“You’re really clued-up about everything. Too clued-up.”
I shrug. “Mirabella is quite…informed.”
“Of course.” He rolls his eyes. “I forgot she’s like a ninja when it comes to snooping. Do you know how hard it was for my brothers and me to sneak girls into this house or come home drunk with Mira always seeing fucking everything? She was constantly blackmailing us.” He grins and winces at the same time, touching his lip. “Ouch. Goddammit.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s a beast of a split, but thankfully not the first time I got my ass beaten by one of my brothers.” He winks playfully. “What doesn’t kill you…”
A fierce sense of blame roils inside me. And I hate it. I hate feeling responsible for the wedge between him and his brother that’s growing bigger every day.
I stare down at my hands. “How do we fix this?”
“What? My face?”
“No.” I snicker. “This…thing between you and him. You’re brothers. You shouldn’t want to kill each other all the time.”
“Clearly, you didn’t grow up with any siblings. Brothers want to kill each other all the damn time.”
I toss the towel at him. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He smirks. “Do you know how many times the four of us have kicked each other’s asses? Multiple times. It’s what we do.”
“You’re not in love with me, are you?” I just fell out of the air with that one.
He scoffs. “You psychoanalyzing me now?”
“Maybe.”
“I’d prefer you don’t.”
“You’re not in love with me,” I say again because I know I’m right.
“Yeah, well, everyone else seems to think I am.”
“You don’t.”
He lowers his gaze, wiping at his hands. “For a while, I thought I was.”
I lean against the vanity countertop, crossing my arms. “But?”
“But…” He stands, still clutching the bloodstained towel. “After the whole Micah thing, losing Melanie, and keeping my distance from you for a while, it somehow put things into perspective for me.” He drops the towel in the sink and moves up to me. “From the moment I walked you down the aisle, I knew we had something. A connection. I didn’t know what it was. I couldn’t figure it out. And after everything that happened,” he looks into my eyes, “the night you watched Melanie and me, and our little show on the patio with Alexius—”
My cheeks burn as I stare down at the floor, recalling that night.
“Hey.” He touches my chin and forces me to look at him, his eyes warm and kind. “Don’t do that. Don’t be shy about it. We’re all adults here. Sex is a big part of who we are as humans, and as long as you’re not hurting anyone with your desires, you shouldn’t spend your life being shy about it or feeling shame because of it. All you’ll be doing is fighting against your own nature.”
I clear my throat. “Yeah. I know.”
“Good. At least that’s one thing my brothers and I all agree on.”
“Of course you do. How else would you all be able to share women?” I smirk, and he merely stares at me, unamused.
“So, anyway. I guess I was trying so hard to put a label on whatever it is you and I have, I ended up convincing myself that I’m in love with you.”
“Which you’re not.”
“No.” He shakes his head and takes my hand. “But I do care for you, Leandra. And I’m not wrong about this connection we share. It’s there, but it’s more like, I dunno, like we’re twin souls or something.”