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She laughed softly and slid into Sevastyan’s embrace with ease, grasping she’d completely given herself over to the enemy.
He gave all the appearances of being calm and in control, but his eyes told another story. Rhia had learned at the knee of her father a man’s true thoughts could be seen in the eyes, and Sevastyan’s glittered with banked passion.
He leaned down, stroking the back of his knuckles along her face, tilting her chin up. “Kroshka, you look ravishing wearing my clothes. I want my shirt on you the next time I take you.”
“And wearing my jewelry in those nipples.” Matteo came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her middle, and cupped her breasts, giving her nipple a soft teasing pinch.
She blushed a heavy red and rested her weight into Sevastyan and her head against Matteo’s chest. “You keep promising,” she fired back realizing she’d just given the man permission to mark her.
Some shadowy part of her took a small thrill from that piece of knowledge while another part mentally slapped her. Was she ready for what they wanted? Sevastyan had been utterly serious when he mentioned babies with her. But did they only view her as a baby factory?
Instead of dwelling on that now, she shoved it into a corner pocket in her mind for later.
“Where’s Lucian?” She wanted to question him about Maya. Sadness crept in despite her trying to warn it off and Sevastyan must have sensed it. He wound his arm around her waist and pulled her into him until she rested a hand on his chest.
Roman slid his empty glass down the counter for Matteo to top off again.
Matteo returned to stand at her side after getting Roman another few fingers’ worth of vodka. Sevastyan tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It seemed he needed to be touching her in one way or another.
Matteo too.
Sevastyan laced her fingers with his and she followed him to the table, settling into the chair beside him at the head. Matteo joined, taking a seat opposite her, and taking her hand in his. Apparently, none of them liked the glass at their backs.
Another detail, all of them were dressed in killer dress slacks tailored to their bodies. It didn’t escape her attention that there was no dress waiting for her upstairs either.
“We haven’t seen Lucian since last night.”
Sevastyan’s expression turned hard. They were all nervous and worried beneath the cool exterior and jokes.
Hell, so was she.
Roman winked at her and passed her a mug filled to the brim with steamy coffee before taking his own seat opposite her. “Thank you,” she said and gave his hand a quick squeeze.
He placed a light touch on her shoulder. “You’re welcome, Rhia.”
Right. A vice gripped her heart at the sound of her given name coming from him.
Everyone was quiet as an uneasy stillness crept over the room. She guessed this was as good a time as any. She rubbed her hands on her thighs and stood, looking at each of her kings and feeling a missing part of them without Lucian there.
“Actually, I owe you all a thank-you. You all saved my life and at the time I wasn’t too grateful or graceful about it. I would have been toast last night had you not found me when you did. I still don’t know how you managed to know where I was, but that’s not here nor there right now.” She bit at her lower lip, considering her next words.
Sevastyan rested his elbows on the table. “Your phone, kroshka. We put a tracker on your phone the night your apartment was broken into.”
None of them looked at all apologetic for this admittance and right now she couldn’t be all too mad at the intrusion of privacy since it had saved her life. She’d let this pass for now. But she put up a mental sticky note to have a long talk with them about boundaries when things calmed.
“I’d hoped Lucian would be here for this, but I want each of you to know how much it means to me that you stepped in when I needed you even though I lied to you all from the day I walked into Haven. I’m sorry for that. I hope once I explain you’ll understand why I felt I had to do it.”
Sevastyan settled a warm hand on the small of her back, and the calming touch helped. “You did it out of loyalty to your people. No one here can fault you for that.”
“What he said,” Matteo chimed in, motioning toward his brother, mug in hand.
“I hope over time I can gain your trust.”
“You already have it.”
She looked at Roman a little in shock.
“Let me enlighten you on something. What looks like disloyalty to you is the exact opposite to us. You did what you had to do. And having you as ours means you’ll have our backs in the same way.” He paused and she quickly caught on.
