“Xan! I’m not an invalid,” I protested, smacking his chest. “Stop with this Neanderthal act. You’re an earl for Christ’s sake.”
His mouth twitched marginally, but he couldn’t hide the thread of amusement in his voice. “I am; therefore, I can do as I wish.”
“It’s unnecessary,” I hissed lowly as we neared Dante, and he turned on his heel to power ahead of us.
Alexander’s blasé shrug jostled me. “You’re saying that because you’re embarrassed I shamed Edward for watching us, but think of it this way, little mouse. I let him watch because desire anchors you, and you were both literally and metaphorically lost when we found you. His regard made me feel safe to give in to what your body and your mind needed after the trauma. I knew that, and I gave you what you needed. Dante needed to watch us because he is too curious about you, and that needed to be put to bed. He will never have you. It’s cruel for him to waste a single moment on wishing otherwise, so I made sure he knew it. Lastly, my beauty, I needed to take you like that. Submission makes you feel at peace just as Domination does for me. Losing you for even an instant was unbearable. I needed to take you like that, and now, I need to carry you like this because after what happened, I don’t want to let you out of the circle of my arms let alone out of my sight. Can you give that to me?”
Immediately and without conscious thought, I said, “Yes, of course.”
He ducked his head to rub his nose again over mine, a new habit that melted my heart. “Good girl.”
We reached the car, but Alexander didn’t let me go to slide me into the vehicle. Instead, he sat with me cradled gently in his arms and ignored the look Dante gave him when he didn’t put me in my own seat.
“Now, tell us what happened,” Xan demanded.
I took it as a good sign that he said “us,” and I could tell by the slight softening in Dante’s shoulders that he did too.
I didn’t want to ostracize him again.
Sucking in a deep breath, I related my rendezvous with Seamus to the Davenport brothers, powering through their grumbling growls and clenched fists to finish my story before they went nuclear.
“I’ll take care of it,” Dante said immediately upon my conclusion. “Don’t worry about him, tesoro, I’ll find a meaningful way to make your message known to him.”
“I don’t want you to start a war over this. Please don’t do anything stupid, D.”
His smile was red as blood smeared between his cheeks. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle my own business, and Seamus just told you, he wants a part of that.”
“He may not be my biological father, but he’s still the father of my two sisters and the man who had some part in raising me for eighteen years. I don’t want him hurt.” I didn’t think I could face Mama or my sisters after that.
The thought flared a memory, and I groaned loudly, thunking my head back against Xan’s hard chest. “I forgot, I have Thanksgiving dinner with my family tomorrow.”
My man went stiff as a chair beneath me.
“You don’t want me to go,” I accused, cluing into his unspoken uneasiness.
“I don’t want you to go anywhere ever again without me. At the very least, not while the Order and Noel are still active, even if the latter is slightly incapacitated.”
I understood. I didn’t want to be away from him for any length of time either. But my family was important to me and over the past few months since my reintroduction into Xan’s world, I’d been remiss at taking care of them the way I normally would.
I couldn’t miss Thanksgiving.
“Drop me off and then pick me up when we’re done?” I suggested, tipping my head back to look up at him.
He was so unbelievably handsome, I hiccoughed over my own breath looking at him like that. Even tired and worried, he was beautiful. I traced my fingers over the smattering of silver at the edge of his golden temples and knew that if he asked it of me, I would leave my family behind for him until it was safe for us to see them again.
He stared down at me, his intensity a palpable current in the air, but I knew the moment he decided against that course of action because his muscles softened slightly beneath me. His sigh breezed over my face as he shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”
I smiled drowsily, exhausted from the day. “Nothing at the moment. I know there is more to talk about, but I need to sleep. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” he said in a voice like a lullaby as his fingers threaded gently through my hair. “Sleep, my beauty.”