Page 83 of Devoted

“He’s pretty enough to be.” My head whipped around at that, and I had to blink. Nope, I wasn’t seeing double. They were twins.

Twins who were unashamedly gawking at me.

“Behave.” A man who’d been seated at a table got to his feet and approached us. With his pressed chinos and kind smile, I recognised him from the night before. Micah. “Hi, Sam. Please ignore Nate and Theo. We’re trying to house train them but we’ve got a way to go yet.”

One of the twins stage-whispered to the other. “Does that mean we can piss all over Sam and claim him as ours?”

A low growl came from beside me, making me jump. Zeke, that noise was coming from Zeke. Zeke who was now staring at the twins with murder in his eyes. “Joking about that is going to make this very messy very fucking fast.”

A willowy man with purple hair stepped up to the twins, clipping one around the ear, then the other. “Enough. I know you’re stupid, but are you seriouslythisstupid?”

“Evidence would suggest they are, Noah,” a statuesque woman by the kettle muttered. When she saw she had my attention, she grinned. “I promise, the rest of us are better behaved. I’m Breann, and this beautiful woman here is my Grace.”

The blonde beside her blushed, giving me a small wave. Breann was right, Grace was beautiful. In fact, every single person in this kitchen looked like they’d stepped off the cover of a magazine.

All except the one who was now approaching us, an almost sardonic tilt to his lips. With his dark hair, piercings, and tattoos, he’d have looked more at home on the cover of a dark romance novel than a magazine. “I’m Nox. Any problems with the others, just let me know…and I’ll have Micah deal with them.”

From the arm Micah slipped around Nox’s waist, I was going to assume they were together.

Everyone was smiling at me so warmly, it was surprisingly easy to return it. “Hi, everyone. Thanks for letting me gatecrash,and thank you for coming to my aid last night. I hope the blokes didn’t give you too much trouble.”

Rami, who was sipping from some tea, choked. It must’ve gone down the wrong tube. Poor guy, I hated it when that happened.

“It’s no problem,” Micah said, shooting Rami a bemused look. Perhaps the giant man was often clumsy. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like.”

“Forever is good.” One of the twins hopped off the counter and sauntered over. He was completely unabashed in how his gaze swept over me, head to toe. “Although are you sure Ezekiel is the one you want? I promise I’m much more fun.”

Zeke stiffened beside me, taking a step forward. “Say one more word, Theo, and I’ll?—”

I tugged on Zeke’s arm. Couldn’t he see that Theo was intentionally trying to get a rise out of him? Besides, despite how grateful I was for all of them being so welcoming, I was more than ready for them to turn their attention elsewhere. I was starting to feel like I was inside a fishbowl and my skin felt too tight. “It’s fine, Zeke.”

Several heads snapped our way, but the question came from behind us. “Zeke?”

I looked over my shoulder to see yet another person. Unlike the rest of them, this man was on the shorter side. His keen eyes were focused on us. “Why is he calling you Zeke? Is that what you prefer? Why haven’t you said something before?”

Zeke let go of my hand and my pulse picked up. Thankfully, he wasn’t going far, his arm going around my shoulders and tucking me to his side. “He’s calling me Zeke because that’s the name I used online. As for the other questions, no, I don’t want you calling me it, thank you very much. It’s Sam’s name for me.”

“Aww.” Nate came up to drop his arm around his twin’s shoulders. Their googly eye expressions were eerily identical. “They aresocute.”

The newcomer didn’t acknowledge what Zeke had said, just blinked before turning his focus to me. “Hello. I’m Benjamin, but I prefer to go by Benji.”

“Sam,” I said before hesitating. I should offer to shake his hand, right? They were going to think I was weird if I didn’t.

Benji’s eyes darted down to my hand. I followed his gaze to find I was tapping my fingers off each other. Fuck, I hadn’t even noticed. It was a soothing mechanism, one that generally only came out when I was stressed.

Mortified that Benji had noticed, I tried to smile. “It’s really nice to meet you. All of you.”

Benji’s brow crinkled. “Why would you say that? I highly doubt the twins made this a pleasant experience.”

Zeke lifted his hand, rubbing at his chin as though he was trying to hide a grin. “Say it like it is, Benji.”

The furrow deepened. “How else am I supposed to say it?”

My smile, this time, was genuine. Not because I was laughing at Benji, I wasn’t. But I was willing to bet good money that his brain worked in a way that was more similar to mine than anyone else in this room.

Maybe this would be okay after all.

With the introductions done, everyone went about helping themselves to breakfast. There were platters of food everywhere, countless portions of bacon andeggs, dozens of pastries, and even a pan of porridge on the stove. From how they were all piling up their plates, it wouldn’t last long.

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