Chapter 6 #2
Ethan had inched a little closer and the minty scent he’d caught earlier in the other rooms was stronger now.
Marcus ached to lean forward and press his nose to Ethan’s hair, inhale him along with the strong smell of sweat and something musky that had to simply be Ethan.
Underlying it was always the alluring hint of blood, but he wasn’t hungry.
This draw to Ethan had nothing to do with hunger. He didn’t want to feed from Ethan ever.
But something within him wanted to bite Ethan. Wanted to pin him down and sink his teeth deep as Ethan moaned and rubbed his body against Marcus’s, begging for more.
Clearing his throat, Marcus violently shoved that line of thought away. He was not touching Ethan. Never touching in any way beyond shaking his hand. There was nothing. He was simply making his employee feel welcome and safe as he worked.
Marcus was going to tap the image of his favorite Mediterranean restaurant, but just as his fingertip hit the screen, a text notification from Rafe popped up. The screen went black for a second as the phone changed from the food delivery app to the messaging program.
Rafe had sent a quick message of:
The ONLY way to start the day.
And attached was a picture of him naked in bed.
Only he wasn’t alone. Of course Rafe wasn’t alone.
On his left was a naked woman on her side, lying pressed against his brother.
And on his right was an equally naked man stretched out on his stomach.
One ass cheek even looked like it had a bite mark—without fangs.
Rafe, in the center, was looking thoroughly debauched and smug, as if the bastard could sense that he was sending the image at just the worst moment.
“Whoa,” Ethan breathed softly, snapping Marcus from his frozen horror.
“Fuck,” Marcus snarled, trying like hell to get the image off his phone and return to the damn ordering app. He tried tapping away from it, but as soon as he’d make progress, one of his other brothers would respond and Marcus would hit it, sending him right to the message program and that picture.
Ethan wrapped his fingers around Marcus’s wrist and Marcus froze. “Look. No judgment. I swear.”
“No, this isn’t me,” Marcus said quickly. “This is my damn brother.”
“Really? Which one?”
For a moment, he thought Ethan was asking which brother had sent the text, but Ethan didn’t know about his brothers.
Marcus looked over to see that Ethan’s head was cocked slightly to the side as he stared at Marcus’s phone.
Marcus glanced down again to find that the fucking picture was once again on the screen followed by a couple of texts going back and forth between Winter and Rafe. Naturally, Winter was egging Rafe on.
“Totally the one in the middle. I can see the family resemblance,” Ethan continued.
Marcus’s mouth fell opened and he watched as Ethan’s face turned bright red. He could actually see the moment when Ethan realized what he was saying.
“Oh God,” Ethan whispered in a pained voice.
Marcus laughed so hard he dropped on his ass. Ethan snorted once and started laughing as well, falling onto his back and rolling to his side so that he was nearly in the fetal position.
It took more than a minute for them to catch their breaths.
Marcus looked over at Ethan to find him reclining on his hip while propping himself on his elbow.
He grinned broadly at Marcus, a beautiful flush painting his cheeks.
His hair was a little wild and disheveled, but his vibrant glow threatened to steal Marcus’s breath away.
Deep down, he knew he should never have come looking for Ethan. Should never have stepped into the room. Nothing good waited in a future that included Ethan, but he still couldn’t force himself to climb to his feet and walk away. He was happy. Happy for the first time in too long.
An impish smile rose on Ethan’s lips and Marcus had to ask.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m suddenly wondering if you or your brother is the serious one.”
Marcus snorted and slowly pushed to his feet. “I am. Though Bel comes in a very close second most of the time.” Standing over Ethan, he held out his hand, offering to help Ethan to his feet. “I think we both need a drink before we try again to order food.”
Ethan placed his hand in his, and Marcus tried not to react to the tingle of electricity that sizzled along his palm at his touch. It happened whenever he clasped Ethan’s hand. It was like a circuit was suddenly being connected, and the energy flowed freely between them.
“Are you sure my boss won’t mind?” Ethan teased as soon as he released Marcus’s hand.
“I think your boss is praying you don’t sue him right now.”
Ethan chuckled. “I don’t think either of us would come out smelling like a rose in that lawsuit, so let’s just call it even.”
