“I have things to do, no dinner for me,” Sixx declared, gave Diesel and Maddox a meaningful look and then said to me, “Rebel, good to see you.” And to all, “Enjoy dinner.”
Then she was smoke.
I didn’t even see her use the still open door.
I had no idea what “biz” she was in or why she was there.
But yeah.
She was totally cool.
Tyra moved in and closed the door.
I again planted my hands on my hips, my attention on my brother.
“Are you even gonna hug me?” I demanded.
He gave me a look that would melt steel.
After I successfully avoided becoming a puddle, he moved to me and gave me a bear hug.
“You’re a goddamned lunatic,” he murmured in my ear.
“I know,” I said, holding on.
I saw Maddox watching us over D’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to him.
His cruelly handsome face got soft and he smiled at me.
Right.
There it was.
It’d be okay.
I knew that already.
But I was glad to have it confirmed.
I lay on my back in Rush’s bed, staring through the dark at the ceiling.
Rush was lying on his back beside me.
I knew he was awake.
The sounds were distant, and muted, but unmistakable.
In the room down the hall, Diesel and Maddox were fucking.
“You awake?” I asked to confirm.
“Yep,” he answered.
Great.
“This is rude,” I declared.
“It’s late, Rebel. They probably thought we were asleep.”
He was right, it was very late, and I had been asleep.
Until my brother and his man woke me up with their fuck noises.
The grunting got louder, and it sounded like a bed was being pounded into a wall.
“Christ, they’re really goin’ at it,” Rush muttered.
“Ugh,” I pushed out, turned to my stomach and wrapped a pillow around the top of my head.
I felt Rush’s hand glide over the small of my back and the edge of the pillow pulled up.
I kept the rest held down.
“They probably heard us earlier,” he told me.
Gulk.
Suffice it to say, I forgave Rush.
Mostly because he and his family were so cool with D and Mad throughout the dinner they’d crashed, to the point the men lazed around the table for hours chatting and chuckling and drinking beer after it while the women did the dishes then hung around the bar in the kitchen, also chatting and chuckling and drinking beer.
I could not say that even with a rather thorough explanation of what was going on, they’d totally put Diesel’s and Maddox’s minds at ease about me. Mostly because what they had to share wouldn’t make anyone easy.
I could say when we left, my big brother and his man were no longer pissed at me.
“I hope not.” My words were muffled by the pillow.
“You come silent, babe, but you make a lot of noise before I get you there,” he shared. “You like panting my name . . . a lot.”
Gluh.
“And I like that a lot,” he continued. “Enough not to make you stop doin’ it.”
“Stop talking.”
I heard his chuckle as his hand slid fully around and he pulled the side of my body into the front of his.
I kept the pillow where it was.
Rush stopped chuckling.
“They’re free, and I like that,” he said quietly.
I lifted one side of the pillow and tipped my eyes up to his shadowed face.
“What?”
“At dinner, after the drama, they sat down, your brother got tense. Maddox doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks about him, that’s clear. But your brother does. Because he loves you. And he knows you wouldn’t be at that dinner with my family if things weren’t the way they are with us. So he slid right on edge, probably tweaked we’d figure out where he was at with Maddox, not knowing we already knew. That didn’t go away until Tyra asked about their commitment ceremony and he got it that not a soul there judged. Then he relaxed. Now they’re here, down the hall, fucking. Free. And I like that.”
I pushed off the pillow, got up on an elbow and he got up on his to come face to face with me.
“You like that?” I asked.
“Everyone should be free. Even if Maddox doesn’t give a shit, Diesel does. At least when it comes to you and the people around you, and what they might think of him and how that’d affect you. So he’s not. But he got that from us. He’s good. If he feels free to go at his man down the hall, he feels free