Page 319 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

“You’re not supposed to excite me,” she whispered.

John laughed darkly. “My bad.”

Then, she had another thought. “Is my mom—”

“Dead.”

Flat. Dry. Cold.

His tone was all of that, and more.

Siena sucked in a shaky breath. “Yeah, okay.”

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I know that probably hurts.”

“A little.”

She was still her mom.

Coraline had given her life.

She simply hadn’t cared about it.

“But probably not for the reasons you think,” Siena added.

“I think—”

John’s words cut off when a knock against glass echoed. Siena could see through the one sliding glass door with no curtain that people were waiting. A new family for her. People who loved her because John loved her.

His family.

“So much for no excitement,” John muttered, climbing off the bed.

“They’ll be good, and quiet.”

“They’re Marcellos. They don’t know how to be good or quiet.”

He was right.

But she had needed all their noise and love.

Just like she needed him.

Six weeks later …

The front door to the Queens home Siena now shared with John slammed shut, and she cursed under her breath. She didn’t even have the time to hide the laundry basket she was hauling up the stairs before her lover came around the corner.

John’s gaze drifted to the basket in Siena’s hands, and then to where she stood halfway up the stairs. His eyes narrowed, and he gave her that look. The one a parent might give their child when they caught them doing something naughty.

“Oh, my God,” she grumbled, “it is just clothes, John.”

“You’re not supposed to be doing anything but resting, Siena.”

He came closer, and she shook her head.

Nope.

She was not doing this with him anymore. She was fine, and he was just going to have to let his overprotective nature down a little bit.