Chapter 3
Matt
I feel like a stranger, coming into someone’s house unexpected and uninvited, but my old man’s girlfriend assured me that the best place for me and Cary was with her brother, so I let her drag us halfway across the country to Houston.
Cary fit in almost immediately, of course. Being such a cute kid, he looks like he belongs in this family. Each and every one of the Aquino boys looks like they could be models. Even Deejay, looks like he belongs on the cover of a magazine or something. Cary fits right in with that aesthetic.
Me? I don’t have the shine that the rest of them do. I get my looks from my dad, and he was an ugly bruiser of a guy. The only difference between our faces is the number of bones that have been broken in fights. My dad used to take a punch just to get closer to his opponent; I have taken precautions to protect my face.
Until today.
“Here, put this on your face,”
Deejay tosses me a bag of frozen peas.
I catch it and put it on my right cheek, grimacing at the sharp cold.
He sits across from me at the kitchen table, worry creasing his perfect face. He pulled his ash blond hair back into a messy bun, but the shorter ends of his bangs have fallen loose to the sides, naturally parted on the left and tucked behind the black studs of his pierced ears. Sea foam green eyes shine brightly through an aura that outshines everything else in the room. Looking at his aura, I know he’s a good man, generally happy, and fiercely protective. And so, so fucking beautiful it sometimes gives me heart palpitations just looking at him.
“So? What happened? The principal said you weren’t at fault, but I’d still like to hear your story.”
It’s so stupid and I’m a little embarrassed about it, but I don’t think I could have done anything differently given the circumstances. That doesn’t stop me worrying that Deejay will kick me out of his house. I don’t want him to find fault with me, but one thing I can’t help is how other people react to me, and typically their reactions are violent. “One of the girls in my class heard I was the older brother to Colt and Kendall and cornered me during lunch. Her boyfriend got the wrong idea. He punched me and shoved her. I thought he might hurt her, so I got between him and her. He punched me again, but by that time the teachers got there. I didn’t hit him back or anything,”
I assure him quickly. That probably would have been catastrophic for both of us. And honestly, if I’d been paying attention, he wouldn’t have gotten that first punch in at all. I’m better trained than that, I know how to avoid a punch especially from a guy a foot shorter than me.
His big green eyes study me for a moment before he speaks again. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that you’re not suspended for fighting, but why didn’t you hit him back?”
I hold up my giant paw of a hand and clench my hammer-like fist. “I’ve got two-hundred pounds of muscle on that guy. I could have killed him if I’d hit him, you know?”
And I didn’t want you to think I’m too violent to keep around—he’s got Jasper and the babies to protect; I don’t want him to think he has to protect them from me.
Deejay laughs, smiling softly as his aura tinges with some magenta at the very edges. “You’re such a good kid,”
he murmurs, reaching out and fluffing my hair.
Embarrassment from his touch lights my cheeks on fire, but the frozen peas on my face help disperse the heat quickly. “Anyway, I boxed and trained in MMA at my old man’s gym all my life. That kid probably broke his hand hitting me like that.”
I want him to know that I am disciplined and trained for fighting, that I have valuable skills that I can add to his domain.
It’s not that I don’t believe what he said about his heart being big enough for me and Cary and keeping us, but I have a hard time sitting on my hands without adding anything to the household he’s accepted us into. And yeah, I like him, and he’s so beautiful, it’s all I can do to remember that he’s off-limits for my flirtation, but I can’t help wanting him to like me.
“Well, he was an idiot for going up against an opponent that so obviously outmatched him. He’s lucky you’re a gentle giant,”
he teases as a happy yellow flushes over his aura.
The aura around him sparkles, and every time he smiles like that it lights up almost blindingly bright. Deejay gives his love and affection to all his kids so freely. It makes me very uncomfortable when he looks at me like I’m one of his kids too, but if I just keep reminding myself that he’s off-limits, eventually I won’t feel unnerved when he doesn’t look at me with the same interest I have for him.
“Matt, I grew up in a rough crowd. The group home I lived in had twelve boys in it. It’s hard to explain how close knit we were, but I can tell you it was because of the oldest boy, Davis. He united us under one rule: don’t hit first, but always hit last. We lived in a place where fighting was inevitable, but he didn’t want us to be the instigators. He also didn’t want us to lose; so, he taught us all how to fight to win.”
That bright aura I mentioned? Uh, yeah—gone. Menace radiates from him as he scowls at the bag of peas. Violent dark red streaks through his aura, causing me to unintentionally freeze for a moment. “I’m glad you’re ok, but next time, put the bastard on the ground. Don’t give the next one the opportunity to hit you twice.”
“Got it,”
I gulp, remembering that as good as this man is, he is also the Maledict—the man who can curse a Siren to death in just a few words.
The menacing aura disappears the instant he smiles again, sparkling like he didn’t just tell me to win all my fights, back to sunny yellow with just a hint of magenta. “Good. Can you go see if Jasper has homework?”
I push my seat back and stand. “Sure.”
I walk a few steps before turning back to see him watching me with a contemplative look. “By the way, you’re scary.”
He laughs, somehow lighting up the kitchen even further. “I totally am,”
he agrees unabashedly as the heart in my chest goes badump in the most inappropriate way it could have possibly chosen at that moment.
These fucking heart palpitations are getting out of hand.