses didn’t use his studio anymore. At least, not lately. Actually, Ares had been using it.
I almost expected to find Ares in there, but when I popped my head inside, that wasn’t who I saw. Ramses was in there.
He sat at an easel.
Stroking across canvas with a long brush, he stopped once he noticed he had company. His eyes warmed. “Not making too much noise, am I?”
He wasn’t at all, of course, and when he started painting again, I wagered he didn’t mind he had an audience. I came inside and was also curious about what he was painting.
A sunset.
The rays opened up to the heavens on his canvas, rich skies of gold and amber. I knew he was an artist. That was where Ares’s got it from.
