When I reached for a roll, he passed the basket the opposite direction like a complete savage and then eyed Annie with a smirk. “Heard you were sparring today.”
She grabbed a roll and was about to bite into it; I licked my lips in anticipation and then verbally slapped myself for staring at her mouth.
Again.
“Yeah.” She relaxed her shoulders. “Well, someone has to teach your son a lesson.”
My mom, aka Judas, raised her wine glass into the air and said, “Cheers.”
Izzy followed.
Dad grinned.
“Cool, everyone’s against me. Thanks, guys,” I grumbled under my breath, suddenly not even hungry anymore.
“So, Annie,” Mom piped up. “How were classes today?”
My fingers curled around my wine glass as I watched Annie’s short intake of breath, the way her eyes darted down to her empty plate like it would have all the answers.
With an annoyed sigh—more with myself than her that I couldn’t seem to stop staring at her or thinking about touching her, I spoke up. “Some asshat started spreading rumors about Annie this week via the university’s Twitter account.”
Mom gasped while Dad dropped his fork onto his plate.
I’d seen that look of rage before.
Actually enjoyed that it was clearly pointed at someone else other than me since Dad could be fucking terrifying.
The table was silent. “I hope you took care of the fucker.”
Guilt gnawed in the middle of my chest so viciously I had the sudden urge to rub it away with my fingers as I chugged the rest of my wine and shrugged. “I took care of it.”
“Any body count?”
Annie made a choking noise.
I grinned. “Not this time, unfortunately.”
“How disappointing. Is my son losing his touch?” Dad’s eyebrows shot up as he reached for his wine, the dark tattoos on his fingertips moving with the motion.
I glanced away, my eyes zeroing in on Annie. “What do you think, Annie? Am I losing my touch?”
She squirmed in her seat while Izzy looked between us with a shit-eating grin on her face.
She was always too perceptive.
I could only hope this time she’d just stay out of my shit.
“Yeah, Annie…” She licked her lips. Well, there went that wish. “How is Ash’s touch?”
I kicked Izzy under the table while Mom tilted her head at me as if questioning why the fuck I was touching the poor innocent girl living under their roof.
If she only knew I was balls deep last year in the shallow end while my dad watched.
Okay, creepy thought.
Dad cleared his throat. “Well, I’m glad things are okay—you are okay, right, Annie? You don’t need me to follow up? I would hate for your sophomore year at Eagle Elite to be anything but positive?”
I snorted. “Yeah, that’s just what she needs, Dad. A US Senator known to be involved in the mafia just strolling onto campus, guns blazing. Besides, you know it pisses Mom off when the fangirls start taking pictures.”
“Didn’t a student faint last year?” Izzy asked damn well knowing the answer since we refused to let dad forget about his popularity.
“No, no.” I waved my hand in the air. “That was the year before. Last year a girl went topless and painted her chest with ‘Mr. Senator,’ then asked him to fu—”
“Enough of story time,” Mom said through clenched teeth. “And watch your language, Ash.”
“I’ve always wondered,” I teased. “When you’re asked to watch your language, does it mean to like literally watch it, because that’s impossible to do since speaking isn’t writing and—” Mom held up her hand, silencing me in the process. I just grinned and shoveled some food onto my plate.
Dad chuckled under his breath as the tension dissipated, and I tried like hell not to bring my attention back to Annie by focusing on getting as much food into my mouth as fast as possible so I could wash her off my body.
Wash off the sweat from our sparring and pray it would wash off the temptation as well.
“Someone’s hungry,” Izzy observed under her breath. “What did you and Annie do down there, hmm brother? You show up all sweaty, she’s out of breath, and now—” She shoved the fork into her mouth and bit down, pulling it out slowly. “Extremely.” Chew. “Extremely.” Chew. “Hungry.”
Annie’s fork clattered to her plate.
“It’s just food, Iz, you should know since you refuse to let any of it touch on your plate. God forbid your broccoli mates with your mashed potatoes and poisons you.”
Dad laughed. “Just like your mom, all prim and proper…”
“NOPE!” Iz covered her ears. “Can we please have one family dinner where sex isn’t mentioned? It’s traumatic and damaging to my young mind!”
“You know what else is damaging to your young mind? Maksim.” I grinned.
Dad let out a growl. “You two hanging out again?”
“Yeah, you two ‘studying’?” I made air quotes.
Izzy appeared ready to murder me.
“Well.” I stood and grabbed my plate. “Since you’ve got dishes all covered, sister, I’ll just be going to wash the sweat from working out off my body. Oh, and Dad, my advice, chop the tree in the north yard.”