After they put Alex to bed, she reached breaking point.
She couldn’t share the rest of their evening rituals then go to bed with him feeling this way.
They were walking away from Alex’s nursery when she put her hand on Aris’s arm. His gaze jerked to hers. She saw the warmth that suffused his eyes when Alex was around drain to be replaced by something dark and bleak, like ink spreading through pristine waters.
It dissipated as soon as it formed, making her wonder whether she’d seen it. But she had. Even if he was now smiling at her. She knew his every expression down to its last nuance by now. And this smile originated from premeditation and not a little effort. Something was wrong. Something big. Momentous. And that brilliant mind of his was working overtime trying to decide on the least damaging way to deal with it.
But when he pulled her into his side, everything dissipated in the yearning for his nearness, for everything to be all right with him, for their perfect bliss to resume.
As they reached the kitchen, he kissed the top of her head before he spooled her away and headed to the fridge.
As he opened it, he looked over his shoulder. “He’s fine.” Her gaze clung to his across the distance. He’d read that part of her turmoil right. “And for the last time, it wasn’t your fault.”
And she heard herself blurt out, “I want to go home.”
Aris stilled for what felt like an eternity.
Everything inside her came to a halt, too.
She didn’t know where that outburst had come from.
But then, she did. She suddenly felt trapped here, powerless. She felt she’d regain control, of herself at least, on her own turf. She also believed Aris needed to go back to deal with whatever was weighing on his mind, but he wouldn’t think of leaving if he thought she wanted to stay.
She watched him with her heart hammering in her throat as he closed the fridge and turned to her in movements loaded with calculated tranquility. He’d ask why, and all her reasons suddenly sounded stupid.
But he didn’t ask. With his face an expressionless mask, he only said, “As you wish.”
There had never been anything she wished less.
She’d told him so, that she wished their time in Crete could have never ended, that she’d love to return, soon and always.
He’d smiled, assured her they’d return whenever she wished, was as indulgent as ever. But his words and actions contradicted what she sensed from him. He seemed to have shut down inside.
She told herself this would pass. That he was priming himself to deal with whatever problem he clearly had. That once things stabilized, they’d regain their rapport, indulge in the wide-open channels of communication they’d established.
Within twenty-four hours, they were back in the city where she’d lived all her life. And it no longer felt like home. Home was where she’d become Aris’s, where they’d become a family.
She was smiling up at him as he held Alex and pushed her condo’s door open for her, when her heart stopped.
At the pure aggression in his eyes.
She swung around. Gasped, gaped.
Her three brothers were in her foyer, filling it with their towering bodies and answering hostility.
No. She couldn’t handle this now. Her brothers finding out about her and Aris, coming here to…to…
Steel seeped into her bones, replacing the jelly of shock.
What did they want, anyway? Who did they think they were, coming here and policing her life?
Before she could preempt them with a few choice rebukes, her middle brother, Lysandros, came forward, his smirk twisting a face she’d heard described as one the progeny of an angel and a demon would have. “Ah, the happy family returns.”
Damon gave an impressive snort. “Yeah, very touching.”
So they knew. She would have preferred to tell them herself, but this was her life, and Aris was an inseparable and indispensable part of it now. They had to deal with it. Their presence here might turn out to be a blessing in disguise—they could have it out now and get on with their lives.
She tore her gaze away from them, needing to reconnect with Aris, to wordlessly tell him he didn’t need to fight them for rights to her and Alex. She and Alex were his, but, these were her brothers, and she loved them. With the way he was looking, she wouldn’t put it past him to attack them. Knowing her roughhousing brothers, they were probably itching for him to make a move. She wouldn’t let them have a testosterone-driven free-for-all and end up maybe injured, and certainly on worse terms than ever.
She was the reason for their current hostilities, and she had to defuse the situation, install the terms of their future relationship. One—hopefully—governed by friendship, and failing that, at least peaceful coexistence.
But Aris didn’t meet her eyes. Her mortification morphed to shock as she realized what she saw in his expression. He’d been…expecting them.
She looked back to her brothers for an explanation. But they, too, were ignoring her. They closed in on Aris like a pack of wolves on a hyena who had a female and a cub of theirs in his clutches.
At that moment, Alex whimpered.
They all jerked, focused on him. He was looking from the uncles he loved to his even more beloved father with trepidation.
Seeming to feel the unequal odds against his father, to decide they represented danger to him, he declared which side he chose, clung to Aris tighter and buried his face in his chest.
That stopped her brothers in their tracks.
Aris soothed Alex with kisses and murmurs she couldn’t hear, before looking behind him at the frozen Eleni, whom Selene had forgotten about, too.
Without a word, Eleni rushed to take Alex from Aris and disappeared deep into the condo with him.
An awkward moment passed, the contrite looks that had come over her brothers for inadvertently upsetting Alex receding. Then they resumed forming their blockade around Aris.
“Did you hear, Sarantos?” Nikolas began, making her realize again how much in common he and Aris had. It made the hostility arcing between them hurt more. These two men should be allies, as Aris had once said of her father. They had so much to offer one another, so much they could share. She hoped, once this was resolved, they would develop the relationship she ached for Aris to have with all her brothers. Nikolas came to a stop a foot away from Aris, looked him up and down like someone who didn’t know where to start hurting someone. “I bet you did.”
Damon barked another harsh snort. “Look at him. Of course he heard. His watchdogs must have run to him with the news as soon as his strategically disseminated insiders leaked it to them.”