“As normal as we get.” Severin pushed to his feet, the denim of his jeans scraping Rodrigo’s cheek before he could lean back out of the way. On his knees with Severin standing over him, Rodrigo suddenly didn’t care if one of his family members caught him with Severin’s cock in his mouth. He eyed the bulge in Severin’s jeans and knew they were thinking of the same thing.
“Get up, puppy. We’re going back downstairs before this stops being a family friendly conversation.”
“We could close the door,” Rodrigo blurted.
Severin gave him the hand command for up. He got to his feet even though he didn’t want to.
“Stop sulking. I’ll use this pretty mouth later.” Severin ran the tip of his finger over Rodrigo’s lips, and Ro flicked out his tongue to tease it. “Behave.”
They smiled at each other, and Rodrigo led his dominant back down the stairs, not sure which of them was more reluctant to leave his old bedroom.
*
“What the fuck is this?” A deep voice boomed.
Grade eleven. Staring down the barrel of Mr. Ashland’s 357 Magnum.
Rodrigo was up before he was even awake, standing on the bed and ready to launch himself at the bastard and wrestle him for the gun all over again. The small scar behind his ear throbbed.
Severin was standing at the end of his bed, his face wrathful as he glared up at Rodrigo.
No gun.
Severin, not his high school English teacher’s angry husband.
He hadn’t thought of that night in years.
Ro glanced down at Minnow who’d blearily yanked the sheets up to cover herself, looking equally confused. The dogs were up, tails wagging frantically as they tried to greet Sev. He threw a stack of paper at Rodrigo’s feet.
“Explain this, you son of a bitch.”
Rodrigo sank down to sit on the mattress. His heart had gone from sleep to high alert so fast he was shaking.
“You know, Severin, we could discuss this like normal people –” He glanced out the window. Absolute darkness. “– at a normal time of the day. Get in bed and we’ll talk about it in the morning.”
Minnow scooched over into the middle of the mattress and pulled a pillow over her head. He’d taken her out dancing at a club, and they hadn’t gone to bed long ago, judging by the lack of light coming in through the window.
“I told you what I wanted in the prenup. This isn’t it.”
Of course they’d have to discuss legal shit at...four in the morning, the clock said. God forbid Severin do things reasonably.
“What part do you object to?”
“The division of assets. You thought I wouldn’t read it, you little fuck,” he accused. Wow, was he pissed.
“I... No.” Rodrigo ran his fingers through his hair, still half expecting a gun because of the way he’d woken up, even though that wasn’t Severin’s style. “I didn’t think you would.”
“This isn’t what we discussed. Not at all.”
Rodrigo sighed. “No, Severin.”
“Explain.”
“You’re coming into this with exponentially more wealth than either of us,” Rodrigo explained, not for the first time. He pulled his end of the sheet over his lap feeling weird about the fact that he was naked while they were talking money. “It makes sense that you get half if we split. You should be getting far more than that. As for us splitting the other half, it’s a lot more money than I have now, and Minnow probably won’t even be able to think of ways to spend it all.”
Minnow yanked the pillow off her head and raised her hand as though asking for permission to speak. “Actually, I’d get a little house somewhere so I could sleep through the night without grumpy men yelling at each other.”
Rodrigo raised a brow at the tousled girl, wishing Severin would stop being difficult and do something fun, like hold Minnow down for him since he was actually there for once. “You wouldn’t want to sleep at your own place. Who would spoon with you and grind against your ass?”