“I’ll do that, Dad,” Dante said through a laugh, and then turned to me. “Don’t let him fool you—I did all the heavy lifting for dinner. Promise it’ll be good.”
Then his gaze dragged down my body with intention. Like he was drinking me in. His attention was practically a physical touch that left a shiver in its wake—and I didn’t know what he had planned, but he was obviously not talking about dinner. I opened my mouth to say something (probably silly or awkward) in response, but was saved by a ruckus upstairs.
“Smells good!” Tru bounded down the stairs and skittered to a stop. Two other club guys loped behind him, both peering curiously toward the dinner and obviously tracking the source of the rich smell. One guy was tall and wiry with a thick head of dark hair, and the other a little shorter and broader with square glasses at the end of his nose.
My eyes widened a little in surprise. I’d been under the impression that dinner was going to be me, Dante, and Mal—was this actually going to be a full club affair? Shit. Making a good impression on Mal was stressful enough as it was. I wasn’t prepared for this!
“Come on, guys,” Dante said, cringing and trying to corral the three of them to the back door. “This is private.”
“Hey, Heath!” Tru hopped a little and his grinning face appeared briefly over Dante’s shoulder. “Good to see you!”
“Hi, Tru,” I said, laughing a little helplessly.
“Oh, you’re Heath!” The guy in glasses ducked under Dante’s outstretched arm—Dante was trying to herd them like an irritated sheepdog—and strolled up to me with an outstretched hand like this was absolutely normal. “I’m Nix, nice to meet you.”
Dante cringed even harder. “Nix, come on.”
“Not fair!” the tall guy said, still effectively corralled by Dante.
“Heath,” I said, shaking Nix’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
I couldn’t resist throwing a little smile over Nix’s shoulder at Dante, who looked tense and exasperated.
Something in Dante’s expression eased a little bit. While he was distracted, the tall guy got around him as well, and walked toward me, hand outstretched. “I’m Eli,” he said, and I shook his hand as well.
“Well?” Tru prompted. He slung his arm companionably around Dante’s shoulders. “What’s for dinner?”
“You’re not invited,” Dante said long-sufferingly.
“I don’t mind,” I said, before I’d really planned to say anything.
And to my surprise, I really didn’t mind. Being around these guys should’ve made me nervous—they were all bigger than me, stronger, and a little in-your-face—and I did feel kind of silly in my makeup now. But there was an easy warmth about them, too, a playfulness that reminded me of my Hell’s Ankhor brothers. These men clearly loved Dante and wanted to bother him in equal measure.
And they’d known who I was. Had Dante talked about me? A mix of embarrassment and pride swirled in my chest.
Dante’s gaze landed on me again, and despite the chaos, there was still that same heat and intensity in his eyes that he’d greeted me with. And a small, promising smile, just for me. It made my heart thump in my chest, this secret little language we had even with all his club members around him.
“Are you sure?” Dante asked. He ambled toward me with Tru hanging off him like a barnacle. “These guys can be pretty annoying.”
“Wrong,” Tru said easily. “We’re funny and nice and overall great company. You’re just too uptight.”
Dante wrestled Tru off him with a fond shake of his head. “I know plenty of people who would disagree with that assessment.”
“All right—name three, right now.”
“Uh, me,” Dante said through a laugh.
“You don’t count.”
“Actually, I count as three.”
“Truth and Dare, at it again,” Mal said fondly. “I swear, you two regress back to fourteen-year-olds whenever you’re together. It’s a wonder this club gets anything done.”
“Hey, now. We know when to work and when to play. Speaking of.” Tru nodded at Eli and Nix. “Y’all gonna set the table or what?”
“Aw, come on,” Eli complained. “We have to do everything around here.”
The four of them quickly set the table without further complaint and moved the dishes to the center of the table, family-style. Dante sidled up to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He tugged me close to his body and tipped his nose briefly into the crown of my head. I leaned against him, a little tentatively; we’d never done anything like this before—never touched each