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“You should have seen it, Rich.” Mom waved her hand with a flourish and laughed. “It reminded me of the night I met you. One look and it was over.” My mother had a flair for the dramatic.
“One night, Mother.” I needed her to wipe the ridiculous smile off her face before the wheels started turning and the meddling happened. “It was one night, and nothing more.” I spoke with conviction I didn’t feel. I wanted one night and a few more hours. I wasn’t quite finished with what I wanted to do with her body.
“You brought her home,” Asher pointed out logically.
I threw an apple at him. He reached to catch it a second before it would’ve clocked him in his big fucking mouth.
“We owe a pledge to the Scorpio Society,” Mom mused aloud. “Do you think she would fit in with our world?” She wasn’t addressing me, though. She was staring at Dad and Asher like they knew the answer. Like one of the two of them had been in bed with Rylie all night and not me. Like they’d even spoken to her.
“She took down Lars with two kicks.” Dad crossed his arms and stared at me as he spoke. “Without hesitation and without remorse. I brought the video home for you, Margaret, and I’ve already got my secretary running a background check on her. Her name is Rylie Keller.” Leave it to Pop. On the case before anyone thought to ask him. “She’s a transfer student in the Psych department from UCLA, and her family is from Maine.” He put his phone back in the pocket of his black slacks, and I wanted to hang my head in defeat, but I didn’t.
One of the first rules of our family: Hide your fear. Show no weakness. We’d yet to paint it on a sign or add it to the crest motto, but it would only be a matter of time.
Mom beamed. “How did you know?” She looked at Pop with her usual wide-eyed admiration.
Ivy was the one who answered, slapping me on the chest with the closed container of orange juice to keep me from saying anything. “Because Dad’s awesome, and we all know you’re crazy.” She sighed. “Plus, we all saw them come home together. He’s not gonna let her go. Hawthornes keep what we claim.”
I smiled. Maybe that should’ve been the motto on the family crest.
“That’s right, Ivy.” Dad moved away from the wall and strode toward the doorway. “I expect you to test her, Roman.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going to drag her into our corrupt world.” But the way her eyes lit up when I pounded Lars, I’d seen the heat flare, much dragging wouldn’t be required. Still, it had to be a decision. Not a… test.
Mom snorted, looking nothing like the socialite that she pretended to be for the rest of the world. “I happen to like our world.”
“She’s a fuckin’ fairy.” Jasper chuckled when he strolled into the kitchen with Leo at his side. “If Rome doesn’t claim her and bring her in, I’ll do it. She’s hot as fuck.” Hotter. But I didn’t correct him.
If I thought I could get away with it, I’d slit my youngest brother’s throat and watch the blood mix with his brown hair. Just for trying to take what was mine.
Glancing down, I noticed my fists had clenched, and I couldn’t even remember taking them away from the orange juice bottle. The one that I’d somehow set on the counter without knowing it.
Leo slapped me on the back and walked by to grab something out of the fridge. “Your girl borrowed my phone charger for a bit. She said she’s taking an Uber.”
“Over my dead body.” I turned to leave, tired of the conversation and the family mob mentality. Rylie and I still had some things to talk about. Not the least of which was the fact that she needed to stay the fuck away from Lars and his demented ideas.
“Roman.” The censure in Mom’s tone brought me up short.
I shifted to find every single one of them standing there, studying me with matching expressions of curiosity and determination.
“If you don’t test her, I’ll arrange for someone else to do it. But she’s our pledge for the year. I’ve spoken.” Dad was the figurehead, the patriarch, but Mom ruled with an equal hand here. And if she said it, she meant it—would make it so.
I bit my tongue, ignoring the pain that it brought as I tried not to snap at my mother. “No. We don’t know anything about her.” By “we” I meant “they.” I knew everything I needed to know. But if I kept her, no way would I be able to stop them from dragging her down the Hawthorne family rabbit hole. It had to be her choice. And how the fuck was I supposed to bring it up now? Right now, after one incredible fucking night.
“By the end of the day, we’ll know everything there is to know about her. Either you bring her in, or I’ll have someone else do it,” she repeated, her tone gripping me like an iron vise, and a hundred times harder than Dad’s ever could.
“I have a feeling,” Ivy chimed in with a smile as she observed the back lawn through the massive windows. “Rylie might just be the perfect foil for Roman. After all, she’s marching across the lawn now.”
I turned to look, and pride drove me. Women didn’t slink away from me. Didn’t walk down the drive or sneak across the yard. I practically ran out of the room. Not because she was trying to leave but because I didn’t want to let her go.
“If you hurry, you might be able to drag her back by her hair!” Dad called out to my back, while the rest of my ridiculous family burst into laughter.
“Fuck my life,” I groaned.
Then, I went to claim my pledge. Because I’d be damned if anyone else would be testing her.
Rylie belonged to me. Even if neither of us wanted it.
Rylie
