Page 8 of Nocturnal Sins
My job was always to guard the kitchen against the boys because Mama knew they’d steal food. They always did. Even if it was a tortilla from the warmer, they stole something.
“Drink some water,” I insisted, grabbing him a chilled bottle from the fridge.
“I don’t want water. I want whatever you cooked. I need to test you out…” His dark eyes flashed something at me again and it tugged on an invisible line tethered to my stomach. What the fuck was that?
“Test me out? Are you saying my skills are in question? I can cook my ass off. Mama taught me. Plus, I still have her recipe cards,” I stuck my tongue out at him and he lifted an eyebrow at me.
“I’ll be the judge of that. We can’t trust Pop because he’s happy to eat anything he didn’t have to cook,” Santana joked with a smile worthy of a full page Crest ad.
“Hey, I’m home now. I don’t need my own kids talking trash about me,” Papa called as he came in the front door. My eyes widened and I rushed into his strong arms for a hug. “Mija, if your mother were here to smell the air in this house…” He shook his head and cast his gaze to the floor. The lights shone on his thick chocolate mane of hair.
He was so handsome that nobody ever questioned him being Santana’s biological dad. Everyone assumed that we were a family joined by blood and not marriage. We never bothered to correct anyone because in our eyes wewerea blood family.
“Does it smell good, Papa?” I asked. The smile on my face made my cheeks throb.
“It smells amazing, princess.” He kissed my forehead and made his way into the kitchen.
“Yeah,princess,” Santana leaned over and snorted in my ear. I slapped his impossibly hard bicep and he threw a playful punch in return.
“You two…” Papa warned with his back to us as he poured over the food on the stove.
We sat at the family dining table, just the three of us, and I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t feel the absence of Mama. God, I missed her. Looking at Santana made me feel the ache in the pit of my stomach even more.
Instead of moping through dinner though, I told myself that Mama would be proud of me for fixing all her staples and having both her men sit down at the table to eat. She would probably be prodding Santana to figure out what he was hiding too.
I knew he was hiding something but I didn’t know what. It was my duty as his little sister to figure out what it was. I laughed and talked all through dinner but I watched him too. I watched his interaction with Papa and I saw the way they carried on like best fucking buddies.
By the end of the night, I was absolutely certain that my brother and father were hiding something. I resented them for not telling me. Was I supposed to let it go without so much as a mention? They both knew me better than that.
Or they should have.
Once dishes were in the dishwasher and Papa was upstairs for the night, I found my way into Santana’s room. He was in bed texting and I invaded his space without a second thought. “Who the hell are you texting? Your girlfriend?” I quizzed, taking his phone. He tossed his arm around my waist and pressed his warm lips to my temple.
“Nah, you’re my only girl.” My stomach fluttered to life at his words. I was such a sucker for Santana.
“I better be.”
“Yeah, and I better be the only man in your life. Especially since you wanna grow up on me and get titties.” He poked them and I squealed, covering my chest with my forearm. “Sammie, are you still a virgin?” Santana sat straight up and looked at me. His lips pressed into a line. I swallowed thickly and pushed the bouncy nerves in my belly down somewhere else. Talking to my brother about my sex life was ten times harder than talking to Papa with him I could gloss over it.
Not with Santana.
He knew me as well as I knew myself.
“Sammie.” He knew I was stalling and thinking up bullshit in my head.
“Huh?” I forced a grin but he wasn’t buying it.
“Come here.” He motioned to his lap and I straddled him. His lap was always warm and he smelled so good. My brain turned to mush for a moment. “You’re supposed to tell me the truth always, right?” His voice was gentle that time.
“Yeah…”
“Okay, so are you still a virgin? You promised to let me know when you lost it.”
“You mean when I gave it away? I didn’t lose anything,” I protested. Santana tipped his head back and sighed, tightening his grip around my waist. It made me buzz all over. I felt something dark spark inside of me but I pushed it away before it could bloom.
“You didn’t lose anything, you gave it away?” He repeated slowly. It took me less than a second to realize he trapped me and I looked stupid as hell. I rolled my eyes and tried to get off of him but I had no idea how strong he was. His fingers dug into my hips and his obsidian eyes drilled into my green ones.
“Tell me, Sammie,” he insisted.
