“Sucker.”
I clasped forearms with him and let him pull me into a seated position. From there, I leaned into his midsection and used that grip and a little oomph to send him flying over my shoulder. He hit the floor with a satisfying thump, but he flowed into his countermove before I could react. The next thing I knew, I was pinned beneath him and feeling good about it.
Hooking one leg over his hip, I flexed my toes against his back. “How do you feel about alternate means of getting in our cardio?”
Much to my amusement, he required no bonk on the head to prompt the correct answer.
When he was done with me, I was a boneless, breathless puddle of woman. And when I was done with him, his skin held a sheen of sweat, and his heart punched beneath my cheek.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to start the night. I could definitely get used to this.
Downstairs, the smell of smoked sausage mingled with sizzling bacon and fresh coffee. I followed my nose and ended up in the ridiculously large dining room where the pack took all their meals, schedules permitting. Lethe sat at the head of the table with Hood on her right. All so she could call him her right-hand man and mean it. She was such a goober.
“I heard you broke in the mattress in your room.” Lethe winked at me. “Nice work.”
“My room?” I waited for an explanation. “Don’t you mean the locker?”
That’s what she called it since I showered and changed here often enough to be assigned a room with an en suite bathroom. What can I say? The potentate gig is messy, and I spent a lot of time here when I got lonely while Linus was in Atlanta.
A generous spread that began with breakfast for the nightshift and progressed toward dinner for the dayshift covered the length of the table buffet style. I grabbed a plate and passed one to Linus. As I heaped mountains of food onto mine, I gave him a tablespoon of various items he liked well enough to eat but wouldn’t bother to without prompting.
Yet another hiccup I had Atlanta to thank for, his backsliding into fasting.
Ah, well. He was home now. I would fatten him up in no time.
“We have a room at your house, and now you have a room at ours.” She crunched on a strip of bacon. “I was going to give it to you as a wedding gift, but hey. Everyone likes to get presents early.”
A slender girl with pale blonde hair and tanned skin entered from the opposite door and spotted us right away. A smile lit up her face, and she ran straight for me, tackling me against Linus. “Aunt Grier.”
“Hey, Eva-Diva, what’s up?” I kissed the top of her head. “Broken any boys’ hearts today?”
“Eww.” She curled her lip. “Boys are gross.”
Despite the fact she looked like a preteen girl, she was physically only two and a half years old. Her hormones hadn’t caught up with her latest growth spurt, so she wasn’t boy crazy yet. But it was coming. How her parents would handle that, I had no clue. At this rate, she would be five or six years old but look like a high school senior. How did you factor crushes into that? Or dating? Or the S-word?
Turning me loose, she squeezed between us to hug Linus. “Hi, Uncle Linus.”
“Why aren’t you in class?” The chastisement fell short of its mark when he couldn’t resist returning her infectious smile. “You should be well into your English lesson.”
“I’m not skipping,” she blurted. “Promise.”
Eva idolized Linus, and she would die if he ever thought she had done a bad thing. Just curl up and wither on the spot.
“Spill it, kid.” Her mom tossed her a strip of bacon that she caught with ease. “What’s up?”
“I heard something hit the window in the classroom. I worried it might be another bird, like that robin last week, and asked permission to go check.”
The kids had study hall first thing in the morning to give Hood a chance to eat and the kids an opportunity to make up tests or complete homework. Eva, a straight-A student, acted as class monitor.
“I found this.” She opened her hand. “It was in the grass.”
On her palm sat a gold band studded with diamonds. I didn’t have to try it on to know it would fit me.
“Ariana, she’s the upstairs maid, confided that last week, when she tidied Mr. Volkov’s bedroom, she spotted a black velvet box on his nightstand.”
Lena, my childhood nurse, the one who helped Volkov cage me at his estate, the one where my father and mother had lived, however briefly, told me that.
I never saw the ring, I never wanted to see the ring, and I didn’t want to be looking at it now.
The fact it might have been dusted with bronze powder too? That Eva had unknowingly picked it up? Dried the spit out of my mouth.
“Can I have a look?” Linus removed a handkerchief from his pocket and gingerly took the ring, though any fingerprints found on it now would belong to Eva. “I need to run some tests, but you can have it back after.”
“Finders keepers?” Her eyes brightened. “No one was there. Promise. I looked.”
“Finders keepers.” He tapped the end of her nose. “As long as your mom agrees.”
Eyes bright and shining, Eva clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Mommy?”
No one missed the upgrade from mom to mommy, but no one mentioned it either. For one thing, it was too much fun watching Lethe squirm. For another, I didn’t want to say or do anything she could throw back in my face if Linus and I ever got around to giving Woolly and his mother the fifty-billion grandkids they each expected.
“You can keep it, but you have to leave it in your room. You can’t wear it out of the house, or you might lose it.”
“Okay.” Eva trotted over to her mother and hugged her. “Thank you.”
“What about me?” Hood pounded his fist on the table. “Don’t I get a hug?”
“Of course you do, Daddy.” She skipped to him and flung her arms around his neck. “Love you.”
“Love you too, baby.” He handed her a piece of bacon. “Now go on back to class. I’ll be there shortly.”
Once she disappeared, Lethe pegged her mate with a look. “I didn’t get an I love you.”
“I’m always Daddy,” he said smugly. “You’re only Mommy when she wants something.”
“Maybe I should step down as alpha and do the stay-at-home-mom thing.”
“Hell no.” Hood clutched his chest. “I’m beta, and I’m not willing to give up my stay-at-home-dad gig to rip a bunch of dumbasses a new one every time they step out of line. I leave that up to my wife.”
“I do enjoy the ripping of new ones,” she allowed. “There’s something cathartic about it. All the screaming, crying, begging.”
“You’re sexy when you’re vicious.” He fed her the last piece of bacon off his plate. “I love it.”
“Aww.” She crunched away. “You really know how to make a girl feel special.”
Feed me bacon and tell me I’m vicious.
I could probably get that printed on a shirt in time for Christmas.
Linus and I ate while Hood and Lethe made loud kissy noises. It was enough to make me wish the waffles hadn’t been so tasty. I almost regretted eating four. Good thing I drowned those worries in syrup.