I take a few minutes to dry my hair before slipping into my clothes. I open the bathroom door and find Sylan waiting at the edge of the bed, silver platter in hand.
“What’s this?” I ask, inhaling the smell of fresh fruit as I step into the bedroom.
He doesn’t answer, only holds out a hand for me to join him, and I follow his silent command willingly. I slip my smaller hand in his larger one and sigh the second my skin glides over his.
He’s pulled on a pair of black dress slacks with the button open. Sexy as sin.
I settle in his lap and shimmy a little until I’m comfortable. “After all I put you through, it’s about time I feed you, mo chroí.”
The tray balanced on the edge of the bed beside us was topped off with all my favorite fruits.
“Open.” Sylan dips a fat strawberry in fluffy, deliciously sweet whipped cream, and I moan the second it hits my tongue. My second weakness, so it seems.
“Why are you back in your uniform? I thought I told you that you will no longer be going back to work at Sally’s.” He presses another strawberry to my lips.
“About that. I need to go home. I’m wearing this because I don’t exactly have anything else. And if I’m going to be yours for any length of time, I need more than my skin to wear. I don’t think Luka or anyone else you have around will appreciate seeing the boss’s girl running around naked.”
I blink up at him and witness his expression turn from day to night.
“I would kill them for daring to look.” He exhaled. “I would hate to have to kill my brothers.”
I sigh and store away the little nugget of him having more than only Luka as a brother. Just how big is his family? “Yeah, that would be a shame, Sy. Geez.”
I slap at him playfully.
“You have a big family?”
He nods, slipping a blueberry between my lips. I haven’t had such decadent food in so long and my taste buds are happy. Very happy.
“Two brothers that are blood and over a dozen that are not but who I consider blood.”
“All boys? No sisters? I always wanted to have a sister to share girl talk with. Silly, I know, but you know.”
He seems to mull over my words before speaking. “I couldn’t imagine a life without my brothers, so in a way I do.”
He’s quiet for several beats and when I think he has nothing else to add, his next words break my heart. “We had a sister. She was stubborn and wanted to grow up long before her time. She died because of that stubbornness.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been very hard on your entire family.”
He pauses while dipping a piece of cantaloupe this time and holds my gaze. “That was the last catapult I needed to push me into the life I live now. I was weak then and couldn’t protect her. I’m not weak any longer, Katriona.”
He rubs small circles on my lower back.
“Is that why you’re helping me? Because you couldn’t help your sister?”
HE doesn’t answer, only continues to feed me in silence, and when I’ve finished one dish and he starts on another. I throw my hands up. “Stop.” I laugh, trying my best to lighten the mood a bit. I hate the dark somberness that has settled over us and want to get back on happier ground.
“Oh my goodness, Sy, you’re killing me. If I eat another I’m going to turn into a walking fruit basket, I swear.”
“Just trying to build up your strength for what I have planned for this evening.”
“Oh?” I ask, my brows doing a quick climb in surprise. “What have you had the time to plan? You haven’t let me out of this bed for the last twenty-four hours, Sylan Ward.”
He takes my chin in his hand and devours my lips with his in a kiss so claiming I feel it soul deep.
Leaning in, he presses his forehead against mine. “Want to make it forty-eight?”
I almost fall for that devilish glint to his eye. “We do that and I know I’ll end up pregnant, and another day with you between my legs and I won’t be able to walk.”