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To the things they said, the ways they spoke and revealed all the little secrets we kept from one another.
The knock at the door didn't make me flinch, but it did make me take a deep breath. Lino went to answer the door, leaving me standing by the counter in my work clothes. I almost wished I'd changed, but it somehow felt like the clothes put me on an equal level with the guys. Lino still wore his suit from work, and I knew Yavin would go to Tease after dinner, so he'd be all suited up too.
"Hey, man," Yavin's honeyed voice said through the door, and Lino stepped back with a returned greeting so that Yavin could step in.
"Baby sister," Yavin gushed. "You look so much better."
"I am. I'm all good now, I promise." I smiled at him, letting him come up and pull me into a tight hug. It took some maneuvering to hug him without letting him f
eel the rings on my finger. Lino had said to let him take the lead in this, and I would. Yavin would never understand coming from me, I'd never be able to make him see things from my way. For him, I'd always be that kid sister who he doted on but hated to admit was a full-grown woman who could make her own decisions.
Even if they were bad ones.
He'd hated Connor as much as Lino had, and I hadn't bothered to listen to either of them. But where my marriage with Lino was concerned, Yavin didn't have a leg to stand on. He adored Lino.
Just not with me.
"What's for dinner?" Yavin asked, turning to Lino as he released me. I held in my chuckle, because it was so predictable that the most exciting part of the evening would be Lino's cooking. Yavin was as much of a failure in the kitchen as I was, and that said something.
Lino sighed, stepping over to the island and pretending to glance in the oven window. "Lasagna. It has maybe ten minutes left." When he turned back to face my brother, his hand stretched out and tucked a loose hair behind my ear. I knew it was nothing that Yavin had never seen before, Lino had always been physically affectionate with me. Yavin had just always interpreted it as a brotherly type of affection.
But the moment Lino slid his hand around my waist and tugged me into his side, Yavin's eyes narrowed and focused in on the movement. When his eyes went back up to mine, there was nothing but suspicion and disapproval in his eyes. Whatever he found in my blank stare must have confirmed those suspicions. "No. I do not fucking think so," he hissed at me. "Go pack your shit."
"Yavin," I whispered as he stepped backward and moved to gather up whatever he could see of mine in the living room.
"She's my wife, Vin," Lino said, dropping the big ball without leading into it. I glared at him, wondering why I'd let him take the lead.
"What the fuck?" Yavin spun, his voice going hoarse with rising fury.
I held up my hand with a little smile, showing the rings I'd wanted to hide for a brief time. "We're married," I confirmed.
"You married my little sister? What the fuck is wrong with you? This is Samara!" Yavin's voice only rose, getting louder and louder when he leveled his attention on Lino.
"I know exactly who Samara is," Lino argued. "I always have, and if you'd opened your eyes, you'd know that." His hand tightened on my waist briefly before he stepped away, approaching Yavin like a cornered animal.
"How could you do this to me?" Yavin asked, turning his attention to me. "Lino? Really? The only man I really consider my friend? My brother?"
"I didn't realize that my happiness meant I was doing it to hurt you," I argued, wincing with pain. What I'd always wanted, what I'd never thought I could have, suddenly seemed so far away. And it hurt that the person standing in my way was my brother of all people. One of the few people I'd thought I could always count on to have my back. "You're asking me to put your friendship above my happiness?"
"There are millions of men in this city. You didn't have to pick him," Yavin snarled.
"Watch it," Lino argued, his face twisting in fury. "You have a problem with us? You take that up with me. The reality is that there is not a fucking person in this world who was going to keep me from making her my wife. Not you. Not my father. No one. You have always known that she's the most important person in my life, why did you think that was?"
Yavin winced, drawing in a deep breath. I stared at the side of Lino's face, feeling confusion seep into my bones. When we had gotten married, he'd told me it was to keep me safe, but this sounded different. This sounded like a declaration of more, of something I'd never seen coming but had been there the entire time. "If you touch her, I swear to God I'll kill you," Yavin warned.
Lino had the grace not to smirk, though I suspected if Yavin had been anyone other than my brother, his face would have twisted into cruel satisfaction. "She's my wife, Vin. She's been in my bed since I moved her in."
"Lino!" I gasped, even though I knew it was unrealistically idiotic for Yavin to think we were married and not sleeping together. He'd trapped Lino in a corner with a statement like that, because men like Lino didn't deny their intimacies with their wives. It just wasn't who they were.
They claimed. They owned. They took.
They might not go into any detail about their sex lives out of respect for the women who took their names, but that didn't mean they didn't make it clear who they took to bed each night.
"You fucking piece of shit," Yavin whispered, storming up to Lino. His fist connected with the corner of Lino's lip, and I knew both men well enough to know Lino had allowed it.
"That's the only one you get," he confirmed with his next words, but Yavin never was one to back down. To read the signals and know when to walk away from the fight that brewed.
He struck again; the second fist aimed for Lino's nose.
