Page 11 of Aryan

“Sounds good to me. I am sure if things get hot and heavy, you two will go back to his suites, not here, right?” Carla asks.

“Of course,” I say, laughing.

“Then here tomorrow at eleven, and then you can…” The knock at the door cuts off Carla.

“I’ll get it,” Skai says, already in motion to the door. A few seconds later, she walks back into the bedroom with Aryan behind her, looking better than he has any right to.

“Look at all my favorite sisters in here looking beautiful as usual,” he says, kissing each of them on the cheek as he hugs them like he hasn’t seen them in months.

“D, you look exquisite. Are you ready?”

“Yes,” I say, my mouth dry with nerves from the anticipation of the conversation I know I have to have tonight. We walk out, and I wave goodbye to the girls. He helps me into the car before he slides behind the wheel, and we are off to the restaurant.

Aryan

I was not surprised to see all the wives at the pool house when I went to pick up Brooklyn for our date. As I was walking through the living room, I noticed all of my brothers were in the kitchen looking lost.

“Fucked up again?” Joseph asks, but I don’t bother answering him because I have no desire to get into it with any of them tonight.

“Leave him alone. We all had some hoops to jump through for our wives. Aryan will figure it out. “Now, back off of him,” Josh says, surprising me, but I nod my head to him in thanks. Even though I was prepared to see the wives, I was not prepared to see Brooklyn in that dress. She wears her scrubs, jeans, leggings, or sweats when she is not at work. It is a rare occurrence to see her in a dress. She has the most beautiful pair of legs I have ever seen in my life, thick, always smooth, and gleaming with a slight bow to them. Just sexy as fuck.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” she breathes out as I place my hand on the small of her back to guide her out of the house. When we arrive at the Hedonism, we are immediately escorted to our table, and she has the attention of every man in attendance. We are seated in the reserved family section; it is always available unless it’s a particularly busy night and they need the extra space.

“Uncle Aryan,” I hear the voice coming up behind me as I seat Brooklyn.

“Praise!” I say, turning and enveloping her in my arms. “Is it your kitchen tonight?”

“It is,” she says, beaming from ear to ear. “Uncle Chef has begun letting me have the kitchen by myself once a week, and you just happened to come on my night.” I can tell she is proud of herself, and she should be. Since Joseph and Joyce unofficially adopted her as their daughter, she has come a long way. Her mom is home with her with a round-the-clock caretaker, and having a steady place to live and people she loves and can depend on has completely turned her life around. “Aunt Brooklyn, you look amazing. I mean, you are always beautiful, but you look even more so tonight. All eyes were on you,” she teases, hugging Brook. “Listen, don’t worry about the menu. I got y’all covered. I have to get back to the kitchen,” she says, hustling back to make sure everything is going okay in the kitchen.

“Man, she’s come a long way, and is that a little flirting I see going on back there?” Brooklyn says, and I practically fall out of the chair, turning to see what she is talking about. And yeah, one of the cooks in the kitchen is taking every opportunity to talk to her or touch her in some way, including pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear as he looks down at her, and even from here, I can see her blush as she drops her eyes to the floor.

“What are you doing?” D asks me.

“Texting my brothers,” I reply, cause duh.

“You can’t be serious, she is an adult.”

“She is just getting her life on track. She does not need a knuckleheaded boy to derail her,” I tell her as my phone begins blowing up.

“Wow,” she says as she watches me type in my phone and snap a picture to send to Jaasiel and Joseph before putting my phone away.

“Ridiculous.”

“Whatever. Parker is family, and we take care of family. I don’t know who this kid is, but we are damn sure going to find out,”

“So once someone is deemed family to y’all automatically falls under y’all protection and care?”

“Yes,” I say but I am cut off by the waiter bringing over appetizers and drinks. The food keeps coming, and it is delicious, but I would expect nothing less.

“Jaasiel said that Praise would be a better cook than him, and I doubted him when he said it, but after tonight, I think I agree with him, and that is saying a lot. I haven’t met a better chef than him,” I tell Brook everything Praise has sent to us has been nothing short of amazing.

“Yeah, I wholly agree with you,” she says. We make our way through the food until we are finally on the dessert, and I am bursting at the seams.

“I am so full, but this dessert is so good I can’t stop eating it,” Brooklyn says, and I totally agree. I finally put the spoon down. “Listen, Brooklyn, I really want to apologize for how I spoke to you. I was completely out of order. Please forgive me, and I will accept if you feel like you are not ready to move back into my suites. Take your time.” She sits there, not really saying anything, but I can tell she has a lot on her mind. In the past five-plus years that I have known her, I have gotten to know her and can read her pretty easily most of the time.

“What is it, D? Talk to me,”

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