Chapter 54
FIFTY-FOUR
brINLEY
It was early when the smell of bacon wafting up from the kitchen nudged me from sleep, and the tinkling voices drifting up with it brought a smile to my face.
It was instant.
The rush of joy and satisfaction that sped through me the moment I came to coherency.
I wasn’t going to lie. My body felt completely wrung out, but it was in the best of ways.
Like I’d been resculpted by Silas.
I had to admit I really liked his brand of art.
I lay for a little bit, just listening.
Elena’s laughter and Kai’s little giggle.
A rumble of something deep.
Silas.
He was there, rambling around downstairs.
I bit down on my bottom lip, my heart pressing full, then I slipped out of bed, used the restroom, and went padding downstairs.
Elena was just coming up, and a gentle grin filled her face when she saw me midway down the steps.
She was dressed in sequined pajamas with kissing lips all over them, her dark hair twisted into a braid.
“Well, good morning, bestie.” She issued it with all her adorable sass.
My already overflowing heart thrilled.
I got this.
I got to keep her.
I got to keep all of them.
“And good morning to you.” It was riddled with emotion.
She stalled out a little, concern twisting into her brow. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is amazing,” I told her.
You know, other than the fact Silas and his club were going out on some secret mission to avenge his mother that somehow involved my brother.
Something that would protect me and Elena.
It was so convoluted, but I had faith that Silas would help me understand once it was over.
Sweet suspicion wound into Elena’s expression. “You seem different.”
Her eyes patted me down like she was going to find contraband stashed under my sleep shirt.
“Nope, nothing different here. Is coffee ready?” I peeped, angling for a distraction.
I had a hunch Silas wouldn’t want me to be shouting from the heavens about what happened between us last night. Not until he figured out how to handle it.
“Do you think we’re heathens?” she deadpanned.
I choked over a laugh. “Have you visited the clubhouse?”
She laughed, too, and she kept ascending the stairs. “Okay, fine, but heathens like their coffee just as much as anyone else.”
“Thank God.”
She went to go by me, only she grabbed my hand as she passed. “You look happy, Brinley, and that makes me happy, too.”
And I wondered how long it’d been since I’d been truly, truly happy. Without the constraints of trying to care for my brother and knowing I was failing.
Failing my mother.
Failing myself.
And I knew I didn’t have to bear all of that alone anymore.
I knew I was supported.
Knew I found the piece that I’d been missing.
“I am,” I whispered.
Her nod was soft like maybe she understood it, then she went bounding up the rest of the stairs and down the hall.
While I edged closer to the kitchen.
Swells of Silas’s aura rippled out of the archway.
A freaking beacon that I couldn’t do anything but follow.
I turned through the opening.
I’d thought my heart was at capacity, but God, it ballooned by five sizes. I guess I finally understood what the Grinch was feeling.
Kai was in his highchair, eating these dry little snacks that melted in his mouth, his nose all scrunched up in joy when he saw me. “Bwinwey!”
When I walked out of his room last night, I thought it’d be the last time I’d ever see him, and my soul broke free at the sight of his precious face.
The promise of what Silas had asked of me echoing through my spirit.
Filling every empty crevice.
“Hi, baby.” I could barely speak it.
“You ’wake?”
“Yep, I’m awake and right here.”
“Oh-kay,” he drew out the way he always did before he used his chubby little fingers to chase down another piece.
Then my attention went drifting, drawn to Silas on the other side of the counter.
Standing at the freaking stove flipping bacon.
Hair messy and not wearing a shirt.
Looking like the kind of mayhem that promised you were in deep, deep trouble, but it was the grin he cast me that nearly did me in.
Something wry and gentle and possessive.
Meems must have still been upstairs in her room because she was nowhere to be found.
“Good morning.” Silas’s voice was growly and deep and carved in a tenderness few would expect from him.
Hazel eyes dragged over me in slow perusal.
Tingles lifted in their wake, and I shifted on my bare feet.
I was wearing a sleep shirt that hit me mid-thigh, my hair a mess from the number of times he’d been tugging on it last night.