Marcus led the way to the library, where he had several bottles of very good whiskey, scotch, and other liquors to help smooth over the memory of Rafe’s ill-timed text.
With a couple of shots in them, they managed to pull up the food delivery app again and decide on some food without any more unfortunate texts popping up.
“How many brothers do you have?” Ethan asked as they moved into the kitchen to get what they’d need before the food arrived. “You mentioned someone called Belle, but I’m assuming you didn’t mean the person in the photo.”
“Three. Rafe and Beltran are twins. We call him Bel for short. The one in the photo was Rafe. He’s the more reckless of us. And then there’s Winter. The baby of the family.”
Ethan paused as he dug through the silverware drawer and smiled at Marcus. “Are you the oldest?”
Marcus nodded.
“I can’t imagine growing up with three younger brothers.” Ethan grabbed what they needed and turned to Marcus with a little shake of his head. “That had to be utter chaos.”
“Do you have siblings?”
Ethan’s open and warm expression closed up in a heartbeat, his fingers tightening around the pair of forks still clutched in his left hand. “I did. I was the middle child. I had an older and a younger sister. Lucy and Macy.”
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Marcus said softly. He wanted to ask more questions, to find out why his sisters were stolen from him, but Marcus bit back the words. Ethan’s tense frame and deepening frown did not speak of a person who wanted to talk about that horrible moment of their loss.
The silence stretched, twisted and painful between them.
Marcus knew the anguish he felt. He’d already suffered a lifetime of loss.
People he’d once counted as family and friends had died one by one over the last century.
Some due to horrible accidents and unfortunate events, while others simply grew old while he remained perpetually thirty.
He counted himself lucky that he still had his brothers, no matter how annoying and reckless they could be.
His mother, Julianna, was another story.
She had good nights and bad nights, but the bad always seemed to overshadow the good. She was little more than a ghost of her former self. Marcus had lost her the night that Aiden tried to save her from the illness ravaging her thin, weak body.
“What was the music you were singing earlier?” Marcus asked, trying to think of a topic that might return the smile to Ethan’s face.
It worked. The light started to peek out again, and he shook his head slightly. “And there’s where that snowball of embarrassment started,” he murmured. Marcus almost apologized again, but Ethan flashed him such a smile that the words became caught in his throat. “That was Tori Amos.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard of her.”
Ethan groaned and released the utensils he was still holding to grab the phone from his back pocket.
“Oh God, you’ve got to know Tori. I know people call Beyoncé ‘The Queen,’ but Tori, she’s a fucking goddess.
” He sidled closer to Marcus while tapping away on the screen, searching for what he could only guess was the perfect Tori Amos song.
A second later the first notes of a song tiptoed from Ethan’s phone and his entire demeanor changed.
His shoulders slumped and his eyes closed.
A look of bliss settled over his features, and he started to sway just a little as more notes trickled out.
Marcus noticed that he heard only a piano… and then a haunting female voice.
“She’s a pianist,” Marcus said in a surprise.
“Yes. She’s a complete goddess behind the piano. She can make that instrument laugh or weep or rage for her. There’s no one like her.”
Marcus closed his eyes, letting the piano notes reach into his soul followed by the breathy, lilting voice of the songstress as she wove her magic.
She was like a siren stroking her fingers along his soul.
For more years than he could count, Marcus had been attached to the piano.
There were times that he hated it, sure it was a prison, but there were too many moments in his long life that he sat down behind those black and ivory keys to find solace when he could find it nowhere else.
And it felt like there was a little bit of that reflected in this woman’s spiraling words and dancing notes.
“I discovered Tori a few years after my family was stolen.” Ethan’s words started softly, barely over a whisper.
He was staring down at the phone resting on the counter between them.
“Listening to her, it was like I could breathe again. And then later with the gay thing, she had a way of empowering me. Providing the shield and shoulder I needed.”
Marcus could feel the furrows digging deep in his brow. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand. ‘The gay thing’?”
Ethan smiled up at him. “I’m gay and Tori is a big-time ally.” His eyes narrowed and his smile slipped a little. “I assumed you wouldn’t care since your brother is so very bi.”