Chapter 17
Damien
By the time Sitka and I get ready to go upstairs, she’s wearing an adorably sweet grin on her face, looking every bit like a woman who just got eaten out to within an inch of her life. I’m completely addicted to her, craving the taste and feel of her like nothing I ever thought possible.
“How can we keep hiding this?” she asks.
“Say the word, Sitka, and I’ll go and talk to your dad right now. I’m ready whenever you are.”
She hesitates, and I hate how worried she looks, hate that she’s scared to tell her family, and hate that I can’t take it from her and make it better. Brushing her hair behind her ear, I cup her face and meet her eyes.
“I promise it will be okay,” I tell her. “Your brothers will learn to love me.”
She gives me a very disbelieving look that has me instantly closing the distance so I can kiss it off her. I don’t know how I’m going to convince her brothers to not immediately stab me, but I know it’s worth the risk. She’s worth the risk.
When I pull back, she’s smiling, and it’s weird how much pride I feel at being able to take the worry from her for at least a little bit just by pressing my mouth to hers.
“Come on,” I say, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the room. “You need to eat something. We can decide what to do while I make you some lunch.”
I don’t see Ev when we walk out, and when we climb the stairs and walk into the living room, I freeze in place at what I see.
“Hey, baby brother,” Luka says from the chair he’s sitting in. Ev and Max are on the couch, both of them avoiding eye contact with me.
My brother fights a grin and looks at Sitka. “Nice to see you again,” he tells her. “Wow, you two just waking up?”
I hear the soft groan of embarrassment Sitka gives and wrap my arm around her, pulling her in against my side. Luka watches and raises a brow at me.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
“Making sure my little brother doesn’t get his ass killed is what I’m doing.”
I tighten my grip on Sitka and say, “No one is going to kill me.” I look over at Ev and Max. “Which one of you two called him?”
“Huh?” Max asks, while Ev says, “Called who?”
“Fuckers,” I mutter while walking into the kitchen so I can get us something to eat. They follow us, of course, and soon everyone is standing around the island while I make a couple of sandwiches and Sitka cuts up some fruit.
“He was worried about you,” Max says.
Luka points a finger at me. “You said you’d keep me in the loop.”
“I sent you a message,” I remind him.
Smartass that he is, he holds up his phone and hits play on the recording I’d sent. My voice fills the kitchen while I slather some mayonnaise on the slices of bread.
“Hey, Luka. We’re at Max’s. Talk soon.”
A small laugh escapes when I see the look he’s giving me. I grab the lettuce and say, “What? I updated you.”
He gives me and Sitka a pointed look. “Evidently, you left some key details out. I got worried and called Max last night. When he was kind enough to fill me in, I jumped on the plane and got here this morning. You can thank Ev for stopping me from barging in your room at the crack of dawn.”
I cringe at the thought because my bare ass would’ve probably been the first thing to greet him.
“Yeah,” Luka says in agreement, knowing exactly what I’m thinking. He looks to Sitka. “I had no idea you were in there.”
“Thanks, Ev,” I tell him.
“Happy to help.” He reaches out and grabs one of the apple slices Sitka just put out. “It also helped that the noise cancelling headphones weren’t working quite as well as I needed them to, so I ended up sleeping on the couch and heard Luka come in.”
“Oh wow,” Sitka groans. “I’m so sorry, Ev.”
He gives a good-natured laugh, and when I look down at her, I can’t help but grin because her cheeks are the same exact shade as her beautiful ass had been last night. When I reach out and graze my knuckle along her skin, my brother and cousins groan.
“Jesus,” Luka says while looking at our cousins. “How long’s he been like this?”
“Pretty much since the second we got here,” Ev says while Max nods his agreement.
Luka looks back at me. “How are you still breathing?”
I shrug. “We’ve been hiding it. We’re going to tell her family soon.”
“Tomorrow,” Sitka says, surprising me. “I’m going to tell them tomorrow. My dad will be working tonight, but he’ll be home in the morning. I’ll tell him with my mom, and then we can break the news to my brothers.”
“Are you sure?” I ask her.
She nods up at me. “I’m sure. Your family’s right. We’re going to get caught, and it’ll be a thousand times worse if that happens.”
“Okay, then,” I say, giving her a wink. “Tomorrow it is.” I hand her a sandwich and take a bite of my own. I burnt a lot of calories last night and I’m starving. When I grin down at her, I hear my brother take a quick photo.
“Seriously?” I ask him.
