“Bone Crusher!” the familiar game voice boomed. “You gothoused!”
“That’s how it’sdone, woman!Yes!” Dorian stripped off his gloves and hopped onto her platform, wrapping her up in his arms. “You did it! Look at that!”
“Did you see that?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck. She was beaming ear to ear, her whole body glowing with pride.
“I certainly did, love. The bad guys don’t stand a chance.”
“Does that really work?” she asked.
“You housed me, didn’t you?”
“Don’t I always?”
They both laughed, and for a moment it was as if they’d found a way to stop time, unaffected by everything else as their warm, slick bodies pressed together perfectly, hearts beating in sync. Charlotte slid her hands into Dorian’s hair, her breath hot against his bare chest, the hard length of him pressing into her abdomen as he buried his face in her neck. He lowered his mouth to her skin, tasting her salty flesh, breathing in her scent.
Devil’sballs, how he wanted to stay there with her, to hold her for the rest of eternity.
But letting his guard down was foolish. It was dangerous. And it only made the pain of their inevitable departure that much more unbearable.
Dorian pulled back, unable to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry, Charlotte. I got a bit carried away. We should probably just—”
“Eat,” she said brightly, turning her back on him and hopping down off the platform. “I’m starving. Loser makes breakfast, right?”
Dorian shook off the weight of his regrets, telling himself for the hundredth time this was all for the best, ignoring the sting of her apparent rebound.
“Breakfast,” he said. “All right, Breaker of Balls. I think I can manage that.”
After quick and—regrettably—separate showers, Dorian whipped up a feast of mushroom-and-cheddar omelets, sourdough toast, and strawberry-banana smoothies. The sound of the blender brought his other house guests round, all of them crowding into the breakfast nook again, just as they’d done last night.
Everyone but Malcolm.
It was just as well. Dorian wasn’t ready to face his brother yet. Not after the things they’d said to each other last night.
Forget knives and teeth. When it came to family, vicious truths had a way of cutting deeper than both.
Still, with Colin, Gabriel, and Aiden nodding appreciatively over the omelets, Sasha brightening the room with her impossibly sunny smile and endless tales of college life, and Charlotte singing the praises of those smoothies, Dorian thought again of that secret, hidden wish nestled inside him—the word that not so long ago had set his very teeth on edge, but had somehow snuck back into his heart, making itself at home.
Family.
It was a moment, a snapshot, perfect in all the ways but the one that mattered most:
It wasn’t real.
Chapter Eighteen
“Want to know what I lovemostabout your boyfriend?” Sasha flopped on the end of Charley’s bed—rather, herguestbed—and grinned. “I mean, there are alotof things, right? But the fact that he thinks you guys need to pretend to sleep in separate bedrooms for the sake ofmyinnocent eyes? That’s proper, next-level, old-world hotness right there, and I’mherefor it.”
“I told you, Sash. He’s not my boyfriend.”And we aren’t pretending.Charley fluffed the pillows, trying to put the bed back in order after her night of tossing and turning. Alone.
After Dorian had left her, she’d tried to distract herself by compiling the notes he’d asked for—everything she could drum up about Rudy, about his known associates, his hangouts. She also made a list of the missing artwork from the One Night Stand heist.
After completing her homework, she’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep, interrupted with alternating nightmares about her uncle strangling her and Sasha to death… and about losing Dorian.
When she woke up at dawn, she’d realized the latter had already come true.
“Then what is he?” Sasha asked now. “Just some rando who invited us to his manor and cooked us chili and omelets and looks at you like he wants to spend the rest of his life licking you like an ice cream cone? A thing that would be a lot easier if he skipped the whole separate-beds nonsense?”
Charley rolled her eyes and swatted Sasha with a pillow. “Shouldn’t you be off pestering Aiden? I thought he was going to teach you how to play chess today.”
