Page 78 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
“Your mother is in here, Emir.”
“And I’m muthafucking grown, Bay. Trust, she isn’t gonna say shit. She’s just happy you’re here.”
I placed my hand flat on her stomach and she tensed when I pressed my dick against her back.
She glanced around like she was about to make a run for it. “Please don’t make me look bad. This is my first time meeting her.”
I leaned in, just enough for my lips to graze her ear.
“She likes you. I think you’re safe.”
Baylyn bit her lip, but I caught the way she pressed her thighs together.
Before I could tease her more, my mother’s voice cut through the moment.
“Emir Corvidae, if you don’t get off that girl and go help your brothers set this damn table?—”
I groaned, pulling back, but I saw the amusement dancing in Baylyn’s eyes when I reached down and adjusted my dick after my mother turned away.
She loved this and I loved seeing her here, fitting into a world I never thought I’d bring a woman into.
Yeah.
I was in deep.
Dinner was comfortable, filled with the usual banter that always happened when my family was all in one place. Baylyn sat beside me, and every now and then, I caught her glancing at me smiling and shit. She was in a good space and comfortable with my family.
My mother, who was still thrilled I’d actually brought a woman home, was in full storytelling mode.
“Oh, you should’ve seen Emir as a kid,” she said, waving her wine glass dramatically. “He was always sneaking out, always up to something.”
Baylyn smiled. “So, the defiance started early?”
Kades chuckled. “More like the quiet menace.”
My mother pointed at Kades. “Exactly but with all three of them! This one—” She gestured toward me. “—was always watching. He’d sit there, all serious, not saying much, but you just knew he was waiting for the right moment to do something sneaky.”
Baylyn glanced at me with amusement in her eyes. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Oh, honey.” My mother smiled. “One time, when he was around ten, there was this group of older kids that used to hang around the neighborhood courts. They’d pick fights with the younger ones. I caught Emir watching them. Just standing there, not saying a word.”
“Observing?”
“Exactly.” My mother nodded. “And a week later? The leader of their little group suddenly stopped coming around. No one ever found out why until I ran into his mother at a fundraiser.”
Kades and Yair chuckled, already knowing where this was going.
I shook my head. “I didn’t do shit to him.”
Yair lifted a brow. I lifted my drink, shrugging. “I just made sure he knew there were easier people to mess with.”
“Which cost him ten stitches.” My father narrowed his eyes, then grinned.
Baylyn’s eyes lingered on me with understanding passing between us.
I didn’t have to explain.
She got it.