He just laughs, already sending it off. “Lara will love that,” he says. “She’s really happy for you. She wanted to come, but it was such short notice and she’s still nursing Mira so that makes things a little harder.”
“Sorry you had to make the flight,” I tell him, but he cuts me off with a look.
“She understands. I’m going to be here when you tell them, Damien. That’s not up for discussion.”
I nod, because it’s pointless to argue. I’d do the same for him, and he knows it. When I see that Sitka’s only taken one bite of her lunch, I nudge her plate towards her. She grabs it, hiding her big smile behind a bite.
Talia joins us a few minutes later. Wallace is at her heels and Lyra’s a ball of energy after her nap.
She squeals at seeing my brother and laughs when he picks her up and kisses her cheeks.
While the others talk, I lean into Sitka.
“I want to be there when you tell your dad. I don’t want you doing it alone. ”
She hesitates before saying. “I’m not sure that’s going to help things.”
“I don’t like the idea of you doing it alone,” I say.
“Do you mind if I think about it?”
“Of course not. Let me know what you think is best. I don’t want to make things harder for you.” I cup the back of her neck and kiss her temple.
She leans into my touch and nothing has ever felt so right as having her next to me while my family laughs and talks around us.
I want this with her. Every day, I fucking want this.
I want the mundane shit of drinking morning coffee together and watching movies at night, the millions of boring moments that make up a life that suddenly take on a whole new meaning when you’re spending them with the right person.
For me, that person is Sitka, and I never want to be apart from her.
Right as I think the words, we hear a knock at the door. Sitka stiffens at the sound, shooting me a panicked look that’s like a punch to the gut. Cupping her face, I give her a kiss and say, “I love you. One more day, besyonok. Just one more day.”
“I love you,” she quickly whispers as Max warns, “It’s Misha and Yuri.”
Sitka gives me one more quick kiss before grabbing her plate and lunging for the other side of the kitchen, putting as much distance between us as she can right before her brothers walk in.
Misha scans the room, his face an unreadable mask, but he manages a smile when Lyra claps her hands and reaches for him.
He grabs her, and I assume that means he won’t be reaching for his knife for at least the next few minutes.
Yuri, on the other hand, walks in and immediately looks at me and then over at his sister.
Sitka’s at the table, pretending to be deep in conversation with Talia like she doesn’t have a care in the world and hasn’t even noticed her brothers’ arrival.
If I didn’t know it was a complete act, I’d be a little hurt by her complete indifference to me.
I finish my lunch, noticing the way Luka walks over to grab a drink and then stands next to me instead of going back to where he was. If Misha and Yuri notice, they don’t let on.
“So what are you two up to?” Talia asks.
“Not much,” Misha says. “We were just about to take care of some business and thought we’d stop by.”
“Yeah,” Yuri says, looking across the island at me while one of his psychotic smiles tugs at the corner of his mouth. “We thought Damien might like to come along.”
I raise a brow at that while Max asks, “You want Damien to go with you?”
“Yeah,” Misha says. He grins down at Lyra, probably in a well-played move to make him seem sane. “We assumed Ev would need to stay here and study.”
“I’m probably not going to study that much today,” Ev says.
“You don’t want to get behind,” Yuri tells him. “Plus, there’s limited space in the truck. We’ll catch up with you later.”
Luka huffs out a laugh. “I’m sure there’s room in there for me.”
Misha holds his stare, but there’s no way in fuck my brother is backing down on this one. He realizes it too because he finally gives a slight nod of his head and says, “Fine.” He kisses Lyra’s head before handing her back to Talia and says, “We’ll be back soon.”
“Misha,” Max starts to say, but Misha claps him on the back before he can finish.
“Don’t worry, Max. We’ll bring them both back safe and sound in a couple of hours.”
I share a look with my brother before finishing off the last of my sandwich and setting my plate in the sink.
Sitka gets up and does the same, meeting me at the counter just long enough to let her fingers brush against mine when she puts her plate in the sink.
Too many eyes are on us for me to do what I really want, and I can’t wait until she tells her dad about us tomorrow, because I’m sick of hiding us.
I won’t be able to do it for much longer.
Sitka walks off to grab Lyra, putting all her attention on making her niece smile while I try very hard to not think about how good she looks holding a baby. Her brothers watch me like a hawk as I cross the room to grab my shoes.
“Text me if you need me,” Max whispers to Luka. “They won’t do anything stupid. They know they can’t hurt you.”
“We’ll follow the rules if they do,” my brother says.