Page 15 of Dad Bod's Naughty List

"Watch where you are going, brat!"

Nico.

I push back and glare at my brother. Our relationship is not the best, but it's not horrible either. We are merely two people who exist in each other's world. He picks on me occasionally and I do my best to ignore him which is what I try to do this time but he steps in my space when I attempt to walk around him.

“What?” I snap, my eyes narrowing on his. “I don’t have time for games, Nico.”

"What's that on your neck?" he asks with a smirk, and I immediately reach up to cover the love bites my bodyguard left my neck.

“Nothing.”

Nico leans back against the banister and smirks. “Where did you go last night?”

“None of your business,” I snap but my voice is drowned out by the voices of my father and Orlando. They pass the stairs and take a left and I imagine they are going to my father’s study. For a full minute, I forget about my annoying brother and watch the two disappear down the hall. It’s not until Nico makes an amused sound that I am reminded of his presence. I don't even want to know what he finds amusing, so I rush past him and this time, he lets me. I rush to my bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

Nico knows something. Maybe he doesn’t know that I’ve slept with my bodyguard, but he’s seen the hickeys and a part of me is terrified he’ll bring it up at dinner. It doesn’t matter that I am twenty, my family will ask questions.

I drop my back against the door, palming my racing heart and forcing in deep breaths. God, I can't wait until I am away from this family and these ridiculously chaotic Christmas dinners.

After I officially make you mine and I have the papers to prove it, you can skip the next family Christmas dinner and the next one after that. You will never have to do anything you don't want, Aria.

I let the memory of Orlando's words wash over me, holding his promise dear to my heart. I just have to wait a bit longer and then I will be free. I just need to get through this Christmas dinner first.

Chapter Seven

Orlando

I’m really good at keeping secrets.

Some might say I'm great at it, and they would be right. Heck, I run a security agency that protects high-profile people, and they keep hiring us because they know they can trust us to provide more than just protection.

The thing between Aria and I is one secret that is eating at me. I don’t want to hide what is going on between us. The feelings that have been building up for a year until neither of us could take it anymore.

No, I don’t want to hide this from her father or anyone in her family, but I do so because I promised her that I would wait. I’ve waited a year to have her. I can wait a day or two to announce to the world that Aria belongs to me now.

So, I stay quiet, hoping the lustrous looks I toss the girl at the dinner table go unnoticed.

I want her.Even in a room with more than twenty people, I want the beauty with long midnight hair. I want to kiss her, fuck her hard, and shock everyone in here into seeing the truth of what Aria means to me.

When Constanzo asked me to stay for dinner after our little meeting in his study, I wanted to decline, but staying meantbeing around Aria a bit longer. She seemed so meek and terrified in front of her father, and I wanted to be around in case she needed me.

In the face of things, perhaps I should have turned down the dinner invitation. There seems to be some tension between her two brothers and the source of the tension is the pretty blond seated next to Aria. From the introductions earlier, the blond is Fabian's girlfriend, and now from what I’ve gathered so far in the last twenty minutes, is that the same girl used to go out with Nico or something like that.

A girl stuck between two brothers. An old love interest fighting with the new.

It feels like I am intruding on a private family moment, and I question whether or not I should leave. I could make some bullshit excuse and wait outside, but I don’t want to draw attention to myself in the middle of whatever is happening.

It seems however that I am one of the few people a tad uncomfortable to be here. Most of the people at the table seem to be enjoying the turn of events as one of them chimes in. “So does that mean your brother is dating your ex?”

Oblivious to the anger vibrating off his brother, Nico responds with a smirk. “Well, I mean she was my date first…”

Chaos erupts at the table, and I realize that Aria was right to not want to be here. Everyone tries to talk over the other, but I don’t pay attention to the chatter around. My eyes are on Aria who is hugging the blond girl, trying to shield her from all the judgmental stares her family tosses their way.

"Nico, I said enough! That is all the warning you are going to get!" Fabian warns calmly, but I know an angry man when I see one. Heck, I work with them. I am surprised no one else can see just how close Fabian is close to snapping.

No one is doing anything to prevent the storm that is about to break.

Nico continues to taunt his brother. “What, you are not interested in your girlfriend’s background? You don’t want to hear how she pined over my dick–”

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