“Good morning.” It scraped out like I’d found my voice for the first time in twenty years.
A smirk ridged his wicked mouth. “You look…off balance this morning. Did your world get rocked?”
I choked over the surprise, letting the easiness he wore wind into my mood. I started to move toward the kitchen. “I might have experienced an earthquake or two. There’s a fair chance it affected my equilibrium.”
Holding onto a big fork, he shifted a fraction.
The man stood there covered in all those designs. So freaking hot and menacing.
He looked so out of place that I had to hold back a delirious laugh.
Was this really happening?
“Huh, think I might have experienced an earthquake or two myself,” he rumbled, gaze sparking with mirth.
“Is that right?” I murmured as I eased around the counter.
Even though my fingers itched, I didn’t move all the way for him.
If I did, I’d probably try to jump him.
“That’s right.” It rolled out like possession.
The energy radiating off him had my hands shaking as I opened the cabinet so I could grab a mug, then I fumbled as I pulled out the carafe since Silas slowly prowled up behind me.
An imposing force that charged through the middle of me.
His nose hit the side of my neck at the same second his hands curled around my waist, and he tucked me against his hot, bare flesh.
“You have any idea what it does to me, Brinley? Seeing you waltz into this kitchen looking like my favorite treat and knowing I’m going to get to see it every day for the rest of my life?”
A tremble rolled through me, and I released a shaky exhalation. “A treat, huh? And here I thought I meant a whole lot more than that.”
I managed the razzing through the need that spun through my body.
I could feel Silas’s grin against the side of my neck. “Thought you knew I had a sweet tooth? I’m good with having nothing else.”
“You’d better be because you’re stuck with me.”
He softened and hardened all at the same time, and his hands splayed wide over my abdomen, sending thunderbolts of heat firing through my belly.
He pressed his nose deeper into my neck, inhaling before he mumbled, “You’re everything, Brinley. A new beginning and my end.”
“You’re the home I didn’t know I needed.”
He slowly turned me around.
The air simmered, a driving song that whispered around us.
Every hair on my body lifted in attention.
His palm slipped to my cheek. “Wildfire.”
My hands landed on his bare sides. “King.”
An adoring grin flitted over his mouth, our gazes tangling in joy and commitment before he set his other hand on my face and pulled me to him.
His plush lips danced against mine. Featherlight brushes that I felt to my toes.
This kiss was slow.
Penetrating.
Winding right down to our souls.
Dizziness spun through my head, and I gripped onto him tighter.
“I love you.” He murmured it as he swept back and forth over my lips.
A frisson of perfection buzzed through me. “I love you. So much.”
“Ahhh!” The screech behind us stalled us out, and Silas’s spine went rigid.
“I knew it. Oh my God, I knew it.” A profusion of giggles rolled out of Elena. “I mean, I’ve been calling this since day one. The two of you were so obviously going to go boom. You had to be blind not to see it. All I’m saying is it’s about time the two of you caught up.”
Silas slowly shifted around.
Uncertainty rippled from him. Unsure if he should deny it and pretend like what was clearly happening was not happening or straight fess it up.
I bit down on my bottom lip to stop myself from being the one dishing the juicy details.
It wasn’t my place, and I could feel the war go down in the middle of him.
This was brand-new territory for him, too.
Some of the eccentricity drained from Elena, and she looked at me.
“Does your heart know?”
There was so much hope embedded in her words that it made me ache.
I glanced at Kai who was babbling away in his highchair, while I did my best not to reach for Silas again.
But instead, he was the one who was reaching for me, sliding his arm around my waist and drawing me to his side as he murmured, “Yeah, Elena, my heart knows.”
Frustration infiltrated his voice. “But this isn’t something we can go shouting about right now. Not in the middle of this mess. Situation is delicate enough.”
Elena’s head barely shook. “Love isn’t something you should be ashamed of, Silas.”
“I’m not ashamed.”
“But you all treat it like it’s something that should be. Hedge it up behind rules and ultimatums. It needs to change if any of us are ever going to truly be free.”
And I thought maybe Elena was the smartest one of all of us.