Page 54 of Vengeful Vows

Gray starts to cheer and wolf whistle as we come into the dining room, and I can’t help but laugh.

I’m getting used to this being married thing, and I hope that Bree is, too.

Maybe that should scare me, but it doesn’t.

Should I be worried?

14

BREE

Gray’s wolf whistles make me blush and laugh.

“We’re married, it’s not like it’s scandalous,” I argue, sitting down at the dinner table, and Gray grins.

“Was it all chaste and pure, with half your clothes still on?” He’s clearly joking, but I’m not about to let him get away with that.

“Sometimes, we managed to get all our clothes off,” I tease back, and Paige makes a face and Lara dramatically gags.

“Sorry.” I chuckle.

“I hope you two had a good time,” Patrick says. “I heard that you did some gambling.”

“Oh yeah! I learned how to play Blackjack! Sean and Finn taught me.”

The two men in question must have gone home, because they’re nowhere to be found.

“She beat me a couple of hands.”

Patrick laughs out loud. “I knew she was a little spitfire.”

“Not like she comes from good stock,” Gray mutters, and Declan gives him a death glare.

Just when I was starting to feel at home here, feel accepted, Gray has to go and ruin it. He’s the one member of the family who I can’t quite get a read on.

He doesn’t outwardly hate me, mostly teasing me the way a big brother would, but he clearly still thinks of me as lesser, as someone that shouldn’t belong to the Burke family.

“Neither do you,” I shoot back, and Patrick stares at me for a long moment before he bursts out into raucous laughter.

Looking over at Declan, he looks furious at his brother and oddly proud of me for talking back to Gray.

“She’s good.” Patrick wipes tears of mirth from his eyes. “Very quick, aren’t you, girl?”

“I do my best. My mother always said I was bright” I flush slightly at Patrick’s praise.

I’ve never received a lot of praise from my father. He often tells me I’m pretty, pretty like my mother, but since my mother left, I’ve never known if that was a compliment or a slight.

“There’s something I’ve always been curious about,” Patrick says quietly, and I look up at him, my good mood fading.

“What? You can ask me anything.”

“Your mother,” he starts. “What happened to her?”

I stare at him. “That’s really none of your business.”

“You said I could ask you anything.”

“I don’t like to talk about my mother. Do you like to talk about your wife?”

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