Page 73 of Blood & Lace
Why would he? My head tilted to the side as I thought about it. We were now sharing a bed, and not to mention, Onyx didn’t deny our marriage as much either.
"No." I was wearing Onyx down. I could tell. He was laughing and smiling a lot more. He was even the one to suggest our dinner date tonight. I couldn't wait for whatever we were doing to be over so I could go home and be with him.
"There." Prince handed my phone back to me, and I sent the picture off to Onyx.
Lucero: I miss you.
When nothing came back right away, I sent another message.
Lucero: I'll pick up dessert since you're getting dinner.
"You're on your phone more than a horny teenager," Nash said, pulling my attention away from my phone for a second. He wore a suit, but instead of all black, he had a royal blue shirt under his blazer. "No distractions, Lucero. Damian is counting on us."
I nodded, checking my messages just one more time. My stomach dropped at the realization that Onyx hadn't so much as opened my messages yet. He did say he was busy. But maybe something happened, and he was hoping I would come and save him.
I turned to the exit and Prince’s heavy hand landed on my shoulder, rooting me to the spot. "Don't even think about it."
Nash stepped into my line of sight. His dirty blond hair was swept back and out of his face. His piercing eyes bore into me. "Hey, focus."
The only thing that kept me from leaving was the fact that my brothers needed me, and Onyx specifically told me not to. I swallowed back the worry that tried to escape me.
"Marriage is hard," I complained. Not that I wanted any other life. I was happy, but at times when I wanted to go against what Onyx said, it was extremely hard.
Nash blew out a breath and his hand went up to run through his hair but he stopped short of mussing it up. Whoever we were meeting, they had to be important. His fingers curled up into a fist as he gave me a look of pity. "Yeah, any relationship is."
Prince snorted. "And you would know that how? You don't keep a woman at your side longer than it takes her to get dressed from the night before."
Huh?
"I resent that. I'm busy giving the family my all right now. We are so close to where we want to be," Nash shot back.
Prince fixed his tie, glaring at our brother in utter disbelief. "Don't put your commitment issues on the family." He glanced over at me as if to ask for confirmation.
"Wait, so none of those women were your girlfriends? But they all said they were going to marry you." I was confused. Out of all my brothers, I was certain Nash had the most experience when it came to making a partner happy. “And some of them even stopped to meet Ma.”
Both of my brothers stood there, staring at me as if they couldn't figure me out. It was a look I was all too familiar with.
Nash’s mouth opened and then closed. “I worry about you sometimes.” He moved past me and headed for the door. "No, I wasn't serious about any of them. What's the point? When there is one, there are bound to be twenty more behind her."
I couldn't fathom the idea of seeing anyone besides Onyx. Since the day I met him, I knew he was the one for me. Now that I’d had him, I was bound to literally lose my mind without him.
Ringing cut through the air, and before I could snatch my phone from my pocket to check if it was Onyx, Nash had his phone pressed against his ear.
"Yeah, we're on our way. Lucero forgot his suit, so we had to stop at one of the warehouses to get him something." Nash snapped his fingers at one of our men waiting around. He raced over with some paperwork that Nash skimmed over.
I had no idea how he kept up with so much. He was all over the place. Unlike me who tended to assist all my brothers in their individual work, he basically oversaw what Damian couldn’t. Some of our relatives that weren’t immediate family always brought up the fact that Nash should have been the one born of blood. He was the perfect second in command compared to me. I was fine with that because the talk never bothered me. I knew where I best stood. And as my pa always said, family was the people who made it, not the blood flowing through us. Althoughthe talk of others never bothered me, I didn’t think it was the same for Nash. Sometimes it felt like he was pushing himself even harder to prove that he deserved his position within the family. All because he wasn’t blood related.
Nash grunted in agreement to the person on the other side of the phone. It was more than likely Damian.
"Yeah, don't worry, just stay out of trouble till we get there." Nash locked eyes with me before glancing over to Prince. "We're prepared for anything.” He gestured for us to head toward the exit. “You shouldn't have gone ahead." His irritation echoed against the grimy brick walls.
I frowned. “Why is Damian alone?”
“Ten minutes max.” Nash pocketed the phone as we headed toward the car. He passed the key to the warehouse to one of our guys and gave him instructions to lock everything up. Any merch we got had to go back out on the street. The fact I’d taken a suit was going to come out of my pay.
Nash turned back to face me and Prince. “You know how he is. He’s in a hurry to stabilize our newfound power.”
That didn’t mean he needed to be reckless.
