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“Maybe,” I breathed back, wrapping my arms around his neck as he lowered his mouth to mine.
Fumbling the back of my earring into place, my eyes flicked up to Broderick, now freshly showered, as he came back into the room. He had a knack for planning our evenings, and I wasn’t even a little mad about it. Frankly, it was nice to not be the only person capable of making a decision for once. We were going to eat at the Leaning Tower of Pizza and then to watch a movie. Regardless, I’d opted for a cute fitted long sleeve black dress, and furry boots beneath my winter coat.
One broad hand came up to rub over his mouth as his eyes scraped over me. “I ever tell you that you’re painfully gorgeous?”
“Not nearly enough,” I teased, eyes dropping to my feet as he stepped in closer.
“I intend to remedy that immediately.” He set those warm palms on either side of my hips, giving me a little squeeze as he leaned down to nip at the lobe I’d just stuck an earring in. His breath over my ear sent an anticipatory chill down my spine. “Regretting this whole going out thing.”
“We don’t have to,” I whispered back, bringing my palm up to settle against his cheek as I nuzzled against him.
“As tempting as that is, my girl deserves to be properly courted.”
“Courted?” I giggled. “Tell me, will you present Milo with one pig or two?”
Broderick groaned, leaning into my cheek. “Oh, man.”
“What?” I asked, turning in his arms to bring our foreheads together. “I’ve been so anxious about telling your brothers that I didn’t even think about needing to talk to Milo.”
My dad, much like Jameson, was a big teddy bear under a six-foot-four exterior. But there’s something about a sun-weathered Captain, subject only to the sea, that makes people cower. Maybe it was the towering frame, or that men go missing in the storms every year, but knowing him for who he was, I couldn’t wrap my head around them all being intimidated by him.
I straightened Broderick’s sleek blue tie before running my palms down the slick heather gray vest and giving him a pat. “Of all the men that could proposition his daughter, you’re the only one I could see him being thrilled with.”
“I don’t think you understand how men operate, baby.”
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s a dad at his core, which essentially means that nobody will ever be good enough for his kids, but…as far as prospects go, I’m more than confident in mine.”
Expression melting into something like affection, he brought those warm palms to cradle either side of my face, pressing a light kiss to my forehead as he murmured, “Thanks, Pix. I hope to earn his blessing in this. Which means we can’t hide forever.”
Anxiety stirred in my chest, because as long as this was our little secret, I could revel in the emotions of it, in the bliss of it. But the moment I shared him with my family, the moment we became an ‘us,’ this would be… real. And we would be subject to their scrutiny. I loved my family. Truly, I did. But thirteen other very loud opinions were thirteen too many.
“I know,” was all I breathed back.
“Any intention of breaking our silence soon?”
“Maybe.”
“The longer we wait, the worse it will be if somebody finds out by accident, baby.”
“And the faster we tell them, the faster this stops being our personal escape, because it will be everybody’s god damn business,” I blurted back. Knowing curved the lines of his mouth, the warm brown skin around his eyes crinkling.
“Like keeping me your dirty little secret?”
“Nothing little about you.”
“First up—damn straight and don’t you forget it. Second—then we gotta have a plan, baby. It’s only a matter of time before one of us slips up.”
“Excuse me, sir, I am a vault,” I said with mock insult, miming locking up my lips and tossing away the key. The no nonsense deadpan he gave me said he didn’t believe me as far as he could throw me.
“And Max? Alice? Mara? How long will they keep this close to the vest?”
Groaning, I buried myself in the crook of his neck, soaking in his scent, wishing I could just hide myself in this lovely little bubble of ours. “I know. Okay. So… soon, okay?”
He scowled down at his watch, tapping the face with a perplexed furrow to his brow. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for soon between eleven and noon.”
