Page 69 of Love Thy Brother
River stared down at me, dark eyes a mess of too many things for me to decipher, gold club ring glinting against his bare chest. “Nothing. But don’t think for a minute you’re getting up any time soon.”
“Is that a promise?” The words slipped out, laced with intent, withheat, before I caught myself, but River just rolled his eyes.
“Depends how you behave.”
“I’ll do anything you want for the rest of our lives if that tea you’re holding is for me.”
River handed it over. “That make this your lucky day or mine?”
“Depends howyoubehave.” I sipped the hot, sweet magic. “How are you feeling? Banged up?”
“Nope. That’s you.”
“Sure about that? You hit that ocean as hard as I did.”
“I’m smaller. I bounced.”
I slurped more tea. “Pretty sure that’s not how physics works.”
“Pretty sure I don’t give a shit.” River slid further onto the bed and backed up against the headboard, legs stretched out in front of him.
I tossed the duvet over him, ditched my half-drunk tea, and dumped my head in his lap.
Man, he was comfortable. Better than any pillow. I shut my eyes, just for a second, humming as his fingers found my scalp and the nape of my neck. Was I even awake right now? River was a spiky motherfucker, but the rare moments he was sweet as a nut had always been mine, and I couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this nice.
It felt like straddling a bomb, but it was too damn good to think of anything but the hypnotic stroke of his fingertips. Of the light scratch of his blunt nails. I still had Thor’s boner starting a war with Fisherman Oscar’s sweatpants, but I could live with that.
Hell, I could live with anything as long as River kept his hands on me.
I was halfway back to sleep when my phone chimed. I blew out a sigh, tempted to ignore it, but River cut me out of the equation and swiped it from the vinyl stack.
“Is your passcode still Lark’s birthday?”
“Nah, it’s yours.”
“Why?”
I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Cos anyone looking too hard at me would know my dead brother’s birthday was a memorable date. You’d have to be pretty deep in club business to know how I felt about you.”
River accepted my answer with a soft curl of his lip. He typed the numbers in and tapped into my messages, and I didn’t stop him. Couldn’t be arsed. I had nothing I wanted to hide anymore. Not from him.
“It’s Mateo,” he said after a beat. “Said he’s leaving. Twice.”
“Hmm?”
River flashed me the screen.
Mateo:k. im leeving
Mateo:I’m leaving
Bless. “He was outside all night,” I explained to River’s confusion.
“He came back?”
I yawned into a nod. “Saint too. They watched the house so I could sleep.”
River’s expression darkened. “They don’t have to do that.”
